RTHK: After Moscow visit, UN chief to meet Zelenskyy

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with President Vladimir Putin about the war, the UN said on Friday.

Guterres will see Zelenskyy and Ukraine's foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow, the United Nations said in a statement.

The Kremlin confirmed on Friday that Putin would meet Guterres on Tuesday.

Guterres sent letters this week requesting these in-person meetings to try to regain the initiative for the UN, which has been largely marginalised from the crisis since Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24.

In part this is because the war has divided the UN Security Council permanent members: the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia.

With the letters he sent on Tuesday, Guterres sought to spur dialogue to end the war.

"At this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week.

Guterres has had little contact with Zelenskyy since the war began, speaking with him just once by telephone, on March 26.

Putin has not taken Guterres's phone calls, or had any contact with him, since the UN chief stated that the offensive violated the UN charter. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-23. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China refutes U.S. official's remarks on Ukraine issue

Xinhua) 09:43, April 23, 2022

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday refuted a U.S. official's remarks that China should learn the right lessons from the situation in Ukraine, including that it can't separate the United States from its allies.

"China's position on the Ukraine issue is aboveboard, just, objective and beyond reproach. On the contrary, it is the U.S. side that has a poor track record on relevant issues," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing.

"We advise the U.S. side to look in the mirror and properly manage its own affairs before pointing fingers at others," Zhao said.

He said the remarks made by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman are entirely cliches and an old trick to smear and slander China.

Facts have proven that China is a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of international order, he said.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
JERUSALEM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A rocket from the Gaza Strip was fired into Israel early Saturday, following two fired from the Hamas-ruled enclave on Friday night.

The rocket landed in open territory, with no damage or injuries reported, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

In response to several rockets fired into Israel from Gaza in the past week after several months of quiet, Israel announced the temporary closure of the sole pedestrian crossing from Gaza to Israel, though thousands of Gazans cross into Israel on a daily basis to make a living.

"The decision to reopen the crossing to workers and merchants will be studied in accordance with the evaluation of the situation," Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said in a statement.

Israel has been imposing a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The militant organization, which does not recognize the state of Israel, has since launched thousands of rockets toward Israel to break the siege.

Tensions have run high between Israelis and Palestinians in recent weeks amid their repeated clashes in Jerusalem. 
YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristine Grigoryan delivered a message on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, noting that only the condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, the punishment of those responsible and the restoration of justice can prevent future crimes, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Human Rights Defender.

The message reads: April 24 marks the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, but justice has not been restored so far. The rights of killed and mutilated men, women and old people, orphans, Armenians who were forcibly expelled from their homes, subjected to inhuman torture on religious or national grounds, have not been restored. Many of them dies with all these in front of their eyes throughout their lives, longing for their relatives and homeland, hope that at least future generations will witness the restoration of justice.

The policy of denial of indisputable realities, which Turkey has been pursuing for more than a century, continues to be a serious challenge to the implementation of international legal system establishing universal norms for the condemnation, prevention and prosecution of crimes against humanity.

Efforts to protect human rights, the rule of law and the universal international justice system, which gained momentum after the First World War, continue to be overshadowed by this extremely reprehensible policy of the Turkish state.

Impunity breeds and justifies new crimes.

Unfortunately, the dangers of genocidal policy on the basis of ethnic and religious hatred have not vanished for our people. The saddest and most recent evidence of this is the documented crimes of the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem against ethnic Armenians during the 2020 war. The propaganda of ethnic and religious hatred and the criminal acts motivated by it are being carried out by the Azerbaijani state at the state level against the Armenians of Artsakh even now, aiming to evict Artsakh of its native people, eliminate the monuments and samples of centuries-old Armenian culture, erase the traces of Armenianism, make life of Armenians living in their homeland impossible.

Today we pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, reaffirming that it is the condemnation of the crime, the punishment of the guilty and the restoration of justice that can prevent future crimes."
According to a statement published by the Canadian Ministry of Defense on April 22, 2022, Canada provides an undisclosed number of M777 towed howitzers and associated ammunition to the armed forces of Ukraine. While this equipment comes from the inventory of the Canadian Armed Forces, the capability will be replenished.

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Members of the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1 RCHA) hold an M777 Howitzer shooting range practice during a trial for the Canadian Army Trial and Evaluation Unit, Gagetown (CATEU) at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Manitoba on February 8, 2022. (Picture source Canada MoD)

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Canada has already delivered Carl Gustaf anti-tank weapons, body armor, helmets, gas masks, night vision gears, 4,500 M72 LAW light anti-tank weapons, and 7,500 hand grenades.

At the same time, Finally, Canada is also in the process of finalizing contracts for a number of armored vehicles, which will be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible, and a service contract for the maintenance and repair of specialized drones cameras that Canada has already supplied to Ukraine.

According to the Military Balance 2021, the Canadian army has a total of 37 M777 towed howitzers. In June 2008, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Canada of M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed Howitzers as well as associated equipment and services. The Government of Canada had requested a possible sale of 37 M777 155mm Light-Weight Towed Howitzers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, maintenance, personnel training and training equipment.

The first M777 towed howitzers entered into service with the Canadian army in December 2005 and were delivered to the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. The howitzer was deployed by the Canadian army during combat operations in Afghanistan. The second batch of M777 howitzers was ordered by Canada in May 2008.

The M777 is a 155mm caliber lightweight towed howitzer that is manufactured by the company BAE Systems. It is in service with Australia, Canada, India, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the United States. It made its combat debut in the War in Afghanistan.

The M777 has a weight of 4,200 kg and is towed by a military truck, thanks to its lightweight, it can easily be transported by helicopter sling-load or military transporter aircraft such as the C-130.

The M777 is operated by a team of five soldiers. The howitzer is used to provide direct support to combat troops through offensive and defensive fires with conventional and precision-guided projectiles. It can also employ illuminating and smoke projectiles. It has a maximum firing range of 24.7 km with standard ammunition and 30 km with rocket-assisted rounds. It can also fire Bofors XM982 Excalibur GPS / Inertial Navigation-guided extended-range at a maximum range of 40 km.
The CM had spoken in favour of one law for the country and had said the matter will be taken up at the right time, said Keshav Prasad

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is thinking seriously about implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state, said Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Saturday. During the recent state election campaign, the CM had spoken in favour of one law for the country and had said the matter will be taken up at the right time.

Though many Opposition parties and Muslim organisations are opposed to the UCC, the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand has initiated the process of setting up a panel on the implementation of a common civil code in the state.

Favouring expeditious implementation of UCC both in the country and the state, Maurya in Lucknow asserted that the constitutionally envisaged measure is an important step for the realisation of the governance mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (inclusive growth) and said everybody should welcome it.

One law for all in one country is the need of the hour. It requires that we get out of the system of one law for one person and another for others. We are in favour of a common civil code. The Uttar Pradesh government is thinking in this direction seriously, the deputy CM said while talking to the media.

He further said that just as the Uttarakhand government has initiated steps, in UP and other states too, where there is the BJP government, the "common civil code" should be implemented.

The deputy CM said even in other states where there is no BJP government, its implementation is necessary for inclusive growth as the "common civil code is such a thing which should not only be demanded but also be welcomed by all."

The first cabinet meeting of the newly constituted Uttarakhand government presided by CM Pushkar Singh Dhami formed a committee of experts on the implementation of a UCC in the state.

"UCC is definitely required at this point of time; it is very much required for the country, for Uttar Pradesh and for the people of the country... But when there are vote bank considerations everywhere, it definitely shows the politics of appeasement. But we are not in favour of this," Mr Maurya said.
The preliminary analysis by computational modelling was done by IIT-Madras

Delhi is witnessing an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. The city logged 1,042 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent on Friday. (PTI file image)

New Delhi: Delhi's R-value, which indicates the spread of COVID-19, was recorded at 2.1 this week, implying that every infected person is infecting two others in the national capital, according to an analysis by IIT-Madras.

The 'R' or reproductive value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to, and a pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below one.

The preliminary analysis by computational modelling was done by IIT-Madras' Department of Mathematics and Centre of Excellence for Computational Mathematics and Data Science headed by Prof Neelesh S Upadhye and Prof S Sundar.

This was shared with PTI and according to it, Delhi's R-value this week was recorded at 2.1. India's R-value, at present, stands at 1.3, the analysis found.

Asked if it can be deduced that this is the beginning of the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Delhi, Dr Jayant Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT-Madras, said it would be too early to declare an onset of another wave.

We can only say right now that every person is affecting two others....but we need to wait a bit to declare onset...we don't know about the immunity status and whether the people who got affected during the third wave in January are getting affected or not again, he told PTI.

For other metro cities -- Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, Jha said the number of cases are too low to ascertain a trend.

Delhi is witnessing an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. The city logged 1,042 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent on Friday.

The Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city, sources said on Thursday.

However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US.

But officials have not confirmed that it indeed was found in some samples in Delhi.

An official source said, "New sub-variants BA.2.12 (52 per cent samples) and BA.2.10 (11 per cent samples) are showing high transmission and have been found in over 60 per cent of the total samples from Delhi sequenced recently."
Even Iran, notwithstanding the decades of negotiations with the West, is still in no mood to give up on the nuclear option

Whatever may be the consequences of Russias invasion of Ukraine, it has delivered a clear message to all countries who had recessed their nuclear aspirations that, if you forsake your nuclear programmes and make your security hostage to tenuous agreements and conventional deterrence, you wager your future. (Representational Image/ AP)

As one of the proponents of the Rule 193 discussion in the Lok Sabha on Ukraine, I had stated in the presence of external affairs minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, On December 26, 1991, when the erstwhile Soviet Union ceased to exist or when it was dissolved, Ukraine was the third largest nuclear nation in the world. It had the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. In 1994, in terms of the Budapest Memorandum which was midwifed by the United States and Great Britain, Ukraine was stripped off its nuclear arsenal in return for amorphous security guarantees that if its peace or sovereignty was ever transgressed upon or trifled with, it would have their backing, but unfortunately, when the push came to the shove, these political commitments evaporated into thin air. We have a saying in Punjabi, it goes as such, Rab nede ke ghasun? which means, Is God closer or is the punch?, and unfortunately Ukraine traded amorphous security guarantees for what was a substantive tangible security guarantee it had in terms of its nuclear weapons and its nuclear arsenals. This is a cruel thing to say, but unfortunately given the times that we live in, I think it needs to be said.

So why did Ukraine give up its nuclear arsenal? Was Ukraine ever in operational control of the erstwhile Soviet Unions nuclear inventory physically stationed on its soil? Even if it was not, could Ukraine not have reconfigured the command and control system of this arsenal? Could it not have maintained a credible minimum deterrent that was capable of being physically delivered from airplanes rather than having to be missile launched? What message does the lack of operationalisation of security guarantees qua Ukraine send to other states who have powerful and hostile neighbours to contend with? These are some very germane questions that need to be answered for they have a material bearing both on the iniquitous Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the entire architecture of nuclear non-proliferation constructed by the P-5 or N-5 post Indias first peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974.

In tranquil moments post the Cold War, when even the clock of history had ostensibly been stilled and American power was at its zenith, there were still stationed 1,800 nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory. They encompassed short-range tactical weapons and air-launched cruise missiles. These weapons were an anathema to the ayatollahs of the non-proliferation community in the United States and other Western capitals. They wanted these weapons to be swept off Ukrainian soil and for some bizarre reason handed back to Russia of all the nations, rather than being destroyed or at least defanged and demobilised.

The Clinton administration following the quintessential carrot and stick policy was successful in armtwisting a recently liberated Ukraine that was struggling to function as a nation state with a devastated Soviet era economy to contend with to sign on the dotted line in Budapest.

The now-infamous Budapest Memorandum delineated that Ukraine would commit itself to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time. In return, the US, the UK and Russia undertook to fulfil a whole range of assurances to Ukraine.

The most significant of these was was to reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. They also undertook to refrain from economic coercion against Ukraine and further to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine in the event of an act of aggression against the country.

Based upon these unambiguous security assurances, Ukraine fulfilled its end of the bargain and delivered its entire nuclear arsenal to Russia by 1996. However, in return, Russia converted the Budapest Memorandum into the proverbial dead letter by invading Ukraine in 2014 and now again in 2022 as the other two guarantors of Ukraines security did precious little to pre-empt or prevent this aggression and, worse, put no boots on the ground to come to Ukraines aid.

Could Ukraine have retained its nuclear arsenal? While the non-proliferation pundits would argue otherwise, there was really nothing stopping Ukraine from making a serious attempt at crafting a minimum credible deterrent way back in 1992, given the fact that if you take the broad civilisational sweep into consideration there was just no way that Ukrainians should have been so naive to believe that one day the Russians would not try and resuscitate the dream of recreating either the Tsarist utopia or Soviet hegemony.

What would be the implications of the Ukrainian conflict on the second age nuclear powers as well as those nations that are a screw turn away from achieving nuclear weaponisation? The message is both portentous and crisp those Westphalian entities who make the cardinal error of giving up their nuclear arsenals do so at their own peril. That was precisely the lesson North Korea internalised after Libya fell in 2011. Even Iran, notwithstanding the decades of negotiations with the West, is still in no mood to give up on the nuclear option.

The incapacity of the US to implement its Budapest guarantees would also reverberate in allied capitals that rely on Americas military assurances for their safety. It should come as no surprise now if Japan, South Korea, Australia or many other nations in Europe itself pursue their own nuclear deterrent. If Americans want to know why they should come out their current inertia of Jeffersonianism nuclear proliferation is the six hundred pound gorilla in the room.

In the past, South Africa had developed its own atomic weapon and had a neat stockpile of nuclear weapons but got rid of its arsenal voluntarily as it made its tryst with destiny to end apartheid. Brazil and Argentina, from the 1960s to the 1980s, scurried to build their own atomic weapons, but both eventually proscribed their programmes. Libya ended its efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in the early 2000s and, ultimately, the Gaddafi regime paid for it with their lives.

Whatever may be the consequences of Russias invasion of Ukraine, it has delivered a clear message to all countries who had recessed their nuclear aspirations that, if you forsake your nuclear programmes and make your security hostage to tenuous agreements and conventional deterrence, you wager your future. This inescapable cold reality of life will reorder the entire nuclear non-proliferation architecture in the months ahead.
In both visits, Guterres aims to discuss steps that can be taken right now to stop the fighting and help people get to safety

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to meet separately with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine next week to make urgent, face-to-face pleas for peace, the world body said Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Guterres is to meet Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that Putin will also host the UN chief.

The UN later said that Guterres will head Thursday to Ukraine to see President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

In both visits, Guterres aims to discuss steps that can be taken right now to stop the fighting and help people get to safety, UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko said.

"He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently," she said.

Guterres had asked Tuesday to meet with the presidents in their respective capitals.

Guterres has urged Russia to stop its attack since it began two months ago, in what he called the saddest moment in his five years in the UN's top job. He appealed Tuesday for a four-day humanitarian pause in fighting leading up to Sunday's Orthodox Easter holiday.

"Stop the bloodshed and destruction. Open a window for dialogue and peace," he implored.

Guterres sent the UN's top humanitarian official to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month to explore the possibilities of a cease-fire.

But the secretary-general had faced questions about whether he himself should travel to press for peace. In a recent letter, former UN officials called on him to step up his personal, public involvement.

Whatever overtures may have been made privately, the now-planned trip is a visible symbol of what the United Nations is supposed to be standing for, which is peace and security, one of the letter-writers, former UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, said by phone Friday.

"I don't think any of us should have exaggerated expectations about what the secretary-general will be able to accomplish, but he has significant moral power, said Feltman, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. It's important that the secretary-general have these conversations.

Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon went to Moscow and Kyiv in March 2014 to try to foster talks and diplomacy as Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Global Security Initiative is another global public good offered by China, as it contributes Chinese solutions and wisdom for solving security challenges facing humanity, experts said.

The initiative was proposed by President Xi Jinping on Thursday when he delivered a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2022 in Boao, Hainan Province.

The initiative is yet another global public good offered by China and a significant part of building a community with a shared future for humanity, said Xu Bu, president of the China Institute of International Studies.

The Global Security Initiative champions commitments in six areas:

-- stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work together to maintain world peace and security;

-- stay committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, uphold non-interference in internal affairs, and respect the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries;

-- stay committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, reject the Cold War mentality, oppose unilateralism, and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation;

-- stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the pursuit of one's own security at the cost of others' security;

-- stay committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises, reject double standards, and oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction;

-- stay committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains, and work together on regional disputes and global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity.

Guo Yanjun, director of the Institute of Asian Studies of China Foreign Affairs University, said the initiative would help build consensus and promote reform of the global security governance system.

Unlike some Western countries' unilateral pursuits of their safety, the Global Security Initiative seeks common security, which underlines peace and cooperation, said Bambang Suryono, chairman of the Indonesian think tank Asia Innovation Study Center.

It would help create an international order based on mutual respect, equality and mutual trust, he noted.

The Global Security Initiative upholds true multilateralism. It is open to the world and welcomes the participation of all countries. As the country that put forward this major initiative, China will also take earnest actions in its implementation, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

"We are ready to work through the UN and bilateral and multilateral channels to have an in-depth exchange of views with all parties on the initiative," Wang added. 
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bdelrahman Fawzi, a 16-year-old refugee student from the Gaza Strip, searches books at a school's library of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Amman, Jordan, on April 21. (Xinhua/Ji Ze)

AMMAN/DAMASCUS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Abdelrahman Fawzi, a 16-year-old refugee student from the Gaza Strip, considered reading as a bridge to acquire knowledge and fulfil his dream of being a doctor and knowledgeable person.

Fawzi likes to spend his leisure time reading at his school's library, which is affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) office in Jordan, where the agency provides basic education to over 121,000 students at more than 160 schools.

UNRWA teachers, fully aware of the value of reading, increased their efforts to encourage refugee students to read, including organizing cultural and scientific reading competitions.

Reading could improve students' ability in comprehending what they're learning, especially if it's connected to the curriculum, said Ashraf Abu Sbait, a specialist in linguistics and the Arabic language who works as a UNRWA teacher.

"When students' reading is linked to the curriculum, they can save more time. It would also encourage students to consider the educational curriculum as an integral component of their reading habits rather than a separate task," Abu Sbait told Xinhua on the occasion of the World Book Day, which falls on April 23.

Some books tell stories about writers' struggles and ways to overcome difficulties and challenges, which could give students some insights to cope with obstacles, he added.

"Reading encourages refugee children to keep up with other students throughout the world and to co-exist with the current time properly, and reading gives refugee students a greater chance at a brighter future, both academically and professionally," said Abu Sbait, who is also a member of Jordan's language and reading contest judging panels.

Abu Sbait isn't the only one who recognizes the importance of reading. People in Syria were careful to conserve books and ensure that publication and reading would not be hampered by the country's lingering conflict.

In an interview with Xinhua on World Book Day, Eyad Murshed, the director of the Syrian government-run al-Assad library, noted that though many publishing houses and book storage facilities were sabotaged by radical groups, book publishers have managed to survive the war.

Syria's annual book fair has been held for nine sessions during the 11-year-long war, thanks to the perseverance of the country's publishing houses and the Culture Ministry, according to Murshed.

According to him, despite the lack of funding, a shortage of printing resources such as inks, papers, and printers, and the COVID-19 epidemic, which disrupted cultural activities globally, Syria's publishing firms nonetheless managed to print roughly 250 new books each year.

"We recognize the value of reading for community development, and we are looking forward to building a society that can improve itself through culture and books," he noted. 

Ashraf Abu Sbait (L), a specialist in linguistics and the Arabic language who works as a teacher from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), talks with students at a UNRWA school's library in Amman, Jordan, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Ji Ze)

Students attend a class at a school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Amman, Jordan, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Ji Ze)

Abdelrahman Fawzi (L), a 16-year-old refugee student from the Gaza Strip, reads a book at a school's library of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Amman, Jordan, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Ji Ze)
Unlike the ousted Nikita Mazepin, Robert Shwartzman will bypass the rules regarding Russian and Belarusian competitors that want to take part in Formula 1. He will use an Israeli license. Luckily, the man was born in Israel and has an Israeli passport. Nobody at Ferrari F1 pulled any strings for this to happen.Moreover, according to RaceFans , he will no longer be on the payroll of certain Russian companies that supported his activity in F2 and now in F1. The information was confirmed by Ferraris team principal Mattia Binotto.He raced under the Russian flag last year in F2 and has now been drawn into F1. Ferrari thinks the man has potential. But with the invasion of Ukraine being an ongoing situation that breaks multiple international laws and agreements, F1 and FIA are keen on making racing politically neutral. Thats why the flags of the aggressor countries are not allowed.Ferraris Binotto also confirmed they wont get rid of Shwartzman just because hes Russian. The team principal said theyll make use of his skills if such a situation arises.For now, its not entirely clear if Robert Shwartzman agreed to sign the additional pro-peace agreement. This wouldve allowed him to keep working in F1 under a Russian license.According to the latest Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, racing drivers that are of Russian or Belarusian nationality can still take part in all the motorsport-related activities if they enter as Authorised Neutral Drivers and adhere to FIAs principles of peace and political neutrality.But things can go farther than this. For example, promoters like those at Silverstone are banning drivers, staff, and others from joining motorsport events just because theyre Russian, Belarusian, or have known affiliations with one of the two countries.Some fans still dont agree with FIAs decision, even though Nikita Mazepin s permanent leave from Haas didnt attract many regrets. The attitude seems to be shifting in favor of letting people race as they wish without making them resort to passport shifting.
Owned by Eric Young of Late Model Restoration , the blacked-out land yacht is very close to stock. Modifications include light port work to the throttle body and intake plenum, a MagnaFlow Street Series cat-back exhaust, 4.10 gears out back, and a 93-octane tune. Of course, there is 93 in the tank.With 149,204 miles on the clock, which is 240,121 kilometers to whom prefers the metric system, the daily-driven P7B is much obliged to lay down 198 horsepower at the rear wheels at 5,200 rpm. The Dynojet chassis dynamometer also reveals 238 pound-feet (333 Nm) of torque at 4,200 rpm, which is pretty impressive for a car this old and with such high mileage.Referred to as the P7B from 2010 to the 2011 model year as opposed to P71 for earlier cars, this CVPI was originally advertised with 250 ponies at 5,000 rpm and 297 pound-feet (403 Nm) at 4,000 rpm at the crank, not 279 pound-feet (378 Nm) as the host says at the 1:14 mark of the video below.Pictured on 275/50 R17 Nitto NT555 G2 tires mounted on 17- by 9.0-inch rear wheels, this body-on-frame blast from the not-so-distant past will probably get a five-speed manual swap in due time. The 4R75W slushbox was fine back in the day, but if Eric gets to add nitrous to the mix, as the host says toward the end of the video, then the BorgWarner T45 may not be strong enough fully stock because this box takes up to 375 pound-feet (508 Nm).
AWD

CVT

With the two segments already mentioned munching on all the others' market share like a pair of hungry caterpillars, the glory days of the sedan seem to be behind us. However, no matter how strong people's love affair with the SUVs grows, there will always be some room left for cars like the Honda Accord or the Subaru Legacy. Hopefully.In this 2.0T Sport trim, the Honda Accord is actually quite the sleeper. We've seen the Japanese model drag racing all sorts of cars it should have no business being anywhere near (think Camaros or Mustangs ) and winning. With that in mind, does its opponent for the day even stand a chance?Well, it's a Subaru, which right from the off means it has something the Accord lacks - an all-wheel-drive system. It also has a very similar power output (260 hp and 277 lb-ft/375 Nm compared to Honda's 252 hp and 273 lb-ft/370 Nm), albeit from a 2.4-liter turbocharged flat-four (as the name suggests, the Accord has a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine).With slightly more power and, it all seems to point toward a victory for the Scooby, but there are a few clinchers to consider. First of all, the Legacy has a continuously variable transmission (), that horrible type of transmission a lot of Japanese brands insist on using. Yes, the GT does have a manual mode surrogate, yet anyone who's ever driven a CVT car will know these things simply aren't geared for performance.Then there's the weight situation. That all-wheel-drive system of the Legacy GT might give it a better launch (more on that later), but it also puts on more timber. 3,779 lbs/1,714 kg, to be exact, which is over 400 lbs (nearly 200 kg) more than the Accord (3,356 lbs/1,522 kg). With no significant extra torque to help it, the added weight might turn out to be the GT's undoing - that is if the CVT doesn't get it first.Finally, there's also a discussion to be had about the wheels and tires. The Accord has a set of steelies, which leads us to believe it might be on winter tires since a lot of people keep the alloys for their more performance-oriented summer rubbers). Sam, the host of the video, said it was still cold outside, so the presumed winter tires could be either an advantage or a hindrance depending on the exact temperature. The weight of the steel wheels definitely doesn't help, though.We get to see two runs, one from a dig and the other from a roll. As is the unwritten rule in these drag racing videos, the classic standing start comes first, and it doesn't take a second to know which of the two will come out on top. The Legacy's AWD advantage quickly vanishes as the Scooby struggles to match the Accord's much better launch, with the Honda sedan making good use of its wonderful ten-speed automatic.With that out of the way, the roll race is just a formality for the Accord, though I have to admit that after the first run, I was expecting a bigger gap. I guess not having to break the inertia of all that mass like it did from a standstill helped the Scooby a little, though not enough to save any face. I'm thinking about starting an online petition to ban CVTs, who's with me?
But Mattel has got a solution for you. Having the "I went out and played with my Hot Wheels in the mud" look is now possible without leaving the comfort of your home. Well, you might have to go out at least once to get the cars if you're not keen on ordering them online.The 2022 Hot Wheels Mud Runners series is a mix of five different vehicles hailing from three different continents. As you would expect, the wheels look like they've been rolling around mud all day long, and there are even splashes integrated into the livery to make it look more life-like.The first vehicle included in this set is the Mercedes-Benz Unimog 1300. This casting was first introduced in 2019 as part of the HW Hot Trucks series. This marks its sixth appearance so far, and you could say it's the best one so far.The 1967 Jeepster Commando is up next, and you can't help but get a sort of "Jurassic Park" vibe at first glance. This truck even has a motorcycle attached to it on the backside, although it does look rather basic. That being said, we should keep in mind the fact that this is not a Premium set.The Oldsmobile 442 W-30 is a strange appearance on this list, as you wouldn't expect to see this car embarking on an off-road adventure. But it has been lifted and fitted with the right set of wheels for the job.This casting has been around since 1993, but it was later retooled in 2006. The fourth car in the Mud Runners series is a classic Toyota Land Cruiser in Matte Olive. This casting was created by the late Ryu Asada in collaboration with Manson Cheung. It was just released last year as part of the HW Hot Trucks series.The last item in the set is probably going to be everyone's favorite. The 2015 Land Rover Defender Double Cab in Matte Black is going to look great in any off-road photos, if you're already into diecast photography or not. Just load up the bed with sand or even the kibble you'd use to feed your pet and choose the right angle to make the vehicle look like it's a real life-size one.This casting was first released in 2018, and most collectors have at least one of these on display or stored away in some part of their homes. If you haven't found this set in stores yet, don't worry, there are plenty of them to go around. You should expect to pay anything between $15 to $50 on all five vehicles , depending on where you're buying them from.
SUV

There are few things that suggest luxury more than a Rolls-Royce. But rapper Yo Gotti rolls with an entire fleet of them to make sure he sends the right message.Rapper Lil Poppa just signed with his record label, CMG Records, and Yo Gotti decided to pay him a visit in Jacksonville, Florida. And he didnt want to miss the opportunity to make a good impression, so he took a fleet of Rolls-Royces with him.Among them, there were two white Cullinans, the firstthe British marque has ever produced and their first model with all-wheel drive. The Cullinan is all about status and comfort, and thats exactly what Gotti wanted to express.Besides the two, there was a black Rolls-Royce Dawn . Gotti, whose real name is Mario Sentell Giden Mims, also posed behind the wheel of the matte black convertible, looking very pleased with it.And theres no reason why he wouldnt be impressed with the Dawn. Rolls-Royce's only convertible available in the current lineup is elegant, but also powerful. It has a 6.6-liter V12 engine sending 563 horsepower (571 ps) and 605 lb-ft (820 Nm) of torque to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.The car reaches 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill in 4.9 seconds, with a top speed electronically limited to 155 mph (249 kph). Yo Gotti has a soft spot for Rolls-Royce , and its a brand that often makes appearances on his social media account. And he couldn't have chosen a different one for a visit to Lil Poppa, the new addition to his team.
One of the biggest names in the hip hop industry, Rick Ross wants to take it one step further, and dip his toes in the car industry, too.On May 21st, the rapper will be hosting the Rick Ross Car and Bike Show at his 235-acre property in Atlanta, Georgia, called The Promise Land. Ross, whose collection comprises more than one hundred units, has been welcoming lots of other models over the last few weeks.And the event will even feature a camouflaged armored truck equipped with guns, which the rapper wrongly calls a tank. Ross shared a video of the moment it was delivered and gave us a complete tour of the exterior.But the surprise comes on the inside. Despite the fact that the armored carriers interior shows obvious wear and tear, the passenger's seat is wrapped in Louis Vuitton leather. This takes us back to one of Ross rides, a custom-made Hummer H1 with a Louis Vuitton interior , which were guessing will also be present at the auto show.Ross will be introducing his collection, which is a mix of classic and modern automobiles, plus two new NASCAR racing cars. He has also invited his famous friends with expensive wheels to flaunt them during the "most anticipated car show of 2022," as Rick calls it.According to the events official website , the rapper is asking for $750 from people whose cars or bikes will participate in the show. That price will cover two general admission tickets. Those who want to sell their car at the fair have to pay $1,000. When it comes to vendors, the fee is $2,500 for two people.There's a VIP Package available for $2,500, which includes a reception pass, a parking pass, car access, VIP car placement, a gift bag, and the option to "party with the BOSS." General admissions have a price tag of $250, without parking, which sells for $50 per day. And you have to park somewhere, right?
Car Wizard says a lot of people are constantly asking him about reliable cars, but he finds his followers going for German brands more often than not. He doesnt spill the beans, but the man is convinced there are better options out there when it comes to buying older vehicles that dont automatically require expensive maintenance.Err, no! Stop! Stop messing with the Audis, with the Mercedes-Benz, stop messing with the old Jags if youre looking for sheer reliability, says Car Wizard . His recommendation is this 2007 Toyota Avalon, even if it is a 15-year-old car.The well-known auto mechanic explains this car is good, comfortable, and looks decent. He underlines that it is very reliable. Even if it already has 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) on the odometer, he is confident it can go for 200,000 miles (321,800 kilometers) more!He also explains that currently, nobody has a car on offer that can go without needing any kind of service or replacing of parts, but he explains the sweet Avalon wont bankrupt anyone. Car Wizard says the oversized Camry with a V6 that uses a timing chain can be a very good daily driver, and it wont disappoint you. It doesnt promise a lot, so it also doesnt create huge expectations.The auto mechanic also points out that it's fairly easy to work on the car. This is not him bragging. It is, in fact, a confirmation that you wont have to pay more for labor when the bill is issued.Car Wizard also says that all German cars will start having problems after reaching the 100,000 mi checkpoint on the odometer. He hopes people will choose Toyota more often if theyre looking for reliable cars  a proposition thats been shared by the famous Scotty Kilmer on numerous occasions.You can watch the detailed presentation of the 2007 Toyota Avalon down below, where you'll see what aspects the man praises the most.But, at the end of the day, you should remember that cars exist in many forms for a reason: everybodys different, so our taste for vehicles will never be the same. Some people are willing to pay more just to own the vehicle they love driving.
Yeah, but I didnt leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends.



I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so its not exactly top secret.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Its nice to know that billionaires are keeping in touch with each other. They control important companies and have a lot of capital at their disposal, so them being cool with each other matters for the health of the stock and job markets  that is, of course, if they dont decide on playing against the people.But Musk and Gates are some of the few very relatable rich people around. They keep in touch with the public, get involved in several initiatives that benefit a lot of people, maintain a public appearance, and are constantly trying to find ways to improve what humankind can achieve. They also share their fair number of controversies, but were not going to focus on speculations and scandals.Instead, were looking at why Elon Musk blatantly refused to work with Bill Gates on a philanthropy-related initiative.The co-founder of Microsoft and the CEO of Tesla had a little chat via text messages regarding undisclosed matters. But everything seemed to fall apart when Musk asked the following question: Do you still have a half-billion-dollar short position against Tesla?Some hours passed, but Gates eventually confirmed he still thinks Tesla will fail or will lose investors trust. Sorry to say I havent closed it out, answered Gates before following up with an invitation to discuss philanthropy possibilities.Musk replied and told Gates that he cant take his climate plans seriously because he has a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change. The screenshots of the conversation appeared on Twitter. They were originally leaked by the New York Times, and Elon Musk also confirmed the discussion was real. He also underlined that he wasnt the source of the leak.Not giving up on his continuously improving ability to make and share memes on Twitter, Teslas CEO published a picture of Bill Gates that mocked the successful software engineer. It got popular pretty fast, accruing over 122,000 likes in just a little under 35 minutes.Now you know why Elon Musk refuses to work with Bill Gates on reaching some climate goals. It's not entirely surprising, given what's at stake, but Tesla's CEO has previously called the Microsoft co-founder a "knucklehead" because of the same stock-related issues. On the other hand, Gates also said that electric cars are "easy to make," and the fight for climate change can't happen just by switching propulsion systems. He also owns a Porsche Taycan.Having a short position or shorting stocks means that an investor thinks a certain company's share will most likely lose some value. Thats why they buy the shares with a loan, sell them on the open market, and buy them back again when they will be cheaper. The loan must be repaid, and the investor pockets the difference. It might sound interesting, but its generally frowned upon.
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Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang (L) hands a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping to Lucy Elphinstone, Headmistress of Francis Holland School, at the school in London, Britain, April 21, 2022. Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently replied to a letter from primary school students at Britain's Francis Holland School on the issue of climate change. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- "It's really exciting," said Manon, an 8-year-old British girl, after receiving a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Manon is a student from Francis Holland School, a girls' school in London. Year-4 students of this school wrote a letter to Xi about the urgency of tackling climate change, conveying their cherished wish for the future of humanity.

On Thursday morning, Zheng Zeguang, Chinese ambassador to Britain, delivered Xi's letter to Francis Holland School.

"With your mind set on preserving the planet we all call home, you sent a letter to President Xi Jinping about climate change. President Xi took this matter very seriously. Despite his busy schedule, he read your letter carefully and wrote back, expressing wholehearted care for your concerns and ardent expectations for your generation," said Zheng.

In his letter, Xi encouraged the British pupils to communicate with their Chinese peers, allow the concept of green development to take root in their hearts and grow up to become active builders of the beautiful home for mankind.

"I want to tell President Xi, thank you for responding," Manon told Xinhua after listening to Xi's letter. "We care about climate change, and we think it's really important to help the world become better."

On behalf of students in her grade, 9-year-old Nina Lai wrote the letter to Xi. She told Xinhua that she was thrilled to receive Xi's reply.

"It was a lovely letter," said teacher Lottie Adams. "Xi said that rivers and mountains are just as important as, if not more important than silver and gold. For me, that was the line that really stood out and really touched me. That's such a powerful message for the girls to learn."

"The letter was beautifully worded," said Lucy Elphinstone, headmistress of Francis Holland School, adding Xi "is a man who appreciates the beauty of the planet and the wonder of nature."

Elphinstone said Xi's letter is an encouragement for the students and signals to them that "the world is a beautiful and precious place, full of resources that we must protect, and the children of the world must work together to ensure that future is safe." 

Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang (L) reads a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping at Francis Holland School in London, Britain, April 21, 2022. Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently replied to a letter from primary school students at Britain's Francis Holland School on the issue of climate change. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Jacqueline Flores, left, holds hands with her daughter Nicky at their home in Virginia, Wednesday, July 14, 2021. Flores, a member of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, is asking President Joe Biden to end Title 42 and allow her family from El Salvador and other migrants to ask for asylum at the border, after her aunt and cousin were recently expelled to Mexico at the U.S. border under the public health rule that allows border agents to turn away migrants during the pandemic. On Friday, April 22, 2022, the Biden administration acknowledged that it has already begun phasing out use of a pandemic-related public health rule that allows the expulsion of migrants without giving them an opportunity to seek asylum, even as 22 states fight in court to preserve the policy.
We now have clarity about what was really discussed in that surreptitiously recorded phone conversation among members of the Republican House 
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The First National Conference on Reading was held in Beijing on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a congratulatory letter to the conference.

Reading is an important avenue for humans to acquire knowledge, expand wisdom and cultivate virtues, Xi noted. It enlightens us and helps us aim high and stand upright. Since ancient times, the Chinese people have advocated reading and stressed the acquisition of knowledge through studying the nature of things and rectification of mind through thinking with sincerity. Reading helps the Chinese people to carry on the traditional spirit of perseverance and shape their character of self-confidence and self-reliance.

Xi called on Party members and officials to take the lead in reading and learning, foster virtues and ideals and improve abilities. He hoped that all children will have a habit of reading, enjoy reading and grow up in a healthy way. He also expressed a wish that all Chinese people are engaged in reading and contribute to an atmosphere where everyone loves reading, has good books to read and knows how to gain from reading.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, read Xi's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech at the conference. He said the letter fully demonstrated that the CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to fostering people's love of reading and a culture of reading in the country. We must study Xi's important instructions conscientiously and put them into practice, Huang said. He called for efforts to encourage reading, create a trend of reading, and set up a system to promote reading in both urban and rural areas. The reading campaign should be extended to cover as many people as possible, while reading should help people learn and improve themselves, said Huang, who added that fostering a culture of reading will help strengthen and enrich the Chinese culture, so as to inject strong impetus into the new journey to fully build a modern socialist China in the new era.

The conference was hosted by the Publishing Bureau under the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. The National Press and Publication Administration (the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee), the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and the Beijing Municipal Government oversaw it. Its theme is "promoting reading in the new era and forging ahead on the new journey." The conference includes a series of forums, exhibitions, book launch events and themed activities.

Officials from relevant departments as well as representatives of publishers, social organizations, experts, scholars, writers and readers participated in the conference. 

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, reads Chinese President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter to the First National Conference on Reading and delivers a speech at the conference in Beijing, capital of China, April 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Clear skies. Low near 45F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 45F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
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New License Plates Benefit Wildlife Around Oregon, the Coast

Published 04/22/22 at 4:12 PM PST

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Salem, Oregon)  Look for new license plates from Oregon with Watch for Wildlife on them and a rather cute animal pic, made for the Oregon Wildlife Foundation. It's a way to help out wildlife on the Oregon coast as well as the rest of the state.

DMV will start issuing the new plates on May 4, which will be available for passenger cars only.

As of May 4 you'll be able to order the set of plates online at DMV2U, or you can go to a DMV field office. DMV said its offices are open for walk-up services and some also offer appointments. The plates can also be ordered at Oregon dealerships when you purchase a car.

To maintain fair distribution of desirable low plate numbers, DMV will not accept pre-orders, DMV said.

The new plates raise money for the Oregon Wildlife Foundation through an additional $40 donation when the agency issues, renews or replaces license plates. That price is in addition to plate manufacture, registration, and any other vehicle fees that normally apply, including local registration fees in Clackamas, Multnomah or Washington counties. Prices will differ from county to county.

Along the Oregon coast, the foundation started working with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1994 to create the North Coast Salmon Habitat Restoration Project, which sought to restore salmon habitats on north Oregon coast streams in a large-scale way. It eventually grew to include all streams along the Oregon coast and in the Willamette Valley region. The agencies also received assistance from many major forest product companies around the state, resulting in a multi-million dollar project that is ongoing.

Other major accomplishments of the foundation include the restoration of Diamond Lake and the Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition, which helps ensure animals don't get by automobile traffic.

There was a plate launch phase not long ago, where customers could purchase $40 vouchers from the foundation towards the new plates. DMV said these can be used at a DMV office or at a dealership, but the vouchers cannot be used online. All plate holders will be able to renew online the next time their registration fees are due.

Watch for Wildlife plates will begin at WW 00001, issued in order thereafter by DMV. Motorists cannot reserve a particular plate number in the series, but they can apply for a custom configuration. Plates will also be in different versions for amateur radio (HAM), honorary consular and elected officials.

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BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Workers of all ethnic groups in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region enjoy the right to choose their own occupation voluntarily, a spokesperson for the regional government said Friday.

"Xinjiang follows the relevant conventions and initiatives of the International Labour Organization, strictly implements national laws, and strives to ensure that workers of all ethnic groups work on the premise of freedom," said Xu Guixiang at a press conference held in Beijing.

Due to harsh natural conditions and low-level economic development, there was a serious surplus of rural labor in southern Xinjiang in the past, Xu said. "Therefore, rural residents in southern Xinjiang had difficulties hunting for jobs," he said.

Over the years, governments at all levels in Xinjiang have strived to help the poor shake off poverty by helping them find jobs in other places, Xu noted.

"This is not 'forced labor'," Xu said, adding that people are free to decide wether they want to leave their homes, where they are going, and what jobs they like." The governments only act as servants, providing assistance to people," he said.

With incomes from their new jobs, many people have bought houses and cars, and earned the funds to start businesses, Xu noted. "The government will strive to improve its services to people of all ethnic groups, and help them find suitable jobs and live a better life," he added. 
There is nothing more exciting to a genealogist than the release of information that can enrich a family tree!

The 1950 Census release has created this excitement. Names, addresses, ages, birth places, education and occupations will be included on these forms. You may also gain insight into military service.

Big Question: How is all of this information going to be indexed? In other words: How is the cursive handwriting documenting this information going to be deciphered and put in digital online format?

In years past, volunteers would spend months and sometimes years creating a searchable database of census information.

With the 1950 Census, the National Archives and Ancestry will be utilizing artificial intelligence and handwriting recognition technology, thus saving great time.

Employees from across the (National Archives) agency have worked on digitizing and indexing the records and developing and testing a new, dedicated 1950 Census website, said Project Manager Carol Lagundo. While this process isnt perfect, it does put the information into the hands of researchers much faster.

What is the next step?

The plan is to use volunteers to review the computer-created index for accuracy. FamilySearch is hoping to make the experience more personalized by encouraging volunteers to work on records relating to their family. How exciting!

How can you assist in this historical project?

There are thousands of volunteers ready to help make the 1950 US Census searchable online. I have found two different avenues. First, The National Archives is seeking volunteers who are interested in making a time contribution. You can sign up at: https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/1950-census-volunteer to receive updates and gain access to digital files for review. Just the thought of being part of this National Archives project is appealing to me.

You can also join a community of volunteers working to double-check the computer-generated transcription of documents by downloading the Get Involved App for your phone.

If you prefer working from a computer, then go to the FamilySearch Get Involved website to help with transcriptions. I tested out both methods and each one is super easy. You are guided through the edits, with options to select the words: match, edit, or unsure.

I ventured over to the Family Search Get Involved page and soon found myself looking at opportunities for editing transcriptions. I only spent about 5 minutes and was able to edit 20 selections. I felt quite productive!

Rest easy and know that you will not be creating records from scratch. You will be invited to review the already-automated index and work to ensure information is correct.
A man who led Hardin County law enforcement on an hours-long manhunt earlier this week has been arrested and is facing a number of related charges.

Jairus Andrew Brown was arrested shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday night in the 13000 block of Farm Road 770 near Saratoga, Hardin County Sheriff Mark Davis said in a news release.

"He is being transported to a local hospital for medical clearance and then we expect him to be brought to the Hardin County Jail later this evening. He will be formally charged and arraigned tomorrow morning," he said in the release. "I have no other information at this time."

As of Friday afternoon, Brown was in the Hardin County jail facing multiple charges, including for two counts of capital murder of a peace officer or fireman, six counts of aggravated assault against a public servant, evading arrest, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a controlled substance. The amount of his bond was not available.

Related: Manhunt continues in Hardin County

The Sour Lake Police Department told The Enterprise on Friday that none of the officers were injured. However Brown was injured, the police department confirmed.

The charges for capital murder are related to an exchange of gunfire, according to the Sour Lake Police Department.

The agency thanked the Hardin County Constables Office Pct. 6, Kountze Police Department, Hardin County Sheriffs Office SAU, and TX DPS Texas Rangers for their assistance.

The hunt began on Wednesday after Sour Lake Police officers attempted to arrest Brown for outstanding warrants during a traffic stop. He allegedly drove away from the attempted stop before crashing the vehicle and running into the woods.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  When the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art opens Aug. 26, Jackson Pollocks Mural wont be the first mural visitors see. Odili Donald Oditas Surrounding will be.

The UI museums 8-by-20-foot Pollock star attraction will have its own gallery on the second floor, while Oditas even larger 13.5--by-27-foot creation will be visible through soaring floor-to-ceiling windows before visitors even step into the first-floor lobby, which is dubbed Thresholds.

And what a splash it will make. With bold geometric designs flowing and crashing into each other, the entire wall already is taking shape with bright magentas, yellows, pinks, blues, greens, oranges and aquas hand-mixed from acrylic latex wall paint, so no two hues will ever be alike in Oditas projects.

Its full of lively visual movement, perfectly illustrating his kaleidoscopic signature style, as well as his mission to explore color in historical and sociopolitical realms.

I might use different blues or different reds in the work, Odita, 56, of Philadelphia, said during a media event last week. For me, its important to have that specificity, because people are not just one color or one type of being. There are many types of being.

So when Im looking and thinking of that different blues, I want one to be able to not just say blue, blue, blue, blue, blue but blue-orange or purple blue, green-blue, green, blue-yellow. Be able to just look at the colors and start to engage them for the specificity and for their sense of space.

And that becomes part of the way of constructing this thought process where Im an African artist, an artist of color  and maybe if we think about people in the world, the Black person in the world, we might not just say, Black person, Black person, Black person, Black person, but this person here and that person there; this person with the suit; this person with the children. To be able to get to be more specific and (have) more actually real identifications, versus just stereotype.

As soon as I learned about his work, I knew he was the perfect artist to kick off this series of installations of public art in our lobby, which were calling Thresholds,  museum Director Lauren Lessing told the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

But really seeing it come to come together on the wall? I cant wait to get to work every morning because every day its a little bit different. Ive been really enjoying students, members of the public kind of gathering on our terrace and peeking through the windows.

Odita, an abstract artist and professor of painting at Temple University in Philadelphia, is spending two weeks at the museum creating this initial offering in a series of public installations showcasing the work of artists with deep Iowa ties. His assistants  Alan Prazniak, Conor Fields and Jenna Pirello  came to Iowa City to help with the installation.

Born in Enugu, Nigeria, in 1966, Odita was just 6 months old when his family fled their homeland at the start of the Biafran War.

His parents had studied at the UI before he was born, returned to Nigeria, then came back to Iowa City after he was born. Here, his father studied printmaking and his mother studied social research.

The couple finished their graduate work at Indiana University in Bloomington before settling in Columbus, Ohio, where Oditas father founded the African Art History Department at Ohio State University. Odita earned his bachelors of fine arts degree there in 1988, then completed his masters of fine arts degree at Bennington College in Vermont in 1990, majoring in painting and minoring in printmaking and drawing.

He was surrounded by art growing up, from the African art and his fathers paintings hanging on the walls, to books on the Renaissance and Picasso. Still, he gravitated toward drawing and comic books, and later fashion, with his earliest art-making memories reaching back to age 5. Hes been on an artistic journey ever since, combining education with his own work, exhibited at home and abroad.

Its surprising how much influence things around you put into you as youre growing, Odita said. So I think back on all of that stuff that I looked at, and its just interesting how it comes out.

Odita has returned to Iowa City several times over the years, and now is leaving his mark at the new museum for at least a few years, after which museum officials said the space might be reused to feature another artists work.

One of the challenges of having this beautiful space with so much glass and so many windows is that sunlight pours in, and thats not so good for pigment, Lessing said. Works that are made in color break down over a period of years. So we really cant bring work from our collection  not much of it out in this space.

But we want this to be an art-filled space. We want this to be a place where people know right away that were an art museum. And so that was a challenge that we decided to meet with works of public art. They will come and go over the years, and thats part of what will animate this space. After a few years, we might reuse that wall for another work.

The next piece in the Thresholds series wont displace Oditas mural, Lessing noted. Instead, it will be installed during the museums second year, in the Light Well  a soaring three-story space in the middle of the lobby that opens to the sky. The only detail revealed about the upcoming piece is that its intended to dissolve.

Its really experimental, so well see it change over the year that its installed. And it could look a lot of different ways, Lessing said. But one of the really wonderful things about being a university art museum is that we can experiment.

The new building is fantastic, Odita declared. Its typical of a lot of structures you see, you think maybe its just not that big. Then youre like, Oh, my God, its huge. 

The second floor houses the galleries, with cases for exhibiting specific collections, like ceramics, but also for storing some of the 20,000 pieces in the museums collection. The third floor houses classrooms and teaching spaces, as well as two outdoor terraces with sweeping views of downtown Iowa City.

Many of the second-floor walls can be moved into other configurations to best accommodate exhibitions. The galleries are open enough that they dont create a maze, but visitors will have to turn a corner to find Pollocks Mural. Thats intentional, Lessing said, creating a sense of surprise as you come in.

Having Mural return after being away since the 2008 flood goes beyond the visual impact for visitors, and into the teachable realm for students.

With this landmark work, created in 1943, Pollock really launched himself out into space and did something totally new, and I love that we have that moment of epiphany, that moment of innovation, because thats what we want to teach, Lessing said. We want to teach students to do that. To take risks, to innovate, to be creative, to trust themselves and to really step outside the comfort zone (and) step into the unknown.

We are kind of a portal that leads to the rest of the world  to the bigger world  and we hope that students come into this museum and really stretch themselves and leave all full of creative ideas.
PHOENIX (AP)  An 18-year-old Phoenix man who was driving a SUV involved in a head-on Arizona freeway collision that killed three people and reportedly involved human smuggling activity has been arrested, authorities said.

Kevin Avila was booked into the Pinal County jail on Friday on suspicion of first-degree murder, aggravated assault and endangerment in connection with the crash Thursday on Interstate 10, the state Department of Public Safety said.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The trial of a self-published romance writer accused of fatally shooting her chef husband has been paused temporarily because of a positive COVID-19 test.

Nancy Crampton Brophy was arrested in September 2018, facing a murder charge in the death of Daniel Brophy, 63.

KOIN-TV reported Friday that her trial, which began April 5, would be on hold until Monday, May 2. The prosecution rested its case Thursday.

Multnomah Circuit Court Public Information Analyst Rachel McCarthy said the court was notified that someone involved in the trial, who was in the courtroom, had tested positive for the disease.

Daniel Brophy was killed as he prepped for work at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Southwest Portland on June 2, 2018.

Nancy Crampton Brophy is a self-published romance writer who years before her husbands death penned an essay titled How to Murder Your Husband. Brophys death remained a mystery until his wifes arrest, and authorities have never publicly disclosed another suspect.

Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet has told jurors Crampton Brophy was motivated by greed and a $1.4 million insurance policy.

Lead defense attorney Lisa Maxfield has said Crampton Brophy and her finances both deteriorated after Brophys death, far from the prosecutions claim that she profited from ill-gotten gains.

She previously entered not guilty plea to the charge.
XIAMEN, April 23 (Xinhua) -- What is the first thing that pops into your mind when someone mentions a construction site: dusty air, the noise of heavy machinery, or the hard-working workers soaked with sweat?

A construction site in Xiamen City, east China's Fujian Province, was catapulted into the spotlight on World Book Day which falls on Saturday this year, thanks to its heart-warming move by building a library for its 200-plus workers.

The library is located in a container-type mobile room that is around 18 square meters. It was set up by China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the contractor for an airport project at the construction site, in early April to promote reading and bring knowledge and pleasure to construction workers.

More than 2,000 books in different categories including management and fiction are neatly placed on shelves. On the wall hangs a bulletin board that lists six rules for borrowing books. The room is also air-conditioned so the workers can read comfortably during hot summer days.

"I like reading all kinds of books ranging from non-fiction to romantic novels. The library has them all," said Li Chenghai, a migrant worker from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Compared with playing games on mobile phones or getting hooked on short video apps, Li prefers reading as books can help him remain calm and broaden his mind.

Li's view was echoed by his fellow worker Dong Xiuqun, who also hails from Sichuan. Dong is more interested in books on health, cooking and parenting.

"The work at the construction site is tiring. I want to learn something to keep myself healthy and inspire me in my daily life," she said. She has worked on many construction sites, but this is the only one with a library.

Yi Jingxing, a 45-year-old worker, frequents the library.

"I like philosophy books and martial arts novels. Whenever I am free after work, I come here and read books," said Yi who dreamed to be a martial arts hero when he was a kid.

China had more than 292 million rural migrant workers in cities in 2021, who have made tremendous contributions to the country's development.

The country has been promoting a reading culture among the public. In 2020, nearly 81.3 percent of adult Chinese had the habit of reading, whether in print, on mobile phones or other digital devices, a national reading survey showed.

In the following months, the number of migrant workers at the construction site in Xiamen will reach over 3,000 at its peak. The site will collect workers' opinions and buy more books for them.

"There is an old saying in Chinese: It's never too late to learn. Only by continuous learning can we enrich and improve ourselves," Yi said. 
A private American firm has purchased a strategic shipyard on a former U.S. navy base in the Philippines by the South China Sea, U.S. and Filipino officials said, ending speculation about possible Chinese investment in the project.

This week the Filipino envoy to the United States thanked American officials for their efforts towards the agreement with New York-based private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, saying that U.S. involvement in the shipyard at Subic Bay would enhance the security of the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

The completion of the Subic Bay shipyard will redound to benefits for the country, bring jobs to the local communities, increase economic activity, and at the same fortify our strategic security measures, Ambassador Jose Manuel G. Romualdez said during a diplomatic reception held Tuesday at the Philippine Embassy to celebrate the agreement and Manila-Washington relations, according to a statement from the embassy on Thursday.

Working with the United States on this project will help ensure that we are able to protect  interests not only for our country but the whole region, he added.

Ely Ratner, the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, said the acquisition was an important example of U.S.-Philippine public-private partnership.

Great to see the completion of the acquisition of Hanjin shipyard in Subic Bay by a U.S.-based firm, he tweeted Wednesday.

Neither Ratner nor Romualdez provided details about the agreement, although Reuters reported last month that Cerberus would acquire the shipyard for U.S. $300 million. On Friday, the investment firm did not immediately respond to a BenarNews call and email for comment.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the agreement with Cerberus was the biggest public-private partnership in the 75-year history of Philippine-U.S. relations.

Manila had been studying the prospect of offering the shipyard operations to players from the U.S., Australia, South Korea and Japan  countries that are all considered as allies by the Philippines  the defense chief Delfin Lorenzana had said in January 2019 after the shipyards then operator, South Koreas Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, filed for bankruptcy. It had defaulted on $1.3 billion in loans, according to Reuters.

But amid reports that a state-run Chinese company was among two mainland firms that had expressed interest in taking over the site of the former U.S. naval base, Lorenzana had said back then that he had had discussions with other top officials about taking over the shipyard lest it falls into the hands of the Chinese who could use it as a regional foothold amid contentious South China Sea claims.

Earlier in the week, the Philippine defense chief was in Washington where he met with Lloyd Austin, his U.S. counterpart, at the Pentagon to discuss ways to deepen cooperation under the alliance between the two countries.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, but its sweeping claims are disputed by other regional countries, including the Philippines. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled for the Philippines in its case against China regarding territorial claims, but Beijing refused to accept the ruling.

China continues to intrude into other claimant nations exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea and harass other countries when they are exploring resources in these waters. This week, Manila said it had decided to suspend all exploration activities within the disputed areas in South China Sea, under what an analyst described as coercion from China. The Filipinos call the disputed waterway the West Philippine Sea.

Washington had two of its largest overseas military installations, Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base, in the Philippines until the early 1990s. They were shut down after the Philippine Congress voted to end their lease at the end of the Cold War. After the U.S. forces vacated, both sites were transformed into free ports and investment zones.

Recently, Romualdez said that President Rodrigo Duterte was willing to allow American forces to use these bases and facilities if the crisis in Ukraine stemming from the Russian invasion spread to Asia, although Manila would not deploy troops in such a potential confrontation.
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JERUSALEM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday held a phone conversation with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the recent development of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the prime minister's office said.

Bennett told the UN chief that Israel is "the stabilizing force" in the conflicts. "If we did not uphold order, tens of thousands of Muslims would not be able to pray," a premier office's statement quoted him as saying.

His remarks came after weeks of tension in Jerusalem, where the Palestinians and the Israeli police clashed again at the holy site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Bennett also expressed his disappointment "at the absence of condemnation by the UN for the firing of rockets at Israel," said the statement.

Several rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza in the past week after months of quiet. In response, Israel announced the temporary closure of the sole pedestrian crossing from Gaza to Israel, though thousands of Gazans cross into Israel on a daily basis to make a living.

Last year, clashes at the holy site led to an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. 
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Business writer

Tony Dobrowolski's main focus is on business reporting. He came to The Eagle in 1992 after previously working for newspapers in Connecticut and Montreal. He can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224.
Jessica Thomas was relaxing at her home with her dog on Cherry Street on Friday when she smelled smoke and heard people shouting. The house next door, on Lincoln Street, was on fire.
Reporter

Greta Jochem, a Report for America Corps member, joined the Eagle in 2021. Previously, she was a reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She is also a member of the investigations team.
OTIS  A year ago, people who own property around Big Pond managed to persuade the town of Otis not to lease public land for a cell tower, keeping sunset views as theyve been for years.

The same neighborhood is mobilizing anew  and will be watching Saturday as a small balloon is floated to 146 feet on a privately owned tract about half a mile from the ponds west side.

People who came forward to oppose the 2021 tower project off Churchill Road arent waiting for that test flight, scheduled for 8 to 11 a.m., to rally.

The sentiment across the entire community is still the same, said Tim Massucco, an Otis property owner who joined with tower opponents in 2021. Youre going to impair 100 properties or more, and impact their real estate values.

The tower proposal goes to a public hearing before the Otis Zoning Board of Appeals at 7 p.m. May 2.

In a filing with the town, Vertex Towers LLC, of Wrentham, proposes to erect a monopine tower on about half an acre of raw land owned by Joseph A. and Yvette M. Pena, whose main residence is Woodbury, N.Y.

The company needs a special permit under Otis zoning rules. The tower would sit within a 60-by-60-foot fenced compound and hold telecommunications equipment for Verizon Wireless and at least three other companies, according to the application.

The property is southeast of where Route 23 (locally known as East Otis Road) meets the gravel Becket Road and a private way, Lion Hill Road.

Vertex argues in its application that the tower will serve the public, saying that cell phone service will promote and conserve the convenience and general welfare of the inhabitants of Otis. The tower will also improve communication among emergency responders, the company says, and lessen the danger from fire and natural disasters.

In achieving that, Vertex says, the tower will have no adverse impact on the Towns scenic and historic assets, safety, health, environment, general welfare, values and quality of life.

Massucco said the argument against a tower close to Big Pond remains the same as last year.

There still has to be a better option for a tower thats going to directly impact so many parcels of land, he said. Were not against having great technology and all that. It needs to be done in a more methodical way, and not impact so many parcels in a scenic area.

A report submitted with the Vertex application on behalf of Verizon Wireless says the tower is needed to fill in gaps in available cell coverage.

The towns zoning rules say that any wireless tower should not be placed on a ridgeline. Such structures should be located where their visual impact is the least detrimental to the general character of the community, or valuable historic and or scenic resources.

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Separately, Otis officials have been working to update the towns bylaws covering cell towers, in the wake of the decision last May, after four months of debate that often drew more than 100 people to Zoom sessions, to abandon a plan to lease town-owned land near Big Pond for a 180-foot tower.

The debate spurred one resident, Larry Pace, to observe this after a videoconference: You can literally cut the anxiety with a knife.

Last November, residents rejected a version of the bylaw update at a special town meeting.

We still had a few things that werent clear enough and didnt want to push it at that point, Brandi Page, the Otis town administrator, said this week.

On April 12, members of the Select Board reviewed a new draft of a bylaw update and referred it to the Planning Board, Page said.

Massucco believes the application was filed now to take advantage of a relatively looser policy.

Theres more wiggle room now than there will be in the future, he said.

Nonetheless, he said the network that came together to oppose the Churchill Road project is reforming.

Everything that we had in place didnt go away. Our communications have ramped up again to make sure that people are paying attention and voicing their concerns, Massucco said.

The new application says that along with Verizon, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and DISH Networks are expected to place equipment on the tower at heights of 105 feet, 115 feet, 125 feet and 135 feet  above the tree line. The location already is high ground: 1,519 feet above sea level, according to the application.

Otis bylaws prefer that towers be camouflaged. The Vertex tower would have green branches in an attempt to resemble a tree.

In the event of bad weather, or high winds, the Saturday balloon test will be moved to Sunday. To check on the status of the test, visit plapc.com.

The May 2 public hearing will be held virtually. The town says it will post a link to the session closer to the date.

The Penas bought the 35-acre property in December 2000 from William L. Hurst Jr. of Connecticut for $49,000. To get to the proposed tower, Vertex would construct a driveway off Route 23, its application says.
Ralph Gardner Jr.: West Coast swing to visit friends was on the cheap, but rich with experiences
Andrea Harrington owes Cassandra Barlow-Tucker and Matthew Tucker a sincere apology. If the past is prologue for the future, the Tuckers should not expect anything from the Berkshire District Attorney.

Judge faults Berkshire DA's handling of case involving foster child's death and dismisses charges against Adams couple In a ruling sharply critical of the Berkshire District Attorney's office, a judge this week dismissed an involuntary manslaughter case brought against Adams foster parents. "This is not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings," Judge John Agostini wrote.

In October 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families placed Kristoff Zenopolous as a foster child in the Tucker home. He was 6 months old, having been born with cocaine and methadone in his system. Sadly, the infant died in his sleep Feb. 18, 2020. A year later, the Tuckers were charged with involuntary manslaughter, allegedly responsible for the death. After the Tuckers arraignment in Berkshire Superior Court, District Attorney Harrington held a press conference claiming the Tuckers failed to provide basic medical care, which caused his death. She proclaimed that her office was seeking justice for Kristoff.

While Harrington stood before a bank of microphones, Matthew Tuckers attorney called charging the Tuckers with manslaughter appalling scapegoating and hoped that when they are vindicated there will be an apology from the District Attorneys Office for what the family had to go through.

Two weeks ago, the Superior Court dismissed the indictments against the Tuckers, finding that the District Attorneys Office failed to present sufficient evidence to show the grand jury there was probable cause that either of them committed a crime. The court also said that the District Attorneys office improperly presented evidence that invited the grand jury to hand up indictments not because of anything they did but inferred the Tuckers were despicably neglectful and greedy people. Judge John Agostini wrote a thoughtful, well-reasoned 17-page decision that concluded with the stinging comment that the district attorneys presentation was not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings.

Unlike a trial, a judge is not present during grand jury proceedings, and the person being charged  the target  is only there if, and when, he or she chooses to testify. Grand jury proceedings are managed by the district attorney, although grand jurors can pose questions to witnesses and can ask that named individuals be called to testify. The prosecution can present whatever evidence and ask any questions it wishes, and then explains to the grand jury what constitutes a crime. The prosecutor asks the grand jury to find from the evidence presented there is probable cause that a particular person has committed a specific crime or crimes. This process gives prosecutors immense discretion and control over grand jury proceedings.

Probable cause is a low standard of proof. It is said to be enough evidence to warrant a prudent person to believe the defendant committed the offense charged. As such, it is rare that motions to dismiss indictments are granted as they were in this case. Once someone is indicted, the prosecutor must prove the defendants guilt to a trial jury beyond a reasonable doubt  a very high standard.

Adams couple charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with death of child PITTSFIELD  An Adams couple has been indicted on charges including involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of their 10-month-ol

Judge Agostinis decision explains that the district attorney had to show the grand jury that Kristoffs death was a result of the Tuckers wanton or reckless conduct. This means that the Tuckers should have known that the home treatment they were giving Kristoff was insufficient and he was in urgent need of a doctors care.

The medical examiner testified that Kristoff died from complications of strep throat and pneumonia, but she was unable to say whether Kristoffs symptoms would have been apparent to a parent. She added that those symptoms tended to wax and wane, making it more difficult for any parent to understand their gravity. A doctor who treated Kristoff for respiratory problems two months before he died told the grand jury that Kristoffs condition required him to have been taken to the emergency room the day before he died, but that doctor did not say that the Tuckers knew or should have known this.

The medical evidence surrounding Kristoffs death may not have been enough for the grand jury to return the indictments being sought, because the prosecutor recalled state police Sgt. Ryan Dickinson to testify a second time. This is when the improper, prejudicial statements were made. This testimony included information about how much the Tuckers were being paid by DCF to care for Kristoff, an allegation that they wrongfully accepted payments after Kristoffs death, and an explanation that the Tuckers continue to receive payments from DCF for two other children they fostered who were eventually adopted, despite the fact that this is both legal and common. The prosecutor then presented the grand jury with 70 pages of Ms. Tuckers blog that discussed the trials and tribulations of foster parenting written years before the Tuckers were asked to foster Kristoff.

Judge Agostini found that the blog posts served no purpose except to portray the Tuckers to the grand jury in a very negative light. A hallmark of our justice system is that we punish people for what they have done, not who they are. It appears that District Attorney Harringtons office was so eager to obtain indictments against the Tuckers that they abused the power and prerogatives given to prosecutors in grand jury proceedings.

Overreaching to obtain indictments is a dangerous abuse of discretion, but doing so in a case that tries to hold a foster parent criminally responsible for a childs death is truly reprehensible. Decency requires District Attorney Harrington to offer the Tuckers a sincere apology, and she also owes answers to the entire community as to her priorities. News of the Tuckers treatment could produce a chilling effect for DCFs ongoing attempts to recruit and retain much-needed foster parents.

On at least two previous occasions, this page has urged District Attorney Harrington to focus on her job. She seems more disposed to make pronouncements as a putative local minister of justice than to do the necessary hard work of being the countys chief prosecutor.

She could begin by trying to square things with the Tuckers with a sincere apology.
BANGKOK, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Numerous kite enthusiasts and visitors gathered on Saturday at Cha-am Beach in Thailand's southern Phetchaburi province to enjoy the annual international kite festival.

Kicking off on Friday, the 3-day event is organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand in the hope of boosting the local economy and attracting more tourists.

Dozens of kites of all shapes and sizes fluttered above the sand, among which the biggest highlights were a large goldfish-shaped and a horseshoe crab-shaped kite, the latter handmade by a Vietnamese kite team.

Hundreds of local and foreign visitors, who were busy taking photos with these colorful giant kites, were also interested in a series of related activities including a kite DIY corner, family kite zone and a kite market.

Soontaree Chautagon, a local resident living in Bangkok, told Xinhua this festival was worth a two-hour drive. It was the first time she had brought her two children to the event.

"They both love flying kites," she said while helping her daughter untie her kite string. 
I am (if nothing else) a curious person.

Sometimes that gets me in trouble. Like when I decided to find out what would happen if I jumped over a college balcony. I discoveredtoo lateit was almost two stories high. (Yeah, I impressed the girlbut I also limped around campus for a week!)

Other times, my curious nature is an unexpected blessing. Take today for instance: I was trying to remember a certain Scripture, couldnt get it right, and suddenly wondered, What if I could never again open my Bible? What would I do then?

Ive known some rare folk whove memorized entire books of Scripture. I also know thats not me. But:

What if I tried to memorize just one key thought from each of the 66 books of the Bible?

What would those 66 verses be?

That made me curious. So, here are 66 key verses that may help you remember the story, message, or meaning inherent in each of the 66 Bible books.

I hope these 66 key verses serve as a helpfuland hopefulreference for you, too.
Gods Path Is a Greater Calling

Gideon lived during a time of terrible oppression for the people of Israel. He found his identity between a rock and a hard place. So did everyone else at the time. Their entire culture was defined by this oppression and so as individuals, the oppression bled into their personal identities as well. The writer of Judges describes it this way:

So they (the Midianites teamed up with the Amalekites) would camp against them (the Israelites) and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey (Judges 6:4, parenthetical names added).

In the midst of this severe survival-mode season of seven years, God meets with Gideon.

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, 'The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior. Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. The LORD looked at him and said, 'Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? He said to Him, O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my fathers house. But the LORD said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man. So Gideon said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You. And He said, 'I will remain until you return (Judges 6:11-18).

Gideon was shocked, not only by the sudden appearance of an angel, but also shocked by the angel calling him valiant. Couldnt the angel clearly see he was anything but a valiant warrior? He was a scared farmer! Or at least that was all Gideon knew of himself.

We can be much like Gideon; thinking we are carving out a corner of personal freedom for ourselves, but entirely missing a much larger calling that would bring true freedom to us and, as in Gideons case, others as well. Gideon went on to tear down his familys idols and then lead the people of Israel to fight and win back their freedom, both spiritually and politically.

But the takeaway from Gideon, wasnt that he became whatever he wanted to be. In fact, Im pretty sure he just wanted to remain a little-known farmer. He found freedom when he became what God called him to become.

Photo credit: Getty Images/cineuno
BOISE - To celebrate Arbor Day, the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) has partnered with the Idaho Forest Products Commission (IFPC) to provide free seedlings to the people of Idaho. On April 29, every IDL office throughout the state will offer seedlings on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Last year, the IDL planted nearly 2 million seedlings after harvests and fires. For every tree harvested, seven seedlings are planted in its place. This year efforts are underway to plant 2.4 million seedings on endowment forests.

Not only are the seedlings available at IDL offices, but the IFPC is also providing thousands of seedlings at businesses and organizations throughout the state.

In Lewiston, free seedlings will be available at Home Depot (2425 Thain Grade) and the Lewiston City Library (411 D Street).

Locations for the free seedings can be found at the IFPC website.
COLOMBO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka is looking for investors that can bring in more than 2 billion U.S. dollars into the central bank, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said on Friday in an address to the press from Washington via video link.

Sabry said that the next few months will be difficult for Sri Lankans. "There is a need to attract investments in U.S. dollars into Sri Lanka's central bank."

The minister said that the government is talking with several countries to get funds as soon as possible.

"If that effort is successful and money comes to the central bank, it will help stop the depreciation and stabilize the rupee," he said.

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 International Monetary Fund. 
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MECOSTA, NEWAYGO COUNTY  Construction on Michigans Dragon Trail at Hardy Dam is ramping up for the 2022 season, adding a projected 14 miles to the previously constructed 22 miles completed since breaking ground in late 2019, according to a joint news release from Newaygo County Parks and Recreation commission and the Mecosta County Park commission.

Trail builders with Spectrum Trail Design LLC and Dragon Trail project officials kicked off the 2022 trail construction season Friday, April 15. Construction plans for this year include an estimated 7.6-mile stretch from Newaygo State Park, continuing north, completing segments 3 and 4, and connecting to Brower Park.

The new trail segments will feature bridges, raised wooden tread, and cross-country-style trail tread.

Once the Newaygo State Park and Brower Park connection is complete, construction crews will move across the pond where the construction left off during the 2021 season, beginning in Segment 7 and working south to complete the remaining portions of the trail in Mecosta County and continuing into Newaygo County. The 2022 construction will continue and eventually connect with the Segment 8 trailhead at Big Bend Township Park.

The construction of Segment 7 will continue in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2023. Segment 7, the largest segment of the trail system, will stretch 11-plus miles once completed.

Newaygo County procured a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to fund a portion of this work.

Mecosta County Parks have recently added a new parking area within Brower Park, specifically developed for Dragon Trail users and will allow for easy access to the new portions of the trail that will be built this season. Newaygo State Park will also feature an official trailhead.

It will truly be a large accomplishment to complete the final miles of trail construction in Mecosta County this year, Mecosta County Parks superintenden Jeff Abel said.

The Dragon Trail already sees many visitors, including mountain bikers, hikers, trail runners, and more, the news release said.

With a very eager group of trail users, project officials ask that visitors plan to use the existing segments until the new areas of the trail are officially open.

Please dont go looking for the new trail or riding/walking up near the trail builders. Work crews must stop working when you show up, said Martin Hall, volunteer coordinator with the West Michigan Mountain Biking Alliance. We will let you know when there is something new to ride/hike. Please be patient; trail building is a long and arduous process.

Trail visitors also will see several trailhead kiosks at the new trailhead locations. These new kiosks were built and generously donated to the Dragon Trail Project by DML Construction, a local construction company out of Fremont, the news release said.

It is truly wonderful for DML Construction to donate to this project, showing their commitment to our local community. It is wonderful to see this kind of community support for the Dragon Trail, Newaygo County Parks and Recreation director Nick Smith said.

Once complete, the Dragon Trail will be made up of 11 segments forming a complete 40-plus mile loop around Hardy Pond, traversing through both Mecosta and Newaygo counties, the news release said.

Of the 22 miles already open to the public, 12-plus miles are in Newaygo County, starting at Hardy Dam and ending in Big Bend Township Park, and 8-plus miles of trail are already open in Mecosta County, starting at Brower Park loop on segment four and ending with the newest construction, Segment 7.

For updates on construction and new trail openings, follow the Michigans Dragon at Hardy Dam Facebook page or visit thedragon.us.
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LOS ANGELES (AP)  U.S. officials have repatriated 16 cultural items to the Peruvian government, including paintings, historical documents and stone axes.

The FBI returned the items to representatives of Peru at a ceremony Friday in Los Angeles.

These objects and the heritage they carry with them took an opaque journey into the United States and now have a clear path of return to Peru through proper diplomatic channels," Kristi K. Johnson, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in a statement.

The objects include historical documents, a 17th century painting stolen from a Peruvian church in 1992 and a painting stolen from a different church in 2002 that was hand-carried into the United States by an art dealer, sold to an art gallerist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and later sold in 2016 to a buyer in California, the statement said.

These artifacts were voluntarily surrendered to the FBI, the statement said.

In these instances, the people who bought these objects did the right thing. Once they realized they were stolen, they agreed to forfeit them, said Liz Rivas, a special agent with the FBI's art crimes team.

For example, the person who had the historical documents said they were purchased as souvenirs in Peru and they were reselling them online to make money during the coronavirus pandemic, Rivas said. She said the person didn't know they were stolen, and in this case, the documents didn't meet the minimum value for a criminal case.

The last four objects were stone axes seized in Indianapolis in 2014 from the collection of amateur archaeologist Donald Miller. Thousands of artifacts were taken from Miller's home and returned to dozens of countries spanning from China to Papua New Guinea.

Authorities encourage art and artifact buyers to review the FBIs stolen art file before making a purchase to find out if the items were reported as stolen.

__

This version of the story has been updated to correct the year that stone axes were seized from the collection of amateur archaeologist Donald Miller in Indianapolis. The year was 2014, not 2004.
REED CITY  Reed City Area Public Schools recently honored a former graduate and Veteran with the districts Distinguished Alumnus Award.

James George, a 1963 Reed City High School graduate, was Salutatorian of his class. During his high school career, he played football, was on the track team, and worked as a carrier for The Grand Rapids Press.

As an Eagle Scout he earned the God and Country Award and received a competitive nomination to the United States Air Force Academy.

Finishing in the top quarter of his class of 1967, George attended USAF pilot training after graduating; he finished there in the top 10 percent of his class.

George said he is thankful to have grown up in a small close-knit town.

I think as I look back on the careers that I've had and on my life from this vantage point, I think I was just fortunate in so many ways, George said. I had great grandparents, great neighbors and friends, some really good and caring teachers at Reed City. At the time though, I didn't really appreciate it as much as I could have. It was actually a blessing to grow up in a small town in West Michigan, be it Big Rapids, Reed City, or any of the little areas that surrounded it. I think that was a big factor in my life.

Boy Scouts was another really big factor in terms of building character," he added. "The great volunteers that we had, in addition to my dad that we had a Scoutmaster that volunteered for so many years. Some of the neighbors and friends who participated in that helped shape a lot of us. Early development in the areas of character integrity, work ethic, respect for others, those that have been influential factors in my life.

As a first lieutenant flying in combat, he flew over 200 combat missions and 700 combat hours and was highly decorated, being awarded the Silver Star and six Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Among his many Air Force accomplishments, he was the commander of an F-16 Fighter Squadron, and he served in the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management.

'VERY HUMBLED'

Now residing in Peachtree, Georgia, George has traveled extensively and said his time at RCAPS was influential in his later life.

All the way through from elementary school on up some of my high school teachers were great, George said. Lauren Kilmer was the chemistry and physics teacher, and an English teacher by the name of Dorothy Wolfinger, who was somebody you didn't want to cross, she came across as harsh but she taught us a lot.

"Of course, my dad was a teacher there for 40 years, and I learned a lot from him also," he added. "He was a big factor in trying to do what we would call vocational education. He taught classes in architectural drafting and metalworking, repairing small engines, and a whole variety of different things that that I think gave some of the kids ideas about where to go. He helped some of them get jobs and some of the local manufacturing businesses that were there. That was important to me to see his approach and to recognize that a lot of people are smart in different ways.

Following service in the Air Force, George was chosen as one of the first retired military pilots to fly for Delta Air Lines. He flew over 17 years without an accident or incident, retiring as a Boeing 767 captain based in Los Angeles.

While George is predominantly retired, he continues to offer investment guidance and financial advice as a Financial Consultant Emeritus.

Upon receiving word that he had been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, George said he was honored by the surprise.

I was very humbled by being nominated, and then being chosen for that award, George said. I'm sure there are a lot of other deserving individuals. It was very meaningful.

I came back (to Reed City) regularly while my parents were alive and visited the town and kept up with some of my classmates, he added. That's declined a bit over the years as we've all gotten older and, and lost a number of her classmates.

While serving in Vietnam, George lost three fellow classmates in combat. He said commemorating their lives at the school in some way is a hope of his.

They were shortly out of out of high school, in their early 20s, George said. I served there, of course, and as you've seen, could very easily have been the fourth. It was a big, big price that Reed City paid. The Vietnam War was not a very popular war, and a lot of people thought it was a mistake. Those of us who were there, doing what we saw as our duty and fighting for our country, saw it completely differently.

Its a little chapter in Reed City's history that is not well known, he added. "I had talked with folks in the city about trying to do something. They have a memorial trail and things like that, but I would like to do something to honor my three classmates that were killed in Vietnam and gave their lives prematurely serving the country. I hope that it could be some form of inspiration to the kids at Reed City, and at least be a memory that doesn't get lost over time.

George will be a keynote speaker at the class of 2022s graduation ceremony May 15. He is in the process of planning out his speech, which he hopes will have some inspiration for the students as they move on with the rest of their lives.
Five significant MoUs were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Creating a history, Indias first Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit (GAIIS) 2022 held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat witnessed letters of intent (LoIs) worth more than Rs 9000 crore in major categories like FMCG, Medical Value Travel (Heal in India), Pharma, Technology & Diagnostic and Farmers & Agriculture.

The assurances of investment include more than Rs. 7000 crore from FMCG, around Rs 1000 crore from Medical Value Travel (MVT), around Rs 345 Crores from Pharma sector, Rs 300 crore for Farmers & Agri category and around Rs 60 crore in the Technology & Diagnostic category.

A total of 12 MoUs were signed between the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush and various prestigious research institutes in the country. The institutes include IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, ICMR NITM, AIIMS, CSIR, NIPER, NIMHANS, JNU, ICGB, AVP, TDU.

One among international MoUs signed was between the Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV), Ministry of Ayush and Fundacion de Salud Ayurveda prema (Ayurveda Prema Health Foundation), Argentina in the field of the establishment of an academia collaboration in Ayurveda.

Another, tripartite MoU was signed between All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil & Brazilian Academic Consortium for Integrative Health (CABSIN), Brazil on the establishment of academic collaboration in Ayurveda. This will promote collaborations on research, advocating safety in the use of Ayurveda in Brazil.

An MoU was also signed between All Indian Institute of Ayurveda, Ministry of Ayush and University Health Network, Toronto (UHN), Canada to explore fellowship and graduate student training and mutual collaborations for training of medical doctors and allied health professionals etc.
The product range comprises Resurfacing Micro Polish, Illuminating Serum, and Gel Cream

Neutrogena, owned by parent company Johnson & Johnson, has launched its new range, Neutrogena Bright Boost for Indian consumers, to address the increasing problem of skin dullness.

For the first time, Neutrogena has formulated a range to meet the unique skin brightening needs of Indian women. This customized formulation boosts the surface skin cell renewal process by 10 times, helping achieve smoother, brighter, and more-even skin tone in just a week.

With the Bright Boost range, Neutrogena aims to help women achieve a radiant, more-even skin tone.

The three key products in the new range- Resurfacing Micro Polish, Illuminating Serum, and Gel Cream, effectively address dullness and pigmentation. These products are powered by the revolutionary dermatologist-preferred ingredient, Neoglucosamine that has been developed in-house.

The launch of the Bright Boost range will be supported by a 360-degree digital-first outreach programme across platforms and further amplified through a digital film that introduces the Bright Boost range and the revolutionary dermatologist-preferred ingredient Neoglucosamine.
American opposition to Smart Cities and all the costs, risks and privacy violations associated with them has ongoing for years (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Nevertheless, proponents are still convincing American communities to officially become Smart. Additionally, legislators are helping to fund Smart Cities with hundreds of millions in federal grants. The U.S. Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is also assisting local leaders in their Smart City efforts as well. U.S. Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg is a huge proponent of Smart Cities too. Of course, many communities that dont officially call themselves Smart Cities have still been installing expensive, hazardous, and data collecting Smart City technologies including utility Smart meters (electric, gas, and water), Smart streetlights, etc. Obviously, theres A LOT of money needed to purchase and deploy all this technology. Recently the New Orleans City Council started a formal investigation into some of the city employees involved in its Smart City technology contract.

From Gov Tech:

New Orleans Council Opens Probe Into Smart Cities Contract

Its a formal investigation into the City Hall employees involved in the controversial technology contract, as one city IT staffer defended ties he had with a winning bidder through an outside company he cofounded.

Matt Sledge, The Times-Picayune

(TNS)  The New Orleans City Council on Thursday opened a formal investigation into the City Hall employees involved in the controversial smart city technology contract, as one city IT staffer defended ties he had with a winning bidder through an outside company he cofounded.

Council members voted unanimously to begin the probe, which under the City Charter will let them issue subpoenas and take testimony under oath. The investigation will focus on the bidding process for a pending contract with a private consortium, known as Smart+Connected NOLA, that includes San Diego telecom giant Qualcomm and a firm cofounded by Earvin Magic Johnson.

In recent days, documents and other information surfaced showing that Jonathan Rhodes, a senior staffer for Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and Christopher Wolff, a City Hall IT staffer, advised Qualcomm on a project in Los Angeles weeks after they traded emails with Qualcomm employees on their city accounts about New Orleans technology needs. Rhodes also set up a meeting with Qualcomm officials and Cantrell before the bid process launched.

The Cantrell administration acknowledged Wednesday that a company the two City Hall employees cofounded known as Verge Internet had aided Qualcomm on a Los Angeles smart city program, though the administration said they were working for free.

Council President Helena Moreno said Thursday she was worried about ties between the winning companies and a consulting firm that aided the city as it was crafting the smart city solicitation, which has yet to result in a formal contract. She noted she was especially concerned about the revelations concerning Verge Internet.

It is a very unfortunate day that we are in, that we even have to proceed in this manner, said Moreno. She added that new information unfortunately gave us no other course of action but to move down this route.

The formal investigation came days after Moreno announced plans to grill Rhodes at an April 27 hearing. On Thursday, Moreno said she will invite the citys inspector general to the hearing.

The Mayors Office rejects the idea that Verge Internet was a conflict of interest and said Thursday that it welcomed the councils attention.

We welcome any opportunity to speak with the City Council and the public, especially as it relates to the Citys efforts to bridge the digital divide, said Beau Tidwell, a city spokesman.

On the verge

The smart city project is aimed at creating a new city-controlled broadband network and bringing WiFi to underserved neighborhoods. But council members have criticized the plan for lacking specifics.

As the backlash to the smart city plan has intensified, new details have emerged about a hitherto obscure Delaware corporation called Verge Internet.

Verge Internet was established in Delaware in August 2020, according to incorporation papers in a public database. The company listed as its chief executive officer Wolff, an employee for years of the city information technology department. On his LinkedIn page, Rhodes says he was cofounder.

Yet while the companys website makes bold statements about how it is disrupting the broadband industry to connect people and improve lives, in an interview Thursday, Wolff said that the website was a blog.

The company, he said, was a hobby and a fantasy.

We got together one night over a couple of beers and said, hey, lets solve the digital divide, and drew up a website and a corporation. Thats Verge Internet, Wolff said when reached by phone. Verge Internet has never paid a check, it has never received a dime. It has just been sitting there for the last three years, almost.

Big picture advice for Qualcomm

On at least one occasion, Wolff acknowledged, Verge Internet did do something. According to a statement from the city, the company in February and March 2021 provided to Qualcomm pro bono assistance developing strategies for digital equity and public WiFi networks.

Wolff said that assistance involved maybe a couple meetings over a couple weeks on big picture ideas. Rhodes did not respond to a request for comment.

The dates provided by the city mean that Rhodes and Wolff were interacting with Qualcomm through their outside gig just weeks before the smart city solicitation was issued in April 2021.

With a market capitalization of $153 billion, Qualcomm is one of the largest companies in the U.S. and has sought to establish itself as a player in the emerging smart city sector. Wolff, an information technology specialist who said hes founded several tech companies, said the company sought his advice as a WiFi expert.

Wolff compared his advice to the company to the help he gives people who have printer trouble.

I know this is not exciting stuff for you, because you want to find out, how many hours of the day did you give to Qualcomm?,' said Wolff. I give technical assistance all day to all sorts of different people, because Im a geek.

Qualcomm did not respond to a request for comment.

A Magic proposal

In addition to Verges outside aid to Qualcomm, Wolff and Rhodes played integral roles in crafting and awarding the winning smart city bid to Qualcomm and JLC Infrastructure, the firm cofounded by Johnson, according to documents obtained by Moreno under subpoena.

Rhodes helped write the request for proposals as director of the Mayors Office of Utilities. Wolff was a technical expert on the selection committee, and he gave Qualcomms consortium a final score of 84 compared to 47 for the company that placed second overall, Cox.

Wolff said there was no conflict between Verge Interents advice to the company and the mens role in the procurement process because Qualcomm never paid them. The city has sided with Wolff and Rhodes on that point.

 Mr. Rhodes was one of several involved in drafting the RFP, and Mr. Wolff was one of several on the selection committee. They believe their pro bono work did not present any ethical conflict, said Tidwell.

Wolff said that he gave a high score to the winning consortium for a simple reason: because it promised to deploy smart city technology at no upfront cost.

While the city has defended the mens relationship with Qualcomm, it was apparently in the dark about that tie during the solicitation. Wolff said he never sought approval to start the company, and in its statement Thursday, the city said that the men did not disclose their relationship with Qualcomm.

Because there were no conflicts and no formal relationship, there was nothing to disclose, said Tidwell.

At one point, Verge Internet at least entertained visions of attracting millions of dollars in capital, according to a slide deck first reported by the Lens and independently obtained by The Times-Picayune. In the investment pitch, the company says that it had had $250,000 committed toward a total $5 million seed round investment goal and had started taking pre-orders.

In Wolffs telling, that was nothing more than puffery.

There is no angel investment. That was all very forward-looking, said Wolff. There has been absolutely no money, and please make a note of this. There is no money coming into Verge. There is no money coming into me. There is no nothing.

Tidwell said the presentation doesnt constitute an after-hours job. No money was paid to any city employees, he said.

Smaller plan in doubt

As new information became public about the bidding process for the smart city contract, the Cantrell administration has backed down from its initial plan for a 15-year contract that would require City Council approval to a 1-year plan that would not.

However, the city has yet to finalize the 1-year plan, and Wolff lamented the possibility that it might never come to fruition and expand internet access in the city.

I dont know if its going to go anywhere. Its sad, he said. Its taken five years to get here.

Mayors Office put on notice

District A Council member Joe Giarrusso, who voted for the investigation resolution sponsored by Moreno, said that as the probe proceeds, it will take a close look at Verge Internet to make sure that there isnt anything that is amiss.

Separate from Morenos investigative resolution, Council Vice President JP Morrell sponsored another measure warning the Mayors Office against trying to sign any kind of contract with the winning vendors without council approval.

That resolution invokes the City Councils power over franchise agreements with utilities. Morrell described it as putting the Mayors Office on notice.

All of the councils members voted for both resolutions with the exception of District C member Freddie King III and District E member Oliver Thomas, who were absent for the votes.

Morrell has often tangled with Cantrell administration officials during his nearly five months on the council, but on Thursday said he did not relish his vote for the investigation.

This is not a good thing. This is not a good day. We are not happy about having to take these actions, he said.

 2022 The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Opposition to Smart Cities and other Smart technology is worldwide.

Activist Post reports regularly about Smart Cities, Smart Meters, and unsafe technology. For more information, visit our archives and the following websites:

Physicians for Safe Technology
The task of every COVID-19 origin theory is to explain a human outbreak in Wuhan, China, when the closest wild relatives of SARS-CoV-2 are located far away, 1700 km to the South West.

In public, virologists have tended to say that the proximity of the outbreak to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which uniquely specialises in collecting, studying, and enhancing, SARS-related coronaviruses, is a coincidence. Instead, they point to the nearby Huanan seafood market as the probable spillover site, even though it is similar to thousands of others in China.

A Huanan market origin has officially been dismissed by the authorities in China. Nevertheless, on February 25th a preprint authored by George Gao, head of Chinas CDC, and 38 other Chinese virologists appeared that seems intended to settle the issue (Gao et al., 2022).

The Gao article concludes, based on several lines of evidence, including a lack of correlation between positive virus samples and stalls that sold animals, that the Huanan market was simply an amplifying event. These authors do not specify how they thought the virus did first emerge, except to note that virus samples reported from other countries predate their Huanan market sampling by several months. This conclusion is in line with Chinese government statements that SARS-CoV-2 came from outside China.

Just sixteen hours later, on February 26th, two preprints appeared simultaneously that directly contradict the Gao conclusions. The senior authors of these companion articles are an overlapping set of very high-profile virologists. None are from China.

One of these preprints asserts, based on surface swabs and other environmental samples found there, that the Huanan market was the unambiguous epicenter of the pandemic (Worobey et al., 2022). The second argues that SARS-CoV-2 emerged at least twice at the market (Pekar et al., 2022). According to these latter authors, one zoonotic spillover created what are known as the lineage A SARS-CoV-2 viruses and a second spillover was the root of all lineage B SARS-CoV-2 viruses. These two spillovers, they say, decisively contradict a lab leak.

Many SARS-CoV-2 genomes found early in the outbreak are intermediate in sequence between the A and B lineages. These intermediates have previously been assumed to indicate a single spillover with one lineage evolving into the other (Morel et al., 2021; Pipes et al., 2021). Pekar et al. propose instead that such intermediates are all either artifactual (mostly sequencing errors) or are otherwise irrelevant to the origin. Both papers are coy, however, about what type of animal was involved in their theorised spillovers.

These conflicting conclusions set up an interesting dynamic. Clearly, Chinese virologists do not support the market hypothesis. On the other hand, the senior authors of Pekar et al. and Worobey et al. are prominent Western virologists. Many, like Kristian Andersen, Robert Garry, Ed Holmes, and Andrew Rambaut, are vocal public supporters of a zoonotic origin, and very close to Anthony Fauci the director of NIAID.

One aspect of this dynamic is the East/West split. Clearly, the two factions are not co-operating. The other is a difference of approach. The Chinese researchers assert what they think did not happen. In contrast, by formulating an explicit hypothesis (except for the host animal), the Western virologists have staked their credibility on a specific theory. The former approach is low risk; the latter is high risk since any specific theory is potentially vulnerable if new evidence were to come forward that disproves it (as proven earlier cases would); but the reward has been ample media attention of the The Lab Leak is Dead type.

A significant feature of this episode is the close timing of the three papers. If more evidence was needed of non-cooperation, it seems obvious that the Worobey/Pekar preprints were an ambush. Their appearance was precisely timed to spike the headlines that the China CDC paper would likely have generated by ruling out a market origin.

Do Pekar and Worobey make their case?

Especially if one includes the new Gao et al. evidence, there are already powerful reasons to doubt both the market-zoonotic origin and a dual-spillover. These reasons are largely glossed over by the Pekar and Worobey preprints so they are worth outlining briefly:

1) The market samples were probably taken late in the Wuhan outbreak.

The first reason, and the simplest, is that the market samples were taken between Jan 1st and March 30th, 2020. Yet plentiful evidence, such as contemporaneous newspaper reports of an outbreak in Wuhan, implies that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating widely in Wuhan and beyond by January 1st. Such evidence makes it difficult to agree that the market samples, so hotly discussed, have any special relevance to the source of the pandemic virus itself.

For example, according to the WHO COVID origin investigation, there were 174 COVID-19 hospitalisations in Wuhan by December 31st 2019. Given the normal delay between infection and hospitalisation and the significant rate at which COVID-19 gives asymptomatic and mild cases, these hospitalisations likely represented only the tip of a large infectious outbreak in December.

Indeed, Ian Lipkin, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, told an interviewer he knew of an outbreak in Wuhan by December 15th, 2019. Lipkin has subsequently confirmed this statement. And in spring 2020, Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, Marjorie Pollack, an epidemiologist who runs ProMED, and Public Health Professor Lawrence Gostin made similar statements to the LA Times. Further back still, according to ABC News, US security agencies were tracking a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan in November.

Early wide spread of the virus in Wuhan is evidenced too by a detailed case study of a family from Guangdong who visited Wuhan between December 29th and January 4th, 2020. Five from a total of six family members contracted COVID-19 while in Wuhan, without them having visited any markets (Chan et al., 2020). Further afield, a significant body of genome sequence and antibody evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was in Europe and other countries in the fall of 2019, well before the Huanan market samples were taken (reviewed in Canuti et al., 2022).

If there were thousands of cases in the city of Wuhan by Jan 1st when the market was closed and 10,000 people per day usually visited it, how do samples taken then (or later) constitute credible evidence for a market origin? Quite likely, vendors and others at the market found to have COVID-19 infections were just typical for Wuhan in December 2019 (Courtier-Orgogoz and de Assis, 2022). Typical or not, the market samples were collected too late to distinguish a market origin from any other origin in or near Wuhan.

2) Environmental samples collected at the market are of human origin and did not come from animals sold there.

The aim of the Chinese CDC paper was to analyse the environmental samples (swabs from surfaces etc.) that they took in and around the Huanan market after Jan 1st, 2020 (Gao et al., 2022). They concluded that the market was only an amplifying event, in part because SARS-CoV-2-positive samples were associated with stalls belonging to multiple types of vendors, including those not selling animals (the Worobey preprint argues there is a correlation). More compelling, the CDC authors found that the samples collected from the market, which Pekar and Worobey claim are from infected animals, are admixed only with human genetic material and not with genetic material from raccoon dogs or other species potentially sold at the market. The only reasonable inference is that these positive samples did not derive from the faeces or urine or exhalations of a live non-human animal. Few results would better indicate that virus-positive market samples derive from infected humans as opposed to other species.

3) Pekar and Worobey rely on circular reasoning to identify root viruses.

The 2022 Pekar et al. preprint adapts the findings of a previous publication (Pekar et al., 2021) to generate the novel hypothesis of a split phylogeny that traces SARS-CoV-2 back to two independent spillovers, both occurring in the Huanan market. These two spillovers, they claim, are represented today by what are known as lineage A and lineage B viruses, which differ by only two mutations. However, the phylogenetic methods used for building evolutionary trees and thus identifying the root virus in both Pekar papers are highly problematic because they are vulnerable to uneven and biased sampling and unusual genetic phenomena, such as superspreading events (Liu et al., 2020). One key bias relevant here is that, for many early COVID-19 cases, contact with the Huanan market was a diagnostic requirement (Liu et al., 2020). This will tend to orient phylogenies towards the market. Further, Pekar et al. use a clock-based algorithm that uses sampling dates to infer the root virus. This method is designed to channel the choice of root virus towards those genomes sampled earliest. If the market was the early focus of sampling, which it was, then the Pekar method of inferring the root is based on two independent forms of circular reasoning. These biases were further amplified by the Pekar and Worobey authors, who themselves decided, based on scant evidence, which patient cases counted towards the dataset and sometimes what were their disease onset dates. The effect of this intervention was to add yet more circularity into the selection process for root viruses. To satisfactorily determine which viruses are closest to the true origin requires instead a different method, one that is explicitly independent of ascertainment biases and subjective decision-making (Liu et al., 2020).

4) Pekar et al., lack the evidence for two spillover events.

A key assertion of the Pekar preprint is its proposal that extant lineage A and lineage B viruses represent the descendants of two independent SARS-CoV-2 spillover events (Pekar et al., 2022). To succeed, this double spillover claim must explain why numerous genome sequences exist that are intermediate between lineage A and lineage B. To overcome this challenge, Pekar et al. propose that such intermediates are all either artifacts from sequencing errors or irrelevant to the origin question for other reasons. Sequencing errors are common enough, but Pekar et al. only demonstrate them convincingly in a minority of instances. For example, for most of their suggested sequence artifacts they rely on an unverifiable personal communication from a single scientist (L. Chen) in China. To make a case for the irrelevance of others they have to suggest, for example, that two genomes sampled in February in Beijing are irrelevantas if early sequences cannot have spread elsewhere or persisted. Ultimately, their bold suggestion that the phylogeny of SARS-CoV-2 is best explained by resolving it into two independent spillovers is very poorly supported by evidence.

The Great Virological Game

Pekar and Worobey fail to make their case and hence it is tempting to dismiss their heavy reliance on weak data, their non-parsimonious interpretations, their cherry-picking, and their circular reasoning as simple shoddy science. But, in our experience, this would be an error. Poor science by otherwise competent scientists, and on such a scale, usually happens for a reason. And, in the light of the meeting, described by Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair, between Jesse Bloom, Kristian Andersen, Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, and others, which revolved around deleted sequences from early patient samples, it seems more clear than ever what that reason is.

Ordinary bad science mostly occurs for reasons that are simple and mundane. Perhaps a research field is considered a scientific backwater to which second-rate researchers have gravitated, or a research thesis was badly supervised or not completed. If so, the results are almost sure to appear in a low-ranking peer-reviewed journal.

The other class of bad science fits a very different pattern. It sometimes occurs that the leaders who control sciences purse-strings commit to a theory or a major programme that is then contradicted by emerging evidence. If, for political or financial reasons, a policy course correction is unavailable, a rationalisation in a prominent scientific journal will be necessary to provide, as the Vatican might put it, guidance for the faithful.

Such publications typically have an unnecessarily large number of authors, who will mostly be laboratory heads and other prominent scientific leaders; the article will usually appear in a journal with the very highest visibility, like Nature, Cell, or Science, and the mistakes such papers contain (the rationalisations) are never errorsthey are purposeful and carefully calculated. A classic of this genre, which we dissected in detail, was the NIH response to the failure of the human genome project to deliver on its promise of explaining human noncommunicable disease, a problem that remains to this day (Manolio et al., 2009).

Obviously, lab leak theories are a top concern of the infectious disease community and coalescing opinion around a semi-plausible zoonotic hypothesis is the rather obvious intent of Faucis NIAID. Granted, we dont yet know in which journals Pekar et al., 2022 and Worobey et al., 2022 will appear, but their precursors (Pekar et al., 2021 and Worobey, 2021) were both published in Science. Before that, the prototype for all future efforts was The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, published in Nature Medicine (Andersen et al., 2020).

Putting this all together, one can see that both Chinese and Western virologists are pursuing the same general strategy, the first step of which is to ignore, discredit, deny, delete, destroy, or otherwise conceal, early sequences and samples (Bloom, 2021; Canuti et al., 2022). Erasing, or failing to collect, early information has the primary effect of lessening the likelihood that a true origin will ever be retrieved. Secondarily, erasure also makes it easier to force preferred conclusions on the data that remain. On the Chinese side, removing or failing to collect early evidence of a Wuhan outbreak helps to place the first documented appearance of the virus outside of China entirely. The Western goal has instead been to force a market spillover conclusion by preferentially discrediting samples and cases that occurred prior to the market sampling and those with no links to the market (Pekar et al., 2021 and Worobey, 2021).

These strategic aims would be unfeasible without the circularity of the standard phylogenetic methods discussed above, which are quite widely understood by insiders (Liu et al., 2020; Kumar et al., 2021). Thus, picking and choosing early samples lets clock-based phylogenetic methods that are vulnerable to sampling biases deliver a foreordained root virus.

The major complication, visible to all after the publication of the conflicting Gao, Pekar, and Worobey preprints, is that a significant conflict has arisen due to the divergent origin scenarios each group is trying to fit the facts to.

It is a reasonable inference from the above that the leading virologists on each side, and who are directing these efforts, strongly suspect (or know because they are sitting on the evidence) that early data would not exonerate virus research in Wuhan, otherwise the same people would be hunting for early samples with great alacrity, which is clearly not happening. And we can surmise it is a lab leak that is being covered up since it is the only concern that both Chinese and Western virologists could plausibly share.

Until recently, the COVID-19 origin question was therefore set to devolve into a simple two-way tug-of-war between the Gao club in the East and the Fauci club in the West. What none of them expected, however, was that a novel phylogenetic method would emerge capable of discrediting their careful calculus.

Mutational Order Analysis

Recently, a different method has been applied to the SARS-CoV-2 origin question ( Kumar et al., 2021 ). This method is new to virology but it is widely used in cancer research (e.g. Miura et al., 2018). Using it, Kumar, Pond, and colleagues were able to infer the existence of viral strains that are older (i.e. ancestors of) Wuhan-hu-1 (the standard SARS-CoV-2 reference genome) and the other market sequences by at least 3 mutations, which is a lot.

Their innovative method is called Mutational Order Analysis (MOA). MOA is an important advance over standard approaches, not least because it doesnt rely on clocks (i.e. time) to orient (i.e. bias) the evolutionary trees it produces. Rather, it uses genome sequence data alone to deduce the progenitor virus. Thus, MOA can be used to undo known biases, such as clocks, other sampling confounders, or even systematic sample destruction.

To understand the major difference between MOA and the phylogenetic method used by Pekar et al., consider a theoretical individual in Wuhan in late 2019 who caught a very early case of SARS-CoV-2 and who then flew to a distant country. Once there, they seeded a minor outbreak that lasted just a few weeks or months (not unlike the Guangdong family noted earlier). If any genome from a later case in this outbreak were by chance sequenced, this information would be very valuable. It would be a rare example of a root virus genome (or very close to it). From this hypothetical example we can see that even sequences that occur late in an epidemic, or far from a presumed geographic origin, can, in principle, preserve critical information about that origin.

Ordinarily, phylogenetic analysis of the origin (including Pekar et al., 2021 and 2022 and Bloom, 2021) tends to focus, sometimes entirely, on early sequences and those found local to the outbreak origin. Genomes considered of improbable relevance to the origin question are ignored. For instance, Pekar et al. 2022 performed their analysis on 787 genomes, with a cut-off date of February 14th, 2020. MOA, however, can use every available genome sequence to build up a picture of viral relatedness, without discriminating. If any virus genome in the data set constitutes an apparent missing link between two viruses it will be inserted as part of the mutational order that is built up. Because MOA uses a very large data set, specifically to capture idiosyncratic events such as the one theorised above, it can build a far more accurate, far more detailed, and much more statistically robust evolutionary tree than conventional approaches. Best of all, it does so without introducing any biases of its own.

For these reasons, MOA is clearly a superior method. Its value is especially great for inferring outbreak origins in cases where, like SARS-CoV-2, early sequences are scarce and their collection is subject to sampling biases.

MOA contradicts the Pekar and Worobey dual spillover market theory

1) MOA identifies just one root virus.

From almost 176,000 full-length genomes, MOA was able to decipher a mutational order for the origin viruses, with very high statistical confidence (Kumar et al., 2021). Their results are summarised in Fig. 1 below (taken from Fig. 2 of Kumar et al., 2021).

Overall, three of its findings strongly contradict the dual spillover market theory:

1) As is apparent from Fig. 1, unlike Pekar et al. (2022), MOA identifies a single root virus ( 1 , top left, is its first mutant). A single root virus means the pandemic began with only one initial spillover. A single spillover event is a crucial observation because it strongly implies a lab leak (since scientists tend to work with pure cultures); whereas equivalent evidence for multiple and/or genetically diverse spillovers would have implied a natural source. MOA also shows that all lineage B viruses are descended from one lineage A virus.

2) The root virus identified by MOA predates all the root viruses identified by Pekar and Worobey.

The virus identified by MOA as the root is separated by multiple mutations from any of the viral genomes found at the Huanan market and from Wuhan-hu-1. This infers that all known market samples are well downstream of patient zero. Therefore too, as was also concluded by Gao et al., the market samples represent an amplifying event, at most.

Evolution takes time to occur. Because multiple mutations accumulated before the first confirmed cases, Kumar et al. calculated that the initial spillover (presumably in Wuhan) was around late October/early November, i.e. several months before the Wuhan market was first sampled (on Jan 1st, 2020). This conclusion is hence consistent with the presence of far-flung SARS-CoV-2 genomes in Europe and elsewhere in the fall of 2019. It is also consistent with wide spread of the virus in Wuhan before the market samples were collected.

Very recently, Kumar and colleagues released a further preprint (Caraballo-Ortiz et al., 2022). It uses even more data (1 million genomes) and an improved method, which they call TopHap, to make their findings still more robust. The addition of many more genome sequences, including some very close to the root, affirms the original conclusions of a single root virus and that lineage B evolved from lineage A. It also allowed them to move back the root virus by one further mutation and this pushes back even further in time the predicted date of SARS-CoV-2 emergenceinto September, 2019.

This September spillover date further contradicts Pekar and Worobeys date. However, it agrees well with a broad set of other phylogenetic analyses and makes the farflung virus findings in Europe and elsewhere more plausible still (Mostefai et al., 2021; Schrago and Barzilai, 2021; Song et al., 2021; Xia, 2021).

3) Analysing only viruses found in China determined the results of the Pekar articles.

In their phylogenetic analyses, both Pekar papers are noteworthy for selecting narrow geographical and temporal cut-offs for their data sets. Though these choices seem, at first sight, reasonable enough, as Kumar et al. point out for Pekar et al., 2021, the choices determine their ultimate conclusions. The excluding of sequences obtained outside China (and also those sampled more than 4 months after December) prevented these authors from including the major early branch that began with v 1 (see Fig. 1). The v lineage was first sampled in the US but is needed for the correct selection of a root virus (see also Morel et al., 2021). Ultimately, the complete exclusion of the v lineage due to use of narrow cut-offs is a key reason why the two approaches reached divergent conclusions (Kumar et al., 2021). In short, the scientific contribution of Pekar et al. (2021 and 2022) is to deploy narrow windows for data acquisition to accomplish the phylogenetic equivalent of p-hacking.

If Pekar and Worobey are wrong, are Gao et al. right?

The MOA method is only somewhat kinder to the Gao et al. origin conclusions.

Although MOA supports the market being a secondary site, it contradicts the idea of a virus origin outside China. Gao at al. point at evidence for very early cases outside of China and imply that one of these was the ultimate source. But, it is clear from the Kumar et al. analysis that Wuhan and China are where the genetic diversity around the root occurs. In other words, the virus is unlikely to have emerged in Italy (or elsewhere) in late 2019 and seeded Wuhan. Far more probably, it spilled over in Wuhan and seeded Italy.

The status of a zoonotic origin in the light of MOA

We described above seven major flaws in the hypothesis of a double market spillover. Most of these criticisms apply to any hypothesised spillover scenario at the Huanan market, but it is notable that the MOA findings of Kumar, Pond, and colleagues advance the critique very significantly. Their two papers thus represent important landmarks in the study of the origin of COVID-19 (Kumar et al., 2021; Caraballo-Ortiz et al., 2022).

The key points are worth recalling: The extensive evidence of an epidemic in Wuhan long before the Huanan market samples were taken; that the market samples containing SARS-CoV-2 were mixed with human RNA and not with animal RNA; the circular reasoning of Pekar et al.s phylogenetic method; the lack of support for dismissing viruses intermediate between lineages A and B; the methodological superiority of the MOA method, which identifies a single and significantly earlier root; and, last, the dependence of the Pekar evolutionary tree on ignoring SARS-CoV-2 sequences harvested either late or outside of China.

There is also the wider context to consider. In case it needs reiterating, there is still no evidence for wild or farmed animals being infected with SARS-CoV-2 in China, either before, during, or since the pandemic broke out. Moreover, zoonotic theorists have been very reluctant to specify a clear candidate animal species as an intermediate host. This seems to be because it is hard to construct a good case for any of them. Third, there is the unremarkable nature, by Chinese standards, of the Huanan market. Why Wuhan? It is a question still unanswered by natural zoonotic theories.

In short, it is unreasonable to claim that the Huanan market was the unambiguous epicentre of the pandemic (Worobey et al., 2022). Such certitude is scientifically unwarranted and only serves to give the appearance of a false flag operation.

This impression is strengthened since neither Gao, Pekar, nor Worobey, ever discuss the existence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the obvious alternative hypothesis that they know goes along with it. The WIV is just a few miles from the market and, according to its US funders and the people who work there, it specialises in the collection and study and enhancement of SARS-related coronaviruses (Latinne et al., 2020). For decades, a major goal of its research has been to identify or create ones primed for human spillover (e.g. Li et al., 2019).

MOA, a goldmine of pandemic origin information

The two MOA/TopHap papers provide by far the strongest candidate yet for a root virus and they detail its subsequent evolution (Caraballo-Ortiz et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2021). Consequently, they have even more to tell us because precise rooting is invaluable for understanding additional key aspects of any virus origin.

One key question to ask any zoonotic origin hypothesis is whether the root virus could infect putative intermediate hosts, such as the raccoon dog suggested by Pekar and Worobey. Answering this requires knowing precisely what those early strains were. Such tests can be highly misleading if performed on virus strains from much later in the pandemic since the variants of SARS-CoV-2 have distinct mammalian host ranges (Montaguteli et al., 2021; Gu et al., 2020). In particular, it ought to trouble origin theorists that the only evidence for SARS-CoV-2 infecting raccoon dogs comes from a later (D614G) strain (Freuling et al., 2021).

A second benefit of accurate rooting is probably the most significant of all. It follows from the fact that root viruses can show what, if any, were the initial adaptation steps of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.

For example, the MOA phylogeny indicates (though this cant be seen in Fig. 1) that even the very early virus strains that predated the market samples, persisted unchanged long into the pandemic. This is a very important observation. It shows that, notwithstanding later improvements in its fitness, SARS-CoV-2 was very well adapted to humans by September or October and, so far as we can tell, from the very start.

Corroborating this, the very earliest strains differ only by synonymous mutations (see e.g. mutants  1-3 in Fig. 1). Synonymous ( as opposed to nonsynonymous ) mutations are nucleotide changes only; that is, they do not alter the amino acid sequence and so they usually have zero effect on the fitness of the virus.

(Note: For each mutant, Fig.1 shows either nucleotide changes (>) or amino acid changes (>). Nucleotides are represented by the letters A, C, G, or U and changes to these represent synonymous mutations; other letters represent the standard amino acid notation system and these letters thus indicate nonsynonymous mutations.)

From the synonymous nature of the earliest mutations, the authors concluded that these earliest viruses:

already possessed the repertoire of protein sequences needed to infect, spread, and persist in the global human population (Kumar et al., 2021).

Moreover, many immediate descendants of these viruses often also contained only synonymous mutations and yet these strains too often became abundant. Indeed, such barely altered genomes were found on every sampled continent (Kumar et al., 2021).

Again, this implies the same conclusion. Whichever way one looks at the evidence, it is evident that even the very earliest viruses were not only highly adapted to humans but able, unaltered, to cause a pandemic.

This is a tremendously informative result. The question of whether SARS-CoV-2 was highly adapted to humans (and thus presumably preadapted) has been in hot dispute almost from the beginning of the pandemic (Zhan et al., 2020). But the MOA phylogeny provides by far the most decisive evidence yet that indeed it was.

Reading into their phylogeny a little further gives even more support for preadaptation. It was not until the eighth mutation did one arise ( 2 in Fig. 1) that has subsequently been shown to increase the fitness of the virus in humans (Dearlove et al., 2020; van Dorp et al., 2020).  2 is the well-known D614G mutation, first identified in Wuhan late January. By this time the pandemic was well underway.

The only other mutation in Fig.1 that became abundant during the pandemic was its immediate predecessor,  1 .  1 is a synonymous mutation (again) that probably hitch-hiked on D614G (Dearlove et al., 2020).

The significance of this pattern is to indicate that, even though they gave amino acid changes, even the nonsynonumous mutations clustered at the root were selectively neutral. That is, they too arose at random and not because they conferred any advantage on the virus. This again strongly reinforces the idea that the virus was under little pressure to adapt during its early spread in Wuhan.

It is not at all normal for a virus to enter a new host population without also evolving rapidly to adapt to it. Thus the first SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) acquired amino acid changes during its early spread in humans (Zhan et al., 2020). The alternative norm is for the virus to fail to adapt to its new host at all, such as has happened so far with every one of the many introductions into humans of the coronavirus MERS (Dudas et al., 2018).

Conceding that SARS-CoV-2 was preadapted, some have argued that SARS-CoV-2 is a generalist virus (Frutos et al., 2020). There seems to be very little evidence for this. SARS-CoV-2 does not infect most mammal species (Kock and Caceres-Escobar, 2022). It can be actively transmitted by far fewer species still, and, when those few do transmit the virus, adaptive mutations occur (Gu et al., 2021; Sawatzki et al., 2021; Tan et al., 2022). In short, SARS-CoV-2 has not proven preadapted to any mammalian host species tested so far (except humans) and so it bears none of the hallmarks of a generalist virus.

Preadaptation of SARS-CoV-2 implies a lab leak. But it also implies a leak of a specific kind of virus; one that is not merely adapted to human cells but to transmission between whole, intact, humans. Only one theory of how SARS-CoV-2 arose fits this description. It is the Mojiang Miners Passage theory.

Where now for origin research?

Major institutions, primarily the EcoHealth Alliance, the NIH, and the WIV, hold large troves of information that could prove or disprove a lab leak. All assert their transparency and accountability, but, in practice, each has denied numerous requests for documents and other data. If one only listened to their words, one would think they wanted to find the origins of COVID-19, but their actions speak louder. Progress will therefore likely depend on independent initiatives.

When Jesse Bloom ingeniously retrieved previously deleted early SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the cloud and thereby recovered a novel early virus strain (Bloom, 2021), virologist Rasmus Nielsen said that this information was:

the most important data that we have received regarding the origins of COVID-19 for more than a year.

Nielsen was proven correct since Blooms discovery has been crucial to the improved rooting of Kumar and colleagues (Caraballo-Ortiz, et al., 2022).

The exceptional research value of these early sequences indicates also the appropriate scientific benchmark for judging those who erase or withold such evidence. History is full of ironies, but not many exceed the spectacle of prominent scientists, whose careers are publicly funded on the promise of identifying causes of infectious diseases, not wanting others to know the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why, after all, did public institutions like NIH, NIAID, USAID, DOD, who have showered money on the EcoHealth Alliance, supposedly to prevent pandemics, not fund widespread searches for early SARS-CoV-2 infections at the very start of the pandemic?

Given this blockade, even at this late date, probably the simplest and most useful way to advance the scientific search for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 would be to locate and analyse more samples from early in the outbreak, from any country, regardless (Basavaraju et al., 2021; Montomoli et al; 2021; Canuti et al., 2022). Preliminary research suggests a plethora of suitable clinical and environmental samples exist in civilian and also military sample collections and databases, and that searches for early sequences are likely to be fruitful (Canuti et al. 2022, Paixao et al. 2022, Althoff et al. 2021; Chapleau et al. 2021; Lednicky et al. 2021; Basavaraju et al. 2021; Chen et al. 2020).

The other necessary benchmark is an ethical one. Dr Tedros of the WHO has called investigating the origin of the pandemic a moral obligation. We would go further. Although there is no law against obstructing origin research, it should nevertheless be considered a crime against all humanity to make it more likely that an event that resulted in millions of deaths and untold misery will recur because we never found its cause (Relman, 2020).

References

Andersen, K. G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W. I., Holmes, E. C., & Garry, R. F. (2020). The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nature medicine, 26(4), 450-452.Bloom, J. D. (2021). Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Molecular biology and evolution, 38(12), 5211-5224.

Althoff, K. N., Schlueter, D. J., Anton-Culver, H., Cherry, J., Denny, J. C., Thomsen, I.,  & Schully, S. D. (2022). Antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in All of Us Research Program participants, 2 January to 18 March 2020. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 74(4), 584-590.

Basavaraju, S. V., Patton, M. E., Grimm, K., Rasheed, M. A. U., Lester, S., Mills, L.,  & Stramer, S. L. (2021). Serologic testing of US blood donations to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)reactive antibodies: December 2019January 2020. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(12), e1004-e1009.

Caraballo-Ortiz, M. et al., (2022) TopHap: Rapid inference of key phylogenetic structures from common haplotypes in large genome collections with limited diversity. Bioinformatics, btac186

Chapleau, R. R., Christian, M., Connors, B., Premo, C., Chao, T. C., Rodriguez, J.,  & Starr, C. (2021). Early Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Emergence in the DoD via Retrospective Analysis of 2019-2020 Upper Respiratory Illness Samples. medRxiv.

Courtier-Orgogozo, V., & de Ribera, F. A. (2022). SARS-CoV-2 infection at the Huanan seafood market. Zenodo.

Chen, C., Li, J., Di, L., Jing, Q., Du, P., Song, C.,  & Wang, J. (2020). MINERVA: a facile strategy for SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome deep sequencing of clinical samples. Molecular cell, 80(6), 1123-1134.

Dearlove, B., Lewitus, E., Bai, H., Li, Y., Reeves, D. B., Joyce, M. G.,  & Rolland, M. (2020). A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate would likely match all currently circulating variants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(38), 23652-23662.

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Tough on crime or just lawless tyrants? The Houston city council has gone completely 1984 by forcing businesses to spend their own money to install high definition security cameras, from which the police can then extract footage without a warrant. This is flatly unconstitutional on several counts and will certainly be challenged in court.  TN Editor

Houston mandates spying outside bars and other businesses. Officials in Houston, Texas, have voted to require an array of businessesincluding bars, convenience stores, and strip clubsto install surveillance cameras and make footage from them readily available to police. The dystopian move is a transparently unconstitutional attempt by city leaders to circumvent Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

To access video from the cameras, police officers will not need a warrant.

The rules apply to all Houston bars, convenience stores, game rooms, nightclubs, or sexually-oriented businesses.

Owners of these establishments must install (on their own dime) surveillance cameras in outdoor areas providing video coverage from the exterior of the building to the property line. Businesses must keep these cameras running 24 hours a day, and store camera footage for at least 30 days.

If surveillance footage is requested by the Houston Police Department, businesses must turn it over within 72 hours. Failure to comply would mean fines of $500 per day.

The Houston City Council approved this privacy-killing measure on Wednesday by a vote of 151.

Their vote demonstrated a willingness to push aside constitutional protections and subject Houstonians to overbroad police searches, said Savannah Kumar of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. But a city cannot override the Constitution. We are here to help you protect your rights. If the police come knocking on your door, tell them to get a warrant, whether its your home or your business. The measure is set to take effect in 90 days.

In addition to trampling on the Fourth Amendment rights of business owners, Houstons new law also infringes on property rights, said Institute for Justice Attorney Jared McClain. This ordinance unfairly saddles certain businesses with thousands of dollars in new expenses to install high-definition surveillance cameras and to archive their footage so its available for police on demand.

If you commit a crime, you can rest assured that we will be right on your trail, said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner at a press conference about the new law.

Read full story here
Chinese satellite ground stations receive atmospheric data

Xinhua) 10:39, April 23, 2022

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station has successfully tracked and received the downlink data from a Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The data was received by the branch stations in Beijing and Hainan in three parts on Thursday, with a total size of 133 GB. All data was processed normally, said the institute.

The atmospheric environment monitoring satellite was launched on April 16. It can comprehensively monitor atmospheric fine particles, polluting emissions, greenhouse gases, clouds and aerosols, land surface, water and other environmental elements, achieving continuous, dynamic performance.

The satellite will further enhance China's remote sensing application capacity in the comprehensive monitoring of global climate change, crop yields and agricultural disasters.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Appeals Court Heard Oral Argument in Sandra Merritt Civil Case

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April 22, 2022



SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 22, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held an oral argument hearing yesterday in the multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Sandra Merritt for her undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood's trafficking of human baby body parts. Liberty Counsel has presented evidence that the appeals court should reverse the lower court's ruling, order a new trial and strike the punitive damages award.

Merritt and colleague David Daleiden, the founder of Center for Medical Progress (CMP), produced videos in 2015 exposing Planned Parenthood's illegal trade in aborted baby body parts after a 30-month undercover operation. The videos showed Planned Parenthood executives haggling over prices of aborted baby body parts and discussing how they change abortion procedures to obtain more intact organs.

Throughout the previous six-week trial that began on October 2, 2019, the U.S. District Court severely restricted the evidence, and at the end, gave instructions to the jury on how they should rule on critical issues. The jury decided in favor of the abortion giant on each count, including RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), and awarded more than $2 million in damages. The court subsequently awarded Planned Parenthood nearly $14 million in attorney's fees and costs, for a total judgment of over $16 million.

In conjunction with three other groups of defendants, Merritt brought to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals numerous errors of the trial court, including: (1) the award to Planned Parenthood of millions of dollars in "damages" involving publication of Planned Parenthood's own words, without any proof that the undercover videos were false or deceptive, in violation of the First Amendment; (2) the use of RICO to punish constitutionally protected undercover journalism intended to expose unethical and criminal wrongdoing; (3) the award to Planned Parenthood of "damages" involving legally recorded conversations without allowing the jury to hear those conversations, and without requiring Planned Parenthood to prove that the conversations recorded in public places were "confidential;" and (4) the failure of the district court judge to recuse himself from this case, despite the appearance of impropriety resulting from his connections to Planned Parenthood.

During yesterday's hearing, the three-judge panel questioned Planned Parenthood counsel about how the abortion organization could validate the claim for using RICO. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that RICO cannot be used against free speech. The judges also asked Planned Parenthood counsel about its claims that Merritt and Daleiden actually "trespassed" on various properties to meet with abortionists when they were actually granted consent. Also, the panel pressed the attorney on how Planned Parenthood could claim "damages" such as "security expenses" as a result of media exposure from the release of the undercover videos.

Liberty Counsel will participate in a status hearing on Monday with Judge Hite in the San Francisco Superior Court to set a date for a trial in the criminal case.

Liberty Counsel's Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "Sandra Merritt was denied a fair trial and has been waiting a long time to be vindicated. Planned Parenthood failed to present clear and convincing evidence that Sandra acted with actual malice or intentional misconduct. The record of errors now before the Court of Appeals demands that the unjust result be set aside. Sandra did nothing wrong. She only revealed the truth of what the abortion giant is doing to precious unborn children. The ruling by the lower court judge ignores the First Amendment right to investigate and report."

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April 22, 2022



NEW YORK, April 22, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the Biden administration's focus on transgenderism:

There is no such person as a transgenderyou are either male or femalebut there is such a thing as transgenderism: it is an ideology that promotes the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable.

To win, proponents are bent on getting to children, prompting little kids to question whether they are satisfied being a boy or a girl. If they are in doubt, they should be advised to at least consider making the switch.

There is no more rabid advocate of transgenderism in America than the President of the United States. Indeed, transgender mania has gripped the White House.

Within months, the Biden administration will finalize changes to Obamacare that will make it easier for persons seeking to transition to the opposite sex. The Department of Health and Human Services is leading the way, treating gender identity as a status worthy of being covered by laws against sex discrimination. Changes will also be made to healthcare plans, so that sex-transition procedures can be covered.

This is a classic case of top-down politics. There is no national outcry demanding that those who want to flip their sex should be given the green light. If anything, there is a growing consensus that we need to hit the pause button on this subject.

When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said that "Gender affirming healthcare for transgender kids is the best practice and potentially lifesaving," she offered no evidence to support this outlandish claim. But she did make plain that gender-affirming care meant a) social affirmation b) puberty blockers c) hormone therapy and d) gender-affirming surgery.

This four-step approach is a sanitized way of saying that the White House is committed to encouraging the sexually confused to transition to the opposite sex, and that chemical castration and genital mutilation will follow.

Psaki also warned lawmakers who work against them that they have been "put on notice" not to mess with the president. She specifically said the White House will go after states that resist their agenda. She was supported by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra who said he wants taxpayers to pay for the drugs, incisions and genital reconstructions.

The White House says that gender-affirming care will help transgender adolescents who are suffering from mental health problems, drugs and suicidal thoughts. They should first inquire why these young people are so messed up in the first place and then seek to give them the help they need. It is nonsense to argue that their problems are due to social rejectiontheir maladies are a function of their mental state.

Dr. Paul McHugh is a noted psychiatrist who has studied this issue as well as anyone. The Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital maintains that transgender people suffer from a "mental disorder" and that "the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistakenit does not correspond with physical reality."

Undeterred, the Biden administration cites a Trevor Project survey to support its conclusion, never mentioning that two of organization's donors, AbbVie and Allergan, make drugs and medical products that facilitate sex transitions.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis apparently was not "put on notice," or he is simply recalcitrant. His Department of Health has issued its own guidelines on this subject. It declared that because the evidence is inconclusive regarding sex-transition procedures, and could, in fact have "long-term, irreversible effects," the best way forward is to recommend against treating children and adolescents at this time.

To back up its stance, the Florida agency cited evidence that 80% of those seeking to transition lose their desire to do so over time. It also cited the serious health effects of making the change. There is good reason to support this position.

We could learn a thing or two from the Europeans; they have a richer history of dealing with those who are in rebellion against their nature.

The Amsterdam University Medical Center surveyed 4,600 transgender men and women between 1972 and 2018. It found that transgender medical treatment shortened the lifespan of patients by 50%. This is an astounding finding, one that should make everyone reconsider the conventional wisdom on this subject.

After allowing cross-sex hormone treatment in children for 22 years, Sweden slammed on the brakes and made the practice illegal. Its health officials said these procedures are "potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible adverse consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis." Denmark and France did the same thing.

It must also be said that the psychological problems these people have are every bit as serious as their physical condition.

We look back today at controversial medical treatments that have proven to be a disaster and wonder why we went down this road. Some day we will do the same with regard to sex-transition treatments, but by that time the psychological and physiological damage will have been done, thanks in large part to our "devout Catholic" president.

There is a reason why Pope Francis calls gender ideology "demonic." This mania has got to stop.
Manitoba Metis Federation representatives are leaving Rome with an apology from Pope Francis for the damages caused by Catholic-run residential schools.

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Manitoba Metis Federation representatives are leaving Rome with an apology from Pope Francis for the damages caused by Catholic-run residential schools.

Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand and 55 representatives met with the Pope Thursday in Vatican City. It was a historic moment that marks an opportunity for healing and revitalization of Catholicism in Manitoba, Chartrand said.

"The olive branch he gave was a very powerful message to us," Chartrand said. "The extension of the olive branch, reaching out to us, and were accepting on behalf of our people  the Red River Metis  to bring it home and tell our people hes reaching out to us and he wants us to reach back and be part of this journey together."

The group gave the Pope a scroll that explained the Metis history with the church, beaded moccasins, a Louis Riel coin and beaded crosses. They received a brass olive branch in return.

The delegation went to Rome in search of revitalization and renewal of the Catholic church in Metis communities, Chartrand said, along with the anticipation of an apology and reconciliation.

The historic papal apology marks a step forward after more than a century of trauma created by the residential school system in Canada.

"We cant change history, but we can change the future," Chartrand said.

"I do forgive the church. This was predators  This is not in the Bible. This is not Gods way. The mistake the Vatican made in history is they hid and protected those people that were predators."

On April 1, after meetings with First Nations, Inuit and Metis groups, Pope Francis apologized for the conduct of church members involved in residential schools. He stood before a room of nearly 200 Indigenous delegates and asked for Gods forgiveness for the actions of the Catholic Church.

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.

The Manitoba Metis Federation  the government of the Red River Metis  organized the separate meeting with the Pope because the group last year withdrew from the Metis National Council following years of internal conflict.

Part of Chartrands mission while visiting Rome was to implore the Pope to visit Manitoba and step foot on Red River Metis soil during his trip to Canada and bless Louis Riel and Rev. Noel-Joseph Ritchots graves.

"Riel not only gave his life for us, but he also gave his life for the Catholic Church. He helped create the province that we have now," he said.

"I do truly pray and hope he will come and bless Louis Riel, because if you want to talk healing for our people, there is nothing more powerful than that."

The Red River Metis have been involved with the church since before Canada was named as a nation, he said. In 1817, the Metis petitioned for Catholic churches to be built in the Prairies and Manitoba and for the creation of parishes. The first church was built in 1819.

"We all need faith one way or another no matter which pathway we choose. For us, we still have a strong, strong connection with the Catholic Church  we have different denominations, but there are more Catholics than any other denomination in our community."

Citizen responses in reaction to the apology have been incredible and speak to the pride of the nation, he said.

He described those who went to Rome as apostles who will return to Manitoba to tell the story of the Popes apology and how he is looking for forgiveness, healing and a path forward to reconciliation.

The biggest concern now in Metis communities is churches closing down and priests rotating between congregations, covering mass areas of territory. It is a scary situation, Chartrand said, because it could cause religion to fade and affects a familys ability to honour major life events such as the death of a loved one.

"If we start losing all of that, we are going to be lost and we are going to be in no mans land."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
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The licence suspension of a Brandon-based general surgeon is coming to an end on Monday.

Dr. Sonny Dhalla was reprimanded and given a two-month suspension by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba after an inquiry found he was responsible for the death of a patient under his care in 2015.

Dhalla didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

Records from the Manitoba Court of Appeal and the College of Physicians and Surgeons state Dhalla was the physician on-call at the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Nov. 5, 2015, when the patient, only identified as a 59-year-old man, came to the emergency department and was admitted. Dhalla diagnosed the patient with gastric volvulus, an abnormal rotation of the stomach, and performed surgery, but the patients condition remained unstable.

Over the following days, the patient suffered from serious internal bleeding, but Dhalla deemed it unnecessary and unadvisable to operate again. Another doctor voiced their concern over the patients blood loss and even asked Dhalla to cancel another patients procedure to deal with the patients bleeding. Dhalla refused and another surgeon stepped in to perform the surgery.

However, the patient died as a result of multi-organ failure on Nov. 20.

An investigation was performed in 2016 and an inquiry was held in September 2019. A panel with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba ruled on May 6, 2020, that Dhalla was guilty of professional misconduct by failing to provide assistance to a patient who was in urgent need of medical care, adding "the appellants decisions were deliberate and conscious, and not the result of a flawed exercise of professional discretion."

A reprimand and a suspension of two months was imposed, as well as court costs of $85,000. The suspension was originally scheduled to begin Nov. 1, 2020.

Dhalla appealed the portion of the penalty decision to suspend his licence for two months and the costs of the decision. He argued on the grounds the panel placed too much weight on the principles of specific and general deterrence and that it failed to give the appropriate weight to the severity of a reprimand. He also argued the panel was incorrect in its consideration of general deterrence because there was no evidence of any prevailing or ongoing issue in the medical community that required prevention.

Dhalla said he had an unblemished history as a surgeon and was never reprimanded in his 26 years of practice, therefore the panel should not have given considerable weight on specific deterrence. A stay of his suspension and reprimand was granted by the court while the appeal was ongoing.

On Jan. 25, the Manitoba Court of Appeal upheld the panels decision, ordering the suspension to begin Feb. 25.

Prior to his hearing, Dhalla agreed to an undertaking that set out terms for record keeping and a monitoring plan, according to College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba communications officer Wendy Elias-Gagnon.

In court documents outlining the reasons for the decision and consequences, Dhalla is required to have complete, accurate and timely records for each patient in his care in accordance with the professional standard of care and the Colleges Standards of Practice of Medicine. These records also must be in accordance with the bylaws and policies of the hospital and regional health authority he is practising in.

He must also co-operate with a monitoring plan for his practice which must include a practice monitor by the colleges chair who will complete chart reviews for at least 10 patients admitted in hospital under Dhallas care once every two weeks and to provide monitoring reports to the chair on a specific schedule.

The chair will review the undertaking every three months after the initiation of this monitoring plan and may change the number of charts to be reviewed and/or the scheduling of the monitoring reports. Written notice of any changes by the chair to the number of charts that are expected to be reviewed and/or the schedule for providing monitoring reports will be provided to both Dhalla and the practice monitor.

If there are any significant deficiencies noted by the practice monitor or the chair, Dhalla will be notified and required to respond to them in writing to the chair in a timely way. Any serious deficiencies may be referred to the registrar of the college for possible further action.

The undertaking also contains specific terms obliging Dhalla to notify the chief medical officer of any regional health authority to which Dhalla applies for any facility where he is employed or acts as an independent contractor, and to any physician with whom he proposes to enter a practice arrangement. Details about the duration of the undertaking were not specified in the documents.

Once his suspension is complete, Dhalla will have met the orders imposed on him by the inquiry panel, Elias-Gagnon told the Sun in an email. The orders included a reprimand, which becomes a part of his public disciplinary record.

 kmckinley@brandonsun.com
PM: Because we felt safe in Biloela and we had a peaceful life with our family. And my children were born there. And we had a really peaceful and happy life. Biloela is our home. And we love the community because they were always friendly people. So we were very lucky to have those people in our lives. It was such a lovely community that there was a quick connection between us and them. They helped give us hope and they are the reason we are still fighting to get back there, to our home. Our daughters ask all the time, When will we be going back to Biloela, to our safe and happy life, to our home? Fitz: What do you remember of the time in 2018 when the Australian Border Force raided your home at dawn, to put you all in detention? Biloela locals have rallied around Nades and Priya Murugappan. Credit:Paul Harris PM: It was horrific and terrible. I dont have the words to put it. You know I was still in my nightdress and my children were still in bed. And 50 people, with police officers, arrived at dawn. And we were put in a vehicle, and they didnt even allow us to pack or change. I was put in police car, in my nightdress. It was horrific. They treated us very badly and without humanity. We couldnt even get a bottle for the baby, or a change of clothes. Fitz: What was Christmas Island like?

PM: That was a life that is not suitable for children. We were put in a box and not allowed to go outside, other than to school [with guards accompanying my daughter]. The whole family had to stay in one room, with one bed. There were a lot of other issues too: not enough medical facilities and I felt harassment. It was a very terrible way to live. Fitz: Your youngest daughter, Tharnicaa, was medically evacuated to Perth last June. Is she recovered from her medical woes? PM: Thank you. She is still affected from the pneumonia she had. She is still seeing a doctor sometimes, as she lost weight and was not feeling normal. But she is slowly getting better. Thank you. Fitz: Tharnicaa, four years old, is now in community detention without a visa. Why, of the four of you, is she the one who is regarded as a danger to shipping? Why cant she get a bridging visa too? PM: I dont know. It seems a very unjustified thing to do, that is done to justify the punishment already done to us. I dont know why they happen to be so cruel to us, to a four-year-old, who was born in Australia. I feel this is like a punishment to us.

Fitz: When the girls are older and they ask you Mum, why did the Australian government spend $60 million to keep us out of Australia when we had a community to go to and when we were not dangerous, what will you reply? Loading PM: I will tell them we as a family are not responsible for that money being spent. We were being used to support government policies. It was never about us. It was about the government staying in power. I have recorded videos and photos and everything of how we live our life in detention. So I will show them so they dont forget. This is how we were put in a box with one bed and had a very limited life. They say they are spending the money on refugees, but the reality is that they just paying for the guards. We were treated very badly. And I will make clear to my girls that this what happened to us. Fitz: The Australian government has said you are not genuine refugees, saying you are unlawful non-citizens. In your view, what would happen if you were to be sent back to Sri Lanka? PM: We are genuine refugees. We face torture if we go back. I have faced horrible things in my life and I am still carrying the scars. Theres just one department deciding whether or not we are legal refugees or not. Not even the court decides that. I feel like the justice system is broken.

Fitz: The last asylum seekers and refugees who were transferred to Australia for medical treatment were released in Melbourne last week. Why are the last four left? PM: I dont know whats going on with our situation but I think they are holding us back to justify what they have done to us so far, destroying my childrens hope. I go to bed every night with tears and am waking up with hope, but every time our hope is destroyed and at night it is tears again. It is a very unpredictable situation for us. Fitz: You have been in community detention. Labor has said if it wins this election, you will be granted visas and be allowed to go back to Biloela. Do you feel like your familys fate rests on the election result? PM: We do hope that our situation will change because its been four years weve been punished by this government. But I feel hope in next election and that it will bring some hope to our family. Fitz: Do you ever feel bitter at your treatment?

PM: I feel disgust at the way we have been treated. Its not the way you treat humans. Sometimes I feel really depressed. Its got to me and I ask God: why has this happened? We have not done anything wrong, so why is my family being punished? We respect Australia, and have respected its rules and regulations. We had a wonderful life in Biloela, with that community. We love them and we respect all laws. So why are people from outside treating us like that. So I have got that question. Why? What have we done? Joke of the week My Kid: I feel like youre always making up rules and stuff. Me: Like what? My Kid: Like if I dont clean my room a portal will open and take me to another dimension.

Me: Well thats what happened to your older brother. My Kid: What older brother? Me: Exactly. Tweet of the week Deidre Chambers! Greg Jericho on twitter, in response to the PM denying any knowledge of how Premier Dominic Perrottets texts to him, supporting his outrageous stance on trans athletes, leaked into the media

Quotes of the week We want to take a cautious and proportionate approach as we enter the colder months when we know that we might have flu circulating at higher levels. We have to coexist with COVID-19, but we cant ignore it. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant about the relaxing of COVID rules this week My opponents, parts of the left media and twittersphere have been unrelenting in calling for me to be disendorsed because of past statements. 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, Warringahs Liberal Party candidate, hanging on for grim death. And the trans athletes Ms Deves? You dont think your comments help legitimise the bullying they have suffered? Im pleased she apologised and would encourage her to sit down and work with the trans community and their families to get a better understanding of how these kinds of comments can impact them. MP Trent Zimmerman, trying hard to sound balanced and reasonable about Katherine Deves. As you all know it takes enormous woman and manpower to operate this important annual event. And like many businesses and organisations we have been impacted by COVID. Tracy Bonfante for the Country Womens Association, announcing on Monday that the NSW CWAs tearoom at the Royal Easter Show had been closed because some of its volunteers had contracted COVID-19, which meant no scones.

These dangers are small, but poorly understood and not yet well managed. Toby Ord of Oxfords Future of Humanity Institute, being cautious about a NASA proposal to reveal Earths location. Researchers at the US space agency have backed a broadcast message, dubbed the Beacon in the Galaxy, intended to greet extra-terrestrial intelligences. Beam me up, Sco . . . Oh, wait! The draft business case will be reported to the audit, risk and improvement committee, and also presented to a councillor workshop, before being reported to the ordinary council meeting in June 2022, along with a plan for community engagement. Inner West Council general manager Peter Gainsford explaining how easy it will be for reluctantly merged inner city councils to de-merge themselves. $46 a week. Scott Morrison, asked in Perth if he knew what the JobSeeker rate was. (Its $46 a day) I misspoke. Scott Morrison asked later how he got it wrong. I wish they would stop talking about historical issues like stopping the boats. What are they doing about the present  like the people left homeless by the floods in Lismore. Fiona Lewis, giving her view as an audience member at the first debate between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
Wellington: As China moves to expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan and New Zealand have opened talks on an agreement for seamless sharing of classified information, a step that could strengthen Tokyos case to eventually join the Five Eyes intelligence partnership among English-speaking powers.

An announcement of the negotiations, during a visit to Tokyo on Thursday by NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, came two days after the Solomon Islands said it had reached a security agreement with China, provoking unease among Western-aligned powers in the region. The deal, according to a leaked document, could allow Beijing to deploy troops to the Solomons, and perhaps even result in the first Chinese military base in the Pacific.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealands prime minister, left, and Fumio Kishida, Japans prime minister, shake hands during a bilateral meeting in Tokyo on Thursday. Credit:EPA/Bloomberg

The announcement speaks to both countries concerns about China, said Anna Powles, a senior lecturer in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand, which have been amplified over the past few weeks with the signing of the security agreement in the Solomons.

Ardern and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made their concerns clear in announcing the proposed intelligence agreement. They emphasised growing strategic challenges in the Pacific and their opposition to unilateral actions that seek to alter the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas. The latter appeared to be a reference to Chinese efforts to construct artificial islands for military use and its encroachment on disputed territories.
New Delhi, April 23: Notwithstanding India's clear message to the world that it will be guided by its strategic autonomy, China is keeping a close watch on the developments in India amid UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ongoing visit.

The British Prime Minister will discuss issues related to bilateral trade and security with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as India and the UK are also expected to begin negotiations for a free trade agreement.

Johnson's visit comes a few weeks after UK's foreign secretary Liz Truss's trip to India. Interestingly Johnson's visit will be followed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's trip to New Delhi next week. Von der Leyen's visit to India is the first since she took charge in 2019.

"With such engagements, it is natural for not only China but the world at large to monitor the developments in India as pressure builds on New Delhi to condemn Russia for its Ukraine invasion," an insider said.

Even as it is almost certain that India will not give up its independent foreign policy, the visits and their outcomes are being scrutinised with a fine toothcomb.

So far, on the issues related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India and China have been more or less on the same page.

"These high-profile visits could have implications on the geopolitical contours of the Indo-Pacific region which would be of immense interest to China. Though India has made its stand clear -- that it will carve out its own independent foreign policy, China will be curious especially as it holds the chair for the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) block," Anil Trigunayat, former ambassador and Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation told India Narrative. The BRICS countries have taken a similar stand on the Russia-Ukraine issue.

"Besides, China is interested in the European market while India will seek clarity on the UK's position on China and Pakistan," Trigunayat added.

The UK is also part of the trilateral security pact AUKUS. Besides UK, Australia and the US are part of AUKUS.

"There has been close cooperation between India and Western countries. But India is not the vassal of the latter. As a proud developing country, India seeks respect from its partners, rather than being pressed or ordered by others," Beijing based Global Times said, adding that New Delhi "has won the space for independent diplomacy".

Earlier in the month, China's foreign minister Wang Yi made a surprise low key stop over in New Delhi just before the visit of Daleep Singh, US' deputy national security adviser for international economics, also the chief architect of the sanctions imposed against Russia.

Interestingly Singh's visit was almost around the same time when Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov was in New Delhi. Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba too visited New Delhi in the first week of April. Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida paid a visit to India, when he announced massive investment plans.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Home Minister on Saturday began his day-long visit to Bihar, where he is scheduled to attend a programme honouring Revolt of 1857 hero Veer Kunwar Singh.

His special aircraft landed at Jayprakash Narayan International Airport, where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal and several cabinet ministers welcomed him.

He then boarded a helicopter and left for the venue of the programme at Jagdishpur in Bhojpur district.

The BJP plans to break Guinness Book of World Records as over 75,000 people will simultaneously wave the national flag at the venue. The record is currently held by Pakistan. Over 56,000 people of the neighbouring country had waved their national flag in 2004.

Jaiswal had earlier said that Veer Kunwar Singh, the king of Jagdishpur, did not believe in caste-based discrimination and had given his life for the integration of the country.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing.

City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results. The Chinese capital also reported four other confirmed cases on Friday that were counted separately.

Mainland reported 24,326 new community-transmitted infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict zero-COVID strategy has drawn global attention.

has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible omicron variant. The zero-COVID policy warded off many deaths and widespread outbreaks when faced with less transmissible variants through mass testing and strict lockdowns where people could not leave their homes.

But recent developments in have led some to question whether the strategy is worth the tradeoffs. Many residents in the city have struggled to get adequate food supplies during a lockdown this month, while some were also unable to get drugs or medical attention. Some elderly people died after an outbreak at an hospital led medical staff to be quarantined.

The country is now facing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan.

Local media reported that in Beijing's Chaoyang district, the government ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities and classes. The city government is now conducting a round of mass testing to look for more cases.

In Shanghai, city officials reported 12 new deaths Saturday, all elderly patients with underlying illnesses.

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The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Saturday admitted the state government's application challenging the acquittal of journalist in a 2013 rape case.

The sessions court had last year acquitted Tejpal of all charges, following which the state government filed a petition before the High Court challenging the order. Tejpal had challenged the maintainability of the application.

In an order on Saturday, the division bench of Justices R N Laddha and M S Sonak allowed the application filed by the state government.

"The court is not expected to go into the minute details of the prosecution's evidence. At this stage, if the material on record discloses the necessity of deeper scrutiny and reappreciation, review, or reconsideration of evidence, the appellate court must grant leave as sought for and decide the appeal on merits," the bench observed.

The court said that it not only rejects the preliminary objections raised on behalf of the respondent regarding the maintainability of this application, but further allows the application and grants leave under section 378(3) of CrPC, which refers to appeal in case of acquittal.

"The decision of instituting an appeal against acquittal, in the present case, cannot be said to be a product of non-application of mind or the result of the state government acting under the dictation of some extraneous authority," the court noted.

The high court also ordered Tejpal to seek bail from the trial court within 15 days.

The record bears out that the respondent had been enlarged on bail, subject to certain terms and conditions. There is nothing on record to suggest that the respondent had at any stage breached the terms and conditions subject to which he was enlarged on bail, it said.

The high court also allowed the application filed by Tejpal to get his passport from the court, as it is due for renewal.

The bench directed that once the respondent appears before the trial court within 15 days, the court should order the release of his passport for enabling him to renew the same. On May 21, 2021, a sessions court acquitted Tejpal, the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, in the case where he was accused of sexually assaulting his then-colleague in a lift of a five-star hotel in Goa in November 2013 where they were present to attend an event.

(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.)
UNICEF's YuWaah' - the Indian chapter of Generation Unlimited - has announced Ashwin Yardi, the CEO of in India, to be its co-chair.

Yardi will be a co-chair along with Yasumasa Kimura, the Representative



YuWaah's work to improve skilling, community development and economic opportunity for young people is truly one of the enduring legacies of the last two-plus years, Yardi said.

I look forward to working as a co-chair and founding partner with the board and bringing in Capgemini's support as a partner to connect young people with opportunities at scale.

The YuWaah board would now function as a decision-making body and support the YuWaah Secretariat for funding and functional expertise, a statement by said.

Representative a.i. Yasumasa Kimura said, YuWaah has set an ambitious target to enrol 300 young people as change makers. Meeting this goal will require bold strategies and swift actions.

He said that the new board will help the youths --especially the marginalised -- with necessary tools and support.

Generation Unlimited or YuWaah, supported by UNICEF, is a platform to bring young people together with the private sector, governments, and international and local organisations to turn them into active and engaged citizens.

(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.)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister met Prime Minister on Saturday to brief him about various initiatives of his government, with the two leaders also discussing a host of issues.

In a tweet, Modi said, "Met MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who discussed the good governance initiatives of the MP Government and how their transformative schemes are bringing a positive change in people's lives."



Issues related to law and order besides the naxal issue, Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and several other matters also figured in their discussion, with Chouhan briefing Modi about the measures taken by his government, officials 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.)
reported 1,094 fresh COVID-19 infections and two deaths due to the disease on Saturday as the positivity rate rose to 4.82 per cent, according to data shared by the health department.

A total of 22,614 Covid tests were conducted in the city a day ago, the data showed. The COVID-19 infection tally in the national capital now stands at 18,73,793 and the death toll at 26,166.

had logged 1,042 Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent and two fatalities due to the infection on Friday.

On Thursday, the city reported 965 COVID-19 cases and a single fatality with a positivity rate of 4.71 per cent.

With the national capital witnessing a spurt in COVID-19 cases in the past few days, the number of active cases of the disease in the city has now increased to 3,705 from 601 on April 11.

However, the hospitalisation rate has so far been low, accounting for less than three per cent of the total active cases, according to the data.

There are 79 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in at present, while 2,532 are recuperating in home-isolation.

Of the 9,489 beds available for Covid patients in various hospitals, just 101 (1.06 per cent) are occupied, as per the data.

In the wake of rising cases, the Delhi government on Friday issued an order directing authorities to impose a fine of Rs 500 on people not wearing masks at public places.

The fine will not apply to people travelling together in private four-wheelers, it said.

The government had lifted the fine for not wearing masks on April 12 because of a decline in the number of daily cases.

The decision to bring back the mask mandate at public places and impose the fine on violators came at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which devises Covid management policies for the national capital.

The city health department said that from Thursday, Delhi has started providing free COVID-19 precautionary doses to beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group at government vaccination centres.

Delhi has also started genome sequencing of samples of all Covid-infected people to ascertain if a new variant, such as the XE, has spread in the city.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Saturday reported 72 COVID-19 cases, a slight rise in the daily addition after a fall for two consecutive days, a civic official said.

The metropolis had reported 68 cases on Friday, a sizable dip from 98 on Wednesday, which was the highest for April so far, and 91 on Thursday, he pointed out.

The tally in stood at 10,59,213, while the death toll remained unchanged at 19,562, he said.

So far, 10,39,148 persons have been discharged post recovery, including 43 during the day, leaving the active caseload here at 503, the official added.

A health bulletin issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said 70 out of 72 cases were asymptomatic, while the remaining two have been hospitalised, though both did not need oxygen support.

It also stated that only 12 out of the 25,944 hospital beds earmarked for COVID-19 treatment were currently occupied.

With 9,453 samples being examined in the last 24 hours, the overall number of tests in stood at 1,68,35,488, it said.

Civic data showed the recovery rate was 98 per cent, the positivity rate stood at 0.006 per cent, the caseload doubling time was 10,736 days and the overall case growth rate between April 16 and 22 was 0.006 per cent.

It also revealed the country's financial capital was free of sealed buildings and containment zones.

Mumbai's figures for the day are as follows: Fresh cases: 72; Fatality: 0; Overall active cases: 503; Tests conducted: 9,453.

(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.)
Delhi's R-value, which indicates the spread of COVID-19, was recorded at 2.1 this week, implying that every infected person is infecting two others in the national capital, according to an analysis by IIT-Madras.

The 'R' or reproductive value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to, and a pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below one.

The preliminary analysis by computational modelling was done by IIT-Madras' Department of Mathematics and Centre of Excellence for Computational Mathematics and Data Science headed by Prof Neelesh S Upadhye and Prof S Sundar.

This was shared with PTI and according to it, Delhi's R-value this week was recorded at 2.1. India's R-value, at present, stands at 1.3, the analysis found.

Asked if it can be deduced that this is the beginning of the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Delhi, Dr Jayant Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT-Madras, said it would be too early to declare an onset of another wave.

We can only say right now that every person is affecting two others....but we need to wait a bit to declare onset...we don't know about the immunity status and whether the people who got affected during the third wave in January are getting affected or not again, he told PTI.

For other metro cities -- Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, Jha said the number of cases are too low to ascertain a trend.

Delhi is witnessing an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases. The city logged 1,042 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent on Friday.

The Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city, sources said on Thursday.

However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US.

But officials have not confirmed that it indeed was found in some samples in Delhi.

An official source said, "New sub-variants BA.2.12 (52 per cent samples) and BA.2.10 (11 per cent samples) are showing high transmission and have been found in over 60 per cent of the total samples from Delhi sequenced recently.

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External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday called on visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth here.

Taking to Twitter after their meeting, Jaishankar said: "Pleased to call on PM of Mauritius @KumarJugnauth. Discussed advancing our development partnership and economic cooperation. India remains solidly committed to this truly special relationship."

The Prime Minister, who is on an eight-day visit to India, arrived in Rajkot, Gujarat, on Monday. He is being accompanied by a high-level team and his wife Kobita Jugnauth.

The Prime Minister participated in the inauguration ceremony of the WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar on Tuesday and also participated in the Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit in Gandhinagar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the following day.

The two leaders also held a bilateral meeting during which they discussed the ongoing development partnership and cooperation in defence.

On Thursday, Pravind Jugnauth offered prayers at Varanasi's Kashi Vishwanath Temple and also met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

--IANS

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Economic fugitives seeking to use the British legal system to evade the law in India are not welcome in Britain, UK Prime Minister on Friday after wide-ranging talks with his Indian counterpart .

At a press conference, Johnson also said the UK government has ordered the extradition of economic offenders wanted in India but legal technicalities are making the process difficult.

Asked about concerns over reports of human rights violations and the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, Johnson said the UK raises these issues in a "friendly way" but added that India is a great democracy and it has constitutional protection for its communities.

"On our relations with India and how we deal with questions around human rights and democratic values, of course, we have these conversations but the advantage of our friendship is that we can have them, and we can have them in a friendly and private way," he said.

"It's very important to realise that India has constitutional protections for communities. India is very very different from autocracies around the world. It is a great democracy. It is a stunning shining fact that 1.35 billion people live in a democracy and that's something we should celebrate," Johnson said.

"And it offers, I say, an opportunity for closer cooperation and partnership... that doesn't mean I am not going to raise tough, consular questions," he said.

Asked about the extradition of economic offenders Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya to India, Johnson said "legal technicalities" have made it "very difficult".

"I think there are legal technicalities that have made it very, very difficult but what I can tell you is that the UK government has ordered their extradition and we have said that from our point of view, we want them to be taken back to India for trial," he said.

"We don't welcome people who want to use our legal system to evade the law here in India," the British prime minister said.

At a separate media briefing, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India has been pursuing the issue of economic offenders with the UK.

"Our objective is to bring back those economic fugitives who are wanted in India to face justice in the country. And the matter did come up in today's talks. It was conveyed that this is a high priority," he said.

To a question on concerns in India over Khalistani elements operating from the UK, Johnson said his country has a "very strong view" on extremist groups.

"We have a very strong view on it in the UK. We don't tolerate extremist groups setting up in the UK with a view to threatening other countries, threatening India.

"What we have done particularly as a result of this visit is set up an anti-extremism task force to see what more we can do to help India in that aspect," he said.

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The has sought the stand of the Centre, Reserve Bank of India and IIT-Delhi on a plea for constituting a committee for framing of guidelines to ensure that financial services are accessible to the .

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla issued notice on an application by George Abraham and said that it expected the respondents to provide the names of competent persons who could be part of the committee.

The application is part of the petitioner's plea seeking directions to ensure that all financial services as well as bank websites, internet banking facilities and mobile phone applications for financial services are made accessible to people with visual challenges.

In his application, the petitioner stated that his concern was not with respect to an absence of law to address access to financial services for the but a lack of their implementation, including the RBI's master circular.

Abraham submitted that these laws are being haphazardly implemented in spite of the RBI having wide powers to ensure compliance of its directions, such as imposition of financial penalties.

"For example, while some internet banking applications and ATMs have good accessibility, many are still not accessible. Some financial services used by the public such as digital payment wallets or vendor card payment machines appear to offer no access whatsoever for visually impaired persons," the plea stated.

The petitioner thus suggested that a committee be appointed to formulate steps and guidelines to address the issues concerning access to financial services for the visually impaired.

Abraham further suggested that the committee may comprise government and RBI representatives as well as persons with technological expertise from any institutions of repute such as IIT, persons who are and an amicus curie to assist the committee and the court.

"The said approach can guide this hon'ble court in its endeavour to uphold the rights guaranteed to the 12 million blind people and 50 million visually impaired persons in India under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and Sections 3(1), 13(1) and (2), and 42 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016," the plea stated.

The matter would be heard next on May 26.

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Yes Bank co-founder has told the Enforcement Directorate that he was "forced" to buy an M F Husain painting from Congress' Vadra and the sale proceeds were utilised by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New York, as per the chargesheet filed by the federal anti-money laundering agency in a special court here.

Kapoor also told the ED that he was told by the then petroleum minister Murli Deora that the refusal to buy the M F Husain painting will not only prevent him from building a relationship with the Gandhi family but also prevent him from getting the 'Padma Bhushan' award.

The statements of are part of the second supplementary chargesheet (overall third) filed in the special court here recently against the Yes Bank co-founder, his family, Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and others in a money laundering case.

Stating that he had paid a cheque of Rs 2 crore, Kapoor claimed that "Milind Deora (son of the late Murli Deora and former Congress MP) later conveyed to him confidentially that the sale proceeds were utilised by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi in New York".

Kapoor also told the ED that Ahmed Patel, a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi, had told him that by supporting the Gandhi family at an opportune time for medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi, I (Kapoor) had performed a good deed for the family and it would be duly considered for the 'Padma Bhushan' award.

Murli Deora had tried to convince that the refusal to purchase the painting will also not permit him ever to build a relationship with the Gandhi family. It will also prevent him from getting the 'Padma Bhushan award, as per the chargesheet.

The late Deora had told Kapoor at dinner that the failure to purchase the painting could have "adverse repercussions" on him and Yes Bank, Kapoor has claimed in his statement to the ED.

The banker is currently in judicial custody following his arrest in the case in March 2020.

"First of all I wish to state that it was a forced sale for which I was never ready", the chargesheet said about the painting Kapoor allegedly purchased from Vadra.

Milind Deora had made several visits to his (Rana Kapoor's) house and office to persuade him for purchasing an MF Husain painting from Vadra.

"He had even made me several calls and messages also in this regard from multiple mobile numbers. In fact, I was very much reluctant to go for this deal and I had tried also to avoid this deal several times by ignoring his calls/messages and personal meetings," Kapoor told the ED, as per the chargesheet.

"Despite my best efforts to avoid this deal they were exceptionally persistent to finalise the deal rapidly," Kapoor claimed.

He further stated that later, in the year 2010, Murli Deora forced him to meet him for a vegetarian dinner (Marwari dinner) at his Lodhi Estate Bungalow in New Delhi.

He was Petroleum Minister at that time and had been allotted this bungalow in that capacity, Kapoor said, as per the chargesheet.

"During the meeting, the late Murli Deora told me in no uncertain terms that any further delay in purchasing the above-said painting could have adverse repercussions on me and my Yes Bank and it could jeopardise my relationship with the Deora family," Kapoor said.

"Simultaneously, he had tried to convince me that it will also not permit me ever to build me a relationship with the Gandhi family," the banker added.

Further, in the statement, Kapoor claimed, "He (Murli Deora) had also told me that any deviation on my part for the lack of closure of the deal will definitely prevent me from getting awarded the 'Padma Bhushan' for which, according to him, I was highly deserving at that time".

"Under this threat and against my family's wishes, since we are not high-value Art Collectors, I could not afford to invite any form of enmity with the two powerful families involved and thus I had to hesitatingly proceed given the looming and overhanging threat involved," Kapoor told ED, as per the chargesheet.

Kapoor told the ED that formalities for closing the deal were held at Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's office.

"Milind Deora had actively coordinated this final closing meeting. I wish to state that for this deal, I had made a payment of Rs 2 crore through a cheque of my personal account in HSBC Bank," he added.

Kapoor said a few weeks after the deal, Milind Deora conveyed to him confidentially that the sale proceeds were utilized by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi in New York.

"After a few months, while I (Kapoor) was visiting the residence of (late) Ahmed Patel, a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi, I was informed independently by him that by supporting the Gandhi family at an opportune time for medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi I had performed a good deed for the family and it would be duly considered for the 'Padma Bhushan' to me," the chargesheet said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Rana Kapoor and Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan had siphoned off funds worth Rs 5,050 crore through suspicious transactions.

The ED had started its investigation after recording ECIR on March 3, 2020, and after the probe began, Rana Kapoor aggressively tried to dispose of his overseas properties to save them from being attachment by the ED under PMLA, the charge sheet said.

The POC involved in this case is Rs 5,050 crore. While Rana Kapoor is the founder of the said company namely DUVPL, his three daughters are 100 per cent shareholders therein.

Rana Kapoor is currently in judicial custody following his arrest in the case in March 2020. The Wadhwans too are in jail custody after their arrest in another case.

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With 25 more testing positive, the total number of persons infected with in the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) has gone up to 55, said Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J.Radhakrishnan.

According to him, the tests are being conducted in the 19 hostels in IITM complex. The infection rate is higher in a hostel that has students from other states.

Out of 1,420 persons, 55 have tested positive.

He also said the government will be increasing the number of Covid-19 tests from the current 18,000 to 25,000 per day.

According to the state government, on Friday, 57 persons tested positive for in Tamil Nadu and the total number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 286.

--IANS

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on Saturday warned the public against fraudulent website URLs circulating on social media claiming of providing government through certain surveys, and quizzes.

"We wish to inform the citizens of the Country that is not involved in any such activities like announcing Subsidies, Bonuses or Prizes based on Surveys, etc. Public receiving such notifications/messages /emails are requested not to believe or respond to such fake and spurious messages or share any personal details," reads the official statement from the Ministry of Communications.

It is also requested the common public not share any personally identifiable information such as date of birth, account numbers, mobile numbers, place of Birth and OTP, etc.

also said that they are taking necessary action to prevent these URLs / links / Websites from circulating through various prevention mechanisms.

"Public at large is once again requested not to believe or respond to any fake/spurious messages/communications / links," reads the official statement.

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wants to be strong friends with the liberal world but it needs Russias assistance to defend its borders, a top minister said, following criticism about refusal to outright condemn Vladimir Putins war on Ukraine.

is the worlds top buyer of Russian weapons, which it uses to deter aggression from neighbors Pakistan and -- two countries that have long cooperated on defense. While the U.S. had traditionally sought to balance ties between and Pakistan, which for years was an important partner in Afghanistan, more recently it has courted New Delhi to counter .

You have a neighbor, who joins hands with another neighbor, both of whom are against me, Indian Finance Minister said in an interview in Washington Friday. In the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, God forbid, if there are alliances created, India has to be strong enough to protect itself.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has already conveyed this unique geopolitical position to the U.S., Sitharaman added. A senior U.S. diplomat on Thursday again warned of sanctions if it offers material support for Putins war, while also pledging to help India end its dependence on Russian weapons.

U.S. blasts Chinas support for Russia, vows to help India

India wants to be friends with the and the Western, free, liberal world, but not as a weak friend that needs desperate help here and there, Sitharaman said.

Unless I am strong, given the fact that I am geopolitically located in such an area, how do you expect me to even defend myself? she said. Not strong as an aggrandizer or expansionist, but strong to defend our own 1.3 billion people -- both politically, strategically and, equally important, economically.

When asked if India is still looking for an alternate payment mechanism for to overcome sanctions that locked out of the Swift international payments system, Sitharaman said at the moment there is no transaction of that significance. She didnt elaborate.
Senior Indresh Kumar on Friday supported the controversial anti-encroachment drive of the BJP-ruled civic body in Delhi's Jahangirpuri, saying the bulldozers were used on "goons" and those who have a "criminal mentality".

Slamming political leaders and others criticising the demolition of concrete and temporary structures in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri area, he alleged that all those who talk about "goons and criminals identifying their religion are anti-constitution, anti-nation and anti-society".

"The bulldozers have been run over (the structures belonging to) everyone irrespective of their religion or community. Bulldozers have been run over those who are goons and have a criminal mentality," the told reporters on the sidelines of an event in the city to host an Iftar party.

About various political parties accusing the BJP-ruled civic body of targeting the minority community in the name of the anti-encroachment drive, Kumar, an RSS national executive member, said, "All those who talk about goons and criminals identifying their religion are anti-Constitution, anti-nation, anti-social."



Those who provide protection to "goons" in the name of religion are "social criminals", he alleged.

Kumar attributed the recent incidents of in Jahangirpuri and other parts of the country to "some political and other forces" in India and abroad.

They want to vitiate the atmosphere of the country, he alleged.

"It's because they do not like to see unity and integrity, peace, harmony, brotherhood, education and progress in India," the said.

Addressing the event organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch's (MRM) intellectual wing Hindustan First Hindustaani Best, Kumar said there was an atmosphere of "intolerance" across the country.

"Division is being created, people are being pitted again each other divided even as the religion doesn't teach animosity against each other," he said.

To defeat such efforts, all politicians, leaders of social and religious groups and intellectuals should condemn attacks on festivals of any religion, Kumar said.

In view of the prevailing situation, all state governments should frame new rules and advisory in consultation with the stakeholders for a peaceful celebration of festivals of all the religions, he said.

"India is the only country where all religions are accepted and respected. Hence, people belonging to various religions and castes should invite each other to their festivals to send out the message of brotherhood, love and peace," he said.

"We were not born to fight in the name of religion and commit such crime," the RSS leader added.

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Welcoming the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) action against Amway India, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Saturday called upon the central investigation agencies to launch a probe against all such companies which have been "looting" innocent people by luring them into earning "handsome incomes".

The RSS-affiliate also stressed the need to formulate a regulatory framework to "firmly" stop the "fraudulent practices" of such multi-level marketing (MLM) business models.

Recently, the ED attached assets worth over Rs 757 crore of Amway India, one of the most popular MLM and direct-selling companies in the country, as part of a money laundering investigation.

The federal agency issued a statement last Monday alleging that the company was perpetrating a "scam" by running a pyramid "fraud" in the guise of direct-selling MLM network.

It claimed that while the entire focus of the company was about propagating how people can become rich by becoming its members, there was no focus on the products.

"Products are used to masquerade this MLM pyramid fraud as a direct-selling company," the ED alleged.

After the ED action, an Amway spokesperson said the company is cooperating with the authorities "towards a fair, legal and logical conclusion of the outstanding issues".

"Swadeshi Jagran Manch welcomes the action taken by against the company, which ran the pyramid fraud under the guise of a direct selling multilevel marketing network," SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said in a statement on Saturday.

The SJM claimed that there are many more MLM companies which have been selling their products at exorbitant prices by "looting innocent citizens" and by "luring them to earn handsome incomes" in India.

"When those in the net of these companies start luring their friends and acquaintances, the chain starts," it said.

The ED has "rightly" pointed out that the firm's focus was on signing people up for the "get-rich schemes", and not selling products, it added.

Mahajan said a report published by the Federal Trade Commission, which studied the business model of 350 MLM companies, noted that 99 per cent of the people who take part in this business model lose their money.

"It may be a brilliant business model for the top of the pyramid salespeople but for the gullible public, it's a definite loss rather than an income opportunity," he said.

It's time to formulate a regulatory framework for the multi-level marketing companies to "firmly stop their fraudulent practices" in India, Mahajan added.

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Live news updates: Russian forces have renewed air attacks on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and are trying to storm it, two days after President said there was no need to.

Russian forces were hitting the Azovstal complex with air strikes and trying to storm it, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said, adding "the enemy is trying to strangle the final resistance of Mariupol's defenders".

The biggest battle of the conflict has raged for weeks as seeks to capture a city seen as crucial to its attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that seized in 2014.




Enthusiasm among devotees coming for the beginning on May 3 is at its peak with more than one lakh pilgrims having registered so far for the pilgrimage.

The tourism department has made registration of pilgrims for the yatra mandatory this time for their safety and well-being.

Pilgrims, therefore, are registering themselves online on the department's website.

begins this year on May 3 with the opening of the Gangotri and Yamunotri temples in Uttarkashi district. The portals of Kedarnath will open for devotees on May 6 and those of Badrinath on May 8.

Tourism secretary Dilip Jawalkar said from May 3 to May 31, 15,829 pilgrims have registered for Yamunotri, 16,804 for Gangotri, 41,107 for Kedarnath and 29,488 for Badrinath.

With the Covid pandemic situation returning to normal, pilgrims in large numbers are expected to come for the yatra this year, he said.

It is for the first time that they are being provided the facility of online registration and verification.

Their registration details are being shared with the district administrations concerned so that they know how many devotees visited the shrine on which day, the official said.

It will also help the administration make better arrangements for devotees at the Himalayan temples, he said.

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Doctors are hopeful that Pfizers anti-Covid oral drug Paxlovid, which is expected to be available this week in India, is likely to play a key role if Covid19 cases rise in India due to the new Omicron sub-lineage.

Hyderabad-based Hetero has already received the DCGI approval to launch the drug in India on April 21, and sources indicated that the drug may be available as soon as this week across the country.

The pricing in India is expected to be competitive, but Hetero has not disclosed the pricing of their version of Pfizers oral drug  a combination therapy of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir.

In March, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) had signed a license agreement with 35 generic drug makers to manufacture the generic version of Pfizers oral COVID-19 treatment nirmatrelvir, which in combination with a low dose of ritonavir can be supplied in 95 low-and middle-income countries. Of this, 19 firms are Indian including Torrent Pharma, Cadila Pharma, Hetero, Biocon, Strides, Glenmark, Granules, Macleods, Sun Pharma, and Cipla among others.

The other companies, too, are in the process of obtaining the necessary approvals from the DCGI to launch the Covid drug in India.

Doctors, however, are upbeat about the drugs availability as Covid19 cases in India are rising thanks to an Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12.1.

The introduction of Paxlovid in India is a very welcome addition to the Covid19 drugs arsenal. The studies have shown that this is a powerful agent in non-hospitalised patients in the early stages of Covid19 to reduce the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 per cent. This is one of the most powerful oral therapies now available to combat Covid19 infections, said Praveen Gupta, principal director, and head, the department of neurology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram.

He, however, cautioned that this combination of Ritonavir with nirmaltavir is shown to have some drug interactions. Therefore, one must consult their doctor before taking this medicine, especially the ones who are on multiple concurrent medicines, Gupta added.

Rahul Pandit, director-critical care, Fortis Hospital in Mumbai, and Member of the National Covid-19 Task Force said that Paxlovids generic version will be a useful drug for Covid patients.

Doctors do not think that Paxlovid is likely to face the same fate as Mercks molnupiravir, which saw a debate around the drugs safety.

This is an early-stage treatment which should be started as soon as possible as the onset of symptoms, and the dosing is twice daily for five days. This drug being more efficacious and not having the same safety concerns as molnupiravir, it is unlikely to meet the same fate as the latter. If the Covid19 wave rises in India now, Paxlovid is likely to become an important tool, Gupta said.

Paxlovid is administered as three tablets (two tablets of nirmatrelvir and one tablet of ritonavir) taken together orally twice daily for five days, for 30 tablets. The prescription drug should be initiated as soon as possible after the diagnosis of Covid-19 and within five days of symptom onset.

The World Health Organization has strongly recommended Pfizers oral antiviral drug for patients with non-severe Covid-19 who are at the highest risk of hospitalisation.

The WHO statement said: "Pfizers oral antiviral drug (a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets) is strongly recommended for patients with non-severe covid-19 who are at highest risk of hospitalisation, such as unvaccinated, older, or immunosuppressed patients, with lack of vaccination as an additional risk factor to consider."

In fact, Paxlovid has been recommended over Gilead's remdesivir and Merck's molnupiravir.
The police has ordered withdrawal of security cover of 184 former ministers and ex-MLAs and other leaders.

Personnel deployed on specific orders of the courts, however, will not be withdrawn, stated a letter by the additional director general of police (security).

The letter dated April 20 was sent to senior police officers, including police commissioners and senior superintendents of police.

Prominent among those who stand to lose their security cover are former ministers Surjit Kumar Rakhra, Sucha Singh Chottepur, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Madan Mohan Mittal, Tota Singh, and Gulzar Singh Ranike.

The security cover of the family of former chief ministers, and other ministers was also withdrawn.

Family of former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Raninder Singh, the son of former CM Amarinder Singh, Puneet Kaur, the wife of former minister Adesh Partap Singh, Kairon, Arjun Badal, the son of former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal will lose their security cover.

Other family members of politicians to lose their security were Charanjit Kaur Bajwa, the wife of Congress MLA Partap Singh Bajwa, and Udaybir Singh, the son of former minister Sukhjinder Randhawa.

Police also withdrew security cover of Rajeev Shukla, former MP and former chairman of IPL, Mahi Gill, who was the star campaigner for BJP in the state assembly polls, and Sidhant Chattopadhyay, the son of former DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay.

BJP leaders whose security cover was withdrawn included BJP general secretary Jiwan Gupta, former Punjab BJP chief Rajinder Bhandari, and Rajesh Bagga.

The security of former Akali and Congress MLAs including Gobind Singh Longowal, Jeet Mohinder Singh, Karan Kaur Brar, Balbir Singh Ghunas, Deep Malhotra, Mantar Singh Brar, Joginder Pal Jain, Arvind Khanna, and Sarabjit Makkar was also withdrawn.

Punjab Youth Congress chief Barinder Dhillon, former Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, former Jathedar of Patna Sahib Giani Iqbal Singh, and some SGPC members including Amarjit Singh Chawla and Surjit Singh Garhi also lost their security cover.

Last month, police had withdrawn the security cover of former ministers and MLAs.

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A day after attending various events in Madhya Pradesh, Union Home Minister on Saturday will spend the whole day in and engage in public and political events beginning with a programme to honour freedom fighter Veer Kunwar Singh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Shah's visit is part of his three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh, and Puducherry that started on Friday.

As per the engagements, Shah will visit Jagdishpur in Bihar's Bhojpur district and attend an event organized to celebrate 'Babu Veer Kunwar Singh Vijayutsav'.

The Home Minister will garland the photograph of freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav at the event scheduled at 12.50 pm and later address a gathering around 1.20 pm.

Shah will subsequently visit Jamuhar area in Bihar's Sasaram in Rohtas district where he is scheduled to participate in first convocation address of Gopal Narayan Singh Vishwavidyalaya around 3.38 pm.

On day one of his visit to Madhya Pradesh, Shah attended the 48th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) meet in Bhopal as a chief guest and a Forest Committee Conference.

Addressing both the events, the Home Minister mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is the government of the poor, tribals, dalits, and backward and its main objective is the welfare of the poor.

The Home Minister also said that the Modi government has achieved a huge success in finding a permanent solution to three problems - terrorism in Kashmir, Left Wing Extremism and drugs and armed groups in the North East.

"Many armed groups have joined the mainstream by laying down their arms, after the abrogation of Article 370, and a new era of enthusiasm and development has begun in Kashmir," Shah addressed on Friday in 48th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) meet.

"This change has come following analyzes and understanding of the issue, thorough discussions about remedies, work in progress on basis of a strategy," said Shah.

He also advised police departments to institutionalize a 10-year policing strategy and perform annual reviews.

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Up to 50,000 migrant workers, living in dormitories and working in Singapore's labour-intensive sectors, will be allowed to go about among the community on weekends and public holidays from April 26, an increase from the 30,000 limit now.

On weekdays, the limit will be raised to 25,000, up from the 15,000 now, said the Ministry of Health on Friday.

The migrant workers, largely from India, Bangladesh and China, may spend up to eight hours out each time, whether on weekdays or weekends.

With vaccine-related infection controls such as checks on vaccination status being lifted in most settings from next Tuesday, unvaccinated will also be allowed to resume activities within the community.

Unvaccinated will also not be required to apply for exit passes or take pre-visit antigen rapid tests before going to designated recreation centres.

Those who are vaccinated were already doing this from the start of this month.

Recreation centres aside, all -- vaccinated or otherwise -- will still need to apply for exit passes and indicate the locations in the community where they will be going.

MOH said that this is to manage overcrowding at popular locations.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will monitor the application numbers and continue to conduct regular checks at potential congregation hotspots.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the national COVID-19 task force, said the government is still imposing restrictions on migrant workers because the nature of communal living in dormitories leaves these workers at a greater health risk.

"As we all recognise, there are greater risks in these settings because of the communal living nature of dormitories where they are all eating, living, dining together," he said in response to a question on why migrant workers will still be restricted from visiting public places when the rules have been drastically relaxed for the rest of .

"We want to ensure that they are well-protected. And therefore, some control measures are still in place. But clearly, we are moving in the same direction of easing the measures for migrant workers and in the dormitories," he said.

Migrant worker dormitories that were found to be overcrowded were among the major COVID-19 clusters during the peak of the disease spread here.

The community visit programme was piloted in September last year, where up to 500 vaccinated migrant workers a week were allowed to leave their dormitories to visit designated areas for the first time in one-and-a-half years since the outbreak in early 2020.

The number has been gradually increased over time, with MOM in October last year raising it to 3,000 vaccinated migrant workers a week to selected places in the community.

Just last month, that quota was raised further to 15,000 vaccinated migrant workers on weekdays and 30,000 on weekends and public holidays.

As of last Thursday, has reported 1.17 million COVID-19 cases and 1,322- related deaths since the outbreak of the disease.

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on Friday met Secretary General Mathias Cormann and discussed issues of bilateral engagement.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the IMF-WB Spring meetings 2022 here.

"While appreciating @OECD's contributions to #G20, FM Smt. @nsitharaman discussed with Mr. @MathiasCormann India- bilateral engagements and India's #G20Presidency in 2023," the finance ministry said in a tweet.

India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in 2023.

G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation that plays an important role in global economic governance.

"Union Smt. @nsitharaman met European Commissioner for Economy Mr @PaoloGentiloni on the sidelines of IMF-WB Spring Meetings 2022, at Washington D.C., today. The leaders discussed issues of global concerns and mutual interest," another tweet said.

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The Army's tweet about holding of an Iftaar' party for the civilian population in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district was removed after trolling allegedly by extremist elements who felt offended by the pictures highlighting the secular character of the armed forces.

The now-deleted tweet on the Twitter handle of PRO Defence Jammu read keeping alive the traditions of secularism, an Iftaar was organized by the at Arnora in Doda district. It was accompanied by several photographs showing the Army and civilian breaking the fast together, a senior officer interacting with locals and a uniformed person joining Namaz' (prayers).

However, the tweet, which was uploaded on April 21, was deleted within hours after the handle came under attack from the trolls who were apparently against the secular character of the Army, a practice followed by the force which holds Sarva Dharma Sthal' -- a place of worship for all religions in all its formations across the country.





Army organised an Iftar Party at Gundna, Doda District and Mughal Maidan of Kishtwar district of Jammu & on 04 June 2018 to celebrate holy month of with locals pic.twitter.com/GoaiORSSQH  A. Bharat Bhushan Babu (@SpokespersonMoD) June 4, 2018

Though an Army spokesperson declined to comment on the issue, an Army officer on the condition of anonymity said the force had not only tweeted about the function but also issued an official release as Iftaar parties are a regular feature during the fasting month of to build a strong bond with the public.

It was surprising and sad to see the reaction of certain people to the tweet which triggered unnecessary debate and was killing the basic message of upholding communal harmony, the officer said.

Now this disease has spread even in the Sad, a tweet in Hindi by a social media user referring to the Army hosting the Iftaar party triggered a debate in support and against the Army.

However, the removal of the tweet from the Army handle did not go down well with the veteran soldiers.

 has been at the forefront of interfaith harmony. We as officers take pride in the fact that we have NO religion, we just adopt the religion of the troops we command, Maj Gen (retd) Yash Mor tweeted.
Two Pakistani militants of the (JeM) outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of on Saturday, police said.

They said the operation was still going on.

Giving details, a police spokesman said based on specific input regarding the presence of terrorists in the Mirhama area of Kulgam in south Kashmir, a cordon and search operation was launched by the security forces there.

As the search party proceeded towards the suspected spot during the operation, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately at it, which was retaliated effectively leading to a gunbattle, he said.

In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of JeM outfit were killed and their bodies retrieved from the site, the spokesman said, adding the operation was in progress.

Based on the credible source report and as per physical appearance, both the killed terrorists seem to be Pakistani JeM terrorists. However, their identification is being ascertained, he said.

Earlier in a tweet, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said one of the slain ultras was a Pakistani national and belonged to the JeM outfit.

"One #Pakistani #terrorist of proscribed #terror outfit JeM killed. #Operation in progress," Kumar wrote on Twitter.

Incriminating material and arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter and they have been taken into case records for further investigation, the spokesman said.

He said a team of the CRPF also joined the operation and civilians have been evacuated from nearby houses and the cordon has been strengthened.

Encounter will be resumed in the first light tomorrow morning. Further information will be shared accordingly, the spokesman said.

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The US is discouraging from relying on Russia, its largest defence supplier, for its defence needs, citing the crippling impact the Western sanctions will have on Russian military-industrial complexes after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, top American officials have said.

The remarks of the top Biden administration officials this week came amid growing disquiet in Western capitals over India's refusal to directly condemn the Russian aggression in Ukraine and its decision to procure discounted Russian oil.

"We've been very clear with as well as other nations that we don't want to see them rely on for defence needs. We've been nothing but honest about that and discouraging that," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference in Washington on Friday.

"At the same time, we also value the defence partnership that we have with . And as was evidenced a week ago, we're looking at ways to improve that going forward. That's going to continue because it matters and it's important, he said.

"India is a provider of security in the region and we value that, Kirby said.

US State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet on Thursday said the Biden administration is very much eager to work with India as it diversifies its defence capabilities and defence suppliers.

Following the third convening of the EU-US dialogue on China held in Brussels, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman the US would work with India to help it reduce its traditional reliance on Russian weapons.

"India is an incredibly consequential country for all of us. It is a democracy. It is a messy democracy but so are we...They are not an easy democracy but they are a young democracy," she said on Thursday.

"They are very worried about the PRC (China). They understand that their military, which was built on Russian weapons, probably doesn't have a future with Russian weapons anymore because our sanctions have pulled back the military-industrial complex of -- and it's not coming back anytime soon, she said in response to a question on India's dependence on Russian weapons.

"We are going to work with India to support them as a growing, important and consequential democracy which they are. By 2030 they are going to be the largest of everything, the largest wealthy class, the largest middle class, probably the largest poor class. They are the largest of everything and they are a partner with us in the Quad along with Australia and Japan."



In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with to buy five units of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to ramp up its air defence, despite a warning from the then Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite US sanctions.

The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.

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The reached a landmark deal early Saturday to take aim at hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content online that would force big tech companies to police themselves harder, make it easier for users to flag problems and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.

EU officials finally clinched the agreement in principle in the early hours of Saturday over the final details of the Digital Services Act, which will overhaul the digital rulebook for 27 countries and cement Europe's reputation as the global leader in reining in the power of companies and other digital platforms, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.

With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care' is coming to an end," said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager added that "with today's agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.

The act is the EU's third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the U.S., where lobbyists representing Silicon Valley's interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay.

While the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

The EU's new rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their fundamental rights online, should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms' algorithms.

Breton said they will have plenty of stick to back up their laws.

It entrusts the Commission with supervising very large platforms, including the possibility to impose effective and dissuasive sanctions of up to 6% of global turnover or even a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches, he said.

The tentative agreement was reached between the EU parliament and member states.

It still needs to be officially rubber-stamped by those institutions but should pose no political problem.

The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. It's the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets, said Ben Scott, a former tech policy advisor to Hillary Clinton who's now executive director of advocacy group Reset.

Negotiators had been hoping to hammer out a deal before French elections Sunday. A new French government could stake out different positions on digital content.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russia was found to have used platforms to try to influence the country's vote.

Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened.

During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of allowing anti-vaccine falsehoods to thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to request companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, and commercial scams.

platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an easy and effective way so that it can be swiftly removed. Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardised so that they will work the same way on any online platform.

The tech giants have been lobbying furiously in Brussels to water down the EU rules. Google said in a statement on Friday that it looks forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone.

Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services. Facebook didn't respond to requests for comment, and Twitter declined to comment.

The Digital Services Act would ban ads targeted at minors, as well as ads targeted at users based on their gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

It would also ban deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they didn't intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show they're making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services.

But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts.

This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the European Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a supervisory fee, which could be up to 0.1% of their annual global net income, depending on the negotiations.

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EU's borders.

If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says By golly, why don't American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers,' it's going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules elsewhere, Scott said.

But the companies aren't likely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank.

There is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU, Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its so-called Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behaviour of tech companies.

Much of the problem centres on the fact that a company's lead privacy regulator is in the country where its European head office is located, which for most tech companies is Ireland.

Irish regulators have opened dozens of data-privacy investigations, but have only issued judgements for a handful.

Critics say the problem is understaffing, but the Irish regulator says the cases are complex and time-consuming.

EU officials say they have learned from that experience and will make the bloc's executive Commission the enforcer for the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

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Facing mounting demands to step down by protestors for three weeks continuously, Sri Lankan Prime Minister has said has assured help to solve the urgent in the country.

Rajapaksa on Friday said in a telephone conversation with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who assured him that will support for economic and social stability.

"Had a very productive conversation with Chinese Premier . I reiterated #SriLanka's gratitude to # for the longstanding friendship and for assuring support to address some of the crucial needs affecting peoples' livelihoods and well-being in these difficult times," the Sri Lankan Prime Minister tweeted following the telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart.

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister's Office said the Chinese Premier made this comment in a phone conversation with Rajapaksa on Friday.

The Prime Minister's Office issuing a statement said has noted that China understands the difficulties and challenges that was facing, and it will do its best to uplift the livelihoods of the people of .

"We understand the difficulties you are going through. We will work together to avoid these difficulties," the Prime Minister's Office added.

Chinese Prime Minister has guaranteed that both the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments will work together in solving the urgent financial issues, the Prime Minister's Office said.

The two leaders also discussed on further talks on the Free Trade Agreement, reducing Sri Lanka's trade deficit, and attracting more Chinese tourists to the country.

Chinese leader's assurance comes in the wake of Beijing's pledge on Thursday of an urgent emergency humanitarian aid of RMB 200 million which would be provided to Sri Lanka, China Development Cooperation Agency had announced that the humanitarian aid will include rice, medicines, production materials and other essentials, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

However, China has been keeping mum on the request of Sri Lanka, one of the members of 146 Belt and Road initiative, for debt rescheduling and $2.5 billion assistance.

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must be treated just like any other once talks begin to restructure Sri Lankas debt, Indias Finance Minister said she told the Monetary Fund and .



All creditors must be treated equally and with transparency, Sitharaman said in an interview in Washington Friday. Ive emphasized that point in general and in the context of .

Ready to Offer Urgently Needed Help

was looking to borrow $1 billion from Beijing so that it can repay existing Chinese loans due in July, as well as a $1.5 billion credit line to purchase goods. The South Asian nation, which is running out of dollars to pay for imports, is also seeking aid from neighbor India, the and the .

Sitharaman said she has also requested the consider rapid aid for middle income-classified Sri Lanka -- typically given only to low-income countries -- as the pandemic has destroyed the islands tourism revenue.

With foreign-exchange earnings plunging, Sri Lanka struggled to manage its external debt, which had grown in part due to loans from to fund ambitious infrastructure projects. Sri Lanka had about $3.5 billion in from China by end-2020, excluding loans to state enterprises, according to central bank data.

How Sri Lanka Landed in a Crisis and What It Means: QuickTake

This year, it also has to pay $2.2 billion of principal and interest payments for dollar-denominated bonds and loans, with the number rising to about $2.7 billion annually in both 2023 and 2024, available data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Even after the former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan-led PTI members resigned from the National Assembly, these ex-lawmakers are still enjoying the facilities, including official vehicles and staff.

The National Assembly Standing Committee chairman is usually provided with four employees and a car. Despite quitting their offices, the former PTI parliamentarians were still using these vehicles, reported The Express Tribune.

According to the sources, the National Assembly secretariat had decided to approach these former chairmen to ask them to return the cars and other official facilities.

Despite the resignations of the 123 lawmakers of the PTI in the National Assembly, around 12 members of the party are still working in the capacity of chairmen of different standing committees.

The PTI had more than 12 chairmen of the standing committees in the National Assembly. Among these were Imtiaz Chaudhry, civil aviation; Munazza Hassan, climate change; Amjad Ali Khan, defence; Imran Khattak, energy; Faizullah, finance; Malik Ehsaan, foreign affairs; Najeeb Haroon, housing; Ali Jadoon, IT; Raja Khurram Nawaz, interior; Mujahid Ali, parliamentary affairs; Junaid Akbar, planning and Sajid Khan, Safron, as per the local media outlet.

On April 14, then National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri, in his capacity as the acting Speaker, had accepted the resignations of 123 PTI MNAs, who had accepted their party chairman Imran Khan's appeal after his removal from the office of the Prime Minister through a no-confidence motion earlier this month.

was ousted following the voting on the no-confidence motion that had resulted in his government losing with 174 votes in favour of the motion. After Imran's ouster, took oath as the 23rd Prime Minister of .

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Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of stranded civilians in the besieged city of Mariupol might operate on Saturday.

In a Facebook post late Friday night, Vereshchuk said: "Appeal to our civilians who are waiting for the evacuation from Mariupol.

There is a possibility that tomorrow we will be able to open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol."

The Minister said that evacuation buses will be collecting civilians at the roundabout in front of the Port-City shopping mall at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

She urged Mariupol residents to follow official reports on Saturday morning.

"If everything is alright, I'll give a confirmation. I am writing to you now so that you are somewhat prepared if in the morning we manage to agree on the corridor," Vereshchuk added.

She recalled that humanitarian corridors from Mariupol have been disrupted on many occasions, but reiterated that "we have to try as many times as is necessary, until we succeed".

On Thursday, evacuation buses with 79 Mariupol residents who left the besieged city the previous day arrived on territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.

Mariupol has been under siege since March 1, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

On April 12, some of the Ukrainian Marines were able to break through from the Ilyich plant to the Azov Regiment at the Azovstal plant, and some were taken prisoner.

The Russian army continues dropping bombs on the Azovstal plant.

On April 19, Sviatoslav Palamar (Kalyna), Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment, said that the Azovstal plant had been almost completely destroyed and that Ukrainian soldiers were trying to rescue people from under the rubble.

The Russian Defence Ministry asked Ukrainian defenders stationed at Azovstal to lay down their arms and surrender several times.

Russia wants to control Mariupol because of its strategic location which would ensure unimpeded land access from Donbas to Crimea.

--IANS

ksk/

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Directing his supporters to prepare for the march for "true freedom", Pakistan's former prime minister on Saturday threatened to launch a protest rally soon towards the national capital Islamabad against the new government led by Shehbaz Sharif.

Khan was ousted earlier this month through a no-confidence vote, which he alleged was orchestrated by the US through a conspiracy to topple his government for following an independent foreign policy. The US has rebuffed the claims multiple times.

Khan has addressed three big rallies in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore since losing power and is planning a long march against the new government and forcing it to announce snap polls.

Addressing his maiden press conference since his ouster, Khan said he would announce the date for the march later but directed his followers to start preparations for true freedom.

A huge sea of people would go towards the federal capital, he asserted.

"People have begun to understand the joke that happened with them and the kind of people placed on us (as rulers)," he told reporters at his Banigala residence.

Khan alleged that an unprecedented number of "criminals" and those who were out on bail were part of the new Cabinet.

Observers say the march might be organised after the holy month of Ramzan, which will end at the beginning of next month.

Khan also harped that the foreign conspiracy to topple his government has proven "true" after the meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) on Friday also "confirmed that the cable was genuine and the conversation with (US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia) Donald Lu was real.

The language used (in the cable) was undiplomatic. I will say it was arrogance, he said.

In a statement released after its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the NSC on Friday said it discussed the telegram received from the embassy in Washington last month which was used by Khan to portray his removal through no-confidence vote as a US conspiracy for following an independent foreign policy.

The meeting concluded that "there has been no foreign conspiracy", the statement said.

Earlier this month, Pakistan's powerful Army had also contradicted Khan's remarks accusing America of hatching a conspiracy to topple his government, saying there was no evidence of interference in the country's internal matters.

Khan also blasted the head of the Election Commission of Pakistan, saying that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja was clearly biased and should resign.

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and have expressed their serious concern about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, violations of human rights and the hampered access of girls and women to education, a joint statement said after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Boris Johnson.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said both Prime Ministers called on the to allow girls to return to secondary school.

"On Afghanistan, both sides expressed their serious concern about the humanitarian situation, violations of human rights and the hampered access of girls and women to education. Both Prime Ministers called on the to allow girls to return to secondary school," the joint statement read.

Prime Minister Modi acknowledged the role of the in co-hosting the UN Conference for the humanitarian response on March 31.

According to the statement, Johnson acknowledged the role played by in providing medical and food grain assistance to the people of .

"The Leaders reaffirmed the importance of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2593 (2021) which unequivocally demands that Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts and called for concerted action against all terrorist groups, including those sanctioned by the UNSC," the statement read.

Both sides agreed to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the people of and reiterated the need for a representative and inclusive political system in support of a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan.

In the joint statement, both leaders also reiterated their commitment to transform defence and security cooperation as a key pillar of the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and enhance engagements in support of a free, open and secure Indo Pacific.

They agreed to deepen co-operation, including by quickly resolving legacy issues and intensifying cooperation as trusted partners under the India-UK Defence and Security Partnership framework.

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and the United Kingdom on Friday reiterated commitment to a partnership for vision 2030 for an open, accessible and peaceful cyberspace that will bring a more secure .

"Through cyberspace there is a digital living bridge that allows our citizens, students and businesses to interact and promote our shared prosperity. As we take advantage of the new opportunities this creates, we must also protect ourselves against evolving threats," said the India-UK joint statement after the meeting between Prime Minister and UK Prime Minister .

In May 2021, PM Modi and PM Johnson agreed to an Enhanced Cyber Security Partnership. Today, and the United Kingdom outline their commitment to a joint programme of cooperation to deliver this partnership, focused on cyber governance, deterrence, resilience and capacity building.

According to the joint statement, the rules-based order must be upheld online, just as it is offline.

and the United Kingdom expressed concern by the increased willingness of states and their proxies to undertake malicious cyber activities contrary to identified norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. "We will deepen co-ordination on mitigation strategies against Advanced Persistent Threats as well as cooperation on tackling cybercrime."

India and the United Kingdom recognised the vital role of voluntary and non-binding norms of responsible state behaviour in reducing risks to peace, security and stability as reaffirmed by the 2021 reports of the UN Sixth Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace in the Context of Security' and 'Open Ended Working Group on Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security'.

"We draw attention to the norms prohibiting the use of cyber tools to intentionally damage or impair critical infrastructure and the obligation of states to respond to appropriate requests to mitigate malicious ICT activity aimed at the critical infrastructure of another state emanating from their territory," the statement read.

Both countries vowed to work to elaborate under the UN framework a comprehensive international convention on countering the use by criminals of ICTs to increase international cooperation on preventing, deterring, mitigating, investigating and prosecuting cybercrimes, ensuring speedy justice for the victims of cybercrime and taking into account the need for appropriate safeguards including data protection.

"India and the United Kingdom are working in close cooperation under the International Counter Ransomware Initiative," the MEA statement read.

India and the United Kingdom said that they will work in partnership to increase their mutual cyber resilience, taking a holistic and whole-of-society approach.

"We will complete joint work to identify shared vulnerabilities, and promote effective public-private partnerships, with a view to ensuring decisions on systems design and deployment take into account public safety protections and increasing the awareness and ability of the public and infrastructure owners, to increase resilience against malicious cyber activity," they said.

Both countries said they will continue to work closely with industry and through international standards organisations to ensure Internet of Things connectable devices are secure by design. We will support efforts to increase the availability and diversity of cyber skills in our workforce and promote people-to-people and educational links to enhance awareness in the domain of cyberspace.

They also recognised that governments cannot meet the challenges of the digital age alone and the private sector plays an important role as developers and implementers of new technologies, and in relation to data management.

"We will work in collaboration with industry to deliver shared responsibilities to improve online safety and protect users online, working together with multi-stakeholders. We will continue to collaborate closely with digital service providers, social media and telecommunications companies, encouraging cooperation to embed safety in the services they offer while ensuring the protection of user privacy and their cooperation with the relevant government entities especially with the onset of 5G and 6G technologies," it added.

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The French will decide on Sunday whether to re-elect pro-business centrist President or blow up decades of mainstream consensus in favour of far-right .

Here's what to expect from them on major issues:

- THE ECONOMY:

LE PEN: The far-right heiress has transformed the former National Front, turning her father's free-market, small-government party into a big-spending, protectionist one.

She wants to implement a "Buy French" policy for public tenders, cut the minimum retirement age to 60 for those who started work before 20, scrap income tax for those aged under 30, and cut VAT on energy to 5.5% from 20%.

She would also spend 2 billion euros ($2.18 billion) over 5 years raising hospital workers' salaries and recruiting an extra 10,000 of them. Teachers' salaries would rise 15% over 5 years.

Gilles Ivaldi, political scientist at Sciences-Po, says her party's economic programme is further to the left than it has been for decades.

"Free trade kills the planet," she said during a TV debate with Macron.

MACRON : The French leader plans to double down on supply-side reforms he has implemented during his first mandate, with the main plank of his manifesto being an increase in the minimum pension age to 65 from 62.

"I don't want to increase our taxes, I don't want to increase our debt, I even want to start paying it off over the next five years," Macron said during the debate. "So I want us to work more."

Macron is also promising to make some welfare benefits conditional on 15-20 hours of training, similar to policies in countries such as the United States or Britain. Unemployment benefits would be linked to the strength of the economy.

In his attempt to stay true to his "neither left nor right" motto, he has also promised to make benefits automatic for those who qualify instead of requiring would-be recipients to apply.

- EUROPE :

LE PEN : She insists she has no "secret agenda" for - a founding member of the EU - to leave the 27-nation bloc, its single currency or its passport-free Schengen zone.

Opponents believe her policies would at best create new tensions within the bloc - whose unity has been tested in recent years by a migration crisis, Britain's departure and the COVID-19 pandemic - and at worst lead to a "Frexit".

Le Pen has said she would cut French contributions to the EU budget, renegotiate the Schengen agreement and re-introduce checks on goods entering the country from other EU states.

She would seek to re-establish the primacy of French law over EU law - the foundational basis of European integration - and wants the bloc to become a loose association of cooperating sovereign countries.

"It amounts to a complete hollowing-out of what the EU has been trying to achieve all these years," said one senior diplomat. "But it's not presented that way."

MACRON : The ardent Europhile would continue his push to develop what he calls Europe's "strategic autonomy" in defence, technology, agriculture and energy and reduce the bloc's dependence on other powers.

Macron has sought to re-orient the EU towards a more protectionist stance, blocking some free-trade deals with other blocs such as South America's Mercosur and creating a mechanism that increases scrutiny of outside takeovers of strategic EU companies.

Macron is also likely to push for more regulation of U.S.

tech giants and has said he wanted to create a "European metaverse" to compete with Facebook's.

The relationship between Paris and Berlin will remain key to shaping Europe's future.

"I believe in the Franco-German couple," he said.

- THE WESTERN ALLIANCE:

LE PEN : Le Pen wants to pull out of transatlantic military alliance NATO's integrated command, in a challenge to the West's post-Cold War security architecture.

Opponents accuse her of being too close to Moscow. Her party received a bank loan from a Russian bank in 2014 and she was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin shortly before the 2017 presidential election.

Macron accused Le Pen of being on Putin's payroll, telling her: "You talk about your banker when you talk about Russia." She has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but says Moscow could be an ally again post-war. She said she would pursue a foreign policy at equal distance from Washington and Moscow.

MACRON : Although Macron ruffled feathers across the trans-Atlantic alliance, notably in eastern Europe and Germany, when he called NATO "brain-dead" in 2019, he has since said the Russian invasion of Ukraine had "jolted it back to life".

He would nonetheless seek to make Europeans less dependent on the U.S. military for security.

Macron has pushed the EU to focus more on the Indo-Pacific and China's rising influence in the region. However, he clashed with Washington, London and Canberra after Australia ditched a massive submarine deal with .

He has been guarded over whether he would seek to cooperate with the new U.S.-UK-Australia security alliance - dubbed AUKUS - against China or try and persuade the EU to pursue its own independent policy towards Beijing.

($1 = 0.9195 euros)

(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Richard Lough and Ros Russell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ukraine's security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russia's elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupol's steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraine's Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

___



Bucharest: The Moldovan government strongly criticised comments Friday by a Russian military official suggesting that Russia's forces are aiming to take control of not just eastern but southern as well, creating another way to the region of Transnistria in Moldova.

Moldova's government on Friday called Rustam Minnekayev's comments not only unacceptable but also unfounded". The statement added that his words will lead to increased tension and mistrust in society.

Minnekayev said at a defence industry event earlier Friday that broader control of would open the way to Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria.

Transnistria broke away after a short civil war in the early 1990s and is unrecognized by most countries. An estimated 1,500 Russian soldiers have been stationed there since the civil war.

Since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine on Feb. 24, fears have grown that Moldova could be next in Russia's crosshairs. Moldova is not a member of the European Union or .

The war has prompted Moldovan officials to try to speed up the country's bid to join the 27-nation EU, which it applied to do last month. The process, however, will likely take many years.

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More than 11 million people have fled since Russia began its war against Kiev on February 24, according to the latest UN figures.

The world body further revealed that while 5.1 million people left for neighbouring countries, another 6.48 million were believed to have been displaced inside the war-torn nation, reports the BBC.

Of the 5.1 million people, Poland has taken in 2,867,241 refugees, the highest number, followed by Romania (769,616), Russia (578,255), Hungary (480,974), Moldova (430,170), Slovakia (349,286) and Belarus (23,900), according to the UN.

As of April 21, the Czech Republic has granted 304,039 emergency visas to Ukrainian .

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the UN's Organization for Migration (IOM) between March 9-16 revealed that 13.5 per cent of the newly displaced people had already had prior experience with displacement during 2014-2015.

Many of those displaced are particularly vulnerable, pregnant and breastfeeding women, elderly persons, those with disabilities, chronic illnesses and people directly affected by violence.

According to the survey, more than 53 per cent of internally displaced people are women and the most pressing needs include medicines, health services and financial resources.

The European Union (EU) has granted Ukrainian a blanket right to stay and work throughout its 27 member nations for up to three years, the BBC reported.

They will also receive social welfare and access to housing, medical treatment and schools.

The UK has also launched a family visa scheme for Ukrainians, as well as the Homes for initiative, under which people in Britain can nominate an individual or family to stay with them rent-free for at least six months.

As of April 20, 71,800 visas had been issued through both schemes, out of 107,200 applications.

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Violent terrorist attacks have become a frequent occurrence in certain areas of the Khyber tribal district and in .

In one such attack, two police posts located in Ajab Talab Khyber and Secretary Pul in were targeted by the terrorists. On Wednesday, an inspector and assistant sub-inspector accompanied by five civilians were killed by terrorists, reported The News .

Assistant of sub-inspector (ASI) Rahim Shah, who was critically injured in the attack also succumbed to his wounds and later died. His funeral was attended by Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Ijaz Khan and other police officials.

The attack happened, post a search operation that was conducted the previous day, in the towns of Shahab Khel, Bazid Khel, Sheikh Mohammadi, and other places. Allegedly, about 18 suspects were taken into custody during the operation, according to The News .

Further, towns within Badaber, Sarband, and Matani are also falling prey to frequent terrorist attacks in the last few weeks. The Sadar office of the Superintendent of Police(SP) along with various police posts and patrolling vans have been ambushed by terrorists with grenades in recent months.

Police authorities have confirmed that stringent measures will be taken to improve law and order in these villages of the Saddar division and other towns situated in the adjacent Khyber tribal district.

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Indonesia's new export ban will hurt other countries but is necessary to try to bring down the soaring domestic price of cooking oil driven up by Russia's war in Ukraine, Indonesia's finance minister told Reuters on Friday.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that with demand exceeding supplies, the ban announced earlier on Friday is "among the harshest moves" the government could take after previous measures failed to stabilize domestic prices.

"We know that this is not going to be the best result," for global supplies, she said in an interview on the sidelines of the Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings. "If we are not going to export, that's definitely going to hit the other countries."

China and India are among big importers of from Indonesia, the world's largest producer accounting for more than half the world's supply. is used in products from cooking oils to processed foods, cosmetics and biofuels.

Indrawati said previous measures requiring producers to reserve stocks for domestic use did not result in "the level of prices that we want. It's still too expensive for the ordinary household to buy those cooking oils."

At this week's meetings in Washington, policymakers have expressed concern about growing prospects of food shortages due to the war in Ukraine, a major producer of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. World Bank President David Malpass said repeatedly that countries should avoid hoarding of food stocks, export controls and other trade barriers to food.

COUNTRY NEEDS FIRST

But Indrawati, a former World Bank managing director, said that as a political leader and policy maker food security issues needed to be defined first at the country level, then regionally and globally.

She likened the current food supply situation to the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, when countries competed with each other for masks, medical protective gear and other critical supplies.

"Just like we were facing during the pandemic, we know this is not good in the medium and long term, but in the short term, you cannot stand in front of your people when you have the commodity which is needed by your people and you let (supplies) just go out" of the country.

Indonesia's move, which takes effect on April 28, caused prices of alternative vegetable oils to surge, with soybean oil hitting a record high on Friday. An Indian trade group called the ban "rather unfortunate and totally unexpected."

Indrawati said her government would analyze the impact of the measure on global and regional market dynamics.

For palm oil and other food commodities, she said the World Bank and other institutions needed to focus on "supply side measures" to increase production.

But Indrawati said has limited ability to increase palm oil production due to environmental concerns. Since 2018, the government stopped issuing new permits for palm oil plantations, which are often blamed for deforestation and destroying habitats of endangered animals such as orangutans.

Instead, was focusing on improving infrastructure to allow producers to become more efficient and increasing production of other crops in high demand, including corn and soybeans, she said.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Dan Burns and Daniel Wallis)

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The last time Russia invaded Ukraine, in 2014, outraged world leaders booted Russia out of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, which quickly rebranded itself the Group of Seven.

Eight years later, the G-7 is still holding at seven a collection of countries that meet to talk through big issues like trade, economics and security.

This past week, as global leaders gathered in Washington for spring meetings involving officials from the Monetary Fund, World Bank, G-7 and the larger Group of 20, it quickly became apparent that despite Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine, its membership in the G-20 remains firmly intact.

While Russia has been rendered a pariah country by Western states, it will remain part of the G-20 and associated organisations unless member countries achieve a consensus that it should go.

That appears less and less likely, as several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have made clear they will support Russia's membership in the G-20, which represents industrial and emerging-market countries.

Why would Russia want to stick around when its presence in the group is clearly unwelcome to many?



It has much to gain from disrupting events and sowing general discord between countries in the forums.

A glimpse of this was seen this past week when Russia blocked the IMF's key advisory committee from issuing a communique condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

Faced with the questions over what to do about Russia's membership in the organisation, various world finance leaders at the meetings alternately squirmed, dodged, walked out in protest or stayed put.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, when asked about the prospect of kicking Russia out of the G-20, avoided calling for its ouster.

There are clearly very, very unsettling facts we have to deal with,'' she said of Russia's aggression. But then she pivoted to focusing on the need for cooperation to solve big world problems.

Make a list of questions that no country can solve on its own, she said, and it's obvious that cooperation must continue.''



Nadia Calvino, Spain's economy minister and chair of the IMF advisory committee, lamented that the meeting had obviously not been business as usual.

Russia's war against Ukraine has made it impossible to come to a consensus on a communique," she said, adding that the committee "has traditionally worked on the basis of consensus, so when one member breaks away, we cannot reach the agreement that the overwhelming majority of us would have wanted.''



The World Bank said it stopped all of its programs in Russia and allied Belarus after the invasion in late February and has not approved any new investments in Russia since 2014 or in Belarus since mid-2020.

The IMF said it hasn't loaned money to Russia in decades and supports no programmes there.

The dispute at the IMF meeting highlighted the problems that government leaders are likely to face in Indonesia in November, when G-20 leaders are set to gather in Bali.

President Joe Biden has called for Russia to be kicked out of the group, but the U.S. has not said whether Biden would boycott the gathering if Russia participates.

The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. Spain is invited as a permanent guest.

The U.S. and Canada have been the biggest critics of Russia's membership.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland were among a number of officials who walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday when Russia's representative started talking.

Freeland later tweeted: This week's meetings in Washington are about supporting the world economy and Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine is a grave threat to the global economy. Russia should not be participating or included in these meetings.

But several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have been vocal about rejecting measures to remove Russia.

They've argued that engagement is more important than isolation in troubled times.

To expel Russia would only isolate it and make it more difficult to achieve constructive engagement,' said Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for South Africa's Department of Relations and Cooperation.

"South Africa believes it is more useful to keep Russia in and to engage with it to find the lasting peace that we are all yearning for.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Frana told a news conference in Brasilia that excluding Russia doesn't help us find a solution to the immediate problem that we have, which is the need to cease hostilities and have Russia and Ukraine negotiate a lasting peace.

Stewart Patrick, director of the Institutions and Global Governance Programme at the Council on Foreign Relations, said boycotting the G-20 would be a mistake on the part of the U.S.

Rather, he said, the U.S. should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians and should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians, during the meetings later this year.

Boycotting is not sustainable, he said. There should be efforts to try to shame Russia. It would be a mistake for the U.S. to take its ball and go elsewhere, because we would leave a hole in the G-20 to be controlled by China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last month Russia remains an important member of the G-20 and no member has the right to expel another.

The G-20 should practice genuine multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and work together to address outstanding challenges in the areas of economics, finance and sustainable development, Wang said.

Adam Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center, said Russia has the most to gain from the discord that comes from the U.S. calling for its removal.

By showing up they're potentially derailing the whole G-20," he said of the Russians.

That's giving them more control than they should have. If the U.S. boycotts, then the G-20 falls apart and that's to Russia's benefit.

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UN Secretary-General is set to visit to meet with Russian President and Foreign Minister .

Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Eri Kaneko announced the visit on Friday. The also confirmed the visit, saying Putin and Lavrov will receive Guterres for talks.

"The Secretary-General will visit Moscow, Russian Federation, where, on Tuesday, April 26, he will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister and will be received by President Vladimir Putin," she said.

Kaneko noted that Putin and Lavrov will meet with Guterres on the same day.

When asked about Guterres' possible visit to Ukraine, Kaneko said the UN is "still working with Ukraine on the preparations" for such a visit.

On Tuesday, Guterres called for a four-day humanitarian pause in Ukraine beginning on Holy Thursday and running through Christian Orthodox Easter on Sunday, and appealed all sides to the conflict to open a window for dialogue and peace.

The humanitarian pause suggested by Guterres entails launching humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave the embattled areas of Ukraine.

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The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the string of terrorist attacks in on April 21, including the attack against the Seh Dokan Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif and a separate attack in Kunduz, claimed by Islamic State.

In a statement issued on Friday, the attacks have resulted in dozens killed and many more injured, and follow other recent attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including in religious minority communities across .

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security.

The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of accountble and bring them to justice.

They urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement said.

They also reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under law.

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US President has said that his Chinese counterpart once told him that he was strengthening against China.

China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, has been vehemently opposing the alliance since its formation.

Biden, during a Democratic Party fundraiser event at a private residence in Seattle on Friday, said that he had indicated to Xi that I was going to pull together the Quad: Australia, India, Japan and the United States. He said, 'You're just doing that to affect us.' I said, 'No, it's because we're trying to put together those folks who have an opportunity to work together in the Indo-Pacific'".

"The point being that one of the things that the autocrats fear the most -- and India has its own problems; all those countries have their own problems -- is the notion that somehow we can work together in concert and contrary to what are essentially dictatorships, which a lot of countries have become, particularly not only China but Russia and many other countries...the Philippines, he said.

In February, China termed the alliance as a "tool" to contain China's rise and to maintain American hegemony.

"China believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentially a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony.

It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine solidarity and cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian had said in Beijing in February.

During the party fundraiser event, Biden said that when he got elected, Russian president Vladimir Putin thought that he would easily be able to break up the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

"That was part of his objective from the very beginning. And I know I've been saying that for eight years, but it was part of his objective, he said.

But the irony of all ironies to this... he got exactly what he did not want, Biden said.

The US president said that Putin was looking for further Finlandisation (the process whereby a country is induced to favour, or refrain from opposing, the interests of a more powerful country) of Europe. Instead, he got Finland wanting to join NATO and Sweden wanting to join NATO. His action is generating exactly the opposite of what he intended.

"I'm not suggesting that makes things all that easier. But the point is that we have a circumstance where the Ukrainian people are incredibly brave; they're incredibly resolved, not just the military that was trained but the people in the streets.

"They are making a lie of Putin's theory that somehow because they're Slavic in background and many spoke Russian that somehow there would be a welcoming party. The exact opposite has happened, Biden added.

In November 2017, the US, Australia, India and Japan gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, amidst China's growing military presence in the strategic region.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.

The Quad leaders, at their first-in-person summit in Washington in September last year hosted by US President Biden, had pledged to ensure a "free and open" Indo-Pacific, which is also "inclusive and resilient", as they noted that the strategically vital region, witnessing China's growing military manoeuvring, is a bedrock of their shared security and prosperity.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian, he wants to stress that as the Cold War is long over, the attempt to forge a so-called alliance to contain China wins no support and leads nowhere.

Zhao also alleged that the US was playing up the China threat theory in order to "smear, oppress and contain China's development".

Meanwhile, the next in-person Quad summit is expected to be hosted by Japan next month.

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A senior US official has warned against providing "material support" to Russian President Vladimir Putin's "unprovoked" war in Ukraine, saying sanctions against Moscow would give Beijing some idea of the menu from which America could choose.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's warning came on Thursday following the third convening of the EU-US dialogue on in Brussels.

She said less than three weeks before Putin launched his unprovoked war against Ukraine, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that the People's Republic of (PRC) and have "a no limits partnership" with no "forbidden areas" of cooperation.

"Since then we have seen the PRC signalling its support for Russia," she said.

"They (China) have failed to condemn Russian war crimes and voted against the resolution to expel from the Human Rights Council."



The adopted a resolution on April 7 to suspend from the UN Human Rights Council following reports of violations committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

China has repeatedly drawn false equivalencies between Russia's war of aggression and Ukraine's self-defensive actions," she said.

Sherman accused China's state-run media of parroting "the Kremlin's disinformation, including absurd claims that NATO and Ukraine posed a threat to Russia.

Let's be clear, China's already doing things that do not help this situation, Sherman said.

When asked about what the US could do if China provided material support to Russia, she said: And we've been very direct that they have seen what we have done in terms of sanctions, export controls, designations vis-a-vis Russia, so it should give them some idea of the menu from which we could choose if, indeed, China were to provide material support."



She hoped that Beijing would learn the "right lessons" from Russia's war, including that it can't separate the US from its allies.

At the same time, she said the US was trying to avoid a dramatic escalation with China.

"We don't want to start another Cold War, we don't want conflict, we don't want miscalculation. We want channels of communication, Sherman said.

We hope there are areas where there can be cooperation, but make no mistake, I believe that President Xi Jinping has made a decision about what he wants the PRC to be in the world. And it's a very different vision than we have in this room.

Sherman said she can give several examples that China is trying to undermine nations' political autonomy.

She condemned China's human rights record, its economic bullying and economic foul play, including stealing of trade secrets and intellectual property.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India's economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 8.9%, highest among all large economies.

Sitharaman attended the Development Committee Meeting of the World Bank in Washington DC.

During the meeting, the Finance Minister said India voluntarily offered COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network platform CoWIN to all countries and is willing to provide assistance for other public-goods platforms, recognising the importance of replication of proven and scalable digital platforms.

She drew attention to the unprecedented situation in Sri Lanka and hoped for decisive relief to Sri Lanka.

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This 'Lunch with BS' interaction, originally published on March 29, 2011, is being republished, as Suman Bery is set to replace Rajiv Kumar, who has stepped down, as vice-chairman of the from May 1, 2022.

Its a few hours after Suman Bery has demitted office as Director General of the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the grey eminence of Indias think tanks, but he doesnt have all the time in the world. Theres a meeting at the Prime Ministers Office at 2.30 p m, and hes travelling the day after, so we schedule an early lunch at Wasabi, currently Delhis most trendy Japanese restaurant, writes Kanika Datta.

Ever correct, his office calls to say hell be ten minutes late so I use the time to read a book on Morimoto, the celeb chef who has created the food. Apparently, he likes to experiment with European and influences. Bery is known to be deeply knowledgeable about food and wine, so I invite him to choose the meal. Having fastidiously specified that I must not prefix his name with the honorific Dr because he didnt complete his thesis at Princeton, the former World Banker engages in a formidably technical discussion with our server.

An client once told me that Bery was notably indecisive. The lengthy process of ordering the meal corroborates that. The discussion ricochets between Bento boxes, Teppanyaki, Yakitori and elegancies before, yes, umm, all right, we will have, er, perhaps, should we?, a prawn tempura for starters and, no, no maybe not with the spicy mayonnaise, what sauces?... er, dyou think, perhaps, also a sushi platter, provided we could have two of each kind and, do they do Nigiri or. In the interests of time I suggest we go with the tempura and sushi platter and take a call on whether we wanted more later.

When we resume, were talking about how he went up to Oxford to read for a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He gently corrects my ignorant, phonetic pronunciation of his college Magdalen (its maudlin  the Cambridge college is pronounced Magdalene). It was after he won a scholarship to an English boarding school called Oakham  Rakesh [Mohan, former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor and his predecessor at NCAER] was one year my senior there.

Indeed, his conversation is casually peppered with the names of contemporaries, many of them giants of economic reform, and he has a close knowledge of their education. Sample: So I went up in 1967 just as Montek left  having got a congratulatory first to do his Bachelor of Philosophy, which is really a Masters, at St Anthonys and Shankar [Acharya, former Chief Economic Advisor, 1993-2001] had just left for Harvard where he went straight to his PhD.

Were served amuse-bouche, inadequate hors doeuvres that we ingest without missing a heartbeat, as Bery tells me how the 1966 devaluation almost ended his plans to go up to Oxford. His father, working with Caltech, the oil company that was later nationalised to become Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, had had to take loans to part-finance his education.

The tempura arrives. Bery remarks on the austere beauty of the dish, which reminds him of exquisite Japanese craftsmanship and says the secret to good tempura is getting the temperature of the fat right. He wields the chopsticks with careless dexterity, in sharp contrast to my red-neck clumsiness. Oh dear, I have done the unpardonable, he suddenly says. This being mixing soy sauce and pea salt  you must never mix flavours. I forebear to tell him I have garnished every prawn with this mixture and enjoyed it thoroughly.

His interest in food was hardwired into him; his aunts remember him clipping out recipes even as a small boy. But it was a skill he had to use at Oakham and when he spent his holidays with his older brother (he has three, all of whom went to Doon School) who was in London. But I really hit my stride in the World Bank when Rakesh and I used to entertain as bachelors and we did a lot of the cooking from Madhur Jaffreys first cookbook!

He does far less cooking now, and his tastes are more western, mostly Italian, although my wife does tease me that I am the only person she knows who thinks English food is something to be craved.

The sushi platter is served and we briskly set out mixing the pungent ginger with soy. I ask Bery what he would do now, after his ten-year stint at . There is still, he says, some unrequited work that tends to go with the territory such as being a part-time member of the Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council. Hes also on the board of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and a member of the National Statistical Commission, a job he describes as quite demanding.

But it is his role as Country Advisor for a new and fairly substantial initiative, a joint venture between Oxford and London School of Economics called the International Growth Centre (IGC), that sounds the most interesting. Its agenda is to create an opportunity for more demand-driven research. The notion is that development research is driven by the intellectual interest of the researchers, issues of methodology and so on, but all developing countries  and IGC has offices in south Asia and Africa  need to absorb and customise research to their circumstance so this is a funding and supervisory mechanism that is designed to do that.

He breaks off to apologise for eating fast, but since all hes doing is matching me exquisite sushi for sushi, I suggest we order another dish and invite him to choose again. This time the process is shorter but still complex. Would you like noodles or soup? he asks. Noodles. Would you like udon, soban or ramen? he continues, then kindly explains the differences (its mostly in the thickness and the wheat or rice base), but we settle for pork chops.

Talking about IGCs agenda, Bery muses about the vibrant think-tank culture in the US where the presidential system allows academics to become practitioners. Although India does have a tradition of scholar-practitioners  the prime minister, Montek, Vijay Kelkar, Rangarajan, Venu Reddy and so on  it is still a fairly narrow eye of the needle.

That triggers some introspection. As someone who has headed a think tank for ten years we have a lot to answer for this, he says. If we had been more vigorous and as clued in as, say, the business press we would have made a difference at the margin. We should have been people writing about how to allocate spectrum instead of just leaving it to some combination of the press and the bureaucracy.

Our pork chops are served and I use the opportunity to pose what he later describes as a zinger  the criticism that many talented economists  like current RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn (who left for Crisil), Laveesh Bhandari (of Indicus), Ila Patnaik (of NIPFP)  exited during his watch.

I have several responses to that. Long pause. Then with many halts to frame his thoughts he explains how the sources of competition became much stronger over the decade. Weve lost a couple of senior people to universities, essentially because, frankly, the pressures in a university environment are relatively less whereas had traditionally been wedded to the project model so it was harder for people to pursue their own kind of research.

So what have I tried to do about it? he asks and then answers, We have tried to raise a certain amount of endowment funding  but Ive discovered that this project mode is pretty hard-wired into the system.

He admits to struggling with the issue of holding on to talent but suggests, Flip around what you were saying  in its 55 years, a large part of the establishment of applied economic research has gone through NCAER at one time or another and it has created many stars so my hope is that that conveyor belt does not stop.

We decline dessert and Bery asks how much time is left. Not much so I quickly ask him to name his favourit-est restaurant in the world. As always, the answer is thorough. Not one  but three. One was Sushi Mizutani in Tokyo, which he visited in January this year. Another, to which he and his wife have made repeated trips, is a rather distinguished restaurant in Alsace LAuberge de LIll, which enjoys three Michelin stars.

And third, to show you what a difference service can make to the enjoyment of a meal  friendly, welcoming American style  I would say the Union Square Cafe on 16th Street in New York. It never disappoints.

If the deadline for the PMO appointment wasnt looming, I suspect the list would have been much longer.
Days after criticising his own party, Gujarat Congress leader has praised the ruling BJP for its "decision-making capacity", which he said is lacking in the leadership of the opposition party's state unit.

Stating that he was "proud to be a Hindu", Patel, who is working president of the Congress's state unit, denied speculation that he was joining the BJP, and said that if at all he needs to take such a decision, he would take the matter before people "with an open heart".

Assembly elections in Gujarat are due in December this year.

The Congress's plan to rope in Patidar leader Naresh Patel ahead of the state polls has apparently angered Hardik, who believes that his clout as the community leader will be over if the former joins the Congress.

Talking to the media persons on Friday, nearly a week after criticising the state Congress' "style of functioning", Patel said he has conveyed his opinion to the party high command, and that he hopes it will take a decision keeping the interest of the people of the state in mind.

"We will have to acknowledge that recent political decisions taken by the BJP show that it has a better political decision-making capacity. I believe that without praising it, we can at least acknowledge the truth. If Congress wants to become strong, it will have to improve its decision-making capacity," said Patel, who had joined Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

He, however, maintained that there is no question of him quitting the Congress (or joining the BJP, which he claimed was unfounded speculation). He said he was telling the truth, and thousands of party workers would agree with him that there is a lack of decision-making capacity in the state Congress leadership.

"I am not angry with any individual, but at the state leadership. I do not see that it is fulfilling its responsibilities like the way it should for the benefit of the state...When someone speaks the truth, people (within the party) interpret it differently - as that person is planning to leave the party," Patel added.

He said that people will start looking for an option if the party fails to become their voice and take their interests as their primary concern.

Asked whether he plans to the BJP, Patel answered in the negative.

"If ever I need to take such a decision for the benefit of the people, I will definitely let you (the media) know. I will take this matter before the people with an open heart," Patel said.

He also said that he is proud to be a Hindu because he carries the tradition of the "Raghuvanshi clan" as he comes from the lineage of Luv-Kush (Lord Ram's children), and is a devotee of Lord Ram, Lord Shiva and his Kuldevi.

"Our connection with the Hindu religion is not of the recent time. Since ages, we have been proud to be Hindu," he said.

Patel had spearheaded the Patidar community campaign in Gujarat in 2015 seeking reservations under the OBC category.

The widespread disenchantment of the numerically significant Patidar community from the ruling BJP had left its impact on the results of the 2017 Assembly election, wherein Congress won 77 seats as against 99 by the BJP in the 182-strong Assembly.

Meanwhile, reacting to Patel's praise for the BJP, the party's state unit president C R Paatil said that not only Patel, but several Congress leaders will acknowledge the manner in which the BJP's top leader and country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the country forward.

"Entire country is influenced by the BJP ideology. BJP's top leader Narendrabai Modi, his way of functioning, has shown the country and the world by the manner in which he has taken the country ahead and worked for the all-round development since 2014.

"So it is but natural that many Congress leaders, including Patel and others must be influenced. Patel has shown the strength to acknowledge in the public, others may not be able to say it so openly..," he said.

Last week, had expressed his displeasure over the Gujarat Congress' style of functioning and claimed that he was sidelined in the state unit and the leadership is not willing to utilise his skills. He had also alleged that the leaders of Congress's Gujarat unit were harassing him and want him to leave the party.

He had claimed that he had taken up the issue of his harassment with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi many times, but no action was taken to address his grievances.

He had expressed his grouse after he hinted at contesting elections after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2015 rioting and arson case.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The on Saturday continued its protest outside Kokrajhar Police Station here, where Gujarat MLA was being held for his purported Tweet against the prime minister.

A delegation of the AIUDF, another opposition party of Assam, also visited Mevani at the police station on the last day of his three-day police remand.

Mevani, an Independent MLA supported by the Congress, was apprehended by the Assam Police from Palanpur town in Gujarat on Wednesday night after a First Information Report (FIR) under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act was filed in Kokrajhar over the tweet.

According to the FIR, he had purportedly posted a tweet, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi "considered Godse as God".

The legislator was flown to Guwahati from Gujarat on Thursday morning and then taken to Kokrajhar by road, where he was produced at the chief judicial magistrate's court, which remanded him in three days' police custody.

Two MLAs, Bharat Narah and Wazed Ali Choudhury, led a sit-in here organised by the Assam Pradesh Youth .

On Friday, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) working president and MLA Jakir Hussain Sikdar had steered the protest.

An APCC release said the state party chief Bhupen Borah, three MLAs and members of its legal cell would leave for Kokrajhar on Sunday morning as Mevani would be produced in the court again at the end of his police remand.

The release added that the party had been lending all assistance to Mevani to ensure that he was represented by the best lawyers.

During the day, two AIUDF legislators Karimuddin Barbhuyan and Ashraful Hussain met Mevani at the police station.

Talking to reporters here later, Barbhuyan said, "We enquired about his health. Mevani told us that he wasn't facing any problem and that everyone was behaving properly with him. The food, he said, was okay.

"We will depute our lawyers, too, to ensure that he gets bail," the AIUDF leader added.

CPI(M) legislator Manoranjan Talukdar and Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi had also called on Mevani on Friday.

(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.)
convenor and Delhi Chief Minister on Friday stated that the Delhi model means an honest government and too will get an 'honest government'.

He was replying to Chief Minister Jairam Thakur's "Delhi's model is not acceptable in Himachal" comment.

"Delhi model means honest government. Jairam ji says that there cannot be an honest government in Himachal Pardesh because the social and political conditions of Himachal are different? The question is not of circumstances, but of intention, Jairam ji. The intention of "you" is clear. Like Punjab and Delhi, now "AAP" will give honest government in too."

Earlier, CM Thakur said, "He (Arvind Kejriwal) is trying to put efforts for his party. These visits will continue till the polls, but comparing Himachal Pradesh with Delhi's model is not acceptable; societal and political circumstances are different here."

will address a rally in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district on Saturday. On Friday, national president JP Nadda held a roadshow in Kangra.

Thakur further added, "Himachal public has not given a place or respect to a third party ever. So will definitely come to power in Himachal Pradesh.

(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.)
Police on Saturday evening arrested MLA Ravi Rana and his wife, MP Navneet Rana for allegedly "creating enmity between different groups" after escorting them out of their house in suburban Khar here amid high drama.

The development came hours after the couple cancelled their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence 'Matoshree' here. The Ranas were booked under IPC section 153 (A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), and section 135 of the Police Act (violation of prohibitory orders of police), said an official of the Khar police station in western . BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, speaking in Nagpur, said the Shiv Sena-led government's way of handling the entire episode was "very childish". The state government tries to hide its failures by terming the situations it can't handle as BJP-sponsored, the former chief minister said. "If allowed, the Rana couple would have gone there (Matoshree), recited Hanuman Chalisa and returned without creating any news. I don't understand why so many people had gathered at several places as if they (Rana couple) were planning some attack. What kind of is this?" the BJP leader said.

Earlier, as Shiv Sena workers laid siege to the building where the Ranas, both independent legislators from eastern Maharashtra, were staying and demanded apology from them, police officials persuaded the couple to go to Khar police station with them. The couple were initially seen arguing with the police inside the building, saying they would not budge until criminal cases were also registered against Shiv Sena leaders who 'threatened' them. Navneet Rana also demanded that police produce a warrant. But later they agreed to step out, and left in two police vehicles. Before climbing into police vehicles, Navneet Rana, the Amravati MP, and Ravi Rana, MLA from Badnera, were seen shouting slogans, looking in the direction of Shiv Sena workers who were outside. Sena workers, led by Yuva Sena leader Varun Sardesai, were outside the building since morning and had vowed not to allow the Ranas to leave until they apologized. There were several women among them. An empty water bottle was also thrown in the direction of the Ranas when the came out. Sardesai told Sena cadres that the police would be escorting the couple to the police station and they should stay calm and not take law into their hands. Ravi Rana said if a case was being registered against them, cases should be registered against Sena leaders Anil Parab and Sanjay Raut too for 'making threatening statements'. Earlier, amid stiff resistance by workers of the ruling Shiv Sena, Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana on Saturday morning dropped their plan of reciting the Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree in suburban Bandra. They did not want to disturb the law and order situation in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city on Sunday, Ravi Rana said. In the morning, Shiv Sena workers broke through the barricades and tried to enter the premises of their Khar residence. But the situation was brought under control by the police.

(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.)
Electoral strategy champion, Prashant Kishor while noting the steep fall of the has proposed the "Reincarnation of Congress" to win in 2024.

In an important presentation to the top brass, Kishor has in his theme of "Reincarnation of Congress" talked about 'Preserving the soul, Creating a new body'.

The inspiration is the symbols of Nataraja namely Creation, Protection, Liberation, Destruction, Concealment and Connect.

The resolves include to create a new that is the political platform of choice for the masses. Destroy a sense of entitlement, lack of accountability and sycophancy, Kishor says in the presentation.

It notes that perhaps for the first time, the Congress leadership does not appear fully aligned in terms of goals, strategy, method, approach, tactics and the way forward; leading to a complete lack of cohesion, at times confusion and stalemate.

There is a need for a non-Gandhi Working President/Vice President who can effectively work on the ground as per direction of Congress leadership, it suggests.

It advocates a Congress Plus alliance structure with a character but having 5-6 partners.

The Congress should contest 75-80 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats with a few regional alliances like NCP, DMK, JMM, YSR Congress and TMC.

On beefing up the organisational structure, Kishor has called to identify and meaningfully engage 15,000 grassroots leaders and activate 1 crore foot soldiers across India.

"India Deserves Better" is the theme to build a unified platform to provide strategic support and resources to non-political influencers and mount a sustained campaign against the ruling dispensation.

--IANS

san/ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A defiant Sri Lankan Prime Minister on Saturday dismissed calls to form an interim government to tackle the unprecedented in the debt-ridden island nation, saying he would anyway head any such dispensation if it is required.

Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.

Speaking to radio station 'Neth FM', the prime minister said: "What use of interim governments when people with varying policies can't see eye to eye? There has to be accord which is not possible. If there is a need for an interim government it should happen only under my leadership."

Anti-government protesters in are demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda as they blame the government policies for the worst forex crisis.

Commenting on the economic crisis, Rajapaksa, 77, said, "People need to show patience to face it (the economic crisis). They can keep on protesting if they don't want to have talks."

Speaking on the protestors who are currently occupying Galle Face, the Prime Minister said that the protestors simply continue to occupy the place without coming forward for discussions.

"They should speak and discuss with the Government officials," he said.

He added that if the protestors are willing, the doors of Temple Trees (the official residence of the prime minister) are open for them to come in at anytime and discuss with officials.

Last week, the ruling dispensation reached out to the Opposition parties and protesters for talks, but all efforts were rebuffed as the agitators said they want the government to resign.

Prime minister Rajapaksa said he wasn't aware personally of anyone calling for his stepping down.

"Even if there are demands for my resignation, it would not be from the majority, it will be from a minority group who wouldn't know the political history of the country," he asserted.

A group of over 40 Parliamentarians from the ruling coalition have declared independence and have demanded the formation of an interim government comprising all political parties to tackle the .

Meanwhile, India has agreed to extend an additional USD 500 million credit line to help import fuel.

India has already agreed to defer USD 1.5 billion in import payments that needs to make to the Asian Clearing Union.

Sri Lanka needs at least USD 4 billion to tide over its mounting economic woes, and talks with institutions such as the World Bank as well as countries like China and Japan for financial assistance have been going on.

Last week, the Sri Lankan government said it would temporarily default on USD 35.5 billion in foreign debt as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine made it impossible to make payments to overseas creditors.

Sri Lanka has been witnessing mass anti-government protests in recent weeks as it suffers food shortages, soaring fuel prices and major power cuts due to the unprecedented financial crisis.

(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.)
Trinamool Congress on Saturday said there is lawlessness in under Yogi Adityanath and a fact finding team of the party will visit Prayagraj, scene of the killing of five members of a family on Sunday.

"A five-member fact finding team will visit (Uttar Pradesh) tomorrow (Sunday) where five members of a family were brutally murdered and later their house was set on fire," a statement by Trinamool Congress stated.

The TMC delegation comprises Dola Sen, Mamata Bala Thakur, Saket Gokhale, Uma Soren, and Lalitesh Tripathi.

The TMC had sent a fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri area in Delhi, which was rocked by communal violence recently.

Its decision to send the fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri and comes days after BJP sent similar teams to Bogtui in Birbhum district where nine people were burnt alive, and Hanshkhali in Nadia district where a minor girl died after she was allegedly gang-raped.

Earlier in the day, senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya wondered at a press conference why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are silent over the "gruesome murder" in .

"This is the benefit of double engine government (same party in power at Centre and State)" she slammed.

Alleging that there is lawlessness and "goondaraj" in under BJP, Bhattacharya, who is a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, said everyone is unsafe there. The guilty is not arrested and fact finding teams of other parties are stopped from going to the site under BJP rule.

"But we don't stop anyone from going to any place they want in our state (Bengal). Here lies the difference,' she said and ridiculed BJP for demanding imposition of President's Rule after the Bogtui violence.

"We have seen how leaders of some parties visited one incident site in West Bengal and demanded imposition of Article 356. We have seen the BJP top leadership losing no time in sending fact finding teams. Why is no fact finding team seen in Prayagraj now?"

Bhattacharya said according to the recent records of NCRB, NHRC and global bodies tops the list in the number of attacks on women and children.

"Earlier this month four members of a family were found murdered in Nawabganj area of UP. One after another violent incidents are taking place in UP where lawlessness prevails. But our BJP leaders haven't found time to condemn these things. What will the prime minister and union home minister say about these incidents in UP?," she said.

The TMC leader said in West Bengal the Mamata Banerjee government takes immediate action after any violent incident, investigates and extends all help for it.

Echoing Bhattacharya, another senior TMC leader Sashi Panja tweeted "Lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh is a growing problem. Clearly, it remains unchecked by the @BJP4UP government. From women to children, EVERYONE IS UNSAFE under Yogi's watch! #DoubleEngineDisaster"."

BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the Yogi Adityanath government is already working to put the culprits behind bars.

"No complicity of the BJP members or supporters has been found in the incident, unlike in Bogtui or earlier incidents in Bengal where TMC was the main accused. And if the TMC wants to send factfinding teams to Prayagraj who is preventing them? They are such a big all India party," he mocked.

Five members of a family, including a two-year-old girl child were found killed at Khevrajpur village in Prayagraj district on Friday night.

Police found the male head of the house, his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, and grand daughter dead on early Saturday morning.

While Samajwadi Party attacked the BJP government saying Uttar Pradesh is "immersed in crime", BSP chief Mayawati demanded a thorough probe into the incident.

(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.)
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
Chinese premier, Austrian chancellor hold phone conversation

Xinhua) 11:32, April 23, 2022

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held a phone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday at the latter's request.

Li once again congratulated Nehammer on his assuming office as the Austrian chancellor.

Noting Austria is China's important cooperative partner in the European Union (EU), Li said that since the diplomatic ties were established 51 years ago, China-Austria relations have transcended the differences in their systems, cultures, and development levels, with cooperation between the two sides continuously deepening.

In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, decided to establish China-Austria friendly strategic partnership, lifting the relationship to a new level, Li noted.

China, he said, is ready to strengthen dialogue and communication with Austria, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and push forward sound and stable development of China-Austria relations.

Li pointed out that the current international and regional situation is complex and volatile, and economic globalization is facing headwinds.

As China and the EU are comprehensive strategic partners, both major economies in the world and important trading partners of each other, they should all the more stick to two-way opening-up and cooperation, strengthen communication and dialogue, and jointly send a signal of stable development of China-EU relations and active progress of bilateral cooperation, so as to ensure smooth logistics between China and the EU, stable industry chains and supply chains as well as food security and energy security, he added.

Li stressed that opening-up is China's basic national policy, which has not only boosted growth for the country itself, but also brought benefits for the world, and the policy will never waver.

No matter how the international landscape may change, China will remain committed to opening-up and deepening bilateral and multilateral international cooperation, he said, adding that a large open Chinese market will always be a magnet for enterprises from all over the world, including Austria, to invest and develop their businesses.

For his part, Nehammer said that Austria and China have maintained a sound relationship for a long time, and the two countries have carried out successful cooperation in various fields.

Noting that China is a vital participant in international affairs, he said that Austria cherishes its relations with China, adheres to the one-China policy, and is willing to continue deepening cooperation with China and to promote further development of Austria-China friendly strategic partnership.

Austria supports the strengthening of dialogue and communication between the EU and China as well as the continuous improvement of EU-China relations, Nehammer said.

The two sides also exchanged views on the Ukraine issue.

Li elaborated on China's principled position, pointing out that China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, upholds the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, observes international law and universally recognized norms governing international relations, and respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries.

He expressed the hope that all parties will jointly promote relevant parties to achieve a ceasefire and end the conflict through dialogue and negotiation, especially to prevent a larger humanitarian crisis.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Now, many tax experts and lawmakers are warning that some of the cost of those services may fall on local taxpayers after the new law goes into effect. Some are also suggesting that a repeal of the companys self-governing status could leave local taxpayers saddled with more than $1 billion in Disney bond debt.

The special relationship between Disney and the state of Florida has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks, with the situation coming to a head after DeSantis polemical Florida Parental Rights in Education bill (critically known as the Dont Say Gay law) was passed last month. The controversial legislation calls on school districts to avoid LGBTQ+ topics when not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.

Opponents of the measure argue that it is poorly written and will create an unsafe environment for LGBTQ+ youth. The law also restricts support services including counselling for students, and allows parents to sue schools they believe have violated the law.

On March 11, after facing intense scrutiny from the public and Disney employees alike for the companys continued support of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in Florida, Disney CEO Bob Chapek belatedly apologized to employees and suspended all political donations in the state. The company had donated nearly $250,000 to members of the Florida legislature over the past two years, including $50,000 to DeSantis himself, according to Popular Information.

Over the following days, Disney workers throughout nearly all divisions of the company expressed dissatisfaction with Chapeks weak response and started a campaign of walkouts. DeSantis claimed similar outrage, using the opportunity to villainize Disney, accusing the company of telling people how to raise their kids. That old chestnut.

He also denounced the company as hypocritical, arguing that Disney only takes a stance when politically convenient. If the two sides of the Dont Say Gay argument can agree on little else, at least they seem to agree on that.

Under different circumstances, DeSantis plans to revisit the states relationship with Disney World might have met bi-partisan support. In the past, representatives from both sides of the aisle have suggested a reevaluation of the relationship between the state and the company. There are many who believe that Disney has been able to leverage their status into avoiding paying millions in taxes and fees over the decades.

However, this weeks developments come amidst an escalation of DeSantis feud with Disney and Chapek. Several Florida lawmakers are questioning the timing and motivations behind the push to rescind Disney Worlds self-governing status.

I just dont understand what we are doing here, said representative Loranne Ausley (D) during Wednesdays Senate session. We are adding insult to injury by voting on something today that was proposed yesterday going after a private business that has literally made our state what it is, all because they have taken a position that the governor disagrees with.

Editorial illustration at top: DeSantis photo via Wikimedia Commons; still from Tapped Out  The Walt Disney Company
Photo: Contributed

April 2022 could have been a special month for Canadians.

COVID-19 restrictions were no longer in place and an Easter celebration loomed as a great opportunity to see family and friends. Still, when Research Co. and Glacier Media asked about our perceptions and behaviour, the numbers did not outline a public that is particularly confident about the present or the future.

Over the past four weeks, there has been no change in the way Canadians look at the pandemic. More than four in five (82 per cent, up one point since March) continue to consider COVID-19 as a real threat. One question where we do see some movement is related to what lies ahead. A month ago, 72 per cent of Canadians thought that the worst of COVID-19 was behind us. When we asked last weekend, the proportion fell by 10 points to 62 per cent.

A majority of Canadians continue to expect that we will not go back to a life of lockdowns and vaccine passports. This month, Canadians aged 18 to 34 are slightly more likely to think that the situation may worsen (25 per cent) than their counterparts aged 35 to 54 (22 per cent) and aged 55 and over (23 per cent).

Also of note, the proportion of Canadians who feel very anxious or moderately anxious about COVID-19 restrictions and mandates being lifted in their community increased from 52 per cent to 56 per cent. British Columbia is home to the highest proportion of residents who are uneasy about the current state of affairs (63 per cent) while Quebec is at the bottom (50 per cent).

Some of our behaviours are undergoing a shift, while others are stagnant. Three in five Canadians (60 per cent) plan to wear a mask or face covering when entering an indoor premise in the next two weeks, down five points since March. In addition, 45 per cent (unchanged) say they will carry on wearing a mask or face covering every time they leave their home.

The past four weeks did not make Canadians more adventurous. Compared to last month. similar proportions are considering visits to relatives or friends in person (58 per cent, unchanged), the theatre or cinema (22 per cent, up one point), a concert (11 per cent, unchanged) or a live sporting event (11 per cent, unchanged) in the next fortnight. More than two in five plan to have lunch (43 per cent, up four points) or dinner (44 per cent, up one point) at a sit-down restaurant.

The numbers are also low for trips, with 22 per cent of Canadians saying they plan to travel by car for an overnight stay in the next two weeks and 13 per cent willing to travel by airplane for the same reason.

One particular issue where the numbers are no longer extraordinary is the performance of elected officials. This month, 57 per cent of Canadians are satisfied with the way the federal government has managed the pandemic, down four points since March. With the glaring exception of Alberta, where only 42 per cent of residents are content with Ottawa on this file, every other region of Canada sees majorities endorsing the actions of the federal government, albeit at a lower level than in 2020.

Municipal governments improved their standing by four points, with 60 per cent of Canadians saying they are satisfied with the way they have handled COVID-19. Some provincial administrations were not as lucky. The satisfaction rating fell slightly in British Columbia (61 per cent, down to points) and in Quebec (59 per cent, down four points).

In Ontario, where a provincial election campaign is just weeks away, 61 per cent of residents are satisfied with how the pandemic has been managed, up four points since March. Alberta also saw significant gains, going from 37 per cent in March to 43 per cent in April  still the lowest level among Canadas four most populous provinces.

At least three in five Canadians are satisfied with the performance of the federal chief public health officer (61 per cent, down two points) and their provincial health officer or chief medical officer (60 per cent, down one point). On a regional basis, majorities of British Columbians (63 per cent, unchanged), Quebecers (59 per cent, down four points) and Ontarians (also 59 per cent, down two points) hold their health officer or chief medical officers in high regard. The exception is Alberta, where the numbers dropped by four points to 49 per cent.

The government of the United Kingdom has announced a public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic. When we asked Canadians about taking a similar approach to gauge the preparedness, public health response and economic response from various levels of government, the response was eye-catching. More than three in five (61 per cent) believe a public inquiry into pandemic management is warranted for municipalities, and larger proportions feel the same way about provincial administrations (64 per cent) and the federal government (66 per cent).

Views about provincial inquiries are very similar in the four most populous provinces, with support rising from 61 per cent in Alberta and British Columbia, to 64 per cent in Quebec and to 68 per cent in Ontario.

This months look at COVID-19 in Canada provides some sobering numbers. Across the country, the notion of a public inquiry is supported by a majority of residents in all regions. Anxiety is rising, government satisfaction is falling, and Canadians are not showing an immense desire to visit venues or go places. For a significant proportion of the countrys residents, the pandemic has not ended.

Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

Results are based on an online study conducted from April 16 to April 18, 2022, among 1,000 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. The margin of error, which measures sample variability, is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: The Canadian Press Nuchatlaht First Nation elder and councillor Archie Little, right, speaks with lawyer Jack Woodward outside B.C. Supreme Court before the start of an Indigenous land title case, in Vancouver, on Monday, March 21, 2022. The lawyer for a B.C. First Nation challenging the province over its land rights says the government's decision not to adjust its case based on new litigation directives "undermines the process of reconciliation." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The lawyer for a B.C. First Nation challenging the province in a land rights trial says the government's decision not to adjust the case based on its own new litigation directives "undermines the process of reconciliation."

The province announced the development of "a new approach to litigation" on Thursday as part of its process to implement its legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It included 20 directives for the Crown to prioritize resolution and negotiated settlement, while reducing the potential for legal action over Indigenous rights and title.

The Nuchatlaht First Nation is in a B.C. Supreme Court fight for recognition of jurisdiction over 230 square kilometres of Nootka Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Jack Woodward, who represents the nation, said he pointed out the policy to the judge just before closing his legal arguments in the case.

"I told the court that I expected British Columbia to change the way it conducted this litigation, and in particular, to amend the pleadings to remove some of the more offensive portions."

The Nuchatlaht's lawsuit claims the B.C. and federal governments have denied their rights by approving logging and "effectively dispossessing" them of the land.

In a court transcript supplied by the Nuchatlaht's legal team, Crown attorney Jeff Echols said Thursday the province knew about the directives before their release and does not intend to adjust its arguments for trial.

"We are planning on continuing with the evidence that we have," Echols said.

The directives are something that are to be considered on an ongoing basis and they will be in all aspects of what we do. They are taken very seriously by counsel, but they are policy directives for counsel, and they are not something for submission to the court or something for the court to give directions based on."

Woodward said he and the Nuchatlaht Nation were surprised by the response.

"My clients are shocked at this hypocrisy," he said. Its such a betrayal."

Attorney General David Eby said in a statement that he will not be commenting on the matter as it is before the courts.

"These directives are an important step toward implementing the Declaration Act, and reassuring all British Columbians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, that the provincial government wont leave its commitment to reconciliation behind simply because were in court," he said in the statement.

The B.C. government has denied that the Nuchatlaht hold Aboriginal title over the area and said in earlier arguments at the trial that it has met its obligations under agreements with the nation related to forest resources.

The province said in its release Thursday about litigation directives for ongoing legal action that began before it passed the Declaration Act that provincial counsel must review their pleadings, legal positions and litigation strategy to ensure they are consistent with the act.

Woodward said he has been advocating for a directive like this for about three years, ever since the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act was passed. The province's action plan for the legislation was released last month and outlined 89 specific actions, including plans for the litigation directive.

"We found out (Thursday)that it's meaningless and it's empty. It's vacuous," he said. "It's mere rhetoric, and it's shameful for a government to raise expectations like this and then not follow through with anything on the ground."

Woodward said the government's decision not to amend their arguments in the current case does not shake his confidence.

My concern about this is not that it affects whether we're going to be able to win," he said. "My concern about this is that it so deeply undermines the process of reconciliation for the province to behave this way when we're in court trying to achieve justice.
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the string of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan on April 21, including the attack against the Seh Dokan Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif and a separate attack in Kunduz, claimed by Islamic State.

In a statement issued on Friday, the attacks have resulted in dozens killed and many more injured, and follow other recent attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including in religious minority communities across Afghanistan.

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.

The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountble and bring them to justice.

They urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement said.

They also reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law.

(ANI)
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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's sympathy with terrorist groups and his policy of making bargains with them have backfired on the country by encouraging terrorists to up their ante, said a media report.

Khan, as a premier, made an overreach to the terrorist groups and even batted for them as he sought reconciliation with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terror outfit banned in Pakistan.

Insisting that he did not favour military solutions, the former premier once called terrorists "normal citizens" and even said that the US "really messed it up" in Afghanistan by initially finding a military solution and later looking for a political solution, reported Islaam Khabar.

Refuting the allegations of Pakistan's direct support to the Taliban with over 10,000 Pakistani fighters travelling to Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in their war against the West-backed Afghan government, Imran Khan claimed that they were not Taliban or its supporters, but "normal civilians, who are returning to their country".

He also endorsed the belief that the Afghan Taliban was fighting a holy war or "Jihad" against the enemies of Islam in Afghanistan. Earlier in 2012, "Imran Khan had repeatedly tried to justify the Taliban's terrorism, calling it a 'holy war' for Islam", reported the media outlet.

However, Khan's terror policy of sympathising with the perpetrator of violence backfired as Pakistan witnessed a massive increase in terror attacks in the country, so much that Khan even pleaded with the United Nations to stop cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.

While Pakistan facilitated the travel of TTP terrorists to Afghanistan to help the Taliban in its war against the Afghan government, it is now itself grappling with the terror attacks carried out by the group that now wants its fighters to be allowed to return to Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban began pressurising them to leave their country.

Moreover, the Peshawar mosque attack in March this year that led to the killing of 63 Shia worshippers and injuring 200 was a wake-up call for Imran Khan about the failure of his terror policy.

The TTP's desire is to overthrow, violently or otherwise, the Pakistani state and impose their interpretation of Sharia throughout the country and there is no offering short of this, no concession or act of generosity, that Islamabad will be able to buy TTP forbearance with," the media outlet reported citing sub-continental counter-terror experts.

Further, the recent Pakistani military airstrike in the eastern Afghanistan provinces of Khost and Kunar as retaliation to TTP attacks from across the border demonstrates how the country is grappling with self-sponsored terrorism.

(ANI)

Also Read: Afghans living in dystopian nightmare sandwiched between Taliban, ISKP: Expert
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Lee Universitys School of Nursing (SON) was recently awarded the Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The $65,300 grant will be used for the SON project Expanding the Nursing Workforce to Ensure Best Practices in Rural Healthcare.

This project aligns with the mission of the School of Nursing with a focus on vulnerable populations, said Dr. Sara Campbell, dean of the SON. Implementation of this project will assist us in addressing the unique needs of rural populations.

The SON will be using the funds to implement equipment and new simulation scenarios that include a grandfather, mother, and child. They also purchased a Horus Scope, a hand-held video system that is used in nursing telehealth to provide virtual healthcare services.

The SON also received $5,000 from the William J. Chatlos Foundation to fund faculty support for curriculum development and outreach to rural healthcare providers. This includes faculty lead attendance at the National Rural Health Association Annual Rural Health Conference in New Mexico.

Dr. Charlotte Webb, associate dean of the SON, is overseeing the faculty planning team for the project, led by Amy Moody, lecturer in nursing at Lee. The project also includes establishment of a Rural Health Advisory Council, which will collaborate with regional employers to identify rural healthcare needs.

While the School of Nursing curriculum has always included rural health, this project provides a specific opportunity to focus on the care of a rural family across the program, said Webb. The nursing faculty are developing curriculum and simulation scenarios focused on best practices in rural areas. This curriculum will help prepare nurses and cultivate workplace development by providing opportunities for increased experience and skills specific to needs in rural healthcare.

The USDA Rural Development program provides grants for rural projects that finance and facilitate development of small and emerging rural businesses, help fund distance learning networks, and help fund employment related adult education programs. The Rural Business Development Grant is a competitive grant designed to support targeted technical assistance, training, and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas.

For more information about the USDA Rural Development, visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/.

For more information about the Rural Business Development Grant, visit. https://www.rd.usda.gov/ programs-services/business- programs/rural-business- development-grants .

For more information about Lees School of Nursing, visit https://www.leeuniversity.edu/ academics/nursing/ .

PHOTO: Pictured here with two of the manikin simulators that comprise the three-person rural family unit purchased with the USDA grant are (left to right) Dr. Charlotte Webb; Krisalaun Battle, USDA area specialist; Arlisa Armstrong, Tennessee state director for USDA-RD; Randall, the grandfather manikin; Amy Moody; Stephen Sargent, area director for USDA; Cody, the grandson manikin, and Charles Kimbrough, technician with USDA. (Candy, Codys mother, is not pictured.)
A man who federal authorities say carried out several violent bank robberies has been charged in connection with a holdup in East Ridge.

Johnny Jermaine Davis is charged in Federal Court in Chattanooga with robbing Regions Bank at 4334 Ringgold Road on Jan. 6, 2021.

Davis, who is from Kennesaw, Ga., was captured in Georgia in early June 2021.

He had been sought for armed robberies at two Asheville, N.C.

banks.

Authorities said Davis would approach the teller area, brandish a gun, then jump over the counter. He would order employees to lie down, while he snatched money and then ran out.
Wesley McCuiston, 51, of Chattanooga, died on Thursday, April 21, 2022.

He was born on Sept. 17, 1970, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

He was preceded in death by his father, D. Roy McCuiston and a stepson, Michael Gregory.

Wesley was a 1989 graduate of Tyner High School. He worked for Norfolk Southern Rail Road for the past 17 years. He loved working outdoors. He was a longtime member of the National Rifle Association.. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. He was a huge Tennessee Vols fan.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Rebecca Becky McCuiston, children, Britni McCuiston and Charles CW McCuiston, mother, Charlene McCuiston, sister, Kim McCuiston Williamson, a niece and several nephews and a great niece and great nephews.

The family will receive friends at the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home from 10-12 Monday.

A memorial service will be held at noon on Monday, April 25, at the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home.
Crossville Speedway kicked off its 2022 season Friday night with the Spring Nationals Super Late Model series.

Cory Hedgecock of Loudon and Thursday's winner Garrett Smith of Georgia went at it tooth and nail for third culminating with a under caution retaliation that ended Hedgecock's night. Behind Putnam was Payton Freeman of GA, Smith and Kyle Beard of West Virginia. North Carolina's Carson Ferguson (# 93) denied Alabama's Josh Putnam the $4,053 victory of the drama filled 40 lap feature. With spoiler damage Ferguson powered into the lead past the races halfway point that saw multiple infractions.Cory Hedgecock of Loudon and Thursday's winner Garrett Smith of Georgia went at it tooth and nail for third culminating with a under caution retaliation that ended Hedgecock's night. Behind Putnam was Payton Freeman of GA, Smith and Kyle Beard of West Virginia.

The series heads to Clarksville Speedway north of Nashville Saturday night. Live broadcast of the race will be on Floracing.com for subscribers.





In Alabama, Jimmy Thomas (# 22) of Phenix City won opening night at the Talladega Short Track on NASCAR weekend. Greg Martin was second and Cruz Skinner was third in the 604/Crate Late Model feature that paid $2,000 to the winner. Cup NASCAR star Chase Elliott of Dawsonville raced, but pulled in with mechanical issues.

Monster Trucks were all the rage Friday night in Chattanooga/Ringgold at Boyd's Speedway. Kids and parents alike enjoyed the show.
After witnessing the release of 27 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, fans have learned that almost anything is possible when it comes to Marvel. Iron Man could be Spider-Mans mentor. Thor could team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Harry Styles could become an Eternal. And perhaps, Captain America could fight alongside the people of Wakanda in Marvels Black Panther 2.

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson | Photo by Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Sam Wilson picked up the Captain America shield in Marvels The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, retired from being Captain America in Marvels Avengers: Endgame. He went back in time and reunited with his long-lost love Peggy Carter to live out the rest of his days. And once Steve caught up with the present, he was an old man, and he was ready to hand his shield over to his best friend, Sam Wilson.

Six months after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam decided not to pick up the shield in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Instead, he gave Steves Captain America shield to the U.S. government to display in a museum. Bucky Barnes, Steves other best friend, was furious with Sam, especially after the government appointed a new Captain America  John Walker. But Sam was conflicted about wearing the flag and stripes while being a Black man in America.

Sam and Bucky later teamed up to stop the Flag Smashers, a terrorist group. Walker wanted to help them, but after he murdered one of the terrorists with the shield, Sam and Bucky demanded that he return the shield.

In the finale of Marvels The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam finally accepts his destiny as Captain America. He dons a new suit made by the Wakandans. It is a hybrid of his Falcon costume and the Captain America suit.

Anthony Mackie discusses Black Panther 2

While on the Grammys red carpet, Marvel star Anthony Mackie revealed to Laverne Cox, reporting for E! News, that hes been on the set of Black Panther 2, but not as Captain America.

Im very excited to say that they just wrapped filming Black Panther 2, the actor shared. Its going to be amazing, its going to be spectacular. Im not [in it], but Ive seen, Ive been [to the set], Ive witnessed. Im very excited for everybody to see Black Panther 2. They just wrapped it. Its in the can, its coming out, its done.

Its unclear what Mackie was doing on the Black Panther 2 set other than just hanging out. Marvel stars are known to lie about their appearances in upcoming projects, so perhaps Captain America is in Black Panther 2.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premieres exclusively in theaters on Nov. 11, 2022.

Anthony Mackie says while hes not in it, hes recently spent some time on the BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER set and theyve completed filming!



Its gonna be amazing, its gonna be spectacularIm excited for everyone to see itIts done. pic.twitter.com/2tPEqjelKv  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever News (@bpanthernews) April 4, 2022

Anthony Mackie will star in the next Marvel Captain America movie

Following the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel announced that Anthony Mackie would star as the titular superhero in Captain America 4. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman and series writer Dalan Musson will co-write the script for the fourth film.

Not much else is known about the movie, as we dont even have a release date. However, Marvel Studios producer Nate Moore gave some insight about Captain America 4 during an interview with ComicBook.com.

I think hes not Steve Rogers, and I think thats a good thing, the producer shared. Because to me, this new Cap is Rocky. Hes going to be the underdog in any situation. Hes not a super-soldier. Hes not a hundred years old. He doesnt have the Avengers. What happens with this guy who announces publicly kind of, without the support, Im new Captain America. What happens next?

Moore continued, I think its fascinating because hes a guy. Hes a guy with wings and a shield, but he is a guy. So, were going to put him through the wringer and make him earn it and see what happens when he is outweighed, outclassed, out-everything. What makes somebody Captain America? Im going to argue its not being a super-soldier. And I think were going to prove that with Mackie and Sam Wilson.

RELATED: Benedict Cumberbatch Claims Doctor Strange 2 Could Be the Biggest Marvel Film Yet
TL;DR:

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visited Queen Elizabeth II on their way to the Invictus Games in April 2022.

Prince Harry has since revealed he doesnt know yet whether hell attend Queen Elizabeth IIs platinum jubilee celebrations.

An expert says Prince Harry will find a way to be there if Queen Elizabeth II wants him there.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry | Steve Parsons  WPA Pool/Getty Images

After visiting Queen Elizabeth II, a question many have is whether or not Prince Harry will attend platinum jubilee celebrations come June 2022. The Duke of Sussex revealed at the Invictus Games hes not sure if hell be there to cheer on his grandmother as she marks 70 years on the throne. According to an expert, whether or not Harry will be there in the flesh depends on Queen Elizabeth. They feel if she wants Harry there, he will find a way.

Prince Harry doesnt know yet if he will return to the U.K. for Queen Elizabeths platinum jubilee

Platinum jubilee celebrations are already underway. However, theyll culminate in a four-day weekend in June.

Queen Elizabeths birthday parade, Trooping the Colour, is set for June 2, 2022. Thats where the royal family stands on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Harrys attended in the past, most recently with his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2019.

As for this years Trooping the Colour and Queen Elizabeths platinum jubilee festivities, Harry told the Today shows Hoda Kotb hes not sure if hell be there.

I dont know yet, he told Kotb during an interview at the Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands. Theres lots of things with security issues and everything else, he said, referencing his push to get police protection in the U.K. for himself and his family.

This is what Im trying to do, trying to make it possible that I can get my kids to meet her, Harry added. Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, Harry and Meghans 10-month-old daughter, who is named after Queen Elizabeth, has yet to meet her namesake. Meanwhile, the couples soon-to-be 3-year-old son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, hasnt been in the U.K. since he was a baby.

Expert says Prince Harrys platinum jubilee attendance hinges on whether or not Queen Elizabeth II wants him there

Ultimately, Harrys platinum jubilee attendance all depends on Queen Elizabeth, an expert told Newsweek. I think part of this will come down to whether the queen wants him there, Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants said.

If the queen invites him then I think Harry will find a way through the process to be there in the flesh, he explained. The last thing he wants to do after rekindling and reconnecting with the Crown and the queen is to somehow destroy it over a political blunder based upon protection when the relationship is king.

In his Today interview, Harry noted the really special relationship he has with his grandmother. We talk about things that she cant talk about with anybody else, he said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on their way to the Invictus Games

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Samir Hussein/WireImage

Harry and Meghan made a stop in the U.K. on their way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games. Ahead of the competition, which Harry founded, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex went to Windsor Castle to see Queen Elizabeth.

Harry opened up about the April 14 visit during the interview. It was just so nice to see her, he told Kotb. Shes on great form. Shes always got a great sense of humor with me. And Im just making sure that shes, you know, protected and got the right people around her.

Additionally, Harry met with his father, Prince Charles, and stepmother, Camilla Parker Bowles.

RELATED: Meghan Markles Invictus Games Comment Possibly a Dig at Royal Family  Expert
Hollywood actors often share their tales of childhood hardships, poverty, and broken families. And its usually those challenging times that inspire people to rise above their upbringing and circumstances. Jared Leto is no stranger to rough times, nor did he let those obstacles stop him from becoming an artistic powerhouse.

See how he lived on food stamps, in a Colorado commune, and without his dad  all by age 10. It helps explain Letos unusual approach to performing, investing, and living.

Jared Letos unusual lifestyle and acting methods

Jared Leto at the UK premiere of House of Gucci on November 9, 2021, in London | Lia Toby/Getty Images

Some of Hollywoods most successful actors follow the Method approach, which requires the performer to remain in character on and off the screen. Jared Leto may be the master at transforming himself into a character, as he is often noted for being a serious Method actor.

Below are some of Letos most extreme roles, including pranking his onset colleagues during his portrayal of the Joker.

In Blade Runner 2049, Leto blinded himself to play the visually impaired Niander Wallace in a performance that brought director Denis Villeneuve to tears, The Wrap reports.

For Dallas Buyers Club, Leto lost 30 pounds. Conversely, in Chapter 27, the young actor gained 67 pounds and is hardly recognizable as John Lennons killer, Mark David Chapman. And in his breakthrough movie, Requiem for a Dream, Leto lost 28 pounds, lived on the streets of New York City, and abstained from sex to make his onscreen cravings as a heroin addict that much more realistic.

Some might consider Letos acting methods bizarre, but Leto is a bit of an odd duck in real life, too. He has a reputation for going to the extremes in other areas, such as segregating himself from the world during the COVID-19 pandemic for a meditation retreat. And he once lived on a former Air Force base.

To many, he seems unusual. To those who understand, hes everything youd expect a revolutionary artist to be.

Jared Letos childhood and family life

Jared Leto stole the show with his tribute to his mother as he accepted the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club. Despite his success as an actor, musician, and financial investor, he didnt have the rosy childhood you might think. And it might be his upbringing and childhood that makes him such a powerful performer today.

Letos father walked out on the family when the Morbius star was only 8, leaving him, his brother Shannon, and his mom Constance to live a dirt poor existence, the Daily Mail reports.

The small family survived as best they could, without a TV and with the assistance of food stamps. At one point, when Leto was 10, they lived in a commune in Colorado. Altogether, Leto lived in Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Virginia throughout his childhood. He even spent 18 months in Haiti.

An unparalleled rise to stardom

Despite his childhood hardships and nomadic experiences, Leto has overcome adversity. He is not only a successful actor with a net worth of roughly $90 million, but he also continues to perfect his craft and land pivotal roles that will no doubt make him an onscreen legend. But Jared Leto doesnt just make movies.

He tapped his brother Shannon to pursue their lifelong dream of starting a band. The two formed 30 Seconds to Mars and play to sold-out shows worldwide. The group has sold over 10 million albums.

Its hard to find an actor whos risen to fame the way Jared Leto has. And bringing his brother along to share the dream is pretty cool.

Fans can expect to see more incredible performances from the actor and musician. The Jared Leto freight train of success continues to plow through any obstacles life throws his way.

RELATED: Jared Leto Invests in Silicon Valley Startups Like Uber and Spotify to Grow His Net Worth
Meghan Markle had Princess Diana vibes at the 2022 Invictus Games, both in her behavior and clothing choices. One body language expert unpacked how Meghan behaved like Diana at the event.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Meghan Markle showed similar behavior to Princess Diana

Body language expert Darren Stanton analyzed Meghans appearance at the Invictus Games, telling Marie Claire on behalf of Betfair Casino how her behavior was reminiscent of Diana.

While interacting with the crowds in the Netherlands, Meghan demonstrated similar behavior to Princess Diana, Stanton said. She was quite happy to interact with members of the public and theres a great shot of her hugging a young girl in the crowd.

He continued, As she stepped out with Harry, Meghan was seen wearing a true expression of happiness  again holding hands with Harry, with the pair appearing incredibly tactile over the weekend.

Stanton added, Their appearance at the Invictus Games suggests Harry and Meghan are clearly a very strong unit together and theyre not afraid to show the world how they are very much still in love.

Princess Diana | MJ Kim/Getty Images

Meghan wore a top that resembled one of Dianas fashion choices

Meghan also sported a top at the Invictus Games opening ceremony that looked similar to the dress Diana wore during her last portrait sitting five months before her death.

Photographer Mario Testino took photos of Diana which were featured in the July 1997 issue of Vanity Fair. The caption for the photo explained the dress. Ordered for a 1993 state banquet honoring the King and Queen of Malaysia, Princess Dianas classic formal dinner dress of white silk crepe was designed by Catherine Walker, the caption noted.

It features a draped panel which forms a tied cross in front and falls over the cap sleeves, ending below the hips at the back, it explained.

Meghans shirt paid tribute to Diana with obvious similarities  the white off-the-shoulder top featured a ruched twist criss-cross bodice.

Meghan Markle introduced Prince Harry at the opening ceremony

Meghan wore the bodysuit during her appearance at the Invictus Games opening ceremony, where she introduced Prince Harry.

It is my distinguished honor to introduce someone that I think youll all be very excited to hear from, the Duchess of Sussex said. I could not love and respect him more and I know that all of you feel the same,.

Hes the founder of the Invictus Games, and the father to our two little ones, Archie and Lili, she continued. Please welcome my incredible husband, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex.

Body language expert Judi James told the Mirror that Harry appeared to be very emotional in the moment. As Meghan and Harry do the hand-over of the mic they also perform a kiss that would have been a given in the political world but which is groundbreaking in royal terms, she explained. It is affectionate but swift, with both smiling proudly as they perform it.

She added, The problem for Harry is that it appears to knock him sideways emotionally. Watching his wife exit from the stage he stands in overwhelmed-looking silence for 30 seconds as the crowd carries on their applause.

RELATED: Prince Harry Is Emotionally Needy and His Whole Personality Changed Because of Meghan Markle, Royal Author Says
Through four episodes, Moon Knight has yet to make a direct, concrete connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Moon Knight has sprinkled in a couple of small Easter eggs that could tie it to the MCU, including a reference to Kang the Conqueror.

Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector | Photo by Csaba Aknay/Marvel Studios

Who is Kang the Conqueror?

Before Moon Knights Easter egg, Marvel Studios announced that Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, would be the villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

But Majors surprisingly appeared in the Loki Season 1 finale as He Who Remains, the creator of the Time Variance Authority. He Who Remains is a Kang variant from the 31st century. He created the TVA to prevent his evil variants from destroying the timeline and causing a multiversal war. However, Sylvie kills He Who Remains in the finale, which unleashes the multiverse.

In the comic books, Kang the Conqueror, aka Nathaniel Richards, is also from the 31st century, and he is originally a descendant of Reed Richards time-traveling father. Kang himself becomes a time traveler trying to conquer Earth in multiple time periods. At one point, Kang ruled over ancient Egypt as the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, which is how the villain ties into Moon Knight.

Moon Knight Episode 3 contained a Kang the Conqueror Easter egg

Per New Rockstars, the audience can see Rama-Tut during a fight scene in Moon Knight Episode 3. Marc Spector faces off against a few of Arthur Harrows followers while trying to track down Ammits tomb. One of Ammits worshipers, a young man, is wearing a jean jacket with the design of the Pharaoh Rama-Tut on the back.

New Rockstars claim they reached out to the Moon Knight crew, and they confirmed this Kang Easter egg.

Perhaps the subtle mention of Kang was only a fun nod to his history in the comics, or Jonathan Majors might show up before the Moon Knight finale. It seems like Ammit and Rama-Tut might be connected, after all. But, as all fans know, anything is possible when it comes to the MCU.

#MoonKnight crew confirms the symbol on the guy's jacket in E3 was a Rama-Tut Easter egg  a version of Kang the Conqueror



In the comics, Kang traveled back in time and ruled ancient Egypt



(via @newrockstars) pic.twitter.com/y7LekCc5dO  Culture Crave (@CultureCrave) April 19, 2022

1 other Easter egg ties Moon Knight to the MCU

Moon Knight Episode 3 contained one other Easter egg that connects the series to the MCU. When Marc and Layla traveled to find Senfus sarcophagus, one of Anton Mogarts guards greeted them. He told Layla, [Antons] looking forward to seeing you. After Madripoor, Im sure you two will have a lot to talk about.

Madripoor should sound familiar to MCU fans. Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and Helmut Zemo traveled to Madripoor in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. There, they find Sharon Carter, who is later revealed to be the Power Broker, the leader of Madripoor.

Although Moon Knight contains a few obscure MCU Easter eggs, director Mohamed Diab is proud that the series can stand on its own.

I wanted to push it, Diab told Collider. I wanted something that [Marvel] usually wouldnt think that they want, which is I wanted it to look and feel different than every other MCU project, which eventually is the case. And today, you might say, some people keep telling me, if theres no Marvel logo at the beginning of episode 1, you wouldnt necessarily know that this is a Marvel show, which is something Im proud of.

The director added, And Im proud of how we deleted the idea of any crossovers, and we didnt have need [for] crutches. We stood on our own, and the project  Maybe thats the surprise, rather than a crossover, that we can stand on our own.

Moon Knight airs Wednesdays on Disney+.

RELATED: Moon Knight: Why Gaspard Ulliel Looks Familiar
In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to step down as senior royals. Since then, their relationship with the rest of the royal family has not been smooth-sailing. In fact, according to a royal commentator, the Sussexes way of dealing with the royals could be a sign of a lack of intelligence.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Karwai Tang/WireImage

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made headlines since stepping down as senior royals

Although Harry and Meghan are living a more private life in California, the couple has not escaped scandals. Even after stepping down, they continued to do things that stir up headlines.

For example, in March 2021, the pair had an interview with Oprah Winfrey, where they criticized the royal family. In the next few months, Harry also had other interviews in which he claimed to have genetic pain from Prince Charles parenting skills and that he was miserable during his time as a royal.

Recently, at the Invictus Games, Harry also had an interview with Hoda Kotb. Here, he talked positively about Queen Elizabeth but dodged a question about his father and brother.

Additionally, Harry announced in 2021 that he would be releasing a memoir in late 2022. Rumor has it that the book will include more criticism of various royals.

The Sussexes might be showing a lack of intelligence, commentator says

Royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti recently weighed in on Harry and Meghans behaviors ever since their departure from the royal family.

Meghan and Harry are constantly doing damage to the Royal Family, Sacerdoti said (via Express). It seems intentional, if its not intentional, its then a reflection on their recklessness and perhaps lack of intelligence in how they deal with these things.

He added that this is likely hurting William, who used to be close with Harry but might now need to be on his guard.

If there is a meeting lined up its going to not be leaked to the press, Sacerdoti explained. Whats said needs to be thought about very carefully in case it is leaked and I think that applies for Prince William very much. It must hurt a lot for a brother who was once very close to Prince Harry. I think it must be difficult on a personal level to feel that you want to make some sort of peace, yet youre worried about how you can do it, whether every overturn you make will be reported, twisted or leaked.

Prince Harry reportedly wants a mediator to help resolve his feud with Prince William

According to author Katie Nicholl, Harry is open to working out his feud with some members of the royal family, especially William.

Harry, Im told, suggested perhaps that they might get some sort of a mediator in on sort of these talks, to make some progress, Nicholl told ET. It was something that he had suggested to his father. Hes made it very clear that he wants to sort things out. He wants things to be improved.

Nicholl also added about Harrys relationship with William, We have been told for many months now that theyre not close at the moment. It has been very, very difficult.

RELATED: Prince Harrys Meeting With Queen Elizabeth Was Pointless as His Upcoming Memoir Will Reopen Wounds, Commentator Says
TLC recently announced which reality shows they are going to renew for the next season, and many fans were excited to hear that The Family Chantel is returning for a fourth season this summer.

TLC | Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The Family Chantel is a 90 Day Fiance spin-off

The Family Chantel is a spinoff that follows 90 Day Fiance couple Chantel Everett and Pedro Jimeno as they navigate their marriage.

The couple fell in love when Everett traveled to the Dominican Republic to visit Jimeno. They got secretly engaged on the trip, and Jimeno ended up traveling to Atlanta to live with Everett. The Family Chantel follows the couple and their extended families as they work through family drama.

RELATED: The Family Chantel: 90 Day Fiance Fans React to a New Season and Brand-New Trailer: Ill Be Watching Dont Judge Me

Some of the family members featured on the show are Everetts parents, Karen and Thomas, her siblings, Royal, River, and Winter. Jimenos family also stars in the reality show. He is joined by his mother, Lydia Morel, and his sister, Nicole.

The new season of The Family Chantel

A press release from TLC makes it clear we can expect lots of drama in the new season, and even teases a potential break-up. Five years into marriage Chantel and Pedro have hit a rough patch, the statement reads.

The only thing they can agree on is that they need to take serious steps to save their love. Nicole has made a clean break with Alejandro and is focusing on herself and her future. Shes even entered the Miss Dominican Republic pageant and is training hard until a surprise visit from Alejandro throws her off her game. Inspired by a success story she saw on social media, Winter is going through with bariatric weight loss surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. With newfound confidence shes also looking for new love post-Jah.

River decides its time to leave the nest and turns to Pedro for support, the statement continued. Pedros relationship with his mother and sister is still strained, which isnt helping the two families bury the hatchet after last seasons visit to the Dominican Republic. While Chantel and Pedro are struggling to save their marriage, will their families rally to support them or end up hammering the final nail in the coffin?

The new season is set to drop on June 6, 2022, and will have 12 episodes. The Family Chantel isnt the only TLC show to get picked up for another season.

TLC renewed several other popular shows

Little People Big World is coming back for Season 23, while Welcome To Plathville and Seeking Sister Wife are both getting picked up for a fourth season. I Love A Mamas Boy is also coming back for a third season.

These shows are key pillars for TLCs brand of family docudramas and are among the most popular programming on television, the networks statement said.

Fans of The Family Chantel are excited to hear that the show is coming back for another season, along with some of their other favorite TLC reality shows.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Fans Are Sick of The Family Chantel
The final installment of Apple TV+s original series, WeCrashed, is here. And that means a WeCrashed recap. In WeCrashed Season 1 Episode 8: The One With All the Money, Adam Neumann (Jared Leto) fights to maintain control of WeWork. Later, he and Rebekah Neumann (Anne Hathaway) envision a future without the company.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from WeCrashed Season 1 Episode 8: The One With All the Money]

WeCrashed Season 1 Episode 8 recap: An article puts WeWorks IPO in jeopardy

Jared Leto | Apple TV+

In WeCrashed Season 1 Episode 8: The One With All the Money, its a few weeks before WeWork is set to go public. The episode, which began streaming on April 22, 2022, according to Apple TV, has Adam reassuring investors.

Why? Because of the negative response to the financial document he and Rebekah crafted. Meanwhile, the public conversation about WeWork  and Adam  has shifted. No longer is WeWork being heralded as a unicorn.

The Wall Street Journal runs the article Adams team tried desperately to shut down. The headline reads: Adam Neumann Built WeWork and He May Destroy It.

As a result, investors and board members lose confidence in Adam. They dont want him as CEO. The board votes him out, as seen in the opening scenes of the March 18 premiere episode.

But theres a catch. Adam controls 65% of the vote on any corporate matter. He and Rebekah consider firing every person on the board and filling the seats with friends.

Adam hires a crisis manager as he fights to maintain control of WeWork

Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto | Apple TV+

Youre at war, a crisis manager tells Adam. Their advice? Say nothing and trust no one. Adam and Rebekah set up a war room in their home. However, Adams not happy with the crisis managers tactics. He gets frustrated when everyone says no comment. He wants them to say something.

Then he takes matters into his own hands. Adam goes to Bruce Dunlevies (Anthony Edwards) office, where he finds WeWork employees. Adam offers up a change in terms. Bruce doesnt go for it. Youre toxic. You killed the company, the SoftBank executive tells Adam. Bruce even threatens to break Adams arm if he doesnt resign.

By the time he gets back home, what happened at Bruces office is already online. To make matters worse, a photo of Adam walking barefoot through New York City goes viral.

Finally, after a failed attempt to get funding from Masayoshi Son (Kim Eui-Sung), Adam does the right thing and votes to remove himself as CEO.

Masa says he wont give Adam the money

Anne Hathaway | Apple TV+

Adams story is far from over. While Cameron Lautner (O-T Fagbenle) takes over as CEO, the WeWork co-founder engages in a high-stakes standoff with Masa. Initially, Masa offers Adam $500 million for his shares of the company. He refuses, telling Rebekah hell make another offer.

Finally, after lots of back and forth, Adam and Masa come to an agreement. Rebekah and Adam leave New York City for Israel. At the Dead Sea, Adam surprises Rebekah by purchasing the rights to the WeGrow school curriculum.

Moments later, Masa calls. Rebekah picks up and he asks the same question he posed to Adam. Who wins in a fight, the smart one or the crazy one? Rebekah chooses the former before Masa reveals its a trick question. The correct answer is the one with all the money.

Masa tells Rebekah he wont give Adam one penny from the buyout package. From here on out, they will only speak through lawyers.

Every episode of WeCrashed is available to stream on Apple TV+.

RELATED: Anne Hathaway Refused to Villainize Rebekah Neumann When She Agreed to WeCrashed: Shes Really Sweet
Growing up, Cheshires Ally Dubuc recalls turning the pages of magazines to see what celebrities like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera were up to at the moment.

The 2014 Cheshire High School graduate had no idea that, years later, she would pick up a magazine and stare right at her own face.

An aspiring model, Dubuc, age 26, was stunned to learn this year that she had been chosen as the cover person for the March issue of Style Cruze Magazine. Back on Feb. 19, the publication also put her on a billboard in Times Square in New York City.

Im so humbled by everything, said Dubuc.

Her blossoming career has caught Dubuc by surprise. After graduating from CHS, she initially pursued science and communications at Central Connecticut State University.

I was getting terrible migraines from looking at microscopes in my last science class. I knew that I had to make a change, recalled Dubuc.

She had a stint as an intern at ESPN, but a chance meeting opened a new door to her in 2020. While walking by the Cornell University bookstore in New York, she was approached by a talent scout for Gucci and Vogue who asked her if she was interested in modeling.

I thought it was a joke because Im not tall, but she said that I had a great look, Dubuc explained.

From there, she took the opportunity to have her first test shoot in New York City.

When the headshots started, I was shaking, recalled Dubuc. They (the crew) told me to calm down.

To help with her nerves, she brought an umbrella as a prop and used it to strike a pose during a pause in traffic on Fifth Avenue. Some of the photos appeared in Beautica Magazine.

I ran back onto the road and he (the photographer) caught the shot in 15 seconds, said Dubuc.

Also for the shoot, she posed in front of Michael Jacksons former house and at the Bowery Hotel. At the hotel, Dubuc enjoyed using the roof to take fitness photos.

The crew said that they had never seen a better view in their life, stated Dubuc. It was beautiful because you had the whole skyline of Manhattan.

The start of the pandemic slowed things down for the modeling industry, but Dubuc was able to get some commercial jobs to start out.

As the health situation improved, she used networking to build her career. Makeup artist Yelena Scheidler offered to take Dubuc under her wing.

She was at my first shoot and said, I saw a side of you that has 110 percent potential, said Dubuc. She lives in Virginia and has a lot of friends.

Through word-of-mouth, Dubuc was contacted by the Style Cruze CEO and Founder Divyesh Pillarisetty. After seeing photos from her Gucci shoot and other work, he said that he was interested in collaborating with her.

The pandemic initially delayed the shoot, but it was rescheduled for last summer in Virginia.

We planned it by looking at what clothes are in fashion and which ones arent, recalled Dubuc.

On Nov. 8 of last year, Dubuc was surprised to learn that one of her photos would appear on a billboard in Times Square.

I couldnt believe it, recalled Dubuc. He wanted my name to be big and bold up there.

Leading up to the big reveal on Feb. 19 of this year, she was given a sneak peak of a photo of herself wearing a white dress.

I really thought that the color would stand out in Times Square, reflected Dubuc.

To coincide with the milestone, she decided that she would do a photo shoot in NYC.

I always want to dress to impress and stand out, said Dubuc. I wore a black dress that I bought.

While her big night was cold and windy, she appreciated that a stranger came up and offered to style her hair on the spot.

If it wasnt for him, I wouldnt have had one good picture for the reveal, recalled Dubuc.

Dubuc was told that, along with her billboard, she would make the covers of the February and March issues of Style Cruze. She had photos taken earlier this year.

That was my first high-fashion shoot, stated Dubuc. They (Style Cruze) get like six thousand submissions for the magazine. It is a very competitive industry.

After the cover was posted over social media on March 4, she was excited to pick up a copy later in the month at Iconic Magazines in New York.

I found it between a copy of Vogue and Rolling Stone with JLo (Jennifer Lopez) on the cover. I quickly grabbed it, recalled Dubuc.

For the front cover, Dubuc is in a green dress, while she is pictured wearing purple on the back.

On the inside of the magazine, there are eight photos of me and a thank-you note, said Dubuc. It was surreal when I first saw it. I cried because I knew that I had made it.

Dubuc wants to promote a positive outlook on her new career.

I think that the modeling era has changed. It is not like in 2014 or the 1990s where being super-thin was in (style), explained Dubuc. I feel that healthy is the new sexy.

Even before becoming a model, Dubuc had a passion for working out in the gym.

I have a very good metabolism. I need to take in a higher calorie count than a lot of people, stated Dubuc. In personal training, it is about gaining muscle. Before I started getting into it, I didnt do a lot of lifting, but it has really sculpted my body now.

Dubuc has struggled with endometriosis, a disorder that causes tissue to grow outside the uterus, but after having surgery this year, she is feeling better and hopes to be cleared soon to start working out with a new trainer.

By taking care of her body, Dubuc thinks that she has the potential to continue to model for years.

It is a lifestyle for me, stated Dubuc. I believe in being healthy and eating in moderation. It helps me mentally, too.

Starting out in the business, Dubuc wanted to look into companies on her own and then decide which opportunities to pursue.

Ive learned so much from the modeling aspect on how to conduct business properly and handle sales, reflected Dubuc.

From her research, she has tried to model in different categories.

My portfolio is very versatile and that is the key to success, because you can go from high-end runway to fitness to skin care. They are so different, explained Dubuc. Ive been told that I have a natural talent for everything, but I think that my strong suit is swim.

Dubuc is appreciative of the advice she has received from people like photographer Ben Amare, who she worked with in Virginia and Washington, D.C., last summer. To overcome nerves in posing, Amare told her that she had to mentally train her mind to be an actress.

He said that it (modeling) is just you and acting. That was helpful because I was struggling with hand placement, said Dubuc. I always bring a prop to shoots because it helps with my nerves and makes you stand out from the other girls.

This year, Dubuc enjoyed the opportunity to work with Cheshire photographer Joey Jones in Old Saybrook.

He likes Old Hollywood shoots, so we did that and then switched to other outfits, recalled Dubuc.

With her career picking up, Dubuc is planning to sign with an agency in May.

It has gotten to the point where I cant control every thing anymore, said Dubuc. I can have calls go back and forth 10 times a day.

She is hopeful that new contacts can help her get more work in the fitness industry. From her original shoot two years ago, Dubuc has kept some photos that she would like to shop around.

I feel that there arent a lot of options for women in sports, stated Dubuc. So far, Ive only found one well-known magazine that is taking fitness photos.

In reflection, Dubuc is proud that she waited a couple of years before looking for representation.

If I had signed on early with an agency, I wouldnt be where I am now, reflected Dubuc. Ive learned so much about the business.

From having filmed a spot for a car ad and a music video this year, she is interested in doing more commercials and/or looking into acting.

Those (experiences) were so much fun, stated Dubuc. Im very hands-on. I take direction very well.

While she has enjoyed expanding her horizons, Dubuc would also love to give back to her hometown. If Cheshire businesses are interested in her for ad work, Dubuc said that she can be reached by email at allystacy01@gmail.com.

That would be a memory Id like to have, said Dubuc, of collaborating on projects in Cheshire. Im open to doing a commercial for cars (locally). My father owned a 1969 Camaro and he is now looking to customize a Corvette.

She is also open to people reaching out to her for advice on getting into the modeling industry. For designers and companies, Dubuc additionally offers to give free publicity over social media.

I want to give back. Helping others makes me feel better at the end of the day, explained Dubuc. I want people to see me as being down to earth.

She is appreciative of her familys support in and out of the modeling industry.

I get told a lot that my parents raised [me] very well and that means a lot, stated Dubuc.

Before her grandfather passed away, Dubuc recalls him telling her in high school and college that she would become a model.

I told him that you are just saying that to make me feel better, said Dubuc. Even though he isnt here to see it, it is good to know that he was right all along.
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Actor regrets asking God why he was 'forgotten' in Hollywood over refusal to do sex scenes

Actor Neal McDonough claims he wrestled with God after being blacklisted in Hollywood for several years because he refused to perform sex scenes.

Known for his performances in Band of Brothers, Minority Report and Desperate Housewives, the Catholic actor recently told Fox News about his walk with God when he wasn't working after being dismissed from the ABC series "Scoundrels" in 2010.

McDonough has alleged that he was let go from the show in recent years because he refused to do on-screen romance scenes, something that wasn't an issue on past projects.

"There was a time when I wasnt working. I couldnt get a job because people thought I was this crazy religious guy," McDonough said. "But that wasnt the case. I love my wife, but I love my acting too. I was hopeful that, at some point, someone would give me a chance again."

McDonough said he was three days into filming the series but was cut from the show because he wouldn't agree to on-screen sex scenes.

The Boston native has had a no sex scenes policy for most of his 30-year career and not even his stint in Desperate Housewives, a highly sexualized series, made him compromise his rule.

He married his wife Ruve in 2003 and maintained that he would not even kiss any other woman because these lips are meant for one woman."

The Christian Post reached out to ABC about McDonough's claim of being cut from "Scoundrels," but did not immediately receive a response.

After experiencing "a hard few years" without any work, McDonough said he had a heart-to-heart with God.

"I remember falling to my knees and saying, God, why have you forgotten about me? Why am I being punished so much?" McDonough said. "And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, I realized what self-absorbed questions those were.

He said he regrets his words, realizing how blessed he truly is.

God has given me so much. We all experience challenges in our lives. I should be grateful  and thankful  for all the blessings Im given," he added.

McDonough said after his prayer, he got a call from actor and screenwriter Graham Yostwho, someone he had previously worked with on "Band of Brothers."

"I remember, a few minutes later, I was sitting there at the kitchen table with Ruve," he recounted. "Graham called and said, Hey, you want to play the villain in the first episode or two of Justified? I said, Yes, yes I do. And after the first take, he came up to me and said, You want to play the villain for the whole year? I joked, Didnt you know that was my game plan? Thats what Im going to do."

"And after Justified, everything was kind of forgotten. I was determined to give a really great performance and I did, he noted.

In an interview with The Christian Post at the 2019 Movieguide Awards, McDonough spoke of his faith and dedication to his wife.

You get one shot at life to do things the best way that you possibly can and to give glory to God in everything that you can do, he told CP. Our relationship is always paramount to me in my life. It's the most important thing in my world.

Paul Newman said it best, 'Why go out for a hamburger when I've got a steak at home?' McDonough said.

The couple has been together for over 23 years and married 19 of them. They have five children together.

McDonough's career has flourished since "Justified" in 2012.

"God gave me this gift of being an actor, and Im not going to waste it," he shared with Fox News Digital. "Im now in a position to produce movies with my wife. Im able to co-create projects. And I get to continue pursuing my craft. I couldnt be in a better place in my career. Every step Ive had along the way, every challenge Ive faced, has built this moment. And this is a moment Im really cherishing. Im proud of my work and what I can accomplish."
Hillsong exec. called Brian Houstons explanation after visiting womans hotel room dribble: report

A high-level Hillsong Church executive dismissed founder Brian Houstons explanation for why he visited the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes during the churchs annual conference in 2019 as insulting dribble just days before Houston resigned, a leaked letter suggests.

Days before Houstons resignation as the megachurch network's global senior pastor on March 23, Hillsong's head of people and development, John Mays, recommended in a March 19 letter obtained by The Guardian that Houston and his wife, Bobbie, be fired from their positions due to leadership failures.

Houstons resignation came after it was revealed that two women, including the unidentified women in the hotel room, made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years.

Before announcing Houstons resignation, the Australia-based church said Houston violated Hillsong's pastoral code of conduct by entering the hotel room of the unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the churchs annual conference in 2019.

Houston doesnt recall having sex with the woman, and the woman has not said if they had sex.

Hillsong Churchs Interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley told Hillsong Church staffers in a meeting that the accounts of what happened from Houston and the woman are not entirely reliable because they were impaired by alcohol. Houston was also reportedly under the influence of anxiety medication during the hotel room visit.

In his letter, however, Mays, whose son Jason Mays pleaded guilty to indecent assault of former Hillsong College student Anna Crenshaw in January 2020, said there were obvious information gaps and anomalies in what the Hillsong Church board told staff.

I do not believe our employees have bought the narrative within the statement made in the staff meeting, Mays wrote. He said the narrative was met with skepticism and mistrust despite urgings to avoid gossip and talk to leadership about any concerns.

One insulting example (of many) is that Brian lost his room key so knocked on the ladys door, a detail he no doubt recalls despite memory loss during the following 40 minutes. Are we really asking our staff to accept such dribble and defend our Church with such? he asked.

Hillsong Church also revealed in March that Houston exchanged an inappropriate text message with a church staffer in 2013. According to Dooley, the text message was along the lines of, If I was with you I would like to give you a kiss and a cuddle or a hug. The staffer resigned shortly after. Hillsong Church blamed Houstons actions in this case on sleeping tablets.

In his letter, Mays alleged that Brian and his behaviors placed a great deal of stress on Hillsong Church board members.

"[T]hese challenges would have been intensified on account of Brians strong, immovable, leadership disposition together with a distinct lack of personal accountability which has been allowed over many years," Mays added.

Mays further alleged that Hillsong Church had become an arrogant employer that essentially exploited the commitment of staff to the churchs mission over time.

He further called for a review of the boards process that led to Houstons resignation by a forensic, independent, external body with absolutely no allegiance to Hillsong or any of its board members.

I believe that the statement provided to staff should be reviewed and modified to ensure it more authentically reveals the full circumstances of Brians indiscretions (subject to his and others right to privacy), the agreements entered into with aggrieved parties (again subject to individual privacy) and the decision-making process that led to such agreements, Mays wrote, according to The Guardian.

Earlier this month, Hillsong Church also fired Bobbie Houston. Mays, in his letter, had also recommended that she be held accountable.

I believe Bobbie in her capacity as Global Senior Pastor, paid accordingly, should also be accountable for her willingness to tolerate such behavior and defiance on the part of her co-leader, Mays wrote. I do not see her as a victim in this situation, she has a biblical, professional and corporate responsibility to ensure accountability.
Andrew Klavan on how English Romantic poets reveal Gospel in age of atheism, radicalism

When bestselling author Andrew Klavan embraced Christianity at the age of 49, it was the result of what he described as a deeply literary journey.

Klavan, an international bestselling author and Edgar Award winner, was attracted to literature at a young age for one simple reason: He needed a male role model.

I didn't have a lot of male role models in my life, and one of the things that all boys need is male role models, and I found them in literature, the 67-year-old author told The Christian Post.

I found them in tough-guy detective stories, in noble men who went into corrupt areas and stayed clean even though they had to deal with corruption and murder.  I thought, 'I want to be like that guy. I want to be a guy who can walk down a mean street and not become mean himself.'  And in doing that, I started to discover that they were all based on mythology and Arthurian legends, and I became very wrapped up in Arthurian legends. And I started to see that Christ and Christianity were at the center of those.

As a researcher of Western culture, Klavan began to study the Gospels as a teen, much to the chagrin of his Jewish father. Slowly, over the decades, he came to believe that everything that I believed, everything that I knew to be true, and especially the moral web of life that I knew to be true, was wrapped up in Christianity.

Though Klavan has few questions about the faith  I don't doubt much because it took me so long to come to faith that I kind of went down every wrong road and found the arguments against every possible mistake you can make, he said  there were certain parts of the Bible that didnt make practical or moral sense to him.

There are things that we are so used to thinking of as good, like, Turn the other cheek and Love your enemies. But when I thought about them, I thought, Do I really want to do that? Is that really something I even aspire to? If somebody struck me, wouldn't I strike him back? And certainly, if someone struck any of the people I love, I wouldn't hesitate to strike back. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, 'This is a little blurry.'"

So, the host of "The Andrew Klavan Show" on The Daily Wire decided to go back to the Gospels and start from scratch. He taught himself Greek, forgetting everything hed learned about Christianity from theologians and church traditions, and allowing Jesus to speak for Himself.

As he read the Gospels, he kept hearing echoes of the English Romantic poets like William Wordsworth, John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge  so he went back to the works of those 18th century authors to discover why. He came to discover that the Romantic period, which began roughly around 1798 and lasted until 1837, was eerily similar to today's world.

"It was a period when faith started to fail. It was a period when radical politics were on the rise, a period when people started questioning gender roles, and then the efficacy of marriage, and all of those things centered on a growing sense of unbelief, a growing sense of atheism in the world, Klavan shared.

When you lose touch with God, it becomes harder and harder to know what's true, what's right, and who you are. Those are all things that we depend upon God to give us a ground floor on," the author continued.

The poets, he said, started to write poetry in that world, reacting to their environment and recreating the Christian faith and attitudes that had all but disappeared.

"And [they] did it in such beautiful poetic language that it really sticks in your head and really changes the way you read the Gospels," Klavan said.

Because his entire spiritual journey is so wrapped up in literature, Klavan said he wasnt surprised that God pointed him to the English Romantic poets to help him understand Jesus. And reading the Gospels after reading poetry, he said, made the words come to life in a new way.

They say Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And that's true, but our situation changes, our world changes, our consciousness changes, he reflected. I felt like these poets were speaking in a modern way about this ancient wisdom, that it was kind of like a bridge that was connecting me to Jesus Christ directly, helping me to get to know how He saw things; not just what He said, but how He saw things, and that just changed the way I read the Gospels entirely.

Klavan shares what he learned over the course of this journey in his latest book, The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of Englands Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus.

He delves into the personal lives, history and works of poets including Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley and others to both examine the Gospels and help readers encounter Jesus on a deeper, more profound level.

What the Romantics did was they showed me how much of what Jesus was doing and what He was saying was based on affecting our consciousness, the way we see the world, Klavan said. He says it over and over again, Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, those who have eyes to see. Hes trying to show us how He sees the world, and how we can start to see the world like Him and have a little bit of the Jesus mind in us, so the joy that is Him will be in us. That is a beautiful gift to give to someone; the joy of seeing the world through Gods eyes.

Many of the poets were, as Klavan recounts in his book, troubled and in pain  they were human. Coleridge was a drug addict; Keats struggled with depression, and Wordsworth was plagued with physical illness throughout his life.

But Coleridge, Klavan explained, was nevertheless a faithful Christian, a brilliant man who heavily influenced his fellow poets. And so even though they weren't people of faith, they were guided by the faith, and they came back to it, and they just almost rediscovered it."

For example, the poets helped Klavan understand the mystery of the miracles and what Jesus meant by counterintuitive commands like Love your enemies.

He says, Love your enemies so you can see what God sees, Klavan contended. Even if you see it a little bit, your joy increases exponentially, you suddenly understand, Oh, you, the things that I thought were disappointments aren't disappointments at all; the things that I thought were tragedies have another dimension to them. The things that I expected of the world that didn't come to pass are part of the beauty of the world. And you start to have  that wonderful sense that, I get it. This world we're in is broken. But the big world is not broken. A big world is working just fine.

Thats what, I think, the Romantic poets were moving toward in their pain, he added. To come to that vision through fallible, pained and yet brilliantly talented people suits me; it actually works for me in a way and brings me back to the Gospels refreshed.

The poets looked at nature to make sense of their world, yet somehow, Klavan said, Christian truth looked back at them.

Most of the great Christian thinkers from the very beginning have always said, There's a book of Scripture, and there's a book of nature, and in both of them, we can read the glory of God. These things actually are telling the same story, Klavan said. And the Romantics prove that to be true.

I think that what you learn from this is, Don't be afraid, Klavan added. I think thats what nature says to us all the time: Don't be afraid. It's me. I Am that I Am. And I am even in the lightning and the thunder and the disease and the death and the real terrible things that happen.

What the English Romantics discovered in an age where science and radicalism were making faith shaky, Klavan emphasized, is that matter, this stuff we're made out of, is the language in which God speaks to us.

The world of the supernatural is this world; it's not a fantasy world. It's not a world where we have to believe a million impossible things a day. It's just living in this world with the intensity and presence and wisdom to see what's actually there right in front of you. And thats, I think, what the poets teach us.
Cost of Guidepost report on SBC leaders alleged mishandling of sexual abuse exceeds $1.7M

A Guidepost Solutions report on an investigation of the alleged mishandling of a crisis of sexual abuse by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention set to be released before the annual meeting of the nations largest Protestant denomination in Anaheim, California, in June, has already exceeded more than $1.7 million in costs.

According to a report by the Baptist Press, the denominations official news service, while the budget submitted by Guidepost Solutions originally projected the investigation would cost between $1.3 million and $1.6 million, total invoices for the period October 2021 through February 2022 were $1,743,121.

Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Church in Arden, North Carolina who also chairs the Sexual Abuse Task Force said the cost of the investigation could have already exceeded $2 million had Guidepost Solutions not applied a $458,154 credit to the denominations February invoice.

I am very grateful for the immense professionalism shown by Guidepost in dealing with a condensed time frame  due to EC delays  and a large project, Frank told Baptist Press. We are also grateful for the professional courtesy discount given by Guidepost due to this projects importance.

According to Baptist Press, trustees of the SBCs Executive Committee originally voted to allocate up to $1.6 million for the investigation. At their February meeting, that allocation was increased to $2 million. Legal fees which were originally approved for $500,000, were also increased in February to $2 million.

The SBC Executive Committee announced on June 11 that Guidepost Solutions would review allegations made by the former leader of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore, that SBC leaders intimidated whistleblowers and exonerated churches with credible claims of negligence of sexual abuse victims.

Guidepost Solutions was also commissioned to "review and enhance training provided to SBC Executive Committee staff and its board of trustees" as it relates to sex abuse and the organizations "communications to cooperating churches and congregants in cooperating churches."

The investigation, funded by allocations from the Cooperative Program, is expected to cover the period from January 1, 2000, to June 14, 2021, and include a review of actions and decisions of staff and members of the Executive Committee. The investigation will also include an audit of the procedures and actions taken by the SBC Credentials Committee, a body formed at the convention meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, in June 2019.

Willie McLaurin, interim EC president and CEO, told Baptist Press that the current expenditures on the investigation reflect the wishes of Southern Baptists.

The final authority and final accountability for how funds are spent is given by the messengers and the convention, he explained. Southern Baptist can be confident that while the investigation focused on the Executive Committee, the EC has diligently fulfilled the request of the messengers by funding the investigation. I am incredibly thankful that for such a time as this, reserve funds were available to use without having impact on our cooperative work.

The SBCs reserve funds are generated from gifts allocated through the Cooperative Program to the EC. Those reserves have been built over the years through investments and as of February stood at $15 million, with $12.2 million in unrestricted funds Baptist Press said.
Pastor Stovall Weems steps down from Celebration Church after filing lawsuit

Nearly two months after filing a lawsuit over who controls the 12,000-member Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, founding pastor Stovall Weems announced Monday that he has resigned from every role he had with the church but will continue to pursue legal action against the churchs board of trustees and officers.

In a letter shared on Instagram with his nearly 14,000 followers, Weems, who founded the church in 1998, said he was resigning from his roles as senior pastor, president and CEO, chair and member of the board of trustees, as well as a registered agent of Celebration Church Jacksonville.

I have spent much time in prayer and received counsel from other pastors here in the city, the region, and around the world, Weems wrote. The Trustees actions leave me and my family with no choice but to legally separate from CCJ and continue our ministry elsewhere, placing ourselves under the proper accountability and oversight of a council of apostolic pastors and elders in our city, nation, and world that understand and model biblical governance.

In the Feb. 23 lawsuit filed by Stovall and Kerri Weems, the former pastor claims he was illegally ousted from his role as senior pastor by the churchs board of trustees earlier this year when he tried to address financial abuse involving one of the trustees.

The church, in turn, filed a motion to dismiss the Weems lawsuit on March 10. The church claims the lawsuit is the latest chapter in a campaign of deception, manipulation, distraction, and abuse of power by Stovall and Kerri Weems against Celebration.

Having founded Celebration, the Weemses over time came to act like they owned the church and could do with it what they wanted without the management and oversight required by Florida law and the churchs governing documents, the churchs filing said. When the current board of trustees discovered that the Weemses had engaged in a series of questionable financial transactions without board knowledge or authorization, they requested an investigation.

The churchs filing contends that trustees analyzed the churchs financial position in December 2021 and discovered that the Weemses made several large financial transactions earlier in 2021 without notice to or authorization from the board.

These transactions included multiple large transfers to new for-profit entities that the Weemses intended to manage going forward. The motion claims that the church had purchased a parsonage for $1.2 million that a company owned by Stovall Weems had purchased four months earlier for $855,000.

Additionally, the board took issue with the advancement of nine months salary to Kerri Weems and seven months salary to Stovall Weems" in violation of Florida statute and church policies despite neither Stovall nor Kerri Weems performing the duties of the offices that purportedly justified those salaries.

The couple was also accused of using $1 million worth of Paycheck Protection Program loan funds improperly to purchase a speculative digital currency known as TurnCoin.

In a statement to News4JAX, Sara Brady, a spokesperson for the Weemses, denied any wrongdoing.

No PPP funds were utilized in the Turn[C]oin investment. The Churchs 2020 audited financials certifies that the Church utilized the PPP funds in accordance with their legally allowed purposes. Administration of the Churchs PPP funds was controlled by the Churchs CFOs. The 2021 PPP funds were completely used up by the Churchs payroll, Brady said.

Neither the PPP funds nor the Turn[C]oin investment also had anything to do with Pastor Stovalls salary advance. Pastor Stovall invested approximately $100,000 in Turn[C]oin, an SEC approved investment, for the purpose of creating a retirement fund for long-time Celebration Church employees, she added.

Currently, that investment is worth more than $1.5 million. Pastors Stovall and Kerri never intended to receive any money from this investment. The restricted usage of these funds is documented with the Churchs Human Resources department.

In their farewell message to the church now led by Pastor Tim Timberlake, the Weemses expressed love for the members of the church they founded and said they plan to continue working in Jacksonville.

We look forward to seeing many of you since we will remain in Jacksonville where we will continue to pastor, preach and minister Gods Word. We are excited about all that is to come for THE CHURCH (Big C) in our city, region and around the world! they said. Keep watching this space because in the coming days we will begin announcing details about what the new looks like for us. We cant wait to see you and we look forward to continuing the work of the Kingdom alongside you!
11th Circuit rules against Florida university in free speech lawsuit

A federal appeals court panel has ruled against the University of Central Florida policy banning "discriminatory harassment" because it likely violates students' freedom of speech.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued a unanimous ruling Thursday overturning a lower court decision to deny the legal nonprofit Speech First a preliminary injunction stopping the UCF policy. The case has been remanded back to the court for further consideration.

We hold (1) that Speech First has standing to sue because the challenged policies chill its members speech and (2) that the discriminatory-harassment policy likely violates the First Amendment on the grounds that it is an overbroad and content- and viewpoint-based regulation of constitutionally protected expression, wrote Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom for the panel.

Because the district court never considered the bias-related-incidents policys constitutionality on the merits  having erroneously concluded that Speech First lacked standing to challenge it  we remand for a determination of that issue.

According to the ruling, the school's policy defined discriminatory harassment as verbal, physical, electronic or other conduct" based on a long list of factors that include race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental disability and or political affiliations.

Speech First Executive Director Cherise Trump said in a statement the panel opinion is a huge victory for every student at the University of Central Florida, as well as all students attending schools in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

We are thrilled that the Court sided with us as we work to protect students First Amendment rights. This court decision should send an alarming message to anyone attempting to chill, silence, or bully into submission others opinions, she stated.

Open dialogue and an exchange of ideas are how leaders are formed, censoring students will only stunt their ability to grow intellectually and contribute to society.

In February 2021, Speech First filed a lawsuit against university officials on behalf of students seeking to engage in debates over hot-button issues.

According to the complaint, the university policy was overbroad because it punished students who engaged in verbal acts, name-calling, [or] graphic or written statements (via the use of cell phone or the internet) that other students may find humiliating or offensive.

The lawsuit expressed concern over UCFs bias response team, which according to the lawsuit, could discipline behavior done on or off campus without regard to whether the act is legal, illegal, intentional, or unintentional.

UCF attorneys argued in a brief last October that the university was fulfilling its obligations to prohibit discriminatory harassing speech so that all individuals can be educated and work in an environment that is free from such discriminatory harassing speech that falls beyond the line of protected speech.

When it comes to speech-based harassment, the Supreme Court has been clear: The First Amendment protects speech up to a well-defined line, but discriminatory harassing speech on the basis of a protected trait or characteristic falls beyond that line as one of the recognized categories of unprotected speech, stated the brief, as quoted by the News Service of Florida.

[The policy] is clearly aimed at regulating only unprotected speech and conduct that unreasonably invades the rights of other students.
South Carolina Supreme Court orders 14 church properties be given back to The Episcopal Church

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that properties held by 14 churches that left The Episcopal Church over its ordination of gay clergy and acceptance of same-sex unions more than a decade ago shall be returned to the denomination and its affiliated diocese in the state.

The court ruled that 14 of the 29 parishes listed in a lawsuit that broke away from The Episcopal Church and later joined the Anglican Church in North America must hand over their properties to The Episcopal Church because they expressly agreed to an Episcopal Church law that places all parish properties in a trust belonging to the national church, the denomination said in a statement.

The other 15 parishes didnt expressly agree to the canon, the court said.

Their decisions will no doubt bring joy to many in our diocese, but for others, there will be grief in the possible finality of a loss they have been feeling for nearly 10 years, the Rt. Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, said. We now walk into a bright future, one in which we will focus on the reconciling power of the Gospel to transform injustice, to heal the brokenhearted, and to build Gods beloved community.

The 14 parishes include: Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant; Good Shepherd, Charleston; Holy Comforter, Sumter; Holy Cross, Stateburg; Holy Trinity, Charleston; St. Bartholomews, Hartsville; St. Davids, Cheraw; St. Lukes, Hilton Head; St. Matthews, Fort Motte; St. James, Charleston; St. Johns, Johns Island; St. Judes, Walterboro; Trinity, Myrtle Beach; and Old St. Andrews, Charleston.

The state court deferred the use of trademarks and emblems to federal courts, which is on appeal in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, The Post and Courier reported.

Longtime Episcopalian Steve Skardon was quoted as saying that secular courts don't have jurisdiction over church disputes on theological matters. He called the courts decision a huge mistake and a wrong precedent.

Its going to affect every church in South Carolina, Skardon said. Now, instead of working things out with church hierarchy, you can just run to the courts.

In 2014, the Rev. Shay Gaillard, rector of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Charleston at the time, said, The buildings and the land are assets for Gospel ministry. They were paid for by members of this parish, past and present. No outside group should determine their usage, according to The Augusta Chronicle.

The newspaper also observed at the time that about 50 Episcopal churches in the southern and eastern parts of South Carolina had left as they found the national church had become too liberal, especially on the issue of same-sex marriage.
SC Episcopal diocese elects first female bishop amid $500 million legal battle over church property

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, which is still in the midst of a yearslong legal battle with a breakaway group over several church properties, has elected its first female bishop.

The Rev. Canon Ruth Woodliff-Stanley won the election on the second ballot at a special meeting of the convention held by the diocese on Saturday, beating out four other candidates.

On the second ballot, Woodliff-Stanley received 13 votes in the Lay Order, which required at least 10 votes to win, and 26 votes in the Clergy Order, which required at least 18 votes to win.

Molly Hamilton, director of communications for the diocese, told The Christian Post that a few canonically-required consents are still needed from the Standing Committees and bishops of The Episcopal Church before Woodliff-Stanley can begin working.

We expect this to occur in the coming two to three months, noted Hamilton, who directed CP to a letter that Woodliff-Stanley wrote to the diocese while still a candidate for bishop.

In her letter, Woodliff-Stanley detailed her church leadership ground, ties to South Carolina, and past work with regional bodies that experienced division.

Ive worked with dioceses experiencing conflict and schism and comprehend the scope and magnitude of the challenges ahead, wrote Woodliff-Stanley. I understand the ministry of a bishop to be humble and holy work, joyful and collective work we do together on behalf of Jesus.

In 2012, then-South Carolina Diocese Bishop Mark Lawrence and a majority of the diocesan leadership voted to leave The Episcopal Church, due to theological differences and the reported poor treatment of Lawrence by the denomination.

Since then, there have been extensive legal battles over the $500 million worth of property and the trademarks of the diocese between the breakaway group and those still loyal to The Episcopal Church.

In 2017, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in favor of The Episcopal Church and its local group, the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, concluding that at least 29 of the 36 properties belong to the national denomination.

However, in June 2020, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson, who had been tasked with enforcing the ruling, instead issued an order concluding that each parish owned their own properties.

Hamilton of the Episcopal Diocese told CP that, at present, both sides are waiting for the state Supreme Court to determine whether they will uphold their earlier ruling.

The Federal Court ruled in September 2019 in favor of our diocese granting that The Episcopal Church in South Carolina is the historic Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina with all rights to the name, trademarks, and the diocesan seal, Hamilton explained.

The opposing side has appealed that ruling and all appeals are currently awaiting the South Carolina Supreme Court decision on the state property issues.
Pastors wife pleads guilty to asking lover to murder husband, explains why

Kristie Evans, the 48-year-old widow of David Charles Evans, who led the Harmony Freewill Baptist Church in Oklahoma before he was found dead in his home in March 2021, has pleaded guilty to asking her lover to murder him and now wants the public to know why.

The widow entered her guilty plea at Pontotoc County Courthouse last week. Her sentencing hearing is set for August.

Joi Miskel, the attorney for the widow, told NBC News that Evans, who is now facing a potential life sentence, understands there has to be accountability for her actions, and shes prepared to serve whatever sentence is handed down.

At the same time, she wants the court and the public to know the reasons behind her actions, Miskel said, adding that her client at least now has some control and say so in her life that she didnt have before  as twisted as that may sound.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that just after 1 a.m. on March 22, 2021, officers from the Ada Police Department responded to a 911 call in the 1400 block of Northcrest in Ada. They found the 50-year-old David Evans severely wounded. Paramedics would later pronounce him dead at the scene. His wife was also in the home.

It was later alleged in court documents that David Evans was a swinger and his widow confessed to plotting his murder with a man she spent three nights with while he was in Mexico on a mission trip. The man charged with the shooting was identified as 26-year-old Kahlil Deamie Square. A lawyer for Square said that his client is pleading not guilty to the murder charge, according to NBC News.

Kristie Evans told investigators that she and her husband led a secret life as swingers and met Square for sex at a Super 8 motel "on more than one occasion" months before her husband was killed.

"On one of those occasions, Kristie secretly dropped her phone number on the floor for Kahlil," an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent reported in arresting documents obtained by The Oklahoman. "Kristie continued to communicate by phone daily with Kahlil without David's knowledge."

She reportedly asked him to kill her husband and even provided him with a gun and bullets. She also allegedly left the back door of their home open on the night of his murder.

In a recent interview with NBC News from jail, Kristie Evans alleged that her husband abused her for years and was the one that pressured her to have sex with other men.

Private Facebook messages spanning four years between the late pastor and his wife reviewed by NBC News showed the pastor pushing his wife to engage in sex acts with other men.

At one point, the pastor reportedly accused his wife of being a frigid b***h for not having sex with other swinger couples. Christie Evans painted her late husband as financially controlling and physically abusive in ways that didnt leave any marks, according to NBC News.

She claimed that they were planning for a divorce and that one month before her husband was killed, he held a gun to his chin as she spoke with their daughter over the phone. The widow contends the action was a tactic to control how she discussed their separation.

Shortly after the murder of the pastor last year, Harmony Freewill Baptist Churchs Executive Director Mike Wade told KXII that David Evans, who left behind three adult children, was a driven pastor who would do anything he could for his ministry and the church.

He was always a very outgoing guy, Wade said. He always had a smile on his face, always looking out for the needs of others.

The church did not immediately respond when contacted by The Christian Post for comment on the case on Wednesday.

While some relatives say they were aware of some of the abuse Christie Evans was facing, the pastors mother told NBC News that "she could have gone to a new city or a battered womens shelter.
Twitter threatens news outlet with permanent ban for showing photo of baby illegally aborted

Twitter has again been accused of leftist censorship, this time for threatening to permanently ban the account of a pro-life news outlet that showed an image of a full-term baby it suspects was illegally aborted at a clinic in the nation's capital.

Life News announced on its Twitter account Monday that the social media giant "locked our account and threatened to permanently ban it for posting a picture of one of the five full-term babies aborted in our nations capital, even though we followed Twitter rules by marking it sensitive.

The website provided a screenshot of the notice it received from Twitter, which read, Hi LifeNews.com, Your account @LifeNewsHQ has been locked for violating the Twitter Rules.

BREAKING: Twitter locked our account and threatened to permanently ban it for posting a picture of one of the five full-term babies aborted in our nation's capital, even though we followed Twitter rules by marking it sensitive.



This is the leftist censorship that has to stop. pic.twitter.com/4kJTQd3dcq  LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) April 18, 2022

The notice cited violating our rules against posting media depicting gratuitous gore as the reason for locking Life News account. Twitter's rules prohibit users from sharing excessively graphic media (e.g., severe injuries, torture) because exposure to gratuitous gore can be harmful, especially if the content is posted with intent to delight in cruelty or for sadistic pleasure.

Please note that repeated violations may lead to a permanent suspension of your account. Proceed to Twitter now to fix the issue with your account.

The notice included a screenshot of the April 5 tweet that led to Life News being locked out of its account. It said: This is one of five babies killed in legal late-term abortions at an abortion center in our nations capital, whose body was recently discovered. This baby isnt a clump of cells. This baby is a human being whose life was snuffed out before he was born."

This is one of five babies killed in legal late-term abortions at an abortion center in our nation's capitol. whose body was recently discovered.



This baby isn't a clump of cells.



This baby is a human being whose life was snuffed out before he was born.



We MUST end abortion. pic.twitter.com/mOgqtguRgp  LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) April 5, 2022

In the second part of its Twitter thread posted Monday, Life News asked, If aborted babies are just clumps of cells, why is Twitter so afraid of people seeing pictures of them?

Allegations of censorship on the part of Twitter over its response to the tweet extended beyond Life News. Lila Rose, the founder of the pro-life group Live Action, took to Twitter to lament what she viewed as the website going after the pro-life news organization.

The babies found in waste buckets outside DC abortionist Cesare Santangelos Surgi-Clinic deserve justice, she said. Five of them were infants, approx. 21 to 32+ weeks old, with lacerated or dismembered bodies. Why is @Twitter going after the news groups reporting on them?

Pro-life activists Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy, who are affiliated with the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, first discovered a container filled with the remains of more than 100 aborted babies marked for disposal when they intercepted a bio-hazard waste truck outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C. The driver of the vehicle, employed by Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services, allowed the pro-life activists to take the container after they informed him of their intentions were to provide the babies with a proper burial and a funeral.

Upon opening the hazardous waste container, Bukovinac and Handy discovered 110 babies aborted during the first trimester of pregnancy and five full-term babies, one of whom was pictured in the tweet that got Life News locked out of its account.

Earlier this month, the duo joined other pro-life advocates in hosting a press conference announcing their findings and calling for an investigation into Santangelo for possible violations of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The latest allegations of censorship directed at Twitter come as Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of the electric car company Tesla, has expressed an interest in purchasing the social media giant. After buying a 10% stake in Twitter, Musk offered to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash last week.

I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy, he said. However, since making my investment 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.

Before purchasing a stake in Twitter, Musk described the social media platform as the de facto town square before warning that failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. He shared the results of a non-scientific poll he conducted in which he found that Twitter does not rigorously adhere to the principle that free speech is essential to a functioning democracy before asking, Is a new platform needed?

Life News is not the first media outlet to find itself unable to take advantage of the full benefits of Twitter in recent weeks. Twitter notified The Christian Post via email last month that it has blocked this news outlet from posting articles after reporting that Biden administration official Rachel Levine is a man.

Twitter contended that the tweet violated its hateful conduct policy.

Critics of Twitter allege a pattern of censorship directed at conservatives and posts that state biological facts instead of kowtowing to the latest far-left ideology.

CP reached out to Twitter for comment on this story, but a response was not received by press time.
On April 21, 2012, Chuck Colson met Jesus Christ face-to-face in eternity. As many would note later, Chuck Colson died in a way fitting for a marine, with his boots on. I was sitting on the stage behind Chuck as he delivered what would be his final speech.

At the 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, Chuck collapsed on stage. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where, on April 21, he died. His final words may have been delivered with less energy than some of us were used to hearing from Chuck, but with no less lucidity or passion. Heres Chuck Colson:

My topic is the cultural environment today. Culture and a crossroads, which indeed it is, and what youve just witnessed with the Department of Health and Human Services attempting to impose a mandate on the Church, that the Church and Christian groups and religious organizations would have to provide insurance for things which violate our conscience and that we wouldnt be allowed conscience for exemptions.

Whats extraordinary is that there havent been battles of religious liberty ever since the nation was founded and most of them have ended up in court decisions. Sometimes legislative. This is the first time in history, which is why Cardinal Wuerl here in Washington said, This is the most serious invasion of the Church by government ever. This is the first time its been done by a bureaucrat in a government agency simply writing it and then putting it out as law. Normally in a court case, you get a chance to argue both sides, but there wasnt a chance for two sides to be argued this time. It was done by executive fiat.

This is a moment in which the Church has to learn how to defend itself against this sort of thing and do it in a way that is constructive with what were witnessing in our culture today. The HHS mandate is but the tip of the iceberg. Its about the latest visible manifestation of a growing hostility towards Christianity mainly because  this has always been the case  government officials feel threatened by the power of the Church because we all worship a king higher than the kings of this Earth. And thats seen as a threat, and were also seen as wanting to impose our views on people.

Dont let them tell you that we dont propose to impose anything. We propose an invitation to the wedding feast to come to a better way of living, a better way of life. And it is the great proposal. We couldnt impose if we wanted to impose, and we dont want to impose in a democracy. You cant. So, we need to be very clear about who we are and what we do and why we do it.

What were seeing now is the full fruits that have come from 30 years of relativism, death of truth in the academy particularly and in public discourse, and the coarsening of public-discourse question of politics. Everybody looks at the elections and thinks the elections are going to settle this problem. Elections are important for who it is who serves in office. It makes a difference what kind of person that is and what that person believes.

But elections cant solve the problem. Weve got the problem that our culture has been decaying from the inside for 30 or 40 years, and politics is nothing but an expression of culture. So how do you fix the culture? Culture is actually formed by the belief system of the people, by the cult, which was what the Church has been historically. So if things are bad, I dont think its going to be solved by election: Its going to be solved by us. You have a healthy cult, you have a healthy culture, have a healthy culture of healthy politics.

So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror: Thats where the problem is. And if we can through the Church renew the Church too, really bring healthy cultural influence, then theres some hope that we can be changed. I think Eric is right that this is a moment. This is a moment when the time is right for a movement of Gods people under the power of the holy spirit to begin to impact the culture we live in. Its desperately needed. This is why Ive been spending so much time in recent years teaching biblical worldview because I think thats at the root of our problems. Once we can get that understood by the Church: that it is a worldview and we have to live it and express it and contend for it.

Otherwise, its not going to be. Youll see that continued deterioration of the culture and all that goes with it. So, I think the responsibility has to be taken by the Church for a movement that will bring back the authority and strength and winsomeness of the Church, which then in turn affects the culture.
Cuba sentences pastor to 8 years in prison for participating in peaceful protest: report Regime failed to notify pastor and his family for months after sentencing

A Protestant pastor has reportedly been sentenced to eight years in prison for participating in peaceful protests against Cubas communist regime, bringing renewed attention to the governments harsh crackdown on religious activities and peaceful demonstrations.

Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo was detained without trial for over two months following protests in Cuba last summer, which were said to be the largest in decades amid ongoing shortages of medicine and food during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Kingdom-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide recently reported that the Cuban government notified the United Nations in March that Rosales Fajardo, a pastor for 20 years who leads the nondenominational Monte de Sion church in Palma Soriano, was sentenced to eight years in prison for charges including disrespect and public disorder."

The sentencing occurred in late December. However, the government's March letter in response to a joint communication from five U.N. special procedures states that the "parties" had not been notified of the sentencing, according to CSW.

In the letter, Cuban government officials reportedly claimed Rosales Fajardo does not belong to a recognized church." The government also claims that Rosales Fajardo was part of a violent attack on the Cuban Communist Party headquarters in Palma Soriano last July that left several Black "agents of order" and one civilian wounded.

Video and images from the incident, however, showed agents from the Black Beret paramilitary force attacking unarmed protesters and Rosales Fajardo being held in a chokehold, according to CSW.

CSWs Head of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said international efforts to free the pastor continue even amid what appears to be a much broader crackdown against Christians and pro-democracy and pro-reform movements.

We have had numerous reports of Christian leaders being summoned by state security, interrogated and threatened, with some being forced into exile, Stangl told The Christian Post.

One recent report involved a Christian couple who are high-profile pastors in the Las Tunas region. The couple was summoned, interrogated and threatened for six hours, according to Stangl, because of their involvement in organizing a prayer service for political prisoners and highlighting the case of Rosales Fajardo, whose wife was also threatened.

These crude intimidation tactics demonstrate how much the Cuban government fears the influence of Christian leaders and ironically, considering the atheistic ideology held by most Cuban Communist Party officials, their recognition of the power of prayer, said Stangl.

The Cuban government has long scrutinized the islands religious groups  the vast majority of which are Christians  due to their ability to mobilize large groups of people. Stangl thinks public statements made last year by Christian leaders and other religious groups condemning the governments actions may have antagonized the governments stance toward Christians.

The number of explicit statements from religious leaders and groups in the second half of 2021, condemning the government's use of violence against peaceful protesters and affirming the fundamental right to protest peacefully, was something we have not seen since 1959, and marked what many thought might be a new era in terms of religious groups' willingness to speak out publicly despite government threats, she said.

But since then, Stangl says the government has released a number of new draft laws for public consultation, many of which have drawn criticism from Christian leaders.

That trend could indicate their willingness to speak out will not fade even if they are subject to continued intimidation tactics.

The government, under the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party, seems to be intent on taking the country backwards to a more repressive and controlling system, she said. However, many Christian leaders appear to be just as resolute that they will not accept this.

The Madrid-based watchdog group Prisoners Defenders warned last December that the number of political prisoners in Cuba increased five-fold in 2021 as the government cracked down on protesters demonstrating for various reasons, including a shortage of medicine and food during the pandemic.

The U.S. State Department has placed Cuba on its "Special Watch List" of countries with severe violations of religious freedom.

The Christian persecution watchdog ministry Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Cuba as the 37th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on its annual World Watch List. The organization warns that religious freedom conditions in the country continue to worsen.

"The continued rise is the result of highly restrictive measures against churches deemed to be opponents of the regime  especially non-registered Protestant churches," an Open Doors fact sheet states. "The COVID-19 crisis has been used as a pretext to hinder church and community activities, monitor church leaders, make arbitrary arrests, confiscate private property and impose extortion fees. Christian leaders from different denominations were among those arrested during anti-government demonstrations in July."
Youth For Christ raises over $169K to help staff displaced in war-ravaged Ukraine

The parachurch ministry organization Youth For Christ has raised nearly $170,000 to help support staff and volunteers who were forced to flee their homes amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

YFC volunteers, staff and others have donated, as of April 4, a little over $169,500 to help 75 people associated with Youth For Christ Ukraine who were driven from their homes.

Joe Beckler, director of communications and change management at YFC, told The Christian Post on Monday that the funds will be sent to YFC Internationals European regional office for distribution, oversight and stewardship.

The initial goal, according to Beckler, was to raise $135,000, which would support 75 people over three months, with the understanding that $20 per day provides food and shelter for one YFC Ukraine staff or volunteer who is displaced in Slovakia.

We made an appeal to all staff, volunteers and giving partners across the United States. Their generosity was remarkable. As of April 4, weve raised $169,615.50, and the gifts continue to come in, said Beckler.

In addition to financially supporting the displaced personnel, Beckler told CP that they hope to use some of the funds to later rebuild their ministry efforts in the Eastern European nation.

Beckler spoke highly of Youth For Christ Ukraine, explaining that the ministry group has a faithful history of providing services to children and youth.

Their ministry includes several teen centers in the capital city, where youth come for safety, meals, fellowship, and support through trauma, he continued.

A few days into the invasion of Ukraine, we began to receive reports regarding our YFC Ukraine team. We were concerned and eager to provide any support possible. We consider all YFC teams, across the globe, as family and were eager to lean in and help.

Beckler hoped that others would join us in praying for peace and protection in Eastern Europe. While the world is caught up in crisis, we are confident that our hope remains solely in Jesus Christ.

Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February, many churches and ministries in the United States have sought to help those directly affected by the conflict.

Gateway Church, a multisite megachurch based in Texas, recently helped relocate around 400 Ukrainian refugees through cooperation with ministry partners in the country.

God loves and has not forgotten about the people of Ukraine, said Lawrence Swicegood, spokesperson for Gateway, in an earlier interview with CP. We believe as Christians that we should be proactive in helping people in their time of need.

War has devastated so many, but it has not crushed the spirit and hope of Ukrainian people.
Burdened by mountains of debt, Nicolas Cage spent much of the last 15 years saying yes to just about any offer. He appeared in some 50 films, at least half of which were low-budget, direct-to-video schlock that typically vanished into the single digits of Rotten Tomatoes reviews.

Yet Cage remained Cage, outrageous and outsize, strutting or staggering, howling or baying through some of cinema's most memorable but occasionally perplexing performances, often acting as though he was seeing the movie through a funhouse built in his brain.

But there was one role he was extremely reluctant to take on: Nicolas Cage.

In "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," Tom Gormican's rollicking comedy out Friday, he does just that. Cage plays Nick Cage, a movie star with a cratering career. Desperate for money and affirmation, he makes a personal appearance for a hefty payday, leading to new friendship, wild adventures and all kinds of trouble.

The director said he and Kevin Etten wrote the script with Cage in mind, even as people who knew the actor warned them there was "not a chance in hell" he'd sign on. But Gormican knew there was no one else whom audiences would buy as deeply down on his luck, who was also admired as a serious, award-winning thespian and beloved as a mainstream action star.

Cage's eclectic filmography and "nouveau shamanic" performances - as he has dubbed his stylized approach - have made him a pop culture icon whose acting choices are fodder for internet memes and montages. (Google "Nicolas Cage freaking out" and note the wide selection of video options.) And while that's the Cage most people expect to encounter, it's often not who they meet.

"I'm a huge fan of him as an actor, but my impression was that he's an extraordinarily talented madman," said Sharon Horgan, his "Massive Talent" co-star, who instead found Cage to be rigorous and professional. "His level of commitment is just different. He can transcend the character and even the film he's in."

Though quite pleased with the finished film, Cage, 58, is clear that he "did not want to make the movie" - at least not initially. He worried it would merely be an extended sketch that played for cheap laughs at his expense. "I knew I had to send myself up quite a bit but didn't want it to lapse into just mockery," he said during an interview in a New York hotel.

While the Oscar winner "was terrified the whole time" they filmed, he was persuaded by Gormican's sincerity and willingness to create deeper human relationships for his character. Most important was rewriting the role so it was no longer that of a stereotypical absentee dad, but one who is perhaps too enthusiastic about sharing his passions, especially movies. (Cage's fictional daughter definitely does not share his passion for the 1920 German film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.")

Relieved of much of his debt, Cage had already begun a return to his "independent roots," earning raves last year for Michael Karnoski's "Pig," about a former superstar chef who has fled his past life. "People associate him with bombastic performances, which is not totally untrue, but he had the presence to carry this quiet movie without many lines, and with a lot of soul," Karnoski said. "We all know Nic Cage has amazing range, but it got lost in forgettable movies."

"Massive Talent" also posed the opportunity to return to another skill set. "I'd been scratching my head - I did 'Raising Arizona,' 'Moonstruck' and 'Honeymoon in Vegas,' but somewhere along the way Hollywood forgot I do comedy. So I was happy to be invited back to the comedic table," Cage said.

And once he was in, he was - as only Cage can be - all in. He tackled the "high-wire act" by both playing and parodying himself, and also embraced a second role as Nicky, a younger, leather-jacketed, egomaniacal version who haunts Cage. When the script called for Nicky to kiss Nic on the cheek, Cage told Gormican he should French kiss himself. "I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go totally cubist," Cage said. "Playing two versions of myself is as narcissistic as it can get, so having them make out is really ridiculous and that makes it funny."

And while he is known for leaning into the ridiculous, it's his most naturalistic performances that stand out to both audiences and actor. Though he has previously said that kind of work "can be really boring," he now admits that his most real-to-life performances, like "Leaving Las Vegas," "Joe" and "Pig," are his favorites.

In the past, he has criticized mash-ups of his most over-the-top scenes. They are often "out of context," said Cage, who researches and meticulously develops his roles, no matter the movie. "You're not seeing what led my character up to that moment." But there's an upside: "Hopefully the videos get people interested in seeing my movies."

What bothered him more were directors who came in specifically seeking a showstopping Cage moment. "It has to come from a place of genuine emotion, so it makes me nervous when they expect me to go wild or scream and it's not organic to the character," he said.

Still, he doesn't regret those B-movies. "I like doing my job," he said, adding that even as he said yes to those roles, he was rejecting lucrative Super Bowl ads because he doesn't want to be a pitchman. (He admitted he wished he hadn't done those commercials in Japan years ago.) "Working helps me get closer to my instrument and keeps me practicing - even if a movie only has one or two scenes that really work. I did some stuff in 'Grand Isle,' for example, that I thought was terrific." (The 2019 film has a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.)

Karnoski and Gormican said that with scripts and directors he trusts, Cage is every bit the actor they'd long admired. "'Pig' was my first feature and he very easily could have said, 'This is the Nic Cage show and I'm going to do it my way,' but he was extremely respectful and collaborative," Karnoski said. "He's a pro. And he'd also sit and share his lunch with the production assistants."

Gormican said Cage was the best-prepared actor he'd ever seen; he and Horgan were both in awe that the actor was completely off-book at a table read before shooting. During filming, the director said, he'd "wake up to new ideas each morning" from Cage, who would review the script daily on an elliptical machine at 3 a.m. Cage said he couldn't sleep and, as a producer, he was "making sure the scenes were hitting the right notes." (Which, if you think about it, is nothing for a man so committed he not only learned the titular instrument for "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" but had teeth pulled for his role in "Birdy.")

And while Cage always gave Gormican the naturalistic takes he desired, he often asked to riff with his more expressionistic approach. "I would say, 'Nic, I need the reality here,' and he would say, 'It's all real, Tom.'" Cage's way usually worked better for the character.

"Sometimes the reality is in the stylization," Cage said, emphasizing that naturalism and truthfulness are not always identical. "There's a guy who lives in Las Vegas who wears leather jackets and jewelry and he thinks the character of Nic would say that line this way,'" he'd joke with Gormican. "It was my comedic way of saying, 'I am this person so trust me.'"

Cage is happy analyzing his craft but gets more excited as a cinephile, a trait he shares with his "Massive Talent" character. In conversation, his varied interests span the gamut as he sings the praises of James Cagney's dynamism, Tony Curtis's range, "The Sound of Metal's" ambitious and realistic storytelling and Gene Wilder's comedic prowess.

His one acting affectation also comes from being a film buff: "The film stars I enjoyed the most all had inimitable voices - Bogart, Brando, Cagney and Walken - so I thought if I had a voice that people would correlate with me as an actor, that would be my signature," he said. "I did make a choice to try and work with my voice, enhancing what I would call the California draaawl."

In "Massive Talent," Cage asks his new BFF, Javy (Pedro Pascal), what his three favorite films are. Ask real-life Cage the same and, well, that's when his passion is most clearly evident. "The list goes on and on," he said, rattling off a mix of classics that included the likes of "400 Blows," "East of Eden," "Enter the Dragon" and, of course, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now."

"When I was in quarantine all I was doing was watching movies and I made some lists," he said, pulling a few of them out of his suit pocket. He went through the films of Akira Kurosowa, falling for "Drunken Angel" and "The Bad Sleep Well," and then discovered Ingmar Bergman's "Hour of the Wolf" and "Summer with Monica."

But Cage is no highbrow snob. There's a running bit in "Massive Talent" about the cinematic achievement of "Paddington 2," the sequel to the live-action and animated film adaptation of a children's story about a raincoat-wearing bear. Cage, who naturally watched the film in preparation, said that's no joke, his famous draaawl growing excited one last time: "It's really a terrific movie."
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A teacher in North Texas received official notice Friday that shell be out of a job at the end of the school year after she objected to the schools removal of pro-LGBTQ safe space stickers from the school building.

Rachel Stonecipher, a teacher in the Dallas suburb of Irving, found out Friday that her contract at the school would not be renewed. The Board approved the Administrations recommendation by a vote of 6-0, with one member absent, reads the notice. Based on this action, your probationary Chapter 21 Contract was terminated and your employment with Irving ISD will end on May 27, 2022.

I wish I was surprised that the Irving school board voted to terminate my contract, Stonecipher tells Rolling Stone. But they have shown absolutely zero willingness to collaborate with or even verbally respond to all of the speakers who have spoken out about discrimination since the district first pulled me from the classroom.

Stonecipher, an English and journalism teacher at the Irving Independent School District, has been out of the classroom since the fall of 2021 on administrative leave. Now, she and the students counting on her for support are early casualties in Republican officials attacks on LGBTQ tolerance in schools, spurred in part by panic over so-called grooming thats rooted in delusion and barely concealed bigotry.

On April 18, the Irving Independent School District board voted to approve a proposal from the administration to terminate Stoneciphers contract at the end of the year. The move was initially missed by many, in part because of a confusing statement put out by one school board member, Dr. Rosemary Robbins, that said a final decision had not been made.

The vote on Stoneciphers contract came after students and members of the public lobbied the board to reinstate her during the public comment period. For years weve bragged about how diverse and wonderful a place Irving is, said Steven Weir, an Irving resident who spoke at the April 18 school board meeting. Now were in a witch hunt.

But so it goes here in North Texas, where a heated culture war playing out in school boards across the area has resulted in the firing of multiple educators amid free-speech controversies, mass resignations of district superintendents, and campaigns seeking to pull hundreds of books from the shelves that explore topics related to race, sex, and gender.

It all started when teachers returned to campus at the beginning of the 2021 school year. Some noticed something missing: rainbow safe space stickers they had placed on their classroom doors to indicate they were LGTBQ allies. The stickers disappearance came as a shock, as teachers had not been notified of the removal ahead of time.

Subsequently, an email to the entire faculty was sent by seven teachers in response to a bulletin explaining their removal, requesting clarifications on the exact nature of the policy, and raising a number of concerns from the perspective of staff. Five of the teachers were sponsors of the schools Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) chapter, the student group that had initially promoted the adoption of the stickers. That group email was sent from Stoneciphers account.

Just days after pushing back on the removal, Stonecipher was put on administrative leave, then under investigation after an HR complaint accused of her of defaming a fellow faculty member as homophobic, which Stonecipher denies.

The reasons offered by the district for removing the stickers and placing Stonecipher on leave have varied. At first, the reasons were vague, citing district policy. When pressed by Stonecipher and other teachers, the administration offered talking points saying they wanted to make campuses a safe zone for all students.

Stoneciphers removal comes amid broader efforts by the GOP to crack down on curriculum, books, and other forms of media that may introduce students to topics that parents deem inappropriate. In the past year, multiple Texas state agencies have removed online resources for LGTBQ youth  including information related to suicide prevention. The passage of Floridas Dont Say Gay Bill has spurred Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to seek the passage of a similar law in Texas. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have sought to label and investigate parents of transgender youth as child abusers.

In 2021, the first Black principal of nearby Colleyville Heritage High School was fired amid a heated panic over critical race theory. That principal, Dr. James Whitfield, spoke in support of Stonecipher outside the April 18 board meeting.

I stand in solidarity with Rachel, Whitfield said to the crowd. I experienced something similar, not the same, but very similar at a nearby school district. What were seeing is an attack on progress toward building an inclusive environment for our kids.

Hundreds of students walked out of class in protest of Stoneciphers removal in September. Three spoke at the April 18 meeting, where the board voted on the recommendation to terminate Stoneciphers contract  a move an administration representative said was in the best interest of the district. After the protest last fall, the school released a statement defending the decision. The district does not allow teachers to use classrooms to transmit personal beliefs regarding political or sectarian issues, the statement read.

Stonecipher disputes the characterization: Teachers are too exhausted to spend any extra energy promoting a personal agenda when were still struggling and underwater trying to promote the schools agenda, Stonecipher said chidingly. But in all seriousness, only two out of the five sponsors of the Gay Straight Alliance [that promoted the stickers] are gay. The whole point of the Gay Straight Alliance is to unite across potential perspectives. And helping our students feel safe isnt a personal agenda. Thats our job.

Or at least, it was her job.
NEW LONDON  As the City Hall employee tasked with preparing for the arrival of the first cruise ship to dock in this historic whaling port in four years, Steven Fields said he has learned at least one thing: People get very excited about cruises.

I learned that people get happy, jumping up and down, when they hear these people are coming, Fields, a former state police lieutenant colonel and the citys chief administrative officer, said a few days before the first of two ships docked at New Londons City Pier.

As the cruise industry grows back after pandemic setbacks, the Nutmeg State may not occur to cruise directors as an obvious spot to add to their itineraries.

Connecticut has three deep water ports that can accommodate large ships: New London, New Haven and Bridgeport. But only New London has been even an occasional destination for nautical tourists, officials say.

Before this week, it had been four years since any cruise ship stopped in New London, and the last international cruise before that had come four years earlier.

But a cruise industry changed by COVID-19 could be choosing Connecticut more often if smaller, domestic trips with fewer pandemic restrictions stay popular with U.S. tourists, industry experts said.

New London officials had learned about a year earlier that American Queen Voyages  the result of a recent merger of the river cruise company American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines  had chosen the city as a stop on its new cruise of historic sights and lobster rolls along the east coast of New England and Canada.

The Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager would each bring about 90 passengers and 75 crew members to New London, the maiden voyages of a nine-stop cruise leaving from Savannah, Georgia, and stopping in nine cities including Plymouth and Boston, Mass., Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On Tuesday and Thursday in New London, the ships passengers stayed close to City Pier, defying locals expectations that they would be bused to buzzier Mystic or the regions two casinos.

Signs with personalized welcome messages dotted local businesses. Some restaurants offered special deals for cruise passengers. Neff handed out handmade gift bags. Passero and the ships captain exchanged plaques.

A tour guide with New London Landmarks brought the passengers on a driving tour of the city, with stops at a downtown museum, the site of a former homestead and a historic mansion that doubled as the site of Connecticuts naval offices during the Revolutionary War.

Passengers on the Ocean Navigator stayed an extra night in New London Monday after bad weather delayed their plan to move on to Newport, R.I. In October and November, both ships will bring passengers to New London again on their way back south.

New London Mayor Michael Passero's announcement about last weeks cruises came with a reminder that as recently as 2008, nine cruise ships stopped in New London  a high point.

The Grande Mariner, a small domestic cruise ship run by a Rhode Island company, once stopped there on a near-annual basis, according to a 2019 Port Authority report. The nonprofit Connecticut Cruise Ship Task Force, which once worked to expand the cruise industry in Connecticut, was disbanded in 2014.

Passero said he sees American Queen Voyages decision to include the city in its newest cruise route as a vote of confidence after those numbers had dropped off.

Its encouraging that with the industry just really trying to make a comeback, they picked New London, he said.

The passengers on the Ocean Navigator came from all over the U.S., American Queen Voyages spokesperson Michael Hicks said.

Even a small city like New London, not often thought of as a tourist destination, has potential to thrill people who have not spent time on the East Coast, Neff said.

The planners who set up these cruises, their goal is to give the passengers an experience, she said. If theyre not accustomed to New England, thats an exciting stop.

The current stage of the pandemic  somewhere between lockdown and "back-to-normal"  has been a popular time for cruises that keep American tourists close to home, said Chris Gray Faust, the managing editor of the Trip Advisor-owned consumer review site Cruise Critic.

In previous years people may have thought, Oh, Im going to go to Europe for the summer,' Gray Faust said.

But testing requirements, concerns about COVID-19 risks and travel restrictions may still be scaring them off, she said.

Hicks said his company has grown thanks to customers following that trend to smaller trips up the East Coast, or perhaps up the Ohio River.

They may have been to Venice, but they've never been to Kentucky, he said.

Now that Canada has opened its ports to cruises for the first time in two years, Gray Faust said, North American cruises with stops in places like New London could see a resurgence.

There has been a pivot toward more domestic cruises, she said. [And] some of these ports are ones that you dont think of as cruise ports, necessarily.

Cruises like American Queen Voyages offerings tend to be on the small side, but longer and more expensive, and attract older customers interested in exploring unexpected places.

Thats a huge difference from a Carnival ship that has a couple thousand people, she said. They like these small ships because they bring them places they might not have thought of.

The industry is still in a state of flux, though, Gray Faust said.

We're still kind of in it, she said. It all depends on how this all plays out. When things relax, are they going to want to go out back to Europe and go further afield?

Connecticut is considering ways to keep the cruise ships coming back.

Andrew Lavigne, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Port Authority, said the quasi-public agency is working with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to study whether a pier at New Londons Fort Trumbull, closer to the mouth of the Thames River and the Long Island Sound, could be renovated to accommodate large vessels like cruise ships and take advantage of its potential as a port of call for cruises.

Its a longer-term initiative, but it would allow us to host larger vessels and those that wouldnt call at City Pier, he said. New London is clearly on the radar of the people who are booking these excursions.

In the meantime, cities like New London dont have much control over how often cruise ships stop there: Its up to the companies planning the cruises, Passero said.

We are trying to sell New London to the cruise companies, but Im not really sure how effective were being, he said. It seems, from my perspective, that mostly they reach out to us when it works with their itineraries.

Other cruise companies have done just that, he said.

Weve been getting feelers, he said. Were anticipating that were going to get more scheduled.
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For three days, Johnny Depp has been testifying in a libel trial that, at least in theory, is about whether Amber Heard defamed him in a 2018 newspaper op-ed.

The trial has turned into a spectacle in which Depp has testified about everything from taking pills as a child to a near mental breakdown in which the actor said he used his severed finger to write on the walls in his own blood to recount his ex-wifes alleged lies.

WHY IS DEPP DOING THIS?

Heards lawyers had warned that the trial would be a mudslinging soap opera that would expose the real Johnny Depp. Depp denies ever abusing Heard and, despite the public attention brought to his drug use and his violent text messages, he said he's obsessed with revealing the truth and doesn't want to disappoint those who'd looked up to him.

My goal is the truth because it killed me that all these people I had met over the years ... that these people would think that I was a fraud, Depp testified Tuesday.

The actor has said that his movie career suffered after Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse.

Heard never mentioned Depp by name, but Depps lawyers said it was a clear reference to accusations Heard made when she sought a 2016 restraining order against him.

Depp said the accusations and the article made him a Hollywood outcast and cost him his role in the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise.

Heards lawyers have argued that Heards opinion piece was accurate and didn't defame him. They've said Depps ruined reputation was due to his own bad behavior and have argued that The Walt Disney Co. had already decided to ax Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean months before the articles publication.

WHAT ARE HEARDS ALLEGATIONS?

Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions before and during their brief marriage, often in situations where she said he drank so much he later blacked out.

Depp said Heards allegations of his substance abuse have been grossly embellished and that he was never out of control during that time period. The two met in 2009, got married in 2015 and Heard filed for divorce a year later.

Heards attorneys have highlighted many text messages Depp sent to friends recounting the copious amount of alcohol and drugs he had taken at a time in which he claims he wasn't a problematic drinker.

Depp filed a similar lawsuit in England against a newspaper there and lost. The judge there found that Depp assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions and put her in fear for her life multiple times.

Heard is expected to testify later in the trial.

HOW DID DEPP AND HEARD MEET?

Depp and Heard met through the filming of The Rum Diary, a 2011 Depp-produced movie based upon an initially unpublished novel by the late Hunter S. Thompson that Depp discovered while going through the gonzo journalists papers with Thompson, his friend.

Depp said Heard was the perfect embodiment of the books femme fatale character named Chenault. Thats the Chenault that Hunter wants, Depp recalled. Yep, she could definitely kill me."

They started dating a few years later, with Depp portraying the early part of their relationship as a classic Hollywood romance. Depp would call Heard Slim, while she called him Steve, nicknames used by the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall characters in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not.

Depp, 58, said he was also cognizant of the age difference between himself and Heard, 36, and compared it to the 25-year gap between Bogart and Bacall.

I acknowledge the fact I was the old, craggy fogey and she was this beautiful creature, he said.

HOW DID THEIR MARRIAGE FALL APART?

Depp said things began to change in his marriage when he felt that he was suddenly just wrong about everything in Heards eyes.

Depp said Heard made little digs at him, demeaned and berated him. The insults escalated into full-fledged circular arguments from which there was no way in or out, Depp said. It was sort of a rapid-fire, sort of endless parade of insults, Depp said.

Soon after, Heard began physically attacking him, Depp said. He said she once threw two bottles of vodka at him, the second of which exploded and severed his finger to the point where bone was exposed. Depp said he used the resulting blood to write on his walls and recount lies in which he had caught Heard. At the hospital, Depp said he lied to protect Heard and told the doctors that he had injured himself. Heard's lawyers contend he cut his own finger.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE BOSTON FLIGHT?

One of the chief points in contention is what occurred on a 2014 private flight from Boston to Los Angeles that Depp and Heard took while he was filming the gangster film Black Mass.

Heard has said Depp assaulted her on the flight while he was blackout drunk.

Depp testified he took two oxycodone pills  an opiate to which he admits he was addicted at the time  and locked himself in the plane bathroom and fell asleep to avoid her badgering.

He told the court that he drank only a glass of Champagne while boarding the flight. But texts he sent to the actor Paul Bettany at the time referenced drinking half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand Red Bull vodkas and two bottles of Champagne before the flight.

Heard's attorneys have also pointed to text messages Depp sent to Heard after the flight, saying, Once again I find myself in a place of shame and regret.  I must get better."

WHAT ELSE DID DEPP TEXT?

Heard's attorneys have focused on text messages Depp sent to Bettany in which he expressed a desire to kill and defile Heard.

After saying he wanted to burn her, Depp wrote, Lets drown her before we burn her!!! I will (expletive) her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure shes dead.

Depp has apologized to the jury for the vulgar language and said that in the heat of the pain I was feeling, I went to dark places. He also compared his writing to Thompson's gonzo style, which often incorporated brash language and embellished thoughts.

MOMENTS OF LEVITY

Despite the dark accusations and profane text messages being read to the court, Depps testimony has on occasion featured humorous moments.

Asked whether he would sometimes drink whiskey in the morning, Depp responded, I mean, isnt happy hour any time?

And asked whether he had ever given pills to musician Marilyn Manson, Depp conceded that he once gave Manson a pill to get him to stop talking so much.

Depp also admitted that he's never watched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the 2003 megahit in which he played the unhinged Captain Jack Sparrow. Asked how the film fared, Depp smiled and said, I didn't see it, but ... well, the film did pretty well, apparently.

And then there's the bizarre matter of the alleged penis vandalism. Heard's attorney repeatedly asked Depp whether he was responsible for drawing a penis on a painting inside his home shortly after the actor said Heard severed his finger. Drawing a penis on a painting was not the first thing on my mind, Depp testified.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING IN VIRGINIA?

The trial is taking place in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Virginia.

Heards lawyers had sought to have the case tried in California, where the actors reside. But a judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case in Virginia because The Washington Posts computer servers for its online edition are located in the county.

Depps lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case.
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The rituals leading up to Easter are the same. The solemn Good Friday processions. The Holy Saturday blessings of foods that were avoided during Lent. The liturgies accompanied by processions, bells and chants.

But while Easter is the holiest of holy days on the church calendar, marking the day Christians believe Jesus triumphed over death, many members of Ukrainian Orthodox churches across the United States are finding it difficult to summon joy at a time of war.

Many are in regular contact with relatives or friends suffering amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has laid waste to cities and claimed thousands of civilian lives, according to the Ukrainian government.

This is a very strange Easter for us, said the Rev. Richard Jendras, priest at St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It should be a joyous holiday, and its all about new life, and yet here we are being confronted with the harbingers of murder and killing and genocide and death.

Many believers are walking around like zombies, he said. We are going through the motions of Easter right now because its what we have to hang on to.

Orysia Germak, a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodymyr in New York City, said news from the war summons bad memories: She was born in a camp for displaced persons camp after her mother fled Ukraine post-World War II, she said.

Easter is such a joyous occasion, but this underlines everything, she said. Its surreal."

Both cathedrals are part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, whose parishes include many people with recent or ancestral ties to the old country.

Most Catholics and Protestants celebrated Easter last Sunday, but Eastern Orthodox are celebrating this Sunday. They usually do so later than Western churches because they use a different method of calculating the date for the holy day, which they call Pascha.

Some Ukrainian Catholics, particularly in Ukraine itself, also are celebrating this Sunday. But many Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S. celebrated last Sunday.

Among those celebrating Easter last weekend were congregants at Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, one of the oldest surviving Ukrainian Catholic churches in America.

Their priest, the Rev. Mykola Ivanov, 41, came from Ukraine in 2005. His elderly parents are in the city of Lviv, which has been thronged with refugees from elsewhere in Ukraine; his older brother is fighting with the Ukrainian army on the eastern front.

At every Mass since the war started, the service has included a Prayer for Ukraine. It includes a plea to God to crush the invaders who threaten the Ukrainians' precious Land.

For Orthodox Ukrainians, Easter is being marked on both sides of the battle lines. Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion in Ukraine and Russia, as well as in several neighboring lands. A schism among Ukrainian Orthodox  with one group asserting independence and the other historically loyal to the patriarch of Moscow  has reverberated worldwide amid competing claims of legitimacy. But the two main Orthodox bodies in Ukraine have both fiercely opposed the Russian invasion.

In the United States, many people with ties to Ukraine are monitoring the war closely and sending funds to individuals and aid groups there, said Andrew Fessak, president of the board of trustees at St. Volodymyr.

While Orthodox in America can celebrate freely, our relatives and friends in Ukraine are under pressure from an invading army and aren't as free to celebrate as they wish," Fessak said. "They may not be able to get to churches. They may not be able to walk about town like they wish. They may not be able to have traditional foods they might have on Easter.

And yet he takes heart in the strength of the Ukrainian resistance.

The Ukrainian population has shown they are highly keen on retaining Ukrainian independence, he said. Thats at least a strong comfort to us, to see there is such a strong civic pride and sense of patriotism.

The Rev. John Charest of St. Peter & St. Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, said its important to carry out the historic rituals even in somber times  in part to defy Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the war while claiming that Ukraine has no historic legitimacy apart from Russia. Ukrainians say they are a separate though related people group, with their own language and traditions.

Even though believers in the U.S. may have a feeling of survivors guilt, they have a duty to continue traditions that are under such threat in Ukraine, Charest said.

We do need to be strong now and we do need to be celebrating this feast, he said. If were not celebrating our traditions, thats exactly what Putin wants.

Jendras said the holy day offers a timeless message: We have to look at the evil in front of us and say no, good does triumph and will always triumph.

___

Associated Press photographer Carolyn Kaster contributed to this report from Shamokin, Pennsylvania

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys offered starkly different explanations Friday for the fatal beating of an Illinois prison inmate four years ago in closing arguments before a jury began deliberating in the trial of two former correctional officers.

Todd Sheffler, 53, of Mendon, and Alex Banta, 30, of Quincy, are charged with violating Larry Earvin's civil rights in the brutal 2018 beating at Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mount Sterling. Earvin, 65, died five weeks later.

They beat him up and then lied to cover it up, assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller told the eight-man, four-woman jury in his closing argument. This case is really that straightforward.

Defense attorneys, however, blamed other guards, including a third former correctional officer, former Sgt. Willie Hedden, who pleaded guilty last year to violating Earvin's civil rights and testified for the government at the trial for Sheffler and Banta.

Sheffler and Banta are charged with depriving Earvin of his civil rights, conspiracy to deprive civil rights, tampering with a witness, destruction or falsification of records and intimidation or force against a witness. They face up to life in prison.

Hedden, 43, of Mount Sterling, testified during the four-week trial that he, Sheffler and Banta punched, kicked, stomped and jumped on Earvin in the vestibule of Western's segregation unit, where there are no security cameras. The prison is 250 miles (402 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The jury met briefly Friday evening before adjourning for the weekend. Deliberations will continue on Monday.

The incident began when Earvin allegedly refused to return to his cell in the housing unit known as R-1. He was taken to the ground and handcuffed by guards who sent out an alert for assistance  a call that summoned dozens of officers including Banta and Hedden. Testimony indicated guards began kicking and punching Earvin in R-1.

Banta and Hedden were among officers who escorted Earvin to the segregation unit, with Sheffler joining along the way.

The government's case rests largely on what assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass characterized as compelling, if circumstantial, evidence. The last security camera to record Earvin shows him bent over, but walking into segregation. Minutes later, photographs and testimony revealed that he had to be carried into a holding cell and that he was bleeding from a head wound, nearly unresponsive and vomiting, Bass said.

Earvin died June 26 at a southern Illinois prison infirmary. His autopsy revealed he had 15 rib fractures; at least two dozen abrasions, hemorrhages and lacerations; a torn aorta; and abdominal injuries so severe a portion of his bowel was surgically removed.

Medical professionals testified that such injuries typically are seen in high-speed car crashes or falls from great heights.

However, defense attorneys argued that testimony also showed that such injuries could be cumulative  starting small when Earvin was roughed up in R-1 and growing worse as he was forcibly moved to segregation.

Sheffler attorney Sara Vig pointed to security footage and testimony about what happened inside R-1.

They (the government) have got a great case in R-1, they haven't proved anything in segregation, Vig said. The only thing they can say about segregation is might have, could have been, maybe  and that's not beyond a reasonable doubt. You can't guess a man into prison.

Vig and Banta attorney Stanley Wasser said as many as six witnesses who testified for the government  including Hedden and others who recounted a severe beating in the segregation unit vestibule  admitted lying to the Illinois State Police, FBI or both before changing their stories at the trial.

Wasser asked repeatedly why those witnesses, some of whom acknowledged punching or kicking Earvin, were not on trial.

But Bass asked the jury what motive any of the witnesses had to admit under oath that they had lied, risking their jobs and more. He said Hedden explained that he was hoping for a lighter sentence through cooperation, and he wouldn't get leniency from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough if she found him untruthful.

You have two stories here, Bass said. It's up to you to determine which is common sense and which is utter nonsense. Hold Alex Banta and Todd Sheffler accountable for what they did to this man, how they assaulted him, the bodily harm, causing his death.

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Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor
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KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency posted a statement saying the command post was hit on Friday and two generals were killed and one was critically wounded.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it came under attack. He said their fate was unknown.

The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in the east

 Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

 Sanctions hit Russian economy, though Putin says otherwise

 Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said new evidence is emerging that shows Russian troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol and then tried to cover it up. He said Ukraine has intercepted Russian conversations about how they are concealing the traces of their crimes. Satellite images have shown what appear to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.

Zelenskyy said the Russians set up filtration camps near Mariupol for those trying to leave the city, which has largely been reduced to rubble. He said those who survive these camps are sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. Many of them, he said, are children.

He said he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday about the situation in Mariupol and the general course of the war.

Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible for the missile attack on Odesa, which he said killed eight people and wounded 18.

Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to observe a curfew and not attend Orthodox Easter services overnight. The lengthy services traditionally begin late Saturday and run through Sunday morning. But starting from 5 a.m. you may go to the church in your city, town or community, he said.

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SLOVIANSK, Ukraine  The sound of outgoing artillery and air raid sirens were heard Saturday in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas that had come under Russian attack the day before.

Two servicemen were brought to a hospital from a nearby town, but one of them was mortally wounded and could not be saved.

The Russian strike early Friday had damaged several buildings, including a school.

The war has brought back painful memories for residents of Sloviansk, where in 2014 Ukrainian government forces repulsed Russia-backed separatists after a fierce battle. In the years since, the separatists maintained control over part of the Donbas, and Moscow has now set out to capture the entire region.

Anna Direnskaya, 70, said she and her son and daughter-in-law decided to remain in Sloviansk.

I lived through 2014. I was also here. I didnt go anywhere and I dont want to go anywhere. I am not hiding from myself, she said while sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged apartment building. I want peace.

Direnskaya, who like many in eastern Ukraine is a native Russian speaker, said she wishes the Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and there is no enmity between them.

Why did this happen? Why is this happening? I dont know. Tell everyone I want peace and quiet, she said.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

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WARSAW, Poland  Poland and Ukraine have signed an agreement increasing cooperation in the railway transport sector, aiming to help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion affects its ports.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polands premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, met on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Morawiecki said on Facebook that they both agreed that current sanctions on Russia are insufficient, which can be seen by the condition of the Russian currency, bonds or inflation. They appealed to the international community for tougher steps that would stop Russias aggression on Ukraine and for more military aid to help Ukraine.

Morawiecki drew special attention to the plight of civilians seeking protection in a steel plant in Mariupol, as he called for the assistance.

In Mariupol soldiers  or rather Russian criminals want to make women and children starve to death. They are waiting until they run out of water. What kind of strategy is that? This is not war. This is genocide.

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ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April.

But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.

Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.

NATO-member Turkey has been trying to balance its close relations with Moscow and Kyiv and has positioned itself as a mediator between the two. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia but has closed the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to some Russian warships.

The country has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as talks between the two countries negotiating teams.

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BERLIN  Germanys former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: I dont do mea culpa.

In an interview with the newspaper published Saturday, Schroeder also claims that his long-time friend President Vladimir Putin of Russia is interested in ending the war with Ukraine.

Schroeder reportedly blasted German officials who now criticize his efforts to procure Russian energy supplies for Germany, saying that they all went along with it for the last 30 years.

In the interview, he called the war in Ukraine a mistake and said atrocities need to be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself ordered killings of civilians such as those allegedly committed by Russian troops in Bucha.

Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private mission to broker peace with Ukraine, claimed the Russian president is interested in ending the war.

But thats not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified, the New York Times quoted him saying, without elaborating.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said he promised more defense weaponry is on the way to Ukraine while speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday afternoon, the latest chat between the two leaders who talk to each other regularly.

The British leader told Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom is sending more weaponry including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.

Johnson also confirmed to Zelenskyy that the U.K. would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also updated the Ukrainian leader on new U.K. sanctions designations against members of the Russian military and told him the British government was helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

The two also discussed the U.K.s work on long term security solutions and financial support with international partners.

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, Downing Street said in a statement.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines president says five people including a three-month-old infant were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

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HELSINKI  Hundreds of protesters belonging to Latvias sizable Russian-speaking community have taken part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic nations capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscows aggression on Ukraine.

Participants of Saturdays rally entitled The Russian Voice Against War waved Ukrainian flags and posters with inscriptions such as Stop the genocide in Ukraine and Complete Russian gas and oil embargo at the central Freedom Monument, Latvias public broadcaster LSM reported.

Organizers said the protest aimed to demonstrate that many of Latvias Russian-speakers are not aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscows actions criminal.

Ethnic Russians make up around 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, like Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of the all citizens.

Earlier this week, Latvias Parliament unanimously declared killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official has announced a country-wide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office, said in a video address Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson -- the curfew will run from 7 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

In others regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv and Lviv, the curfew will run from 11 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal, Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.

Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

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LVIV, Ukraine  Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Unfortunately, the enemy doesnt have such a concept as a major religious holiday, Kozytskyy wrote. They are so beastly that they dont understand what Easter is.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraines National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plants tunnels for up to two months.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness.

Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen neither the sky, nor the sun. We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt, the girl pleads.

Azovs deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.

According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the regions civilian infrastructure 56 times.

Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai says that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

Haidai said Saturday on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna got the most of it.

In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. Not all survived, Haidai wrote.

He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.

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KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukraine militarys General Staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived to Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

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KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital, leading to lockdowns at several schools on Friday. The injured were expected to recover and the suspect was found dead hours later.

Police did not release the suspects name, pending notification to his family, after finding the suspect dead inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Authorities had said earlier that they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, said Assistant Metropolitan Police Chief Stuart Emerman.

Police believe the man erected a sniper-type setup with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, said Saturday they had identified a residence tied to the suspected shooter and assisted District of Columbia officers in executing a search warrant. A Fairfax spokesman, 2nd Lt. Ian Yost, said his information indicated authorities did not find any family members there.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man set himself on fire outside the building. Police said Saturday that the man, Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, had died.

The four shooting victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned residents to stay inside their homes while they searched for the shooter.

The gunfire broke out shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The University of the District of Columbia went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place.
THIBODAUX, La. (AP)  A colorful mural adorns a wall above a babys crib and a stack of kid-friendly board games. A chest filled with toys sits in another corner next to a bookshelf packed with books for children.

This is not a childs bedroom but one of two newly created rooms at the Lafourche Parish jail.

The Thibodaux facility added the rooms to provide inmates a warmer setting while their young children visit.

The whole idea with the family room is when an inmate comes in to serve their time, the family serves time as well because they are separated from their loved ones, but when they visit them, theyre coming to a jail, said Capt. Karla Beck, assistant warden at the jail. Thats scary for children and families. We wanted to have a place thats more conducive to an actual family environment.

Unlike the cold, institutionalized environment with loud slamming doors and metal bars, the family rooms were created to put kids at ease, Beck said.

When you go into the family rooms, they dont look like your typical jail, she said. We wanted families to feel comfortable being there. Even though its still a correctional complex, it doesnt have the look of one.

In one room, a mural reads Together is my favorite place to be! It was painted by an inmate and depicts various forest animals gathered on the banks of a blue river that runs through green hills under a shining sun and a rainbow.

I told the artist that I wanted something that when families were visiting there, it would be something happy they can look upon, Beck said. So he came up with the idea of the animals. It kind of shows there is more to these individuals than the crimes they committed. Theyre here serving their time, repaying their debt to society, and at the same time are trying to give back.

The rooms are part of the jails mediation services to help inmates repair relationships before they are released, Beck said.

Its not just a feel-good program where were catering to the inmates, she said. The whole idea behind this is to reduce the chance for recidivism so we can return them as productive members of society, which in turn leads to more community safety.

The services are open to any type of relationship that inmates feel they need to repair, Beck said.

It could be a family member, a job supervisor, a neighbor, a landlord or anybody they feel that the relationship needs to be repaired so that they have a better chance on the outside, she said.

Social services counselor Ajah Breaux works with inmates to help them mend relationships before they are released, which is not a quick fix.

We try to return people better but not necessarily faster, Breaux said. We want them to get out and be better, not just to get out quicker.

Veronica Bard, executive director of the ReEntry Mediation Institute of Louisiana, an organization that seeks to decrease recidivism and improve an incarcerated persons transition into society with support from loved ones, commended the family room.

We work with prisons statewide, but our staff really likes that particular jail, Bard said. They really follow national best practices. Theyve been doing a great job, and my staff is always amazed. There are basic human needs that you generally dont see in other prisons, so its definitely a humanizing kind of room. The fact they have beds there and toys for the kids really invokes what a family needs.

The 118,095-square-foot jail, which opened in 2018, emphasizes rehabilitation, education and mental health, officials said. The jail also educates inmates about parenting, job interviews and earning high-school or higher-education credits.

According to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, 44% of the nearly 14,000 inmates released from incarceration every year return to crime within five years. The Lafourche jail aims to change that trend, Beck said.

The old system of lock them up and throw away the key wasnt working, she said. What do you expect you will get from that? If you dont provide anything to change them as a person while theyre incarcerated, youre going to get a worse person coming out.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A former White House official told the House committee investigating the Capitol riot that President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had been advised of intelligence reports showing the potential for violence, according to just-released transcripts.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump White House, told the committee there were concerns brought forward to Meadows before the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but it was unclear what Meadows did with that information.

I just remember Mr. Ornato coming in and saying that we had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th, Hutchinson said, presumably referencing Anthony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official. And Mr. Meadows said: All right. Lets talk about it.

The exact nature of what Meadows was told is not clear from Hutchinson's testimony. Though law enforcement had been bracing for potential violence on Jan. 6, officials had not properly accounted for the prospect that a violent mob would attack the Capitol.

The filing late Friday is the latest in a long legal fight over the extent to which Meadows, whose proximity to Trump has made him a key target of House Democrats, can be forced to cooperate with the committee's investigation. Meadows has handed over thousands of text messages, but he has refused to sit for an interview, has argued that he is immune from having to testify by virtue of his White House position, and has sued the committee.

The filing seeks a court ruling in the committee's favor that Meadows has no valid basis to refuse to testify. It says the committee has refined the scope of its request to focus on seven specific topics, including testimony about communication with Congress before Jan. 6, 2021; White House plans to replace the leadership of Justice Department so the department could pursue Trump's bogus claims of election fraud; and efforts to create alternate, or fake, slates of state electors who could change the outcome of the vote of the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.

The committee released excerpts of testimony from multiple witnesses it has interviewed, including Hutchinson. Besides describing warnings of potential violence provided to Meadows, Hutchinson revealed how the White House counsel's office cautioned against plans to enlist fake electors in states, including in meetings involving Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

The filing also includes new text messages that Meadows turned over, including several from House Republicans who were pushing the former North Carolina congressman to act. Meadows close friend, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, suggests in a late text on Jan. 5, 2021  the day before Congress was due to certify Biden's victory  that Vice President Mike Pence should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.

Meadows texted back in the early hours of Jan. 6: I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen. Pence ultimately resisted the overwhelming pressure from Trump and his allies and did not attempt to object to Biden's certification.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., was texting Meadows as early as Dec. 26, 2020: Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going!

In the texts released by the committee, Perry encouraged Meadows to talk to Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general who was sympathetic to Trumps bogus claims of election fraud. A week later, on Jan. 3, Clark attended a meeting at the White House with Trump, where the prospect of elevating Clark to the role of acting attorney general was discussed  but adamantly resisted by Justice Department officials, who threatened to resign, and White House lawyers. Trump ultimately backed down.

Hutchinson said Meadows talked frequently to Clark, and Hutchinson recalled Clark's presence at the White House and his frequent outreach and communications.

In another interview released by the committee Friday, former Justice Department official Steven Engel, then the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, said Clark had suggested that the department provide a legal opinion to Pence regarding the vice president's authority to object to the certification of the presidential election. Engel said he told Clark that was absurd and reminded him that Pences role was a ceremonial one as president of the Senate.

The testimony released Friday also reinforced how certain Republicans in Congress were deeply involved in White House discussions about overturning the election in the months leading to the deadly insurrection.

Hutchinson, for instance, described several calls involving Meadows and members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus in late November and early December in which participants discussed what Pences role could be on Jan. 6, besides the ceremonial role he was required to play.

On those calls, according to Hutchinson, were representatives from Trump's legal team, including Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, as well as Jordan and Perry.

Meadows' lawsuit asked a judge to invalidate two subpoenas that he received from the committee, alleging they were overly broad and unduly burdensome. The suit accused the committee of overreaching by subpoenaing Verizon for his cellphone records.

After the complaint was filed, the House committee sent a contempt of Congress charge against Meadows to the full House, where it passed on a near-party-line vote. It was the first time the chamber had voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s.

While an earlier contempt referral against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon resulted in an indictment, the Justice Department has been slower to decide whether to prosecute Meadows.

Any criminal case against Meadows would be more complex than that presented against Bannon, in part because Meadows was a White House chief of staff and because he had begun to cooperate with the committee, even providing documents to the nine-member panel.

Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, has previously defended his client by noting that due to Meadows' willingness to turn over records, he should not be compelled to appear for an interview. Terwilliger did not immediately return an email seeking comment about the latest disclosures.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Gordon Casey, a 19-year-old from Germantown, Maryland, was identified by the Metropolitan Police Department on Saturday as the man who was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service officers this past week at the residence of Peru's ambassador to the United States.

Police said the diplomat and his family were inside the home in the Forest Hills neighborhood of northwest Washington when they heard several windows being smashed Wednesday morning and called the Secret Service.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The last time Russia invaded Ukraine, in 2014, outraged world leaders booted Russia out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, which quickly rebranded itself the Group of Seven.

Eight years later, the G-7 is still holding at seven  a collection of countries that meet to talk through big issues like trade, economics and security.

This past week, as global leaders gathered in Washington for spring meetings involving officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, G-7 and the larger Group of 20, it quickly became apparent that despite Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine, its membership in the G-20 remains firmly intact.

While Russia has been rendered a pariah country by Western states, it will remain part of the G-20 and associated organizations unless member countries achieve a consensus that it should go. That appears less and less likely, as several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have made clear they will support Russia's membership in the G-20, which represents industrial and emerging-market countries.

Why would Russia want to stick around when its presence in the group is clearly unwelcome to many?

It has much to gain from disrupting events and sowing general discord between countries in the forums. A glimpse of this was seen this past week when Russia blocked the IMFs key advisory committee from issuing a communique condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

Faced with the questions over what to do about Russias membership in the organization, various world finance leaders at the meetings alternately squirmed, dodged, walked out in protest or stayed put.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, when asked about the prospect of kicking Russia out of the G-20, avoided calling for its ouster.

There are clearly very, very unsettling facts we have to deal with, she said of Russia's aggression. But then she pivoted to focusing on the need for cooperation to solve big world problems.

Make a list of questions that no country can solve on its own, she said, and its obvious that cooperation must continue.

Nadia Calvino, Spains economy minister and chair of the IMF advisory committee, lamented that the meeting had obviously not been business as usual.

Russias war against Ukraine has made it impossible to come to a consensus on a communique," she said, adding that the committee "has traditionally worked on the basis of consensus, so when one member breaks away, we cannot reach the agreement that the overwhelming majority of us would have wanted.

The World Bank said it stopped all of its programs in Russia and allied Belarus after the invasion in late February and has not approved any new investments in Russia since 2014 or in Belarus since mid-2020. The IMF said it hasn't loaned money to Russia in decades and supports no programs there.

The dispute at the IMF meeting highlighted the problems that government leaders are likely to face in Indonesia in November, when G-20 leaders are set to gather in Bali. President Joe Biden has called for Russia to be kicked out of the group, but the U.S. has not said whether Biden would boycott the gathering if Russia participates.

The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. Spain is invited as a permanent guest.

The U.S. and Canada have been the biggest critics of Russia's membership.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland were among a number of officials who walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday when Russias representative started talking.

Freeland later tweeted: This weeks meetings in Washington are about supporting the world economy  and Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine is a grave threat to the global economy. Russia should not be participating or included in these meetings.

But several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have been vocal about rejecting measures to remove Russia. They've argued that engagement is more important than isolation in troubled times.

To expel Russia would only isolate it and make it more difficult to achieve constructive engagement,' said Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation. "South Africa believes it is more useful to keep Russia in and to engage with it to find the lasting peace that we are all yearning for.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told a news conference in Brasilia that excluding Russia doesnt help us find a solution to the immediate problem that we have, which is the need to cease hostilities and have Russia and Ukraine negotiate a lasting peace.

Stewart Patrick, director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said boycotting the G-20 would be a mistake on the part of the U.S. Rather, he said, the U.S. should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians and others should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians, during the meetings later this year.

Boycotting is not sustainable, he said. There should be efforts to try to shame Russia. It would be a mistake for the U.S. to take its ball and go elsewhere, because we would leave a hole in the G-20 to be controlled by China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last month Russia remains an important member of the G-20 and no member has the right to expel another.

The G-20 should practice genuine multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and work together to address outstanding challenges in the areas of economics, finance and sustainable development, Wang said.

Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Councils GeoEconomics Center, said Russia has the most to gain from the discord that comes from the U.S. calling for its removal.

By showing up they're potentially derailing the whole G-20," he said of the Russians. Thats giving them more control than they should have. If the U.S. boycotts, then the G-20 falls apart and thats to Russias benefit.

___

Alvares reported from Brasilia, Brazil, and Meldrum from Johannesburg. AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that Josh Lipsky, not Adam Lipsky, is senior director of the Atlantic Councils GeoEconomics Center.
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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  A commercial tanker that sank off the Tunisian coast and and was believed to be holding 750 tons of diesel fuel in fact held no fuel at all, according to Tunisian naval officials. The ship's crew has been detained on suspicion of criminal activity.

The sinking of the Xelo ship last week raised fears of a potential fuel spill in the Mediterranean. Tunisia's Environment Ministry activated an emergency response plan and neighboring Italy sent a barge with pollution-clearing equipment to the area.

The ship's captain initially said it contained 750 tons of fuel. But after Tunisian and Italian divers inspected the sunken ship, they found no fuel in its containers, Rear Adm. Mezri Latif told a news conference Friday.

There was only sea water inside the ship  The ships valves and pumps were corroded. We deduced that the ship had not been carrying oil for a certain period, he said.

The ship no longer represents an ecological danger for the Gulf of Gabes. There is no fuel leak. The Navy will oversee the wreckage extraction operation and the investigation will continue to determine the exact causes of the sinking, the Tunisian officer said.

He said the ship's bridge had been vandalized and several navigation devices had been ripped off. The GPS was destroyed with hammer blows, and the ship's bill of lading disappeared.

The seven-member crew was rescued by the Tunisian Navy after having launched a distress signal on April 16 due to bad weather conditions.

They were all detained Friday on charges of association with criminal activity, according to Mohamed Karay, spokesman for the court in the city of Gabes.

The boat was registered in Equatorial Guinea, and its crew members are from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Xelo had left the port of Damietta in Egypt heading for Malta, but was diverted from its route due to bad weather conditions.
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern Armstrong County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northern Randall County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Western Carson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Eastern Potter County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 800 PM CDT.

* At 716 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 4 miles south of

Amarillo, moving northeast at 50 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Amarillo, Panhandle, Fritch, Lake Tanglewood, Washburn, Mescalero

Park and Pantex.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR SOUTHWESTERN BRISCOE COUNTY IS

CANCELLED...

The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of

the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT for

the Panhandle of Texas.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 730 PM CDT

FOR NORTHEASTERN CASTRO AND SWISHER COUNTIES...

At 718 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 4 miles south of

Tulia, moving northeast at 55 mph.

HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles. Expect wind

damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

Locations impacted include...

Tulia, Happy and Nazareth.

The National Weather Service in Midland has issued a

* Dust Advisory for...

Eastern Andrews County in western Texas...

Southwestern Scurry County in western Texas...

Western Mitchell County in western Texas...

Eastern Gaines County in western Texas...

Borden County in western Texas...

Martin County in western Texas...

Howard County in western Texas...

Dawson County in western Texas...

* Until 915 PM CDT.

* At 718 PM CDT, a widespread area of blowing dust was observed

across portions of the northern Permian Basin.

HAZARD...Less than two miles visibility with strong wind in excess

of 50 mph. Local visibility reductions below one mile are

also possible.

SOURCE...Satellite and surface observations.

IMPACT...Hazardous travel.

* This includes Interstate 20 between mile markers 153 and 208.

Big Spring, Lamesa, Seagraves, Ackerly, Gail, Stanton, Coahoma,

Forsan, Sand Springs, Lomax, Seagraves Airport, Lenorah, Welch,

Luther, J B Thomas Reservoir, Lamesa Municipal Airport, Westbrook,

Los Ybanez, Patricia and Arvana.

Blowing dust brings reduced visibility, leading to dangerous driving

conditions. If driving, avoid blowing dust if possible. If caught in

dense blowing dust, pull off the road, turn off your lights and keep

your foot off the brake.

Motorists should not drive into an area of blowing dust. PULL ASIDE

STAY ALIVE!

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Western Armstrong County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Eastern Randall County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 815 PM CDT.

* At 730 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles northeast

of Happy, or 14 miles southeast of Canyon, moving northeast at 50

mph.

HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

* Locations impacted include...

Canyon, Claude, Lake Tanglewood, Wayside, Washburn, Palo Duro

Canyon and Timbercreek Canyon.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
ZZ Top pulled into the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium Wednesday evening for a rocking performance. The band has been together for over five decades and sold over 30 million records across 15 studio albums. The loss of long-time bassist Dusty Hill in 2021 did not stop the band as his spot o
To this day, Daphne Jones remembers the high school guidance counselor who told her she would never get into collegeor if she did, would never graduate. Black girls just dont make it in college, he told me, says this renowned C-suite technology leader and board director. He had my destiny all locked up.

If only that misguided counselor could see Jones today (college degree and MBA achieved long ago). His voice is always in my ear, she adds, and that partly inspired the name of her consulting firm: Destiny Transformations Group.

I want you to know you can transform your destiny, when youve been told youre not enough, too female, or too Black! You can transform, she adds. The former CIOs next transformation will add author to a long list of career accomplishments when McGraw-Hill publishes her first book this fall. Current working title: Win When They Say You Wont.

My book is part autobiography, part instructional, and part inspirational, explains Jones, who serves on three public boards and was named to Savoy magazines list of most influential Black corporate directors for 2021.

I want to inform the reader that whether youre a woman or a person of color, or different than the approved mainstream, not everyone will tell you theyre not in your corner. But theyll find a way to show you, she says. You wont get the budget everyone else did, or you wont be given the same opportunities.

When the newest Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had to watch members of Congress publicly walk out on her during her confirmation celebration, Jones adds, that was a very public example of what many women and people of color experience every day. They are being told, Youre not going to win, and I wont support you if you do.

Next month at the SIM Women National Summit in Princeton, N.J., Jones will share with several hundred mid-career women how they, too, can succeed despite being told they wont. Her keynote address will introduce her 4-step process for transforming business and personal livesregardless of the roadblocks or discrimination encountered so far.

Ive reinvented myself at least 5 times, she cheerfully points out. You have to approach it like a business problem and figure out what steps to go through to improve your product. 

I caught up with Jones recently to hear more about her career strategies and how she created this methodology to coach others along their own paths to success.

Maryfran Johnson: Describe what youre doing today with your business. Mainly career coaching work?

Daphne Jones: My business today is about three things. One, I serve on three boards to help drive stakeholder value from my business and digital background. Two, Ive launched a new company called The Board Curators, which is about demystifying the process of pursuing a board seat. Third is my coaching and consulting work through Destiny Transformations.

How does Board Curators work?

Its an online course and an individual coaching program, designed for those C-Suite or equivalent executives who are curious about board service or ready to serve on a board. We focus mainly on those leaders who have been overlooked, undervalued, and not traditionally sought out for board service. We curate them to ready. Were also doing live sessions for companies that want to drive a group understanding of board services for their leaders.

Tell us more about the 4-step transformation methodology you write about in your upcoming book.

I describe my methodology with the acronym EDIT, which stands for Envision, Design, Iterate, and Transform. You start with Envision by thinking about what is possible? Where can I go? Can you envision what youd been told is impossible? With Design you work on understanding your own SWOT, your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You think of yourself as a business product. IT people understand the SDLC (software development life cycle) really welland you can apply that to your personal development.

Then you try out your design in the market and using some principles from Eric Riess book, The Lean Startup, you iterate through your hypothesis, persevering if its working or pivoting if its not. Finally, when you have achieved your objectives and key results, you have transformed yourselfand hopefully those around you, as well. We should be able to transform not only ourselves, but our environment because our product (us) has superpowers.

What version are you now in this personalized SDLC?

Im probably at least on version 5.5 by now! I was at version 2.0 in college and graduate school. But when you think about whatever version you are today, its never too late to edit your direction. Im a business owner and board member now, but my next transformation will be to author. The focus is on continuous improvement.

Looking back at your career strategically, what was the best decision you made?

It was having the idea in my mind and realizing what the next big job could be for me. I believe that wherever your mind goes, energy follows. I worked as an IT director at PSE&G utility in New Jersey, reporting to the CIO, who reported to the CEO. He asked me one day what I wanted to do in my career at the company. I told him I wanted his job! That was the first step. I believe reimagination can lead to transformation.

What was your biggest mistake or lesson learned?

It was about how you choose who you work with, either from an employee or contractor standpoint. Ive made choices by trusting what people told me, but not doing the due diligence on their background. I once hired someone after being warned about that persons horrible reputation. I should have listened!

To me, there are three kinds of trust. First, I have to trust your intentionsyou mean well and youre looking to do the right thing. You have integrity. Second, I trust your word. You meet deadlines. You honor commitments. If you will be late, you disappoint early, not late. And third, you really have the skills to do the job well. If someone doesnt demonstrate those 3 areas of trust, I cannot do business with them. But I had to learn that the hard way.

This article first appeared in CIOs Career Strategist newsletter.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against two accused persons for their involvement in conspiracy and espionage activities with an intention to wage war against India.

Visakhapatnam: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against two accused persons for their involvement in conspiracy and espionage activities with an intention to wage war against India.

They were identified as Altaf Hussein Ghanchi Bhai aka Shakil, 27, of Gujarat and Waseem, a Pakistani national hailing from Karachi.

The case was originally registered at Counter Intelligence Cell of AP, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh and was re-registered by NIA on December 23, last year pertaining to criminal conspiracy to carry out anti-national activities by Pakistani agents for obtaining crucial and sensitive information pertaining to defense establishments from Indian armed forces personnel by engaging civilians as their agents using social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram.

A release from the agency said that investigation had revealed that Altaf Hussen Ghanchi Bhai, on directions of Pakistan-based handlers had clandestinely activated WhatsApp by passing on OTPs received on Indian SIM numbers to his handlers in Pakistan for collection and transmission of sensitive information pertaining to Indian defense forces and establishments. These SIM cards were subscribed in the name of Indian fishermen of Gujarat who were earlier arrested by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in 2020 when they were fishing in the high seas. Investigation established that these SIM cards were illegally routed back to India to the arrested accused Altaf Hussen Ghanchi Bhai, who activated seven such SIM cards on directions of his handlers in Pakistan. He was arrested on October 25, last year.

The charge against Waseem was on routing money clandestinely through online cryptocurrency exchange platforms to Indian agents for eliciting sensitive and classified information pertaining to vital Indian defense establishments. He is currently absconding.
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Please reference CCSO Case # 22-008308

Detectives recovered a trove of stolen items from a Damascus home Tuesday after an April 11 call about subjects prowling cars led to a pursuit, the recovery of a stolen truck, and several arrests.

At about 11:42 p.m. on Monday, April 11, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a report of three or four suspicious subjects prowling cars on the 16600 block of SE Widgeon Lane in Damascus.

The subjects were reportedly wearing headlamps, and had arrived at the address in a gold pickup. People had reportedly been going through cars while wearing headlamps at this address for several weeks.

Deputies arrived at the scene as the gold pickup was leaving the scene. Two of the subjects stayed behind at the Widgeon Lane residence, and were reportedly inside a vehicle there.

One deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the gold pickup. The suspect pickup fled the area, with deputies in pursuit. The pickup eluded deputies at SE 82nd Ave and SE Lambert St. Portland Police later spotted the truck driving recklessly around midnight in the area of SE 131st and Powell Boulevard. At approximately 12:25 a.m. on April 12, Gresham Police reported that the suspect driver had abandoned the pickup on the MAX tracks in the area of NE 172nd Avenue and E. Burnside Street. The driver then fled into the Burnside Firs apartment complex on the 17400 block of E. Burnside St. After a K9 track, Portland Police took the suspect driver into custody. He was identified as Paul Angelo Costello, 35, no fixed address. Gresham PD identified the pickup as stolen out of Gresham.

Meanwhile, back on SE Widgeon Lane in Damascus, responding deputies continued to investigate. Deputies contacted and detained one subject -- later identified as Yuriy T. Zvodzdetskiy, 31, of Damascus -- who was wearing a headlamp while sitting in the back passenger seat of a black 4 door sedan with its doors open. The plates on the sedan had been switched. A search of Zvodzdetskiy's person revealed cash, a large stack of credit/debit cards belonging to other people, a pocket knife, fentanyl pills, and keys modified to fit into the ignitions of multiple cars.

A John Deere Gator, white van with switched plates, and trailer found on the property were found to be stolen.

On Tuesday, April 12, CCSO detectives executed a search warrant at the SE Widgeon Lane residence. They seized a trove of items -- including firearms, identity documents, wallets, tools, clothing, scooters, pills, and catalytic converters. Many of these items were found to be stolen, and are being processed as evidence as authorities work to reunite these items with their original owners.

While searching the location, CCSO detectives also located and rescued three newborn kittens, who were delivered to the Oregon Humane Society for care. The kittens were mere days old; their mother could not be located. A photo of the kittens is attached.

BOOKING INFO ON SUSPECTS:

Paul Angelo Costello was transported to an area hospital, cleared, and booked into was transported to an area hospital, cleared, and booked into Clackamas County Jail on charges including Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, Attempt to Elude a Police Officer, Reckless Driving, and Parole Violation. Bail was set at $32,500. Complete booking info is here: https://web3.clackamas.us/roster/#inmates



Yuriy T. Zvodzdetskiy was arrested and booked on charges of Identity Theft and Theft I (Possession of Stolen Property).

ADDITIONAL TIPS, INFO SOUGHT

The Sheriffs Office is seeking additional information in this case. Anyone with information on Paul Angelo Costello, Yuriy T. Zvodzdetskiy or criminal activity operating out of the 16600 block of SE Widgeon Ln. in Damascus is urged to contact the Sheriffs Office Tip Line -- by phone at 503-723-4949 or by using the online email form at https://www.clackamas.us/sheriff/tip . Please reference CCSO Case # 22-008308.

[END]

Deputy John Wildhaber

Clackamas County Sheriffs Office

Public Information Unit
Insurance company officials and attorneys have been known to complain when policyholders file suit before the parties have had a chance to settle a claim.

In West Virginia, it was the insurer, Kinsale Insurance Co., that filed suit in federal court before it even notified the policyholder, a CBD oil extraction factory, that it would deny a fire claim. A federal appeals court said this week that Kinsales appeal was premature and that the lower court must first determine the extent of the claim

Though the district court resolved the key question of whether Kinsale was liable for providing insurance coverage for the damage caused by the fire at the JDBC facility, the court had not found all of the facts necessary to compute the amount of damages due, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeal said in a published opinion handed down April 20.

The JDBC cannabidiol plant in Charles Town, West Virginia, erupted in flames on Halloween in 2019. The owners filed a claim the next day. Two months later, Kinsale, without notifying JDBC about whether its claim was accepted or denied, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, the appeals court explained.

The Virginia-based insurer argued that it was not bound to provide coverage, based on the conditions and exclusions under the policy. The policys pollution exclusion bars coverage for increased losses and damages from hazardous chemicals, which Kinsale said the company was using to manufacture the oil.

Nonetheless, the district court denied Kinsales motion for summary judgment and declared that the insurer was obligated to cover the damages. But differences remained over the amount of losses. JDBC said had asked for $7.25 million plus attorneys fees.

Because of the remaining questions, the appeals court held that long-standing precedent and rules of procedure bar the appeal at this point.

Because we find that the district courts partial summary judgment order is not a final decision under Rule 54(b) and because we find that certification exceeded the scope of the district courts discretion, we dismiss the appeal and remand for further proceedings, the appeals court panel of judges wrote. Without a final decision to review, we must dismiss the appeal before us and remand it for further proceedings so that all remaining claims and issues can be resolved.
For the protection of around 185 lakes and water bodies in the city limits, the MA&UD department has appointed a special cell headed by a designated special commissioner. *Representational image: DC)

Hyderabad: The delay in appointing a special commissioner for lakes, as was proposed some time ago, has kept the city waterbodies in serious trouble.

Way back in 2018, the HMDA decided to develop and beautify 40 lakes. Four years hence, the target has not been achieved and officials are blaming the municipal administration and urban development department for the delay. The HMDA says the government has not appointed an officer to monitor the lakes.

At that time, the Telangana government decided to take up the beautification of 20 lakes at an estimated cost of Rs 120 crore. The HMDA claimed that so far 14 works at nine lakes have been completed, 12 works at eight lakes could not be taken up and the works at three lakes are half complete.

Officials said patta landholders have stalled the works at Edula Cheruvu, Pedda Cheruvu in Amberpet, Tondapally Cheruvu in Shamshabad, Pasumamula Cheruvu in Abdullapurmet, Pedda Cheruvu in Keesara, Rampally Cheruvu, Mallampet Cheruvu in Bowrampet, Pedda Cheruvu in Peerzadiguda, Jalpally Tank in Balapur, Nadeem Cheruvu in Ghatkesar and Kuntlur Cheruvu as also some other lakes last year.

Mukkidi lake, also called RK Puram lake, is prone to encroachments.

For the protection of around 185 lakes and water bodies in the city limits, the MA&UD department has appointed a special cell headed by a designated special commissioner. The cell was to be under the control of the principal secretary, MA&UD, as per orders issued by the state government on October 4, 2021.

Despite several meetings, the MA&UD department reportedly did not discuss the protection of lakes nor matters like preventing encroachments nor the appointment of a special officer.

The special commissioner was to be responsible for the comprehensive management of the lakes, which includes preparing a master plan for each waterbody to scientifically manage the water flow and prevent further encroachment. The official was to take up beautification of lakes and increase the green cover in the buffer areas while ensuring the water is cleaned.

It was also stressed, then, that the protection and rejuvenation of lakes can be taken up by also involving corporates under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. However, five months have passed and the officials are yet to find an officer for this post and lakes protection has become a mirage. Meanwhile, the waterbodies are shrinking at an alarming pace.
Kristine Gilbert sits next to a photo of Jennifer Cunningham, one of the five who died in Commerce City in February allegedly from fentanyl overdoses. Gilbert said she worked with Cunningham and the other two girls who died in February, and that she attended the April 12 House committee hearing on a sweeping fentanyl legislation on behalf of Cunningham's mom. "She was a like a daughter to me," Gilbert said of Jennifer Cunningham.
Boao's takeaways add confidence to global cooperation amid COVID-19

Xinhua) 12:25, April 23, 2022

* Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2022 has voiced the importance of an open mind and coordinated global actions loud and clear.

* Themed "The World in COVID-19 &Beyond: Working Together for Global Development and Shared Future," the forum was held from Wednesday to Friday in Boao, a coastal town in China's southernmost province of Hainan.

* From improving public health, promoting common prosperity, and realizing carbon neutrality to proposing the Global Security Initiative, China has shared its wisdom and demonstrated its resolution to bring more certainties to the world's prospects.

BOAO, Hainan, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Defying headwinds from the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, fragile global economic recovery and complex geopolitics, the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2022 has voiced the importance of an open mind and coordinated global actions loud and clear.

Themed "The World in COVID-19 &Beyond: Working Together for Global Development and Shared Future," the forum was held from Wednesday to Friday in Boao, a coastal town in China's southernmost province of Hainan. It gathered government officials, heads of international organizations, experts and entrepreneurs from all over the world to discuss the post-pandemic development agenda.

From improving public health, promoting common prosperity, and realizing carbon neutrality to proposing the Global Security Initiative, China has shared its wisdom and demonstrated its resolution to bring more certainties to the world's prospects.

Photo taken on April 19, 2022, shows the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) International Conference Center in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

Delivering remarks for the opening ceremony, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that China as the world's second-largest economy is of great significance to promoting the world's economic recovery.

Meanwhile, all countries over the globe should strengthen their cooperation to achieve the goal. "In a world of change, one thing remains constant -- the importance of solidarity between countries," Georgieva said.

BRIDGING IMMUNIZATION GAP

"Last year when we met, much of the talk was on COVID-19. This year, the virus is still here with us," said BFA's chairman Ban Ki-moon in his welcome speech during the opening ceremony of this year's conference.

To date, the world has recorded more than 500 million COVID-19 infections and the novel coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 6.2 million people. For humanity to clinch a final victory against the pandemic, more hard efforts are needed.

China has provided over 2.1 billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations. It will follow through with the pledged donation of 600 million and 150 million doses of vaccines to Africa and ASEAN countries respectively, as part of its effort to close the immunization gap.

Be it in delivering vaccines abroad or producing them overseas, China has honored its commitments with concrete actions. "China action" has won rounds of applause from BFA attendees.

A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrives at an airport in Tunis, Tunisia, on Feb. 22, 2022. (Xinhua/Adel Ezzine)

"China is doing its best, not only to protect its own people but also to make a huge contribution," said Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, former director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira, a former chief economic advisor to the president of Brazil, is "a big supporter" of China's dynamic zero-COVID approach.

"I think China can inspire countries to take this as a serious matter because you are talking about the life of its people," he said, adding that other countries may not be able to copy the Chinese model, but can learn from the Chinese mentality to better deal with the pandemic and to avoid as many deaths as possible.

TOWARD GREENER FUTURE

Ranging from the venues which are solely powered by green electricity, to the recyclable and degradable cups provided to BFA guests, low-carbon applications and design details can be spotted throughout the BFA venues.

The conference's green transition has mirrored China's continuous pursuit of a greener future. China has announced its ambitious targets of peaking CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

China, the world's largest carbon emitter, has become the largest user of renewable energy over the years, with its carbon intensity slashed significantly. The country's enterprises are also scrambling to walk the talk.

During the BFA, a newly developed stainless steel material bought by BROAD Group caught the attention of many guests. The construction material can reduce carbon emissions by 90 kg per square meter, equivalent to the amount of carbon absorbed by five trees.

Traditional industries in China have also jumped on the bandwagon to accelerate the green shift. China's leading oil and gas producer China National Petroleum Corporation announced intensifying its efforts in green transformation during the BFA, particularly in the fields of technological innovation and eco-friendly development.

Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2022, shows the view of Nanqiang Village in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

"Carbon neutrality may become a novel change in the global civilization form," said Liu Qiao, dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, adding that China is actively engaged in the upgrade.

PURSUING COMMON PROSPERITY

"Absolute poverty can be eradicated in a relatively short time," said Jeffery Sachs, professor at Columbia University and the author of "The End of Poverty," during a BFA sub-forum.

The victory of China's battle against absolute poverty echoed his opinion.

China has raised nearly 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades, which can be deemed as a catalyst for propelling the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals.

Now, China has embarked on a new journey toward common prosperity. By 2035, the country is expected to have basically achieved socialist modernization.

Sachs pointed out that abundant resources, including high-quality education, health care services and infrastructure, coordinated by a proactive government for everyone are the keys to the success in realizing the goal.

"I think we should develop a global common ethic around a common prosperity," said Sachs, adding that China's idea is inspiring to other countries as it ensures people's right to live a decent life.

Ian Goldin, former vice president of the World Bank, also praised China's pursuit of common prosperity.

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 16, 2022, shows a photovoltaic power station in Yongren County of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

"We need to coordinate global resources effectively and create a sustainable environment," he said.

Once an obscure fishing village, Boao has gradually developed into a high-level dialogue platform with great global influences over the past two decades. Meanwhile, Hainan has been striving to become China's largest free trade port under the country's firm determination to build an open world economy and promote balanced, coordinated and inclusive global development.

"China is playing an increasingly important role in both economic globalization and global governance, and we should grasp the global trend and fulfill our responsibilities," said Chi Fulin, head of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Danielle Neuschwanger, the Elbert County rancher who lost her bid earlier this month for a spot in Colorado's Republican gubernatorial primary, said on Saturday that she is running on a third-party ticket  despite objections by some Republicans that her campaign will split the conservative vote and boost chances of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis winning a second term.
As Colorado faces what experts say could be the states worst wildfire season in history, lawmakers are seeking to incentivize wildfire mitigation efforts.

The state House passed House Bill 1007 on Friday, which would create a grant program for organizations that conduct wildfire mitigation outreach in hazard areas. The bill would also extend an existing income tax deduction and create a new state income tax credit to reimburse homeowners for the costs of performing wildfire mitigation measures on their property.

The time to act on wildfire prevention efforts is now, said bill sponsor Rep. Donald Valdez, D-La Jara. My heart goes out to all those displaced by the recent wildfire in Monte Vista and yet this is another reminder of why we need to invest in prevention efforts to protect communities and build a safer state.

This comes as officials said hot weather and dry conditions may push Colorado into the worst fire conditions in over a decade. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for over half of the state on Friday, citing conditions that are even more severe than they were for the Marshall fire  the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history that destroyed over 1,000 Boulder County homes in December.

Also on Friday, state officials announced Colorado will pour nearly $20 million of federal funding into fire prevention this year to pay for additional contracts with air tankers and helicopters, expanded dispatch services and new technology for on-the-ground coordination.

Record-breaking wildfires have become more and more common in the state, with the three largest wildfires in Colorado history all occurring in 2020.

This is near and dear to me because my district happens to house the largest land mass wildfire in the state, said bill sponsor Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington. Weve got to do everything we can to continue to mitigate the fires, especially as were seeing them prop up every day.

Under the bill, the grant program would provide approximately 30 grants per year, averaging $10,000 each, to local governments, counties, municipalities, special districts, tribal agencies and nonprofit organizations. The tax credit would reimburse 25% of the wildfire mitigation expenses  up to $625 per year  and would be available to landowners with taxable income of up to $120,000.

The House passed the bill in a 56-8 vote on Friday, sending it to the Senate for consideration. All eight lawmakers who voted against the bill are Republican, who did not comment on why they opposed the bill.

The legislature also recently advanced House Bill 1111 to increase insurance coverage of wildfire losses and Senate Bill 2 to fund volunteer firefighting resources. House Bill 1012, which creates a grant program for wildfire prevention efforts from local governments, is scheduled to be voted on by the House on Monday.
David (Chicky) Cecchetelli

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts announced the sentencing yesterday.





David (Chicky) Cecchetelli, 54reputedly a retired bookmaker associated with the Genovese familys Springfield crewwas sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to time served (approximately 62 days in prison) and one year of supervised release to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring.In December 2021, Cecchetelli pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition.During a search of Cecchetellis residence on Dec. 5, 2019, law enforcement found a gun and ammunition in Cecchetellis bedroom. The ammunition was concealed under his mattress. Cecchetelli is a known associate of the Genovese LCN in Springfield and was previously convicted of bookmaking with the underboss of the Springfield LCN in 2005. Due to his prior conviction, Cecchetelli is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition.United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; and New Bedford Police Chief Joseph C. Cordeiro made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura J. Kaplan of Rollins Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case. As was noted previously, the trouble came early one morning in December 2019, when over 500 Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers raided the Latin Kings in the Northeast United States, arresting more than 60 members and associates of the criminal organization and executing 31 search warrants at 24 locations.The arrests included Chicky Cecchetelli and nephew Michael Cecchetelli, who together shared an apartment in Springfield, Massachusetts.Michael reputedly is part of the East Coast and Massachusetts leadership of the Almighty Latin Kings and Queen Nation, the organization's full name. Michael Cecchetelli oversaw operations spanning from Massachusetts to Florida, according to Joseph Bonavolonta, head of the FBI's Boston office.In April, Michael Cecchetelli, a/k/a King Merlin, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. He faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.While Chicky Cecchetelli has no apparent ties to the Latin Kings beyond having some of the same blood in his veins as his roommate, King Merlin, he reputedly has longstanding ties to the Genovese familys Springfield crew. Years back, he also served eight months in Federal prison for bookmaking.Thanks to that unusual arrangement (it's one that we haven't witnessed very frequently) involving a mobster uncle and gangbanger nephew sharing an apartment, as further detailed below, Chicky was indicted in April 2020 for being a convicted felon who possessed guns and ammunition, both of which were found when law enforcement conducted a search related to the Latin King bust of King Merlin.As per court filings, prior to December 2019, the government commenced a probe that included a focus on Michael for allegedly being the East Coast Regional Overseer of the Latin Kings. Through surveillance and cell phone records, the government determined that Michael lived at 126 Firglade Avenue with his uncle, David. The two shared an apartment in a colonial house. Chicky Cecchetelli slept in the bedroom (which had a lock on the door), and Michael slept in the dining room(?). The two shared a kitchen, bathroom, and living room and paid rent separately to the landlord.On December 2, 2019, the government applied for a search warrant of 126 Firglade Avenue to recover evidence related to Michaels involvement with the Latin Kings. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler issued a warrant later that day, authorizing the government to search all rooms, crawl spaces, storage areas, and any containers such as safes, vaults, file cabinets, drawers, luggage, briefcases, valises, boxes, jewelry boxes, cans, bags, purses, and trash cans and all areas commonly accessible to the tenants of 126 Firglade, including hallways, basements, attic spaces, storage spaces, driveway, garage, front yard, back yard, and curtilage of the property for such evidence.Officers executed the search warrant at around 4:00 a.m. on December 5, 2019. After announcing their presence and entering the property, they observed David Cecchetelli emerging from the bedroom and Michael emerging from the rear of the apartment. Both men were wearing only boxers.Officers arrested Michael pursuant to the warrant. At his request, the officers retrieved his sweatpants, a shirt, and sneakers from the dining room before transporting him to an FBI location for booking.David Cecchetelli was informed of the search warrant and remained seated on a sofa in the living room. He chatted with some of the officers, eventually asking them if they could retrieve his glasses, sneakers, and a shirt, which he told them were located right there by [his] bureau in there.Big mistake! When those cops searched that room, they found on said bureau, hiding behind a table fan, a loaded firearm with five rounds of ammunition. They also found an additional four rounds of ammunition under the bed.Previously, in 2005, following an investigation into a bookkeeping operation involving Genovese crime family members, Cecchetelli pled guilty to Gaming Conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C.  371 and Conducting an Illegal Gambling Business in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1955, crimes punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than one year. He received an eight-month sentence.Because of that prior felony conviction, officers arrested Chicky in December 2019 and charged him with being a felon in possession of ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1).
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Its unknown how long a stay will hold off the execution of Richard Bernard Moore  South Carolina's first-ever inmate to be put to death by a firing squad  as his attorneys pursue legal challenges.

But the issuance of Moore's death warrant, initially planned to be carried out April 29, has renewed interest in how a state puts in motion its plans to shoot an inmate to death. The method is employed in only a handful of states and has not been used in the U.S. in more than a decade.

South Carolina just instituted the firing squad option last year, giving condemned inmates the choice between that and electrocution, prompted by an inability to procure lethal injection drugs.

In choosing the firing squad, the 57-year-old Moore said he didnt concede that either method was legal or constitutional but that he more strongly opposed death by electrocution and only opted for the firing squad because he was required to make a choice.

Moore drew the death sentence for the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg. Planning to rob the store for money to support his cocaine habit, investigators have said that Mahoney pulled a gun, which Moore was able to wrestle away and use to shoot the clerk.

A May 13 execution date has also been set for another inmate, Brad Sigmon, although a state judge is examining his legal argument that both electrocution and the firing squad are barbaric methods of killing.

Only three executions in the United States have been carried out by firing squad since 1976, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Moores would mark the first since Ronnie Lee Gardner s 2010 execution by a five-person firing squad in Utah.

WHEN DID THIS PROCESS BEGIN?

South Carolina  once home to one of the busiest death chambers in the nation  has been unable to carry out any execution since 2011, an involuntary pause that officials have attributed to the state's inability to procure the trifecta of drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection. Condemned inmates had the choice between injection and electrocution, meaning that opting for the former would in essence leave the state unable to carry out the sentence.

For several years, lawmakers have mulled adding the firing squad as an option to approved methods, but debate never advanced. Last year, Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian and GOP Sen. Greg Hembree, both of whom previously served as prosecutors, again argued in favor of adding the firing squad option.

The death penalty is going to stay the law here for a while. If it is going to remain, it ought to be humane, Harpootlian said, positing that the firing squad provided a more humane alternative than electrocution, if executions were to continue in the GOP-dominated state.

The measure, which Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law last May, made South Carolina the fourth state in the country to allow use of a firing squad, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

HOW IS THE EXECUTION CARRIED OUT?

Since the bill's passage, the South Carolina Department of Corrections worked at retrofitting its existing death chamber in Columbia  where executions by lethal injection and electrocution have been carried out for more than 30 years  to accommodate the needs of a firing squad.

The agency spent $53,600 in state funding on renovations, including the installation of bullet-resistant glass between the death chamber and witnesses, as well as a metal chair into which the inmate will be strapped. They also cut into the brick wall of the chamber to make an aperture through which the three shooters  all volunteer employees from the Corrections Department  will thread their weapons, all loaded with live ammunition.

The aperture is 15 feet from the condemned, situated in a corner of the room, according to a memo released last month by the prisons agency. While the inmate will be visible to witnesses, officials said that the shooters and their weapons will not.

The electric chair, which officials say cannot be removed from the chamber, will be covered in its spot between the glass wall and the firing squad chair.

After an opportunity to make a final statement, the inmate will be strapped into the chair and a hood placed over his head. An execution team member will place a small aim point over the inmate's heart.

After the warden reads the execution order, officials said the team will fire. The agency has not specified what caliber rifles the volunteer shooters will use, nor details of the certain qualifications they will be required to have met.

WHO WILL BE THERE TO WITNESS IT?

Aside from the state officials in the chamber to carry out the execution, three media witnesses may attend the execution, as well as three witnesses from the victims family, according to the Corrections Department.

State law also allows religious and legal counsel for the inmate, as well as representatives from law enforcement and local prosecutors.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARD?

As is standard with all South Carolina executions, a physician will examine the inmate and make a death declaration. A photo released by Corrections officials shows a lipped metal basin underneath the inmate chair, as well as a rectangular box directly behind it, potentially to absorb the gunfire.

Immediately thereafter, the witnesses will be escorted from the room and taken to the Corrections headquarters building, where other media will be gathered.

Out of sight of the witnesses, the inmate's body is removed from the chamber and taken by the Richland County Coroner's Office for an autopsy before being returned to the inmate's family.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
Once upon a time, you could simply not answer the door when an unwanted solicitor came knocking.

Then that phone rang relentlessly until Do Not Call legislation was adopted.

Its no longer a solution to let the bell keep buzzing. The people who used to be on the other side of the door or phone call are already in the house. They are also following you everywhere else.

Our digital footprints follow us as closely as shadows. Pause to shop for sneakers and they will track you to sell similar ones. Binge watch a favorite show and similar programming will try to lure you.

Theyve been following us for a long time. So long that Connecticut lawmakers have taken five years to craft a remedy to let consumers see what personal data is tracked. They might have acted even sooner, but it was reasonable to assume this would be addressed by Congress.

A federal approach could more efficiently address delicate matters of commerce that crosses state borders. This isnt quite the same as grappling over whether to toll trucks.

So Connecticut is following roads taken by California, Virginia and Colorado, and learning some best practices.

This isnt easy work, given regulatory laws. Remarkably, Connecticuts state senators voted 35-0 to forward the bill to colleagues in the House of Representatives. If signed by Gov. Ned Lamont, it would make personal data visible to consumers, who would finally have the power to edit or delete it. And minors under age 16 would have to opt in for data to be collected.

For the first time, Big Brother wouldnt be watching us through a one-way mirror.

Lawmakers praised Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, for relentlessly pursuing this legislation.

The genie is out of the bottle. It would be nearly impossible to put it back in, said Maroney, who is co-chair of the General Law Committee. What were doing today is simply saying that Connecticut residents have the right to know what data is being collected about them, how it is being used, and to ask companies ... not to sell their data.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, called it a crisis of privacy in our country.

Crisis makes it sound temporary. This problem will surely persist.

But Connecticut can learn a lot from this as it moves forward. Maroney proved Connecticut is capable of working outside state lines, as he consulted peers in other states on best practices.

Lawmakers need to continue being watchdogs on digital consumer protection issues, particularly as it relates to shielding children. This doesnt let Congress off the hook either. This is the work that should have been done inside the Beltway, and our Congressional delegation would be wise to press forward.

The internet is fast. These next steps to corral it will be slow. If the legislation is passed, carriers will have until Jan. 1, 2025 to create privacy controls.

In the meantime, consumers should try to follow best practices as well, like resisting mixing business with pleasure on work devices. Its reassuring to know who is on the other side of the door, but it also helps to keep some doors locked.
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BEIJING (AP)  Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing.

City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results on Friday. The Chinese capital also reported four other confirmed cases that day that were counted separately.

Mainland China reported 24,326 new community-transmitted infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict zero-COVID strategy has drawn global attention.

China has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible omicron variant. The zero-COVID policy warded off many deaths and widespread outbreaks when faced with less transmissible variants through mass testing and strict lockdowns where people could not leave their homes.

But recent developments in Shanghai have led some to question whether the strategy is worth the tradeoffs. Many residents in the city have struggled to get adequate food supplies during a lockdown this month, while some were also unable to get drugs or medical attention. Some elderly people died after an outbreak at an hospital led medical staff to be quarantined.

The country is now facing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan.

Local media reported that in Beijings Chaoyang district, the government ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities and classes. The city government is now conducting a round of mass testing to look for more cases.

In Shanghai, city officials reported 12 new deaths Saturday, all elderly patients with underlying illnesses.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Cuba and the United States took a tentative step toward thawing relations and resuming joint efforts to address irregular migration, a senior Cuban official said following the highest-level talks between the two countries in four years.

There were no major breakthroughs, but the mere fact that the U.S. was holding substantive talks was a sign relations might be looking better under President Joe Biden after going into deep freeze under his predecessor, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said Friday.

They seem committed. They ratified that they are committed to the agreements in place," Fernandez de Cossio said. "So we have no reason to mistrust what theyre saying, but time will tell.

The talks did not focus on broader U.S.-Cuba relations but more narrowly on restoring adherence to previous agreements that were intended to curtail the often-dangerous irregular migration from the island to the United States.

These talks helped both of us to understand the nature and the magnitude of the problem were facing," the deputy foreign minister said in an interview with The Associated Press at the Cuban ambassador's residence outside Washington.

U.S. officials want Cuba to resume taking back flights of deported migrants, which it stopped doing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuban authorities, meanwhile, want to see the U.S. follow through on its plan to restore consular services in Havana, so people can once again get visas to legally come to the United States, as well as change other policies that it believes encourage irregular migration from the island.

They asked us to renew the flights because it was an important element of deterrence," he said. "We said we agree that is an important element of deterrence. We explained that we needed to do in an integral manner, and they understood this.

It was a more detailed rundown of the talks than what was provided by the U.S. a day earlier. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the meeting underscores our commitment to pursuing constructive discussions with the government of Cuba where appropriate to advance U.S. interests.

The talks take place against the backdrop of relations that sharply deteriorated under President Donald Trump and amid a sharp increase in the number of Cubans seeking to enter the U.S. along the Southwest border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Cubans more than 79,800 times from October through March  more than double all of 2021 and five times more than all of 2020. Overall, the Border Patrol stopped migrants of all nationalities more than 209,000 times in March, the highest monthly mark in 22 years.

Cubans who cross the U.S. border illegally face little risk of being deported or expelled under a public health law that has been used to deny asylum to thousands of migrants of other nationalities on the grounds of slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Asked why so many Cubans are fleeing their country, Fernandez de Cossio blamed tough economic conditions in his country and widespread knowledge among Cubans that they will be granted asylum and legal residency in the U.S.

Life is difficult for Cubans. Its a developing country like any other country in the region," he said. They leave for economic reasons, like most migrants around the world.

Cubans are often granted asylum after they assert what's known under U.S. law as credible fear of persecution, typically for political or religious reasons. The deputy foreign minister is, not surprisingly, skeptical of such claims.

When they reach the border, they claim that they have a credible fear if they if they are returned, he said. "But then theyre accepted, and once they get residence the first thing they do is get a passport and move back to Cuba.

Cuba wants the U.S. to stop routinely granting asylum, end the economic embargo and take other measures that it says encourage migration and to restore consular activities so people can legally travel back and forth from the island with visitor visas.

Operations at the U.S. embassy in Havana were severely curtailed beginning in 2017 after the emergence of unexplained health problems among some employees.

Cases of what became known as Havana Syndrome became a major issue during the Trump administration, which rolled back the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba that had been initiated by former President Barack Obama.

Fernandez de Cossio said the Trump administration curtailed visas as part of its maximum pressure against Cuba, contributing to the irregular migration occurring now and he welcomed the Biden administration's commitment to restore visa operations.

It needs to be done so that people in Cuba can find that theres a legal normal way to migrate to the United States, which has been lacking since 2017," he said.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  A veterans group is trying to raise millions of dollars to build a museum in South Carolina honoring a group of 80 men who went on a daring bombing raid over Tokyo just months after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II.

The Doolittle Raiders started their training in Columbia, and the city hosted reunions before the final members of the group died in the past decade.

The American Heritage Foundation wants to build a museum to honor the raiders near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, said Larry Russell, a 75-year-old Army veteran and member of the planning group.

There is no museum in the country dedicated to the Doolittle Raiders, Russell told The State newspaper.

The Doolittle Raiders were led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle who rounded up 80 men to fly what they thought could be suicidal missions from carriers in the Pacific Ocean to drop bombs on Japan just four months after the December 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

The men knew they couldn't make it back to the carriers. Three died during the bombing run. Eight were captured by the Japanese after crash landing in China and other places, with three of them executed.

The raid didn't cause excessive damage to Tokyo, but it was a psychological blow showing the Americans were going to fight back after Pearl Harbor and Japan wasn't safe across the Pacific Ocean.

There is an 80th anniversary celebration scheduled to Honor the Doolittle Raiders on Sunday at a club near the Columbia airport. There will be a history presentation, 1940s-era music from a live big band, restored World War II vehicles and people in uniforms from the period.

Russell said the American Heritage Foundation will also be raising money for that museum. The group owns property near the airport it would like to use for the building. An architect is already working with a planning group.

The museum could show off restored B-52 bombers similar to what the raiders flew and include history about World War II, the raiders and how Columbia helped the World War II effort, Russell said.

History teaches you what not to do as well as what to do, Russell said. In order for youth to grow up and be a good citizen you have to have a good understanding of where we came from.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)  John DiStaso, a veteran political reporter in New Hampshire who covered 11 first-in-the-nation presidential primaries, interviewing countless candidates and providing analysis on campaigns and elections, died Thursday after suffering a prolonged illness. He was 68.

DiStaso, who spent the last seven years as a political reporter for WMUR-TV, was known for doggedly pursuing stories and asking tough questions on the campaign trail. He was nicknamed the dean of the New Hampshire political press corps. The station announced his death Friday.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger has approved the formatting of a petition for a proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in the state.

The sponsoring committee behind the petition must obtain 15,582 valid signatures by July 11 for the measure to be placed on Novembers ballot. That figure amounts to 2% of North Dakotas population. If supporters miss that deadline but obtain the signatures by April 21, 2023, the measure could be placed on the June 2024 ballot or come to a vote if a special election occurs before then.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Wayne Shaw seemed to have all the conservative credentials needed to win reelection to his state Senate seat in Oklahoma two years ago. The mild-mannered pastor with deep ties to the community had a solidly conservative voting record during his eight years in office.

But when Shaw, as chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, declined to hear a bill to allow people to carry guns into bars, he drew the ire of an unemployed truck driver who was passionate about gun rights.

The angry gun advocate, Don Spencer, belonged to a local pro-firearms group. In short order, he and his friends recruited a Republican challenger for Shaw, held a fundraiser in his district and helped defeat the incumbent in the primary.

I'm not opposed to guns," said Shaw, who was stunned by the development. But that (guns in bars) is a good way of throwing gasoline on a fire."

Spencer's feat is an example of a phenomenon in red states where the Republican Party is moving farther and farther to the right: The most potent political forces aren't always the long-established organizations that have groomed candidates and advanced legislation for decades. In the current climate, little-known outsiders, even without pedigree or money, can become powerbrokers quickly if connected to incendiary issues like guns or abortion. And almost any officeholder can become vulnerable.

Few at the Oklahoma State Capitol had even heard of Spencer when he started advocating for pro-gun laws, but now he's a formidable presence in the building. The 62-year-old from Meridian, a small town about 40 miles from Oklahoma City, is warmly welcomed by senior Republicans, and he often sets up camp in legislators' offices and helps draft legislation.

At bill signing ceremonies, Spencer can often be seen flashing a smile among the lawmakers flanking the governor. Political hopefuls seek him out, and he gives them a seven-page questionnaire to fill out to determine whether they might receive an endorsement.

In the five years since Spencer took over the group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association has grown from a handful of chapters to more than 50, set up its own political action committee and begun branching out into other right-wing causes, like stopping vaccine mandates and limiting discussions of race in schools.

Spencer sees the opportunities as boundless. People in this state are concerned about their rights, and they realize now its more important whats going on in their backyard than what those crazies are doing in Washington, D.C., Spencer said in an interview.

The push to expand gun rights comes amid a surge in gun violence in communities across the country, including several mass shootings in recent weeks. Between 2019 and 2020, the last year for which federal data is available, shooting deaths increased 35%. Yet calls for tougher firearms limits have been blocked by GOP opposition, with leaders instead citing an even greater need for citizens to protect themselves.

Fear that government will threaten conservative values is running strong in red states right now, said Michael Crespin, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma who is familiar with the OK2A group.

There's this whole idea that Democrats are going to come and take their guns away," Crespin said. That's not happening," but that fear is a good motivator for politics."

OK2A racked up its broadest achievement in 2018 when lawmakers passed constitutional carry legislation which allows adults to openly carry firearms in public without a license or training. The bill had previously been vetoed by a Republican governor, Mary Fallin, but it was the first one signed into law by new Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.

This year the group is pushing to allow people to carry guns on college campuses, at sporting events and at county and state fairs, despite opposition from pro-business groups like chambers of commerce.

While Republican politics had been moving rightward already, the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the role of conservative interest groups, buoyed by resistance to health restrictions. Even meetings in thinly populated rural counties can draw more than 50 people, with hundreds more tuned into livestreams online.

Fundraising is rising sharply. OK2A raised nearly $40,000 in 2019, $83,000 in 2020 and more than $122,000 last year, according to state campaign finance data. Much of the money is spent on online ads and for booths at gun shows. Records show Spencer has started drawing a salary, about $30,000 each of the last two years.

They do have influence out there, especially in Republican primaries," said Gary Jones, former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party. Where they have their greatest success is low-turnout races where they can mobilize and turn out a bigger percentage of their supporters."

Tensions sometimes flare between OK2A and the party's established leaders. When the leader of the Senate expressed concerns last year over a bill designed to protect Oklahoma from federal overreach," Spencer called for him to step down and quickly summoned almost 1,000 people to the Capitol to protest.

Earlier this year, a Senate Republican, Lonnie Paxton, complained that Spencer went too far when he declared at a rally, We win at the ballot box so we don't have to go to the ammo box."

Noting the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was fueled by anti-government rhetoric, Paxton said the remark crossed every conceivable line of decency.

Spencer brushed off the complaint, saying it only helped his fundraising.

Republican candidates and officeholders regularly ask to speak to the group's chapter meetings, with speeches typically including a healthy dose of fiery anti-government rhetoric.

At a recent meeting at an Oklahoma City firearms store, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Tulsa preacher Jackson Lahmeyer, derided Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious-disease expert, as a mass murderer." Another Republican candidate offered raffle entries starting at $25 for four custom-built AR-15s and a .50-caliber rifle.

At the Capitol, members ask Spencer about new bills to introduce.

On a firearms issue, he'd be the first stop to go to," said Rep. Eric Roberts, a Republican from Oklahoma City.

A leading Democrat, Rep. Emily Virgin, said she's concerned the group's power is becoming dangerous.

This really has just turned into a far-right extremist organization, and the fact that so many Republicans in the House and Senate seem to take their cues from that organization is what is most concerning," she said.

But Winona Heltzel, a group member from the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said she joined because she thinks the group can help prevent gun confiscation.

I know everybody talks about the government, but I'm worried about criminals," Heltzel said.

___

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STRATFORD - The towns elected officials are nearly unanimous in their opposition to a bill that could have implications for Sikorsky Memorial Airport.

The bill, titled HB5308, would give the Connecticut Airport Authority the power to use eminent domain to make necessary safety changes without approval from the state Department of Transportation. It would also give the CAA the power to approve a purchase of an airport by a municipality.

This is precisely what we have been warning about with regard to the interest of the CAA in their effort to obtain the Sikorsky Memorial Airport from Bridgeport through a non-public process, Mayor Laura Hoydick said in a statement.

Kevin Dillon, executive director of the CAA, said this bill clarifies existing powers the CAA already has. He said the bill is essentially clean-up language with some additions. It also contains requirements for aircraft liability insurance coverage, for example.

It doesn't grant us any additional authority other than we carry out what the DOT is required to do right now, Dillon said.

The CAA is a quasi-public body that owns and operates six airports in the state, including Bradley International Airport. Eminent domain is the right of a government to purchase private land for public use. The CAA has submitted a bid to purchase Sikorsky from the City of Bridgeport. Hoydick also has expressed interest in buying the airport.

Right now the eminent domain process requires the CAA to request a condemnation of property from the DOT when a need arises, which the DOT will then approve, Dillon said.

Under HB5308, the executive director of the CAA would have to submit a written statement to the municipality explaining why purchasing or taking the land is necessary. The acquisition will then go to a referendum within the locality.

If it does not pass in the referendum, then the CAA would have the right to appeal the vote to the Superior Court, which could then give the CAA power to proceed with the land acquisition.

Dillon said the CAA would not move to use eminent domain to increase the length of the runway at Sikorsky, should the organization purchase it from Bridgeport.

We have no intention to exercise eminent domain regarding Sikorsky to acquire additional property for airport uses, Dillon said.

The CAA has only initiated the process once since 2013, and the process was not carried through to conclusion. In that situation, a homeowner near the Danbury Municipal Airport had a tree on their property that was in the way of a runway, Dillon said. The situation was resolved before the process was completed.

Dillon also said the CAA is perfectly fine with the current process as it stands since this was a DOT request.

In addition to Hoydick, all three of Stratfords representatives in the House, Sen. Kevin Kelly, and nine of the 10 Town Council members have come out against the bill.

Hoydick expressed her concern again in a joint statement with nine members of the Town Council Friday. The only member not included was Democrat Greg Cann.

The effort of the Connecticut Airport Authority to obtain the power of eminent domain regarding airports in their holdings is of deep concern to all of us as they pursue this power while simultaneously attempting to purchase the Sikorsky Memorial Airport from the City of Bridgeport, the statement said.

The group said they oppose this bill and any other bill with similar contents that could be presented this legislative session.

Hoydick announced the towns interest in buying Sikorsky from Bridgeport in mid-March. The town cited the ability to have local control of the airport and fear that agreements the town has with Bridgeport would go away under state control.

State Rep. Phil Young, D-Stratford, said he is against the portions of the bill that have to do with eminent domain. He added, I kind of doubt it is ever going to see the light of day.

The bill was drafted by Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, but language updates were included when it went through the Transportation Committee, according to the bills legislative website. More than 15 pages of language were added between initial submission and filing to the House.

mike.mavredakis@hearstmediact.com
After 33 years, in and out of court, a final settlement has recently been reached in the landmark Sheff v. ONeill school segregation case. Given that school finance and school segregation are two of the most enduring topics studied by social scientists of education, we were surprised to learn that the social sciences have played a less significant role in education equity lawsuits than we thought.

The problem, in part, is a disconnect between the training needed to understand these studies and what judges are trained, or rather untrained, to do.

According to Wesley Horton, who served as a plaintiff attorney in two important Connecticut education cases: the Horton v. Meskill case, a school funding lawsuit that bears his namesake, and the Sheff v. ONeill case, Its so much more difficult when you give (judges) a 3,000 page record, in which all these educational experts are talking about  their lingo  how (do) you determine whether somebody is doing a better job at something?

He continued: This isnt (judges) expertise, whereas it is their expertise to read words in a constitution. So, to the extent you can limit something to words in a constitution, you're much better off.

When it came to the Sheff v. ONeill case, the Connecticut state constitutions robust language around equal protection provided a strong rationale for leaning more on the constitution than social science literature. Yet Connecticuts constitution is rather unique in its elaboration of equal protection. Most other states that have litigated education equity cases do not have the benefit of relying on such strong constitutional language. In these contexts, social science findings play a larger role in determining legal decisions.

The social sciences have historically played, at best, an ambiguous role in court rulings. At worst, it has been derisively dismissed, like when Chief Justice John Roberts referred to social science findings that were presented in a gerrymandering case as sociological gobbledygook.

That impression comes from the unexpected findings that sometimes emerge in social science research. In Brown v. Board of Education, Kenneth and Mamie Clarks doll studies demonstrated that both Black and white children preferred to play with white dolls to prove that segregation caused psychological damage, and that separate was inherently unequal.

The defense countered this claim and cast doubt on the validity of the study by revealing that the plaintiff attorneys had left out the other half of the findings. The complete study included a sample of children from desegregated schools in the North. These children exhibited even greater psychological damage than the students who attended segregated schools in the South. This is understandably puzzling. Based on these findings, some may draw the erroneous conclusion that segregation was not harmful to Black children.

But those who have taken a social science course in educational equity would come to a different conclusion. They would understand that Black children in segregated schools may have exhibited less psychological harm because, although segregation was a pernicious way of devaluing Black children, Black educators in segregated schools recognized their students full humanity and potential. They created a caring community that buffered students from the psychological damage of white supremacy.

This broader understanding of the social sciences  one that helps to interpret findings  is something that many judges and justices lack. They are simply not trained to do that.

In order to make the social sciences more applicable to education equity cases, scholars can devote more time to conducting meta-analyses that provide a broad sense of a disciplines position on a given issue.

Informed by his analysis of the school finance literature, Kirabo Jackson has shown that the preponderance of studies conclude that money matters when it comes to student outcomes. This helps judges cut through the noise to understand where most social scientists stand in relation to an issue.

Professional associations can also play a role in lawsuits. For example, the American Anthropological Association, in 1998, issued a statement on its position that race is a social construct. The preface stated that though its position does not reflect a consensus of all members of the AAA  it represents generally the contemporary thinking and scholarly positions of a majority of anthropologists. Although a defense attorney may still be able to find an anthropologist to testify to the biological basis of race to serve as an expert witness, the AAA statement would provide a resounding refutation of that testimony.

Lawyers and judges can also learn how to better interpret social science research. Law schools can incorporate the teaching of social science research into their curricula  courses that are currently not offered in some of the top U.S. law schools. Students should be trained to analyze social science research so our next generation of leading lawyers and judges develop a more fine-grained understanding of the cases that will come before them.

Right now, social science and law tend to operate like oil and water, not mixing very well; but this doesnt have to be the case. These changes can ultimately move the needle toward advancing equity in some of the most important issues in society today.

Roseann Liu is an assistant professor of education studies at Wesleyan University. She is writing an ethnography about race and school funding that will be published by The University of Chicago Press. Ben Levin is a junior at Wesleyan University, double-majoring in education studies and government.
Forget Anatomy Of A Scandal, forget the new series of Sewing Bee. For me, theres only been one show in town this week: the Amber and Johnny show.

Im talking, of course, about the drama unfolding in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Virginia, where Johnny Depp is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for $50 million in respect of an article she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 in which she described being a victim of domestic abuse.

She is countersuing for $100 million, alleging that he physically and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions during their brief marriage, often when off his head on drugs or alcohol.

Forget Anatomy Of A Scandal, forget the new series of Sewing Bee. For me, theres only been one show in town this week: the Amber and Johnny show

It is, quite honestly, the most gripping thing Ive watched (its all being streamed online) for ages. First of all, just look at them both. Johnny, 58, in the witness box, still ruggedly handsome in a Mexican drug lord sort of a way.

The sharp suit, three-piece, contrasting with the junky silver rings and tattoos, his still-thick hair (Dyed? Transplant? Who cares: its all there) tied up in a ponytail.

That gentle Southern drawl, those impeccable manners, the yes sir, no sir, sorry sir, the lowering of his blue-tinted reading glasses to examine a brief. That slow smile, the twinkle in the eye, the occasional arch of an eyebrow. This is Johnny being the best Johnny he can be, and its hard to tear your eyes away.

Im talking, of course, about the drama unfolding in Fairfax County Circuit Court, Virginia, where Johnny Depp is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for $50 million in respect of an article she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 in which she described being a victim of domestic abuse

On the other side of the room, waiting her turn to testify, is Amber. She is exquisitely, almost impossibly beautiful, but there are faint bags beneath her eyes and her expression seems permanently pained, her perfect lips downturned as she sits there, shoulders down, back straight, listening to it all. She looks vulnerable, fragile, as though she were playing the grieving young Mafia widow in a 1970s Scorsese film. At any moment you feel she might just shatter into a million pieces.

It is an extraordinary thing to witness, the sight of these two demi-gods, two shining stars in the Hollywood firmament, sitting in this run-of-the-mill courtroom with its drab brown panelling, watching as their relationship is painstakingly dissected, all the passion and fury and frustration carefully picked over, examined under the microscope, every spit and toss laid bare.

Its hard to know who to believe. Johnny, with his cruel childhood and adult demons, a difficult but fundamentally kind man driven out of his mind by his wifes constant berating of him. Or Amber, a woman living in fear of her husbands unpredictable mood swings and temper. The only thing thats clear is how damaged they both are  and how much damage they managed to inflict on each other.

On the other side of the room, waiting her turn to testify, is Amber. She is exquisitely, almost impossibly beautiful, but there are faint bags beneath her eyes and her expression seems permanently pained, her perfect lips downturned as she sits there, shoulders down, back straight, listening to it all

And at every turn, another bombshell. A recording of Amber arguing that she hadnt punched Johnny, merely hit him, and accusing him of being a baby for getting so upset. An email from Johnny to, of all people, Elton John calling his ex-wife, Vanessa Paradis, a French extortionist. Johnny in a cowboy hat smashing up his kitchen; Amber supposedly defecating in their bed.

On and on it goes, like a Hollywood version of The Jeremy Kyle Show, proof that even beautiful people can behave in ugly ways. Behind the gloss and the glamour theyre just two people who were very bad for each other. Whatever love may have been there in the beginning quickly turned toxic. A toxicity that continues to eat away at them, draining their sanity and bank accounts. Because, fascinating as it is to watch, its clear that whatever the outcome in monetary terms, psychologically its just an act of self-harm.

It is, in that respect, an eternal tale of love turned sour, of how affection can become an obsession devoid of all reason. And of how, when all is said and done, there can be no winners in the Amber and Johnny show save the lawyers.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been leaving a note on the desks of civil servants. Sorry you were out when I visited, it reads.

I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon. I thought the idea was to get people back to work  not scare them away for good!

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been leaving a note on the desks of civil servants. Sorry you were out when I visited, it reads

What exactly does Prince Harry mean when he talks about the Queen needing the right people around her?

Is he worried shes going to start hanging out with nonagenarian motorcycle gangs?

And who does he think he is, gaslighting a woman who has given her life in service of this country while he and that ghastly wife of his (there, I said it) could barely manage 18 months before heading for the California hills?

Sharons so right about M&S

Sharon Osbourne, right, says shes coming back to live in Britain because, among other things, I miss Marks & Spencer.

Its so true. Whenever my mother comes over from Italy, the first thing she does is head for M&S. I once lost her for an entire day in the Marble Arch branch.

I was about to send out a search party when she resurfaced in the food hall, laden with underwear and raspberry jellies.

Like the BBC and the Monarchy, Marks is, for all its flaws, a brilliant British institution  and one that it takes an expat to truly appreciate.

Sharon Osbourne, right, says shes coming back to live in Britain because, among other things, I miss Marks & Spencer

Post-pandemic, we seem to be getting a lot less fussy about personal grooming. Make-up sales in the UK were down a whopping 46 per cent in 2021 compared to 2017  and were also washing our hair less often.

I must confess, Im one of those women. Ive gone from washing my hair every other day to doing it once a week, usually on a Wednesday.

Its been a revelation. It saves me time and money, and my hair seems much happier. That said, I dont get many invitations for Tuesday nights any more...

The question of whether to introduce a ban on smacking children is back in the news after Childrens Commissioner Rachel de Souza came out in favour.

I have a lot of respect for Rachel, but we live in a country that allows vulnerable children to die miserable deaths at the hands of drug-addled mothers, yet we agonising over smacking.

Want to turn your sons asthma inhaler into a crack pipe and leave him to suffocate to death? Go for it. Give your child a quick slap on the wrist? To jail with you.

Lord knows there are plenty of real child abusers out there. Lets deal with them first.

Mummys boy... but not for long

Those pictures of Prince Louis taken by the Duchess of Cambridge took me right back to when my own children were little.

Four is the last chance you really get to have them to yourself before the outside world  school, friends  starts to claim them. Magical.

Those pictures of Prince Louis taken by the Duchess of Cambridge took me right back to when my own children were little

Alina Kabaeva, right  allegedly Putins mistress and mother of four of his children  has surfaced in Moscow.

Once holder of the title of bendiest woman in Russia, the former gymnast appears to have gone to the other extreme: her face looks like polished marble.

But I suppose youd need to be made of stone to stomach a man like Putin.

Alina Kabaeva, right  allegedly Putins mistress and mother of four of his children  has surfaced in Moscow

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has voiced his concerns about the way vulnerable children are being prescribed hormone treatment to change gender.

He compared what is going on at NHS clinics such as the Tavistock to the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal. This may seem a little extreme, but he has a point.

In Rotherham, vulnerable childrens lives were destroyed because people feared they would be labelled racist if they spoke up.

Its not transphobic to want to make sure young, impressionable minds dont do something they  and the rest of society  may later regret.

Conspicuous consumption is all very well, but it has its risks, as boxer Amir Khan discovered when thieves pounced on him in Leyton and stole his 72,000 watch.

He now feels very unsafe in London. I dare say. That said, if you will walk around East London brandishing the equivalent of twice the average yearly salary on your wrist...
Shortly after veteran BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen reported live from the Ukrainian war with particularly distressing footage of an inconsolable mother weeping over the grave she had dug with her own hands for her only son in Bucha, north of Kyiv, he received a slightly abrasive email from Transport for London.

It was saying, You have failed to provide the evidence that youre still a London resident, so your over-60s travelcard... I dont know, theyre going to cancel it or something, he says. I thought, Really? So what?

Wed had a very long day. What stays with you more than seeing a dozen dead bodies is seeing the people left behind  seeing their sadness and despair. In the case of this poor woman Iryna Kostenko, it was ghastly.

'Shed buried her boy and put a rug and half a wooden pallet on top because she was worried about the dogs digging him up. For a human being to go through that is appalling.

BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen, 62, (pictured) explains how he watched a woman dig a grave for her son in Ukraine

When we finished it was probably 2.30am. I spent at least an hour just coming down from it  or trying to  because it was terrible thinking about her.

'And yes, I do feel the emotion of it. Im not made of stone.

Jeremy, 62, has, as he says, been to an awful lot of wars, more than 20 where there is no place for the bureaucratic nonsense spewed out by those working largely from home.

Going to a story like this as a journalist is all-consuming, he says. Its as if someone has transported you to another planet.

'In a sense, its quite simple. Mainly youre trying to stay alive and understand whats going on.

'If youre a journalist you report it. If youre a fighter you fight it. Theres no real room for anything else. I thought of that TfL email, It doesnt matter. Ill sort it out when I get home.

Home is (take note, TfL) Camberwell, south London, where Jeremy has lived with his partner Julia, a former BBC journalist, his daughter, now 21, and 18- year-old son, both of whom are at university, for more years than he cares to count.

He says Julia, who took redundancy at the BBC a year ago, knows the score and what I do for a living, but his brother Nicholas, whos his nextdoor neighbour, asked him if he was out of his mind when he first ventured to Ukraine.

It took five or six days to get to Kyiv. At that time there was all that talk about a 40-mile convoy coming towards the city.

Jeremy with his children, now aged 18 and 21, at a film screening. Home is Camberwell, south London, where Jeremy has lived with his partner Julia, a former BBC journalist

'My brother was texting me as we were driving, saying, Have you seen these reports? The internet was working so he was sending me links to articles about the bloody tanks.

'He said, Do you know theres a 40- mile convoy? Are you out of your mind? So, coming into it, I was nervous. I was thinking, Whats it going to be like? Whats going to happen?

'Ive seen the Russians in action before in Syria and Chechnya. I was in Grozny in the 90s when they were really smashing it up with airstrikes and things like that so I know what they can do.

Jeremy has been reporting from Ukraine since the end of February, informing us daily with his compelling, often heart-wrenching, stories of human misery and brutal death.

Hed just completed his desperately sad report about Iryna for BBC Radio 4s Today programme when he spoke to me from his room in a ten-storey hotel where a small group from the BBC are the only guests.

Ive probably been away too much. Im more conscious of the work-life balance now

They eat their meals in the basement car park and wash their clothes in a basin. The 24-hour news cycle demands reports for television and radio as well as online, so 16-hour days are common.

Right now, he says, hes physically and mentally quite tired. Ill be leaving later this week because my batteries have run out pretty much.

Yet since we spoke he headed further north of Kyiv to towns such as Borodyanka, where he discovered more atrocities committed by the retreating Russians, before he left the country. Back in March Jeremy was forced to take cover, or as he describes it, grovel in the dirt, as he and his team came under fire reporting on the families fleeing from the town of Irpin.

The most meaningless thing you can say to a journalist in a war zone is, Dont forget, no story is worth your life. Theres a risk you might get hurt just by being there. It might even happen in your hotel.

When youre grovelling around in the dirt and the shells are coming in its really frightening, but your adrenaline takes over.

This nice fellow Marcus, who was only about 35, was with us as a security advisor. Im 62 and Fred the cameraman, who Ive known since we were in our twenties, is 60.

'Basically we were running away from what was going on. It was about 500 yards down the road to our driver with the vehicle. Were not in bad shape but Ive got a bad back and was wearing a flak jacket that weighs 20kg. Marcus was saying, Come on, youre OK. Afterwards I joked to him, Youre not just the security guy, youre our carer! because he had these two sixty-somethings he was looking after.

Jeremy has been reporting for the BBC for 38 years. He says hes more cautious these days.

Not as macho or ready to take risks as his younger self. In 2000 he was reporting from Lebanon when his fixer and friend Abed Takkoush was killed by an Israeli tank as he sat in the car making a phone call to his son.

Jeremy taking part in a Rocky Horror Show sketch with his BBC colleagues for Children In Need. Jeremy has been reporting for the BBC for 38 years

Jeremy and his cameraman Malek Kanaan were a short distance away filming a piece. With the car in flames, the tanks machine gun prevented them from going to Abeds aid.

Jeremy was in pieces emotionally when he returned home. I had some therapy but I hadnt got PTSD [as has been reported] because for that you have to have had the symptoms for a while.

'I had I guess what youd call a serious emotional wound because Id said, Lets stop here and film, and Abed was killed. So of course I thought, If I hadnt decided to stop there, he might still be alive.

Today Jeremy has received more awards  20 and counting  for his reports from tough places than many of his younger colleagues have recorded pieces to camera. He set his heart upon becoming a foreign correspondent when he was a boy in short trousers.

The careers advisor at his comprehensive school, Cardiff High, thought he was overly ambitious. He said, If you want to travel you should go into hotel management or join the Navy. And, you know, Ive stayed in so many hotels I feel like I could manage one at this point.

After joining the BBC at the age of 24, Jeremy was about to go shopping with Julia on a regular Saturday morning in 1989 when the foreign editor called him shortly before the Tiananmen Square killings telling him to get to the airport for a flight in three hours.

He said, Jeremy, theyre all tired out there. We need you to go and help. Honkers and then Peekers was the way he put it  Hong Kong and Peking.

In 2000 he was reporting from Lebanon when his fixer and friend Abed Takkoush was killed by an Israeli tank as he sat in the car making a phone call to his son

'I couldnt believe that day. Now, if I went away with three hours notice for about six weeks Id probably hate it but then it was really exciting.

He pauses. Thinks for a moment. When you want to make a success of a demanding job you have to make sacrifices.

'You have to put in the time. Youd have to ask the people around me if that makes me selfish. Ive probably been away too much. Im more conscious of the work-life balance now.

In 2018 Jeremy was diagnosed with stage III bowel cancer that was discovered in the nick of time. I always thought Id get better, except for a couple of long nights of the soul when I was in hospital for a month because my operation went wrong.

He finished his chemotherapy in the summer of 2019 and has been in remission ever since.

Apparently, youre more likely to get a recurrence earlier than later so the longer the remission, statistically the better it is. Im not quite out of the woods but Ive made some progress.

'Im conscious of limited time in a way that I wasnt before. People can get ill, especially as you get older.

'One in two people will get cancer. Im the one in two. Life is not just precious. Its quite a tightrope.

I used to say in my late twenties when Id been to some terrible situation, Its work. Doctors see things as well.

When youre grovelling around in the dirt and the shells are coming in, its really frightening

'But actually, it does build up over the years and you become very aware of the way in which the wheel of fate  or of evil, whatever you want to call it  changes everything in a second.

'Theres always this feeling of, What if a shell landed now? Weve got our flak jackets and helmets but, to be honest, if youre next to a big artillery shell when it lands, youve had it.

One of Jeremys reports from this wounded country was about university students Maksym Lutsyk, 19, and his 18-year-old friend Dmytro Kisilenko, who were volunteering to fight for their country against the Russians after just three days basic training.

The haunting images of the two young lads who were no longer boys, laughing too loudly to hide their nerves, touched many around the world. To see these two young guys  they were barely shaving but they were going off to war  was gut-wrenching. You think, My God, if things were different that could be my son.

Today, his report about those young men has had 20 million views on Twitter. It says something about the way that story has cut through, he says.

Thats why its really important to do this reporting here, right now. Its dangerous but Ive accepted the danger. The only other way to ensure you wont get hurt in a war zone is to stay at home in your armchair and you cant do that.

'Thats no way to do journalism.
Two infuriating new puzzles have been leaving players scratching their heads.

The seek-and-find puzzles show underwater scenes - only one is full of discarded rubbish, and the other full of vibrant sea life.

In the plastic bag puzzle, players are challenged to find the lone jellyfish. In the other, they must find the plastic bag that's got caught up among the sea creatures.

Scroll down for the answer and more puzzles!

The brand also has released a second brain teaser, showcasing a sea thriving with diverse marine life and challenging readers to spot the plastic bag. Can you see it?

Can YOU find the jellyfish swimming among the rubbish? This seek-and-find puzzle illustrates the damage that rubbish can do to our underwater eco-systems

The puzzles were created by sustainable toilet paper and kitchen roll brand Oceans Plastic Free to celebrate Earth Day.

The creators say the puzzles are so tricky that there is a 10-second record to beat. Do you have what it takes?

If you need a hint, try looking towards the top of the images - both the plastic bag and the jellyfish can be found there. Still struggling? Then scroll down for the reveal.

Simon Howard, from Oceans Plastic Free explained the vibrant puzzles have an important message: 'With an estimation of 13 million tons of plastic ending up in the ocean each year, it causes a huge impact on our marine life. Visible impacts include ingestion, suffocation and entanglement.

'Brain teasers such as these can help people visualise how plastic pollution is in fact impacting our marine biodiversity.'

Found it! In this colourful pretty scene of exotic fish swimming a faded plastic bag floats in the background

There it is! In this chaotic scene of floating plastic debris is a small pink jelly fish swimming in the background

It comes after a new brainteaser was unveiled for the Easter bank holiday weekend- and it's left the most eagle-eyed puzzlers baffled.

The seek-and-find puzzle, created by company Blinds by Post, challenges players to find the Easter egg hidden in the spring scene.

Ready to give it a try? See if you can find the Easter egg in the fastest possible time.

The seek-and-find puzzle, created by company Blinds by Post, challenges players to find the Easter egg hidden in the spring scene

The designer has put a tiny egg into the field of spring flowers so you will have to look really closely if you want to find it.

Try not to get distracted by the variety of coloured flowers in the vibrant design, so you can spot the egg.

Keep looking around, don't give up yet, keep looking for the tiny egg!

Have you spotted it yet? If you've not seen it, direct your attention to the bottom-left hand corner of the image.

Give up? Scroll down to see the answer circled in red.

If you've not seen it, direct your attention to the bottom-left hand corner of the image where the answer is circled in red

If you've managed to find it and want to try another puzzle, see if you can find the bee buzzing around in this springtime scene.

The seek-and-find puzzle is the work of Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, better known as Dudolf, who has built a reputation with his glorious creations.

This one shows animals playing in a field of yellow flowers. But somewhere among the blooms there is a single bee.

Only the most eagle-eyed players will be able to spot the bee buzzing around in this springtime scene. So, do you have what it takes?

To try and throw you off, Dudolf has added sweet little touches designed to distract the eye, like a bear with a butterfly catcher.

There is also a hedgehog with an apple on its head and a pair of penguins eating ice cream.

But don't let these stop you from finding the bee that's causing all the trouble.

Struggling to find it? Try looking on the right of the image. If you need the solution then scroll down.

The tiny bee is seen flying in the top right of the image, just next to the raccoon who is tucking into his appl

Still want more? Another created by UK company Watches2U, challenges players to spot the Easter bunny's hidden carrot in a busy spring scene.

Ready to give it a try? See if you can find the pesky carrot in the fastest possible time.

The designer squeezed in dozens of different coloured eggs into the vibrant design, so you'll have to stay focused if you want to find the carrot.

The seek-and-find puzzle, created by UK company Watches2U, challenges players to spot the Easter bunny's hidden carrot in a busy spring scene

Try not to fixate on the dancing rabbits frolicking in the field, no matter how adorable they might be.

If you still haven't managed to spot the hidden carrot, direct your attention to the top right-hand corner of the image.

Give up? Scroll down to see the answer circled in white.

If you still haven't managed to spot the hidden carrot, direct your attention to the top right-hand corner of the image where the answer is circled in white

It comes just after Dudolf released another festive brainteaser where players were tasked with finding the chick hidden in a colourful springtime field.

The brainteaser has an Easter theme and is filled with bouncing rabbits, Easter eggs and pretty yellow tulips.

Many players admitted they needed help solving the puzzle - so, can you do it without a hint?

The seek-and-find puzzle is the work of Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, better known as Dudolf, who has built a reputation with his glorious creations. Can you spot the chick?

Even the most eagle-eyed puzzlers have struggled to spot the chick among the flowers and bunnies in bow ties.

If you're in need of a clue, try taking a closer look at the flowers on the left side of the illustration for any inconsistencies in their design.

You might find the tiny head of a chick poking out from behind a stem.

The chick can be seen hiding behind the ear of a rabbit towards the bottom left of the illustration

Another vibrant brainteaser promises to put your observation skills to the test.

The seek-and-find puzzle, from UK-based online printing company instantprint.co.uk, challenges players to find the single coffee cup hidden in the office supplies.

There are clocks, staplers and notebooks... but can you find the only coffee cup?

The seek-and-find puzzle, from UK-based online printing company instantprint.co.uk, challenges players to find the single coffee cup hidden in the office supplies

To make things trickier, there are a number of reusable and takeaway coffee cups added to the mix. But it's the traditional mug that you need to keep an eye out for.

The bright colours and patterns will distract the eye - so you'll have to work extra hard to stay on track.

Need a hint? Try looking in the top half of the image for a white cup.

Still struggling? Then scroll down for the reveal.
Celebrations were in full swing last night as two of London's fashion set prepared to tie the knot in a lavish ceremony in Mexico.

D&G model Sabrina Percy, whose father Richard Percy is a second cousin of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, is among those expected at the wedding of Nina Brener-Hellmund and Freddie Briance this weekend.

Heiress Jemima Cadbury, who is looking ahead to her own big day in the near future, also made the journey from the UK, as has well connected journalist Natalie Salmon.

Last night, Nina and Freddie's guests were invited to a lavish pre-wedding celebration, which continued late into the night in Yucatan, southeastern Mexico.

Images posted to social media captured attendees entering the venue to live musicians, before the bride and groom walked in behind two larger-than-live effigies of themselves.

Celebrations were in full swing last night as two of London's fashion set prepared to tie the knot in a lavish ceremony in Mexico. Pictured: Guests at a pre-wedding party for Nina Brener-Hellmund and Freddie Briance

Last night, the guests of Nina and Freddie (pictured above at the event) were invited to a lavish pre-wedding celebration, which continued late into the night in Yucatan, southeastern Mexico

Nina was dressed all in white ahead of her nuptials, with colourful flowers in her hair as she enjoyed the night's celebrations with her friends and family

The pre-wedding gathering was an extravagant affair, providing a glimpse of what Nina and Freddie's nuptials could look like over the weekend. The couple officially wed at home in London in October but are now celebrating with friends and family.

Nina, who grew up between Mexico, Texas, and Switzerland, is the founder of online fashion platform Cult Mia. Freddie is the CEO of gentlemen's outfitters New & Lingwood.

At one point on Friday night, both Nina and Freddie danced on a stage next to a DJ, as hundreds of delighted partygoers enjoyed the night beneath them.

The happy couple! Nina, who grew up between Mexico, Texas, and Switzerland, is the founder of online fashion platform Cult Mia. The dashing Freddie is the CEO of gentlemen's outfitters New & Lingwood. The couple, pictured in 2018, are tying the knot in Mexico this weekend

At one point, both Nina and Freddie danced on a stage next to a DJ, as hundreds of delighted partygoers enjoyed the night beneath them

The bride and groom were greeted at the gathering by two larger-than-live effigies of themselves

Nina is thrown into the air by her guests at the lavish gathering, which provides a glimpse into this weekend's wedding

Amela Subasic, a creative director from New York who made the trip to Mexico for the wedding, posted on Instagram: 'When the pre-wedding party turns into a clerb (sic.) you know the wedding is gonna be [fire].'

She added: 'You sure do know how to throw a party.'

Fashion influencer and stylist Bettina Looney also shared images of the bash online, having travelled to Mexico with her husband Carlos a few days earlier.

Some of the guests have booked into the exclusive Chable Yucatan, where rooms cost upwards of 1,353-per-night. The wedding could be taking place in a similarly grand venue.

One guest wrote: 'Amazing! Happy to be here!' on social media as the event kicked off

Images posted to social media captured attendees entering the venue to live musicians

Nina attended Stanford University in California, graduating in 2013. She first tried to build a business at 19 before joining Goldman Sachs, followed by UBS, working in investment banking.

In 2017, she enrolled at the London Business School to study for her MBA.

She worked at fashionista favourite Moda Operandi, founded by socialite entrepreneur Lauren Santo Domingo, where she learned the foundations of e-commerce before founding Cult Mia.

Strike a pose! D&G model Sabrina Percy, right, whose father Richard Percy is a second cousin of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, is taking in the sights ahead of the nuptials

Soaking up the sun: Natalie and friend Holly Tabor shared snaps from their day at the beach

It is thought she met Freddie in London, where she has been based for almost 10 years.

Oxford graduate Freddie also studied for his MBA at London Business School. He now heads up New & Lingwood, a British heritage brand founded in 1865 in Eton.

Multi-day destination weddings have become a must-have for the society set.

Lady Kitty Spencer set the trend when she wed Michael Lewis in her Roman extravaganza and in the months since there have been OTT nuptials in Spain, Mexico and the English countryside.
Princess Beatrice opted for a casual look as she and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi took a trip to Chelsea on Friday afternoon.

The couple braced against the wind as they stepped out of their car on Sloane Street, both dressed casually and without their coats - despite the ever-changing weather.

Beatrice, 33, opted for a grey patterned dress which she paired with a blue blouse layered underneath a dark coloured jumper for the occasion.

She completed her ensemble with a pair of black tights and flat shoes, which brought a bit of glamour to the outfit with a studded detail around the edges.

Princess Beatrice opted for a casual look as she and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi took a trip to Chelsea on Friday afternoon

The couple braced against the wind as they stepped out of their car at Sloane Street, both dressed casually and without their coats - despite the ever-changing weather

Beatrice, who lives with Edoardo and their eight-month-old daughter Sienna, kept her makeup to a minimum and wore her auburn locks loose and tucked behind her ears.

She held her phone in one hand as the couple exited the car, but did not appear to carry a bag for their outing.

Edoardo, 38, who married Beatrice in 2020, was also casual in a dark zip-up jumper worn with a white shirt and jeans, completing his outfit with a pair of white trainers.

Beatrice and Italian property developer Edoardo welcomed their baby daughter - their first child together - last September

Pictured: Princess Beatrice attends a book signing in central London in February

Sloane Square is a typical haunt for mother-of-one Beatrice, who was photographed walking through the bustling shopping district with a Zara bag last week.

The royal couple were without their daughter Sienna Elizabeth for the outing.

Beatrice and Italian property developer Edoardo welcomed their baby daughter - their first child together - last September.

Sienna Elizabeth is the second grandchild for Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and the 12th great-grandchild for the Queen.
The Queen visited her horses at the Sandringham Estate for the second day in a row this morning, taking full advantage of her birthday break in Norfolk.

Photographs captured the monarch, 96, wearing a headscarf in a white, green and blue floral pattern as she travelled in the front seat of a Range Rover leaving Wood Farm.

She wore bright pink lipstick for her outing, with a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose.

The Queen was accompanied by racing manager John Warren for the visit to her horses, who are at a stables near to the farmhouse she is staying in until early next week.

Her Majesty spent her recent birthday at Wood Farm, the late Duke of Edinburgh's favoured cottage on the Sandringham Estate, after opting for a quiet celebration.

The Queen visited her horses at the Sandringham Estate for the second day in a row this morning, taking full advantage of her birthday break in Norfolk

Photographs captured the monarch, 96, wearing a headscarf in a white, green and blue floral pattern as she travelled in the front seat of a Range Rover leaving Wood Farm

She marked the occasion on April 21 with gun salutes by The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery and the Honourable Artillery Company.

The royal family shared a photograph of the Queen, aged two, while a new image of the monarch with two of her beloved fell ponies - Bybeck Nightingale and Bybeck Katie - was also released.

The photograph of the young Queen dates back to 1928, and shows the then Princess Elizabeth smiling into the camera with her hands on her face.

With the image, the royal family wrote: 'Then Princess Elizabeth, she was the eldest daughter of The Duke and Duchess of York and was never expected to become Queen.

She wore bright pink lipstick for her outing, with a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose

The royal family shared this photograph of two-year-old Princess Elizabeth to mark her birthday

'Her life changed in 1936 when her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated, her father became King George VI and the young Princess became the heir presumptive.

'Following the sad death of her father in 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II aged just 25, and this year is celebrating 70 years on the throne - a first in British history.'

The latest images of the Queen come as a bombshell new book revealed details of conversations Prince Harry allegedly had with his actress ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas about his brother and father.

Tina Brown, the author of The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor - The Truth And The Turmoil, claims the Duke of Sussex grew 'angry' as he felt his brother was 'hogging the best briefs' around a decade ago.

A new portrait of The Queen with two of her beloved fell ponied has been released to mark her 96th birthday, as she quietly celebrates the landmark occasion in Sandringham

The Queen, then still known as Princess Elizabeth, was an expert on all thing equine. Pictured representing the King at Trooping the Colour in 1951

She claims 'friction between the brothers escalated' so much after William became patron of the rhino and elephant charity the Tusk Trust in 2015 that the pair had 'Olympic rows' - and quotes a friend of the siblings as calling Harry a 'very, very angry man'.

The royal expert also claims Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida grew 'tiresome' of his complaints about his family while they dated between 2012 and 2014, and was apparently the first person to persuade the Queen's grandson to see a therapist.

After their relationship broke down, Harry wrote the old flame 'a sweet letter saying 'I admire you, I wish you well and above all thank you for helping me to address my demons and seek help'', Mrs Brown claims, quoting one of her contacts.
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After a tumultuous couple of years thanks to Covid lockdowns and restrictions, Australians are keen as ever to hit the road and discover the incredible natural beauty the country has to offer.

Whether you're looking for an quick day trip or to embark on an adventurous camping break, these six little-known Australian travel gems are must-visit for any keen traveller in 2022.

From a hidden rainforest oasis in Queensland's Daintree to a breathtaking cliffside camping spot on the Great Australian Bight, here FEMAIL looks at some of the country's best hidden travel spots.

From a hidden rainforest oasis in Queensland's Daintree to a breathtaking cliffside camping spot on the Great Australian Bight, here FEMAIL looks at some of the country's best hidden travel spots you need to add to your bucket list

1. Talia Beach rock pools, South Australia

At low tide, the ocean pulls back from the rocky shore of Talia Beach to reveal a series of unique natural pools with crystal clear water perfect for a dip while taking in the stunning coastal views.

The spectacular beach on the Eyre Peninsula is near Ellison, less than two and a half hours' drive north from Port Lincoln on the eastern end of the Great Australian Bight.

The area is famed for its epic sunsets, sunrises and spectacular scenery and travellers have been posting jaw-dropping images of their visit online.

Adventures can cool themselves in the pools, which are visible when the tides go out twice a day from sunrise and sunset or, with their glass-clear waters, look to see what marine creatures the tide left behind.

FEMAIL looks at some of the country's best hidden travel spots you need to add to your bucket list including the spectacular Talia Beach on the eastern end of the Great Australian Bight.

At low tide, the ocean pulls back from the rocky shore to reveal a series of unique natural pools with crystal clear water perfect for a dip while taking in the stunning coastal views

2. Mossman Gorge, Queensland

Images of the picture-perfect Mossman Gorge with trickling waterfalls and rushing rapids have been popping up all over social media as travel-starved Australians flock to the area in droves.

The gorge with its clear blue waters is 20 minutes from Port Douglas and 75 minutes from Cairns in the spectacular World Heritage Listed Daintree rainforest.

Visitors can venture down a number of walking tracks that follow the Mossman River through the gorge's lush rainforest and have plenty of places to pause to take in the scenery or cool down at one of the lush swimming spots.

There are a series of moderate to easy hiking circuits through the gorge by the river ranging from 270 metres to 2.4 kilometres with boardwalks, picnic spots, and viewing points.

Images of the picture-perfect Mossman Gorge with trickling waterfalls and rushing rapids have been popping up all over social media

The gorge with its clear blue waters is 20 minutes from Port Douglas and 75 minutes from Cairns in the spectacular World Heritage Listed Daintree rainforest

3. Pemberton Pools, Western Australia

Built in the 1920s for the families of timber workers to escape the heat of the West Australian sun, Pemberton Pool is nestled under the canopy of towering karri trees.

The heritage-listed Pemberton Pool is an must-visit for locals and tourist of the town of the same name which is situated 327kilometres south of Perth or just 90 minutes from Margaret River.

Its enchanting beauty is almost eerie with dark and still river waters at the bottom of a sloping hill densely covered with native flora of the iconic Gloucester National Park forest.

Built in the 1920s for the families of timber workers to escape the heat of the West Australian sun, Pemberton Pool is nestled under the canopy of towering karri trees

Pemberton Pool is an must-visit for locals and tourist of the town of the same name which is situated 327kilometres south of Perth or just 90 minutes from Margaret River.

4. Karloo Pool, New South Wales

After a moderate hike, visitors are rewarded with the refreshing waters of Karloo Pools near Heathcote in the Royal National Park less than an hour south of the Sydney CBD.

Karloo Pools is a cluster of natural rock pools that not only provides relief from the heat but an Instagram-worthy backdrop for all the best travel snaps.

Incredible images of the hidden spot have been flooding social media with their glass-clear waters surrounded by giant eucalyptus trees and spectacular natural rock formations.

The emerald green pools are about two kilometres along the scenic Karloo walking track that takes you through lush native bushland and unique rock boulders.

After a moderate hike, visitors are rewarded with the refreshing waters of Karloo Pools near Heathcote in the Royal National Park less than an hour south of the Sydney CBD

Karloo Pools is a cluster of natural rock pools that not only provides relief from the heat but an Instagram-worthy backdrop for all the best travel snaps.

5. Bunda Cliffs, South Australia

Adventure seekers claim to have found the perfect free camping spot on the 'edge of Australia'.

Bunda Cliffs stretch 100km between the Nullarbor plain in Western Australia and Great Australian Bight in South Australia and is the longest uninterrupted line of sea cliffs in the world.

Along the limestone sea cliffs are a series of lookouts and free camping spots to set up for the night and take in the incredible ocean views stretching as far as the eye can see.

Travellers have been posting incredible images of their visits as they stand atop of the towering cliff's edge showing the crashing waves 60-100 metres below.

There is no phone or television reception but campers will be entertained by the golden sunsets, show-stopping scenery and watching the whales migrate.

Adventure seekers claim Bunda Cliffs between the Nullarbor plain in Western Australia and Great Australian Bight in South Australia is the best camping spot in the country

Bunda Cliffs stretch 100km between the Nullarbor plain and Great Australian Bight and is the longest uninterrupted line of sea cliffs in the world

6. Flinders Island, Tasmania

Flinders Island is one of the country's best kept secrets because of its raw, isolated and devastatingly beautiful natural landscape with plenty of adventures for the whole family to enjoy.

Whether you're looking to reel in a lobster or kayak on top of crystal clear waterways the island is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the slower pace of life.

Your visit to Flinders Island starts with a scenic flight across Bass Strait from either Launceston, Tasmania (35 minutes), Hobart, Tasmania (one hour) or Melbourne, Victoria (one hour) with Sharp Airlines.

You can also charter your own aircraft or catch the weekly barge with Bass Strait Freight from Bridport, Tasmania docking in the all-tides port of Lady Barron.

Flinders Island is one of the country's best kept secrets because of its isolated and beautiful natural landscape with plenty of adventures for the whole family to enjoy
I am 52 and have been taking the combined contraceptive Pill since I was 16, initially to deal with heavy periods, but then for contraception.

In February I ordered my repeat prescription as usual.

A new GP at the practice, whom I hadnt met, called to say that as I was over 50 I could no longer have it.

Im worried if I stop, my body will go into shock.

What do you think?

Today's reader has asked whether it was correct for her GP to stop her prescription for the pill after 36 years

What GPs can and cant treat with each drug is set by national prescribing guidelines.

These are based on evidence provided by clinical trials and other kinds of scientific research. So we know, as best we can, what works for a particular type of patient with a particular illness or condition, and what doesnt.

We can prescribe the combined contraceptive Pill, which contains synthetic versions of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, for birth control and also for heavy periods or skin problems. The national guidelines allow it to be offered to women up to the age of 50.

After that age, risks from potential side effects such as blood clots and breast cancer increase.

If a woman still needs contraception we can offer the mini-Pill, which contains progesterone but no oestrogen  its the oestrogen thats linked to the increased risks.

A coil might be another option.

It is safe to stop taking the Pill  you dont need to taper off.

The average age when the menopause begins varies, but it usually happens between 47 and 52.

Its unlikely that a woman stopping the Pill at 52 would have heavy uncontrolled periods, and if, when stopping at this age, menopausal symptoms emerge, then hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should be considered.

While HRT usually contains oestrogen, the dosage is completely different to the Pill and the safety of HRT during the menopause is proven.

I suffer terrible irritable bowel syndrome, and have always been told no one knows what causes it. But recently Ive read it might be due to something called SIBO, which can be diagnosed using a breath test. Can I get this on the NHS?

Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is a very common condition characterised by regular tummy pain, bloating and diarrhoea or constipation. It should only be diagnosed once other conditions have been ruled out, such as Crohns disease or colitis. Diseases like endometriosis, a pain condition lined to hormones, and even ovarian cancer can also cause similar symptoms.

SIBO stands for small intestine bacterial overgrowth and happens when the upper part of the gut gets overtaken with bacteria usually found only in the lower part of the bowels. The symptoms are very similar to IBS including diarrhoea, gas and pains. There are tests available, including the breath test, which can be done on the NHS at the request of a gastroenterologist.

If a GP feels this condition is a possibility, it may be worth giving the treatment for SIBO without even doing the tests: this involves a course of specific antibiotics and improvements can start within a week.

In anybody diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, but particularly somebody older, it is vitally important to rule out bowel cancer. Even if bowels have been abnormal for years, cancer can be masked by the symptoms. This can be tested for with stool tests at the GP, with a FIT test, as well as through general blood tests.

I have been suffering from itching in my pubic area. At first everything looked normal, and I assumed it was a bit of dermatitis, but last week I discovered some dark, pimple-like bumps around my vulva.

I am not embarrassed to see my GP but Id rather not.

Should I be worried?

Im 66 years old.

New symptoms in the pubic area or vulva in a woman over the age of 60 should always be investigated.

Vulval cancer is rare, with just over 1,300 cases diagnosed in the UK each year. But its seen mostly in women over 60.

Do you have a question for Dr Ellie? Email DrEllie@mailonsunday.co.uk or write to Health, The Mail on Sunday, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT. Dr Ellie can only answer in a general context and cannot respond to individual cases, or give personal replies. If you have a health concern, always consult your own GP. Advertisement

Symptoms include an ongoing vulval itch, thickened raised or darker patches on the vulva and moles that change shape or colour.

An examination with a gynaecologist or GP is crucial if these symptoms occur.

However, many non-cancerous conditions can cause itching and changes in the skin.

Dermatitis or eczema can occur in this area and require the same treatment as they do elsewhere, with moisturising creams and possibly steroids.

Thrush is common on the genital area and causes itching as well as skin changes from scratching: this can be treated easily with cream from the pharmacist.

Also, the menopause is associated with irritation of the vulva.

Falling oestrogen levels lead to thinner, drier skin thats prone to itching.

An oestrogen cream can be used to improve things.

Lichen sclerosus is a skin condition that causes itchy patches on the genitals, particularly in women over the age of 50. The patches are often paler rather than dark and typically occur on the vulva.

It is an important condition to treat to prevent longer term damage from scarring to the genitals and it also carries an increased risk of cancer.

Any women suffering with genital itching should remember to avoid soap, bubble baths and highly scented laundry products, including fabric conditioner and biological washing powder.

Beware of sharks offering to get you cash for care

Watch out for companies offering to apply for continuing care help for a large upfront fee

I've heard worrying reports about companies charging elderly, vulnerable people thousands to help them arrange NHS-funded homecare.

It relates to something called NHS continuing healthcare  cash thats ring-fenced for some patients with extremely complex needs to pay for nursing at home.

Accessing this can be a tricky process, and there are companies online which claim to be able to do the paperwork, but for a huge upfront fee.

Im told these companies target people who are clearly not eligible for continuing care and then, when they dont secure the care, dont give a refund.

I want to put a stop to it. If anyone has been contacted by a company like this, please write and tell me. And for genuine advice on NHS continuing healthcare, contact your GP.

Don't ignore a lung scan letter

If you get a letter or text message inviting you for a lung health check, please go!

The NHS has recently launched the first screening programme for lung cancer.

Over the next few weeks, large trucks fitted with mobile lung scanners will be based in supermarket car parks across the country, making it easy for smokers and ex-smokers to get a quick and potentially life-saving MoT of their chest.

There are now highly effective treatments for lung cancer, but most of them are only available to patients if their disease is caught early. A pilot scheme of the programme was launched last summer, which saw 600 people diagnosed earlier.

Some 23 trucks are currently doing the rounds, with another 20 ready for action. If you are eligible you will receive an invitation. It could save your life.
Health chiefs stand accused of abandoning vulnerable patients after it emerged they have failed to purchase a life-saving anti-Covid drug designed to protect those who dont respond to the vaccine.

The drug, brand name Evusheld, was approved by UK regulators last month and has been rolled out in other countries, including the US and France.

It is a combination of two drugs, cilgavimab and tixagevimab, given as two injections. Studies show that, when given once every six months, the injections can cut the risk of developing Covid by nearly 80 per cent.

Doctors hoped it would provide a lifeline to an estimated 500,000 Britons with severely impaired immune systems  many of whom are still shielding, because the Covid jab offers them next to no protection.

The new treatment could provide a lifeline to 500,000 Britons who are continuing to shield as vaccines have proved ineffective as they have severely compromised immune systems

Vaccines have proven ineffective in patients who have severely compromised immune systems

However, they will be unable to access drug, which is estimated to cost 800-per-dose, on the NHS or privately, as there are no stocks available in the UK.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care, its scientists are still assessing the drugs effectiveness against the Omicron variant. But no UK clinical trials of Evusheld  which doctors say would be crucial before its given the NHS green light  are in the pipeline, experts say.

Dr Michelle Willicombe, a kidney specialist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, says: The Government has no plan to offer extremely vulnerable patients Evusheld and its incredibly worrying.

I have patients who after four vaccines have no protection against Covid, and until they have access to a drug like this they will remain cut off from society. Something needs to change.

Charities claim the lack of action from ministers on Evusheld is because Covid is no longer viewed as a priority.

Fiona Loud, policy director of the charity Kidney Care UK, says: People have been abandoned. Covid isnt over  its still a real threat for hundreds of thousands, and this is a drug that could really help.

The half a million people still considered high-risk are primarily blood cancer patients, as well as transplant patients who rely on medications to suppress their immune system to stop their bodies rejecting donor organs.

These same medications render the Covid vaccine less effective.

For this reason, high-risk Britons were offered an extra jab, meaning that now, with the spring booster programme under way, many will have received five vaccines.

However, a French study published in February found that more than half of kidney transplant patients had insufficient levels of antibodies  defensive cells created by the immune system in response to a vaccine, which are crucial for protecting against disease. Often they have antibody levels 100 times lower than what youd expect in a healthy person, says Professor Alex Richter, an immunologist at the University of Birmingham. Thats not enough to provide strong protection.

In December, the NHS rolled out a number of antiviral drugs that could be given to high-risk patients if they were to test positive for the virus, to reduce their risk of ending up in hospital. Fiona Loud says: The antivirals were welcome at the time, but they havent meant a return to freedom for these patients. You can only get them if you test positive for the virus, and you have to start taking them immediately. Very few people want to take that risk.

Evusheld is the first approved medicine that protects against Covid. Its what is known as a monoclonal antibody drug, and works by attaching itself to the Covid virus, inhibiting its ability to bind with healthy cells and infect the body. Patients are given Evusheld as two injections once every six months, and, based on trials carried out in 2021, it reduces the risk of developing symptomatic Covid by more than three quarters.

Gemma Peters, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, says: While uncertainty exists around Evusheld, we think it should be given to some people who havent had an antibody response to the vaccines, given the potential benefits.

America has ordered more than 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca-manufactured medication  at a cost of 655 million. The drug is also available in Israel.

One patient who could benefit is Margaret Bennett, 70, from Birmingham, who has been shielding for over two years. The retired teacher suffers from common variable immune deficiency, a rare immune condition that means the body can only produce low levels of protective antibodies.

She says: I barely leave the house, other than to go for walks when no one is around. I havent been to a restaurant since the pandemic started and we havent had anyone in the house except our daughters for over two years.

Margaret is due a fifth vaccine, but says: With my condition I cant mount a full response to the vaccines, so it really doesnt matter how many I take. She believes Evusheld would allow her to begin socialising again and see more of her family. I cant believe the Government hasnt bought the drug. Were being completely disregarded and ignored, she adds.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: The UK Health Security Agency is carrying out Government-funded testing on Evushelds effectiveness against the Omicron variant. We will closely monitor these results, which will inform decisions on next steps including procurement.
The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe

ITV, Sunday to Wednesday

Rating:

ITV Hub

Rating:

Chivalry

Channel 4, Thursday

Rating:

The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe was based on the unbelievably true story of John Canoe Man Darwin, who attempted to fake his death at sea to collect the life insurance money, and his wife, Anne, and its the most glorious series of the year so far.

I could not stop watching. It was delicious. It was comic yet tragic. It made you laugh, made you cry, etc. It was unavoidably gripping.

As all episodes were made available at once, I did the four in one evening, even though that put me at the mercy of ITV Hub, goddamn it, as its the worst streaming service known to man.

Starring Eddie Marsan (superb) and Monica Dolan (ditto, above with Marsan), there were so many excellent scenes and moments of pure comedy in The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe

(Oops, somethings gone wrong; Id sort of guessed as much, given that the screen had gone black?)

This was written by Chris Lang (Unforgotten), who perfectly balanced the ludicrousness of their plan  even though, to be fair, they got away with it for nearly six years  with the sheer mounting horror of what it meant, if only for her.

There was never any doubt who Langs sympathy was with. It starred Eddie Marsan (superb) and Monica Dolan (ditto), and when we first meet the pair he has embarked on his latest get-rich-quick scheme.

Hes taken out loans to buy cheap houses in former pit villages to rent out, and two seven-bedroom ones in a grotty state in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool. One to live in, one for bedsits.

I (Deborah Ross) dont have the space for all the twists and turns: Johns false passport, the truth finally coming out and the sons (above, with Dolan) realising theyd been deceived

The tenants arent forthcoming, and theyre already massively in debt when he turns up with a new Land Rover complete with personalised number plate before, Annes voice-over explains: Wed even got the gas connected.

If Id have been Anne, when the canoe came into play Id have drilled a hole in it.

When, in 2002, he suggests paddling off in his canoe, with the aim of being declared dead, why does she, a doctors receptionist, go along with it? Thats what, cleverly, drove the narrative.

John had the delusions of grandeur of a narcissist, but it also meant he could be seductive and manipulative: Well find somewhere beautiful and warm, Anne. Just the two of us.

But we also understood that he had belittled her all their married life: No one is queuing up for a woman like you, Anne. They werent when I married you and they certainly wouldnt be now.

She didnt know if she could exist without him. What she did was unforgivable. She lied to the police, the coroner, his family, her family and, most grievously, to their two sons. It was unforgivable but, as played here, perfectly credible.

There were so many excellent scenes. When he first disappears, and she reports him missing, her mounting despair is read as fear for her husbands safety by the police, but we know its because a massive sea search is now in operation.

What has she done?

Dolan was outstanding at acting someone who is grieving but also not grieving really. John camped for a couple of weeks and then, most unbelievably in this unbelievably true story, moved into a secret bedsit next door.

There were moments of pure comedy. Shes eating Christmas lunch with their boys one side of the wall, and there he is, sat in a paper hat, on the other.

Otherwise, he spends his time chatting up women online. If Id have been Anne Id have drilled two holes in that canoe.

I dont have the space for all the twists and turns. The land in Panama, that photograph, Johns false passport, John returning to the UK to claim amnesia, the truth finally coming out and the sons realising theyd been deceived all those years.

It was brilliantly handled, including a scene in prison where she was allowed to hold her first grandchild, which had me in tears.

As for where they are now, after six years in prison each, they divorced and, while she lives quietly up north and is still rebuilding her relationship with her sons, he has married a far younger Filipina and has exited to the Philippines.

Id have drilled two holes in that canoe and also filled it with lead weights.

Quickly, quickly, on to Chivalry, the new comedy written by and starring Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani.

This new comedy written by and starring Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani features some very starry cameos. Above: Sienna Miller

She plays a feminist director hired by an old-school producer (Coogan) to detoxify the set of his latest film in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and it was confusing.

Who are we meant to be laughing at? Him, with the girlfriend who is nearly 25 or her, with her plans to make a Biblical feminist epic? Both, perhaps, but it did make it unsympathetic to the cause.

The intimacy counsellor brought in to advise on a sex scene is, for example, widely mocked all round. That just seemed crass rather than funny.

However, it launched with a double bill and it was growing on me by the end, and there are some very starry cameos (Paul Rudd, John C. Reilly) so Ill probably stick with it. Plus, it does have this going for it: it wont put me at the mercy of ITV Hub.
The Palace Papers

Tina Brown Century 20

Rating:

Way back in 1955, when the author of The Palace Papers was a toddler, the venerable writer and TV personality Malcolm Muggeridge warned that the Royal Family was in danger of going off the rails.

The whole show is utterly out of hand, he wrote in The New Statesman, adding that much of the publicity around them was, in all likelihood, generated by their own appetites.

I suspect that they develop a taste for the publicity which, in theory, they find so repugnant. This is merely human. It applies in one form or another to everyone.

In 2019, The Queen (above) captained one of the Sandringham's Women's Institute teams playing a version of Pointless, which is, we are told, one of her favourite television shows

Even a tiny television notoriety is liable to please, or at any rate excite, when all ones conscious being finds it vulgar and odious.

At the same time, the Royal Family ought to be properly advised on how to prevent themselves and their lives from becoming a sort of royal soap opera.

Sixty-seven years later, there is now no sort of about it: the House of Windsor is the worlds leading soap opera, with any number of long-running franchises and offshoots, among them The Crown on Netflix, for those who like melodrama, and The Windsors on Channel 4, for those who prefer comedy.

Fittingly, the cover of The Palace Papers resembles the opening sequences of Dallas or Dynasty, with the determinedly unsmiling faces of the female principals  Camilla, the Queen, Kate and Meghan  in four thin rectangles, side by side.

Inside the House of Windsor  the Truth and the Turmoil, reads the breathless subheading.

Tina Brown tells the story of the past 25 years of the House of Windsor in suitably excitable, schlocky prose, full of words and metaphors more usually found in airport blockbusters by Andy McNab or Lee Child: bombs, explosions, and hand grenades.

In the very first paragraph, Brown writes of Meghans nuclear revelations to Oprah Winfrey, on the next page she tells us that it was kryptonite.

On page five we hear that Princess Dianas global fame hit Buckingham Palace like a meteor. Her heat singed the Queens tiara.

Later, we hear that Dianas bomb-throwing instincts towards Charles...splattered the monarchy and that her death set off a tsunami of grief. In turn, Earl Spencers eulogy was a hand grenade that kicked the frozen-faced Royal Family in the teeth.

Even the postponement of Charles and Camillas wedding by just one day, due to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, was, in Browns view, a cosmic eruption that caused Camilla to go into meltdown.

This is a shame, because Brown is a busy bee, with plenty of good contacts, and The Palace Papers has a great deal of fresh material. But her prose adds a layer of make-believe to even the trustiest revelation, as well as stifling nuance and subtlety.

All the key episodes of the ever-expanding Royal soap opera are covered  the Fake Sheikh, Philips gaffes, the trial of Paul Burrell, Major Ron, James Hewitt, Ardent TV, toe-sucking, Harry in Nazi fancy dress, Waity Katie and Andrews appearance on Newsnight (which prompted the witty New York Post headline His Royal Dryness).

It is almost as though, over the years, Royal scandals have expanded to fill all the available paper.

As well as humming along to the old, familiar tunes, I learned hundreds of things that were new to me. Did you know that, after the Parker Bowles divorce, their house was bought by Nick Mason, the drummer with Pink Floyd?

Or that Dianas butler, Paul Burrell, had so many affairs with guardsmen that Dianas chef knew him as Barrack-Room Bertha?

On a milder level, I had no idea that over the course of 70 years the Queen has only four times missed her annual visit to the Sandringham chapter of the Womens Institute; in 2019 she captained one of their teams playing a version of Pointless, which is, we are told, one of her favourite television shows.

And so it goes on, most of the tales being, as one might expect, rather less cosy.

Apparently, William and Harry were both troublesome youngsters: at nursery school, William was so boisterous that he was known as Basher Wills and, at Eton, Harry regularly got into fights that turned physical, ending up on crutches after kicking in a window during a dispute with another student over a girl.

One of Browns many unnamed sources is an American media executive who visited the Duchess of York at Royal Lodge in 2015 to discuss a project.

We were having lunch, the media executive told me, and Andrew came in and sat down and said to me, What are you doing with this fat cow? I was so stunned at his level of sadism. I thought, What an asshole. She has to sing for her supper. Shes afraid of him.

Her portrait of Andrew is the most damning of all; he is, if you will, the J.R. or Dirty Den of the Windsors, by turns bossy, entitled and thick, known as HRB or His Royal Buffoon to the diplomatic community.

Browns New York contacts have given her plenty of believable dirt on the Dukes friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. She claims he stayed with Epstein so often in New York that he had his own private suite.

Privately, Epstein told people that Andrew was an idiot, but  to him  a useful one...Epstein confided to a friend that he used to fly the Duke of York to obscure foreign markets where governments were obliged to receive him, and Epstein went along for the ride as HRHs investment adviser.

With Andrew as frontman, Epstein would negotiate deals with these (often) shady players and give Andrew some cream off the cake.

And, for all Browns red-top bombast, she can be witty, too.

At one point she suggests that Andrew exhibits symptoms of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which she describes as the cognitive bias in which people come to believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are.

The combination of minimal self-awareness and dim intellectual wattage leads sufferers of this condition to overestimate their own capabilities.

How many of the stories in this book can one believe? For the most part they strike me as having the ring of truth, particularly where Harry and Meghan are concerned.

But every now and then comes a bit of gossip that is so transparently ludicrous that it makes one question all the rest. For instance, on page 34 she says that, in his initial courtship of Camilla, Charles clearly appreciated her sexual joie de vivre.

Pretend I am a rocking horse, she is said to have urged him, to conquer his early diffidence in bed.

Where did this story come from? It doesnt strike me as the kind of juicy snippet Camilla or Charles would have passed on to any of their friends, and they certainly wouldnt have told Tina Brown.

So where did she get it? At the back of The Palace Papers there are 42 pages of Notes, with references for key quotes.

I looked up page 34 and found that the source for the rocking-horse quote is none other than the ludicrous Kitty Kelley, whose 1997 book The Royals was accurately condemned as a breathtaking, audacious practical joke by the historian Professor Ben Pimlott.

One of the people Kelley lists as a valuable source for the information in her book is Talbot Church, an author who acknowledged many hours of informal interviews with the Duke and Duchess of York for his book The Royal Love Birds.

In fact, Talbot Church, the man the Royals trust, was a silly name invented by my late friend, the satirist Willie Donaldson, aka Henry Root, whose book was a spoof on hack Royal writers like Kelley.

With so much fantasy surrounding the Royal Family, it was inevitable that some of their own members would become willing fabricators of their own storylines.

Of Harry and Meghan, Brown concludes, They were both now drunk on a shared fantasy of being the instruments of global transformation.

What will happen next? To find out, tune in to the next episode...
The unstoppable star of The Handmaids Tale turns 40 this summer. But, as ELISABETH MOSS tells Julia Llewellyn Smith, she doesnt want a big bash. She would, however, like a baby

Im really interested in playing everyday heroes: normal people, who arent trained fighters'

Elisabeth Moss is laughing as she describes how she feels about turning 40 in July. Im definitely not one of those people who gets upset about big birthdays, probably because Im in a very good place, she says. Its so weird. I dont feel like Im nearly 40, but then Ive lived such a ton of life I should probably be turning 70.

Shes right about the ton of life. Elisabeth (or Lizzie, as everyone calls her) has been acting since she was six. Over the past couple of decades, shes been dubbed the Queen of Peak TV for her starring roles as June, the subversive slave in The Handmaids Tale; Peggy Olson, the secretary who makes it all the way to the top of the sexist advertising profession in Mad Men, and Zoey, the maverick daughter of the US president in The West Wing, a part she secured aged just 17.

Theyre all fiery, trailblazing women, determined to overcome the systems in which theyre trapped  from Junes oppressive dystopian government, to Peggys sexist workplace, to Zoeys fishbowl White House existence. Im really interested in playing everyday heroes: normal people, who arent trained fighters, who have no special skills  the mother who lifts up a car to rescue her trapped child, she says.

Thats not to say I wouldnt love to wear a cape and play a superhero and fly around  that would be super-fun. But what really excites me is the mum who lives in the suburbs and becomes a superhero.

The Handmaids Tale hit me on a very personal level

Sipping on green juice from a takeaway cup, Elisabeth is sitting in a very unglamorous timbered room outside Toronto where shes filming season five of The Handmaids Tale. She is funny, warm and upbeat  totally different from the slightly intimidating characters shes made her own. Comedian Melissa McCarthy, of Bridesmaids fame, confessed she was terrified about working with her on the film The Kitchen, thinking shed be intense and surrounded by flames and Chaucer books.

I thought that was so funny! Elisabeth hoots. But I can see why she said that. You watch my work and it looks like Im really dark, walking around under a cloud all the time. But thats just not the case. If I went around like June, I dont know that Id survive. I wouldnt want to be around me! Her latest show wont change those preconceptions. Shining Girls on Apple TV+ is the story of Kirby, who survives an attack by a serial killer and then years later  still struggling with the traumatic aftereffects  is determined to track him down. What Kirbys gone through with the assault was just an incredible analogy for trauma and loss, and I think weve all been through that with the pandemic, Elisabeth says.

I was gripped by the four episodes I saw and cant wait for more. Thats awesome! Elisabeth beams. Of course, we all love a compliment but for her its a bigger deal than usual, since not only does she star in the show, she also executive produced it and directed two episodes, as the first venture of her new production company Love and Squalor.

Its an incredibly impressive feat. It also sounds like a huge amount of work. Thats what I prefer, Elisabeth says perkily. Im definitely a person who likes to be busy and juggling a lot of balls at the same time, and to be as involved as possible with any project Im on. Thats when I feel fully alive.

Elisabeths been working on sets for as long as she can remember, appearing throughout her childhood in commercials and made-for-television films. I never just showed up and was only interested in my part  I was always intensely intrigued by the whole process: what the cameras were doing, what the other actors were up to, she says.

Born and brought up in Los Angeles, she grew up in a bohemian household. Her mother Linda played the harmonica alongside such blues greats as BB King, while her British dad Ron managed jazz musicians and her younger brother Derek, to whom shes very close, is now a filmmaker.

Much has been made of the fact that both Elisabeths parents were part of the controversial Church of Scientology and raised their children in it. Elisabeth refuses to discuss the religion, but you get the impression that  as someone brought up in the Church, rather than converting like Tom Cruise and John Travolta  she might not subscribe to all its tenets. Her stances on feminism and gay rights, for example, are very far removed from those preached by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.

Elisabeth in The Handmaids Tale and in Mad Men alongside Jon Hamm

When a fan on Instagram compared the Republic of Gileads oppressive regime in The Handmaids Tale to Hubbards, Elisabeth responded: Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably. And so Gilead and The Handmaids Tale hit me on a very personal level.

If anything was strange about Elisabeths childhood she doesnt mention it, recalling happy, carefree times. We grew up with musicians coming over, jamming. We had tons of instruments. So holidays were always 50 people [at the house] and everyone playing jazz.

Id read that she was home-schooled, implying shed been sequestered from the rest of the world, but she says this was only to keep up with academic work. From the age of five she studied ballet and attended a specialist ballet school in her teens.

When people talk about home-schooling, the number-one thing that [they say] is missed is the social interactions, but I didnt miss that because my girlfriends were at ballet school, there were boys, there were cliques, there was drama. I had all that.

While she attended the school, Elisabeths focus was on becoming a dancer  acting was just something she did for fun. But then at 15, she was suddenly struck with the fear that any dancers career could be cut horribly short by injury, so she made the very mature decision to switch to acting. She won her West Wing role two years later.

'I was just a professional working actor, unemployed a lot of the time, and that kept me very honest.

Yet for someone whose entire life has been spent in showbiz, Elisabeth comes across as almost jarringly normal, or  as Melissa McCarthy summed up  Not weird. We discuss the recent Will Smith Oscars drama, in which Elisabeths clearly as engrossed as the rest of the world.

I was in a meeting and had actually forgotten the Oscars were happening when I got this text: Will Smith slapped Chris Rock!

I texted back, Pardon? And what did she make of it all? Theres no way Im wading into that! she shrieks. But Im as fascinated and shocked as everyone else. I totally get that. Im very interested to hear Chris Rocks next comedy special.

How is she so down to earth? I was saved because I didnt become famous  or start being recognised in public  until Mad Men, so I didnt have to deal with any of that stuff until I was older. Before that I was just a professional working actor, unemployed a lot of the time, and that kept me very honest.

My mum makes sure that I have the time to be healthy, happy and sane

Her first taste of the darker side of fame came in 2010 when her marriage to Saturday Night Live actor and comedian Fred Armisen ended after less than a year. Elisabeth was completely unnerved by reports purporting to know why theyd split.

That was a really eye-opening experience. [Before then] Id read gossip and taken it to be truer than I probably should have. Then, when it happened to me, I realised, Oh my God, they just completely make it up! It is a shocking, terrible racket and Ive only had a tiny bit of it  Im not Jennifer Aniston, who has an incredible amount of press. I dont have paparazzi following me: I cant imagine what its like for her.

Since then, shes largely succeeded in keeping her private life to herself. She dated Australian cinematographer Adam Arkapaw for around three years among other relationships, but politely declines to reveal her romantic status. Its a private area that Ill keep private, she says.

Yet shes frank that shes getting broody. I definitely want to have kids because Ive been very inspired by the kind of mother my mum is. She did a beautiful thing with me. She adds, And then Ill give the child to my mum and she can raise it because shed do it very well!

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. Some of my friends with small kids say so!

Elisabeth with her ex-husband Fred Armisen in 2009 and in The Kitchen with Tiffany Haddish and Melissa McCarthy

Shes always been close to her mother (her parents split when she was in her teens), but their bond grew even stronger during the pandemic, when  living virtually across the street from one another in New Yorks Upper West Side  they saw each other daily. It was really special for us, spending concentrated time together, a silver lining to a very dark, strange time.

Despite their bond, Elisabeth cant understand women who say their mother is their best friend. I have very good best friends, but I only have one mother and I want her to be that. I want her to listen to me and give me good advice and take care of me like only a mother can.

Much of that advice seems to centre on urging Elisabeth to take a break from her vast workload. My mother knows me really well and is a big advocate of making sure I have the time to be healthy, happy and sane so I can continue doing what I love. If I work six days a week, shell make sure I have that Sunday to take a walk, exercise and watch bad television.

Does Elisabeth ever get more than a Sunday off? She grins ruefully. I take breaks, but its bull****  it basically means Im not going on set every day. She did make it to Paris for Christmas and New Year. It was absolutely lovely and the most time off Ive really taken in a while. But I was still working.

Paris was one of her rare trips when she wasnt accompanied by her two cats Ethel and Lucy (Much to their chagrin!). Normally, they follow her everywhere. Im away for seven or eight months of the year; having them with me makes a place feel more like home.

Shes not sure whats coming next: her production company is handling dozens of projects, all of which shes passionate about. She says  laughing  that her method for selecting roles is based on envy. Im often in a circle of actors  Rose Byrne, Kirsten Dunst or Claire Foy  who tend to be offered the same material. Theyre very good and I respect them. So if I hate the idea of Rose Byrne doing it, if the idea fills me with rage and jealousy, then thats a sign I need to accept that part.

As our time together comes to an end, our talk returns to Elisabeths upcoming 40th. Friends are pressuring her to have a party. Everyones saying, Youre supposed to have a big thing! and I cannot imagine anything worse. Im not a big party person because my entire life is spent around people. I see 150 people every day, there are always meetings, phone calls. For me, the idea of a celebration is to just be alone for three days. That would be the best birthday ever.
Resisting the urge to run, I remain calm as I step out of the Amazon Fresh store on Kensington High Street in London. I've just put some goods in my bag, but have not handed over any cash or waved my debit card over a card reader so that payment can be taken. I feel as if I have shoplifted for the first time in my life, but I haven't.

Faceless recognition: Toby Walne with his purchases outside the Kensington store where weight sensors on shelves and cameras mean there are no tills

Far from it. I've just experienced the future of shopping in the UK  one that doesn't involve using cash or a card.

If you thought those confounded automatic checkouts at supermarkets were bad, think again. This bizarre, high-tech store does away with all checkouts  peopled or automatic. You walk in, pick up your groceries, then leave with your bag of goods. No counter, no checkout, no sales staff.

Amazon has branded this new experience as 'just walk out' shopping. There are already 17 such stores in London but, if successful, they could soon spread across high streets up and down the country. Experts predict there could be 300 Fresh stores opening nationwide over the next five years.

And what Amazon does, others such as Tesco and Sainsbury's copy  especially if it drives down costs and pushes up profits.

Amazon's logic is that a till represents a 'friction point'. By removing it, a shopping barrier has been lifted. Taking away friction points such as queues encourages shoppers to spend more than they may want, more often.

I was lured into the store last Wednesday by a red flag waving in the breeze, proclaiming '10 off your first shop'. Sensing a bargain, I joined others eager to enter the store.

A female assistant came over to help. Straightaway, she clocked she was dealing with a technology dinosaur. Patiently, she showed me how to download the Amazon account app on my mobile phone, then click on a 'fresh code'. This QR code granted me access to the store. I swished it across a reader and a barrier opened.

The size of a high-end mini-market  like a Sainsbury's Local or Little Waitrose  the store offered sandwiches, crisps and other snacks. There was a small bakery section, alcohol (that I could not use my 10 discount on), basic frozen foods and household essentials such as toothpaste and soap. There were no shopping trolleys, just a bag into which you place the items you want.

Strolling round, I picked up a sandwich, a tub of olives, a smoothie and a couple of chocolate bars. I then stepped in front of the exit barrier and it opened.

It all felt odd and slightly uncomfortable. It was not until nine in the evening  eight hours later  that an email arrived itemising my purchases and telling me that I had spent 11.71 (until then, I had no idea how much I had spent).

Had I purchased the same items at a local Sainsbury's store, the bill would have totted up to 8.65  so the convenience of Amazon had cost me 3.06 more.

Amazon puts the bills together by using 'sensor fusion and deep learning' to find out what is in your cart. This includes ultra-sensitive shop shelves that can tell what you have picked up to buy by its weight.

Cashless: A QR code on the Amazon Fresh app grants you access to the store - swish it across a reader and a barrier opens

Although it claims not to use Big Brother computers to identify customers  it prefers the term 'computer vision'  this is double-speak. There are dozens of cameras in the ceiling pointing at customers and the shelves, enabling Amazon to identify it is you picking up the goods.

Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, a campaign group for the elderly, is among those unimpressed by frictionless shopping. He says: 'This technology is sinister  it does away with the human touch that keeps society together. It is already disturbing that staff at many supermarkets are being replaced by automatic scanning checkouts. This latest development will no doubt be wonderful for its profits, but it dehumanises a friendly experience.'

Reed is also concerned that it discriminates against those who do not have  or want  an Amazon account. You need a smartphone to download the app that gets you into the shop. Without it, you are effectively barred. The Federation of Small Businesses is also sceptical, believing many customers will struggle to embrace a shop without counter staff. Michael Weedon, its head of retail, says: 'Small businesses love technology, but do not have the resources to compete against the likes of Amazon.

'People are not like sheep and will decide for themselves if they want someone to smile and say hello when they go to the shops  or just convenience. I don't believe this new shopping model will take over the high street.'

Amazon recorded UK sales of more than 20billion for 2020 and paid 'direct taxes' of nearly 500million. The US giant channels much of its UK income through tax haven Luxembourg.

Bryan Roberts, owner of retail consultant Shopfloor Insights, says: 'Amazon has incredibly deep pockets. Apparently, these high-tech stores cost some 100,000 to set up. I expect to see perhaps 300 Amazon Fresh stores on our high streets in five years' time.'

The company has also opened a two-storey barbershop in East London called Amazon Salon. It uses 'latest industry technology' to show customers what their hair would look like using different styles and cuts. Roberts believes Amazon supermarkets could be open within the next decade.

He also believes that swishing a smart phone to get into a store will be replaced by other technology such as retinal scanning, fingerprints or facial recognition. He says: 'In the future, we might even get tiny microchips embedded under the skin on our hands so we can pay by simply waving a hand.'

This already happens in Sweden.

Amazon said it was delighted that The Mail on Sunday was 'reaching out' to discuss its Fresh stores  but failed to provide any comment on the venture. In the US, it has a different name for its grocery stores  Amazon Go  with 25 outlets using the strapline of 'take it away and get back to your day'. The stores are designed to 'offer customers everything they would want from their local neighbourhood grocery store'.

Roberts says that in time Amazon will be able to use 'artificial intelligence' to predict what people will buy as they wander around a store.

He says: 'The software is already out there that seems to be able to read your mind. By plotting past shopping habits it has a good idea of what you might want to buy. It can even 'ping' your phone inside a shop to prompt you to remember certain potential purchases or highlight special offers on the goods that you might like.'

It means that in the future, shopping might involve no need to think about what you actually want to buy, no staff to operate tills or any need to get out a wallet or purse. Just the casual wave of a hand to access the store.

My verdict? No thanks. Old-fashioned shopping may at times be inconvenient and annoying, but it is far more pleasurable than being made to feel like a shoplifter.
What a weird world we live in. As we report, internet giant Amazon has decided to make its mighty presence felt on our high streets with stores that are as clinically efficient as they are soulless. But only after driving many retailers out of business with its online assault on our shopping habits.

I predict here and now that by the time my hair turns white  three, maybe five years' time  every City centre and bustling town will have an Amazon store. Perish the thought.

While Amazon sees a future on the high street, the banks are giving up. As we have exclusively reported in recent weeks, 180 bank branch closures have already been announced this year  and more, for sure, are on the way.

Looking ahead: What will the next big thing on the high street be? Amazon Bank

Yet, the banks are undermining their branch networks in other devious ways  by reducing opening hours, shutting them on specific days, and restricting access to counter services at certain times.

Santander has just gone down this route. Having axed 111 outlets last year, it has now made 'changes to branch opening hours'  banking code for reducing them.

Nearly all of its 450 high street sites will have their weekday opening times clipped by one and a half hours every day, while no branch will be open on a Saturday for more than half a day.

While the bank says these measures are in response to declining branch usage, it's not as black and white as it paints.

If banks make it more difficult for people and small businesses to use their branches, it's inevitable that customers will be pushed down the digital route.

As Derek French, a long-standing campaigner for shared branches, told me on Friday: 'The current strategy of reduced opening hours and restricted counter access will simply drive more of us to digital banking  willing or not.'

As ever, French is bang on the money. Maybe, in the fullness of time, we will see Amazon venture into high street banking. Weirder things have happened.

Good to see Newcastle BS giving shared branches a go

Talking of shared branches, it is good to see Newcastle Building Society giving them a go. It is piloting the idea in two locations  Knaresborough, North Yorkshire and Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

It will mean that personal and business customers of all the big banks will be able to use the branches to withdraw and deposit cash.

If the pilots prove popular, the technology will be rolled out across Newcastle's 30-strong branch network.

'We champion the high street and believe in its vital role in supporting vibrant local economies,' Newcastle boss Andrew Haigh told me on Friday.

'Decisions made by banks have been at the expense of many vulnerable people who are reliant on cash and as a result they risk being disenfranchised from the financial system.'

Well said that man.

Regulation of prepaid funeral plans market cannot come soon enough

Although I am not a big fan of the Financial Conduct Authority, its regulation of the prepaid funeral plans market cannot come soon enough.

For too long, unscrupulous providers have been given licence to ride roughshod over customers.

As we exclusively reported earlier this month, a big chunk of customers' money  supposedly safe in a trust fund  was skimmed off by former directors of provider Safe Hands for their own financial benefit.

It means some 47,000 customers now have no idea whether the funeral they paid for in advance will be delivered when the time comes round (Safe Hands is in administration).

The FCA will take over regulation at the end of July. It is hoping to publish soon a list of plan providers that it is minded to authorise.

It is also giving those providers which do not wish to continue post-regulation a little bit more time (until the end of October) to transfer their plans to a company that wishes to be authorised.

Both are sensible steps.

What is obvious is that the funeral plans industry will consolidate around a number of big players  the likes of Dignity and the Co-op.
Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

C.C. writes: In 2019, my wife and I received a phone call, asking if we would take out a power of attorney, with part of our fees going to the local Butterwick Hospice. As we are over 80, we agreed.

Lee Matthew Frost, of Varsity Law Ltd in Durham, came to us with the forms, which we completed and signed for him to submit to the Office of the Public Guardian.

He collected them along with our cheque for 1,000, since when we have heard nothing. He has blamed the pandemic. The OPG says there is no record of him submitting anything.

Deserted: Varsity Law did not tell clients the firm had been dissolved

Tony Hetherington replies: Lee Frost is one of those dodgy characters who inhabits the fringes of the legal scene, offering to draft documents that do not need to be prepared by a qualified lawyer. Varsity Law advertised: 'In today's competitive market, legal services have become confusing and only the best will do.'

Unfortunately, Varsity Law and its owner were far from the best, and closer to the worst.

You have told me that Frost has been putting you off throughout 2020 and 2021. What he has not told you is that Varsity Law no longer exists. Officials at Companies House began proceedings to strike it off as long ago as 2019, and it was compulsorily dissolved in February 2020. This was before lockdowns began, so everything Frost has told you since then has been false or an excuse.

Frost has used a variety of addresses for businesses, including his home at Ushaw Moor in County Durham. Varsity Law's address was Portland House, a modern office building on the nearby Belmont Business Park.

He told clients: 'We work closely with NHS Trust hospitals across the UK, as well as charities, financial institutions and more importantly, you.'

A slice of your 1,000 was supposed to go to Butterwick Hospice in Stockton-on-Tees, and the hospice has received some money in the past from businesses linked to Frost. However, after complaints in 2020 the hospice broke off relations with Frost completely.

Another slice of your 1,000 was fees to be paid to the Office of the Public Guardian, the Birmingham-based Government agency that polices the activities of attorneys and guardians in England and Wales. But, if the OPG received no paperwork from Frost, what happened to the 328 that Frost said were the OPG's charges?

I asked Frost to comment on this, and on why he has been making feeble excuses for two years while clinging on to your cash. He offered no comment or explanation. Nor did he explain what had happened to other companies he ran.

The Later Life Planning Company North East failed to file accounts and was struck off. UK Bereavement, Osoh, and Adroit Law all went the same way.

Kingsley Drake Ltd, where Frost described himself as 'director of legal services', was shut down by the High Court.

And when I looked into the company records of Varsity Law, I found that Frost told Companies House that it was a dormant business, at least until 2018. He never filed proper accounts for it, even though it traded.

Frost now runs a new firm, Vichi Medical UK Ltd, with an address at Oakmere, an office also at Belmont Business Park.

There is one legal area in which I can confirm that Frost is experienced, and that is the county court system. There are judgments against him for 1,972, 175, and a whopping 20,733.

His misconduct has cost you 1,000, and clearly he has no intention of repaying you. At the very least, this man should be disqualified from any and all directorships.

Why did refund go to US account?

L.P. writes: Hotels.com promised us a refund for a hotel booking, but we have received nothing, even after many emails.

I have called many times, speaking to a different person each time.

It keeps saying it will return my calls, but no luck there either.

Cancelled trip: Hotels.com promised L.P. a refund for a booking, but nothing has been forthcoming

Tony Hetherington replies: You were supposed to go on a cruise starting from Barbados, but because of the pandemic the cruise company cancelled the trip, and flight restrictions meant you could not get to Barbados anyway. This left you with a pointless hotel booking.

Hotels.com agreed in writing to refund $1,007 (775), but where was the money? Staff told me the refund was made in June last year, but your bank and credit card statements revealed nothing. Hotels.com then told me it had emailed you details, but you received no email either.

It turned out your wife had misspelt part of her email address ages ago as 'intetnet' instead of 'internet' and that Hotels.com had not spotted or corrected this.

The final, strange explanation turned out to be that you have a dormant bank account in the US. The refund had gone there and, as the account was inactive, the bank had sent a cheque to you at an address in the US. A final twist was that the refund came from something called 'Cheaptix', so was never connected to Hotels.com in anyone's mind.

Hotels.com is unable to explain who or what Cheaptix is, or why its refund carried that name.

We're watching you A scam company that marketed overpriced wine as an investment has been ordered into liquidation by the High Court. Global Wine Exchange Ltd tricked customers into buying cases of vintage wine by claiming that a deal had already been struck for it to be sold at a hefty profit within months. I warned against the scheme two years ago, and reported that the bonded warehouse where one reader's wine was supposedly held had revealed that it had nothing in store for him. I asked the company's boss, Adrian Loftman of Woodford Green in Essex, to comment, and he admitted using 'a vigorous technique to drum up sales', cold calling hundreds of people each day. He blamed French suppliers for failing to deliver wine. He then offered the reader 1,650 if he blocked The Mail on Sunday from publishing his complaint. And he threatened me: 'If you do publish an article or warning about Global Wine Exchange, we will be challenging it legally and we are prepared to take action against yourself and your newspaper.' I thanked Loftman for the tip-off and said that I would see him in court, but of course he took no action. Now investigators from the Insolvency Service have found that between 2019 and 2021, Loftman's business raked in almost 2million, but spent only 770,000 on wine for clients. At its peak, Global Wine Exchange banked over 1million in a short time, and paid out almost 600,000 to Loftman and his salesmen. Despite this flood of cash, Loftman does not even pay his own bills. There are two current county court judgments against him. Why is he not banned from running any company in future?

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
Around two-thirds of Britons don't have, or don't know if they have, a vital travel health insurance card that offers state supplied healthcare in some countries.

Meanwhile, a third of Britons are set to see their European Health Insurance Card expire in the next four years, with 15million UK holidaymakers having travelled to Europe without travel insurance in the past, according to new data by Direct Line.

And, as the travel industry sees a huge spike in holiday bookings, it's important that Britons travelling abroad are covered in case of a health emergency, as medical claims could cost holidaymakers an average of 1,500.

Only one in ten have applied for the new Global Health Insurance Card so far, as majority of holidaymakers are missing out on essential emergency medical cover when visiting Europe

The previous European Health Insurance Card is now being phased out in the UK and replaced by the new Global Health Insurance Card.

But, only one in ten have applied for the new health insurance card, and only 17 per cent say they plan to apply for one before jetting off on their holidays.

Here's everything you need to know about the GHIC, including how to get your hands on one, what it covers, and which scams to be on the look out for.

What is a GHIC, and how is it different to an EHIC?

Following Britain's formal exit from the EU, the Government announced that it would be transitioning from the original European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) in favour of the Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC).

The GHIC gives UK citizens access to state supplied healthcare in case of emergencies when visiting any EU country, and it does not cost anything to apply.

However, unlike the old EHIC, the new card will no longer give Britons access to state healthcare in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

If you currently have a EHIC, its worth considering the switch to a GHIC, although your original card will still be valid until the expiration date and you will continued to be covered in the additional European countries.

Around 37million health insurance cards have been issued in the UK so far, though over 60 per cent of Britons say they are unsure of what the card is, or what it covers.

Tom Bishop, head of Direct Line Travel Insurance said: 'We hope this year could finally see us return to holidaying abroad without the burden of restrictions.

'But it's worrying to see the GHIC gap is growing, so we urge anyone travelling overseas to make sure they, and their family, have all got one before their trip.

'As always, the best way to protect yourself when booking holidays and travelling within Europe is to carry a free, valid EHIC or GHIC and to add a comprehensive travel insurance policy for that critical additional layer of protection.'

The new GHIC, which is replacing the EHIC, gives UK citizens access to state supplied healthcare in case of emergencies when visiting any EU country, and is free to apply for

What does a EHIC or GHIC cover?

The cards cover pre-existing medical conditions and routine maternity care, as well as emergency care for travellers outside of their country of residence.

So individuals with chronic illnesses can travel safely, knowing they will continue to receive treatment on the same terms as the citizens of the country they are visiting.

The new GHIC will still provide cover for existing illnesses, routine maternity care, and other emergencies - but ongoing treatments, such as chemotherapy, will need to be arranged before you travel to ensure they are available at your destination.

Holidaymakers will receive the same treatment options as national citizens and so they should pay the same price for treatment as citizens of that country.

This means that if it's free of charge for national citizens, it should be free of charge for you too.

But a GHIC is not a replacement for travel insurance.

The GHIC only provides treatment in state hospitals, as opposed to private medical healthcare, and doesn't cover repatriation costs to the UK, or mountain rescue.

So, it is still vital that travellers purchase travel insurance for their holiday, to ensure they are covered for all emergencies.

What scams do I need to be on the look out for?

Unfortunately, there is a risk of being scammed when applying for a GHIC.

Around one in five mistakenly believe they must pay for a GHIC to replace the EHIC, with the average estimated cost standing at 9.30.

Scammers have taken advantage of this, and set up official-looking websites 'selling' the cards for a fee - sometimes up to hundreds of pounds.

A GHIC offers Britons in EU countries vital medical cover for pre-existing medical conditions, maternity, and emergency care

Genuine GHICs are available through the official NHS website.

You also don't need to apply for a GHIC until your current EHIC expires, but scammers may try suggest your card is not valid within the final months, so be extra cautious of scammers pressing you to pay for a new health insurance card.

You should also report scam adverts that may appear online. You can do this by visiting the Advertising Standard Authority's website and complete a quick reporting form.

Finally, you should not give out your personal or financial information to services you do not recognise or are expecting to be contacted by.
As the cost of living crisis bites and fuel prices hit new highs, families could save thousands by swapping their usual destination for a more budget-friendly alternative.

One way to stretch the budget further is to swap your annual hotel break for a camping alternative closer to home.

Over Easter, campsite bookings soared 74 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, as new research suggests this could be the key to affordable summer breaks.

Families are choosing alternative campsites in the UK to save money on their summer holidays, as research shows holidaymakers could save up to 3,000 on a seven night trip

Outdoor accommodation site, Pitchup.com has crunched the numbers to find three alternatives to popular UK holiday destinations, which could cut travel time and save thousands - if you're willing to go camping rather than stay in a swanky hotel.

We explain how to get a little extra out of your summer holiday, without cutting back on a relaxing or adventurous break away.

Swap St Ives for... The Gower Peninsula

While the Cornish seaside town has been a favourite for many years, prices have been creeping up steadily - so for savvy holidaymakers it could be worth a look over to Wales for a beautiful yet less costly alternative.

The Gower Peninsula was designated the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK in 1956, and its cliffs, coves, caves and bays rival those of any Cornish seaside town.

Picturesque: Views of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, which can be 3,000 cheaper than St Ives for a seven-day camping break for a family of four

There are plenty of shops and restaurants nearby, with Swansea a short drive inland for a day out sightseeing.

And holidaymakers could be save thousands by taking a seven day camping break there rather than a hotel in St Ives.

A non-electric grass tent, trailer tent or camper van for an adult and three children could cost you as low as 280 for a seven night trip, as opposed to a stay in St Ives, where a hotel can typically cost 3,000 or more.

A camping trip in South Wales could be far cheaper than a hotel in Cornwall

A camping trip to Wales could save 3,000 on your summer holiday Start Destination Return petrol 7 night stay Total London St Ives 108 3,325 (hotel) 3,433 London Gower Peninsula 75 280 (camping) 355 Birmingham St Ives 106 3,325 (hotel) 3,431 Birmingham Gower Peninsula 59 280 (camping) 339 Manchester St Ives 137 3,325 (hotel) 3,462 Manchester Gower Peninsula 74 280 (camping) 354 Newcastle St Ives 168 3,325 (hotel) 3,493 Newcastle Gower Peninsula 136 280 (camping) 416

Swap North Norfolk for... Rutland

North Norfolk has always been popular for its coastline, food and rural charm, but heading inland to one of Europe's biggest man-made lakes could give families so much more for their money.

Rutland may be England's smallest county but this hidden gem boasts Rutland Water which is a haven for wildlife and water sports.

It is proud of its reputation as the 'county of good taste' and has pretty stone villages reminiscent of the Cotswolds.

Camping in Rutland is not only a shorter drive for the majority of holidaymakers, but it could also save you nearly 3,400 on travel and accommodation

Even better, a non-electric grass tent pitch for two adults and two children costs only 295 for seven nights, compared to a typical stay at a hotel costing nearly 3,500.

Uppingham also boasts plenty of art shops, fashion boutiques, bistros and a Friday market, while nearby Hambleton Hall has had a Michelin-Star since 1982.

Pictured: Normanton Church in West Yorkshire, a short drive from Rutland. Credit Tracy Bullen

A camping trip to Rutland could save 3,400 on your summer holiday Start Destination Return petrol 7 night stay Total London North Norfolk 49 3,400 (hotel) 3,449 London Rutland 38 295 (camping) 333 Birmingham North Norfolk 56 3,400 (hotel) 3,456 Birmingham Rutland 26 295 (camping) 321 Manchester North Norfolk 66 3,400 (hotel) 3,466 Manchester Rutland 48 295 (camping) 343 Newcastle North Norfolk 92 3,400 (hotel) 3,492 Newcastle Rutland 76 295 (camping) 371

Swap the Lake District for... the Peak District

The Lakes are a perennial favourite for outdoorsy types, but can be a very long way to drive for a lot of families, and prices are rising fast.

Instead, why not get your fill of hill walking and outdoor leisure pursuits closer to home at the beautiful and accessible Peak District.

Pictured: Popular walking trails near Beltonville Farm in the Peak District

The Monsal Trail - a popular disused railway line transformed into a pretty path - is the perfect place for long dog walks and family trips out, and is only a 15-minute drive to quaint Buxton and quiet Bakewell.

There is a farm shop for fresh produce, fire pits for hire, toilets and a shower and a washingup area, with several pubs for those looking for a bite to eat.

Camping in the peak district can give you the same impressive views as the Lake District but for a fraction of a cost, as accommodation works out over 2,000 cheaper for seven nights

Your accommodation could also prove to be a bargain, as a non-electric grass tent pitch for a family of four for seven nights comes out at 140, where as a dog-friendly family room in Grasmere typically costs 2,800.

A camping trip in the Peak District could save 2,750 on your summer holiday Start Destination Return petrol 7 night stay Total London Lake District 110 2,844 (hotel) 2,954 London Peak District 64 140 (camping) 204 Birmingham Lake District 63 2,844 (hotel) 2,907 Birmingham Peak District 78 140 (camping) 218 Manchester Lake District 36 2,844 (hotel) 2,880 Manchester Peak District 12 140 (camping) 152 Newcastle Lake District 34 2,844 (hotel) 2,878 Newcastle Peak District 60 140 (camping) 200

Dan Yates, founder of Pitchup.com, says that amid the cost pressures faced by families this year, camping holidays are seeing strong growth.

He said: 'Last year our business almost doubled as people leapt at the chance to meet up with families and friends while enjoying the great outdoors.

'We are already seeing around another 30 per cent rise from that this year.'

The current average lead time for Brits booking outdoor trips is about three months ahead of arrival, but Yates suggests booking earlier to get a bargain.

'It's a tricky time for some of our campsites who are being affected by rising fuel prices: they've sold electric pitches at a certain price but now the cost of delivery is likely to be higher which is obviously going to have an impact on profit.

'Given changing fuel prices at the moment it actually works in favour of the holidaymaker to book as far ahead as possible.

'They are inadvertently hedging to offset the risk of any adverse price movements and with fuel prices steadily climbing, booking now could actually end up saving a significant amount of money.'
Energy giants BP and Shell are preparing to stomach the mammoth cost of severing ties with Russia, which threatens to overshadow bumper profits they have raked in from the surging price of oil and gas.

Campaigners have blasted the FTSE100 firms for making huge profits as households battle a cost-of-living crisis. Trading profits are expected to show they made as much as 120million a day in the first quarter.

But the combined cost of exiting their Russian partnerships is likely to be booked early next month. The total impact will reach as much as 24billion as they digest the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Gathering storm: BP and Shell's combined cost of exiting their Russian partnerships is likely to be booked early next month

BP is expected to write down up to 20billion for ditching its near-20 per cent stake in Kremlin-owned oil firm Rosneft. The eye-watering sum will be included in BP's update to the market in the first week of May as a 'material charge'.

Rival Shell could also book impairment charges of up to 3.5billion. It has said it will exit its joint venture with Gazprom, Russia's state gas giant, including its stake in the Sakhalin-2 gas project. The costs of ditching the partnerships will be reported as exceptional 'paper losses'.

That means it will hamper headline profits, although it is unlikely to impact the ability to continue paying dividends to shareholders.

But it could distract from both companies' profit bonanzas  which they have reaped from runaway oil and gas prices.

BP will unveil its figures on May 3, while Shell will report the same week on May 5. But the boom in underlying trading profits is bound to anger ordinary Britons struggling with rocketing fuel bills. It will also renew pressure on the Government to introduce a one-off windfall tax on North Sea oil producers to help households battle with spiralling prices.

MPs representing Labour and the Lib Dems  plus some Tories  have joined campaigners urging Ministers to bring in a windfall tax. These calls intensified in February after BP and Shell reported combined profits of 25billion for 2021.

They later revealed huge pay packets for their bosses. BP chief executive Bernard Looney previously described his company as a 'cash machine' when a rebound from the pandemic turbocharged its earnings.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has so far dismissed the demands for a one-off levy.

The latest sharp escalation in trading profits will almost certainly exasperate desperate families facing an unprecedented financial squeeze.

The cap on average home dual-fuel tariffs was increased by more than half to 1,971 earlier this month and the invasion of Ukraine triggered another spike in wholesale gas prices  which are around 275 per cent higher than at this time last year.

Energy chiefs have warned 40 per cent of Britons could fall into fuel poverty this winter. Businesses are also struggling to keep up with their bills. Simon Cran-McGreehin, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: 'I'm sure when BP and Shell's profits come out there will be some very justified anger about this. From our polling, the public's perception is that oil and gas producers are profiting from this crisis.'

Tax Justice UK Executive Director, Robert Palmer, said: 'Despite the hit from Russia, these companies should not be let off the hook.' He said: 'The extraordinary profits being raked in by these energy giants shows this isn't a cost of living crisis, it's a cost of living scandal.'

The war in Ukraine also led to another oil rally as supplies from Russia, which is one of the world's top exporters, were disrupted by sanctions.

Brent crude surged as high as $130 a barrel last month, the highest since July 2008. It is a sharp reversal from the nosedive to $19 a barrel in April 2020, when lockdowns sent demand tumbling as travel and industry worldwide were brought to a standstill.

The jumps in the oil price  which now stands at $107  have sent petrol prices to new records. Unleaded petrol is on average 162p per litre and diesel at 176p at the pump.

In a note, RBC brokers said: 'The energy sector continues to be well-placed to benefit from the current environment, and we believe recent geopolitical events have put a renewed focus on core oil and gas businesses.'

Analysts at RBC estimate BP will unveil first-quarter profit of 4billion at its results on May 3. The bank believes Shell will report a 6.7billion profit on May 5.

According to Refinitiv, analysts also expect both oil giants to hike their dividends this year.
Under fire: Andy Hornby faces a backlash from the restaurant chain's shareholders

Andy Hornby, chief executive of The Restaurant Group, has been blasted for taking a bonus while the Wagamama and Frankie & Benny's owner received tens of millions in taxpayer support.

Hornby, who led Halifax Bank of Scotland before it was rescued by taxpayers during the financial crisis, collected a 578,000 bonus, taking his total pay to 1.2million.

The payout comes despite the significant state aid handed to his firm last year to support it through the third Covid lockdown. The restrictions forced its 400 sites, which also include the Chiquito brand, to shut.

Campaigners say that the 'inappropriate rewards' fail to take into account those who paid for vital financial life support, including the restaurants' customers.

In its annual report, TRG said it had received 43.2million through the Government-funded furlough scheme last year. That was on top of 123.5million in 2020.

It also benefited from a 50million loan through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, repaid in 2021, and millions in business rates relief.

Hornby's payout puts him on a collision course with shareholders who have said that companies which drew on public support during the pandemic should not pay large bonuses to executives.

Asked about Hornby's pay, top 20 shareholder Legal & General Investment Management said it had a 'very clear policy' on opposing bonuses in these circumstances. The asset manager said: 'If companies have faced liquidity issues due to Covid-19 to an extent they had to suspend dividends, accept Government support in the form of loans, suspension of rates or furlough and they reduced headcount, then company bonuses to executives should not have been paid.'

Hornby ran HBOS from 2006 to 2008, when it had to be rescued by Lloyds Banking Group in the financial crisis. Lloyds was bailed out by the taxpayer the following month.

TRG had suffered even before the pandemic amid intense competition in the casual dining sector. It was forced to close 125 sites in 2020 affecting 3,000 jobs. It tapped shareholders for 232million to weather the Covid storm and says it furloughed '95 per cent' of its employees for 'significant periods' of 2020 and 2021.

The chair of TRG's pay committee, Zoe Morgan, said it had 'debated at length the appropriate bonus award for strong performance once trading resumed in 2021' and was 'cognisant of the significant Government support received'. But Morgan said the fact no bonuses had been paid for the previous two years had fed into the decision to agree a reduced payout.

She said Hornby's 963,333 bonus was cut by 40 per cent. TRG finance chief Kirk Davis also saw his payout trimmed, to 271,000. But campaigners said paying a bonus at all was not acceptable given the significant state support. Andrew Speke, of the High Pay Centre, said: 'Investors are right to call this out for what it is  a company taking public money with one hand, and handing out generous bonuses to executives with the other. If the remuneration committee respect their customers, British taxpayers, they should take heed of their investors' disquiet and reverse their decision to pay these inappropriate rewards.'

The issue is likely to ignite TRG's annual shareholder meeting next month. A significant proportion of investors voted against Hornby's pay package at its last two investor votes.

His 2021 payout is the first bonus paid by TRG to a chief executive since the one paid to Hornby's predecessor Andy McCue in 2017. TRG said directors also waived a portion of their salary in the first year of the pandemic. Listed companies face a stormy summer of investor rebellions over corporate pay.

This month it emerged Alison Brittain, boss of Premier Inn owner Whitbread, agreed to give up her 729,000 bonus after the MoS revealed concerns over the delayed award. Whitbread drew on 370million of pandemic support. Carnival saw 36 per cent of its investors vote against boss Arnold Donald's 11.4million pay. That was paid despite the cruise giant using the furlough scheme, not paying dividends and axing jobs.

WH Smith saw 46 per cent of its investors vote against boss Carl Cowling's 550,000 bonus. The board said his bonus had already been cut by 22 per cent which was 'proportionate compared with pandemic support'. But the retailer took 40million in business rates relief and 11million in payments through the furlough scheme in the year to September 2021.

WH Smith and Carnival join the executive pay 'list of shame', overseen by the Investment Association trade body, for firms where 20 per cent of shareholders oppose bosses' earnings. Sandwich maker Greencore and cinema operator Cineworld have faced similar criticism.

Ladbrokes owner Entain also risks a backlash. Betting shops closed in lockdown, but its revenues were boosted as bored Britons switched to online gambling. Entain repaid 44million of furlough for 2021, but kept 57.5million claimed in 2020, as new boss Jette Nygaard-Andersen landed a 2.5million package, including a 1.8million bonus.
City forecasts for British Airways owner IAG have been cut 'significantly' after a string of cancellations and spiralling fuel prices.

Brokers at Peel Hunt halved their annual forecasts for the FTSE100 group  which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia  from 997million (839 million) to 495 million 416million).

Analyst Alex Paterson warned that passengers might 'book elsewhere', turning to rival airlines, after IT failures and mass cancellations led to travel misery for thousands of Britons over the Easter break.

Struggle: Recent data shows BA cancelled more flights than any other airline during the first week of April

The disruptions came at a crucial time as the industry entered one of the first major holiday periods since the easing of pandemic travel restrictions.

Recent data shows BA cancelled more flights than any other airline during the first week of April. Many of these were due to staff shortages and sickness following another spike in Covid infections.

Budget airline easyJet also came under fire for cancellations.

IAG may have to earmark cash for paying compensation in future should any more disruption arise, he said. It may also be forced to hike its marketing budget to help 'diffuse customer concerns' in that event.

Rapidly increasing jet fuel bills have also been a headache for carriers after oil prices spiked to multi-year highs at the start of the year. Brent crude rebounded last year when Covid lockdowns lifted, but it rallied even further following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Oil started the year at less than $80 a barrel then jumped as high as $130 in March.

IAG has hedged much of its fuel prices for the year  meaning it has locked in prices and is less vulnerable to big swings.

But Paterson warned that IAG was less hedged than many other airlines and believes its fuel bill will jump.

Peel Hunt has increased its forecast from 5.9billion to 6.3billion (5.3billion). This eye-watering sum is close to IAG's annual turnover of 8.5billion (7.2billion) last year, with price pressures potentially sparking ticket price hikes. Peel Hunt forecast IAG's revenue this year will be 21.3billion (18billion).

The broker also said BA's technical blunders are not something its rivals are facing.

The company, which is led by Spanish businessman Luis Gallego, will release a trading update for the first quarter on May 6.

Stephen Furlong, an analyst at Davy, said the 'number one reason' for analysts' profit downgrades will be the oil price. He told The Mail on Sunday: 'There is no question that the higher oil price is a huge headwind for the airline industry.' Davy recently lowered its forecasts for IAG's full-year profit from 992million (834billion) to 704million (592billion). This was before the most recent travel chaos.

IAG's giant debt pile is expected to grow in 2022 as the airline boosts investment for the post-pandemic travel rebound. Furlong said: 'IAG had a pandemic where it prioritised efficiency, but now they are prioritising investment.'

Examples of recent spending include IAG's plans to draft in 25 new aircraft, as well as BA leasing four planes from FinnAir. These are set to operate out of Heathrow with FinnAir cabin crew from May to August, which could ease some of BA's recent staffing issues.

John Strickland, from JLS Consulting, an independent air travel consultancy, warned that increased wages are also adding to airlines' costs at a time of fuel hikes. 'They are looking at a strong summer but part of the trade-off in meeting demand is incurring a likely increase in staff costs,' he said.

BA, which recently launched its new short-haul operations from Gatwick, is offering a welcome bonus of 1,000 to poach trained crew from rivals. IAG was contacted for comment.
Vision: OakNorth's Rishi Khosla says his mission is to help entrepreneurs

He may not be as famous as his namesake in Number 11 Downing Street, but Rishi Khosla has some impressive achievements under his belt. Since 2015, the 46-year-old chief executive of OakNorth Bank has built up a 3.8billion lender, using slick technology to offer loans to small firms.

Small businesses, he says, have been 'ignored' by mainstream banks since the financial crisis. Stepping into the breach, he has created one of the UK's leading fin-tech businesses and is now eyeing a stock market float, with London the most likely venue.

'We're very driven in our mission to help entrepreneurs and small businesses,' says Khosla, who co-founded the bank. 'We've helped create 30,000 new jobs in the UK,' he enthuses, referring to the employment generated by the companies his bank has backed.

OakNorth is a name with a familiar ring to followers of political spats. The bank was at the centre of a Westminster storm after it emerged that former Chancellor Lord Philip Hammond, who took on a role as an adviser at OakNorth in 2020 after quitting frontline politics, had contacted the Government on its behalf.

Lobbying is a sensitive subject after the scandal over former Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts on behalf of failed finance firm Greensill. In this case, Hammond had mentioned OakNorth's lending services for businesses hit by the pandemic to a senior Treasury official. Khosla points out that these services were being offered on a not-for-profit basis.

Hammond was rebuked for his behaviour although he was cleared of breaching the lobbying rules. 'Our view was we were trying to do something good,' says Khosla. 'It's unfortunate that there was a trip in the process.'

On a happier note, OakNorth is one of the few start-ups to have quickly turned a profit. It reported a 73 per cent jump in pre-tax profits last year to 134.5million.

The bank uses cutting-edge technology to assess the risks of lending sums of between 250,000 and tens of millions of pounds to firms. So far, it has dished out 7.5billion to businesses, including high street restaurant chain Leon.

It uses advanced algorithms to help predict how potential borrowers will fare against rivals and in different economic climates.

The lender  set up by Khosla and his business partner Joel Perlman, in 2015  was among the tide of digital banks that surfaced after the financial crisis to fill the gaps left by the big banks as they shied away from business perceived as risky.

'We wanted to build a bank using state of the art technology that allowed us to serve businesses who were just getting ignored by the commercial banks, who I call the missing middle,' Khosla explains.

The company raised $440million (340 million) from investors including Japanese investment giant SoftBank in 2019, making it Europe's most highly valued tech firm at the time.

So what's it like working with one of the world's biggest tech investors and its billionaire founder, Masayoshi Son? 'Masa is a pretty unique character,' says Khosla. 'He looks for businesses that can be very large, disruptive, can have an edge. And clearly he's not afraid to take risks.'

OakNorth is now making waves in the US, licensing its loan software to other finance firms, including credit card giant Capital One. The technology helps banks to monitor their loan books to keep a check on potential defaults, which has been especially useful during the pandemic.

'Our ambition is to help solve the way commercial banking works, so [they] can better service entrepreneurs,' Khosla explains. 'We have $420billion of US commercial lending data through our systems which monitor the loans.'

OakNorth has prided itself on very few of its loans turning sour. But once the pandemic took hold, it set aside 21.6million to cover potential bad debts. The situation improved last year, though, and OakNorth was able to claw back 3.7million of the money set aside.

Does Khosla expect more defaults given the state of the economy? 'If you're in the lending business, of course you can expect defaults. It would be abnormal not to have defaults on a regular basis, because that's the business we're in,' he says. 'The fact we went six and a half years with just over a dozen defaults I think is exceptional. Do we think we'll continue to have low defaults? Absolutely. But will we have defaults and losses? Absolutely.'

Khosla, a Tory donor and an avid collector of fine art, is a tech entrepreneur to his bones and dresses the part. He can be spotted in the bank's trendy Soho offices wearing a hoodie and walking on his treadmill desk with attached workstation. But he also knows when to don a tailored suit, notably at soirees with other Tory donors and politicians.

He grew up in West London and attended the prestigious Merchant Taylors' school. 'My father used to work incredibly hard, so while he was doing his main job, he was setting up a business in the evenings and weekends. He would regularly go to sleep at 2am and be on a 7am train to London, to his office.'

An initial public offering of the company's shares to investors may be on the cards 'some time in the future', Khosla says. Will OakNorth list in London? 'To be decided,' he chuckles. 'Probably. When you look at what London has today in terms of tech growth firms, there are some, but it's still pretty limited.'

A float would be welcomed by the City after the quiet deferring of a series of potential listings. The UK already lags the US and China, accounting for just 5 per cent of global listings from 2015 to 2020.

The other Rishi  Sunak  has been very keen to encourage tech firms in the UK to emulate the giants of Silicon Valley.

To that end, Khosla lauds a Government-commissioned plan to overhaul the stock exchange by allowing entrepreneurs, potentially including himself, to keep greater control of their company.

He says such a plan could prompt more firms to list in London. 'The approach taken by the Government is super positive,' he enthuses. 'By doing this, you're attracting good businesses to stay listed in the UK.'

Then he says, they are more likely to focus on this country when creating jobs and growth.
Ministers have been urged to intervene to keep renewable energy jobs in the UK after a big contract for floating wind farms was given to a Middle East-based group.

Dubai-based Lamprell signed an early stage deal this month to fabricate 200 turbines for the farms, to be installed west of Shetland.

Vanishing act: Dubai-based Lamprell signed an early stage deal this month to fabricate 200 turbines for the farms, to be installed west of Shetland

But the GMB union said the deal meant the Government's Energy Security Strategy had 'fallen at the first hurdle' as UK workers missed out on jobs on the multi-billion pound project.

Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, said: 'It's a national scandal that UK workers and communities are being forced to watch as multi-billion pound contracts for offshore wind farms are sent overseas to companies in authoritarian regimes.'

The union has written to politicians in Westminster and Holyrood calling for a joint review.

It wants emergency legislation to stop work going abroad.

Lamprell is listed in London but much of its work is focused in the Middle East.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
More than a half of Britons claim it's important to them to be able to make greener financial choices, according to new research by RCI Bank.

Despite this, three quarters haven't tried to make their finances greener over the past year and more than a third say they don't think it is currently easy to make green financial choices.

The research found that of those who have tried to make their finances greener over the past 12 months, 27 per cent had opted to put money in green savings accounts.

Furthermore, 31 per cent had researched what their banks invest in to make sure they're ethical, while 14 per cent opted for a green current account.

An eco-conscious nation: 52% of UK adults say its important to them to be able to make greener financial choices, according to RCI Bank.

Tafari Smith, head of savings at RCI Bank said: 'Our findings reveal both an appetite for green finance but also some barriers when it comes to accessibility and consumer priorities.

'Banks need to ensure it is easier for their customers to make greener financial decisions that have a positive impact on the planet.

'This feels particularly important given the current environment and economic pressures, when perhaps making more sustainable financial choices isn't at the top of people's agenda.'

This is Money decided to take a look at all the green savings products and current accounts on offer at the moment. Here's our pick of the best options currently available.

Best green easy-access deal

Savers looking to combine green credentials with a top rate could consider Tandem Bank's Instant Access Saver paying 1.1 per cent.

By opting to save via Tandem you'll be helping to support Tandem Bank's green lending initiatives, with the aim of helping to make UK homes more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

This is an extremely competitive return - only a three other providers pay more than this across the entire market.

Cynergy Bank and Zopa Bank both pay 1.2 per cent, while Chase Bank has recently launched a linked savings account paying 1.5 per cent for its current account customers.

Tandem savers can set up an account with as little 1 and deposits are protected up to 85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which doubles to 170,000 in the case of joint accounts.

However, although it uses savers' cash towards green loans, it's also worth noting that it provides bespoke, high value mortgages for UK residents, expats and foreign nationals in the UK and abroad.

You therefore cannot be entirely certain 100 per cent of your cash is going towards a green cause.

An alternative therefore is a 0.6 per cent deal offered by Ecology Building Society which helps fund properties and projects it feels respect the environment.

You can find out more about the projects it is supporting here.

Our pick of the best 'green' savings deals Account Provider Rate Green selling point Easy access Tandem Bank 1.1% Making UK homes more sustainable and environmentally friendly Notice Account (14 days) RCI Bank 0.95% Financing of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure One-year fixed rate Gatehouse Bank 2% It will plant a tree when you open an account Cash Isa Ecology Building Society 0.8% Funds properties and projects that respect the environment

Best green notice account

Notice account offer savers a halfway house between an easy-access and fixed-rate deal.

They enable savers to withdraw their funds following a notice period, typically ranging between 14 and 120 days, but can sometimes offer savers a better return than they might otherwise achieve with an easy-access account.

RCI Bank's E-Volve Savings 14 day notice account paying 0.95 per cent is our pick for the best green deal on the market at present. On a 10,000 holding that will earn you 95 after one year.

As the name suggests, savers must give 14 days notice when withdrawing funds from the account meaning it falls just short of being an easy-access deal.

It also offers a 95 day notice account paying 1.1 per cent, which could appeal to savers prepared to wait 95 days to regain access to their cash.

RCI Bank is car maker Renault's global banking group and money in the account is protected up to 85,000 via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

RCI Bank's new savings product will enable savers to put their money towards supporting greener transport and mobility in the UK.

Savers cash will primarily be used to propel the switch to electric vehicles, with deposits being used for the financing of EVs and charging infrastructure.

Green savings: RCI Bank's new savings product will enable savers to put their money towards supporting greener transport and mobility in the UK.

An alternative for savers is offered by the agricultural bank, Oxbury. It directs savers cash towards supporting the rural economy by providing loans and credit to farmers.

Oxbury Farm Loans are tailored for a range of farm needs including Carbon Reduction and Renewable Energy, Farm Infrastructure Improvements, Land Purchase, and Rural Diversification Projects.

Its 35-day notice account pays 0.66 per cent, whilst its 95-day account pays 0.9 per cent.

Savers need a minimum of 1,000 to begin and can deposit up to 500,000 into the account - albeit with a maximum afforded protection of 85,000 by the FSCS.

Best fixed-rate green savings deals

Gatehouse Bank is offering a range of fixed rate deals designed to help grow woodlands across the UK.

For every account opened or renewed, the bank promises to plant one tree.

Its one-year deal pays 2 per cent, which is only 0.05 per cent less than the market leader and among the four best one year deals currently available.

Someone depositing 10,000 in this account will earn 200 in interest over the course of one year.

It's also worth noting that its five-year deal is currently the best deal on the market paying 2.5 per cent. It also has a market leading 18-month deal paying 2.05 per cent.

Its two-year and three year deals pay 2.15 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively, both of which make our independent best buy league tables.

Savers will need at least 1,000 to get started and thereafter can deposit up to 1,000,000 into the account- albeit with only 85,000 protected by FSCS per individual.

Tandem Bank is also offering some competitive fixed rate deals. Its one-year deal pays 1.8 per cent and its two-year deal pays 2.1 per cent.

By opting to save via Tandem you'll also be helping to support Tandem Bank's green lending initiatives, with the aim of helping to make UK homes more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

NS&I's green savings bonds are another option for green fingered savers. Its three-year fixed rate deal pays 1.3 per cent.

Despite better returns on offer elsewhere, NS&I's account may well attract eco conscious savers.

The bonds will help finance the Government's green spending projects designed to tackle climate change and help make the UK greener and more sustainable.

Green projects like zero-emissions buses, offshore wind and innovative low-carbon technologies will be eligible for funding, along with programmes to help Britain adapt to changing climate like improved flood defences.

Good cause: Money held in NS&I's green bonds will go towards green projects such as offshore wind.

Savers need 100 to open an account and can deposit up to 100,000 all of which is protected by the Treasury - rather than just 85,000 via the FSCS.

It's worth noting that the agricultural bank, Oxbury, has a one-year fixed term bond paying 1.8 per cent, and a two-year deal paying 2.05 per cent, if you'd like your money to support the rural economy.

For a particularly eco-conscious saver it also offers its Forest saver which directs saver's interest towards planting trees on British farm sites to mitigate their carbon footprint as a return for their investment.

But just bear in mind it currently offers no interest in return and will lock your money away from one year.

Best green cash Isa

For those looking to shield the interest they earn from their savings from the taxman, Ecology Building Society is offering a competitive easy-access cash Isa deal paying 0.8 per cent.

Since 1981 Ecology has lent to over 3,500 projects, supporting individuals, charities, environmental businesses and community-led housing organisations to realise their sustainable living ambitions.

In 2020 alone, it lent 39.3 million to support 230 sustainable properties and projects.

Although 0.8 per cent isn't the best deal on the market - Cynergy Bank is paying 1.05 per cent - Ecology's offer still features high up our best buy table.

For those prepared to lock their money away for a period of time in exchange for a better return then Gatehouse Bank is offering a host of best buy fixed rate cash Isa deals.

Its one-year cash Isa deal will pay you 1.4 per cent and its two-year deal will pay you 1.75 per cent.

The best green current account?

When it comes to choosing a green provider to bank with you need look no further than Triodos Bank.

It sees itself as the most socially responsible UK bank and champions the concept of sustainable banking, which it defines as using money with conscious thought about its environmental, cultural and social impacts.

The UK arm of the Dutch-founded bank led by environmentalist, Bevis Watts, promises only to lend on projects that make a 'positive impact' for people and the planet.

Triodos customers' money goes to a whole range of projects including charities, community schemes, care homes, social housing providers, organic farmers, homelessness programmes and renewable energy.

It publishes details about these organisations on its website so its customers can see where their money is going.

Last year, Which? and Ethical Consumer ranked Triodos as the most sustainable savings account provider.

The ranking was based on publicly available information about how they use savers deposits, the environmental impact of the industries they fund, and what the bank or building society was doing to reduce this.

Much of Triodos' UK growth has come through its current account offering, which it launched in 2017.

Triodos has stood out over recent years for its customer retention, which can be observed from the official current account switching figures.

Whereas many of the more established names have lost far more customers than they have gained using the seven-day switching service, Triodos has consistently enjoyed one of the highest ratios of net customer gains.

Triodos' contactless Debit Mastercard is made from renewable resources like plant leaves and corn. It's biodegradable and recyclable, making it one of the UK's most eco-friendly cards.

The latest figures revealed that Triodos enjoyed a net gain of 1,128 customers having only lost 81 customers over the course of three months - lower than any other competitor - suggesting it has a better retention rate than any other bank.

This is perhaps all the more surprising when you consider that Triodos' current account customers pay a 3 monthly fee.

The bank justifies this by arguing that most banks fund free accounts with hidden fees and high overdraft charges  often with financially vulnerable customers footing the bill.

While many banks charge overdraft rates of 39.99 per cent, Triodos's overdraft rates are held at 18 per cent.

To put that in context, a Triodos customer who is overdrawn by 500 for 30 days will be charged 6.83 whilst those who face rates of 39.99 per cent will be charged 13.99.

To cap of its eco credentials it also offers one of the UK's most eco-friendly debit cards made from renewable resources such as plant leaves and corn. It's biodegradable and recyclable.
Pictured: Assistant District Attorney Matthew Breedon, who accidentally shot himself with his own handgun while trying to show it to a co-worker at their courthouse office in Georgia

An assistant prosecutor accidentally shot himself with his own handgun while trying to show it to a co-worker at their courthouse office in southeast Georgia, according to sheriff's reports.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Breedon was wounded in the right leg April 4 when the gun fired as he drew it from its holster inside the Springfield courthouse, according to an incident report filed by the Effingham County Sheriff's Office.

Breedon reached for his gun, a Sig Model P320 handgun, to show it to a co-worker, identified as ADA Ian Heap, who expressed interested in buying the same model, the report said.

Breedon reportedly said not to call 911, but ADA Brian Deal called 911 after he began turning gray and started grunting and drooling.

The shooting happened inside their office at the Effingham County courthouse, about 25 miles northwest of Savannah.

The investigator assigned to the case requested that it be declared inactive with no charges filed, WJCL reported, citing sheriff's documents obtained through an open records request.

Breedon and his boss, Ogeechee Circuit District Attorney Daphne Totten, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Friday.

Breedon's handgun was returned to him, according to the sheriff's reports.

Georgia law allows district attorneys and their assistant prosecutors to carry guns inside courthouses in the state.

In 2014, a detective with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office wounded himself when he similarly shot himself in the leg by accident while inside the bathroom at his office, according to NJ.com.

The detective, a member of the narcotics unit who was not named, eventually made a full recovery.

At the time, prosecutor's office spokesman Jason Laughlin confirmed the accidental shooting, before adding that no criminal charges would be filed
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One of P&O Ferries' biggest cross-Channel ships that had been seized in Dover over safety concerns has now been cleared to sail, as the disgraced company attempts to resume normal operations after sacking nearly 800 employees.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said that the 700ft long Spirit of Britain, which can carry up to 2,000 passengers and was the first of two 'Spirit' class ships built for P&O Ferries, 'has been released from detention and can commence operations when P&O Ferries are ready'.

The ship's detention at the Port of Dover, along with that of the Pride Of Kent vessel, caused a shortage of ferry capacity in the run-up to Easter on the key Dover-Calais crossing and sparked massive queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent.

A total of eight P&O Ferries vessels have been probed by the MCA since P&O Ferries sensationally fired nearly 800 seafarers with no notice via a Zoom video call last month - an action even the operator's millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite admitted was illegal in testimony to MPs - and replaced them with cheaper 5.50-an-hour foreign agency workers.

The Spirit of Britain had been held earlier this month and P&O Ferries were requested to fix 'a number of' safety issues raised by the assessment before the MCA carried out a second inspection.

The MCA said it began assessing European Highlander on Thursday and Norbay on Wednesday. The European Highlander, which normally operates between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland, will be allowed to resume voyages once a 'small number of deficiencies' are fixed.

A third vessel called the Norbay, which serves the Liverpool-Dublin route, was also cleared to sail earlier yesterday, the MCA added.

P&O Ferries the Pride of Kent (left) and the Spirit of Britain (right) moored at the Port of Dover in Kent, April 22, 2022

P&O Ferries the Pride of Canterbury (left) and the Spirit of Britain (right) moored at the Port of Dover in Kent, April 22, 2022

Freight lorries queue at the Port of Dover, after the ferry company sacked 800 workers without notice, April 12, 2022

On Tuesday, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused the company of being a 'rogue operator' which is 'cutting corners and putting key UK shipping routes at risk'.

P&O Ferries said in a statement that 'any suggestion' that safety is being compromised is 'categorically false'.

P&O Ferries caused mayhem at Easter after it suspended all of its passenger services across the Channel ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

Announcing the cancelling of Dover-Calais services, a spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: 'We apologise unreservedly to all customers whose scheduled journeys with us between Dover and Calais have been cancelled whilst we are unable to sail.

'It is only fair and right that we make alternative arrangements for those customers, which include transferring them onto our Hull-Europoort service to Rotterdam, or booking them onto services with Brittany Ferries between Portsmouth and Caen.

'Both of these options are at no extra cost to customers - if anyone chooses either of these alternatives we will reimburse them for any additional mileage expenses incurred and as well as all meals onboard our overnight crossing. Customers will also receive a 25 per cent discount on their original fare.

Freight lorries queue at the Port of Dover, after the ferry company sacked 800 workers without notice, April 12, 2022

People protest through Dover in Kent, after P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers without notice, Tuesday April 19, 2022

'We also recognise that these options will not be suitable for everyone, therefore any customer who booked directly with P&O Ferries will be able to claim a full refund and a free trip for future travel.'

It comes as several P&O Ferries agency staff were fired after testing positive for alcohol when they turned up for work.

Seven of the new workers, who were employed to replace permanent staff dismissed by the firm last month, were relieved of their duties after breaching guidelines on alcohol consumption. The agency staff returned to work on board a ferry over the limit, after leaving the ship for shore leave.

They were dismissed with immediate effect by P&O, which has a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol.

The crew were controversially replaced with cheaper agency workers, whose average hourly rate of pay is around 5.50 - significantly lower than the UK minimum wage, which stands at 8.91.

Because P&O operates internationally and its ships are registered overseas, the minimum hourly rate does not apply to its new staff.

Several unions questioned the legality of making so many staff redundant and raised fears over a lack of training of the new crew.

P&O has since confirmed that seven of its agency-employed seafarers have been dismissed with immediate effect after breaking alcohol consumption regulations.
A conservative school board member began squabbling with her liberal colleague over attempts to silence and angry parent which saw cops summoned.

Bridget Ziegler rounded on chair Jane Goodwin at the Sarasota County board meeting Tuesday when Goodwin took mom-of-four Melissa Bakondy to task after Bakondy began speaking at the mic.

The drama began when Bakondy got up to the podium for the public comment period to complain about a policy regarding recording parent-teacher meetings.

When Bakondy began to remark that one board member was 'caught on the microphone' at the last meeting, board chair Goodwin cut her off and said 'stop talking about school board members.'

Goodwin, who leads the board's liberal majority, then ejected Bakondy and said 'You were about to say something horrible about Shirley Brown.  You've said things about me that were untrue. Leave, please.'

But when Goodwin went on to ask Bakondy if she even had children in the school district, that's when conservative board member Bridget Ziegler clapped back by raising a point of order.

'That is not appropriate.  You don't get to ask people who come to a public meeting whether they have children or not. Period. You are way out of line,' said Ziegler.

Melissa Bakondy was removed from Tuesday's school board meeting in Sarasota while complaining about a policy regarding recording parent-teacher meetings

When liberal board Chair Jane Goodwin (left) asked Bakondy if she even had children in the district, conservative board member Bridget Ziegler (right) told her she was out of order

It is unclear what exactly Bakondy had to say. She is vocal about hot-button social issues on her Facebook page, and has taken a conservative stance on the issue of transgender children, which have roiled school boards across the US.

Bakondy told Fox News Digital in an interview that she is a mother of four and has three children returning to public school next year.

Zeigler told the outlet that it is 'inappropriate' for Goodwin to raise the question about Bakondy's children, because the board is accountable to all voters.

'We work for the people, the people are our bosses, the parents are our customers,' said Zeigler. 'And it's interesting when it comes to collecting taxes, it doesn't seem like these qualifying questions are asked.'

Goodwin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com but told ABC affiliate WWSB-TV that the board chair has the power to remove anyone being disorderly at a public meeting.

'We had a person who was speaking, who was out of order,' said Goodwin. 'She was talking about personal issues, abuse and making comments that weren't true about board members.'

Bakondy was disputing a district policy regarding the ability of parents to record meetings with teachers to discuss individual education plans

Zeigler (left) said that it is 'inappropriate' for Goodwin (right) to raise the question about Bakondy's children, because the board is accountable to all voters

Bakondy told the outlet that her 'first amendment rights were trampled on actually' when she was ejected.

It is just the latest dispute at a local school board meeting to grip the attention of a worried nation.

Local press reports indicate that Bakondy regularly attends school board meetings to voice her opinions on such topics as mask mandates and critical race theory.

At Tuesday's meeting, she was disputing a district policy regarding the ability of parents to record meetings with teachers to discuss individual education plans.

Bakondy says her 'first amendment rights were trampled on actually' when she was ejected

Bakondy seems to regularly attend school board meetings to voice her opinions on such topics as mask mandates and critical race theory

Bakondy told Fox News that she believes the board's liberal majority is 'destroying our school district, targeting parents and eliminating dissent.'

The mother slammed board chair Goodwin as 'the queen of no public input.'

'Every citizen, taxpayer and parent has a right to speak at public meetings and share their input,' Bakondy said.

'Ms. Goodwin doesn't want to hear that.  This is the ultimate form of censorship, and they are destroying our school district, targeting parents and eliminating dissent.'
The address was Rocket Road, Los Angeles but it might as well have been Universal Studios, Hollywood. Meeting Elon Musk was like walking on to a movie set.

First we passed a giant control room straight out of the film Apollo 13 (though far bigger and more high-tech). Then we entered a cavernous hangar with rockets  yes, actual space rockets  in various stages of construction all around us. Our tour guide, Musk himself, was overflowing with child-like excitement about everything that was happening.

Except this was no juvenile hobby. It was the headquarters of a multibillion-dollar business that would soon win its first contract with the U.S. space agency Nasa and eventually supplant Nasa as Americas  and the worlds  top space exploration pioneer.

The company was SpaceX (short for Space Exploration Technologies), founded by Elon Musk in 2002 (when he was 30 years old) with the $176 million he made from the sale of a previous venture he was involved in, PayPal. Astonishingly, Musk taught himself rocket science in order to start SpaceX.

Whether it is exploring space so humans can live on other planets and preserve Earth, pioneering electric cars for the mass market or ending traffic jams, Musk genuinely sees his role as solving mankinds problems through business

Perhaps even more astonishingly, to get to the SpaceX headquarters we drove past the design centre for an electric car company few people outside California had even heard of at the time: Tesla. Also founded by Elon Musk.

This was in 2013. Our meeting had been arranged by my friend and former Downing Street colleague Rohan Silva, to see if Musk had any useful observations on government transport policy in the UK.

Indeed he did.

Why on earth are you guys still talking about building high-speed rail? Its such old technology. Youre crazy! he said.

He railed  apologies for the pun  against the cost of traditional railway construction, explaining that he had been developing alternatives that could achieve much better results for a fraction of the cost.

He told us about his plans for a hyperloop  an ultra-high-speed transport system that would enable pods of passengers to travel through a vacuum tube at speeds of over 600 mph on magnetic tracks.

A few years later, as a guest on the BBCs Question Time, I mentioned Elon Musks hyperloop idea in response to an audience members question about the latest costly bureaucratic delay to hit the HS2 project.

I remember the merciless mockery directed at me by fellow panellist Ed Miliband for bringing my ludicrous California blue-sky babble about hyperloops to the gritty topic of train travel in England.

Sure enough, the audience hooted at me in derision (thankfully, it was the warm-up round and was never broadcast).

But look where we are today. The prototype hyperloop has been built and is working in Las Vegas. The technology is being developed by yet another Elon Musk start-up, The Boring Company, which aims to eliminate urban traffic by digging underground tunnels in big cities.

Oh, and did I mention Neuralink? Musk founded that company to develop artificial intelligence and neural implants to help people with brain injuries, neurological disorders such as Parkinsons disease and even paralysis to regain some independence by controlling computers and mobile devices with their brain.

Ludicrously, some commentators have even argued that Musks intention to ensure free speech on Twitter is itself a threat to free speech. These insults could not be more wrong

And speaking of the fight for independence, soon after Russias invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk announced that high-speed broadband had been restored across the country thanks to Starlink satellites developed by SpaceX.

Musk has donated thousands of terminals which are now operational in hospitals, energy installations and other critical infrastructure.

The technology even beat the Russian armys hacking attempt with a rapid software upgrade, impressing the head of the Pentagons electromagnetic warfare division, who said: That is fantastic . . . how they did that is kind of eye-watering to me . . . we need to be able to have that ability.

This is the background to the business adventure that has put Elon Musk in the spotlight as never before, while bringing down on him the vicious ire of the Establishment, media and Left-leaning politicians: his attempt to buy the social media site Twitter and make it a forum for free speech.

This week, he unveiled a $46.5 billion finance package for the bid  $21 billion in equity and $25.5 billion from Morgan Stanley  tweeting that if he succeeded in buying Twitter, the company would focus on removing spam from the site.

The elite, clearly rattled by the prospect of a serious challenge to their control of the public conversation, have tried to characterise Elon Musks bid for Twitter as a menacing attempt by a crazed billionaire to seize control of the worlds digital public square, so he can impose his own far-Right views. It is troubling, dangerous, a threat to our democracy, they desperately witter.

Ludicrously, some commentators have even argued that Musks intention to ensure free speech on Twitter is itself a threat to free speech.

These insults could not be more wrong. They completely misunderstand Elon Musks mindset, his motives and the real menace in this story: the Establishments relentless, demented  almost totalitarian  zeal to impose its own insular, woke groupthink on the world.

Over the past few days, I have spoken to friends who know and have worked with Elon Musk about what really makes him tick. A clear and consistent picture emerges.

He is above all an engineer  probably one of the best in the world. When an earlier model of his Tesla electric car was plagued by production problems, he spent night after night sleeping on the floor of the California factory to try to work out what was going wrong.

He had already hired some of the best-qualified automotive engineers anywhere. Yet, in the end, it was Musk himself, screwdriver in hand, who solved the problems.

Solving problems is what motivates him. When an interviewer once suggested to him that he had a tenuous grip on reality, he replied that physics is the most real thing there is. He sees problems in the world and tries to use physics and engineering to solve them.

We have seen the rise in recent years of Silicon Valley billionaires who have amassed huge wealth and influence through producing innovative software  websites and apps such as Google and Facebook.

What Elon Musk has done is different and, frankly, far more difficult. He has built businesses that focus on hardware  and hardware that is exceptionally hard to get right, such as reusable space rockets.

And this is how Musk thinks about Twitter and its role in society: as an engineering problem.

His Neuralink start-up approaches the human brain as a computer, albeit one far more sophisticated than anything technologists have built. If the brain is the hardware, Musk believes millions of people around the world have fallen prey to malicious software that is affecting society in destructive and divisive ways.

He has called it the woke mind virus  the ideology that drives so much of todays activism and cancel culture. His key observation is that this software was written by someone else  by the far-Left academic ideologues pushing wokeism.

Solving problems is what motivates him. When an interviewer once suggested to him that he had a tenuous grip on reality, he replied that physics is the most real thing there is. He sees problems in the world and tries to use physics and engineering to solve them

He wants people to think for themselves, to see and hear all points of view, to come to their own conclusions. He believes that is the way to get the best outcomes for society: the scientific method.

Elon Musk is not arguing for free speech because he wants to impose his views on everyone else. Instead, he wants all views to be available to everyone.

Indeed, it is hard to even pin down where Musk stands politically. Some of his stances  for example on marijuana, and government regulations  might place him on the political, even libertarian Right. On the other hand, his strong environmentalism (before it was folded into Tesla, Musk was connected with yet another company, SolarCity, which produced and installed solar panels) used to be heralded by the Left.

But that was before his stance on free speech made him the mortal enemy of the Leftist Establishment, threatening their ability to police what we can all say and thereby, they hope, what we think.

Their power to do this has been building for years, enabled by the fact that the giant tech companies, now so central to our public and political discourse, are all based in the most Left-wing part of America: the San Francisco Bay area, where I live.

Public data on the political donations of tech workers confirms what many long suspected: they are overwhelmingly Left-wing  and not just Left-wing but far-Left. This matters because of the way online speech is policed today.

We hear a lot about the algorithms used by Twitter, Google, YouTube, Facebook and others for content moderation. The companies claim these algorithms are impartial tools to prevent the spread of misinformation.

But the content suppressed by the algorithms all seems to fall on one side of the political divide, leading many to suspect that misinformation is simply the Establishments term for opinions that run counter to its approved narrative and groupthink.

This suspicion is given further weight when we realise that algorithms are not some objective, technical device but computer code that is written by people  the same, generally far-Left, software engineers and product managers who work for the tech companies.

The problem  and the truly undemocratic nature of this thought policing  is that the policies, values and assumptions expressed in these algorithms are hidden from public view. This is an outrageous breach of the trust we have the right to expect from companies that play such a crucial role in shaping our society. And this is the central focus of Elon Musks intentions for Twitter.

In his view, the Twitter board of directors have abdicated their role as guardians of the public interest. They have barely any stake in the company and have allowed it to be taken over by activists pushing the woke mind virus.

Musk believes that not only can he improve Twitter as a business by taking it private, but he can bring transparency and accountability to the hugely consequential decisions it makes about what can and cant be said  with a strong bias in favour of permissiveness. Of course, critics may laugh at the suggestion that this often eccentric billionaire, literally the worlds richest man, can in any way represent the public interest.

They would no doubt argue that such a brash individual, who smoked marijuana during a video interview in 2018 and recently endorsed the use of psychedelic drugs, would be a danger to the public if he managed to get his hands on Twitter.

How could anyone take seriously a man who had a son with electronic pop star Grimes, then named him X  A-Xii; and who was reportedly the inspiration for the maverick genius Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr in the Iron Man superhero films?

But again, this is to misunderstand Musks worldview. He has recently argued that his business ventures are in fact philanthropy in the original Greek meaning of the word  love of humanity.

Whether it is exploring space so humans can live on other planets and preserve Earth, pioneering electric cars for the mass market or ending traffic jams, Musk genuinely sees his role as solving mankinds problems through business.

That is not some outlandish concept  in fact, it is what I argued for in my book Good Business 20 years ago, and through my consulting firm of the same name.

With Musk, the publicity hasnt all been positive. There was a nasty libel case prompted by the totally uncalled-for paedo guy insult hurled at a British caver during the rescue of trapped Thai schoolboys in 2018. There were ethical concerns raised about the way SolarCity was acquired by Tesla. And yes, Musk can be a bit of a troll on Twitter.

But most of his trolling is directed at government and regulators. Isnt a billionaire who challenges authority much more admirable than one who fawns and sucks up to it  as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos did with his purchase of the ultimate Establishment mouthpiece, the Washington Post?

Bezos has now adopted the lifestyle of an uber-rich celebrity, swanning around the world posting photos of himself on superyachts.

Elon Musk, by contrast, has said he has sold his homes and most of his possessions and now stays in friends spare bedrooms when he travels  which is only for work.

It seems to me he has earned the right to be taken at face value when he says he is motivated not by money but by making the world a better place.

And that right now, making Twitter a platform for the open exchange of uncensored views is one of the most important ways of doing just that.

Steve Hilton was David Camerons director of strategy from 2010 to 2012.
A teenage boy has been arrested and refused bail after allegedly sexually and physically assaulting a young girl in a public toilet after grooming her online.

The boy, 16, contacted the girl, who is aged under 16, on a social media app in March before arranging to meet her at Kogarah train station near his home.

Police allege he took her to a public toilet in the Kogarah town centre where he sexually assaulted and choked her, causing 'actual bodily harm'.

A teenage boy has been arrested and refused bail for allegedly sexually and physically assaulting a young girl in a public toilet after grooming her online (pictured, stock image)

Police allege he took her to a public toilet in the Kogarah town centre where he sexually assaulted and choked her, causing 'actual bodily harm'

Officers were alerted by a call from St George Hospital that a young girl had been injured in an assault on Tuesday.

After local police investigated, the incident was taken up by the State Crime Commands Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad.

Specialist forensic officers established a forensic crime scene.

Detectives raided a home at Kogarah on Friday, seizing several items and arrested the boy, taking him to Kogarah police station.

He was was charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault on a victim under the age of 16 years, aggravated sexual assault including inflicting 'actual bodily harm on victim, choke etc'.

The boy was refused bail at the children's court and will appear again on June 7.

The boy was charged with multiple accounts of sexual assault and refused bail at the children's court and will appear again on June 7 (pictured, Kogarah police station)

Officers were alerted by a call from St George Hospital that a young girl had been injured in an assault (pictured, St George Hospital)

'The Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad is comprised of detectives who are specially trained to investigate matters against children and adults, including sexual assault, serious physical abuse, and extreme cases of neglect,' a police statement said.

Police urged anyone with concerns about suspected child abuse or exploitation to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Controversial Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is once again causing a stir amid claims she created a 's*** storm' in the lead up to a 'politics in the pub' event on Sydney's northern beaches.

The lawyer, 44, who was handpicked by Scott Morrison to run in the marginal seat of Warringah against Independent MP Zali Steggall, attended the public function on Friday night at Forestville RSL.

Ms Deves  who has generated plenty of headlines after her social media posts on trans people  was billed to speak alongside fellow Liberal Jason Falinski, the Member for Mackellar.

Promoted as a 'Politics at the Pub' event, it quickly descended into a farce when journalists at the scene were informed it was invite only, with staff at the RSL reportedly told to turn reporters away.

Ms Deves eventually arrived - almost 30 minutes after the event began - and made the following statement.

Mr Smith earlier told other people in the room that Ms Deves' (pictured) comments on Twitter had seen an increase in patients at his relative's nearby psychology clinic

Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is once again generating headlines after a controversial 'politics at the pub' event on Friday night at Forestville RSL

Loyal RSL member Norris Smith (pictured) was escorted from the venue after he told fellow patrons comments from Ms Deves on trans people has seen an increase in patients at a nearby psychology clinic

'I have fought for women and children and now I'm fighting for Warringah. Thank you for coming along tonight. I'm looking forward to campaigning hard over the next four weeks and on the issues that affect the people in the room.'

She then refused to take any questions and further chaos followed when local club member Norris Smith was asked to leave the venue.

Mr Smith earlier told other people in the room that Ms Deves' comments on Twitter had seen an increase in patients at his relative's nearby psychology clinic.

'I am 66. It's the first time I've actually been thrown out of any venue that serves alcohol in my life,' he told news.com.au.

'My son works in mental health. He's 29. He works with kids 12 to 25 and he said 'this just caused a s***storm for us'.

'It's upsetting everyone. And to compare them with the f**king Nazis for Christ's sake. She (Deves) is a disgrace.'

Ms Deves has become a divisive figure following a number of provocative comments on her Twitter account - which she has since deleted.

She once declared trans teenagers are 'surgically mutilated' and felt personally 'triggered' by the rainbow Pride flag.

She also bizarrely linked cross-dressing males and and trans women to 'sexual predators, even serial killers'.

'Transvestism is very common among sexual predators, even serial killers,' she said in a historical tweet.

'So how are we women supposed to tell the difference between the ones who are a threat and the ones who aren't? Easier for women to exclude all males from spaces where we are vulnerable.'

Last September Ms Deves described the prospect of two gay men having a baby as a 'vanity project.'

'Surrogacy is a human rights violation,' she tweeted. 'Women's bodies are not vehicles for a vanity project.'

Ms Deves was referring to Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay U.S. presidential candidate, and his husband, who are joint fathers of twin girls.

Ms Deves (pictured with her family) has vowed she's 'not going anywhere', despite growing calls within the Liberal party for her to be disendorsed

Ms Deves (pictured) has apologised for the wording used in some previous tweets, but many have called for her to stand down from her election candidacy in Warringah

In another tweet, Ms Deves said 'transablism' - where trans people pretend to be disabled - is 'a thing' and likened people in that category to a well-known serial killer.

'Didn't (infamous serial killer) Ted Bundy pretend to be injured to garner sympathy?' she asked.

In tweets that resurfaced just after the Prime Minister endorsed her for the seat of Warringah, Ms Deves said transgender children who underwent sex reassignment surgery were 'surgically mutilated and sterilised'.

She shared a picture of a trans American teenager in November who had just had breasts removed and wrote: 'This photo just hit my feed. It is beyond heartbreaking.'

In a second tweet she added: 'They will not stand for seeing vulnerable children surgically mutilated and sterilised in futherance of an unattainable idea.

'The lawsuits will be legion, as will the government inquiries. Complete failure of safeguarding. Mark my words.'

The original image had been shared on social media by a parent of the teenager who underwent the breast removal.

The caption read: 'So we are on day 10 post op, keyhole. Just got home from my son getting his drains out. Wow, he went from misery of post op to YAY! NO TITTIES!!! Anyway, he 100% gave permission to share this pic'.

Earlier this week, Mr Morrison stood by his 'captain's pick' and said Ms Deves - labelled by some people a 'bigot' on social media - would make a 'great member of parliament'.

'She is standing up for women and girls and their access to fair sport in this country,' the PM said.

'She has learned in her advocacy in her private life there are better ways to do things to take things forward as a Member of Parliament.

'I believe that is how she will approach the task if she is elected as the member for Warringah, and I don't think she should be silenced.'
An Australia Post worker has been suspended after he was filmed dumping postal vote applications into a grandmother's wheelie bin, before allegedly offering her a bribe.

Brisbane woman Annette Weller caught the man in the act on her security camera throwing mounds of Liberal National Party election postal vote applications into her bin.

The irate resident confronted the postie, who then allegedly offered her $10 before she yelled at him, 'no, don't give me nothing mate, don't bribe me'.

The incident happened in the electorate of Blair, west of Brisbane, which is a marginal seat held by Labor's Shayne Neumann.

The postal worker (pictured) was caught on camera allegedly offering the Brisbane grandmother $10

Ms Weller was angry the postie was putting the letters in her bin and said they were crucial for postal voters.

'That was all important mail for people wanting to go do a postal vote, they'll be waiting for them and they won't receive it because they were all dumped in my bin,' Ms Weller told A Current Affair.

The postal worker initially denied having dumped the mail in her bin, before returning to apologise after Ms Weller told him she had captured him on her CCTV.

The footage revealed the worker opening his wallet, and offering her the $10.

'I'll give you $10,' the man can be heard saying.

Ms Weller responded: 'No, don't give me nothing mate. Don't bribe me. Go f--- off.'

The grandmother said she was 'totally degusted' with the postman's actions and called her local LNP Senator Paul Scarr, whose office the letters had been mailed from.

Ms Weller told the Today Show on Saturday the senator 'was livid' and 'couldn't believe it'.

Annette Weller (pictured) was aghast with the mounds of unsent postal vote applications dumped in her bin

LNP senator Paul Scarr (pictured) was 'livid' that mail from his office had been thrown in a bin and called for an investigation, speculating on how widespread the practice could be

The LNP senator said he was 'disappointed' and suggested the postal vote application letter dumping could be rampant.

'I think people have a right to expect better from Australia Post ... and it raises a lot of questions in my mind, how widespread is it,' Mr Scarr said.

'I expect as a customer of Australia Post, for them to deliver the mail, and I don't think that's too much to ask.'

The senator has called for Australia Post to do a thorough probe into the matter, as they were contracted to carry out the application deliveries for $13,000.

Australia Post Group CEO Paul Graham said they had suspended the worker, pending the outcome of an internal investigation, and are working with police.

'We are working with the LNP to deliver these mail items as a priority. We take full responsibility and apologise unreservedly,' his statement said.

Federal government spokesman Simon Birmingham said on Saturday that the incident was 'deeply disturbing'.

The Australian Electoral Commission said the incident 'has no effect on the operation of the election whatsoever and that voters can access in-person voting'.

Those needing a postal vote can apply via the AEC website directly.

Postal votes are expected to surge this year, with voters keen to avoid crowds and long queues in the looming May 21 federal election - the first since Covid hit the country.
A middle-aged man has been charged after allegedly trying to arrange sex with a girl under 10 through an undercover police officer posing as the mother.

The 59-year-old was arrested at Liverpool, in western Sydney, just before 10am on Friday.

Child Abuse and Sex Crime Squad's Child Exploitation Internet Unit had allegedly been speaking to the man online for the past month.

A middle-aged man has been charged after allegedly trying to arrange sex with a girl under 10 through an undercover police officer posing as the mother

The 59-year-old was arrested at Liverpool, in western Sydney, just before 10am on Friday

Police allege the man believed he was speaking to the mother of a girl aged under 10 and detailed the sexual acts he wished to perform on the child.

The man then allegedly made arrangements to meet the child for sex.

Police searched a Kenthurst home, north-west Sydney, and seized electronic storage devices.

The man was charged with attempt sexual intercourse with child under the age of 10, use carriage service to procure child under 16 years for sexual activity, and use carriage service to transmit or publish or promote child abuse.

The man was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad Commander detective superintendent Jayne Doherty said parents should be vigilant of the dangers online.

'What this man allegedly said to investigators about what he wished to do to a young child is unspeakable and removing him from the community was of the highest importance,' she said.

'It will be alleged in court he believed he was meeting a mother and young child for the purpose of sexual activity yesterday, but was instead confronted by police.'

The man was charged with attempt sexual intercourse with child under the age of 10, use carriage service to procure child under 16 years for sexual activity, and use carriage service to transmit or publish or promote child abuse

The man was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday

Superintendent Doherty said parents needed to be aware of who their children were speaking to on the internet.

'Parents and guardians should be involved in their children's online activity and ensure they know they can come to you if they are uncomfortable with anything that happens online,' she said.

'Given that school holidays are underway, this man's arrest should serve as a timely reminder that strangers exist online and frequently use the internet as a tool to groom children.'
A driverless Tesla was filmed crashing into a $2m private yet while being 'summoned' across a Washington airfield by its owner.

The rogue Model Y kept on going after slamming into the Cirrus Vision at the airfield, believed to be in Spokane.

The plane spins around almost in a 360 after being struck by the Tesla, which continues in motion before three unidentified people show up, presumably to stop it. No injuries were reported from the incident.

A post on Reddit said that the car was in what Tesla calls 'Smart Summon' mode in which owners can manipulate their cars' forward and backward progress straight into or out of a tight parking space via their smart phones.

Tesla warns users that: 'Those using Smart Summon must remain responsible for the car and monitor it and its surroundings at all times.'

A Tesla (background right) running on the manufacturer's autopilot program crashed into a jet with a value of $3million on video, as the company continues to work out the kinks in its self-driving car

The plane spins around almost in a 360 after being struck by the Tesla, which continues in motion

Three unidentified people show up in frame, presumably to stop the Tesla. No injuries were reported from the incident

This is far from the first time Tesla's self-driving models have gone haywire and caused chaos.

In February, a Tesla Model 3 car in 'Full Self-Driving' mode has been captured colliding with a bike lane barrier post.

The footage was captured during a drive in downtown San Jose, California, by a YouTuber who goes by the name AI Addict, and provides the first recorded evidence that Full Self-Driving, or FSD, has been directly responsible for an accident.

The latest version of the Tesla's self-driving software, FSD Beta version 10.10, can be seen veering the Model 3 into the bollard separating a bike lane from the road.

Even though the driver is hitting the brakes and furiously spins the steering wheel away from the obstacle, the AI-powered FSD system hits the bollard with a big thud.

Worryingly, at other points in the video the Model 3 appears to run a red light and attempts to go down a railroad track and later a tram lane because of the software.

That video came shortly after Tesla was forced to recall nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs this month because their full self-driving software was letting them pass stop signs.

WHAT IS FULL SELF DRIVING (FSD)? Full Self-Driving is the advanced driver assistance software powering Tesla vehicles. It's Level 2, meaning the system can control the speed and direction of the car allowing the driver to take their hands off temporarily, but they have to monitor the road at all times and be ready to take over. The technology, which is optional, includes several autonomous driving features, but still requires driver supervision. As of February 8, the latest version of FDS Beta is version 10.10. Advertisement

AI Addict posted the nine-minute video of the drive to YouTube on February 5. The crash takes place at around the three-and-a-half minutes mark.

The YouTuber appears to be in the front seat behind the wheel, accompanied by a passenger in the back seat.

'S**t, we hit that!' AI Addict can be heard saying. 'I hit the brakes to the floor!'

The passenger says: 'I can't believe the car didn't stop'.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed only last month that the FSD Beta system had never had an accident, but the new footage offers proof that this is no longer the case.

In most of AI Addict's video, the driver can be seen merely touching the wheel rather than holding it, allowing the autonomous technology to control the wheel's movements to follow a pre-defined route on a map.

FSD is capable of level 2 autonomy. This means the system can control the speed and direction of the car, allowing the driver to take their hands off temporarily, but they have to monitor the road at all times and be ready to take over.

Moments prior to the crash, the driver can be seen letting the wheel rotate through his hands too far to the right before noticing the post and turning it quickly to the left  but it's too late.

Although the crash wasn't serious, the bollard, which was nearly knocked cleanly to the ground, left paint on the front bumper.

TESLA RECALLS 54,000 CARS AS SOFTWARE LETS THEM RUN RED LIGHTS Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their full self-driving software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt. The firm has disabled the feature with an over-the-internet software update, documents posted on February 1 by US safety regulators revealed. The documents say Tesla agreed to the recall after two meetings with officials from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The feature, that was being tested by a number of drivers, lets vehicles go through junctions with a stop sign at up to 5.6 miles per hour. Read more: Feature allowed vehicles to go through junctions with stop signs at up to 5.6mph Advertisement

It's possible the system was not aware that a section was cordoned off for the bike lane. MailOnline has contacted Tesla for comment.

The Model 3 seems to have a problem detecting the green bike lane barrier posts, which are dotted all over downtown San Jose, throughout much of the video, often driving towards them at several points.

The video appears to highlight other deficiencies in FSD, which is in beta and therefore set to improve reported faults before a wide rollout.

At another point in the video, the car's AI is trying to turn left onto a busy main road even though a truck is oncoming.

AI Addict can be heard saying: 'Here comes a truck and it's creeping forward and I don't like this. Holy f.... OK.'

At other points, FSD seems to do a good job of 'patiently' waiting for pedestrians to cross the road and keeping clear of other cars.

Tesla has been releasing new software updates to its FSD Beta program  the latest being version 10.10, released earlier this month.

Towards the end of last year, Tesla said that it almost had 60,000 owners in the FSD Beta program, which is only available to select Tesla owners picked by the company and drivers with high safety scores of 100 out of 100.

However, one investor revealed to Electrek last October that he had only a safety score of 37 out of 100 and was still using FSD Beta.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed only in January that the FSD Beta system had never had an accident, but the new footage offers proof that this is no longer the case

A Tesla Inc Model 3 electric vehicle, like the one in the video, is seen here displayed inside a showroom in Tokyo, Japan

These safety score are decided by drivers giving the firm permission to monitor their driving using in-car software.

Tesla warns that drivers using the systems must be ready to intervene at all times, as per any Level 2 autonomous driving system.

FSD is an upgrade package to Autopilot, the company's suite of of advanced driver-assistance system features, which has had a controversial and often fatal history.

So far 12 fatalities involving Tesla's Autopilot have been verified, along with a load of non-fatal crashes.

Despite Musk's assertion in January of FSD Beta's impeccable record, the US government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received its first complaint in November 2021 that FSD caused a crash from a Tesla driver.The incident in Brea, California involved a Tesla Model Y forcing itself into the incorrect lane and being hit by another vehicle, according to AP.
Xi'an launches first freight train to Vientiane via China-Laos Railway

Xinhua) 13:35, April 23, 2022

A freight train heading for the Laotian capital Vientiane departs from the Xi'an international port in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 22, 2022. Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Friday launched its first freight train to Vientiane, traveling via the China-Laos Railway.

The train mainly loaded with textile products will exit China via the Mohan Port in the country's southwest Yunnan Province and arrive in the Laotian capital in about five days. (Photo by Liu Xiang/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on April 22, 2022 shows a freight train heading for the Laotian capital Vientiane is about to depart from the Xi'an international port in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Friday launched its first freight train to Vientiane, traveling via the China-Laos Railway.

The train mainly loaded with textile products will exit China via the Mohan Port in the country's southwest Yunnan Province and arrive in the Laotian capital in about five days. (Photo by Liu Xiang/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on April 22, 2022 shows a freight train heading for the Laotian capital Vientiane departs from the Xi'an international port in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Friday launched its first freight train to Vientiane, traveling via the China-Laos Railway.

The train mainly loaded with textile products will exit China via the Mohan Port in the country's southwest Yunnan Province and arrive in the Laotian capital in about five days. (Photo by Liu Xiang/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Local sources from inside Serekaniye reported that, in conjunction with the entry of the governor of Urfa state to the occupied city of Serekaniye, violent clashes erupted between the mercenaries of the Harakat Al-Thwar and the mercenaries of "Al-Hamzat" in the Al-Hawarna neighborhood, expanding to the rest of the city's neighborhoods, using all kinds of weapons.

The sources pointed out that as a result of the clashes, a number of dead between the two sides and more than ten wounded, including civilians.

The source noted that as a result of the intensity of the clashes, the Turkish occupation forces, accompanied by tanks and armored vehicles, intervened to resolve the conflict between the mercenary, but they were unable to calm the situation, and the clashes are still continuing and sporadic, according to the source.

A

ANHA
A British pro-Kremlin stooge accused of potential war crimes in Ukraine is a former sex blogger who even appeared on the BBC to brag about using prostitutes.

Graham Phillips, 43, is facing the threat of prosecution or being stripped of his British passport for conducting a menacing interview with battered captive Aiden Aslin.

Mr Aslin, a Briton who served with Ukrainian forces, endured a 45-minute encounter with Phillips, who taunted him about potentially facing the death penalty under the laws of the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

Kremlin stooge Graham Phillips conducted a menacing interview with Brit captive Aiden Aslin

The interview had stayed on YouTube, despite a complaint in the Commons by Robert Jenrick, Mr Aslinss MP, that it is likely to be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

But last night YouTube removed it.

It is only the latest cruel interview with PoWs that Phillips has undertaken for his Russian masters, who convinced him he was an independent journalist.

In his blog A Brit in Ukraine, Phillips, who has roots in Nottingham, reveals his main previous interest was sex.

Among articles written around 2014 are The Beautiful Girls of Ukraine (#1) and Ukrainian Girls are Smokin.

He also appeared in a 2014 BBC radio documentary in which he gleefully told of his encounter with an angel-like prostitute.
France and Germany sold 230million worth of military hardware to Moscow which was likely used in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to an EU analysis.

It should have been impossible to do so owing to an EU embargo that banned selling arms to Russia following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Last month, it was discovered that France, Germany and Italy used a loophole in the ban.

They were just three of at least 10 EU member states to export almost 350million (293million) in equipment that included missiles, rockets, guns and bombs.

It was reported by The Telegraph that 78 per cent of this total was supplied by French and German firms.

Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol

The EU banned 'the direct or indirect sale, supply, transfer or export of arms and related material of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts therefore, to Russia' eight years ago.

However, countries were able to sell hundreds of millions of pounds worth of kit to Russia despite the ban using a backdoor technicality that permitted contracts signed before August 1, 2014, or additional contracts that would help conclude those deals.

France was responsible for making 152 million in sales as part of 76 export licences.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the European Union had sent almost 1billion to Russia each day for energy since the war in Ukraine began.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced sharp criticism for failing to deliver heavy weapons to the besieged country, such as tanks and howitzers, to fend off savage Russian attacks.

The leader said he feared that providing Ukraine with tanks could spark a nuclear war.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he fears providing Ukraine with tanks could spark a nuclear war

Other Western allies have stepped up their military shipments to Volodymyr Zelensky's forces but Scholz has held firm in his bid not to upset Vladimir Putin.

Instead, on Tuesday, he said Germany would provide Ukraine with 830million to buy their own weapons.

Asked in an extensive interview published on Friday why he thought delivering tanks could lead to nuclear war, he said there was no rule book that stated when Germany could be considered a party to the war in Ukraine.

It comes as Russia revealed plans to seize Ukraines entire southern coast and hinted at future military action in Moldova to protect oppressed Russian speakers.

Other Western allies have stepped up their military shipments to Volodymyr Zelensky 's forces but Scholz has held firm in his bid not to upset Vladimir Putin

The deputy commander of Russia's central military district, Rustam Minnekayev, said Russia planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

The suggestion by a senior Russian official that Moscow needs to defend supporters in a nearby country is a chilling echo of its previous justification for invading Ukraine.

It would mean an extended war to the west of annexed Crimea, where Putin's sea power is diminished after the sinking of the Moskva.

Russian forces already occupy most of the territory there and, as Western officials have conceded, they are in a position to achieve their military objectives.

It comes as Russia revealed plans to seize Ukraines entire southern coast and hinted at future military action in Moldova to protect oppressed Russian speakers

Boris Johnson said the UK is looking at sending British tanks to Poland - after it was revealed Ukrainian troops are in Britain being trained for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion.

Speaking during a news conference in New Delhi, where he held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister today said the Government was contemplating sending Challenger 2 tanks to eastern Europe to replace Soviet-era T-72 tanks the Poles are shipping to Ukraine.

Mr Johnson told reporters: 'I think perhaps what I haven't said publicly before is we're also looking more at what we can do to backfill in countries such as Poland who may want to send heavier weaponry to help defend the Ukrainians.

'So we're looking at sending tanks to Poland to help them as they sending some of their T-72s to Ukraine.'

The Challenger 2 tank has been the mainstay of the British Army since the 1990s and saw action in the Iraq War. The 64-tonne vehicles are due to go out of service in 2025, but the Army still has a fleet of more than 200.

The Challenger 2 tank has been the mainstay of the British Army since the 1990s and saw action in the Iraq War. The 64-tonne vehicles are due to go out of service in 2025, but the Army still has a fleet of more than 200
Ukrainians in areas under Russian occupation or bombardment have been forced to scour through bins in search of food.

It is why the record-breaking Mail Force Ukraine Appeal and the Ukrainian Embassy in London are sending 500,000 boxes of humanitarian food aid worth 8million to end the suffering of innocent people.

Grandmother Natalya Boyko, 61, worked as a chef and a baker before the Russian invasion of her homeland  in which the Kremlin has been accused of weaponising hunger.

Kyiv baker Natalya Boyko, 61, raises 12-year-old grandson Danilko alone. They fled Bucha

She and her 12-year-old grandson Danilko, whom she has raised on her own, managed to flee from their home in Bucha, where some of the worst atrocities took place, to Kyiv after Vladimir Putins forces withdrew from the town.

The Russians had prevented supply deliveries getting into Bucha.

Speaking from the relative safety of the capital, Miss Boyko said: We had no money. There was nothing in the way of food. We took bags and looked for food in rubbish bins.

The first time we tried to leave, the evacuation convoy ahead of us was fired upon.

Her story has been echoed by many residents who suffered from the Russian occupation, who described having limited access to food and water.

Miss Boyko left Bucha with just 300 Ukrainian hryvnia in cash, equivalent to just under 8.

She said: When I first went shopping in Kyiv, the supermarket manager had to help pay for groceries. Then we sought help from some local voluntary organisations.

She said the humanitarian aid funded by Daily Mail readers generosity would be a huge help to Ukrainians suffering from a lack of food due to Putins brutality.

That view is shared by Dmytro Stepnov who called the record-breaking campaign  which sees all donations go to charities and aid organisations  an extraordinary show of support for Ukrainians.

People there may not know who helped, but I can assure you that they are very, very grateful to you, he said in an interview from Kyiv.

The father of two described his good life in Mariupol before Russia attacked last month.

He was chairman of the citys rowing federation and took part in powerlifting competitions in his spare time.

The needs of people in my hometown are as basic as you can imagine, he said. Just to be able to eat, drink, be warm and safe.

He and his wife Yulia had to strictly ration their meal portions before they escaped to the Ukrainian capital. When we were in Mariupol, the food was calculated for every day, for every meal, Mr Stepnov explained.

The 36-year-old is now working with a humanitarian volunteer organisation in Kyiv.

He warned that those parts of Ukraine welcoming large numbers of displaced people, such as Dnipro, may soon feel the strain of the sheer numbers of new arrivals.

There are long queues for humanitarian goods everywhere in these cities. There are people living below the poverty line, he said.

The Mail Force Ukraine Appeal  which has now raised more than 11million  has also been praised by Boris Johnson and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Donations have already gone to help Ukrainians refugees who have fled the conflict, or those who are still in their homeland under the constant threat of shelling from the Russian invaders.

The appeal was started with a 500,000 donation from the papers parent company DMGT at the request of chairman Lord Rothermere and Lady Rothermere.
Sajid Javid is set to launch a review into gender treatment for minors as he believes the current system is 'failing children'.

It is reported the health secretary believes vulnerable children are wrongly being given gender hormone treatment and has compared the discussion of the topic to the fear of racism when investigating grooming gangs in Rotherham.

The 52-year-old is believed to be worried after a recent interim report by Hilary Cass, former president Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, found shortcomings in the way children are treated for gender identity problems.

The Times reports Mr Javid was concerned to read in the report that some staff felt 'pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach' to transitioning.

The health secretary is reported to be reading a review of how vulnerable children are treated for gender identity issues

The paper quoted an unnamed ally of the health secretary as saying: 'If you look at Hilary Casss interim report, the findings are deeply concerning and its clear from that report that were failing children.'

They added an 'overly affirmative' approach where 'people just accept what a child says' was problematic, with other issues such as mental health being overshadowed, and that Mr Javid supports giving Cass access to an NHS database to see how many children regret taking puberty-blockers.

The source told the paper that discussion of gender and treatment of children had become toxic and that it had been compared to the discussion grooming gangs in Rotherham.

'There is the same theme of not being afraid to tackle issues that others might prefer not to talk about,' they said.

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust runs clinics in London, Leeds and Bristol that provide specialist services for children who identify as transgender.

It treats 2,500 children every year, 200 of which have access to hormones.

It said that while there is a need for change, doctors already take into account the wider physical and mental health of children who are referred there.

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the only specialist services for children dealing with gender identity issues, has been criticised for some of its practices

A spokesman for Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust told the Times: 'Being respectful of someone's identity does not preclude exploration.

'We agree that support should be holistic, based on the best available evidence, and that no assumptions should be made about the right outcome for any given young person.'

It comes less than a week after the health secretary criticised the trust, saying some of its controversial practices are 'bordering on ideological'.

Sajid Javid said gender identity services for children and adolescents in the UK are 'bordering on ideological'

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday about the Cass's report, he said: 'Its already clear to me from her interim findings and from the other evidence that Ive seen that the NHS services in this area are too narrow, they are overly affirmative, and in fact theyre bordering on ideological.

'And that is why in this emerging area, of course, we need to be absolutely sensitive.

'But we need to make sure that there is holistic care thats provided, theres not a one-way street and that all medical interventions are based on the best clinical evidence.'

In her review, Dr Cass wrote that some primary and secondary care staff felt under pressure to adopt an unquestioning approach to children seeking to change their sex.

These staff do not prescribe treatments and refer children to the Tavistock trust.

She also found there was a lack of formal clinical guidance and stifled debate, which has left many medics 'nervous' about offering the 'more robust support' to patients they want to deliver.

It meant youngsters are being given the controversial puberty blockers or sex-swap hormones they ask for  when they may benefit more from waiting or other care.

Tavistock and Portman Trust's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which is the sole NHS treatment centre for gender issues in England, insists it is 'extraordinarily rare' for children who have hormone treatment to regret receiving it.

The full review is due later this year and is expected to spell the end of the Trusts' status as being the only provider of these services to children.

Instead, it is expected that regional NHS bodies will be told to establish their own clinics and services when the full review is published.
Sir Keir Starmer could face a fresh police probe for having a beer with colleagues during lockdown in the wake of the Partygate fine handed to Boris Johnson.

The Labour leader was photographed drinking and socialising in an MPs office when households were banned from mixing indoors.

He was cleared of breaching any rules after Durham Constabulary looked at footage of the event, which took place during campaigning for the Hartlepool by-election a year ago.

The Labour leader was photographed drinking and socialising in an MPs office when households were banned from mixing indoors

But the force is under pressure to reopen the case after Scotland Yard began handing out fixed-penalty notices to politicians and officials for breaking Covid laws while working in Downing Street and Whitehall.

The Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak have been fined 50 each for gathering in No 10 in June 2020 so Mr Johnson could be wished happy birthday. More penalties will be issued next month.

Richard Holden, Tory MP for North West Durham, wrote to Durhams Chief Constable Jo Farrell urging her to look again at the decision to take no further action against Sir Keir.

He said there was a strong public interest in reassessing the Labour leaders case in light of the fines issued to the PM and the Chancellor.

Mr Holden added: I do not believe the photographed activity meets the functional but not social test in the guidance on political campaigning in campaign rooms.

Labour and Durham Constabulary declined to comment last night.

When the images emerged in January, Sir Keir said: We stopped for something to eat and then we carried on working. No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the Prime Minister.
Marrying someone with very old parents could reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a study suggests.

Researchers have known children born into exceptionally long-living families have levels of biomarkers  molecules found in the blood  linked to a reduced risk of developing the condition.

Their genetic make-up helps their body remain responsive to insulin, which is key to keeping type 2 diabetes at bay.

Their genetic make-up helps their body remain responsive to insulin, which is key to keeping type 2 diabetes at bay.

Now a study has found their spouses, typically not born to long-lived parents, tend to share these biomarker levels.

The University of Pittsburgh in the US looked at 4,000 men and women aged over 90, their children and their spouses.

Some 3.7 per cent of their offspring developed type 2 diabetes over ten years, while 3.8 per cent of their partners did  a rate about 53 per cent lower than the average among middle-aged Americans.

Author Professor Iva Miljkovic said it suggested being married to a member of a long-lived family comes with a metabolic health and survival advantage.

The study is in the journal Frontiers in Clinical Diabetes and Healthcare.
The married Covid professor accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague at a work retreat asked her to pay to clean a hotel sofa she vomited on, a tribunal has heard.

Dr Giang Thu Nguyen told the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that the morning after he allegedly sexual assaulted her, Professor Joshua Ross asked to use her credit card for the sofa to be cleaned.

Dr Nguyen told the hearing when she woke naked on the couch in Professor Ross's room in the Stamford Grand Hotel and saw him asleep in his bed before she vomited on the couch and went to the bathroom.

She later made a complaint to police alleging the sex had been non-consensual because she was too intoxicated to consent to what had occurred.

The hearings are part of Dr Nguyen's compensation case against the university and Professor Ross for almost $1million.

She now unable to work and requires treatment for ongoing post-traumatic stress.

Professor Joshua Ross, whose work has helped shape South Australia's response to Covid-19, has denied assaulting university colleague Dr Giang Thu Nguyen, with whom he had sex on a retreat. Professor Ross insists any sexual activity between the pair was consensual

Dr Nguyen alleges when she woke naked on a couch in Professor Ross's room, saw him asleep in his bed and threw up on the couch before crawling to the bathroom. She later made a complaint to police

The Stamford Grand Hotel where Dr Giang Thu Nguyen alleges non-consensual sex with Dr Ross took place during a work retreat

'He said he was sorry, that he was not proud of what he had done but, if anyone found out about it, his life would be ruined,' Dr Nguyen told the tribunal, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

The two were Adelaide University colleagues and were attending the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers three-day retreat.

Dr Nguyen also claimed she witnessed Professor Ross, who is the South Australian government's lead Covid modeller, rehearse lying to hotel staff in the bathroom mirror about the vomit stain.

'(Later) I realised that, if he was practising lying in front of the mirror, then hes capable of lying, which means hes capable of doing something thats not good,' she told the hearing.

Professor Ross insists his sexual activity with Dr Nguyen at the beachside hotel on November 1, 2019 was consensual

Dr Nguyen, who works with Professor Ross at the University of Adelaide, is alleging she was sexually harassed and the university failed to adequately investigate her complaint. She is seeking $970,948 in damages, lost wages, entitlements and future expenses

Professor Ross insists his sexual activity with Dr Nguyen at the beachside hotel on November 1, 2019 was consensual.

He asserted Dr Nguyen initiated sexual contact by kissing him and was a 'willing consensual partner... cognisant and capable of consent', according to documents seen by the The Advertiser.

But Dr Nguyen claims she was 'not able to consent, and did not consent' when Professor Nguyen performed sex acts on her in the hotel room because she was too intoxicated.

A group, including Professor Ross and Dr Nguyen, dined at Sammy's on the Marina then had drinks at the Moseley Bar and Kitchen and the Glenelg Pier Hotel until 2am.

'By around this time, [Dr Nguyen] was extremely intoxicated to the extent that she experienced significant memory impairment, loss of balance and coordination, slurred speech and slow decision making,' court documents state.

Dr Nguyen alleges Professor Ross had sexual intercourse with her in his hotel room between 1.45am and 5am.

She is seeking $970,948 in damages, lost wages, entitlements and future expenses at the tribunal over alleged breaches of the Equal Opportunity Act.

Dr Nguyen, who works with Professor Ross at the University of Adelaide, is also alleging the university failed to adequately investigate her complaint.

She is the director of gender diversity and inclusion for the university's Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Science and a chess champion.

She represented Australia in six Chess Olympiads.

The University of Adelaide stands by its findings that there was insufficient evidence to conclude a sexual assault occurred and says it would not be responsible if it did

Professor Ross says he voluntarily provided a statement to police and was told in March 2020 detectives would not be charging him with any offence.

His response to Dr Nguyen's claim states the university said it was satisfied he had engaged in 'no serious misconduct'.

According to Dr Nguyen, the alleged assault by Professor Ross resulted in 'offence, humiliation and intimidation' due to her extreme intoxication and because she was his subordinate.

'The university has harboured a system, culture or practice of not investigating complaints of sexual harassment with requisite seriousness,' she alleged.

When questioned by Professor Ross's legal representatives whether she was worried about being judged by colleagues for sleeping with a married man she responded that if she chose to have 'consensual sex' then it was irrelevant 'what other people think'.

Documents filed on Professor Ross' behalf state on the night he had sex with Dr Nguyen the pair 'sat very closely next to each other on a sofa' and she initiated a kiss on the lips.

'At all material times, Dr Nguyen was cognisant and capable of consenting to sexual activity,' Professor Ross claims. '[Dr Nguyen] was a willing consensual partner in sexual relations.'

The university stands by its findings that there was insufficient evidence to conclude a sexual assault had occurred and says it would not be responsible if it did.

It further denies Professor Ross is Dr Nguyen's supervisor and says it can ensure the two academics are never rostered on at the same time on the campus.

The hearing continues.
A New Hampshire couple has been found shot dead in the woods near their home after disappearing while taking a walk together, in what investigators suspect is a double murder.

Stephen Reid, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, were found dead on Thursday near hiking trails not far from their home in Concord, following an urgent search for the couple after they went missing.

Cops say that the couple was not believed to own any firearms, and there was no history of domestic violence in their relationship.

Stephen and Djeswende were last in communication with family members on Monday, when they left their apartment in the Alton Woods apartment complex at around 2.22pm to go for a walk, according to police.

Stephen Reid, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, were found dead on Thursday near hiking trails not far from their home in Concord, New Hampshire

The bodies were found in the area of the Broken Ground Trails that crisscross the woods seen above, only a short walk away from the couple's apartment

They were not reported missing until Wednesday, when they failed to show up for a planned family event.

Investigators found both of their cars parked in their usual spots at the apartment complex.

'They are avid outdoors people and are known to take frequent walks along the trails near their Concord residence,' police noted in a statement appealing to the public for information after their disappearance.

'Their absence and lack of communication with family/friends is uncharacteristic and their disappearance is of significant concern,' the statement added.

On Thursday evening, investigators made a grim discovery in the area of the Marsh Loop Trail, which is part of the Broken Ground Trails and only a short walk away from the couple's apartment.

There, cops found the bodies of Stephen and Djeswende, both of whom had been shot dead.

Stephen and Djeswende were last in communication with family members on Monday, when they left their apartment in the Alton Woods apartment complex

Investigators found both of their cars parked in their usual spots at their apartment complex (above) and believe they went for a hike near their home when they were killed

Autopsies were conducted by Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Mitchell Weinberg, who ruled that both deaths were homicides.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and additional information will be released as it becomes available.

In the meantime, with a double murderer on the loose, residents of the area are encouraged to remain vigilant and take normal precautions as they go about their daily lives.

Any suspicious behavior or activity encountered should be reported to the Concord Police Department.

'I've always said that Concord is one of the safest cities in one of the safest states in the United States,' Police Chief Brad Osgood said at a press conference Friday.

'This is a tragedy, it came out of nowhere, and we're going to be doing our due diligence and investing all of our resources and working with the state.'

Anyone with information about the murders is urged to contact Concord Regional Crimeline anonymously for a potential cash reward at (603) 226-3100.
The Department of Health is still using 82 Chinese-made cameras implicated in spying on the countrys Uyghur community  despite an impending NHS ban on goods made in Xinjiang.

Last week, Health Secretary Sajid Javid reportedly ordered officials to stop buying cameras made by Hikvision  a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

And a government amendment to the Health and Care Bill tabled on Thursday will stop future NHS procurement of any health goods from regions linked to slave labour.

Surveillance cameras built in China have been used to oppress Uyghur minorities in camps

While the amendment is not targeted at a specific country or company, the language used reflects ministers concerns over alleged abuses in Xinjiang in China  a major hub for global supply chains.

China 'attempting to cut Uyghur population' Chinese labour programmes for Uyghurs in Xinjiang are designed to reduce the population of the minority group, a study accidentally published online states. The report, written by academics at Nankai University, was taken offline in mid-2020 after being published in December 2019. But an archived copy was discovered, the BBC reported. The report states moving Uyghurs to new jobs outside heartland Xinjiang 'not only reduces the Uighur population density in Xinjiang, but also is an important method to influence, melt and assimilate Uighur minorities.' Advertisement

Ministers have come under pressure to address accusations of forced labour in the region, while Hikvision cameras are also deemed a security risk by intelligence officials.

The companys products have already been blacklisted in the US because of their implication in the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

In a written parliamentary answer this month junior minister Edward Argar revealed: There are 82 Hikvision products in use in the department.

A Department of Health spokesman said: We take the security of our personnel, systems and establishments very seriously and have robust measures in place.

China has denied accusations of forced labour and labour transfers, which some human rights experts and foreign government have said amount to cultural genocide, along with the so-called 're-education centres' in Xinjiang where some one million Uighurs have been arbitrarily detained.

The Chinese government has said that the work programmes are voluntary and are aimed at tackling poverty.

It comes as officials at the Department of Health and Social Care said Government fraud investigators are looking into contracts to supply the NHS with PPE during the pandemic.

Giving evidence to the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Jonathan Marron, the director general of the office for health improvement and disparities, said they had 'concerns' over 176 contracts worth a total of 3.9billion.
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Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex received a warm welcome in Saint Lucia as it rolled out the red carpet at the delayed start to their Caribbean tour.

Things got off to a smooth start as the Earl and Countess of Wessex exchanged gifts with the Prime Minister of the island yesterday, days after the Grenada leg of their trip was postponed at the 11th hour.

It marked the beginning of their seven-day tour of the Caribbean where they are also scheduled to visit two other nations, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex, pictured here at Hewanorra International Airport, started their week-long tour of the Caribbean in Saint Lucia on Friday

The Earl and Duchess of Wessex exchanged gifts with Prime Minister Philip Pierre. They are also scheduled to visit two other nations, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines during their tour

The couple were greeted by Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Philip Pierre, at a reception at his residence on the island in the evening

The Platinum Jubilee tour was organised to mark the Queen's 70-year reign, and it comes shortly after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were criticised for some elements of their recent Caribbean tour, deemed to hark back to colonial days.

Sophie and Edward presented Prime Minister Philip Pierre with a photograph of themselves and a Jubilee box as a 'token of appreciation' when they met him at his residence on Friday evening.

In return, Saint Lucia's PM gave the pair a painting of one of the island's turtles rolled up in a long black tube, and before discovering what the gift inside the tube was, Edward joked: 'It's not a fishing rod.'

The couple then signed the guest book to complete their first day of engagements.

They exchanged gifts with Mr Pierre giving the Earl and Countess of Wessex a watercolour painting of one of the islands turtles

In exchange the couple gave him a signed photograph of themselves. The tour forms part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations

Before meeting Mr Pierre, Sophie and Edward visited the acting governor general Cyril Errol Melchiades Charles.

The week-long tour will see Sophie and Edward 'meet communities, local entrepreneurs and craftspeople, and young people' as well as athletes training for the Commonwealth Games.

The couple's trip to Grenada was cancelled after consultations with Island's government there and Governor General.

While there is a definite sense of the country, which secured independence from Britain in 1974, inevitably progressing to become a republic one day, it is not a nation where the issue is particularly prevalent at the moment.

Prince Edward was given a Guard of Honour on their arrival at the airport on Friday. The couple had been forced to delay the start of their trip after their stop off in Grenada was postponed at the last minute

The Wessexes' went to a reception hosted by Mr Pierre on the first day of their tour. The week-long tour will see Sophie and Edward 'meet communities, local entrepreneurs and craftspeople, and young people' as well as athletes training for the Commonwealth Games

But sources have indicated that lengthy discussions with the Grenadian government and local officials to ensure the Wessexes' itinerary would meet the aims of the tour - to celebrate the island's heritage and ongoing successes as well as marking The Queen's Platinum Jubilee - had thrown up problems.

As a result of those discussions, the Governor General Cecile La Grenade advised that the trip should be postponed.

She was unwilling to discuss the specifics of the problem yesterday but an aide said: 'All I can say at this stage is that it was a mutual decision.'

Prince Edward pictured here receiving a black tube which had the watercolour painting of the turtles inside. Edward joked: 'It's not a fishing rod'

As well as a picture of themselves, the Wessexes' gave Mr Pierre a Jubilee box as a 'token of appreciation' for the warm welcome they had received

The trips to the Caribbean islands will see the senior royals on a charm offensive following in a bid to shore up support for the monarchy in the region.

However, it will be an uphill battle with Antigua presenting an open letter on reparations during the visit.

The chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, Dorbrene O'Marde has told a local radio station: 'Essentially, it supports the positions taken by otherpeople as far as the issue of reparation is concerned and the inability of the absence of an apology from the Crown both as family and as an institution for their role in the enslavement of African people in the slave trade and in the slavery of African people.'
Humanity is achieving a type 1 civilization that should be reached as stages that society cannot avoid if it wants to touch the stars. These are factors that measure the advancement of human civilization from the stone age and the present. But a fundamental milestone leads to mankind leaving the confines of its home and moving to the stars.

Stages Vital To Advanced Civilization

These identified stages are the checkpoint that leads to this goal; population, rise and fall of conquering civilization; and last is the development of space-faring technology, reported Sciencealert.

Development of energy sources used to power human civilization at any point in history. Our ability to leverage power is one of humanity's most valuable skills as it has expanded and developed. If one assumes that cultures in other worlds possess similar attributes, a species' energy usage is a reasonable rough indicator of its technical strength. The Kardashev Scale is based on this concept.

Nikolai Kardashev, a Russian astrophysicist, devised the scale in 1964. He categorized civilizations into planetary, stellar, and galactic cultures.

Three classifications start with the Type I species about to use energy sources from the stars that reach the homeworld. Type II species is more advanced as it can harvest the power of its local star, which is immense, but Type III is near god-like able to draw in power from the galaxy it exists, noted Tech Explore.

The noted scientist Carl Sagan suggested an alternative classification that means the continual rise of humanity is not three subtypes, with type 1 civilization as an immediate goal.

Read Also: Volodymyr Zelensky Children: Does the Ukraine President Have Kids?

Where Is Humanity Now?

How do we scale the Kardashev Scale with three subcategories mentioned by the Russian scientist? Even if the world uses much energy, it's not even Type I. For now, humankind can only use 1013 solar watt of the 1016 solar watts that reaches earth. Based on the scale, Sagan is only 0.73. It is mediocre for evolved apes but is Type I even reachable, cited Universe Today.

An article in arXiv covered this question; studied several sources of power like oil, nuclear, and green energy with calculations on how they would progress in time.

The Kardashev Scale Type 1 is most reachable via energy development as the primary goal. Though mastering the limits of all energies is crucial. But if all the fossil fuel is gone, that would lead to climatic change that will terminate mankind in the Great Filter, which means humans get extinct before going further. What to do and avoid killing the planet and humanity?

The study had a careful approach that means looking at the threshold of all energy sources and seeking a balance in their use. To limit the effects of climate change and pollution as dictated by a UN agency on climate change.

Mankind can reach Type 1 with reasonable limits, but that won't be it until three centuries later, in 2371. This delay is not bad. The Kardashev Scale is a tool for telling how advanced civilization is.

Advanced means more energy is used, which means the development of low-powered tech is needed while having more energy surplus, with nothing wasted. Humanity will have to suffer before reaching type 1 civilization, but it will take time, and the tech needed is just emerging or is already here; time will tell.

Related Article: Lightning Not Present in Atmosphere of Primordial Earth, Scientists Discover

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Boris Johnson is getting ready for a fresh clash with Brussels as he prepares to tear up the post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland.

Sources confirmed yesterday that ministers were drawing up laws allowing them to unilaterally suspend parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, which has been blamed for driving a wedge between the province and the rest of the UK.

The move will allow ministers to 'switch off' controversial border checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, which have been blamed for disrupting trade and causing shortages. The Prime Minister said yesterday he was ready to finally 'fix' the problems with the protocol.

Mr Johnson said: 'The protocol really does not command the confidence of a large, large component of the population in Northern Ireland. We have to fix that.

Boris Johnson (pictured on Friday) is getting ready for a fresh clash with Brussels as he prepares to tear up the post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland

'We think we can do it with some very simple and reasonable steps. We have talked repeatedly to our friends and partners in the EU. We will continue to talk to them, but... we don't rule out taking steps now if those are necessary.'

A Whitehall source said action to suspend some or all of the post-Brexit checks looked 'almost inevitable' before the summer unless the EU backed down.

Ministers fear the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will refuse to continue with power-sharing after next month's Stormont elections if the protocol remains in place.

Ministers have engaged in talks on the issue with Brussels for months. But a source said negotiations were 'going round in circles'.

Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns (pictured right, in 2017) said the threshold for triggering Article 16 of the protocol, which allows either side to suspend it, had been reached

The protocol was included as part of the PM's Brexit deal. Because the province effectively remains part of the EU's single market, Brussels demanded the right to impose checks on goods entering from the rest of the UK. But ministers say the heavy-handed checks are disrupting trade.

Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns said the threshold for triggering Article 16 of the protocol, which allows either side to suspend it, had been reached.

But Simon Hoare, Tory chairman of the Commons' Northern Ireland committee, said suspending the protocol could be a breach of international law.
The mother of captured British soldier has spoken with her son for the first time since his capture in Mariupol with captors telling her to 'press Boris Johnson for a swap deal'.

Ang Wood, mother of captured Aiden Aslin, said she was called by Russian captors telling her to be available for a video call over Facebook messenger on Thursday morning.

After several delays, the captors pressed Aiden, 28, to tell her to personally pressure the Prime Minister for him to be freed in exchange for pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk.

Ang also said her son appeared to be being treated well and was being fed, watered and had even been given a e-cigarette.

Ang, of Balderton, Notts., said: 'First the Russians said he'd call at 10, then 11.30, then 12, before Aiden eventually came on the phone.

Russian captors pressed Aiden, 28, to tell his mother to personally pressure the Prime Minister for him to be freed in exchange for pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk.

'What they wanted was for me to to press Boris Johnson for this swap deal involving Viktor Medvedchuk.

'I had to say that, with the greatest of respect, I didn't have the Prime Minister on speed dial.

'I could hear his Russian captors talking in the background. There were pauses where Aiden was being told what to say, that he had to do this, had to do that.

'They want Viktor and are willing to swap Aiden for his release.

'I told them that they will need to start talking to the Ukrainians. It is them that hold Viktor Medvedchuk.

'Obviously our guys can't release him because we don't have him.

'Maybe the Ukrainians will act as some small return for all of the military equipment and support Britain is giving them.'

Ang said the Russians seemed to want her to know that Aiden was now being treated well.

She added: 'He said that he had now had some sleep, had eaten, and had been given a vape.

'I told them that I expected them to treat him humanely and adhere to the terms of the Geneva Convention because he is a prisoner of war - a soldier in the Ukrainian army and has been for nearly four years.

'He is not a mercenary, not a spy, as they have claimed before.

'Aiden said he knew nothing of what was happening in the outside world.

'I described what was happening in Ukraine to him - that Ukraine was in bits - said that we were all well and told him that he was on every front page and on the TV news. His story was being told.

'He knows now that his situation hasn't been overlooked and that he and Shaun Pinner [the second Brit soldier captured at Mariupol] are cared about, and they are cared about.

'Today I received a lovely card from a lady whose son was held a prisoner of war which was simply addressed to 'Angela Wood, mother of Aiden Aslin - a prisoner of war in Russia - Newark' and somehow Royal Mail got it to me.

'He seemed OK. He seemed better in the video I was sent yesterday, he wasn't handcuffed.

'Far better than he did in that first video of his interrogation or the second by that pro-Kremlin from Nottingham, Graham Phillips. I was left thinking 'what is their game?'

'After the phone call, it became clear. Their demands seem set. I just hope something can be done, and soon.

'It's a waiting game, just as every day has been a waiting game.'

The idea of a prisoner exchange came originally from Medvedchuk's wife Oksana in a video message sent to Ang

The idea of a prisoner exchange came originally from Medvedchuk's wife Oksana in a video message sent to Ang after he was recaptured by the Ukrainian military following a period on the run after escaping house arrest.

The suggestion was then repeated by Medvedchuk in a Ukrainian intelligence services' video, before it was picked up by the Russians and repeated by both Aiden and his friend Pinner in their televised addresses.

Ang added: 'He knew nothing about Viktor Medvedchuk's wife sending me the video asking for the swap that kicked all of this off.

'I asked him what would happen if he and Shaun were swapped and he said that they would be released into the community, free to find their own way home.'

Russia's foreign ministry said that the British fighters who were captured in Ukraine by Kremlin troops were being fed, watered and given necessary help.

Foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: 'Don't worry, the Russian side is taking care of them.

'They are fed, watered, and given the necessary assistance. Just like other foreigners who have surrendered or been detained.'
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Moldova's foreign ministry last night said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to express 'deep concern' over comments by a top Kremlin military chief who hinted at future military action in the former Soviet state.

In a statement which has raised concerns in Chisinau, deputy commander of Russia's central military district, Rustam Minnekayev, said Russia planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

He also hinted Russia's forces could move further west into Transnistria - internationally recognised as part of Moldova - in order to protect 'oppressed' Russia speakers.

But last night Moldova said the statements were 'unfounded' and that the country remained a 'neutral state'.

'These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic of Moldova,' said Moldova's Foreign Ministry on its website.

'During the meeting, it was reiterated that the republic of Moldova ... is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation.'

The suggestion by a senior Russian official that Moscow needs to defend supporters in a nearby country is a chilling echo of its previous justification for invading Ukraine.

It would mean an extended war to the west of annexed Crimea, where Putin's sea power is diminished after the sinking of the Moskva.

Russian forces already occupy most of the territory there and, as Western officials have conceded, they are in a position to achieve their military objectives. Moldova, one of Europe's poorest states, was part of the Soviet Union but a war broke out between Moldovan forces and Russian-backed separatists in the Transnistria area in 1992. A ceasefire was agreed but the conflict remains unresolved.

Transnistria, which borders Ukraine, is recognised internationally as part of Moldova but is effectively controlled by Russia, which has given citizenship to separatists. An estimated 1,300 Russian troops are stationed in the enclave.

Unlike Ukraine and Georgia, Moldova is not seeking Nato membership. The landlocked country, with a population of just 2.6million, has only a few thousand active military personnel, so it would not be able to withstand a Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, last night it was claimed President Putin, who has been pictured looking bloated and weary in the run-up to his 70th birthday later this year, wants to emulate Catherine the Great.

The Russian queen controlled the entire Black Sea coast, including Odessa, Mykolaiv and war-torn port city Mariupol. On March 8 Putin referenced Catherine the Great in a speech for International Women's Day.

He said: 'She wasn't Russian by birth, but she was proud of becoming Russian.' He also referenced her poor health - perhaps a reference to his own.

Putin continued: 'She said: 'I will defend my motherland with my tongue, my pen and my sword - for as long as I live'.' He also made clear he wanted to emulate this 'great woman'.

An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops waving Russian flags moves towards Mariupol yesterday which Putin claims he has 'liberated'

Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol

A destroyed apartment building in Borodianka on the outskirts of Kyiv is seen as Russian bombardment in Ukraine continues

The remaining Ukrainian fighters left in Mariupol are holed up at the vast Azovstal industrial facility which Putin has ordered to be blockaded, effectively condemning the soldiers and civilians inside to their deaths.

Russia today said it was prepared to stop firing to allow the trapped fighters to leave the plant with any civilians, as the defence ministry blasted 'groundless' claims they would shut it with people inside, as Putin had ordered. The Russian leader also accused Kyiv of refusing to allow their Mariupol troops to surrender.

Mariupol sits between areas held by Russian separatists and Crimea and its capture would allow Russia to link the two areas.

During tsarist times, the lands now known as Ukraine were called Novorossiya - or New Russia.

This week the Kremlin foreign ministry hailed the 1792 Jassy Treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires 'in which the possession of the entire northern Black Sea coast from the Dniester to the Kuban, including Crimea, was finally secured for the Russian Empire'.

Putin has had his eyes on dismembering Ukraine for years, with Maj Gen Minnekayev's words only restating Putin's dream.

State Emergency Service (SES) experts remove Russian bombs as they clear the area in Chernihiv after the latest strikes

'Novorossiya - Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in Tsarist times,' Putin said in 2014.

'They were transferred [to Ukraine] in 1920 [after the Bolshevik Revolution]. Why? God knows.'

Now he is ticking them off one by one - with Odessa, founded by Catherine, the jewel. And afterwards Moldova?

'Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population,' said Minnekayev.

But Transnistria - a breakaway statelet of Moldova within easy reach of Odessa - is already staunchly pro-Putin and controlled by the Russian army and the KGB, as it has been since the end of the USSR.

It is a Soviet time warp and he won't have to fight to take it.

But Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff hit back at Minnekayev saying: 'We have our own scenarios to defend Ukraine and I would point out that plenty of Kremlin plans have already been ruined by the work of our army and our people.'

The latest escalation comes as Russia continues to pound the Donbas, striking 58 targets overnight, but the Kremlin is still suffering heavy blows with claims their death toll has risen to 30,000.

A view of a Mykolaiv Regional Council building which was destroyed as a result of a shellfire yesterday as Russia continues to pound Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds an online meeting of Russia's Security Council in Moscow today as he continues his assault

A pro-Russian troop stands in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol where hundreds of Ukrainians are trapped

Minnekayev said taking control of southern Ukraine would improve Russian access to Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine and which Kyiv fears could be used as a launching pad for new attacks.

Kyiv earlier this month said that an airfield in the region was being prepared to receive aircraft and could be used by Moscow to fly in Ukraine-bound troops.

'Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to Transdniestria, where there is also evidence that the Russian-speaking population is being oppressed,' TASS quoted Minnekayev as saying at a meeting in Russia's central Sverdlovsk region.

Ukraine's Defence Ministry denounced the plans announced by Russia to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine as 'imperialism'.

'They stopped hiding it,' the ministry said on Twitter. It said Russia had 'acknowledged that the goal of the 'second phase' of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.'

Elsewhere in Ukraine today, at least one person died and two were injured when a transport plane crashed over the centre of the country, the latest incident involving accident-prone Soviet-era aircraft.

'An AN-26 aircraft, which according to preliminary information belonged to Ukraine, crashed today in the vicinity of Mikhailovka in the Zaporizhzhia region,' the region's administration wrote in a statement on social media.

Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol

Volodymyr Zelensky said in an overnight address that Mariupol 'continues to resist' the invading forces despite Russian claims of victory

People walk past cars damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol

Fighters of the Chechen special forces unit, led by Russia's State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, patrol the besieged port city

'The aircraft was performing a technical flight. It has been established that one person was killed and two more were injured.'

Crew numbers and the cause of the crash were being investigated, the statement added.

The Soviet-designed Antonov aircraft, still widely used in military and civilian aviation across Russia and the former USSR, crash regularly.

In February, a Russian Antonov AN-26 transport carrying military equipment came down in the southern Voronezh region near Ukraine, killing all crew members on board.

Two dozen people including military cadets were killed in September 2020, when a Ukranian AN-26 plane went down near Kharkiv in the east of the country.

In 2018, an AN-26 transport plane crashed when landing in Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Syria. All 39 servicemen on board died.

The central Zaporizhzhia administration said Friday the plane may have hit electrical wires, setting the engines on fire.

It said rescue workers were on the scene.

In a show of support for Ukraine, Britain announced today it plans to reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv next week.

The British government said in February, days before Russia invaded Ukraine, that its embassy office in Kyiv was relocating temporarily and staff were operating from an embassy office in the city of Lviv.

Service members of pro-Russian troops, including fighters of the Chechen special forces unit, stand in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works

Local residents stand near emergency management specialists, who transport the bodies of civilians killed in the city

A damaged Russian tank near a road in Zalisia village not far from Kyiv. Some cities and villages had recently been recaptured by the Ukrainian army from Russian forces

Yesterday, Boris Johnson admitted there is a 'realistic possibility' Russia could succeed in Ukraine, in spite of the failures of its military campaign so far. Russia has stepped up operations in eastern Ukraine, seizing 42 villages in the Donetsk region.

Perhaps with a view to maintaining its newfound momentum on the battlefield, the Kremlin yesterday refused Ukraine's offer of a four-day truce over the Orthodox Easter weekend.

Its recent successes follow the appointment of General Aleksandr Dvornikov as overall commander of the operation a fortnight ago.

The general, known as 'the Butcher' after the brutal tactics he used in Syria and Chechnya, has boosted Russia's use of drones, rocket systems and electronic warfare technology, creating a platform for Vladimir Putin to claim victory. In spite of recent Russian successes in eastern Ukraine, the plans as outlined by Minnekaev are considered ambitious. Capturing the biggest southern city of Odessa would be a huge military undertaking and the port is well defended.

Russia's forces have also sustained heavy losses, with more than 13,000 troops killed and 7,000 said to be missing in action since the invasion began on February 24.

This estimate, by far the gravest of its military campaign, emerged on Russian social media yesterday, only to be deleted hours later.

Overnight, Russia struck 58 military targets including sites where troops, fuel depots and military equipment were concentrated, its defence ministry said.

The ministry said it had also struck three targets using high-precision missiles in Ukraine, including an S-300 air defence system and a large concentration of Ukrainian troops with their equipment.

But the gains are continuing to come at a heavy price for Putin, with three more majors killed in conflict.

Online source General SVR today claimed that Putin has been told of a total of 30,557 deaths among the armed forces and privately-hired combatants.

This included 23,655 armed forces personnel as being a figure at 6am Moscow time today.

The claim could not be verified but other estimates suggest well over 20,000.

One example of the hidden death toll is Russia's failure to say how many perished in the sinking of the Moskva cruiser, the Black Sea Fleet flagship, after it was hit by Ukrainian missiles.

The killings highlight the appalling losses and pain suffered by Russia from the president's military adventure.

He is believed to have lost eight generals and 35 colonels among his top brass.

Flags beside the recently buried at graveyards show those killed are among Russia's most elite and highly-trained paratroopers and GRU military intelligence special forces.

A Ukrainian service member stands next to a damaged Russian tank T-72 BV, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk region

State Emergency Service (SES) experts remove Russian bombs as they clear the area as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Chernihiv

Dmitrovo-Cherkassy Cemetery in Tver region. A local journalist reported Russian military and navy flags are erected by the graves

Major Alexander Shepel (left), 35, battalion commander of the second motorised rifles, was blown up by an anti-tank mine. Major Sergei Averyanov (right), 36, commander of an engineering battalion, was announced today by Ukraine and confirmed by the officer's relatives in Russia

GRU Spetnaz officer Major Sergey Kashanskiy, 32, from Siberia, pictured, was killed in an undisclosed operation in Ukraine.

Governor of Krasnoyarsk region Alexander Uss offered his 'deepest condolences' to the family.

No details were given concerning how he died.

Major Sergei Averyanov, 36, commander of an engineering battalion, was announced today by Ukraine and confirmed by the officer's relatives in Russia.

A VW-fanatic, he had served two tours of duty in Syria before dying in Ukraine.

Major Alexander Shepel, 35, battalion commander of the second motorised rifles, was blown up by an anti-tank mine, according to reports.

A memorial to him said: 'You are our hero, we will not forget. We will not forgive, we love, we mourn ... You are forever in our hearts.'

He died in a battle in Popkova village, in Ukraine, say reports.

Putin's decision on Thursday not to order his forces to root out Ukrainian defenders in the labyrinthine underground passageways under Azovstal steelworks is seen as a reflection that the Russian public is becoming deeply uneasy about the rising slaughter of its soldiers in Ukraine.

A number of elite paratroopers appear to be buried at a graveyard in Tver region.

There are also new graves at a burial site called Alley of the Paratroopers in Stavropol region, as a video shows.

Flags beside the recently buried at graveyards show those killed are among Russia's most elite and highly-trained paratroopers and GRU military intelligence special forces

At least some of the fallen are GRU military intelligence special forces officers, indicated by the flag with a bat and parachute prominently displayed.

It reportedly belongs to the 10th Separate Order of Zhukov Special Purpose Brigade.

Russia has not come clean on the scale of its war losses, and has hidden the return to the motherland of coffins and funerals.

Putin also claimed yesterday it had 'liberated' the besieged port city as Putin savagely ordered to seal off all routes out of the plant 'so that even a fly cannot pass through', effectively condemning those inside to their deaths.

But today, Captain Svyatoslav Palamar from the Azov Battalion insisted: 'I always say that as long as we are here, Mariupol remains under control of Ukraine.'

Volodymyr Zelensky echoed the remarks in an overnight address, saying Mariupol 'continues to resist' the invading forces.

Palamar's comments are the first to emerge from Inside the steelworks, the last remaining bastion of resistance in the city which has been razed to the ground, since Putin claimed victory yesterday.

He described the chilling sight inside Azovstal and its labyrinthine tunnels where scores of dead civilians are trapped in bunkers and under collapsed buildings after taking refuge there from the constant shelling.

The soldier told the BBC: 'All the buildings in the territory of Azovstal are practically destroyed. They drop heavy bombs, bunker-busting bombs which cause huge destruction. We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings.'

Palamar said the civilians are in separate basements to the fighters, each full of 80 to 100 people, as he claimed there were 'enough to repel attacks' stationed inside.

Some buildings inside the plant have been destroyed by shelling meaning soldiers are unable to reach the trapped civilians, with entrances blocked by huge immovable concrete slabs.

He said: 'We keep in touch with those civilians who stay in places that we can get to. We know that there are small children there as young as three months old.'

The Azov fighter desperately appealed for safe evacuation routes out of the steelworks and urged a third country to act as a guarantor to ensure their safety after Russians repeatedly broke agreed ceasefires.

The neo-Nazi Azov battalion formed as a volunteer paramilitary militia in 2014 to fight Russians in the Donbas and has been accused of its own war crimes.

But in a last ditch battle to defend Azovstal, the Ukrainian marines joined forces with the far-right fighters.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin hailed the 'liberation' of Mariupol as a 'success' for Russian forces, and ordered a siege of the Azovstal plant.

'There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities. Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,' Putin said.

The British Ministry of Defence said today: 'Putin's decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant likely indicates a desire to contain Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and free up Russian forces to be deployed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.'

There are at least 500 wounded soldiers inside the plant needing medication and surgery including amputations, while a number of elderly civilians are also in need of urgent treatment.

'They have almost no food, water, essential medicine,' Ukraine's foreign ministry said.

Zelensky added last night: 'In the south and east of our country, the occupiers continue to do everything to have a reason to talk about at least some victories.

Russia's ailing command: 'Bloated and slouching' Putin is seen gripping a table amid cancer battle rumours as he meets 'slurring' defence minister Shoigu - who needs to read from notes 'following heart attack'

A bloated Vladimir Putin has been seen gripping a table whilst slouching in his chair during a televised meeting with his defence minister amid rumours the Russian strongman is battling cancer.

In a rare live appearance, Putin claimed Russia had 'liberated' the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, as he savagely ordered Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to seal off all routes out of the Azovstal steelworks where defiant Ukrainians are holed up 'so that even a fly cannot pass through'.

But Putin's poor posture and his apparently bloated face and neck sparked speculation about the Russian leader's health, which has reportedly been in decline since his invasion of Ukraine.

Video showed Putin speaking to Shoigu whilst gripping the edge of the table with his right hand - so hard that it appears white - and tapping his foot consistently.

Shoigu does not appear to have fared any better in the eight weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the defence minister slurring his words and reading from his notes following an apparent heart attack.

A bloated Vladimir Putin has been seen gripping a table whilst slouching in his chair during a televised meeting with his defence minister Sergei Shoigu amid rumours the Russian strongman is battling cancer. Shoigu does not appear to have fared any better in the eight weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the defence minister slurring his words and reading from his notes following an apparent heart attack

But Putin's poor posture and his apparently bloated face and neck sparked speculation about the Russian leader's health, which has reportedly been in decline since his invasion of Ukraine

Vladimir Putin's five medically-related disappearances November 2012: Business trips and long-distance flights of the president are canceled, some of Putin's meetings shown by the Kremlin turn out to be 'canned food' March 5  15, 2015: Putin does not appear in public, all meetings are 'canned' - in other words pre-recorded events were shown with the pretence they were in real time August 9-16, 2017: The President, with journalists, visits Abkhazia and Sochi, and then for a week the Kremlin publishes only 'canned food' February 2018: In the midst of an election campaign, the president cancels public events. Peskov admits that the head of state 'had a cold' September 13-29, 2021: Putin goes into 'self-isolation', all events are held via video link Advertisement

Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist and former adviser to Ukraine and Russia, said the video showed both Putin and Shoigu 'depressed and seemingly in bad health'.

'Shoigu has to read his comments to Putin and slurs badly, suggesting that the rumours of his heart attack are likely. He sits badly. Poor performance.'

Professor Erik Bucy, a body language expert from Texas Tech University, told The Sun Online: 'It's an astonishingly weakened Putin compared to the man we observed even a few years ago.

'An able-bodied president would not need to keep himself propped up with a hand held out for leverage and would not be concerned about keeping both feet planted on the ground.'

'This is not a portrait of a healthy Putin but one appearing increasingly feeble and barely able to hold himself upright at a small conference table,' Bucy added.

Putin's bloated face and neck has sparked claims he is undergoing steroid treatment, whilst reports have suggested Putin is 'constantly' accompanied by a doctor specialising in thyroid cancer.

Surgeon Yevgeny Selivanov, of Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, has flown to the Russian leader no less than 35 times in Black Sea resort Sochi, his favourite place of residence.

The respected doctor's thesis - showing his area of medical expertise - was entitled: 'Peculiarities of diagnostics and surgical treatment of elderly and senile patients with thyroid cancer'.

'Shoigu has to read his comments to Putin and slurs badly, suggesting that the rumours of his heart attack are likely. He sits badly. Poor performance,' Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist and former adviser to Ukraine and Russia, said

Service members of pro-Russian troops, including fighters of the Chechen special forces unit, stand in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works

Meanwhile Shoigu, who is in charge of the bloody invasion of Ukraine, has been noticeably absent from public view amid reports the defence minister and Putin's relationship has become strained after Russia's military operation in Ukraine has led to more than 20,000 Russian troops being killed.

Last week, a Russian-Israeli businessman claimed Shoigu suffered a heart attack, which he suspects was caused by foul play.

Leonid Nevzlin claimed Shoigu had been in intensive car after suffering 'a massive heart attack' which 'could not have occurred due to natural causes', suggesting Putin's longtime ally may have been the subject of an assassination attempt ordered by his boss.

Some have claimed Shoigu and Putin's poor health is due to the faltering invasion of Ukraine.

During the televised meeting, Putin hailed the 'liberation' of Mariupol as a 'success' for Russian forces, and ordered a siege of the Azovstal plant.

'There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities. Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,' Putin said.

The British Ministry of Defence said today: 'Putin's decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant likely indicates a desire to contain Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and free up Russian forces to be deployed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.'

There are at least 500 wounded soldiers inside the plant needing medication and surgery including amputations, while a number of elderly civilians are also in need of urgent treatment.

'They have almost no food, water, essential medicine,' Ukraine's foreign ministry said

A pro-Russian troop stands in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol where hundreds of Ukrainians are trapped

An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops waving Russian flags moves towards Mariupol yesterday which Putin claims he has 'liberated'

Defiant Ukrainians holed up inside the steelworks are still refusing to surrender Mariupol despite being surrounded by Russian forces.

Today, Captain Svyatoslav Palamar from the Azov Battalion insisted: 'I always say that as long as we are here, Mariupol remains under control of Ukraine.'

Volodymyr Zelensky echoed the remarks in an overnight address, saying Mariupol 'continues to resist' the invading forces.

Palamar's comments are the first to emerge from inside the steelworks, the last remaining bastion of resistance in the city which has been razed to the ground, since Putin claimed victory yesterday.

He described the chilling sight inside Azovstal and its labyrinthine tunnels where scores of dead civilians are trapped in bunkers and under collapsed buildings after taking refuge there from the constant shelling.

The soldier told the BBC: 'All the buildings in the territory of Azovstal are practically destroyed. They drop heavy bombs, bunker-busting bombs which cause huge destruction. We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings.'
The story is one which sadly has become horribly familiar. A defenceless child dies while in the supposed care of someone meant to be protecting them.

So it was with Hakeem Hussain, seven, who died alone gasping for air in freezing conditions, neglected by a mother who prioritised her drug addictions over looking after her asthmatic child.

This depressing and all-too-common tale comes a day after details emerged about the death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, murdered last year by his sadistic mother and stepfather after months of abuse.

But it wasnt just the unspeakable suffering which connects these appalling deaths. Both were let down by institutions which failed to heed the warning signs.

Hakeem Hussain (pictured), seven, died alone gasping for air in freezing conditions, neglected by a mother who prioritised her drug addictions over looking after her asthmatic child

Two days before Hakeems death, social services were warned by a school nurse that he could die at the weekend but were too slow to act.

Similarly culpable was the social service department in charge of Logan which, as we report today, had already been warned it was letting down children at risk.

Of course, responsibility for these despicable crimes lies squarely with the childrens guardians. But social workers must also accept a large portion of blame.

Whenever heartbreaking cases such as these occur, we are repeatedly assured lessons will be learned. They rarely are.

This depressing and all-too-common tale comes a day after details emerged about the death of five-year-old Logan Mwangi (pictured), murdered last year by his sadistic mother and stepfather after months of abuse

Meanwhile, those in charge, rather than face sanction, simply move on and land plum public sector jobs elsewhere.

As our investigation shows today, many failed childrens services bosses have repeatedly bounced back into similar positions with six-figure salaries.

No one should underestimate the vast pressure under which social workers operate. But how many more vulnerable children must die before we accept the entire system is unfit for purpose?

End Partygate fiasco

This was the week many hoped would spell the end of the Partygate saga.

But thanks to the obsession of our political class we must now endure yet another drawn-out enquiry.

With Putins sinister ambitions now turning to Moldova, not to mention our deepening cost of living crisis, the rest of the world might be forgiven for thinking Britain has taken leave of its senses.

As for Tory MPs calling for the PM to resign, its hard to see what they hope to achieve. Cant they see that for all Mr Johnsons faults, he still remains their best chance of re-election?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pictured speaking at a press conference in Delhi, on the last day of his two day trip to India

Labour may be celebrating, but it continues to offer little beyond hypocritical moralising and confected rage.

Its unimaginative leader Sir Keir Starmer has failed to spell out any vision for the country beyond a few platitudes stolen from the New Labour playbook.

No wonder he wants to drag this never-ending furore over cheese and wine parties on for as long as possible.

Most of us, however, are past caring. We just want the fiasco to end and for the Government to get on with what it should be doing  getting the country back on its feet and playing its part in defending western democracy from Putins madness.

Heeding Pritis plan

Priti Patel is seen making a statement in the House of Commons in London on April 19

Everyone from Gary Lineker to the Archbishop of Canterbury has attacked Priti Patels plans to resettle failed asylum seekers in Rwanda.

Yet, as we reveal today, its already making migrants at Calais think twice about making the perilous journey on flimsy boats.

The scheme must still get through a number of legal hoops.

And it wont be cheap to implement. But if it saves lives and helps smash the evil traffickers profiteering from the desperate, wont it be worth every penny?
Thousands of social care staff are leaving the sector to take up better-paid jobs in supermarkets and hospitality.

The situation is causing a crisis in the NHS because it is so difficult to discharge patients to care homes.

Now doctors are urging ministers to 'give money to social care  not us' to ease the hospital bottleneck.

Social care will receive just 5.4billion of the Government's 36billion health care reform package, funded through the controversial rise in national insurance.

The situation is causing a crisis in the NHS because it is so difficult to discharge patients to care homes (file photo of a hospital ward)

Around 410,000 social care staff quit last year, leaving the sector with a shortage of around 160,000. Vacancies in the sector have doubled in the past year, with ten per cent of posts now empty.

The cost of living crisis and widespread labour shortages have resulted in prospective social care staff getting better-paid jobs in supermarkets and hospitality.

Companies such as Amazon are also offering 'golden handshakes' of up to 3,000 to new employees.

The lack of staff has reduced capacity in care homes. Four in ten are now refusing to take on new admissions, meaning elderly and vulnerable patients remain on hospital wards.

Around 410,000 social care staff quit last year, leaving the sector with a shortage of around 160,000. Vacancies in the sector have doubled in the past year, with ten per cent of posts now empty (file photo)

President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson, told The Times: 'Without a solution to social care the emergency care crisis is not going to improve. Don't give money to us, give it to social care. You could train a group of people to staff social care a heck of a lot quicker than you could train a nurse or doctor.'

Natasha Curry from the Nuffield Trust think-tank added: 'The average pay for social care is 9 an hour. In retail they pay on average 21p an hour more and working conditions are better. There is such stiff competition because of labour shortages and Brexit.'
A Philly baby shot four times when his father used him as a human shield during a drug deal shootout has died three years on - with prosecutors saying his injuries killed him.

Yaseem Jenkins died Tuesday aged three, almost three years after the October 2019 shootout which saw him struck with four bullets, including one in the head. His father Nafes Monroe and shooter Francisco Ortiz could both now face murder charges.

'Yaseem fought long and hard to recover from his injuries while still being the strong happy kid he was but sadly lost the battle yesterday morning,' wrote Nicole Jenkins, who launched the fundraiser for the child's mother, Tiffany Jenkins.

'It saddens us to have to lay him to rest at such a young age, Our family is devastated and heartbroken by his unexpected passing.'

His father Monroe, 27, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person after the October 2019 shooting.

He now appears to be free, and posts regularly on a Facebook page.

But Monroe could face murder charges if an autopsy determines the toddler died as a result of the injuries he sustained in the drug deal gone horribly wrong.

Yaseem Jenkins, 3, died on Tuesday almost three years after he was shot multiple times by a drug dealer. His father, Nafes Monroe, brought the then-infant in the car when he attempted to use counterfeit bills to purchase drugs in October of 2019

Nafes Monroe, 27, pictured with Yaseem, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person after the child was shot

Monroe could face murder charges if an autopsy determines the toddler died as a result of the injuries he sustained in the shooting

'Yaseem fought long and hard to recover from his injuries while still being the strong happy kid he was but sadly lost the battle yesterday morning,' wrote Nicole Jenkins, who launched the fundraiser for the child's mother, Tiffany Jenkins

'We are awaiting a medical examiners report on the cause of death but we have reason to believe the cause of death is his original injury from that shooting,' Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a press conference Friday.

The alleged shooter, Francisco Ortiz, 29, opened fire with a 9mm gun when the drug deal in Philadelphia's Hunting Park went awry, striking the child once in the neck, once in the head and twice in the buttocks.

The alleged shooter, Francisco Ortiz, 29, opened fire with a 9mm gun when the drug deal in Philadelphia's Hunting Park went awry, striking Yaseem

Ortiz was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault. Ortiz also loaned out the AK-47 used to shoot dead Nikolette Rivera, 2, in a North Philadelphia drive-by shooting, according to The Washington Post.

Yaseem was strapped into a car seat when he was shot - another man and the child's stepmother were also in the car.

Prosecutors said Monroe intentionally brought the child into the dangerous situation in a failed attempt to dissuade the drug dealer from becoming violent.

'Our investigation has led us to believe that he intentionally had his child with him when he was making such types of purchases with the idea or belief that if someone saw that he had a child in the car, that they would not fire upon him,' Anthony Voci Jr., chief of the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office Homicide Unit, told reporters at after the shooting.

Moreover, Voci said that Monroe dropped the child off at a hospital and fled, and 'never looked back and went into the wind,' according to The Post.

The initial prognosis for the child was grim - in 2019, North Philadelphia Police Caption Nicholas Brown told reporters that there would 'be no chance for full recovery for that child,' and that if Yaseem survived, 'he [would] most likely be a quadriplegic.'

Yaseem, pictured with his father, was shot four times in October of 2019 - twice in the buttocks, once in the neck and once in the head

'We are awaiting a medical examiners report on the cause of death but we have reason to believe the cause of death is his original injury from that shooting,' Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (pictured) said at a press conference Friday

A day after the boy's death, Monroe published a Facebook post seeming to mourn the child's death.

'Last couple deaths I was numb... I feel this s***,' the post read.

'WTF U should feel like s***,' read a reply. 'What kinda [person] would bring there [sic] child with them to rob a drug dealer and I cant believe ur looking for sympathy. That boy didnt even had a chance u should be looking at the same charges as the shooter cuz ur the reason why he is killed.'

In a post last week before the toddler's death, Monroe wrote that 'no matter how hard I try s*** never go ma way, if this carma [sic] then she really is a b**** but least I [know] I deserve it.'

It is unclear whether Monroe has served his prison sentence for the misdemeanor charges he was handed after the child was shot.
Portugal has become the first EU country since Brexit to allow UK visitors to be fast-tracked through electronic passport gates.

The move to treat British arrivals the same as Europeans could spark a domino effect reducing border waiting times at other holiday hotspots, an expert said.

It is seen as a bid to lure Britons away from rival destinations such as Spain, Italy and Greece as travel booms after Covid.

After Brexit the UK became a third country, meaning Britons lost access to the EUs airport passport e-gates. British passports must now be checked manually, increasing waiting times.

The move to treat British arrivals the same as Europeans could spark a domino effect reducing border waiting times at other holiday hotspots, an expert said (file photo)

But at the World Travel and Tourism Council summit in Manila in the Philippines it was revealed passport e-gate lanes for Britons were set up this week at airports in Faro in the Algarve, Funchal in Madeira, Lisbon and Porto.

Luis Araujo, president of Portugals tourism board, said the move would help our valued British travellers.

UK travellers made up Portugals biggest overseas visitor market in January and February, booking nearly 484,000 overnight hotel stays over the two months.

Paul Charles, of the PC Agency travel consultancy, said Portugals move could lead to a domino effect on other EU nations because British travellers will realise they face potentially longer waiting times in the likes of Spain and Greece.
A vegan activist and online model has described the 'psychological distress' of having to wear a police-issued ankle bracelet for 415 days.

Leah Doellinger Whetton told her 34,000 Instagram followers the electronic tag triggered her eating disorder and made her feel 'paranoid' strangers might assume she is violent drug offender.

The 32-year-old was electronically tagged after allegedly breaking into a chicken farm at Logan, south Brisbane, in March 2021 and will be sentenced this week.

A vegan activist and online model has described the 'psychological distress' of having to wear a police-issued ankle bracelet for 415 days

She was electronically tagged after allegedly breaking into a chicken farm at Logan, south Brisbane, in March 2021 and will be sentenced this week

She has also complained about how long the ankle monitor - which is a condition of her bail after being arrested for allegedly breaking into a chicken farm - takes to charge

Wearing the anklet, which was part of her bail conditions, has caused mental anguish but also physical damage to her foot, she said.

'The psychological distress and disturbance and loss of control triggered my eating disorder,' she posted on Friday.

'I spent many nights sitting against the wall of my bathroom crying with burst blood vessels around my eyes and a blood nose.

'When I feel the device wrapped around my left ankle, I feel darkness trying to stop light.'

Doellinger Whetton said the psychological distress of having to wear an electronic tag triggered her eating disorder

She also suggested she has not been caught for some activism-related crimes she has committed

'I have suffered judgement, whispers, pointing & assumptions that Im a violent/drug offender in my community. Ive felt paranoid to explain myself the instant I meet someone.'

She also said the anklet has led to some 'beautiful conversations'.

In the same post she also suggested she has not been caught for some activism-related crimes she has committed.

She is also the founder of 'Meat The Victims', a group that plans mass trespasses on animal farms to film what's happening inside.

'Since 2016 I have used myself as a vessel to connect the human public to the non human public who have been condemned to immense legal suffering in secrecy. I have broken many laws, and a lot more than 27 times.'

Her account says she has been charged 27 times.

In 2019 she posted footage of herself being arrested at the site of a cattle truck crash where several cows had to be euthanised.

Doellinger Whetton posted footage of herself being arrested at the sight of a cattle truck crash (pictured) where several cows had to be euthanised

In 2019 she drove down to Koo Wee Rup, south of Melbourne, after the truck rolled and filmed herself hugging dying animals.

The footage included Whetton tending to one of the euthanised cows with a group of friends, despite being asked not to.

She was arrested by police at the scene.

'They handcuffed me and dragged me on the grass. I've got cuts on my wrist - he didn't even give me warning.'

She regularly posts about her activism and also how unfair she thinks her punishments have been.

She has also complained about the inconvenience of the ankle monitor and the fact it takes so long to charge.

'I even got dressed while remaining on charge because god forbid if I take it off for a moment to get dressed thats a breach of bail because it has to be two consecutive hours and I would rather not wake up to the police out the front at 6am again to issue me with a notice to appear, or be taken back into custody because of a breach of bail conditions.'
Outrage continues to grow on social media after a TV reporter revealed she was given a 'vax stamp' upon entering a bar.

Jennifer Bechwati, a political reporter at 7 News, took to Twitter to show her temporary ink moments after walking through the doors of the Reveley Bar in Perth this week.

Alongside an image of the stamp on her wrist, Ms Bechwati wrote: 'Vax checked. Stamped as we entered.'

It didn't take long for Twitter to light up, with both media identities and punters enraged by the pub's requirement.

Western Australian Senate Candidate for the Liberal Party Kate Fantinel stated: 'I apologise on behalf of Western Australia' while Sky News host Chris Kenny said it was a 'disgrace'.

Outrage is growing on social media after TV reporter Jennifer Bechawati (pictured) revealed she was given a 'vax stamp' upon entering a bar this week

She took to Twitter to show her temporary ink on her wrist moments after walking through the doors of the Reveley Bar in Perth

'That is Perth, Western Australia, in 2022,' Mr Kenny said.

'One country we are, 95 per cent or more vaccinated and this sort of draconian nonsense is still being enforced by state governments.

'What a crying shame... what a disgrace.'

Others tweeted the move from the bar was 'creepy', 'sick' and 'insane' before questioning whether Australia was actually a free country due to draconian measures evident in certain states.

Another said the vaccination stamp was 'absolutely and utterly pointless' and wondered why 'Australia is 6-8 months behind the rest of the world' while a third jokingly asked if the bar staff also wanted to know 'religious beliefs' of patrons.

Soon after Ms Bechwati's (pictured) tweet, Western Australian Senate Candidate for the Liberal Party Kate Fantinel responded by stating 'I apologise on behalf of Western Australia'

Some of the tweets in response to Ms Bechwati's post were highly aggressive (pictured)

Another Twitter follower suggested those who are vaccinated 'chose to be human cattle'

Additional Twitter users stated 'obeying is part of the problem' when it comes to mandatory jabs, while another compared the vaccinated to 'human cattle'.

In a shock twist, the Reveley Bar said they had no issue with the vaccination stamps.

'We are required, by law, to only allow fully vaccinated patrons into our venues and face huge fines if we do not undertake this check,' a spokesperson told news.com.au.

'So we check the vaccination status and then use a stamp so that we don't have to ask patrons multiple times to show us confirmation of vaccination.

'It is something we have to do, not something we choose to do.'
Ben Roberts-Smith has let off some steam with his partner in a gruelling workout as the former SAS corporal takes a break from his defamation trial.

Mr Roberts-Smith was spotted with his girlfriend Sarah Matulin sweating it out as the pair ran through several drills at Redfern Oval, in Sydney, on Saturday.

The war hero wore black leggings and a loose black singlet which exposed the tattoos on his torso, including the Spartan helmet inked onto his right ribcage.

Mr Roberts-Smith and his workout partner ran up and back across the southern part of the walkway surrounding the oval.

Ben Roberts-Smith has let off some steam with his partner in a gruelling workout as the former SAS corporal takes a break from his defamation trial

Mr Roberts-Smith was spotted with his girlfriend Sarah Matulin sweating it out as the pair ran through several drills at Redfern Oval, in Sydney, on Saturday

Mr Roberts-Smith and his workout partner ran up and back across the southern part of the walkway surrounding the oval

He also did squats and toning exercises on the ground, spending more than an hour lifting kettlebells and performing cardio workouts in the bright sunlight.

Mr Roberts-Smith has been living in an apartment in Redfern while appearing at his defamation trial.

His parents Len and Sue Roberts-Smith have be seen shopping on Botany Road, and their towering son is occasionally spotted in Redfern's supermarkets and buying supplies at Dan Murphys.

After completing their session the soldier and his companion left the oval and headed off down the street.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald over reports claiming he committed war crimes in Afghanistan including murder, and acts of bullying and domestic violence.

The 43-year-old denies all claims of wrongdoing, while the mastheads are defending them as true.

In the Federal Court on Friday the former SAS soldier was asked by Nicholas Owens SC on behalf of the newspapers about a birds-eye image of a mission dubbed Whiskey 108 in Afghanistan.

Documents aired in court showed Person Five sent the picture to Mr Roberts-Smith in July 2019, weeks before outlines of evidence in the case were due to be filed.

He said he can't recall why he did so.

He also did squats and toning exercises on the ground, spending more than an hour lifting kettlebells and performing cardio workouts in the bright sunlight

After completing their session the soldier and his companion left the oval and headed off down the street

The war hero wore black leggings and a loose black singlet which exposed the tattoos on his torso, including the Spartan helmet inked onto his right ribcage

The former Royal Marine said he never possessed the image himself but was sent it by his lawyer. But after Mr Owens proved this was impossible due to her timeline of work, he said he wasn't sure who did.

'You both spent many hours refining what you were going to say about Whiskey 108 in this case,' Mr Owens put to Person Five, which he denied.

After giving evidence on Tuesday that 99 per cent of camouflage paint worn by SAS soldiers was green, black and brown he later added that shades of those colours could be used, and so was grey.

He denied this was because he remembered photographs depicted his second-in-command Mr Roberts-Smith smeared in grey.

Another SAS soldier earlier testified to seeing a soldier wearing a distinctive grey camouflage paint execute an unarmed prisoner at Whiskey 108.

Person Five has also repeatedly denied saying or hearing the term 'rookie' during deployment in 2009.

Mr Roberts-Smith reaches for his phone between lifting 24kg kettlebells at Redfern Oval on Saturday

Mr Roberts-Smith mixed up his weightlifting regime with cardio exercises during his workout

Mr Roberts-Smith sweated up a storm as he powered through exercise drills on Saturday morning

The media outlets have alleged at Whiskey 108 Person Five ordered a young trooper called Person Four to execute an unarmed prisoner to get his first kill in action, or 'blood the rookie'.

He along with Mr Roberts-Smith denied this ever occurred.

'We don't blood people, I thought I made that perfectly clear,' he said on Thursday.

On Friday Mr Owens asked if he was aware of a poster in Person Five's own patrol room marked with each soldier's names.

One young trooper had written 'rookie f***' next to his, a term Mr Owens submitted was widely used throughout the patrol.

Person Five said he did not remember the poster.

On Thursday the court was told that Person Five discovered his legal bills were being paid for by Seven Network on Tuesday, almost two years after engaging with his lawyers.

Ben Roberts-Smith lifts a heavy kettlebell during his exercise drill on Saturday

Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured) and his former patrol commander allegedly spent hours refining their story about key allegations with other SAS soldiers to get their testimony straight, a court has been told

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald over reports claiming he committed war crimes in Afghanistan (pictured in 2009)

Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured attending court) is a Victoria Cross medal recipient

Prior to that day he never made any inquiries as to their estimated rates, costs, or bills, he said.

Mr Owens outlined in court on Friday a number of subpoenas he had issued to the Seven Network, boss Kerry Stokes and commercial director Bruce McWilliam seeking relevant documents.

Person Five doesn't think he sent Mr Roberts-Smith USB sticks containing images taken in Afghanistan that were allegedly later buried in his backyard.

Included in the 'hundreds of compromising photographs of your colleagues,' was an image of an SAS soldier dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, Mr Owens said.

'I wasn't there at the time but I believe it's Person 35,' Person Five said.

Person 35 is due to give evidence on behalf of Mr Roberts-Smith.

The trial before Justice Anthony Besanko continues.

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China is looking to develop its future helicopters to respond to super choppers that will be part of the modernized equipment needed in a great power competition. The People's Liberation Army appears to be making serious efforts to prepare for the future battleground. High technologies will be features part of next-generation Chinese rotorcraft needed to compete with adversaries.

Chinese High Tech Helicopters

According to the Global Times, a senior Chinese military helicopter designer revealed the probable important elements of future choppers during a recent public speech.

These features include fast speeds and artificial intelligence (AI). It gives an idea of the country's next-generation helicopter, with totally new designs and configurations. Several US helicopters were mentioned in the bringing to service the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft, but the new S-97 Raider and SB-1 Defiant helicopters are undergoing tests, cited Defense PK.

On Sunday, Wu Ximing, deputy chairman of the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment, conducted a lecture in the China Science and Technology Museum and said that helicopters should be like the -97 Raider and SB-1 Defiant, which are faster.

Helicopters will change radically from earlier types; more advanced helos will fly 300 kilometers an hour. Wu is the main designer of the Z-10 assault helicopter, reported the Eurasian Times.

Helicopter designers would have to explore and innovate to attain maximum speeds while keeping vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. He said that most helicopters ought to be able to reach high speeds in ten years.

According to helicopter manufacturers, at least two models of helicopters with revolutionary designs have flown in test flights. The other is a blended-wing body multi-rotor vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a unique design that will be the future helicopter of China.

Read Also: Xi Jinping: 5 Things To Know About China's President

Creating lethal helicopters

High tech system like a digital helmet or screen that will be using AI to omit a helicopter's control levers; using the pilot's commands instead.

Wu said it could also provide recommendations on flight paths and even make independent judgments in challenging situations or complex missions. The incorporation of advanced tech should lessen a pilot's workload. The use of AI will allow different modes of helicopter flight, tandem or multiple automatic control, even flying on its own to finish a mission.

Development of 5G and 6G as wireless tech will enable rotorcraft to be smarter but needs to be linked to a ground station. It will improve such aircraft in the future.

The US is competing with Beijing in developing advanced AI. PLA has to beat the US in applying artificial intelligence to win future battles or lose. Modern warfare is influenced by such advanced AI tech to enhance more combat-related tasks.

Gen. James McConville, US Army Chief of Staff, remarked they should change how to fight and every factor to improve their chances of winning. He added that the fleet of helicopters is almost five decades old and needs to be replaced, and more modern systems like modern AI; also work with robotic rotorcraft.

The contest between China and the US to get the first future helicopter is tied to the Indo-Pacific, where Beijing is getting the edge that Washington does not like.

Related Article: Bell V-280 Valor Reaches 200 Hours Flight Time After Years of Testing

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A Louisiana mother and grandmother were charged with murder on Friday after they forced a four-year-old girl to drink half a bottle of whiskey, as punishment for taking a sip.

Roxanne Record, 53, and her daughter Kadjah Record, 28, were each booked into the East Baton Rouge parish prison following the death of Kadjah's daughter China from acute alcohol poisoning.

The little girl had a blood alcohol level of .068 more than eight times the .08 legal limit for people over 21 to drive when she died.

Police were called to the home in the Windsor Place area of Baton Rouge on Thursday morning, to reports of an unresponsive child.

On arriving at the home, on Wallis Street and Harco Drive, they were told by China's siblings that the grandmother was angry because the little girl had taken a sip of the Canadian Mist whiskey, left on the counter.

As a punishment, the child was told to kneel on the floor and finish off the remaining half of the bottle.

Four-year-old China Record died on Thursday after her grandmother allegedly forced her to drink half a bottle of whiskey

Roxanne Record, 53, (left) and her daughter Kadjah Record, 28, (right) have both been charged with murder

Police were called on Thursday morning to the Record family home in the Windsor Place neighborhood of Baton Rouge

A child's bicycle is pictured outside the Record home, where four-year-old China was killed

Kadjah Record watched as her daughter was forced to drink the liquor, which gave her a blood alcohol content of .680.

Drivers in the state of Louisiana are considered legally drunk when their BAC is .08 or more.

Roxanne Record told investigators at the scene that 'she messed up' and 'wanted to take full responsibility' for the child's death.

The grandmother also reportedly said 'this went too far.'

She added that she had 'ruined everyone's lives,' according to WAFB.
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Thousands of Australians have proved the old saying that the desert is a great place to find yourself, but also to lose yourself, at the Mundi Mundi Bash festival.

The three-day extravaganza west of Australia's outback capital in NSW, Broken Hill, attracted around 10,000 revellers for a festival under clear starry skies in cool weather.

Everyone from overseas tourists, fans of the event's music headliners, Mad Max devotees, families and grey nomads arrived in nearly 2,000 four wheel drives, caravans, campers and the odd hatchback to camp on site for a raucous outback celebration in the dirt.

It was a festival not just of music but also dust, dancing, dogs, drinks, party costumes and laughter.

The cool temperatures, reaching only 24 degrees in the daytime and a chilly eight degrees at night on Friday kept punters in the mood to keep dancing - and running.

Thousands of Australians have proved the old saying that the desert is a great place to find yourself, but also to lose yourself, at the Mundi Mundi Bash festival

The event was held on the Mundi Mundi Plains, the site of the first Mad Max movie, so organisers held a mass dress up

Abba tribute act Bjorn Again was one of the crowd favourites of the music offerings

The Mundi Undi event was popular with all participants of all ages from seven to seventy

One of the highlights that had all those elements was the hilarious Mundi Undi Run, drawing 500 participants.

The costumes on show included all the superheroes you can think of and plenty you didn't know the world even needed.

Also seen were desert lifesavers, goth fairies, tributes to Mrs Browns Boys, hundreds in matching groups that looked dressed for bay 13 at the MCG, Mad Max characters, and the inevitable Where's Wally crew.

The Mundi Mundi Bash music festival was held from April 21 to 23 west of Broken Hill

Mundi Uni runners got seriously creative with their group outfits

One of the entrants in the world record attempt for most Mad Max characters in one place

Many of course just chose their favourite pair of daks.

The event was held where the first Mad Max movie was filmed.

Musical highlights at the Mundi Mundi Bash included Australia's favourite musical storyteller Paul Kelly and master guitarist Ian Moss of Cold Chisel.

A world record 556 people dressed as Mad Max characters at Silverton

Some of the Mad Max characters got seriously sinister with their outfits

Two entrants in the Mundi Undi fun run which was one of the most popular events

Festival founder Greg Donovan in the Max Mad world record attempt at the Mundi Mundi Bash

Legendary country crooner John Williamson, of 'True Blue' fame and 90s pop star Kate Ceberano also dazzled the crowd.

Other highlights were the most Aussie talent show star ever, Shannon Noll, plus Glenn Shorrock, formerly of the Little River Band, Dragon and world-famous Abba tribute act Bjorn Again.

Organisers put on two world record attempts to make the Mundi Mundi Bash even more memorable.

This group of blokes dressed for the bodies they wished they had

Dogs were allowed at the Mundi Mundi Bash and here two owners take their pups on the Mundi Uni run

Some of the outfits were clearly creative hybrids of a bit of everything in the dress-up box

There's always one, and while we reckon not even Borat would wear that, this gentleman was in the right spirit of fun

One fell short of its target, when 2,106 revellers bootscooted at once in a crack at the world record Nutbush City Limits group dance.

It was a respectable attempt but fell short of the existing record of 2878 dancers, which was set last year at the Birdsville Big Red Bash  the Mundi Mundi Bash's sister festival in remote southwest Queensland.

The attempt wasn't wasted though with participants paying to register and raising $42,000 for the festival's charity partner, the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Undi superheroes united in their hundreds at the Mundi Uni run this week

First across the line in the Mundi Undi run

Mr Donovan and his wife pose with festivalgoers during the world record attempt on the Mad Max costumes

The other attempt was on the more obscure side, but proved more successful as punters broke the record for the most Mad Max characters in one place.

The new world record for the most people dressed in Mad Max costumes in one place is now 556.

The Mad Max connection isn't random. The first movie in the post apocalyptic series, which made Mel Gibson famous in 1980, was filmed at nearby Silverton.

The latest addition to the series, Mad Max: Furiosa, starring Chris Hemsworth, is set to start filming in the area in June.

Cold Chisel legend Ian Moss was one of the music drawcards and he lived up to his billing

Plenty of families enjoyed fun in the sun at the Mundi Mundi Bash festival

Costumes came in all shapes and sizes, include Mrs Brown size

Most of all the Mundi Mundi Bash was a red desert get-together for mates from around Australia looking to hit the road after enduring dire Covid lockdowns and camp under the huge skies of western NSW.

The crowd of almost 10,000 arrived mostly in groups occupying around 2,000 vehicles.

If you feel like you missed out, organisers have planned another Mundi Mundi Bash for August 2022

It will feature Oz-rock royalty Jimmy Barnes, Missy Higgins, Kasey Chambers, Jon Stevens and Daryl Braithwaite among others.

Barbecues on the red dirt is a truly Aussie dinner setting - this one at Australian music icon Kate Cebreano's tent where she stayed with friends after her performance on Friday

A group of mates cross the line in the Mundi Uni run
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Industry chiefs have warned British holidaymakers hoping to fly abroad at any time this year to brace for 12 months of travel hell due to unprecedented airline staff shortages caused by Covid self-isolation and mass layoffs during the pandemic.

Experts said that airlines 'are simply unable to cope with that demand due to a lack of resources' and warned that the 'nightmare' disruption - of the sort seen over Easter, where hundreds of flights were cancelled by airlines including British Airways and easyJet - could last all year.

BA has axed hundreds of flights up on some routes to the US and the Far East until September, affecting thousands of travellers after it had already cancelled more than 1,000 flights in little more than three weeks.

Routes affected have included from London to Berlin, Dublin, Geneva, Paris, Stockholm, Athens and Prague. The flagship carrier axed another 200-plus flights over yesterday and on Wednesday, affecting an estimated 20,000 passengers.

There are fears that other carriers could also be hit with issues after easyJet cancelled hundreds of flights over Easter.

Kully Sandhu, managing director of Aviation Recruitment Network, told the Express: 'In my opinion, it could be up to 12 months before we see staffing at airports back to pre-pandemic levels. Recruitment for people at airports takes longer than roles elsewhere because of necessary, additional security and background checks.

'Routine recruitment campaigns ground to halt during the pandemic and have been slow to start again as international travel has had a number of restrictions on it until recently. That means the recruitment pipeline was cut off and needs to be re-established.

'Aviation has lost its appeal, not only for returners but also for people who have never worked in an airport environment before.'

George Morgan-Grenville, chief executive of Red Savannah Luxury Travel, added: 'It is an unfortunate perfect storm and airlines and airports are trying to ramp up again after the pandemic.

Passengers queue inside the departures area of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London, during the Easter getaway, April 15, 2022

Left, George Morgan-Grenville, chief executive of Red Savannah Luxury Travel. Right, Kully Sandhu, managing director of Aviation Recruitment Network. Both are warning of further travel disruption this year

Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 on Bank Holiday Monday, April 18, 2022

Heathrow and Gatwick flight cancellations have been caused by schedule reduction as well as staff being forced off work

Passengers queue to enter airport security ahead of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, at Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport, April 14, 2022

Manchester Airport departure check in and security, April 8, 2022

P&O Ferries Spirit of Britain ship seized over safety concerns CAN sail again: Disgraced company attempts to resume normal operations after it sacked 800 seafarers and a week after Easter travel chaos at Dover port P&O Ferries the Pride of Kent (left) and the Spirit of Britain (right) moored at the Port of Dover in Kent, April 22, 2022 One of P&O Ferries' biggest cross-Channel ships that had been seized in Dover over safety concerns has now been cleared to sail, as the disgraced company attempts to resume normal operations after sacking nearly 800 employees. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said that the 700ft long Spirit of Britain, which can carry up to 2,000 passengers and was the first of two 'Spirit' class ships built for P&O Ferries, 'has been released from detention and can commence operations when P&O Ferries are ready'. The ship's detention at the Port of Dover, along with that of the Pride Of Kent vessel, caused a shortage of ferry capacity in the run-up to Easter on the key Dover-Calais crossing and sparked massive queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent. A total of eight P&O Ferries vessels have been probed by the MCA since P&O Ferries sensationally fired nearly 800 seafarers with no notice via a Zoom video call last month - an action even the operator's millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite admitted was illegal in testimony to MPs - and replaced them with cheaper 5.50-an-hour foreign agency workers. The Spirit of Britain had been held earlier this month and P&O Ferries were requested to fix 'a number of' safety issues raised by the assessment before the MCA carried out a second inspection. The MCA said it began assessing European Highlander on Thursday and Norbay on Wednesday. The European Highlander, which normally operates between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland, will be allowed to resume voyages once a 'small number of deficiencies' are fixed. A third vessel called the Norbay, which serves the Liverpool-Dublin route, was also cleared to sail earlier yesterday, the MCA added. Advertisement

'The travel industry is not an industry that can be turned on and then off again and it was inevitable it was going to take time. My own feeling is I don't think we are going to see a problem-free summer by any stretch of the imagination. If it is as bad as it has been purported to be, I think you will get a lot of very upset people.'

The transport chaos over Easter saw flights to destinations into Europe and the US cancelled by BA and easyJet as they were hit by Covid absences, lack of staff and a surge in demand for travel as restrictions were lifted.

Industry experts have also pointed the finger at security checks for issues with staff numbers, with vetting for new staff taking up to twice as long as the 14 weeks it is supposed to. They also believe that loss of thousands of experienced staff who were laid off during the pandemic has had an impact, with many not returning after finding jobs elsewhere.

BA boss Sean Doyle originally told staff in an internal message that flights would be cancelled until the end of next month, partly due to staff shortages.

At the World Travel and Tourism Council's summit in Manila in the Philippines, Paul Charles, of travel consultancy The PC Agency, suggested disruption could last many months.

'Covid travel restrictions have brought about a destruction of talent through job losses,' he said.

He also told the Telegraph: 'In the short-term you have got Covid [absence] which is becoming less of an issue, but in the longer term, there are still complications over recruiting enough staff.

'BA is only recruiting staff who already have security passes. The airline's planners obviously believe there is a maximum number of people they feel they will recruit, therefore it has to cut back on frequency now based on its expected level of recruitment.

'It is readjusting in order to give as much notice as it can before it's inevitable that they have to cancel those flights anyway. It is responding to concerns expressed by their customers and Government ministers about the lack of notice given to consumers.'

More than 1,140 flights were grounded at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham during the Easter getaway - with EasyJet and British Airways both cutting 60 and 98 flights respectively in a single day.

This week it emerged that BA is cancelling half of flights between Heathrow and Miami, reducing them to one each way a day from June 4 until September 7. BA said the cancelled daily flight to and from Miami would be picked up by American Airlines.

In an email to customers the airline apologised and said: 'We'll do everything we can to get you where you need to be.'

BA has already halted flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo and yesterday it said there would be no flights to Hong Kong until September and to Tokyo until October.

It is not yet clear how many other BA flights will be axed over the summer. Passengers who have their flight cancelled are entitled to a full cash refund or the airline should book them on another flight with a take-off time as close to the cancelled flight as possible.

The airline slashed thousands of jobs during the pandemic.

Some easyJet and Ryanair customers have also taken to social media to report their flights being cancelled.

One wrote: 'Could @easyJet make it any more difficult to get in touch with them? The cancelled my flight there but won't let me cancel the return flight back?'

A second said: '@easyJet AWFUL - can you please explain why my outbound flight to Cagliari on the 10/05/22 has been cancelled with less than a months notice? Would appreciate a response as this is the third tweet I have sent and have been ignored.'

While a third added: ' @Ryanair Hi I need a solution to the cancelation of my flight to Venice. Twice you have cancelled (22 and 23 of April) without a solution. We don't have options now to go and we are costing all the extras expenses.'

Despite the social media furore, easyJet told MailOnline in a statement: 'We are planning to operate our normal summer schedule which is on average around 1700 flights a day this summer.'

Mr Charles said: 'Airlines are certainly seeing a high level of demand to fly, but are simply unable to cope with that demand due to a lack of resources. It's a nightmare situation for airlines and airports at the moment.'

Martin Chalk, general secretary of the pilots' union Balpa, also told The Telegraph: 'The chaos witnessed at British airports may well be repeated throughout the summer because airlines, laden with debt have not yet rehired enough staff.'

BA boss Sean Doyle's future is uncertain as the airline announced it was planning to cancel hundreds of flights between now and December during the busiest time of the year

The rise in bookings is overtaking the number of airline staff being hired, which is being further exacerbated by security checks.

An industry source further blamed the vetting process, saying it can take up to six months before someone is able to come in and do a job at an airport.

But a spokesperson for the Department for Transport (DfT) contended the 'aviation industry is responsible for resourcing at airports', adding: 'They manage their staff absences, although we want to see minimal disruption for passengers during the Easter period.

'The requirement for Counter Terrorist Checks for aviation security staff is important for the protection of the travelling public and the Government continues to process these security clearances in a timely manner.'

Speaking at a global industry summit in Manila in the Philippines, Julia Simpson, CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), acknowledged 'that there are concerns' about BA's recent performance.

But the former BA executive and Downing Street advisor added: 'I think these are more wrinkles as we pull out of the pandemic and rebuild.

'BA remains a great airline. It's one of the greatest airlines in the world and I think they're just facing issues as they come back post-pandemic. Not all the issues are of their own making.'

She said airline staff shortages, behind much of the disruption, had been exacerbated by delays to security and anti-terror checks. These must be carried out by Government officials for every new aviation sector recruit but are currently taking longer than usual following a spike in applications.
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Putin has launched a major salvage operation to the wreck of the downed Black Sea Fleet flagship to secure military secrets including coding devices, unexploded missiles, and possibly even attempt to bring the bodies of dead sailors back home, naval experts have claimed.

An eight-ship salvage flotilla including Kommuna, the world's oldest active warship, and submarine has been sent to the site of the sunken Moskva 80 miles off the coast of Odessa from Sevastopol, the large naval base in Russia-annexed Crimea, according to a report by Forbes.

Military expert HI Sutton has suggested that Putin may be hoping to retrieve 'cryptological materials - radios and keys indicating secret codes - as well as any weapons or logs that might be of interest to a foreign power'.

He explained that the sole purpose of the 315ft-long Kommuna, which was built 110 years ago for Tsar Nicholas II's navy and served in the Imperial and Soviet navies during both world wars, is to recover sunken vessels and cargo after a shipwreck or other maritime casualty.

But since the Moskva is around 160ft under water, experts believe it is unlikely that Kommuna will attempt to salvage the entire wreck. A US defence official told Forbes: 'That would be an enormous engineering task, to try to bring that ship up to the surface. We've seen no indication that they have shown any interest in doing that.'

The angry families of Russian servicemen desperately searching for their sons who they said served on the Moskva warship prior to its sinking have hit out at Kremlin 'lies' and 'bullying' after Putin had promised them they would not be sent to the warzone in Ukraine.

Some relatives have been warned they will not get financial 'compensation' for their loved-ones' deaths if they go to the media. Despite this, brave Dmitry Shkrebets, father of Yegor Shkrebets, has launched a campaign to force out the truth about what happened to the warship - and their sons - faced with a wall of obfuscation from the Russian authorities. He told Current Times: 'All the guilty should be punished for what they did. Or rather, what they didn't do.'

It took the Russian military more than a week to acknowledge that one serviceman died and 27 dozen others were missing after the ship - one of its flagship cruisers - sank in the Black Sea, reportedly the result of a Ukrainian missiles strike.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in its announcement on Friday the ship had been damaged by a fire, with 396 crew members evacuated. The ministry did not offer any explanation for its earlier claims that the full crew got off the vessel before it sank.

The loss of the Moskva, one of three missile cruisers of its kind in Russia's fleet, was shrouded in mystery from the moment it was first reported early on April 14. Ukraine said it hit the ship with missiles. The Russian Defence Ministry would not acknowledge an attack, saying only that a fire broke out on the vessel after ammunition detonated, causing serious damage.

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

Vladimir Putin standing next to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt on board the Moskva cruiser in August 2014

In this photo provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian navy missile cruiser Moskva is on patrol in the Mediterranean Sea near the Syrian coast on December 17, 2015

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows cruiser Moskva in port Sevastopol in Crimea on April 7, 2022

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

Moldova's foreign ministry expresses 'deep concern' after Russian military chief outlines plans to seize Ukraine's entire south coast creating a land corridor to former Soviet state - as he hints at need to protect 'oppressed' Russian speakers Moldova's foreign ministry last night said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to express 'deep concern' over comments by a top Kremlin military chief who hinted at future military action in the former Soviet state. In a statement which has raised concerns in Chisinau, deputy commander of Russia's central military district, Rustam Minnekayev, said Russia planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. He also hinted Russia's forces could move further west into Transnistria - internationally recognised as part of Moldova - in order to protect 'oppressed' Russia speakers. An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops waving Russian flags moves towards Mariupol yesterday which Putin claims he has 'liberated' But last night Moldova said the statements were 'unfounded' and that the country remained a 'neutral state'. 'These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic of Moldova,' said Moldova's Foreign Ministry on its website. 'During the meeting, it was reiterated that the republic of Moldova ... is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation.' The suggestion by a senior Russian official that Moscow needs to defend supporters in a nearby country is a chilling echo of its previous justification for invading Ukraine. It would mean an extended war to the west of annexed Crimea, where Putin's sea power is diminished after the sinking of the Moskva. Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol Advertisement

Moscow even insisted that the ship remained afloat and was being towed to a port, only to admit hours later that it sank after all - in a storm. No images of the ship or of the supposed rescue operation were made available.

Only several days later, the Russian military released a short and mostly silent video showing rows of sailors, supposedly from the Moskva, reporting to their command in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The footage offered little clarity on how many sailors were actually evacuated to safety.

Soon came the questions. An emotional social media post by Dmitry Shkrebets alleging that his son, a conscript who served as a cook on Moskva, was missing, quickly went viral.

The military 'said the entire crew was evacuated. It's a lie! A blatant and cynical lie!' Shkrebets, a resident of Crimea, wrote on VK, a popular Russian social media platform, on April 17, three days after the ship went down.

'My son, a conscript, as the very commanders of the Moskva cruiser told me, is not listed among the wounded and the dead and is added to the list of those missing ... Guys, missing in the open sea?!'

Similar posts quickly followed from other parts of Russia. The Associated Press found social media posts looking for at least 13 other young men who reportedly served on the Moskva whose families could not find them.

One woman spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, as she feared for her son's safety. She said her son was a conscript and had been aboard the Moskva for several months before telling her in early February that the ship was about to depart for drills. She lost touch with him for several weeks after that.

The news about Russia invading Ukraine worried her, she said, and she started reading the news online and on social media every day. The last time they spoke on the phone was in mid-March. He was on the ship but did not say where it was.

She didn't start looking for him until a day after she learned about trouble aboard the Moskva, because official statements from the Defense Ministry said the crew was evacuated. But no one called or messaged her about her son's whereabouts, and she started to get agitated.

Calls to various military officials and hotlines got her nowhere at first, but she persisted. A call she made on the way to a grocery store brought bleak news - that her son was listed as missing and that there was little chance he survived in the cold water.

'I said 'But you said you rescued everyone' and he said 'I only have the lists'. I screamed `What are you doing?!' she told the AP. 'I got hysterical, right at the bus stop (where I was standing), I felt like the ground was giving way under my feet. I started shaking.'

The Kremlin statements about the ship's loss and the crew's fate follow a historical pattern in which Russia has often met bad news with silence, denials or undercounts about casualties. Previous examples include the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in 2000 and the 1994-1996 Chechen war.

Among names disclosed by relative as missing and presumed dead after the Moskva sinking are: Nikita Efremenko, 19, from Priozersk, Leningrad region, Andrey Tsyvov, 19, from Crimea, Nikita Syromyasov, 20, from Crimea, Leonid Savin, 18 or 19, from Alupka, Yegor Shkrebets, 20, from Yalta, Mark Tarasov, 24, from St Petersburg, Sergey Grudinin, 21, from Amur region, Danil Gerok, 22, from Lobnya, Moscow region, and Ivan Frantin, 23, from Karelia, and Ivan Kutnyak.

The families' accounts could not be independently verified. But they went largely uncontested by Russian authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment and redirected the question to the Defense Ministry when asked by the AP during one of his daily conference calls with reporters about families challenging the official statements about sailors being evacuated.

The Defense Ministry did not comment on the outcry either - until Friday, when it finally revealed that 27 crew members were missing and one was confirmed dead. The ministry still did not acknowledge an attack on the ship, however.

Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov says the sinking of the Moskva is a major political blow for President Vladimir Putin, not so much because of the outcry from families, but because it hurts Putin's image of military might.

'This trait, might, is under attack now because we're now talking about the devastation of the fleet,' Gallyamov said. But the families' woes underscores 'that one shouldn't trust the Russian authorities.'

In the meantime, some families with missing sons plan to continue seeking the truth.

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

A destroyed apartment building in Borodianka on the outskirts of Kyiv is seen as Russian bombardment in Ukraine continues

'Now we will turn to figuring out for how long one can 'go missing' in the open sea,' Shkrebets posted Friday.

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 can't tell you how hard it was, but I couldn't 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 won't tell you anything'.'

Egor's 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 cruiser's 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.'
The social services department that failed to protect Logan Mwangi was warned it was letting down children at risk a year before his murder, it emerged last night.

Inspectors told Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) in August 2020 that children were coming off the child protection register 'too soon'.

Officials from the Care Inspectorate Wales watchdog also warned it could 'not be confident' that children at risk of neglect or abuse 'were visited frequently enough'.

Eighteen months earlier council bosses admitted they also faced compensation claims from 'a number of families' suing for failing to take children into care earlier.

The social services department that failed to protect Logan Mwangi was warned it was letting down children at risk a year before his murder, it emerged last night

The council's head of social services, Claire Marchant, has refused to comment. She joined BCBC in October 2020  her third job at a different council in five years. She did not respond yesterday

Logan spent seven months on Bridgend's child protection register, but was removed and downgraded to a 'child in need' weeks before his death at five last July.

On Thursday, his mother, Angharad Williamson, 31, stepfather John Cole, 40, and a 14-year-old boy who cannot be named were convicted of his murder and trying to hide his death.

The downgrading meant social workers saw Logan less, despite warnings from the 14-year-old's foster parents that he threatened to kill Logan, which officials denied.

Logan was found by officers on the riverbank on July 31 and taken to the town's Princess of Wales Hospital, where he was confirmed dead. Pictured: Police at the scene

The view of the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend, Wales, in the vicinity where the body of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was discovered on July 31 2021

South Wales police constable Lauren Keen found Logan lying dead in the River Ogmore within Pandy Park in Sarn, Bridgend just after 6am on July 31. Pictured: Police and forensic officers at the scene of the alleged murder last year

Logan Mwangi was discovered in the river with 56 external injuries including a broken collarbone

A court heard the youngster suffered damage to his brain that could have been caused up to 38 hours before his death

There were 13 serious case reviews into child neglect at BCBC from 2009 to 2013. Now Logan's death has prompted a new inquiry  a child practice review  led by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board, which includes experts from the council, police, probation service and NHS.

The council's head of social services, Claire Marchant, has refused to comment. She joined BCBC in October 2020  her third job at a different council in five years. She did not respond yesterday.

The investigation is expected to examine missed opportunities to intervene in Logan's care, including instances when Williamson lied to social workers about injuries Logan suffered.

It will also focus on the lack of communication between his social worker, Gaynor Rush, and her colleague Debbie Williams, responsible for the teenager convicted of his murder.
Dozens of innocent Post Office subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted in one of Britain's biggest ever miscarriages of justice have said they are no closer to gaining compensation a year after appeal judges quashed their criminal records.

Neil Hudgell, the lawyer leading compensation negotiations, has now called for cases to be settled by the end of the year to prevent the victims facing further financial ruin.

Hundreds of staff were blamed by the Post Office for losses in branch accounts caused by serious flaws in the Fujitsu-developed Horizon computer system which was in use between 1999 and 2015.

Rather than admit the IT system was defective, the Post Office concealed evidence of the glitches and instead forced its own staff to plead guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed, lawyers representing those who sought to get their convictions overturned last year said.

Many postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting, while others were hounded out of work or forced to pay huge sums of 'missing' money.

The scandal blighted their lives, as former staff lost their homes and marriages, and suffered ill health as a result.

Former Post Office workers celebrating outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, in April 2021 after their convictions were overturned by appeal judges

Stock image of a Post Office sign hanging on the wall

What was the Horizon computer system and how did it go wrong? Horizon, an IT system developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was rolled out by the Post Office from 1999. The system was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking. However, subpostmasters complained about defects after it reported shortfalls - some of which amounted to thousands of pounds. Some subpostmasters attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an attempt to correct an error. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were sacked or prosecuted due to the glitches. The ex-workers blamed flaws in the IT system, Horizon, but the Post Office denied there was a problem. In case after case the Post Office bullied postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed. Many others who were not convicted were hounded out of their jobs or forced to pay back thousands of pounds of 'missing' money. The Post Office spent 32million to deny any fault in their IT system, before capitulating. However, the postmasters and postmistresses said the scandal ruined their lives as they had to cope with the impact of a conviction and imprisonment. Marriages broke down, and courts have heard how some families believe the stress led to health conditions, addiction and premature deaths. Advertisement

One former postmaster, Martin Griffiths, killed himself after he was falsely suspected of stealing 60,000, while others have died and 'gone to their graves' with convictions against their names.

Thirty-nine long-standing convictions were quashed at the Court of Appeal in central London on April 23 last year, and the number has since risen to 73.

Mr Hudgell said: 'We need to bring these cases to a close in the course of this calendar year so these decent, honest people can move on with their lives and finally enjoy some peace of mind.

'Many feel strongly that their ongoing suffering continues to be used as a lever to make derisory settlement offers.

'For some poor subpostmasters time has beaten them, they have died or lost capacity. For others the clock is ticking quickly too. Perhaps the words of one subpostmaster to me best sums up the current position.

'They said: 'I'm concerned now that the interim payment has run out, just settling personal loans, debts and essential house repairs - my freezer, washer and microwave have all packed up over recent months, and now my boiler.

'I may no longer be a criminal but I'm still very much a victim.

'The Post Office continues to control my life and cause me stress and sleepless nights'.'

Mr Hudgell added that although most subpostmasters have received interim payments from the Post Office, they feel that these payments have only been given so the institution can feel like 'they have been doing them a favour' instead of handing back money wrongly taken.

He called for another round of interim payments to settle agreed losses, and an early dispute resolution with Post Office lawyers to resolve ongoing issues, adding: 'We are poles apart in how we value some of the losses suffered by the subpostmasters.'

The Court of Appeal has previously heard that many subpostmasters' lives were 'irreparably ruined' as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office - which knew the Fujitsu-developed Horizon system had 'faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation'.

Hundreds of people who ran Post Office branches were convicted of offences - including theft and false accounting - during the period of time the system was being used.

The Post Office said they have provided 'swift financial relief' with interim payments of up to 100,000 to the 'overwhelming majority' of the 73 people whose convictions were overturned.

Former post office worker Noel Thomas, who was convicted of false accounting in 2006, celebrates with his daughter Sian outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, after having his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal, Friday April 23, 2021

A spokesperson said: 'We are sincerely sorry for the impact of the Horizon scandal on the lives of victims and their families. We are in no doubt about the human cost.

'Whilst we cannot change the past, we have taken determined action to ensure that justice is provided for people affected, together with full, fair and final compensation.

'We have provided swift financial relief with interim payments of up to 100,000 to the overwhelming majority of the 73 people who have had convictions overturned, ahead of final settlements.

'Separately, we have made compensation offers to more than half of people who applied to the Historical Shortfall Scheme, and of those the majority have already been accepted and paid. Offers and payments continue to be made every week.'

The Post Office added that it is 'co-operating fully, openly and transparently' with the ongoing statutory inquiry led by Sir Wyn Williams while making 'fundamental' internal reforms.
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Every country in the world will now want nuclear weapons because Putin has shown that if you have the bomb, nobody will aid your enemies, a former White House adviser has dramatically claimed.

Fiona Hill, a British-born Russia expert and former White House intelligence adviser who was former deputy assistant to the president when Donald Trump was in office, said Putin's 'nuclear blackmail' was likely to increase the international demand for nuclear arms.

When the Russian tyrant invaded Ukraine in February, he made a reference to his nation's nuclear deterrents, warning the West that any major intervention would 'lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history'.

And in a further ratcheting of tensions this week, Putin test-launched his fearsome 'Satan II' missile which is capable of striking a target 11,200 miles away and is said to be the world's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile. The test came as NATO powers including Britain pledged to provide further arms to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders.

Suggesting that the world now was more dangerous than during the Cold War, Miss Hill told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that countries such as Japan and South Korea will be 'really rethinking your non-nuclear posture and your reliance on the United States' - in what is likely to be a reference to North Korea and China.

'The nuclear issue is something that everybody should be concerned about on a global basis because he [Putin] is basically telling every country: You need a nuclear weapon,' she said.

'So the whole idea of non-proliferation is basically out the window because it is basically very clear that the reason we are not going after Russia with everything that we've got is because they've got a nuclear weapon and he is saying he's prepared to use one.

'And everyone is looking at this now and thinking, 'right, well if I want to have my way with my neighbour, I need a nuclear weapon' - that's basically what Putin is telling us. And conversely, everyone is thinking, 'if I'm going to have a good defensive posture, I can't rely on someone else coming to my assistance, I need a nuclear weapon'.

'So we are in a whole new territory that we haven't even been in during the Cold War, and so this requires really robust diplomacy.'

The Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is launched during a test at Plesetsk cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk region, Russia, in this still image taken from a video released on April 20, 2022

Left, former White House national security aide Fiona Hill. Right, Russian President Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin ordered the test firing of his Sarmat RS-28 'Satan II' missile - which is capable of carrying enough nuclear warheads to destroy France in a single strike

Putin described the launch of the nuclear-capable RS-28 Sarmat as a 'big, significant event' for Russia's military and claimed the weapon can overcome all modern defence systems. However the US described the testing as 'routine' and dismissed any global threat.

Launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome facility in northern Russia, the missile's practice warheads hit targets 3,600 miles away at the Kura firing range in the Kamchatka peninsula.

If fully armed, it can deliver a payload big enough to destroy an area the size of France.

In remarks televised around Russia, Putin congratulated the military on the launch, adding: 'This truly unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure the security of Russia from external threats and make those who, in the heat of aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country, think twice.'

He added it was 'capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defence.' Dmitry Rogozin, director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said the weapon was a 'present to Nato and all sponsors of Ukro-Nazism', a reference to the outlandlish propaganda claims that Kyiv is run by neo-Nazis.

Despite the timing - coming as Western countries pledge further heavy weaponry to aid Ukraine - the Pentagon said it was notified by the Kremlin of its intention to launch the weapon.

Initial tests of the missile took place in 2017 and the first full-scale launch was delayed from December, prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The RS-28 Sarmat is designed to replace the R-36, which had been nicknamed SS-18 Satan by NATO.

Describing the successful launch, a statement from Russia's defence ministry said: 'Sarmat is the most powerful missile with the longest range of destruction of targets in the world, which will significantly increase the combat power of our country's strategic nuclear forces.'

An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops moves along a road during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 21, 2022

Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 21, 2022

A destroyed apartment building on April 21, 2022 in Borodianka, Ukraine

Capable of travelling at up to 16,000mph, it can deploy multiple warheads and other weapons towards targets at hypersonic speeds, making it extremely difficult to bring down.

It will be able to launch the Avangard, Russia's first hypersonic missile, which can travel at the top of the Earth's atmosphere at more than ten times the speed of sound.

Putin has previously described the weapon as 'invincible'. The original Soviet-era Satan missile has been in service since the 1970s, while 'Satan II' is said to have been in development since the early 2000s.

The head of Moscow's strategic missile forces, Colonel-General Sergey Karakayev vowed to keep developing hypersonic weapons.

'By the time they [the West] find an antidote, we must have found another solution to this. And today we are working on it. There are developments, there is work in progress.

Jack Watling, of the Royal United Services Institute defence think-tank said the timing of the test was mere posturing by Putin ahead of Russia's Victory Day on May 9, where the Kremlin shows off its weapons.

'The timing of the test reflects the Russians wanting to have something to show as a technological achievement in the lead-up to Victory Day, at a time when a lot of their technology has not delivered the results they would have liked in Ukraine,' he said.

Putin races to salvage military secrets on board sunken Moskva: Russian president 'scrambles eight-ship flotilla to wreck of Black Sea Fleet flagship to secure coding devices and unexploded missiles' as dead crew families blast Kremlin 'lies' over sinking

Putin has launched a major salvage operation to the wreck of the downed Black Sea Fleet flagship to secure military secrets including coding devices, unexploded missiles, and possibly even attempt to bring the bodies of dead sailors back home, naval experts have claimed.

An eight-ship salvage flotilla including Kommuna, the world's oldest active warship, and submarine has been sent to the site of the sunken Moskva 80 miles off the coast of Odessa from Sevastopol, the large naval base in Russia-annexed Crimea, according to a report by Forbes.

Military expert HI Sutton has suggested that Putin may be hoping to retrieve 'cryptological materials - radios and keys indicating secret codes - as well as any weapons or logs that might be of interest to a foreign power'.

He explained that the sole purpose of the 315ft-long Kommuna, which was built 110 years ago for Tsar Nicholas II's navy and served in the Imperial and Soviet navies during both world wars, is to recover sunken vessels and cargo after a shipwreck or other maritime casualty.

But since the Moskva is around 160ft under water, experts believe it is unlikely that Kommuna will attempt to salvage the entire wreck. A US defence official told Forbes: 'That would be an enormous engineering task, to try to bring that ship up to the surface. We've seen no indication that they have shown any interest in doing that.'

The angry families of Russian servicemen desperately searching for their sons who they said served on the Moskva warship prior to its sinking have hit out at Kremlin 'lies' and 'bullying' after Putin had promised them they would not be sent to the warzone in Ukraine.

Some relatives have been warned they will not get financial 'compensation' for their loved-ones' deaths if they go to the media. Despite this, brave Dmitry Shkrebets, father of Yegor Shkrebets, has launched a campaign to force out the truth about what happened to the warship - and their sons - faced with a wall of obfuscation from the Russian authorities. He told Current Times: 'All the guilty should be punished for what they did. Or rather, what they didn't do.'

It took the Russian military more than a week to acknowledge that one serviceman died and 27 dozen others were missing after the ship - one of its flagship cruisers - sank in the Black Sea, reportedly the result of a Ukrainian missiles strike.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in its announcement on Friday the ship had been damaged by a fire, with 396 crew members evacuated. The ministry did not offer any explanation for its earlier claims that the full crew got off the vessel before it sank.

The loss of the Moskva, one of three missile cruisers of its kind in Russia's fleet, was shrouded in mystery from the moment it was first reported early on April 14. Ukraine said it hit the ship with missiles. The Russian Defence Ministry would not acknowledge an attack, saying only that a fire broke out on the vessel after ammunition detonated, causing serious damage.

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

Vladimir Putin standing next to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt on board the Moskva cruiser in August 2014

In this photo provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian navy missile cruiser Moskva is on patrol in the Mediterranean Sea near the Syrian coast on December 17, 2015

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows cruiser Moskva in port Sevastopol in Crimea on April 7, 2022

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

Moldova's foreign ministry expresses 'deep concern' after Russian military chief outlines plans to seize Ukraine's entire south coast creating a land corridor to former Soviet state - as he hints at need to protect 'oppressed' Russian speakers Moldova's foreign ministry last night said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to express 'deep concern' over comments by a top Kremlin military chief who hinted at future military action in the former Soviet state. In a statement which has raised concerns in Chisinau, deputy commander of Russia's central military district, Rustam Minnekayev, said Russia planned to forge a corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. He also hinted Russia's forces could move further west into Transnistria - internationally recognised as part of Moldova - in order to protect 'oppressed' Russia speakers. An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops waving Russian flags moves towards Mariupol yesterday which Putin claims he has 'liberated' But last night Moldova said the statements were 'unfounded' and that the country remained a 'neutral state'. 'These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic of Moldova,' said Moldova's Foreign Ministry on its website. 'During the meeting, it was reiterated that the republic of Moldova ... is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation.' The suggestion by a senior Russian official that Moscow needs to defend supporters in a nearby country is a chilling echo of its previous justification for invading Ukraine. It would mean an extended war to the west of annexed Crimea, where Putin's sea power is diminished after the sinking of the Moskva. Service members of pro-Russian troops are seen atop of an armoured vehicle during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol Advertisement

Moscow even insisted that the ship remained afloat and was being towed to a port, only to admit hours later that it sank after all - in a storm. No images of the ship or of the supposed rescue operation were made available.

Only several days later, the Russian military released a short and mostly silent video showing rows of sailors, supposedly from the Moskva, reporting to their command in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The footage offered little clarity on how many sailors were actually evacuated to safety.

Soon came the questions. An emotional social media post by Dmitry Shkrebets alleging that his son, a conscript who served as a cook on Moskva, was missing, quickly went viral.

The military 'said the entire crew was evacuated. It's a lie! A blatant and cynical lie!' Shkrebets, a resident of Crimea, wrote on VK, a popular Russian social media platform, on April 17, three days after the ship went down.

'My son, a conscript, as the very commanders of the Moskva cruiser told me, is not listed among the wounded and the dead and is added to the list of those missing ... Guys, missing in the open sea?!'

Similar posts quickly followed from other parts of Russia. The Associated Press found social media posts looking for at least 13 other young men who reportedly served on the Moskva whose families could not find them.

One woman spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, as she feared for her son's safety. She said her son was a conscript and had been aboard the Moskva for several months before telling her in early February that the ship was about to depart for drills. She lost touch with him for several weeks after that.

The news about Russia invading Ukraine worried her, she said, and she started reading the news online and on social media every day. The last time they spoke on the phone was in mid-March. He was on the ship but did not say where it was.

She didn't start looking for him until a day after she learned about trouble aboard the Moskva, because official statements from the Defense Ministry said the crew was evacuated. But no one called or messaged her about her son's whereabouts, and she started to get agitated.

Calls to various military officials and hotlines got her nowhere at first, but she persisted. A call she made on the way to a grocery store brought bleak news - that her son was listed as missing and that there was little chance he survived in the cold water.

'I said 'But you said you rescued everyone' and he said 'I only have the lists'. I screamed `What are you doing?!' she told the AP. 'I got hysterical, right at the bus stop (where I was standing), I felt like the ground was giving way under my feet. I started shaking.'

The Kremlin statements about the ship's loss and the crew's fate follow a historical pattern in which Russia has often met bad news with silence, denials or undercounts about casualties. Previous examples include the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in 2000 and the 1994-1996 Chechen war.

Among names disclosed by relative as missing and presumed dead after the Moskva sinking are: Nikita Efremenko, 19, from Priozersk, Leningrad region, Andrey Tsyvov, 19, from Crimea, Nikita Syromyasov, 20, from Crimea, Leonid Savin, 18 or 19, from Alupka, Yegor Shkrebets, 20, from Yalta, Mark Tarasov, 24, from St Petersburg, Sergey Grudinin, 21, from Amur region, Danil Gerok, 22, from Lobnya, Moscow region, and Ivan Frantin, 23, from Karelia, and Ivan Kutnyak.

The families' accounts could not be independently verified. But they went largely uncontested by Russian authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment and redirected the question to the Defense Ministry when asked by the AP during one of his daily conference calls with reporters about families challenging the official statements about sailors being evacuated.

The Defense Ministry did not comment on the outcry either - until Friday, when it finally revealed that 27 crew members were missing and one was confirmed dead. The ministry still did not acknowledge an attack on the ship, however.

Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov says the sinking of the Moskva is a major political blow for President Vladimir Putin, not so much because of the outcry from families, but because it hurts Putin's image of military might.

'This trait, might, is under attack now because we're now talking about the devastation of the fleet,' Gallyamov said. But the families' woes underscores 'that one shouldn't trust the Russian authorities.'

In the meantime, some families with missing sons plan to continue seeking the truth.

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

A destroyed apartment building in Borodianka on the outskirts of Kyiv is seen as Russian bombardment in Ukraine continues

'Now we will turn to figuring out for how long one can 'go missing' in the open sea,' Shkrebets posted Friday.

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 can't tell you how hard it was, but I couldn't 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 won't tell you anything'.'

Egor's 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 cruiser's 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.'
The husband of fraudster Melissa Caddick is trying his hand at making money through music after being frozen out of her multi-million dollar ill-gotten estate.

Anthony Koletti has regularly complained the publicity around the disappearance of Caddick has led to him being unable to find a steady gig as a hairdresser.

While he has still been allowed to stay in the couples $15million Dover Heights Mansion where he cares for Caddick's teenage son, his luxury cars are gone and access to her cash dried up.

But the aspiring musician has turned to Spotify where he has pumped out a stream of tunes under his moniker DJ 'Paws Off'.

Anthony Koletti, who last saw Australia's most notorious fraudster when she vanished from their mansion in November 2020 has said he cannot find steady work (pictured, Caddick with her son and Mr Koletti (at right)

Mr Koletti has released a number of tracks on Spotify with many referencing Caddick's disappearance and the investigation (pictured)

While his monthly listener count of 273 is yet to see him make any decent cash from the platform, it has reportedly caught the attention of authorities.

One track titled Intelligence Artificial directly hits out at at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

'My wife died as a direct result of an ASIC investigation,' Mr Koletti raps on the track.

'Whether she was murdered or took her own life, she died because of an ASIC investigation ... and I'm never going to forget it.'

Another is titled Melissa is Missing - a direct reference to his wife's disappearance day after ASIC raided their house in 2020 over the con-woman's $23million Ponzi scheme.

That track features audio from news reports of Ms Caddick's disappearance, and from a statement Mr Koletti made shortly after she went missing asking the community to help bring her home.

'Melissa is a dedicated and incredible mother, a beautiful daughter, sister and loved wife - we are asking the community to help bring Melissa home - that is all,' he said at the time.

The voice of a woman was also heard eerily on the song.

Ms Caddick had fraudulently posed as a licensed financial advisor and used her clients investments to fund extravagances such as lavish trips, a designer wardrobe, cars and jewelry.

Other tracks by Mr Koletti reference the ASIC investigation and subsequent media attention including 'No Rights' and 'Privacy Zero'.

Mr Koletti has previously made no secret of his anger towards ASIC, allegedly insulting the corporate watchdog repeatedly over Linkedin and Google Reviews.

In some posts he allegedly claimed investigators 'directly caused the death' of Ms Caddick.

Mr Koletti's blue convertible Audi R8 V10 with custom number plate was sold off at auction for $295,000. She bought it for him in 2016

Koletti's last album under his 'Paws Off' moniker features Caddick's Asics running shoes (pictured)

In a letter to the Federal Court in February he claimed ASIC investigators 'dehumanised' Caddick when they interrogated her.

Mr Koletti's previous album was released on the day of the ASIC raid - its cover eerily features Caddick's Asics running shoes.

Authorities later declared Caddick deceased when months later a foot, confirmed by testing to be her's, washed up on a NSW South Coast beach in the same trainers.

Mr Koletti had given Caddick more than $50,000 of his own cash but has said he does not believe he was a victim of her scheme.

He has recently demanded he be given her fine art collection, diamond jewellery and Gucci wedding dress.

In a Federal Court filing, Koletti also claimed a stake in the sprawling Dover Heights home he shared with Caddick, his mother and father-in-law's high-rise apartment in the city's east as well as her $7million share portfolio.

Receivers are currently looking at how to divvy up and sell Caddick's assets.

Caddick (right) seen in on the day her Dover Heights house was raided

The Dover Heights home where Melissa Caddick was last seen on November 12, 2020 before she vanished

In a court filing, Mr Koletti argued via his lawyer Judith Swan that he should also be given a list of items from Caddick's estate.

They included five John Olsen paintings, her Gucci wedding dress, several items of 18 carat gold jewellery (including his own wedding band), a Louis Vuitton digital watch valued at almost $5,000 and a diamond ring worth $33,960.

That list of items alone could be worth up to $200,000, given Olsen is one of the country's most celebrated painters.

In the claim Ms Swan said that Mr Koletti had been unable to get fulltime work as a hairdresser since 2020 'due to the allegations' against Caddick
The first votes have been cast in France's presidential runoff election as overseas French territories choose between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.

The first vote in the election was cast by a 90-year-old man in the tiny island territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the northern coast of Canada.

Polls subsequently opened in France's islands in the Caribbean and the South American territory of French Guiana and voting later starts in territories in the Pacific and then Indian Ocean before it gets underway on the mainland tomorrow.

The first vote in the election was cast by a 90-year-old man in the tiny island territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the northern coast of Canada

Voting for French citizens in overseas territories have begun voting in the presidential runoff

French citizens register to vote in the second round of the French presidential election

A French citizen exits a polling booth after voting in the second round of the French presidential election at a polling station at the Palais des Congres in Montreal

President Emmanuel Macron is the favourite in France's presidential runoff tomorrow - but has urged voters to head to the polls to avoid a Brexit-style shock.

A victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the election battle would make Macron the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a victory for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist - yet the margin over his nationalist rival appears uncertain, varying from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll.

Polls also forecast the potential of a record-high number of people who either vote blank or stay at home and don't vote at all in this second and final round.

French voters in Quebec were seen voting at the region's Palais-de-Congres in Montreal

Emmanuel Macron urged voters to turnout as he attempts to out-run Marine Le Pen for a second time

President Emmanuel Macron spent the day at the seaside as voters begin to decide his fate

Emmanuel Macron on the beach with his wife Brigitte in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, on the eve of the second round of the presidential election in France

And, speaking in Figeac, an idyllic medieval village in south-west France, Macron warned that 'nothing is decided'.

Describing a potential win for Le Pen as a victory for 'hatred' and invitation to economic ruin, he also said: 'Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: 'I'm not going out to vote, what's the point?' The next day, they woke up with a hangover.'

'So if you want to avoid the unthinkable...choose for yourself.'

In her final campaign stop in Pas-de-Calais, her heartland, Ms Le Pen also called for supporters to turn out. She said: 'Polls aren't what decide an election.'

People wait to vote in the second round of the French Elections at the Palais de Congres in Montreal

Macron's last campaign meeting, two days before the presidential election, in Figeac, south-west France

Marine Le Pen greets people as she leaves the port city of Berck as part of a one-day campaign visit in northern France

Analysts have also reported that Le Pen could upset the polls amid low voter turnout.

'It could be bigger than Brexit,' said Michael Hewson, of UK traders CMC Markets.'

Also referring to the surprise election of Donald Trump as president of the USA in 2016, Mr Hewson added: 'It could be bigger than Trump, if Le Pen prevails.'

Strategists at Citi, the U.S. investment bank, suggested tactical voting combined with low turnout could yet mean victory for the far-Right French candidate.

'Uncertainty stems from the risk of low voter turnout, as leftist voters refuse to give their vote to Macron, even at the risk of handing over to Le Pen,' reads a research document.

'Voter turnout is a factor that pollsters find particularly hard to forecast accurately.'

The April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates and the victor between Macron and Le Pen will largely depend on what people who backed those losing candidates do on Sunday.

It is complicated to predict what will happen, especially with leftist voters who dislike Macron but don't want to see Le Pen in power either.

A second term for Macron relies in part on their mobilization, prompting the French leader to issue multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days.

The two rivals both appeared combative in the final days before Sunday's election, including clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pen's party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine.

He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger 'civil war' in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

'When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right,' Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

Le Pen slumped in the polls after vowing to ban the Muslim headscarf and after Macron's civil war warning.

During the debate, Le Pen confirmed that she stood by her controversial idea of banning the headscarf, which she called 'a uniform imposed by Islamists', but she said she was not 'fighting against Islam.'

'I'm telling it in a very clear manner: I think the headscarf is a uniform imposed by Islamists,' Le Pen said.

Describing a potential win for Le Pen as a victory for 'hatred' and invitation to economic ruin, Macron said: 'Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: 'I'm not going out to vote, what's the point?' The next day, they woke up with a hangover'

Macron argued that the loan Le Pen's party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine

'I think a great proportion of young women who are wearing it have no other choice in reality.'

Survey results published hours after the face-off showed Macron on 59 per cent of the vote, and his right-wing right rival on 39 per cent, with 2 per cent abstentions.

A similar result on Sunday in the final round of the 2022 presidential election would see Macron win his second five-year term of office, and suggests a widening in the polls from yesterday when the pair were eight to 12 points apart.

The sitting President has said he would not ban religious clothing, but he has overseen the closure of numerous mosques, schools and Islamic groups, with help from a special team to root out suspected breeding grounds for radicalism.

The Macron government also passed a controversial law last year to fight 'separatism,' the word used to describe the mixing of politics with Islam, deemed dangerous to France's prized value of secularism.

But Le Pen has pledged to take things a step further by placing an outright ban on religious clothing in public - a law she says would be enforced like 'wearing a seatbelt in a car'.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to 'do everything' during his five-year term so that the French 'have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.'

Marine Le Pen (pictured campaigning in Arras) has slumped in the polls after vowing to ban the Muslim headscarf in a fiery TV debate

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, left, talks to a woman in a headscarf as she campaigns in a market in Pertuis, southern France, Friday, April 15, 2022

Centrist candidate and French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and far-right contender Marine Le Pen pose before a televised debate in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Wednesday, April 20, 2022

However, Le Pen has since consolidated her place on France's political scene, the result of a years-long effort to rebrand herself as less extreme.

Le Pen's campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russia's war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as France's first woman president.

She criticized Macron's 'calamitous' presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

'I'm not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macron's policies... his economic record is also catastrophic,' she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, told the AP he thinks that Macron is going to win again. Le Pen 'has this lack of credibility,' he said.

But if Macron is re-elected, 'there is a big problem,' he added. 'A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.'

He said that means Macron will face a 'big level of mistrust' in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while protecting social benefits at the same time. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise France's minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In an opinion piece Thursday in several European newspapers, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about 'populists and the extreme right' who hold Putin 'as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.'
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Rio de Janeiro's carnival, a glittering, sequin-studded festival of the flesh, exploded back to life yesterday with the first famed samba school parades since Covid-19 hit Brazil.

Celebrations kicked off with colorful floats and flamboyant dancers as the city's top samba schools began strutting their stuff late Friday - the first evening of the two-night spectacle.

After two long years of face masks, social-distancing and death, a sparkling sea of dancers, drummers and multi-storey floats reclaimed the 'Sambadrome'.

It has been home to the parade since the 1980s, and is a symbol of Brazil's Carnival festivities. During the pandemic, it was a shelter for more than 400 homeless people and also served as a vaccination station.

The all-night parades by the city's top samba schools Friday and Saturday are the first since February 2020, marking a turning point for hard-hit Brazil, where Covid-19 has claimed more than 660,000 lives - second only to the United States.

'I'm just so happy. I think a lot of people are going to cry...including me,' said Ana Vieira, a 48-year-old geography teacher who has been parading for 20 years and was wearing a giant, glistening white costume to parade for the Imperatriz samba school.

She told AFP: 'Carnival is life. You can see the happiness on people's faces after two long years staying home and missing it.'

RIO DE JANEIRO: A member of Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school performs during the Special Group Parade during this year's carnival

RIO DE JANEIRO: Members of Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school perform during the Special Group Parade on day three of the Rio de Janeiro 2022 Carnival

RIO DE JANEIRO: Members of Mangueira samba school perform during the first night carnival parade at the Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome

RIO DE JANEIRO: A performer in an ornate costume from the Salgueiro samba school parades during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome

RIO DE JANEIRO: Members of Estacao Primeira de Mangueira samba school perform, clad in stunning costumes, during the Special Group Parade

RIO DE JANEIRO: A feathered performer from the Mangueira samba school parades during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome

RIO DE JANEIRO: A performer from the Beija Flor samba school parades during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: Celebrations kicked off with colorful floats and flamboyant dancers as the city's top samba schools began strutting their stuff late Friday - the first evening of the two-night spectacle. Pictured: A performer from the Beija Flor samba school

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro's carnival, a glittering, sequin-studded festival of the flesh, exploded back to life yesterday with the first famed samba school parades since Covid-19 hit Brazil. Pictured, a performer from the Beija Flor samba school parades

RIO DE JANEIRO: Revellers from Beija-Flor samba school performs during the first night of the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The festivities were hit by tragedy, however, when an 11-year-old girl yesterday died after being injured in a float accident during a lower-level samba school parade contest Wednesday.

The mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes tweeted: 'The death of little Raquel leaves us with a great feeling of sadness. We will closely monitor the police investigation that determines the responsibilities and we are, through our Assistance Department, providing support to family members. My sympathy in this moment of pain.'

The pandemic had left Brazilians full of 'saudades' - Portuguese for 'longing' - for carnival, a free-for-all of dancing, singing and partying at close quarters that is essentially the opposite of social distancing.

Brazil confirmed its first cases of the coronavirus in mid-March 2020, just after that year's Carnival festivities came to an end.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Members of the Viradouro samba school perform during the Special Group Parade on day three of the Rio de Janeiro yesterday

RIO DE JANEIRO: Performers in stunning costumes from the Beija Flor samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO: A stunning ornate float from Beija Flor samba school pictured yesterday, on the first night of Rio's Carnival parade at the Sambadrome Marques de Sapucai in Rio

The 2021 edition was swiftly cancelled due to the rise of the delta variant. More than 663,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the country, the second highest of any country in the world, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.

Ketula Melo, 38, a muse in the Imperatriz Leopoldinense school dressed as the Iemanja deity of Afro-Brazilian religions, was thrilled to be back at the Sambadrome.

She said: 'These two years were horrible. Now we can be happy again.'

Entire communities rally around the competing samba schools, whose shows are not only a source of pride but also employment since preparations require countless seamstresses, welders, costume designers and more.

RIO DE JANEIRO: A reveller from Beija-Flor samba school performs during the first night of the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO: Performers from the Beija Flor samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome on Saturday, as Rio's carnival sparks back to life after the pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO: A member of Viradouro samba school performs during the first night of Rio's Carnival parade at the Sambadrome Marques de Sapucai yesterday

RIO DE JANEIRO: A float from Beija Flor samba school is seen during the first night of Rio's Carnival parade at the Sambadrome Marques de Sapucai

RIO DE JANEIRO: A reveller in a stunning ornate costume from Beija-Flor samba school pictured as she performs during the first night of the parade

There are months of rehearsals for dancers and drummers, so participants can learn the tune and the lyrics for their school's song. The pandemic upended these samba schools' way of life for two years.

Sao Paulo also kicked off its Carnival parade Friday evening. Both cities' parades usually take place in February or March, but their mayors in January jointly announced they were postponing Carnival by two months due to concerns about the proliferation of the omicron variant.

'I couldn't sleep last night, I was so excited,' said Rita Marcelino, a 62-year-old domestic worker who was dancing up a storm as she waited to parade - a moment of catharsis after losing her job and 'many' friends and family members to the pandemic.

RIO DE JANEIRO: A reveller in an intricate gold-coloured costume from Beija-Flor samba school performs during the first night of the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome

RIO DE JANEIRO: A reveller from Beija-Flor samba school. The all-night parades by the city's top samba schools Friday and Saturday are the first since February 2020, marking a turning point for hard-hit Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: A reveller from the Beija-Flor samba school. Entire communities rally around the competing samba schools, whose shows are not only a source of pride but also employment

RIO DE JANEIRO: The 'Sambadrome' has been home to the parade since the 1980s, and is a symbol of Brazil's Carnival festivities. Pictured, a performer from the Beija Flor samba school

RIO DE JANEIRO: Performers from the Beija Flor samba school dressed in white and blue as they parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro

There were concerns carnival would be axed again this year, after Rio authorities canceled it last year and then postponed this edition by two months from the traditional dates - just before the Catholic season of Lent - over fears of the Omicron variant spreading.

But with more than 75 per cent of Brazil's 213 million people now fully vaccinated, the average weekly Covid-19 death toll has plunged from more than 3,000 a year ago to around 100 - allowing the show to go on.

All participants and the 75,000 attendees expected each night are required to present proof of vaccination, Rio authorities said earlier this week, but media reports showed that those attending had no trouble getting tickets or entering the Sambadrome without showing the required documents.

A seat in the bleachers cost about $50, and the most expensive seats can cost more than $1,260. Going out in one of the samba schools costs a lot for tourists, but it is often free for people who are involved with the parade all year round, like 66-year-old Juciara do Nascimento Santos.

She was among the revelers starting this year's parade with the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Performers from the Beija Flor samba school parade pictured on a float during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO: After two long years of face masks, social-distancing and death, a sparkling sea of dancers, drummers and multi-storey floats reclaimed the 'Sambadrome'. Pictured, performers from the Beija Flor samba school

RIO DE JANEIRO: A carnival float from Beija-Flor samba school is pictured during the first night of the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro

'We had to take care of ourselves during this time so we could be here today celebrating life,' said Santos, who has paraded with Imperatriz Leopoldinense since 1984.

This time she was in the section of the baianas, often reserved for the oldest women of each samba school. Many of these samba schools reported they lost many of their baianas to the virus.

Each samba school in the competition has 60 to 70 minutes to tell a story in music and dance, which is evaluated on nine criteria by the jury.

The reigning champions, Viradouro, chose as their theme Rio's epic 1919 carnival - the first celebrated after the devastation of another pandemic, the Spanish flu.

'No sadness can withstand so much joy,' says their samba theme song.

SAO PAULO: Revellers of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school perform during the carnival at Sambadrome in Sao Paulo for this year's parade

SAO PAULO: Sao Paulo - where performers of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school are pictured - also kicked off its Carnival parade Friday evening

Other schools picked themes charged with social messages, with Brazil facing divisive elections in October expected to pit far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against leftist ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Of the 12 schools, eight chose themes dealing with racism or Afro-Brazilian culture and history, loaded issues in a country where the current president has faced frequent accusations of racism.

'Brazil still suffers from racism. Nothing has changed. Slums, hunger, poverty... they have a color here: black,' said Aristoteles Silva, 52, parading as a warrior for samba school Salgueiro, whose theme song was an anti-racist anthem entitled 'Resistance.'

'I'm hoping the election will bring a total change.'

Carnival should also provide some needed relief for the pandemic-battered economy.

Beyond the swirl of floats, feathers and barely covered flesh, carnival is big business, moving some four billion reais ($800 million) and creating at least 45,000 jobs, according to official figures.

SAO PAULO: A reveller of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school pictured as she performs during the carnival at Sambadrome in Sao Paulo

SAO PAULO: Revellers of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school perform during the carnival at Sambadrome in Sao Paulo this week

But street vendor Maria Vitoria Souza, 18, who was selling drinks outside the parades, said sales 'could have been better.'

'Carnival's still not back 100 percent, because there are no 'blocos'' - massive carnival street parties, which city authorities nixed this year.

'But at least it's a start.'

Participants were just happy the party was on.

'We've had two years of so much darkness in the world,' said Latino Suarez, 45, who traveled from Sao Paulo to parade.

'Brazil without carnival isn't Brazil. It's part of who we are.'

For those unwilling to shell out for the price of admission, there were street parties across Rio - despite City Hall denying authorization for them to take place, citing insufficient time to prepare.

Some organizers couldn't care less, arguing that celebrating Carnival wasn't contingent on authorities' consent, and partiers hit the streets in force.
Footage of former President Donald Trump suggesting to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he get together with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the no-nonsense conversation recently surfaced. The president even then knew of the strained relationship between Moscow and Kyiv, which was evident then.

Zelensky Seemed Perturbed by Trump's Remarks

CNN host Kate Bolduan remarked about the video way back in 2019, where the president told the Ukrainian leader to resolve the problem with his Russian counterpart.

In the video, Trump said they should talk it out together and resolve the problems between Kyiv and Moscow. Trying to impress on they can do it and no else, cited Stars Post.

He encourages the other leader that the other is trying to do just that. In the conversation between the two leaders, she focused on the face of Zelensky as his expressions changed, which meant something was on his mind, reported the Express UK.

In the conversation, the ex-president spoke but did not chastise, saying that Crimea was lost to Russia but stressed that it was not under the Trump administration.

Zelensky cut in and remarked that the current administration should help them. The US leader answered that it's correct and he can. Although agreeing, that followed with a flat answer, adding that it was Barrack Obama's time when Ukraine lost Crimea to Russia.

Not trying to sound uncaring, former President Donald Trump said it should not have happened, but it was in another Democratic administration that lost Crimea.

Read Also: Donald Trump Children: What You Need to Know About the 5 Trump Kids

Then the critique followed, stating the Obama administration mishandled the Crimea invasion, but it was too long ago. After the 2019 summit between the two presidents, Mr. Zelensky has not hammered out an agreement until the February 24 invasion. Russia and Ukraine conflict as well after 2019.

When Moscow got evidence of an operation against the Donbas headed by Neo-Nazis and Supremacists, President Vladimir Putin approved an operation to save DPR and LPR from genocide. The ex-comic-turned-leader has been making the rounds in the European Union and western allies of NATO, asking for help in a war Ukraine may have stumbled itself into.

US President Joe Biden, Trump's successor, has thrown his support for a relieved Ukrainian leader. Via support from Washington has sent lethal aid to stop Russia in its Ukrainian offensive, adding up the ante dangerously.

US Supplies Zelensky With More Weapons

More arms have been sent worth $800m in the latest arms deal brokered by the US in a proxy war against the Russian army.

The Pentagon spokesman Jack Kirby remarked the Ukraine military is not familiar with US howitzers. He added that sending them the artillery would not take long to train the Ukrainians on how to use them; since artillery is no different from any other used by armies. It is the same system, so it is not a complex learning curve. This military hardware is what they will need in the Donbas, just like Russian systems.

Trump told Zelensky to fix the problem with Putin to avoid what is happening now, pointing out to the Ukrainians that it was not under his administration that they lost Crimea.

Related Article: Donald Trump Wins by 6 Points Over Joe Biden in a Snap Elections According to Recent Poll

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The chief executive of of Europe's second largest shipping port has said Brexit trade disruption has been 'better than expected'.

Jacques Vandermeiren, head of the Port of Antwerp, said UK trade increased by six per cent last year - with months 'where you don't see any trouble at all'.

British businesses attempting to export their goods to the EU have faced a string of headaches since Britain's exit from the trading bloc.

Companies have bemoaned torrents of extra paperwork, increased costs and repeated rejected deliveries as they have attempted to reach European customers.

But Mr Vandermeiren told The Telegraph: 'For the United Kingdom, it's better than what we expected We expected much more trouble in the port.

'From time to time we see the traffic jams in Dover. The shortage of truckers and the difficulties when it comes to customer and border control. This is from time to time heavy.

'But then you have months where you don't see any trouble at all.'

Freight lorry queues continue at The Port of Dover in Kent on Friday - as P&O Ferries services remain suspended

Port of Antwerp CEO Jacques Vandermeiren (pictured) has said Brexit trade disruption has been 'better than expected'

The Port of Antwerp and Zeebrugge were given the green light to merge in January - allowing the two to more efficiently manage peak times of year.

However, Mr Vandermeiren warned that the impact of UK government plans to enforce ferry operators operating in British waters to pay the national minimum wae, in the wake of the P&O mass sacking of staff, is already beginning to show.

It has led to companies sending UK-bound goods to Irish ports, with Ireland becoming 'a bigger and more important destination'.

He also cited concern over the closure of Shanghai port due to Covid restrictions.

The city - which is home to the world's largest container port - has now been in strict lockdown since late March, causing huge backlogs to build up with hundreds of cargo vessels stranded offshore.

Mr Vandermeiren said global supply chains will be 'disturbed' and there will likely be 'an increase in prices for shipping containers'.

His comments on UK trade comes as Portugal has become the first EU country since Brexit to allow visitors from Britain to be fast-tracked through electronic passport gates.

The move to treat British arrivals the same as Europeans could spark a domino effect reducing border waiting times at other holiday hotspots, an expert said.

It is seen as a bid to lure Britons away from rival destinations such as Spain , Italy and Greece as travel booms after Covid.
Anthony Albanese has shown off his adorable isolation buddy as he campaigns from home after contracting Covid.

The PM hopeful shared a snap of himself, campaign speech drafts, and his dog Toto as he remains in self isolation  at least for another 5 days  after testing positive to Covid on Thursday.

'Working on my campaign launch speech with my iso companion, Toto. #isoday2' the opposition leader tweeted from the kitchen table of his home.

Toto was clad in a bandanna with the words 'ALBO' written across it.

Albo in iso: The opposition leader took the chance to show off his kitchen bench workstation and canine colleague as he endured his second day of home isolation (pictured)

Mr Albanese and Mr Morrison are seen shaking hands during the first election debate on Wednesday

Mr Albanese returned the positive result on Thursday evening, just a day after his first pre-election debate, despite Labor's extreme efforts to prevent him catching the virus on the campaign trail.

He has been isolating in his Marrickville home since being struck down with the virus.

On Friday Western Sydney MP Jason Clare fielded media questions for the Labor party while Mr Albanese was isolating, leading to calls to see more of the 'articulate' MP.

Mr Albanese's positive result has thrown his election campaign plans into disarray, but the he is expected to keep Labor in voters' minds by doing radio, TV and online interviews from his home.

'While at home I will continue my responsibilities as alternative Prime Minister and will be fighting for a better future for Australians,' Mr Albanese said just after revealing his positive result.

'I am grateful to know that I will have access to the world's best health care if I need it, because of Medicare.

'I am feeling fine so far - and thank everyone for their well wishes.'

Anthony Albanese (pictured) has tested positive to Covid as the election campaign heats up

The Labor leader said on Thursday evening he had been struck down with the virus and would spend the next seven days isolating in Sydney

Mr Albanese had been at Bluesfest in Byron Bay on Sunday, attended by more than 100,000 people, with northern NSW seeing a spike in Covid infections this week.

Two monthly highs of 631 cases on Wednesday and 719 infections on Thursday have been recorded - around double the daily cases average over the past two weeks.

Some areas in northern NSW are also lagging in vaccination rates.

Mr Albanese said he'd been testing regularly during his time on the election campaign, and had taken a PCR test ahead of a scheduled trip to Western Australia.

The man vying for Australia's top job has been out and about campaigning in the community in recent days, meeting voters and shaking hands with the election just weeks away.

His party's formal launch is set for May 1 in Perth.

On Wednesday night he went head-to-head with Mr Morrison for Sky News and The Courier Mail's People's Forum.

The PM tested positive to the virus himself in early March.

Mr Morrison tweeted on Thursday evening saying he wished Mr Albanese all the best in his recovery.

'Everyone's experience with Covid is different and as Labor's campaign continues, I hope he does not experience any serious symptoms,' the PM said.

Mr Morrison is not considered a close contact and it's understood he has personally reached out to Mr Albanese.

Labor had put in strong measures to try prevent any spread of Covid after members of the party recently tested positive.

Mr Albanese is seen campaigning in NSW's South Coast on Thursday before testing positive

He spent Thursday campaigning in NSW's South Coast for the seat of Gilmore where he visited a distillery and an aged care assisted living facility

Media joining Mr Albanese on the campaign trail must be triple vaccinated, wear an N95 mask in most settings and take rapid tests every three days.

Thursday's result is the first time Mr Albanese has tested positive to Covid, with his team reportedly meeting on Thursday night to decide on a contingency plan.

Mr Albanese had been in Brisbane from Monday to Wednesday this week.

He spent Thursday campaigning in NSW's South Coast for the seat of Gilmore where he visited a distillery and a retirement village.

He also posed for photos with locals at a cafe in Ryde in Sydney's north.

Mr Albanese is seen posing for photos with locals in Ryde in Sydney on Thursday

The Labor leader is seen speaking with reporters at a shopping centre in Ryde on Thursday
Mark McGowan's child who was taken to hospital in a serious condition after contracting Covid has been discharged.

The Western Australia Premier confirmed on Friday evening one of his three children was receiving care after testing positive.

A spokesperson for the Premier confirmed the child has now been released from hospital.

'The McGowan family would like to thank everyone for their supportive and kind comments,' the statement said.

'After a very worrying four days, the Premier's child is now recovering at home with family.

'The McGowan family thanks the committed hospital staff for all their work and care.'

Mark McGowan's child who was taken to hospital in a serious condition after contracting Covid has been discharged (pictured is Mr McGowan with family)

Labor leader Anthony Albanese tweeted a message to the family while also in isolation after he caught Covid (pictured)

An earlier statement from Mr McGowan's office said that although the child is fully vaccinated they were in a serious condition as a result of the infection.

Mr McGowan remains in isolation after he was also confirmed to have the virus.

He had initially returned a negative test after becoming a close contact.

In a statement, the premier said he had taken another PCR test on Thursday and it had come back positive.

'It is not surprising considering one of my family members is positive,' he said on Friday.

'In accordance with the protocols, this will extend my quarantine period until I am hopefully cleared to leave home next Thursday afternoon, at the earliest.

'I will continue to quarantine and work from home over this period.'

The premier is scheduled to attend federal Labor's election campaign launch in Perth on May 1.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison sent a 'get well' tweet out on Saturday (pictured)

Both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese sent their well wishes to the family on Saturday.

'Very sorry to hear one of Premier Mark McGowan's children has been hospitalised with COVID. Jen and I send our best wishes to the Premier and his whole family for a full recovery and have been in touch to convey our message of support at this difficult time.' Mr Morrison tweeted.

'Best wishes to the McGowan family after one of @MarkMcGowanMP's children was hospitalised with Covid. The whole Labor team is sending our love and we are all hoping for a swift recovery.' Mr Albanese said.

This week Mr Albanese has also tested positive to Covid, following up his message to the McGowan's with a picture of himself working on a speech while in isolation.

Premier-elect West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan and his family walk to a press conference in Rockingham, 50km south of Perth on March 15, 2021

Mr McGowan did not provide any details on his condition but thanked staff at testing clinics.

'I would also like to acknowledge the vital contribution of our committed health workers who have not only cared for my family, but also the many Western Australians who have been affected by this virus,' he said.

Deputy Premier Roger Cooke said Mr McGowan was clearly affected but is 'strong' and was continuing to work while in isolation.

WA recorded 7,758 new Covid cases to 9pm on Friday.

The state last week moved to the national definition for close contacts, requiring only household members and intimate partners to isolate.

Strict proof of vaccination and mask-wearing requirements remain in place.
A British trainee dental nurse said she was going to Disney World before she flew to Arizona and married a death row inmate who killed two people and dumped one of their bodies in an alley.

Rebecca Short, 26, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, told her family she was on holiday in the US and even posted holiday snaps from Disney World, Florida, and the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco.

However, she surprised her relatives by posting photos of herself marrying Mexican-American double murderer Manuel Ovante Jr, 35, who is on death row at Eyman jail, Florence, Arizona.

The Oxfordshire woman had become pen pals with the killer, who described himself as a 'goofball' who is 'loyal' and 'easy to get along with'.

Ovante has spent more than a decade in jail after he was sentenced to death in 2010 for murdering a woman and a man as he was looking for drugs in 2008.

On the day of their marriage Rebecca posed in a black dress with Mexican-American Ovante, who was in his prison-issue orange jumpsuit.

Rebecca Short, 26, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, told her family she was on holiday in Disney World, Florida, before saying she had married a US death row inmate

The trainee dental nurse posted a photo of herself in Mickey Mouse ears from Disney World, Florida

The British trainee dental nurse was allegedly 'obsessed' with documentaries about serial killers in America.

Ovante's pen pal profile has remained online. The killer described himself as a 'goofball' and 'very loyal'.

He said he was looking for someone with a 'sense of humour' who 'enjoys life'.

The death row inmate wrote: 'I'm easy to get along with and tend to be a goofball sometimes.

'Very loyal to people I care about. Nobody is perfect, so I hope not to be judged by past mistakes.

'I love to read and listen to music. I have a daughter named Bonnie.

'Not really sure what I'm looking for in a pen pal so, I guess you'll have to surprise me.

'I guess someone to help make my time in here easier. Someone that has a sense of humour and enjoys life.'

One of Rebecca's friends said she was 'always obsessed with watching Netflix documentaries about serial killers in America, but no one thought she'd run off and marry one,' in an interview with The Sun.

Ovante and three of his friends were searching for drugs in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008, when they came to Jordan Trujillo's house.

He hoped Ms Trujillo would be able to give them drugs but she refused.

Ovante returned again and again to her home until at last the group found her when she was asleep. Two others, Damien Vickers and Gabriel Valenzuela were also at the house.

Without warning, Ovante drew a loaded gun and shouted 'Who left the safety on?' He pointed it at Valenzuela and told him not to move.

Then he moved his aim to the sleeping Jordan Trujillo on the sofa. He shot her twice in the head, killing her almost instantly.

She celebrated the marriage with a tiered cake with red roses and black icing that read 'Till death do us part!'

She also posed with the double killer's family after she married him. She met Manuel Ovante Jr, 35, who is on death row at Eyman jail, Florence, Arizona, via a pen pal site for prisoners

Manuel Ovante Jr posted that he was a single Hispanic man on his pen pal profile for prisoners

The double killer said he was 'easy to get along with' and tended 'to be a goofball sometimes'

He then shot the two other men in the room multiple times.

Mr Vickers begged for help as Mr Valenzuela called the police. Ovante let Mr Vickers into the truck, still bleeding from his gunshot wounds, but refused to take him to hospital.

When he died in the truck, Ovante dumped his body in an alley.

The double killer was allowed to leave his cell to wed his British pen pal bride on April 14 and smiled as he posed for a picture.

Rebecca celebrated the marriage with Ovante's family and showed off a tiered wedding cake with black icing and the words 'Till death do us part!'

Ovante is one of 113 death row prisoners in the Browning Unit at the Arizona jail, where inmates set for execution typically spend 17 years before they are killed by lethal injection.

White supremacist and double murderer Tracey Hampton (left) and Wayne Benoit Prince (right), who shot dead his 13-year-old daughter are also death row inmates at the same prison with pen pal profiles

He is one of three death row inmates at the prison with a pen pal profile.

White supremacist Tracey Hampton, who murdered Charles Findley and his pregnant girlfriend Tanya Ramsdell because he thought her baby's father was black, also has a profile.

Hampton said he 'had an interesting life' and wanted to exchange letters with women.

He said: 'I love to laugh and find a reason to smile every day no matter what.'

Wayne Benoit Prince, who was given a death sentence for shooting dead his 13-year-old daughter Cassandra during an argument with his wife, listed himself as a divorced inmate.

The killer said he was 'very caring and a good listener' and 'always super respectful'.

He added: 'I'm very grateful for all the little things in life and I've got such a positive attitude.'
Police have launched an investigation after a teenage girl was shot in South East London in the early hours of this morning.

Armed police rushed to the scene on Lucas Street in Lewisham at around 3am today, where they found a woman suffering from a gunshot injury. She was rushed to hospital by the London Ambulance Service, and is not in a life-threatening or life-changing condition.

The Metropolitan Police said a number of crime scenes are in place and there have been no arrests 'at this early stage'.

Residents claimed they heard a woman 'screaming' and 'five gun shots' in the area at around 3am.

Police and forensic officers in Lewisham, South East London, April 23, 2022

A forensics officer taking a photo in Lewisham, South East London, April 23, 2022

Officers received reports of a shooting on Lucas Street at around 3am. Armed police found a woman with a gunshot injury on Lewisham Way. Detectives are now combing for evidence in a black Mercedes parked outside Pizza Hut on the junction

Forensics are at the scene of the shooting and are combing for evidence in a black Mercedes which sits abandoned within the police cordon.

The black Mercedes is outside Pizza Hut, on the junction between Lewisham Way and Lucas Street.

One local told MyLondon: 'I came home from work early hours in the morning, about 3am. I heard gunshots and shouting and screaming.

'I looked out the window and saw people running and shouting. It was about five gun shots I heard.'

Another resident, photographer Ryan Whitaker, said: 'I was woken up by the shooting, as I live on one of the roads adjacent to Lewisham Way. I was asleep and it woke me up.

A forensic officer with a camera on a tripod in Lewisham, April 23, 2022

'There were about five rounds fired off, then a girl let out a loud scream.'

A force spokesman said: 'Police were called by LAS at 03:11hrs on Saturday, 23 April to Lucas Street SE14 following reports of a shooting. Specialist firearms officers were among those who responded.

'Following a search a woman, aged in her late teens, was found with a gunshot injury to her arm in Lewisham Way.

She was taken to hospital; her condition is not life-threatening or life-changing.

'A number of crime scenes are in place. A number of bullet casings have been recovered and sent for specialist analysis. At this early stage there have been no arrests.'

Enquiries are ongoing. Anyone with information should call 101 ref CAD 942/23 Apr.
The mother of murdered six-year-old Rikki Neave, who was cleared of killing her son more than 25 years ago, says she spent time in prison with child killers Myra Hindley and Rose West.

Rikki's body was found posed naked in a star shape after being strangled in woodland in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in November 1994.

James Watson, who was 13 at the time, was convicted of his murder following 28 years of lies and failures on Thursday.

It came after Rikki's mother Ruth was cleared of her son's murder by a jury at Northampton Crown Court following a high-profile 16-day trial in 1995.

She later admitted child cruelty in relation to a number of incidents throughout Rikki's short life, including grabbing Rikki around the throat, pushing him against a wall and lifting him up, before she was jailed for seven years.

And while serving her sentence, Ms Neave spent time on the H Wing at HM Durham alongside the notorious Hindley and West.

She told The Mirror: 'I was sat on a bed and Myra said: "You are not a murderer".

'I replied: What do you mean? and she said: "You never murdered Rikki".

Rikki Neave (pictured) was found posed naked in a star shape after being strangled

'I took it as a compliment but a weird one coming from her.'

Ruth said her time in prison had been 'awful', with the mother also sharing a prison with IRA terrorists and sex offenders.

Hindley, dubbed the most hated woman in the UK prior to her death, was jailed for three murders in 1966 along with her lover Ian Brady.

They later confessed to another two murders, later known as the Moors Murders, before she died aged 60 in prison in 2002.

West is serving ten life sentences in jail after, with her husband Fred, abducting, torturing and raping innocent women over a 20 year period at their house in Cromwell Street, Gloucestershire, where they resided from 1972 until their arrests in 1994.

Ruth Neave (pictured) was cleared of her son's murder by a jury at Northampton Crown Court following a high-profile 16-day trial in 1995

Rose West (left) and

James Watson, 41, who has been found guilty by majority verdict at the Old Bailey of murdering six-year-old schoolboy Rikki Neave

Former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the probe that resulted in Watson's arrest in 2020, also admitted the original hypothesis of how Ruth killed Rikki was 'fanciful'.

Rikki's murder sparked national outrage at the time, taking place less than two years after the abduction, torture and brutal killing of two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside.

Watson's web of lies and constantly changing alibis which helped him evade justice for 28 years mean much about the murder still remains unclear - including whether he knew Rikki prior to the killing.

However jury members heard how Watson's DNA was found on adhesive tapings on Rikki's clothes, and that Watson's posing of the six-year-old's naked body was an act carried out for his own sexual gratification.

In a statement following the verdict, Ms Neave said: 'The only thing now is to close this chapter in my life and open a new one.

'I wonder what Rikki would be like today, married, children? Who knows?

'But this monster has taken that all from me and my daughters.'

She praised jurors for making the 'right decision' and thanked 'people that believed in me and Rikki'.

'This is not the time to celebrate, as it should never have happened,' said Ms Neave.

She described police and social services in the original investigation as 'framing me for my son's murder'.

'Neglect and cruelty were used by these people to cover their own failings, information was gathered from liars, who gave multiple statements with many different versions of their lies,' she said.

'Statements were released to the media and I was not allowed to defend myself because of a gagging order from social services, so anyone could say anything and get away with it.'

Jury members at the Old Bailey heard how Watson was arrested after sophisticated technology found a 'definitive match' between his DNA profile and samples taken from Rikki's clothing after a new investigation was opened into the case.

Watson fled the country on a ferry at Dover in June 2016, before eventually consenting to his extradition from Portugal two months later.
A controversial Harvard scientist says he wants to launch an investigation into a meteor that he believes is actually alien technology lying at the bottom of Pacific Ocean.

Last week, the US Space Command confirmed that a meteor that hit Earth in January 2014 did come from another solar system and is therefore the first known interstellar object.

US Space Command officials have said that the meteor, measuring just 1.5 feet across, 'was indeed an interstellar object'.

Their confirmation means the famous interstellar object known as Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, is actually the second interstellar object to visit our solar system.

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb (pictured) claimed on Wednesday that a meteor that hit Earth in January 2014 is instead a piece of alien technology

According to NASA, the meteor soared through skies near Papua New Guinea at more than 100,000 miles per hour and impacted near Manus Island on January 8, 2014 (concept image)

The memo, dated March 1 and shared on Twitter this month, signs off findings from US Space Command chief scientist Dr Joel Mozer

But Harvard physicist Avi Loeb claimed on Wednesday that the object is instead a piece of alien technology.

'Our discovery of an interstellar meteor heralds a new research frontier,' Loeb wrote in The Debrief.

'The fundamental question is whether any interstellar meteor might indicate a composition that is unambiguously artificial in origin.

'Better still, perhaps some technological components would survive the impact.'

He suggested scooping up the object from the bottom of the Pacific with a magnet in order to examine the 'artificial' object and added that retrieving the object could be an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of getting his hands on alien technology.

'My dream is to press some buttons on a functional piece of equipment that was manufactured outside of Earth,' Loeb wrote.

Loeb has made a name for himself for openly believing that aliens have made contact with Earth.

According to NASA, the meteor lit up skies near Manus Island, Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014 whilst travelling at more than 100,000 miles per hour. It may have showered the ocean with interstellar debris, according to scientists

Oumuamua was discovered in October 2017 by a telescope in Hawaii millions of miles away. Now, a physicists is revealing details to why he believes it is an artificial object

In 2021, the physicist released a book titled 'Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,' that argued that Oumuamu is not a comet or asteroid, but a light sail  a method of spacecraft propulsion.

Oumuamua was discovered in October 2017 by a telescope in Hawaii millions of miles away.

At the time of the discovery, Loeb received backlash from scientists after claiming the object was actually a discarded piece of technology from aliens.

'We know that it's artificially made. It had no cometary tail,' Loeb claimed.

'We know that we made it. So that provides evidence that we can tell the difference between a rock and an object that is pushed by sunlight.

'The trouble is the only way to know for certain Oumuamua's origins is by taking an image of it, but the object is already too far away.

'So we missed the opportunity,' he said. 'It's like having a guest for dinner, by the time you realize it's weird, it's already out of the front door into the dark street. That was the first guest, and we should look for more.'

Loeb is now saying the 2014 object is also alien technology.

A lot of the information surrounding the 2014 object has until now been classified by the US government.

According to NASA, the meteor lit up skies near Manus Island, Papua New Guinea on January 8, 2014 whilst travelling at more than 100,000 miles per hour.

Scientists believe it may have left interstellar debris in the South Pacific Ocean, which if recovered could reveal more about the rocky object's origin.

The memo, dated March 1 and shared on Twitter this month, signs off findings from US Space Command chief scientist Dr Joel Mozer.

Dr Mozer 'reviewed analysis of additional data available to the Department of Defense related to this finding,' reads the memo, which is signed by Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the US Space Command.

'Dr Mozer confirmed that the velocity estimate reported to NASA is sufficiently accurate to indicate an interstellar trajectory.'

It was back in 2019 that Harvard University researchers posted a study on the preprint server arXiv, acknowledging the meteor's existence and saying it had come from outside our solar system.

The study, which still hasn't been peer reviewed, reported the meteor as originating from interstellar space with '99.999 per cent confidence'.

According to the authors, the study has been awaiting peer review for years so the claim could be confirmed, but it's faced roadblocks from the US government, which was withholding key information from a publicly-available NASA database.

Information about the meteor is scarce, although its details  including its coordinates above Manus Island  are logged in NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Running - especially at longer distances - can help women enjoy better and more intense orgasms, a study has found.

Researchers said strengthened pelvic muscles as a result of the exercise help improve bloodflow to key areas and may prove for a more pleasurable climax, as well as potentially higher self-esteem and better body image.

Of 180 volunteers whose sex lives were analysed after they jogged at least once a week, those who ran longer distances were 28 per cent more likely to reach a better climax and it was found to be a third more intense, according to the International Urogynecology Journal.

The study looked at groups - one ran more than 12 miles every seven days and another ran less than 12 miles - and compared them, asking about the runners' love lives.

Researcher Shanny Sade, from Ben-Gurion University in Israel, told The Sun: 'Our study found women who ran the most experienced more intensive orgasms.

'It may be explained by better clitoral circulation, better working of pelvic floor muscles, better self-esteem and body image, or a combination of these.'

Researchers say strengthened pelvic muscles as a result of the exercise help improve bloodflow to key areas (stock photo used)

Sex therapist Phillip Hodson also told the outlet: 'Running, it appears, is the perfect sex aid - especially for women.'

It comes as earlier this month researchers in New Jersey found that the phenomenon of the 'orgasm gap' - in which men climax more than women in heterosexual relationships  affects a woman's desire to even have an orgasm in the bedroom.

The experts surveyed men and women in straight relationships about sexual satisfaction, how often they orgasm and how often they'd like to orgasm.

They not only found that the orgasm gap exists, but that women who climax less during sex have less desire for an orgasm, and less expectation of having one too.

When men and women have more frequent orgasms in their relationship, they want and expect more orgasms.

But the opposite happens when a person climaxes less often  they start to want and expect orgasms less.

Researcher Shanny Sade, from Ben-Gurion University in Israel, told The Sun : 'Our study found women who ran the most experienced more intensive orgasms' (stock photo used)

But because of the orgasm gap, women are more affected by this decreased desire and expectation than men.

The study was conducted by three researchers at Rutgers University's Department of Psychology in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

'Our expectations are shaped by our experiences, so when women orgasm less, they will desire and expect to orgasm less,' said study author Grace Wetzel, a social psychology doctoral student and 'sex educator' at Rutgers.

'If women do lower their expectations in this way, the more orgasm inequality may perpetuate in relationships.'

The experts surveyed 104 sexually active couples about how much they orgasm, the ideal amount they'd like to orgasm, their expectation for how often people should orgasm ('orgasm expectation'), and perceptions of their partners orgasm frequency.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a man in his fifties was found in a car outside a hospital.

Police were called after the body of a 56-year-old man from Kingstanding, Birmingham, was found in a car near the A&E entrance of Good Hope Hospital in the north of the city at 4.50pm on Friday.

A 43-year-old man from Tamworth was arrested yesterday evening in Birmingham on suspicion of murder and remained on custody on Saturday.

Forensics officers removed the car for further examination and the hospital car park was fully reopened.

Police were called after the body of a 56-year-old man from Kingstanding, Birmingham, was found in a car near the A&E entrance of Good Hope Hospital in the north of the city at 4.50pm on Friday

A 43-year-old man from Tamworth was arrested yesterday evening in Birmingham on suspicion of murder and remained on custody on Saturday

A spokesman from West Midlands Police said: 'We're investigating after a body of a man was found in a car at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield. The cause of man's death is unknown.'

He added: 'His body was found in a car at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield on Friday 22 April. His family have been told the sad news.

'A post mortem examination will take place as soon as possible. This will help us to understand what caused the mans unexplained death.

'If you have any information that could help our detectives, message them via Live Chat on the right of your screen quoting investigation number 20/393435/22.

A spokesman from West Midlands Police said: 'We're investigating after a body of a man was found in a car at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield. The cause of man's death is unknown'

A person who lives near the hospital in Sutton Coldfield said it wasn't something you would expect to happen. They said it 'must have been horrible for whoever found the body'

'You can share what you know with the charity on 0800 555 111. They will not ask your name or trace your call and you may be entitled to a cash reward.'

A hospital-goer who saw the incident unfold said yesterday evening said: 'It was about 8pm. The scene [was] by the ambulance entrance.

'I couldn't access the normal entrance into A&E.'

Meanwhile, a person who lives near the hospital in Sutton Coldfield said it wasn't something you would expect to happen. They said it 'must have been horrible for whoever found the body'.
A White Island volcano survivor who lost her sister and father in the tragedy and suffered burns to 70 per cent of her body will soon be able to remove her facial compression garments.

Stephanie Browitt, 25, said the bandages on her face were in particular 'extremely uncomfortable to wear' and was looking forward to being able to remove them for the first time since the incident more than two years ago.

She was one of 47 people on a day trip to White Island when the volcano off the coast of Whakatane on New Zealand's North Island erupted on December 9, 2019.

'I am, of course, excited and thrilled, but equally as nervous... I'm sure I'll feel quite vulnerable at the beginning,' Ms Browitt said on Instagram where she has candidly shared updates on her recovery.

Stephanie Browitt (pictured), 25, has been sharing her recovery online after suffering through the White Island volcano blast in 2019

Ms Browitt revealed she will soon no longer need compression bandages (left) and that her hands have improved to the point she feels 'capable' again (right)

Ms Browitt (pictured with her family) was the only member of the family to stay on the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship when the tragedy struck

Two-and-a-half years on from the eruption, Ms Browitt said she already no longer needs the body compression garment.

'I am now down to just the face garment and right glove, as that hand had surgery not to long ago,' she said.

'I'm so happy with where I am right now and cannot wait to share the next big milestone.'

Her mother Marie Browitt told The Herald Sun her face 'unveiling' would happen in the next few weeks but would likely be 'petrifying' for her daughter, with Marie fearing she may be given 'nasty comments' by strangers.

Ms Browitt has been posting snaps at the gym and around her home city of Melbourne while she enjoys her increased freedom of movement from not wearing the pressure suit.

Also helping is the fact that after 'three surgeries and years worth of hand therapy' Ms Browitt said her hands have improved to the point where she can once again do many tasks on her own.

'The difference my range of motion has made in my everyday life is immense... I no longer feel like a burden.'

'Although the use of my hands will never be what it once was and I will always miss that and have bad days, I once again feel like a capable woman.'

Ms Browitt has been hitting the gym recently as part of her recovery (pictured)

The 25-year-old (pictured) had been on a trip to the island from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship

Ms Browitt was visiting the island with her father and sister when the volcano erupted

While Ms Browitt was visiting White Island, her mother Marie stayed behind on the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship and watched on helplessly as the volcano erupted.

There were 21 people killed in the blast including Ms Browitt's father Paul and sister Krystal, 21.

She has since bravely shared her recovery online and become an advocate for burns survivors.

She recently shared a tribute to her 'hero' her mother who has supported her throughout her ordeal (pictured together)

Her mother has been supporting her throughout her recovery, with Ms Browitt posting a touching tribute to her last month.

'She stayed by my side every single day, she cried when I cried and helped me through the pain. I love you mum,' the young woman wrote alongside pictures of the pair.

'But mostly to the person who was by my side for all of it...,' she wrote. 'Some people are lucky enough to have a best friend, I am even luckier, I have my mum.'
President Joe Biden slammed the Republican Party on Friday after newly disclosed audiotapes revealed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy privately suggested he'd ask Donald Trump to resign over the Capitol violence on January 6. McCarthy has denied making remarks on the tapes that have now been exposed.

McCarthy was caught blasting Trump after the Capitol brawl last year and told Republican senators that he would urge Trump to resign, according to audiotapes obtained by New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin.

Biden Takes Shots at GOP, Trump

According to the tape, McCarthy informed his fellow Republican colleagues on January 11, 2021 that Trump had privately suggested he had some blame for the disturbance. McCarthy's vocal support for and commitment to Trump immediately after the Capitol incident and since the previous president left office appears to be contradicted by the recording.

McCarthy has subsequently paid a visit to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, and has defended him against Republican accusations. In his speech, Biden addressed what he saw as a dread that has spread throughout the GOP as a result of Trump's stranglehold on the party, Insider reported.

The Republican leader added on the audio that Trump was unlikely to heed to his proposal and that "nobody can defend" Trump's behavior on January 6 "and nobody should defend it."

McCarthy allegedly labeled Trump's behavior on January 6 "atrocious and absolutely wrong" in a call with Republicans on January 8 and also discussed the notion of banning some politicians from using social media, according to the New York Times.

McCarthy is the Republican front-runner to become Speaker of the House if Republicans retake the House in November, which will be decided by congressional elections. Elections for Speaker of the House usually take place on the first day of a new Congress, January 3; so if the leak was intended to derail McCarthy's bid for speaker, it occurred too soon.

Read Also: [Report] Democrats Block Republicans' Effort To Upload Hunter Biden's Laptop; Prosecutors Subpoena President's Son's Documents, Tax Records

POTUS Calls GOP a MAGA, "Not Your Father's"

Biden made the remarks in front of a gathering of Democratic leaders at an outdoor Earth Day event in Seattle, where he also defended his own caucus against allegations of internal splits. Senators Kysten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia were among those who voted against his Build Back Better plan.

He went on to say that there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans in the house. " Isn't it true that everyone may change the dynamic? 'It's a shame," Biden added. Although he didn't say it, it's a DC cliche that every senator considers themselves a presidential candidate, as per Fox News.

Joe Biden was speaking at an Earth Day event where he signed an order aimed at 'Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies.' Following the extraordinary developments in Tallahassee, Biden used some of the same lines - calling the GOP a 'MAGA' party and "not your father's" - which is itself a reference to a decades-old Oldsmobile ad.

That episode saw the GOP-controlled legislature vote to take away a substantial tax break from Disney, with prominent individuals publicly claiming that they were doing so as retaliation for the company's opposition to a law known as "don't say gay."

In addresses at two Democratic fundraisers on the West Coast, Biden lambasted "ugly" Republicans for targeting Disney and said the GOP had been taken over by the "far right."

Per Daily Mail, the president attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' conflict with Disney over the company's resistance to the so-called on teaching sex and gender in schools, saying the GOP is "not even conservative in the classic sense of conservatism.

Related Article: Joe Biden Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is the 46th President of the United States?

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A New York strip club has hired Cuba Gooding Jr. to host an event just weeks after the actor admitted groping three women at Manhattan night spots.

The Selma star cut a no-jail deal with prosecutors on April 13 for groping a woman at the LAVO nightclub in 2018. Gooding, 54, also admitted to grabbing a 29-year-old woman's breasts at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge in 2019 and pinching a server's buttocks at the TAO Downtown club in 2018.

The actor avoided jail time as part of the plea but must continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment he started in 2019 for six more months and have no new arrests.

But the Hollywood actor is already back on the Manhattan club scene after agreeing to host an event at the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club, a strip club just five minutes away from where one of the groping incidents took place, Page Six reported.

The Sapphire Gentlemen's Club did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Cuba Gooding Jr. (left) was hired to host an event at the New York City's Sapphire Gentlemen's Club just weeks after he pleaded guilty to groping a woman in 2018

The Sapphire Gentlemen's Club, in Times Square, is just five minutes away from the LAVO nightclub, where Gooding admitted to gropping a woman

Gooding also admitted to inappropriately touching Kelsey Harbert, 29, at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge, near Times Square. Pictured, Gooding grabbing Harbert's breast

Gooding admitted his guilt in court on April 13, saying, 'I apologize for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched,' according to The New York Times.

He had been arrested in June 2019 following the incident at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge, near Time Square, with his two other accusers pressing charges a few months later.

The woman from Lavo incident in 2018 claimed Gooding kissed her while she worked as a server at the club, grabbing her neck and touching her tooth with his lips as she tried to pull him away.

Kelsey Harbert, the woman from the 2019 incident, said Gooding had grabbed her breast when she brought him a glass of water because he was so drunk.

'I was mortified,' she told the court. 'My body was being placed under the dominion of someone else without my consent.'

Surveillance video at the time captured the moment Gooding was at the club with his girlfriend, Claudine De Niro, when he began touching Harbert.

Gooding had placed his hand on the accusers left thigh, and moments later, he ran his right hand up her torso and touched her breast.

When Harbet pushed his hand away, Gooding then pulled her hand toward his mouth and kissed it.

She told the Times that she was disappointed over the plea deal Gooding struck with prosecutors.

Surveillance cameras at the Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge the captured the moment Gooding was at the club with his girlfriend, Claudine De Niro

The actor then gropped Harbert's breast. When she pushed his hand away, he pulled it close to his mouth and kissed it. Harbert said the actor was drunk at the time

Gooding admitted his guilt in court on April 13, saying, 'I apologize for ever making anybody feel inappropriately touched.' A total of 22 women have made allegations against him

The prosecutors alleged that 19 other victims had come forward since Gooding's arrest, accusing the actor of also touching them without their consent.

Gooding's lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, were trying to turn 'commonplace gestures' or misunderstandings into crimes.

Gooding was also accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in a New York City hotel in 2013.

Famed women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred, 80, who is representing the woman in the lawsuit will proceed with a pending $6million civil lawsuit filed in 2020.

After a judge issued a default judgment last July because Gooding hadn't responded to the lawsuit, the actor retained a lawyer and is fighting the allegations.

Allred also issued a statement decrying a New York State Supreme Court judge's decision not to allow Gooding's 19 alleged victims, two of whom she represented, to testify against him during pre-trial hearings for admissibility of evidence.

Gooding (pictured leaving the courthouse after the guilty plea) avoided jail time as part of the plea but must continue alcohol and behavior modification treatment he started in 2019

Famed women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred, 80, issued a statement decrying a New York State Supreme Court judge's decision not to allow 19 alleged victims to testify against Gooding Jr., 54, during pre-trial hearings for admissibility of evidence

'Unfortunately, however, the judge refused to allow the testimony of any of the Molineux witnesses, which the prosecutor wanted to be able to call as witnesses if this case went to trial. That was a significant setback for the prosecution,' Allred said, according to Deadline.

'Justice was significantly delayed in this case for many reasons, and I do not feel that justice was achieved today with the entry of this plea, although I do understand why under the circumstances that the prosecution offered a plea,' the statement added.

'My law firm ... will continue to litigate our civil case against Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Federal court in New York on behalf of our brave client.'

Allred, who has handled numerous high-profile cases and represented Jeffrey Epstein's and Bill Cosby's victims, said she hopes the civil case yields a just result after criminal proceedings against the Hollywood star proved to be unsatisfactory.
A sulfur fire broke out on a cargo ship in Florida on Friday forcing the entire crew to evacuate.

The Tampa Fire Rescue team responded to a 911 call about a chemical fire on the Kelly Alafia cargo ship around 5.30am.

Crew members were reportedly cleaning the cargo hold before shift change. As the oncoming crew boarded the ship, they reportedly smelled smoke and called emergency services.

Crew members and an onboard marine chemist determined the fire's cause was from the byproduct of sulfur, which the ship transports, according to BIG 105.9 Radio.

The Tampa Fire Rescue responded to the fire on the Kelly Alafia and one of their firefighter sustained minor injuries

A chemical fire broke out on the Kelly Alafia cargo ship on Friday around 5.30am after sulfur byproduct caught fire due to welding. Since chemicals were burning, the incident was determined to be a hazardous materials operation and all crew had to be evacuated

The ship was docked at the International Ship Repair and Marine Services (pictured) for repairs. The repair dock has the largest number of operational dry dockets in Florida

Since chemicals were burning, the scene had to be deem a hazardous materials operation and all crew members had to be evacuated.

It was later determined the fire started due to welding, Tampa Fire Rescue determined.

No crew members were injured. One firefighter reportedly sustained minor injuries.

Savage Marine Services, which oversees the ship, said the boat was docked at the International Ship Repair and Marine Services for repairs, WFLA Now reported.

The International Ship Repair and Marine Services is the largest shipyard with operational dry docks in Florida, according to the New York Daily News.

Earlier this year, a massive fire broke out on a cargo ship carrying thousands of supercars including Porsches sunk in the middle of the Atlantic.

The Felicity Ace sank about 250 miles off Portugal's Azores Islands as it was being towed, just 13 days after a fire broke out on board, according to the Portuguese navy.

Earlier this month, the Felicity Ace (pictured) sank about 250 miles off Portugal's Azores Islands as it was being towed, just 13 days after a fire broke out on board, according to the Portuguese navy

The 650ft vessel listed to starboard before going under, the ship's manager said.

The Portuguese navy confirmed the sinking, saying it occurred outside Portuguese waters. A Portuguese Air Force helicopter evacuated the 22 crew members when the fire first broke out, setting the ship adrift.

It wasn't clear how many cars were onboard the ship, but vessels of the Felicity Ace's size can carry at least 4,000 vehicles.
A Covid-19 testing company in California has agreed to pay over $22 million in fines after they admitted to faking test results to patients.

Sameday Technologies, which operates the testing centers Sameday Health nationwide, admitted to falsely claiming that their lab could turn around Covid tests in 24 hours.

In some cases, test results were given to patients even before the samples had reached the lab while others were simply never tested at all. Consumers were charged $195 for the bogus tests.

According to the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office's criminal complaint in the case, the company knew that they could not meet the claims they made.

The labs that worked with Sameday told the company that the results could not be turned around at that speed, the complaint said.

The founder of Sameday, Felix Huettenbach is a graduate of both MIT and the University of California, Berkeley

Doctor and podcast host Dr. Jeff Toll, pictured above, is accused of doing patient screenings for Sameday that were mandatory for customers who had health insurance

On his Instagram page, Toll boasts more than 36,000 followers. He told them in his statement that he was proud of the work his office has done during the Covid-19 pandemic

The city attorney said that around 500 people's tests were either fake or forged. The company did this by doctoring old PDFs of test results.

In a separate statement, City Attorney Mike Feuer called Sameday's behavior 'beyond outrageous.'

Feuer said that patients went to Sameday in good faith and when they received negative test results, went on living their lives by going to work and on vacations. All the time they could have been spreading Covid, Feuer said.

The criminal complaint goes on to accuse Sameday Health CEO Felix Huettenbach of requiring insured patients to be screened by a physician during the testing process.

According to his LinkedIn page, Huettenbach founded Sameday in September 2020. He describes the company on his page as 'Rebuilding the healthcare system with the patient at the center.'

The complaint says that those who were paying with cash did not require the physician's screening nor were they allowed to access the doctor.

Authorities accuse hunky celeb doctor Jeff Toll of being the physician doing the screenings. For those screenings, the complaint says that Toll's office charged the insurance companies more than $400 per consultation.

Toll is accused of giving some of the profits he made from the screenings back to Sameday as a 'kickback.'

Sameday was founded in a 2020 by Huettenback. He claimed that his company would 'rebuild the healthcare system with the patient at the center'

Toll's fines amount to $3.9 million. It is separate from Sameday's $22 million fine

In March 2022, Sameday posted an article on their website about how lucrative it was to set up a Covid-19 testing business in Los Angeles

The complaint called those screenings 'medically unnecessary.'

As part of the settlement, Toll will have to pay $2.8 million in restitution and $1.15 million in civil penalties. That is separate from Sameday's fine.

In a Facebook post, Toll denied any wrongdoing in the case saying that the settlement is not an admission of guilt.

Toll wrote in part, 'I take the ethics of my profession very seriously and am extremely proud of how many patients we have cared for during this pandemic.'

Toll said that he is a separate entity from Sameday and that he only billed for the services that were 'actually provided.'

The doctor added, 'Although I did nothing wrong, I chose to settle the matter with the City because it would have cost more to contest the allegations and win at trial.' In total, Toll's fines amount to $3.9 million.

Following the settlement, Sameday told The Los Angeles Times in a statement, 'In the early days, amidst the chaos of massive surges in demand for services, and shortages in supplies, we failed to meet the standards for excellence our customers deserve. We have corrected the problems that arose back in 2020 and have made significant investments in compliance and systems to ensure that we meet our customers expectations.'

In March 2022, the company shared an article on their website from the Los Angeles Business Journal about how profitable it was to set up a Covid-19 testing company in LA.

This case comes amid renewed interest in Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes who in 2015 was found to have misled the public about her company's revolutionary blood testing capabilities. As of April 2022, Holmes, 38, is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud charges. In total, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
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Will Smith was all smiles as he landed in India where he was seen for the first time since the infamous Oscar's slap.

Smith was pictured touching down in a private airport in Mumbai on Saturday where he was greeted by adoring fans who he took snaps with.

Smith is reportedly in India to meet spiritual leader Sadhguru, who Smith and his family met with back in 2020 in Los Angeles.

Dressed casually in a white t-shirt, dark grey shorts over white compression tights and a pair of Nike sneakers, Smith looked relaxed and happy after landing in the South Asian country.

As staff helped him unload his things from his vehicle nearby fans excitedly scream 'Will, Will Smith!'

Smith then takes a couple of selfies with security and turned to the fans yelling his name, giving them a wave while flashing a smile before continuing to take a few more selfies and entering a building where he gives someone a hug.

This is the first time Smith has been spotted in public nearly a month after slapping master of ceremony and comedian Chris Rock on live TV and in front of his co-stars after he n made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's buzzcut.

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Smith was pictured touching down in a private airport in Mumbai where he was greeted by adoring fans who he took snaps with

A happy fan gives Smith the thumbs up as he arrives in Mumbai. As staff helped him unload his things from his vehicle nearby fans excitedly scream 'Will, Will Smith!'

Dressed casually in a white t-shirt, dark grey shorts over white compression tights and a pair of Nike sneakers, Smith looked relaxed and happy after landing in India

Smith looked in high spirits as he waved to adoring fans calling out his name as he touched down in Mumbai on Saturday

Smith took the time to chat to security members helping him as he exited his cars, taking multiple pictures

After waving at fans and taking a few pictures, Smith entered the building where he greeted someone with a hug

Jada has been open in the past about her struggles with alopecia.

After the slap, Will returned to his seat and screamed 'keep my wife's name out of your f*****g mouth' twice.

The slap divided Hollywood and the public, with some insisting he should be stripped of his Oscar and not be rewarded for violence, while others said he was standing up for his wife.

Several film projects that Smith had been involved in were put on hold since the controversy, including a sequel to the actor's 2017 sci-fi action thriller 'Bright' directed by David Ayer, which was cancelled by Netflix, Bloomberg reported.

Smith's National Geographic nature series, 'Pole to Pole' which follows the 53-year-old star to the North and South Poles, and was set to begin filming in three weeks, has been paused until fall 2022, the news outlet reported.

Additional projects Smith had lined up that have been getting smacked down, include a movie for Sony that has been delayed and another Netflix project for the 'Fast and Loose'.

Netflix was in the midst of finding a new director for the film after David Leitch left the film ahead of the Academy Awards.

The Sony film, 'Bad Boys 4,' which had started pre-production before the awards ceremony, was also put on hold.

Amid mounting pressure, Will resigned from the Academy and issued an apology to Chris Rock, who has not publicly responded.

But two weeks after awards night, the Academy issued the actor with a ten-year ban from all of its events, while issuing a statement blasting his 'unacceptable' and 'harmful' behavior.

'During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry,' the Academy's statement read. 'This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short  unprepared for the unprecedented.

'The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards.

Smith is reportedly in India to meet spiritual leader Sadhguru, who Smith and his family met with back in 2020 in Los Angeles

Smith said he was a huge fan of Sadhguru and had followed him since reading his book 'Inner Engineering' and wanted to introduce the guru to his family

Following their meeting Willow Smith revealed that Sadghuru helped her through an 'existential crisis,' saying she was filled with 'gratitude' for this moment

Last month Smith slapped Chris Rock during the live Oscars broadcast last month after the comedian made a joke about her buzzcut

Jada Pinkett Smith mentioned the now infamous incident involving her husband Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at The Oscars on the first episode of Red Table Talk and though she did not elaborate much further she did promise that it will be addressed some time on the chat show in the future

The slap divided Hollywood and the public, with some insisting he should be stripped of his Oscar and not be rewarded for violence while others said dismissed it and mocked it on social media

'We want to express our deep gratitude to Mr. Rock for maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances. We also want to thank our hosts, nominees, presenters and winners for their poise and grace during our telecast.'

After the decision was reached Smith released a statement saying: 'I accept and respect the Academys decision.'

The actor had already resigned from the Academy when the ban was issued.

Smith's documented one of his meetings with Sadhguru at his LA home in 2020.

The yogi, 65, whose real name is Jaggi Vasudev and who owns an Ashram in India, started his own non-profit spiritual foundation and has more than three million followers on Twitter.

Smith said he was a huge fan of Sadhguru and had followed him since reading his book 'Inner Engineering' and wanted to introduce the guru to his family.

'I wanted my family to meet spiritual people, to start interacting with people who are not hooked on the material world,' he said.

In a clip shared to Smith's social media, Sadhguru is seen pulling up to the actor's home on a motorcycle and chatting with him and his daughter Willow.

Sadhguru tells the group: 'In any area of life, those who are most successful are always the most miserable people because they get to the top of the world and the top of the world doesn't feel like the top of the world.'

'What happened yesterday they're suffering today. Are you suffering life or your memory? You're just suffering your memory,' he tells an attentive Smith.

'What may happen tomorrow you already suffer. You're suffering your imagination!'

Following their meeting Willow Smith revealed that Sadghuru helped her through an 'existential crisis,' saying she was filled with 'gratitude' for this moment.

Last month the guru sparked controversy when he appeared on British morning show This Morning and claimed that a major event such as the Covid-19 pandemic doesn't make people unhappy.

He claimed that 'human suffering' occurs because people 'don't know how to handle themselves' spiritually and physically.

However, his teachings fells on deaf ears on Twitter, where This Morning viewers questioned his motives, calling him a charlatan and complaining he was on the show for too long.

Meanwhile his Smith's wife Jada has continued with her Red Table Talk where she referenced the now infamous slap incident, but did not elaborate much further she did promise that it will be addressed some time on the chat show in the future.

The 50-year-old actress released a written statement at the beginning of the first episode of season five her Facebook Watch series which released on Wednesday.

It read: 'Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing.

'Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls. Until thenthe table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies like that of our incredibly impressive first guest.'

She previously shared an Instagram post that hinted at her approval of the incident.

'This is a season for healing. And I'm here for it,' she wrote.

She continued by saying: 'Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls'

It concluded: 'Until thenthe table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies like that of our incredibly impressive first guest'
An impressive five-bedroom house has hit the market for $2.76million but the owner won't get a cent after the property was seized by police.

The two-storey home at Sylvania in Sydney's south had been owned by jailed drug trafficker Alexander Luis Leon and his father.

Leon, 48, is currently serving a three-and-a-half year jail term after pleading guilty to money laundering and deemed supply of a prohibited drug.

He was arrested when, in April 2017, Australian Federal Police investigating a Colombian organised crime gang operating in Sydney raided the property.

The two-storey house in Sylvania, Sydney is for sale for $2.76million (pictured)

A secret door behind a bookshelf in a southern Sydney house (pictured) led to a sophisticated drug operation by a Colombian gang

Inside they discovered two hidden rooms accessed via a fake bookshelf.

Flipping a switch the bookshelf automatically retracted revealing a rudimentary drug lab containing cocaine, cannabis, cannabis resin, a substance used to cut drugs, and scales.

Investigators also found mobiles phones and electronic equipment that can sweep a room for surveillance devices, or 'bugs'.

Two replica firearms and $130,000 in cash were found in other areas of the house.

Leon's father was not charged with any criminal offence but agreed with a NSW Supreme Court ruling that the house be forfeited to police as an instrument of crime.

A raid was conducted at the house in 2017 where AFP officers found the rooms in a cellar behind an entrance disguised as a bookshelf

Australian Federal Police have seized the Sylvania property under the Proceeds of Crime Act

AFP National Manager Criminal Assets Confiscation, Stefan Jerga said the AFP was determined criminals would not get to keep the profits of crime.

'We will charge offenders and seize the instruments and ill-gotten gains used to bankroll their lavish lifestyles,' Mr Jerga said.

'The AFP wants to ensure that when offenders are released from jail they no longer have the spoils of criminal activity at their disposal.

'Law-abiding Australians work hard to buy their first home, they go to work, they pay their taxes and they save up for a deposit.

'Organised criminals flout their greed and often use violence in accumulating their criminal wealth.'

The owner of the house (pictured) won't see a cent with the proceeds of the sale going back into community crime preventions programs

The house is being listed for a sale price between $1.64 and $2.76million.

The proceeds from the sale of the house will go to the Australian Financial Security Authority to be placed in the Confiscated Assets Account.

The account is then used by the Minister for Home Affairs for community law enforcement initiatives.
Bill Murray once threw an ashtray at Richard Dreyfuss' head after a 'meltdown' on set of What About Bob, it has been claimed as more 'problematic behavior' emerges about the beloved actor whose actions have caused his latest movie project to get shut down.

Dreyfuss' son Ben, 35, revealed on Twitter on Thursday that Murray, 71, allegedly threw an ashtray at his father's head and threatened to 'throw' a female producer across a parking lot and 'ripped off her glasses' during the meltdown after being denied an extra day off on the What About Bob set in 1991.

Ben also revealed bodyguards had to be on set once filming resumed to separate the Murray and Dreyfuss, 74.

'Everyone walked off the production and flew back to LA and it only resumed after Disney hired some bodyguards to physically separate my dad and Bill Murray in between takes,' he said in a tweet.

The jaw-dropping revelation came just hours after Murray's latest movie Being Mortal was shut down to investigate his 'inappropriate behavior' on set. Ben claimed Murray assaulted Richard after he complained about his behavior.

Murray's former costars are now revealing that he hurled insults, headbutted people, and even got into fights on various sets.

Bill Murray, 71, (right) allegedly threw an ashtray at What About Bob costar Richard Dreyfuss, 74, (left) after he complained about the former's behavior, his son Ben, 35, revealed. He allegedly complained about Murray threatened to throw producer Laura Ziskin across the parking lot and broke her glasses

His son also revealed that everyone 'walked off set' and Disney had to hire 'bodyguards to physically separate my dad and Bill Murray in-between takes'

Ben also revealed that he was 'like five' when the altercation happened, but still said it was some of his 'fondest and earliest memories' and praised the movie as being 'good.'

The rumor of the ashtray incident, among others, have apparently been circling Hollywood for decades and Dreyfuss even addressed it in 2009.

'He put his face next to me, nose-to-nose, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!' the actor said at the time.

'There was no time to react because he leaned back and he took a modern glass-blown ashtray. He threw it at my face from [only a couple feet away]. And it weighed about three-quarters of a pound. And he missed me. He tried to hit me. I got up and left.'

Dreyfuss had complained about Murray's behavior toward 'petite' producer Laura Ziskin, who denied Murray the day off. In 2013, she revealed to the Los Angeles Times: 'Bill  threatened to throw me across the parking lot and then broke my sunglasses and threw them across the parking lot.'

Ziskin has since died from breast cancer and the pair never worked together again.

In 2000, Murray had a falling out with Charlie's Angels costar Lucy Liu, 53. She claimed he 'hurled insults' at her and said 'inexcusable and inacceptable' things to her.

Lui claimed on a 2021 Asian Enough podcast episode that the team had to rework a scene so Murry could attend a family gathering.

'As were doing the scene, Bill starts to sort of hurl insults, and I wont get into the specifics, but it kept going on and on. I was, like: "Wow, he seems like hes looking straight at me."

'Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I dont regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, theres no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.'

He also reportedly 'hurled insults' at Charlie's Angel costar Lucy Liu (both middle) after a scene change. The scene had to change in order for Murray to attend a family gather and Liu claimed he insulting her over the decision. ''Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it,' she said

Murray (left) also allegedly got into a physical altercation with SNL costar Chevy Chase (right) after they started insulting each other and Chase told him his face looked 'like something Neil Armstrong landed on'

Murray defended his actions in The Times of London in 2009, stating: 'Look, I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me.'

The star also reportedly headbutted Charlie's Angel's director Joseph McGinty Nichol - known professionally as McG, 'square on the head.'

'An inch later and my nose would have been obliterated,' he told the Guardian in 2009.

Murray denied the claim, telling the Times: 'Thats bulls**t! Thats complete crap! I dont know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination.'

The Ghostbusters star also famously got into an altercation on the SNL set in 1978 with Chevy Chase.

The fight reportedly broke out have the pair started to throw insults at each other. Murray importantly told Chase to go have sex with his then-wife Jacqueline Carlin. Chase retorted Murray's face look 'like something Neil Armstrong landed on,' according to the book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live.

Searchlight tells cast and crew filming of Being Mortal will be PAUSED amid the Murray claims A letter to the cast and crew, seen by Deadline, said: 'We know you are all concerned about the recent delays in production and want to give you an update. 'Late last week, we were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it. 'After reviewing the circumstances, it has been decided that production cannot continue at this time.' The statement added: 'We are truly grateful to all of you for everything you've put into this project. 'Our hope is to resume production and are working with Aziz and Youree to figure out that timing.' Advertisement

It eventually turned physical in front of several costars, including Laraine Newman, who described it as a 'very sad and painful and awful' on What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2021.

This isn't Murray's first fight on set, he reportedly got physical with director Harold Ramis on Groundhog Day. The director allegedly threw the actor against the wall during the dispute. Ramis' daughter claimed Murray didn't talk to the director for 20 years after the fight and that Ramis' was 'heartbroken.'

Murray also reportedly hurt The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou costar Anjelica Huston's feelings after he didn't invite her out to a dinner party during filming.

'The first week I was there [filming in Italy], we were all in this little hotel, and he invited the entire cast to go and have dinner, except me,' she said in 2019.

The 71-year-old actor had the complaint filed against him last week before Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogan's Being Mortal was temporarily shelved, it was claimed.

The details of the allegations were not immediately clear but Searchlight Pictures said an investigation has been launched.

Searchlight temporarily stopped production on Monday after the allegations against Murray emerged - but today said it would halt indefinitely pending investigation.

A letter to the cast and crew, seen by Deadline, said: 'We know you are all concerned about the recent delays in production and want to give you an update.

'Late last week, we were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it.

'After reviewing the circumstances, it has been decided that production cannot continue at this time.'

The statement added: 'We are truly grateful to all of you for everything you've put into this project.

'Our hope is to resume production and are working with Aziz and Youree to figure out that timing.'

Being Mortal is an adaptation of the 2014 book by surgeon Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

The movie, written by Aziz Ansari, was scheduled for release in 2023 but it is unclear how the suspension will impact this.
Welsh locals were left baffled by a bilingual roadworks sign which gave different closure dates in English and Welsh.

The daft sign on Old Conway Road in Mochdre, Conwy County Borough was put in place by Openreach contractors who are working in the area.

In Welsh, the sign states that the road is closed between April 11 and April 13 - but the English translation underneath reads: 'This road will be closed 26/04/22 to 27/04/22 8am to 5pm' - some two weeks later.

In Welsh, the sign states that the road is closed between April 11 and April 13 - but the English translation underneath reads: 'This road will be closed 26/04/22 to 27/04/22 8am to 5pm'

The daft sign on Old Conway Road in Mochdre, Conwy County Borough was put in place by Openreach contractors who are working in the area

One confused resident shared the image of the sign and said: 'A road closed warning sign gives two different dates - 11/4/22 to 13/4/22 for Welsh people and 26/4/22 to 27/4/22 for English people.

'Are they trying to confuse us? I just had to take a picture, I thought it so funny.'

BT Openreach has since apologised for the 'muddle' and removed the sign to prevent further confusion.

An Openreach spokesperson said: 'Thanks to North Wales Live for making us aware of this. We're sorry for the muddle.

'We've removed the sign for now to avoid confusion, and we're touching base with our contractors to make sure they display correct dates in future.'
Washington D.C. cops fatally shot a woman in a special police officer's uniform who refused to lower her gun after she allegedly shot a woman who lived on her block.

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said officers responded to calls of a shooting on Saturday morning and found a woman shot in the arm inside her home on Crittenden Street.

After providing first aid to the victim, police spotted a woman wearing a special police officer's uniform outside another home in the block, waving a semi-automatic gun and 'acting erratically.'

Contee told reporters the woman, who has yet to be identified, was smashing windows at the residence, and when officers told her to stand down and lower her weapon, she refused to comply.

One of the officers then opened fire, fatally striking the woman.

Police officials said they believe the deceased woman recently started working with a special police officer company but don't know if she's licensed. They noted that she was wearing a uniform bearing a different name from her own.

Washington D.C. cops shot and killed a woman wearing a special police officer's uniform on Saturday morning when she refused to lower her gun after allegedly shooting a neighbor

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said the woman appeared to have recently started working with a special police officer company but did not know if she was licensed, noting that she was wearing a uniform bearing a different name from her own

Officers said the woman was swaving a semi-automatic gun (pictured) and 'acting erratically'

The Metropolitan Police Department is working to confirm if the shooter was an active special police officer, which are licensed by the city to provide security services when called upon.

Contee said that the woman has a connection to the victim she allegedly shot, but officers have yet to pinpoint a motive.

'It appears that they are familiar with each other, but I'm not exactly sure why, at this point, why the special police officer shot the other neighbor,' Contee said.

He added that the home that the shooter was breaking windows at belonged to a person unrelated to the incident and was not sure why the woman was outside the home.

The officers found the woman outside another neighbors house, smashing the windows

Police have yet to identify a motive and are working to confirm if the deceased woman was a special police officer, who are licensed by the city to provide security services

The incident comes hours after another chilling episode of gun violence in D.C. where a sniper shot and injured three adults and a 12-year-old girl before allegedly killing himself.

Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax in Virginia, was found deceased in an apartment bathroom close to the Van Ness neighborhood Friday, hours after a man opened fire from an apartment window, injuring four.

The man shot himself, according to The Washington Post, citing two individuals familiar with the matter. They also said that cops are now combing posts Spencer is believed to have made on internet forum 4Chan, including one said to have been posted four minutes after Friday's shooting.

That message read: 'Dear God please forgive me.'

Another one sent six minutes later said: 'They're in the wrong part of the building right now searching XD,' with the 'XD' symbol designed to look like a laughing face when viewed from the side.

One final message posted six minutes after that read: 'Waiting for police to watch up with me.' The Post also reported that a Wikipedia user's page for Spencer described him as an 'AR-15 aficionado'.

Police said they found Raymond Spencer, 23, dead in a D.C. hotel after he allegedly shot and injured three adults and a 12-year-old girl on Friday

Police evacuate people near the scene of the shooting in Northwest Washington

The Metropolitan Police Department posted photos of the stockpile of firearms found in Spencer's apartment.

Contee said that his officers found six firearms, including long guns, handguns and ammunition, as well as a tripod used to mount rifles in the apartment where Spencer was found dead. Contee added that police believe the weapons were obtained legally based on preliminary information.

He said Spencer had a 'sniper-like setup' in the fifth-floor apartment overlooking the scene and Edmund Burke School, an independent grade 6-12 school in the area.

He evoked the infamous Beltway Sniper attacks of 2002 that killed 10 people in the area: 'It appears this person was shooting randomly at anyone who was out there. There could have been a lot of damage done, and lives lost.'

Contee added he's still trying to figure out a motive.

On Saturday, Contee praised the police department for their quick action during both shootings and vowed that police would crack down on gun violence in the city.

'It's kind of hard to make sense out of senselessness,' Contee said of the recent shootings. We know that when firearms are involved, that increases the security risk that we face when we're out here doing our job.

'But the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department show up every day.'
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Putin's regime has been accused of 'covering-up' the scale of the death toll at a top secret Russian weapons research facility after a local journalist claimed that at least 25 were killed in the deadly blaze - not 'up to seven' like Kremlin-backed media insists.

A criminal probe has been launched after video showed an inferno ripping through the Second Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation in Tver, where Moscow's Iskander missiles are designed, on Thursday.

Four military scientists were forced to jump out of windows from the burning building, with state media variously reporting that five or seven people were killed.

But it is now claimed that at least 25 died, possibly including some of Russia's leading missile scientists. Two days after the fire, a search for survivors trapped under rubble is still underway and at least five people are reportedly in intensive care.

The institute is central to the design of Iskander missiles, which Putin has unleashed on Ukraine, as well as Russia's S-400 missile defence system. It is also involved in other 'secret projects'. The damage is seen as a blow to Putin's missile modernisation programme.

Firefighters at a military research institute in Tver, Russia, engulfed in flames, April 21, 2022

A huge fire broke out in the Second Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Tver

The burned out remains of a military research institute in Tver, Russia, after a fire on April 21, 2022

The cause was not clear but there were reports of 'poisonous bluish-black smoke'

Four military scientists were forced to jump out of windows from the burning institute in Tver

Left, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Right, Alexander Gamburg, journalist from Tver, Russia

Respected local journalist Alexander Gamburg reported on SOTA Telegram channel that he had exclusively seen the list of the 'perished'. However, he said he could not give further details because of Russian censorship and 'not to compromise people important and dear to me'.

He said: 'Criminal investigators are working at the scene until Sunday, after which they are due to announce the losses.'

Gamburg added: 'As of 10pm on April 22 there were 25 people. Seven from from April 21, and 18 people were found and identified on April 22. The youngest one is a major, a man born in 1983. The oldest is 90 or 91, born in 1931.

'I don't know what he was doing at his workplace at the research institute at this age. Most of the perished are men. The numbers are not final. This is a big tragedy.'

Four military scientists were forced to jump out of windows from the burning building

A military research institute in Tver, Russia, pictured after fire on the evening of April 21, 2022

A huge fire erupted at a top secret Russian military research facility

A case has been opened into how the fire was allowed to happen at the key Russian defence facility. One rescued military scientist said they were faced with toxic black smoke blowing through long corridors, adding: 'My colleague was feeling worse than me, I was still conscious.

'He was no longer on his feet. I told the fireman that he should be pulled out first, but the rescuer replied that he could not raise him to his feet and I needed to be saved.

'Unfortunately, the colleague could not be resuscitated, he died. I came to my senses only in the hospital, after my first injection.'

An emergency helicopter was deployed to drop water on the burning institute which is now gutted.
A grieving father has accused an NHS trust of being 'insensitive' and of 'insulting' his family after a boss accused him of bullying.

Richard Caseby's son Matthew was able to escape from Birmingham's Priory Hospital Woodbourne, where he was an NHS patient, despite signs that he was at high risk of absconding.

The 23-year-old, who had been detained under the Mental Health Act for his own safety, was hit by a train in Birmingham on September 8 2020, just hours later. An inquest concluded this week that neglect by the Priory contributed to Matthew's death.

His father, who had spent the night desperately searching for him, was just 200 yards away when the collision occurred.

The court also heard that a staff member at the Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Trust told Richard that his son was still being treated at the Priory Hospital - 42 days after he died.

When he finally persuaded them to check their records to confirm his son was dead, Richard requested a formal letter of apology and explanation.

Acting chief executive David Melbourne sent a letter on headed notepaper by email to Richard but, three minutes earlier, sent another email to a colleague accusing the grieving father of 'bullying'.

A shocked Richard has now told MailOnline: 'All NHS bodies have a legal duty of candour when such tragedies occur. Yet this Birmingham Trust fought very hard indeed to prevent the truth from emerging.

'To this day I still don't understand why its most senior manager should be so insensitive and insulting to a grieving family.'

Richard Caseby was told by NHS staff that his son Matthew was still alive and being treated moer than a month after he had been killed by a train. Pictured: Matthew Caseby in Brighton

Acting chief executive David Melbourne sent a letter on headed notepaper by email to Richard apologising but, three minutes earlier, sent another email to a colleague accusing the grieving father of 'bullying'

Matthew had been left unattended in a courtyard for about five minutes, enabling him to abscond by scaling a 7ft 6in (2.3m) fence, the court heard. At 6ft tall, Matthew would have been able to grab the top of the fence without even standing on tiptoe.

Jurors criticised the hospital's failure to take action despite concerns that four patients previously escaped by climbing the fence between 2016 and 2020.

Forensic psychiatrist Professor Jennifer Shaw, who carried out an independent investigation into the incident, said Matthew was 'said to be eyeing up the fence' in a courtyard area at the hospital in the days before he absconded.

She said he had also previously 'tried to tailgate staff' and was seen with a binbag 'walking as if to take it out'.

Louise Hunt, senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, asked Prof Shaw: 'In your opinion, what level of risk would that put him at in relation to absconding?'

The psychiatrist replied: 'I think that would suggest that the risk was high.'

She said it was not safe for Matthew to be left unattended in the courtyard.

It has also been revealed that the Birmingham trust blocked an independent report into Matthew's death for months. And even after it did commission a report, it attempted to change its findings.

According to the Times, the trust also tried to block Matthew's father Richard from visiting the courtyard at the hospital where he had escaped from.

David Melbourne, who has since been promoted and appointed as chief executive of the new Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board, initially refused the family's request for an independent investigation.

Matthew had been detained at Birmingham's Priory Hospital Woodbourne, where he was an NHS patient, and was able to escape despite signs that he was at high risk of absconding

The Priory initially pledged an internal investigation, prompting Richard to raise concerns it would not cover previous escapes and that memories would fade, making an eventual independent investigation harder to carry out.

The independent investigation was only given the go ahead three months after Matthew's death.

It was approved by returning chief executive Sarah Jane Marsh, who Melbourne had been covering for while she was on secondment in London.

After Professor Shaw compiled the report - and noted it was not safe for Matthew to be left unattended in the courtyard - the trust's chief medical officer Fiona Reynolds tried to make changes.

She emailed Shaw and asked why the report concluded that failures in care had contributed to Matthew's death.

Reynolds also criticised the report as 'incomplete and requiring a wholescale review which no doubt also impacts on the report's conclusions'.

She also shared her concern about criticism of the Priory for not acting on previous disappearances.

Shaw's colleague rejected her attempts to change the report's conclusion.

Later, the trust told the Times that it was standard practice to allow the internal Priory investigation to be completed before offering an independent review.

They also claimed that it was normal procedure for the trust to be invited to comment on the report.

Reynolds was the official who tried to block Richard Caseby from visiting the courtyard Matthew had escaped from.

However, during the inquest it emerged that the trust had stopped conducting assurance visits to the Priory's Woodbourne hospital for two years before Matthew's death. And in her evidence, Professor Shaw said she believed the trust had "failed to take all reasonable measures to prevent harm" to Matthew.

Professor Shaw told the inquest it was not safe for Matthew to be left unattended in the courtyard.

'There needed to be a separate risk assessment for the courtyard in terms of his risk of absconding,' Prof Shaw said.

'And that should have led to him having constant observation out there so there was no chance he could be left on his own.'

She said staff told the investigation they had 'raised concerns about the fence, the environment of the courtyard, and they felt their concerns hadn't been listened to in that respect'.

Prof Shaw said it 'wasn't until after' a further incident of absconding on November 19 2020, more than two months after Matthew's death, 'that there was any change in the physical security of that courtyard'.

She said this included increasing the height of the fence.

Even though a decision was made to raise its height to 9ft 10in (3 metres) after Matthew's death in September 2020, the work was not done until after another patient had climbed over later that year.

And the fence has even been scaled again during the two and a half weeks of the inquest, the coroner said.

Although the fence met national guidelines, the lack of a supervision policy meant the courtyard was 'unsuitable' for patients' use, the jury found.

Matthew  a personal trainer  was first detained under the Mental Health Act after being seen walking on railway lines in Oxfordshire on September 3, 2020.

He absconded in the evening of September 7.

He was seen leaving the unit by two staff, who alerted colleagues and emergency services  but staff took 'no further action', the inquest heard.

He died at 8.40am the following morning after walking on to tracks close to Birmingham University.

In a narrative conclusion, the jury found Matthew, who held a first-class degree in history, was suffering 'disordered thinking and did not have the capacity to form any intention to take his own life'. They said: 'His death was contributed to by neglect on the part of the hospital.'

Coroner Louise Hunt, who is preparing a report including recommendations to avoid future deaths, said record keeping at the hospital was so poor he was noted as being 'violent when he was not' and even put down as the 'wrong gender'.

'Staff just didn't seem to know the patient at all,' she said. Matthew was also wrongly classed as being at low risk of absconding and at low risk of suicide, Birmingham Coroner's Court was told.

Richard, who runs a communications business, said: 'Matthew was a beautiful, gentle and intelligent young man. He was loved by his family and he had so much promise. After a long campaign, we are pleased that the truth has finally been heard.'

A Priory spokesman said the hospital apologised 'unreservedly for the shortcomings in care identified'. They said changes had already been implemented, but added: 'We will now carefully study the coroner's findings to ensure that we take all necessary measures to improve patient safety.'

Sarah Jane Marsh, the Trust chief executive, wrote a letter of apology to Richard on July 1, 2021, saying: 'I am so sorry that Matthew was let down by the services that should have kept him safe.'

'I have read the report and I apologise for the actions and inactions of Forward Thinking Birmingham [the Trust's mental health sevices], and for the role these played in Matthew's death, particularly our lack of oversight of the system

'We failed Matthew while he was in the care of mental health services. And we also let his family down after his death with our exceptionally poor communications and family liaison with you.'

Dr Reynolds, representing the Trust gave a statement: We have all been shocked by Matthews death and our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends at this time.

The care Matthew was receiving was provided by the Priory Group and tragically fell short of what should be expected, which is why we commissioned both an independent investigation into the circumstances around his death and a root-and-branch review of how care is commissioned with the Priory Group.

The recommendations of both of these reviews have already been fully implemented and we will ensure that any further recommendations from the Coroner are implemented without delay.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
Russia has stated that its invasion of Ukraine is aimed at gaining "complete control" of southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbas area.

The declaration by a senior military officer is the first time Russia has acknowledged that it is working to construct a land corridor connecting Russia to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Russia Aims For Eastern Donbas

The aim is to build a land corridor between Ukraine's eastern Donbas area and Crimea, according to acting Russian Central Military District commander Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekaev. He went on to say that gaining control of Ukraine's south would enable Russian soldiers access to Transnistria, a separatist statelet in Moldova where Russian military have been stationed since the early 1990s.

According to CNN, the Ukrainian government still controls the strategic cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa, and some Ukrainian soldiers are holding out in a steel mill in the surrounded port of Mariupol.

After failing to conquer Kyiv, Russia withdrew its soldiers from northern Ukraine in recent weeks, with Russian military authorities declaring that their strategic aims had moved to capturing the whole eastern Donbas area.

Kyiv claimed earlier this month that a regional airfield was being readied to host planes and be used by Moscow to fly in Ukraine-bound soldiers, claims refuted by Moldova's defense ministry and Transnistria's leadership.

Minnekayev was not mentioned as having provided any proof or specifics about the alleged oppression. On February 24, Russia dispatched tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in what it described as a "special operation" aimed at degrading its southern neighbor's military capabilities and rooting out "dangerous nationalists." Ukraine's soldiers have resisted, and the West has slapped Russia with sweeping sanctions in an attempt to force it to remove its troops, as per Reuters via MSN.

Read Also: Taiwan Develops New Advanced Missiles, Drones, Vows To Protect Migrant Fishermen Amid Abuse Claims

Russia Seizes 42 Towns in Eastern Ukraine

Russian military seized more than three dozen tiny towns in eastern Ukraine this week, according to Ukrainian officials, providing the first look of what likely to be a grueling struggle by the Kremlin to make greater territory gains in a new phase of the two-month-old war.

Fighting in the east erupted as a Russian general revealed even greater ambitions, saying that the Kremlin's forces planned to take "complete control" of southern Ukraine all the way to Moldova, Ukraine's southwest border.

Although it appeared improbable that the commander Gen. Rustam Minnekayev misspoke, his warning was met with suspicion, owing to Russia's potential difficulty in launching another large attack and the general's relatively minor status in the hierarchy. His threat, though, could not be ruled out.

The larger military goals he detailed at a defense industry convention in a Russian city more than 1,000 miles distant from the conflict would be significantly more ambitious than President Vladimir V. Putin's previous downscaled ambitions, which have concentrated on seizing control of eastern Ukraine's Donbas area.

The general's comments might have been part of Russia's ongoing efforts to divert or mislead Ukraine and its supporters, according to some political and military experts. The formal role of General Minnekayev entails political propaganda work and does not often include military strategy, The New York Times reported.

Related Article: Fears Rise Over Russia's Potential Use of Tactical Nukes in Ukraine; Vladimir Putin's Aide Says New ICBM Test Is a Gift to NATO, Kyiv Sponsors

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Warring Russian President Vladimir Putin has today launched a search for British SAS forces alleged to be fighting in western Ukraine.

The Kremlin's Investigative Committee (IC), often referred to as Putin's personal CIA, said Saturday it will look into 'the facts of the activities of British SAS saboteurs in Ukrainian regions,' in particular Lviv, according to state-controlled outlet RIA Novosti.

It comes as Kremlin-backed soldiers encircle the last remaining defenders of Mariupol to the east, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to pull out of peace talks with Russia if any of his soldiers are killed in the last stand in the strategic port city.

He also said he was 'satisfied' with the military aid coming from the UK, just hours before prime minister Boris Johnson announced further assistance, including more armoured vehicles, in a series of tweets on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to Kyiv on Sunday and hold talks with Zelensky to discuss the kinds of weapons he needs to fight off Russia - who said it would deploy its new intercontinental nuclear weapon - the Sarmat, aka 'Satan II' - by the autumn.

Earlier on Saturday, the IC claimed that 'at least two groups of specialists in sabotage and guerrilla warfare from the British Special Air Service (SAS) have been sent to the Lviv region'.

An IC source claimed SAS operatives in Ukraine 'are specialists in sabotage and partisan activities, recruiting and training agents to work in hostile territory'.

Russia appears to base its investigation on information allegedly received from captured Ukrainian troops.

Putin confers with the head of the Kremlin's Investigation Committee (and his old university classmate) Alexander Bastrykin, who believes SAS forces may be fighting in the western region of Lviv

Bastrykin's Investigative Committee said it heard reports of British 'saboteurs' in Lviv

The SAS is 'considered one of the most highly qualified in the world in organising coups d'etat, mass protest rallies, contract killings of political figures, recruiting agents, including those in the highest echelons of power, and preparing terrorist attacks', said the RIA Novosti report.

'This is no ordinary special force - these are intellectuals, in each group there is always an ideologist, you can say a professor, and the rest are particular specialists,' said a Russian law enforcement source.

The report claimed that the SAS often work in war zones under cover of medical workers.

'With a high degree of probability, these specialists arrived in order to improve the skills and efficiency of the Ukrainian special services in coordinating the activities of sabotage groups in the territories of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops,' said the IC source.

SAS forces conduct a specialised military maneouvre in an undisclosed location (file image)

SAS soldiers fighting in the desert in 1996. The service is widely considered the world's best

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky leaves after a news conference at a metro station on Saturday, after vowing to call off peace talks with Russia if his soldiers are killed in the last stand off in Mariupol

Zelensky Saturday said he was 'satisfied' with the military aid coming from the UK, just hours before prime minister Boris Johnson announced 'further military aid', including more armoured vehicles, in a series of tweets on Saturday evening. (Pictured: Zelensky attends a news conference at a metro station on Saturday evening)

Russia will deploy 'Satan 2' nuclear missiles 'capable of destroying the UK' this autumn in 'historic' weapons upgrade following recent test The Sarmat missile (pictured in test launch) is said to be the world's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of striking a target 11,200 miles away - meaning it could easily strike targets in the US and Europe. Vladimir Putin's regime has announced it will deploy the fearsome nuclear-capable 'Satan II' missile it recently tested in a show of strength by autumn, in a further ratcheting of tensions between Russia and the West as Moscow redoubles its brutal war on Ukraine. The Sarmat missile is said to be the world's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of striking a target 11,200 miles away - meaning it could easily strike targets in the US and Europe. Western military experts said the Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads and decoys - easily enough to wipe out territories the size of Britain or France in a single strike. However, analysts believe the target revealed by Dmitry Rogozin, head of Putin's Roscosmos space agency, is an ambitious one because Moscow reported its first test-launch only on Wednesday and more tests will be needed before the missile can be deployed. This week's test, after years of delays due to funding and technical issues, marks a show of strength by Russia at a time when the war in Ukraine has sent tensions with the US and its allies soaring to their highest levels since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Rogozin said in an interview with Russian state TV that the missiles would be deployed with a unit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, about 1,860 miles east of Moscow. He said they would be placed at the same sites and in the same silos as the Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles they are replacing, something that would save 'colossal resources and time'. The launch of the 'super-weapon' was an historic event that would guarantee the security of Russia's children and grandchildren for the next 30-40 years, Rogozin added. Western concern at the risk of nuclear war has increased since Putin launched his illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24. When the Russian tyrant burst into the former Soviet state, he made a reference to his nation's nuclear deterrents, warning the West that any major intervention would 'lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history'. Last month United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned: 'The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.' Putin described the launch of the nuclear-capable RS-28 Sarmat as a 'big, significant event' for Russia's military and claimed the weapon can overcome all modern defence systems. However the US described the testing as 'routine' and dismissed any global threat. Advertisement

The committee is headed by Russia's top criminal investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, who was a university classmate of Vladimir Putin's.

Earlier this month it was reported that SAS troops have trained local forces in Kyiv for the first time since the war began.

Two officers from separate battalions stationed around the country's capital said special forces had trained their troops on two occasions in early April.

British military trainers have had a presence in Ukraine since Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, but were withdrawn in February as the likelihood of Putin ordering an all-out invasion of Ukraine increased.

A UK defence source said: 'We don't comment on stories around Special Forces, especially ones that are being pushed out by the Russian news agencies, because inaccurate speculation can put people's lives at risk, which is why we neither confirm or deny reports.'

It comes as shocking footage shows the moment a Russian missile struck an apartment block in Odessa today with at least five people killed including a three-month-old baby.

President Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak revealed the deaths on the messaging service Telegram and said 18 others were wounded in the attacks, which come on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

A block of flats was among the buildings hit in the strike and officials reported that Russia fired at least six cruise missiles. More footage shows black smoke billowing into the sky shortly after the apartment buildings were hit by the missiles.

Yermak wrote of the Russian attack: 'These are only those who were found. And most likely, there will be more. A child who had to celebrate his first Easter with his parents. Nothing is sacred. Evil will be punished.'

Many Ukrainians celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar, with Easter Sunday falling this year on April 24.

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's interior minister, said: 'Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas.

'Residential buildings were hit. It is already known about one victim. He burned in his car in a courtyard of one of the buildings.'

It comes as Russia resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern port city and said its forces did not need to take the factory.

'The enemy is trying to strangle the final resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the Azovstal area,' Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on national television.

The fate of the Ukrainians holed up in the sprawling seaside steel mill wasn't immediately clear; earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly taken two days earlier in which women and children holed up underground, some for as long as two months, said they longed to see the sun.

'We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air,' one woman in the video said. 'You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.'

The complex was the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the port city but Putin has ordered his forces to completely block it off, 'so even a fly cannot escape'.

Soldiers and civilians trapped inside have no food or water and Ukraine's foreign ministry is desperately appealing for an evacuation route to get them to safety.

However, a new attempt to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from the war-torn city failed on Saturday, an aide to the city's mayor said, blaming Russian forces. The official said 200 residents of Mariupol had gathered to be evacuated, but that the Russian military told them to disperse and warned of possible shelling.

As the battle for shattered Mariupol ground on, Russia claimed it had taken control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 military Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses.

The head of the Ukrainian President's office says five people have been killed and 18 wounded in a missile strike on Odessa (Pictured: High-rise apartment block bellows thick black smoke after being struck by Putin's missiles in Odessa on Saturday)

Thousands of civilians face starving to death in captured Mariupol after Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to seal shut the Azovstal steelworks (Pictured: Graphic shows how Russian troops have surrounded the Azovstal steelworks, where thousands are hiding underground in its complex network of bunkers)

The Russian army has taken control of Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol except for the Azovstal plant (pictured Friday), which is housing thousands of civilians and soldiers in its underground tunnels and bunkers.

Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014. (Pictured: A destroyed apartment building in the besieged city of Mariupol, taken on Friday April 22)

More than 100,000 people - down from a prewar population of about 430,000 - are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, and over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the nearly two-month siege. (Pictured: A pile of clothes are seen hanging on the door of a torched and burnt out car in Mariupol on Friday)

Teams work by a destroyed building in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol where the Russian Army has taken control

New satellite photos have revealed a second mass grave near Mariupol - as Russian forces continue to pummel the last 2,000 Ukrainian defenders trapped in a steelworks in the city.

The latest photos from Maxar Technologies showed the site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne. It has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 131 feet long, Maxar said in a statement.

On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

'This confirms again that the occupiers arrange the collection, burial and cremation of dead residents in every district of the city,' Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainians estimated that the graves seen in the photos released Thursday could hold 9,000 bodies. The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite pictures.

Russia still has not established air or sea control due to Ukrainian resistance, and despite President Vladimir Putin's declaration of victory in Mariupol, 'heavy fighting continues to take place, frustrating Russian attempts to capture the city, thus further slowing their desired progress in the Donbas,' the Ministry of Defense said.

Russia has pulled a dozen crack military units from Mariupol to bolster the offensive elsewhere in the Donbas, while other troops continue to keep the remaining Ukrainian troops in the city pinned in the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, Ukrainian officials said.

'Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,' said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor. 'Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.'

Mariupol has been reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, and Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city's highest point, its TV tower. It also showed what it said was the main building at Azovstal steel plant in flames.

A view of the destruction in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol where the Russian Army has taken control. A man walks past an abandoned car in the centre of the road, with debris strewn across the way

Mariupol has been reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, and Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city's highest point, its TV tower. (Pictured: A house is almost completely destroyed following shelling in Mariupol on Friday)

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometres east of Mariupol, Ukraine

The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 meters (131 feet) long, Maxar said in a statement

On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol

Under cover of darkness, Ukrainian forces have managed to deliver weapons to the besieged steelworks via helicopter, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.

Overall, the Kremlin has thrown more than 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, Danilov said.

'We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,' he said.

Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014.

It would also allow Putin to throw more of his forces into the potentially climactic battle for the Donbas and its coal mines, factories and other industries, or what the Kremlin has now declared to be its main objective.

More than 100,000 people - down from a prewar population of about 430,000 - are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, and over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the nearly two-month siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Most attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed because of what the Ukrainians said was continued Russian shelling.

Russia's defence ministry earlier said on Saturday that its forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet and destroyed three MI-8 helicopters at an airfield in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine regarding the Russian claims.

However, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling in the area.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the region's civilian infrastructure 56 times. Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

A man runs away from a destroyed building following shelling in the northern outskirts of Kharkiv. It comes as all the Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern region of Luhansk were constantly being shelled by Russian forces on Saturday

A corridor is seen amid the ruins of a destroyed school in northeast Kharkiv as intense shelling continues in the region

A view of the destroyed school in northeast Kharkiv. It was previously occupied by Russian soldiers before being taken over by Ukrainian troops

Local men look at a hole in a corridor of their residential building damaged in a shelling in Kharkiv. The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, has witnessed repeated airstrikes from Russian forces

Firefighters work on destroyed building following shelling in the northern outskirts of Kharkiv as Russia's campaign continues

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling in the area

Firefighters work on destroyed building following shelling in the northern outskirts of Kharkiv that is continuing today

A man walks past a missile that stuck in the ground, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Rubizhne, Luhansk

Russian army vehicles are burned outside a damaged church, in Lukashivka, near the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine

A metal cross that used to be on the top of the dome stands outside of the damaged church in Lukashivka, in northern Ukraine

It comes as all the Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern region of Luhansk were constantly being shelled by Russian forces on Saturday, with the barrage intensifying, the region's governor Serhiy Haidai said on television.

He said Ukrainian forces were leaving some settlements there in order to regroup, but that the move did not amount to a critical setback.

Russia denies targeting civilian areas but Haidai said Saturday that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

He said an evacuation train for residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas was expected to leave Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk bound for the western city of Chop, near Ukraine's border with Slovakia and Hungary.

'In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses,' Haidai wrote on the messaging app Instagram. 'Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks... not all survived.'

Russian troops are also pressing their offensive in the eastern Donbas region in an attempt to fully seize Ukraine's industrial heartland but have made little headway as fierce Ukrainian counterattacks have slowed their efforts, Ukrainian and British officials said Saturday.

Russia continues to fight for full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas that make up the Donbas and seeks to secure 'a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea,' including by wiping out the last pocket of resistance in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine's General Staff said.

Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said.

'Units of Russian occupiers are regrouping. Russian enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure,' the General Staff said on its Facebook page.Britain's Ministry of Defense said despite their increased activity 'Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counter-attacks continue to hinder the efforts.'
A man is dead after suffering critical burns from lighting himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court building on Friday evening.

Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, 'went on to the plaza in front of the Supreme Court building and set (himself) on fire,' around 6:30 pm, according to the Daily Beast.

Bruce suffered critical burns and was pronounced dead at a local hospital today.

Surveillance footage of the immediate aftermath show police officers as they attempt to calm Bruce, who can be heard screaming in the background.

A motive for the Bruce's self-immolation has yet to be revealed as of Saturday, as police said they look to contact witnesses who may have more information about the incident.

Scroll down for video

Video of the immediate aftermath show police officers as they attempt to calm Bruce, who can be heard screaming in the background

Emergency personnel tend to Wynn Bruce, who had just lit himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court building on Friday

Supreme Court police, Capitol Police and DC police responding to the incident on Friday

Pictured: the helicopter as it lands to transport Bruce from the plaza in front of the Supreme Court building

A LinkedIn profile for a Wynn Bruce of Boulder, Colorado states he was a photojournalist who had previously attended Front Range Community College and the Community College of Denver.

Supreme Court police, Capitol Police and DC police all responded to the incident.

'A medical helicopter landed on the plaza and the individual was airlifted to a local hospital.

No one else was injured,' court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.

Authorities had to temporarily close two roads as the helicopter EMS crew tended to the medical emergency.

#Update: Just in - Video reportedly from near the Supreme Court, of the person being airlifted after he set himself on fire on the steps outside of the Supreme Court building in Washington #DC. #US pic.twitter.com/eQO8IowmqA  Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) April 22, 2022

Although she confirmed the 252-foot oval plaza had been closed to allow for investigation, she did say the incident was 'not a public safety issue.'

The plaza itself is up a small flight of steps from the sidewalk outside the court building.

Back in May 2019, disturbing footage emerged of another man setting himself on fire and calmly walking around near the White House as police desperately tried to douse the flames.

The man set himself on fire on the Ellipse park in downtown Washington DC.

Video of the incident showed the man walking calmly across the Ellipse near the Washington Mall, an area popular with tourists, with flames covering his body.

Several seconds later, US Secret Service staff could be seen towards him with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.

It occurred less than a mile from the White House.

Just a few days prior to Friday's incident, Capitol Police evacuated courthouses and Congressional buildings in the area after an unidentified aircraft was spotted within seconds of the US Capitol on Wednesday.

It was eventually determined that the single engine airplane was on a flight by the Golden Knights Parachute Team for Military Appreciation night at Nationals Park.
Ireland Baldwin took to Instagram to call Amber Heard a 'disaster of a human being' and says she knows 'women who are exactly like this' and turn the world against the man' over Johnny Depp trial.

The model and writer, 26, made it known whose side she's on in the Johnny Depp, 58, defamation trial after she shared a screenshot of audio clip of actor reacting to a recording where Heard admitted to hitting him.

Written over the clip, Ireland wrote: 'The thing is, I know women who are exactly like this. They are manipulative and cold and they use their very womanhood to play victim and turn the world against the man because we live in a society where it's cool to say men are all the worst and blah blah f**kity blah.

'Men can experience abuse too and this absolute disaster of a human being is a terrible person and I hope Johnny gets his reputation and his life back. And I hope he's in like five Pirates movies.'

Ireland Baldwin, 26, (pictured) made it known whose side she's on in the Johnny Depp defamation trial after she shared a screenshot of audio clip of actor reacting to a recording where Heard admitted to hitting him

Model Ireland Baldwin, 26, called Amber Heard, 34, a 'disaster human being' and claimed she knows 'women who are exactly like this'

Johnny Depps reaction to the court finally getting to hear the audio tape in which Amber Heard admits to abusing him. #JusticeforJohnnyDepp pic.twitter.com/kdvII6mlss  mary (@johnnyhellodepp) April 20, 2022

She also posted a TikTok - originally posted by j4jdeppotato - with a swirling eyes emotion of someone exposing the Milani's All In One Correcting Kit Heard, 34, claimed she used to cover up alleged injuries was actually released until after the pair had broken up.

The couple is now embroiled in a court battle. The trial, which is still underway in Virginia, is attempting to determine if a 2018 Washington Post essay written by Heard, in which she accused the actor of domestic abuse, defamed Depp, 58.

Depp has continuously denied her allegations against him, and is seeking at least $50million in compensatory damages and a punitive award of at least $350,000, along with attorneys' fees and court costs.

During the trial, Heard and her lawyers claimed that the actress used Milani's All In One Correcting Kit to cover up the alleged injuries that she received at the hands of her ex-husband.

The actress' lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn stated during his opening statement that she kept the makeup product in her purse at all times, as to make sure that her bruises were never visible to the public.

Heard's other attorney even pulled out the concealer palette - which is no longer available on the company's website but is listed on a resale site for $25 - and showed it to the jury.

Heard and Depp are currently embroiled in a legal battle in a Virginia courtroom

She also said: 'I hope Johnny gets his reputation and his life back.' Depp is suing Heard for $50million claiming she defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post essay

However, Milani Cosmetics is now claiming that it didn't release the product that the Aquaman star said helped hide her marks until after she and Depp ended their relationship.

'This was what she used,' her lawyer said during her opening statement, which took place on April 12, as he held up the All In One Correcting Kit.

'She became very adept at it. You're going to hear the testimony from Amber about how she had to mix the different colors for the different days of the bruises as they developed in the different coloring, and how she would use [this] to touch those up to be able to cover those.'

In a now-viral TikTok video, Milani seemingly debunked these claims by stating that the brand didn't release the concealer until 2017, while the alleged abuse was said to have taken place between 2013 and 2016.

'You asked us Let the record show that our Correcting Kit launched in 2017,' the company captioned the clip, which showed a Milani employee pointing to a power point presentation about its products, which stated that the Correcting Kit in question dropped in 2017.

'We are here to provide the facts of the case,' the Milani also wrote in the comment section of the video, which has now been viewed more than three million times.

But a friend of Heard's defended her attorneys: 'Ms. Heard's lawyer was using an example of the kind of makeup that she used, but it's a sad day when a makeup company uses that as an opportunity to make light of what victims of domestic violence have to do to hide the results of the abuse they endure.'

Depp and Heard first met in 2009 on set of The Rum Diary. They started dating in 2012, got engaged in 2014, and married one year later. In 2016, Heard filed for divorce, and it was finalized in 2017.

Then, in 2018 Heard made a slew of shocking allegations against Depp while writing about being a survivor of domestic abuse for the Washington Post.

Although she never mentioned Depp by name, Depp's lawyer Benjamin Chew said it was clear that Heard was referencing the Hollywood leading man during the trial.

Depp was accused of slapping the American actress three times in 2013, after she laughed at his infamous 'Wino Forever' tattoo, and attacking her in a cocaine and alcohol-fueled tirade over accusations that she cheated on him with 'rapist' James Franco.

But now, nearly seven years after Depp and Heard tied the knot, the Pirates of the Caribbean star stated in court that Heard was the one who became violent when their relationship soured.

Depp claimed that the couple had frequent arguments that included 'demeaning name calling' and 'bullying' by her, when he took the stand on Wednesday.

'It seemed like pure hatred for me,' he told the jury. 'If I stayed to argue, eventually, I was sure it was going to escalate into violence, and oftentimes it did.'

Baldwin also posted a clip of a TikTok where Milani makeup brand showed the color corrector Heard claimed to have used to cover up alleged bruises during her and Depp's relationship

The product wasn't released until after the pair broke up

When asked to describe the violence, Depp said Heard would 'strike out.'

'It could begin with a slap. It could begin with a shove. It could begin with throwing a TV remote at my head. It could be throwing a glass of wine in my face,' he added.

'She has a need for conflict. She has a need for violence. It erupts out of nowhere.'

Depp said he would remove himself from the situation, sometimes locking himself in the bathroom, and insisted that he never struck Heard.

He said: In all of these situations, my main goal was to retreat.'

He also claimed that Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him during an argument which ensued after he asked her to sign a prenup in 2015, and resulted in his middle finger being cut off.

The star also accused her of spreading human fecal matter on his side of their shared bed in 2016.

Attorneys for Heard have argued that she told the truth in her piece, and that her opinion was protected as free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Heard's lawyers have also doubled down on her claims that Depp physically and sexually assaulted her while abusing drugs and alcohol.

Heard is seeking $100 million in damages, and has alleged that his legal team falsely accused her of fabricating the claims against Depp.
The UK could become a world-leading supplier of jet airliner eco fuel made from leftover cooking oil and other waste as the West seeks to cut energy supplies from Russia, according to top business leaders.

Super-charging efforts to create Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) could deliver billions of pounds to Britains economy, boost jobs and help achieve key green targets, say senior industry figures.

Plane fuel made from waste cooking oil could reduce energy dependence on Russia and help the aviation sector go green

The Global Britain Commission  comprising chiefs from companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow, Ernst & Young and Mace  said most UK jets currently get fuel from Rotterdam, which is supplied by Russia.

If Britain gained just a ten per cent share of the global SAF market, the Commission said, the industry could earn 17 billion a year by 2050.

It estimates that if new SAF plants were built, the industry could support 128,000 highly paid jobs in regions targeted by the Governments levelling up agenda.

Heathrows chief executive John Holland-Kaye told The Mail on Sunday: What the war in Ukraine has highlighted is just how vulnerable our supply chains are. And if we have an opportunity to get energy security, so that we arent reliant on imports, then we must take it. SAF is going to get huge. Its one in which we could have a first mover advantage.

Russia, traditionally, has been one of the main suppliers of fuel into places like Rotterdam where a lot of the aviation fuel used in the UK is refined. All of that is changing. Its a question of whether we seize the initiative and turn it into a UK, domestic and export market.

Eco fuel emits at least 70 per cent less carbon and can be used in all aircraft engines. So far, 360,000 flights have taken place using SAF.

It can be produced from waste products such as cooking oil, by converting agricultural and domestic waste into ethanol, or by combining hydrogen with captured carbon.
It is easy to see why the luxury bathroom brand Lusso Stone chose its product designer JP Mancinelli to front its online advertising campaign, given his good looks and ease in front of the camera.

Exceptional quality is paramount, he purrs to potential clients. It is what we have built our reputation on, and you dont achieve that by cutting corners.

Yet cutting corners is exactly what Lusso is accused of doing after it emerged that Mr Mancinelli doesnt actually exist. In fact, the man in the advert is Jon Paul Phillips, an actor and model who has appeared in a series of unheralded films.

Mr Mancinelli doesnt actually exist. In fact, the man in the advert is Jon Paul Phillips, an actor and model who has appeared in a series of unheralded films

Lusso, a 30 million-a-year firm that boasts clients such as Harrods, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany  as well as some of the worlds most prestigious hotels, including Claridges and the Connaught  now faces the prospect of an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority after a customer made a complaint.

Mr Phillips, who is listed on the website of the Select Model Agency, has combined his limited movie career with performances in adverts for firms including The White Company, LOccitane and Audi. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part. Born in Darlington, Mr Phillips  whose grandmother Marika Rivera was a French actress with a part in the Oscar- winning film Fiddler On The Roof  attended Barnard Castle School in County Durham before making his movie debut in Ass Backwards in 2013, playing Adonis on Bus.

His most prominent role to date came in Kept Boy, a 2017 film in which he portrayed Dennis Racine, the toy-boy gay lover of, rather ironically, an interior designer.

The episode risks tarnishing the reputation of Lusso and its founder, Wayne Spriggs, who was last year crowned small business entrepreneur of the year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

His most prominent role to date came in Kept Boy, a 2017 film in which he portrayed Dennis Racine, the toy-boy gay lover of, rather ironically, an interior designer

In interviews, Mr Spriggs has been fond of telling the rags-to-riches story of how he built Lusso from a 10,000 overdraft, no loans and no help from investors into a leading lifestyle brand.

He has, perhaps understandably, been less keen to mention his conviction for fraud in 2006.

The 47-year-old from Middlesbrough was handed a 27-month jail term for running an online clothing business that tricked the public into buying fake designer goods.

Shortly after The Mail on Sunday contacted Lusso, the videos featuring JP Mancinelli were removed from its website. Lusso said Wayne Spriggs designed a large proportion of the firms products.

A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said: We will carefully assess the complaint to establish if there any potential problems under our rules and if further action is warranted.
Boris Johnson tonight vowed to reopen the UK's embassy in war-torn Kyiv following the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian capital.

In a series of tweets, the prime minister also said Britain will provide the country with 'further military aid', including armoured vehicles.

The Conservative leader then warned Vladimir Putin's regime that his government will be collecting evidence on potential 'war crimes', saying Russia must be 'held to account'.

He wrote: 'Today I spoke with President @ZelenskyyUa to update him on the latest steps the UK is taking to support Ukraine.

'We are providing further military aid, including protected mobility vehicles.

'We have issued new sanctions against members of the Russian military.

Boris Johnson (pictured leaving for Delhi on Friday), vowed more military support for Ukraine and warned Russia it is being investigated by the UK for potential war crimes

The British embassy in Ukraine (pictured in January this year) will re-open following the withdrawal of Russian troops, Boris Johnson said tonight

In a series of tweets, Boris Johnson (pictured with Zelensky during trip to Kyiv) said Britain will provide Ukraine with 'further military aid', including armoured vehicles

'We will be reopening our embassy in Kyiv, demonstrating our solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

'And the UK government is helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

'Russia must be held to account for its actions.'

Mr Johnson's voice of support came just hours after Putin launched a search for British SAS forces alleged to be fighting in Ukraine.

The Kremlin's Investigative Committee (IC) said Saturday it was investigating British special forces who are thought to be in the western Lviv region.

Putin's personal CIA said it will look into 'the facts of the activities of British SAS saboteurs in Ukrainian regions,' according to state-controlled outlet RIA Novosti.

The IC claimed that 'at least two groups of specialists in sabotage and guerrilla warfare from the British Special Air Service (SAS) have been sent to the Lviv region'.

Boris Johnson vows to re-open UK embassy in Kyiv while warning Putin his regime will be held to account in a series of tweets on Saturday evening

An IC source claimed SAS operatives in Ukraine 'are specialists in sabotage and partisan activities, recruiting and training agents to work in hostile territory'.

Russia appears to base its investigation on information allegedly received from captured Ukrainian troops.

The SAS is 'considered one of the most highly qualified in the world in organising coups d'etat, mass protest rallies, contract killings of political figures, recruiting agents, including those in the highest echelons of power, and preparing terrorist attacks', said the RIA Novosti report.

'This is no ordinary special force - these are intellectuals, in each group there is always an ideologist, you can say a professor, and the rest are particular specialists,' said a Russian law enforcement source.

The report claimed that the SAS often work in war zones under cover of medical workers.

'With a high degree of probability, these specialists arrived in order to improve the skills and efficiency of the Ukrainian special services in coordinating the activities of sabotage groups in the territories of Ukraine controlled by Russian troops,' said the IC source.

The committee is headed by Russia's top criminal investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, who was a university classmate of Vladimir Putin's.

Putin confers with the head of the Kremlin's Investigation Committee (and his old university classmate) Alexander Bastrykin, who believes SAS forces may be fighting in the western region of Lviv

SAS forces conduct a specialised military maneouvre in an undisclosed location (file image)

Earlier this month it was reported that SAS troops have trained local forces in Kyiv for the first time since the war began.

Two officers from separate battalions stationed around the country's capital said special forces had trained their troops on two occasions in early April.

British military trainers have had a presence in Ukraine since Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, but were withdrawn in February as the likelihood of Putin ordering an all-out invasion of Ukraine increased.

A UK defence source said: 'We don't comment on stories around Special Forces, especially ones that are being pushed out by the Russian news agencies, because inaccurate speculation can put people's lives at risk, which is why we neither confirm or deny reports.'
A transgender underwear designer has been accused of child abuse for selling pants that seek to flatten the genitals of boys as young as four.

Doctors warned that the underwear, which is made to flatten the side profile of the pelvic area, could cause infertility.

A leading peer claimed the sale of the product amounted to a criminal offence.

The garments are sold by Carmen Liu, an eponymous company established by a transgender former ballet dancer that describes itself as the UKs first brand to design flattening and tucking underwear.

The garments are sold by Carmen Liu, an eponymous company established by a transgender former ballet dancer (above)

The cotton briefs, which cost 35.70 for a pack of three, come in black or white and are decorated with pink, blue and blue satin bows.

They are available in seven sizes  the smallest for those with hips measuring between 58cm (23in) and 61cm, which would include children as young as four. The largest, at up to 97cm, would fit a teenager.

Under a dedicated Kids section on its website, the company says: Carmen Liu Kids is here for trans girls and non-binary children in their journey. We are the worlds first company (you heard!) to listen to the children that need us.

'Each product is here to provide children with the stepping stones to finding themselves, in a supportive, validating experience.

It adds: We are here to provide gender expression products for trans girls and non-binary children in aim [sic] of finding their true, authentic self.

But Tory peer Baroness Nicholson said: I am truly horrified. The makers, sellers and distributors of these items are breaking the Childrens Act and are heavily abusing the NHS health criteria for children.

The cotton briefs, which cost 35.70 for a pack of three, come in black or white and are decorated with pink, blue and blue satin bows (pictured)

'Children have an absolute unbreakable right to health and these wretched items are against that. I will report them and go to the wire to gain children their rights against this seemingly criminal behaviour.

Doctors said putting sustained pressure on the genitals could cause permanent damage to young boys.

Testicles need to be at a lower temperature, a couple of degrees lower than the body, said consultant paediatrician Dr Shiban Ahmed.

That is why they are in the scrotum, outside of the body. At a young age, if they continue to remain in a high position, the cells that produce sperm eventually die off.

But Tory peer Baroness Nicholson (above) said: I am truly horrified. The makers, sellers and distributors of these items are breaking the Childrens Act and are heavily abusing the NHS health criteria for children'

He said that could destroy the chances of fatherhood for boys who later changed their minds about becoming female.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, of campaign group Transgender Trend, said: The fact that a child is sexualised in this way and their sexual parts are treated according to adult ideas, is abuse of the child. It feels barbaric to actually interfere with a childs genitals in that way.

Last night, Carmen Liu said: Your claims are absurd, unfounded and without merit. She said the criticism came at a convenient time when legislation to ban conversion therapy to exclude transgender people is in the media and subject to wide outrage and protest.

'This is an attempt to cast contempt on the community at a time when support and understanding is needed most.
As a way to be remembered, it certainly takes some beating  Sir Richard Bransons mother has left her beach hut on one of Britains most beautiful stretches of coastline to her grandson, the husband of Kate Winslet.

Eve Branson, who died at 96 in January 2021 , has given the extremely valuable shack to Edward Smith, 44  formerly known as Ned Rocknroll.

He and Miss Winslet lived in the same village as Eve  exclusive West Wittering in West Sussex, where experts estimate that beach huts are worth at least 50,000, although they rarely come up for sale.

Kate Winslet wraps her arm around Sir Richard Branson's mother Eve, who she saved from his blazing home on Necker Island in the Caribbean

Miss Winslet, 46, started dating Smith after meeting him during a holiday on Sir Richards private island, Necker  when she saved Eve from a devastating fire.

Some may see Eves bequest to her grandson  who is Sir Richards nephew  at least partly as a gesture of her gratitude for his wifes bravery.

Following the rescue drama, Miss Winslet began dating Ned, and the couple married in 2012.

In 2019, he changed his name by deed poll back to Edward Abel Smith before changing it again to Edward Wolf Winslet Abel Smith last year.

Miss Winslet, 46, started dating Edward Smith (left), 44, after meeting him during a holiday on Sir Richards private island

Eve Branson owned a beach hut on this exclusive stretch of sand in West Wittering

Probate records show that Eve, who died after battling Covid, left 87,000 in her will after much of her 3.7million fortune was swallowed by debts and taxes.

An actress and Wren during the Second World War, she was also an air hostess, wrote several books and set up the Eve Branson Foundation to provide skills training for young people in Morocco.

Her husband Ted, a former cavalryman, died in 2011. She asked that mourners wear colourful clothing at her funeral and that a bench commemorating her life be placed by the sea in West Wittering.

She left a house in Morocco to her daughter Vanessa, 63, and her furniture and pictures to Sir Richard, 71. The remainder of her estate went to her 11 grandchildren.

Virgin founder Sir Richard has told how his fearless mother helped to bankroll his early career with the 100 proceeds from selling a necklace in the late 1960s.

Virgin founder Sir Richard (above) has told how his fearless mother helped to bankroll his early career with the 100 proceeds from selling a necklace in the late 1960s

Her fearlessness was certainly tested when fire broke out at her sons Caribbean hideaway while she was staying there with Miss Winslet.

The Titanic star dived into full heroine mode when lightning struck Sir Richards luxury home during a tropical storm in August 2011.

She carried Eve from the blazing building to safety. Likening the experience to being on a film set, she said: I really did think, Someone is going to say cut in a minute  oh my God, no one is saying cut. I love the fact that I really do seem to be an incredible heroine!

But she made light of her heroics, adding: Genuinely, all it was was I helped her to get out faster.
Hunter Biden's top business partner had met with then-vice President Joe Biden in one of 19 visits he made to the White House between 2009 and 2015, according to visitor logs from the Obama administration.

Eric Schwerin, former president of Hunter's now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca, met with Biden on November 17, 2010, just as Hunter was striking multi-million dollar deals abroad, the New York Post reported.

The logs revealed that Schwerin made a total of 19 visits to the White House during Biden's vice presidency, with nine of those visits including meetings with Biden, members of his staff and members of Jill Biden's staff.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a vocal critic of the Bidens, told the Post that the logs were the latest evidence of Hunter using his father to secure business deals and called on the Bidens to be investigated for corruption.

'It's increasingly obvious that Hunter Biden's business revolved around providing access to his father and the highest levers of power,' Cruz said. 'It reeks of pay-to-play.

'The clear solution is a Special Counsel investigation to fairly investigate the disturbing allegations of Biden family corruption.'

The revelation comes as Hunter is currently under federal prosecution for alleged tax fraud, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying.

Visitor logs from the Obama administration revealed that Joe Biden (right) had met with his son Hunter's (left) top business partner in 2010

The logs show Eric Schwerin, former president of Hunter's now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca, made 19 trips to the White House, nine of which included meetings with Biden, his staff and staff of Jill Biden from 2009 to 2015

According to the logs, Schwerin first arrived at the White House on October 28, 2009, to meet Biden aide Evan Ryan just months after Hunter co-founded Rosemont Seneca.

He then returned on February 13, 2010 to meet with Jill Biden's special assistant, Meg Campbell, and in that same year, he met with Biden and his assistant Michele Smith.

That was the year Schwerin wrote in an email to Hunter titled 'JRB Future Memo,' that he had gotten in touch with Biden and was eager to talk business, according to emails leaked from Hunter's laptop.

'Your Dad just called me He could use some positive news about his future earnings potential,' Schwerin wrote to Hunter.

Schewrin was also handling Biden's taxes that year

Schwerin then visited the West Wingon August 22, 2011 to meet with Kellen Suber, an executive assistant to Biden just four days after Biden had left for a summit in China.

Later that year, Hunter was in Hong Kong with Chinese tycoon Che Feng, the son-in-law of a high-ranking Chinese government official, the Post reported.

By 2013, Hunter had formed his BGR Partners firm with Chinese businessman Jonathan Li, just as Schwerin made additional visits to the White House to meet Biden assistant Kathy Chung and Biden's Director of Administration Faisal Amin.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said the visits by Schwerin were unacceptable and agreed with Cruz's call to investigate the Bidens.

The White House did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

'Not everyone gets to meet the Vice President of the United States in the White House,' Johnson told the Post. 'The press should be asking why Hunter Biden's business associates  like Eric Schwerin  had that privilege and were given access to the Obama White House.

'This is additional evidence that Joe Biden lied when he said he never discussed Hunter's foreign business dealings. It's well past time for the corporate media to demand the truth from Joe Biden.

The corruption of Biden Inc. must be exposed, he added.'

The meetings took place while Biden served as vice president to Barack Obama (left)

The meetings at the White House (above) also appeared to coincide with important business dealings Hunter was having oversees as he faces allegations for tax fraud, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying

Schewrin's visits to the White House are the latest in a saga of scrutiny in Hunter's business practices as he is under federal prosecution for alleged tax fraud, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying.

Earlier this month, a grand jury heard from a witness who was asked about the identity of 'the big guy', mentioned in an email discussing a potential business deal with a Chinese firm.

The question was asked at a secret hearing in Wilmington, Delaware - although what the unidentified witness said in response has not been reported.

It stems from a March 2017 email discussing a joint venture with a now-defunct Chinese energy company, CEFC China Energy Co.

A former Hunter-associate previously claimed the phrase 'the big guy' referred to President Biden himself, sparking calls for him to face a conspiracy probe.

He has always denied all allegations of wrongdoing, with Hunter facing questions about why he was accepting work from energy firms despite no knowledge of the area.

It follows the Washington Post and The New Times also confirming the authenticity of the contents of the laptop Hunter left at a Delaware repair show.

Among the leaked files on his laptop are a raft of emails and documents showing Hunter's dealings with Burisma, a Ukrainian gas firm.

From May 2014, Burisma Holdings Ltd. was paying Hunter $83,333 a month to sit on its board, invoices on his abandoned laptop show, until he stepped down in April 2019 as his father's presidential candidacy gained steam.

In emails from the hard drive Hunter and his business partners make apparent references to Joe's involvement in a multi-million-dollar deal with Chinese government-linked oil giant CEFC.

Biden has maintained that he was not involved in his son's foreign business dealings, with the White House contending that Hunter has not broken any laws

In December 2020, a month after the election, Biden confirmed that his tax affairs were being examined.

The author of the email, James Gilliar, a British business partner of Hunter's, outlined the proposed percentage distribution of equity of the company.

Gilliar wrote: '10 held by H for the big guy?'

Much speculation has swirled about 'the big guy', and whether it indicated Joe Biden himself was involved in Hunter's dealings.

Biden stepped down as vice president in January 2017, and was a private citizen at the time of Gilliar's email.

A former business associate of Hunter , Tony Bobulinski, came forward shortly before the 2020 election to say that Biden was indeed 'the big guy'.

He told Fox News that, contrary to Joe Biden's statements that he had nothing to do with his son's business affairs, Hunter had 'frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals' in China.

Bobulinski, who is reportedly a US Navy veteran, separately told Fox News' Tucker Carlson that he had met on two occasions with Joe Biden to discuss business deals with China - the first time in May 2017.

Bobulinski's claim was seized upon by Donald Trump, who invited him to be his guest at the final presidential debate in October 2020.

Since Joe Biden took office, the White House has batted away questions about Hunter, insisting he is a private citizen and questions should be directed to Hunter's legal team.

Asked in April 2021 by CBS about the investigation, Hunter said: 'I'm cooperating, completely. And I'm absolutely certain, 100 percent certain, that at the end of the investigation, that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.'

Republicans have upped their calls to investigate Hunter Biden since the New York Times and Washington Post reported on its contents.

They say it shows collusion in the media that it has taken this long for the reports to come out.

Members have also insisted that if the President's son's business deals were brought to light earlier, the 2020 election could have gone a different way.

If the GOP takes control of the House in the 2022 midterms, which polls suggest they will, senior figures have promised to open committee investigations into Hunter Biden and hold hearings.

President Biden's Chief of Staff has said he didn't believe Hunter had broken any laws with his foreign business dealings.

Former President Trump also last week called for Vladimir Putin to release dirt on Hunter.
Ukraine's president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

The announcement comes as many prominent politicians travel into Kyiv for meetings with Ukraine's president as a show of support.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pictured at Saturday's press conference, where he announced he would be meeting with two top US officials in Kyiv on Sunday

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, are set to meet with the Ukrainian president in Kyiv on Sunday

Next week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to hold separate meetings with Zelenskyy in Kyiv and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled there in what he called 'a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.'

On April 14, two Republican members of Congress, Senator Steve Daines, of Montana, and Representative Victoria Spartz, of Indiana, became the first US officials to visit Ukraine's capital since the invasion started.

The news comes just a day after an adviser to Ukraine's president said five people, including a three-month-old infant, were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraine's interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

'Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas,' Gerashchenko wrote. 'Residential buildings were hit.'

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to attack a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

A man runs away from a destroyed building following shelling in the northern outskirts of Kharkiv on April 22, 2022

A Ukrainian soldier jumps of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of the village of Mala Rohan, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, April 20

Damaged buildings are seen among the ruins in Borodianka of Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine on Friday

'The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal,' Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been "liberated" by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un exchanged rare personal "letters of friendship" with his South Korean counterpart, outgoing President Moon Jae-In, less than three weeks before the latter's term ends.

In a report, North Korean state media outlet KCNA said that the letters were an "expression of their deep trust" between the two leaders. The incident came in the form of letters that were exchanged between the two officials earlier this week.

Letters of Friendship

Furthermore, the report indicated that Moon sent his letter to Kim on Wednesday where he promised to continue attempts to pursue the unification that they previously declared through several inter-Korean summits held in 2018. Efforts for the goal eventually stalled since and military tensions in the peninsular region have persisted.

These came after the failed North Korea-U.S. summit in 2019 where an agreement on the removal of sanctions went unreached. North Korean authorities also opted to end its self-imposed 2017 moratorium last month after they launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed near Japan's western coast, as per Yahoo News.

Kim also expressed a rare show of gratitude and praise for Moon, thanking him for trying to improve relations between the two regions. The gesture of goodwill may not be enough to head off growing tension between the two nations, said analysts.

Read Also: US, South Korea Claim North Korea Faked Test of Dangerous Missile; Expert Reveals Why Kim Jong-un Did It

Moon's successor is known to be a conservative leader who has already expressed his intentions of putting on a tougher stance on North Korea. Kim's praise of the outgoing president leads analysts to believe that it is his government's agenda to make Yoon Suk-Yeol responsible for the further deterioration of ties between the two Koreas.

According to Reuters, KCNA's report stated that Kim "appreciated the pains and effort taken by Moon Jae-In for the great cause of the nation until the last days of his term of office." In a briefing, Moon's spokesman said that the outgoing president believed that the "era of confrontation" should be overcome with dialogue. He added that inter-Korean engagement was now a task for his successor, Yoon.

Tensions Between Koreas

An associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Shawn Ho, said that the letters between the two leaders were a way to "sum up the efforts over the last five years." However, they warned that people should not jump to any conclusions that the letters of friendship will have similar counterparts in the next administration.

Ho said that Yoon's new government will likely take a "hugely different" hardline approach that has a "totally different set of key players." He added that the new administration will probably focus on strengthening cooperation with the United States and Japan. He expects some tensions to rise between the two Koreas in the coming months.

A professor at Ewha University in Seoul, Leif-Eric Easley, said that for North Korea, the letters do not immediately represent a shift to diplomacy, He noted that the North's government has already planned military displays. However, he said that friendly communication between the two regions is a "reminder that inter-Korean relations are not entirely confrontational and should include dialogue," CNBC reported.



Related Article: North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Warns of Potential Nuclear Counterattack If South Shows Aggression

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Prince George has had a trial day at a school close to Windsor that his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have been to visit half a dozen times.

William and Kate have been considering where their eldest son should continue his education and, as the Daily Mail reported yesterday, are also thinking about sending their other children, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, four, to the same school.

According to a source close to the school  which The Mail on Sunday has decided not to identify  teachers arranged a settling in-style trial class for the eight-year-old future King.

Teachers are understood to have been amused and relieved that the other children in the class did not recognise George or understand his status.

While the school has several children from wealthy European and Russian families, it is not as high profile as Ludgrove School in Berkshire, where William went, or Marlborough College, where Kate was schooled.

Prince George, pictured, second right, along with his parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and his younger sister, Charlotte, left, may be moving to a new school in Windsor

Georges formal education began, aged two, at the Westacre Montessori School Nursery near the familys Norfolk home Anmer Hall.

He enrolled at Thomass School in Battersea, South London, in September 2017.

Meanwhile, officials are inviting punks to march on Buckingham Palace to help celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.

Organisers are urging volunteers young and old to take part in a street pageant reflecting each of the seven decades of the Queens reign.

It could see men in their 60s reaching to the back of their wardrobes for an old Sex Pistols T-shirt or Millennials recreating Adam Ants 1980s look complete with a white line across their face.

Georges formal education began, aged two, at the Westacre Montessori School Nursery near the familys Norfolk home Anmer Hall. He enrolled at Thomass School in Battersea, South London, in September 2017

The event is being masterminded by award-winning designer Wayne Hemingway and aims to represent and bring to life the subcultures that have emerged since the Queen ascended the Throne in 1952.

An advert calling for participants breaks down the cast list for the 6,000-strong street party, held in London on Sunday, June 5.

For the 1950s, Lambeth Walkers and Jivers are required; Mods, Hippies and Rude Boys/Girls for the 1960s; while Space Hoppers, Hula Hoopers, Punks and Glam Rockers are needed to represent the 1970s.

Thousands of volunteers have already come forward but more are needed. According to the organisers, those proving to be the most elusive are the Goths and New Romantics of the 1980s and the Acid Ravers, Britpoppers, Girl Power, Garage Heads and Indie Kids to represent the 1990s.

For the more recent 2000s, pageant organisers are looking for Festival Goers, Emos and Notting Hill Carnival dancers.

A source said: Weve had a lot of interest, particularly for those representing the 50s and 60s. Its going to be a great party.

'Someone from The Specials group is coming and is going to bring all his mates. But what were still really looking for are volunteers from the more recent years  the 1990s and 2000s.

The street pageant will culminate in live gigs from well-known performers yet to be confirmed.

The deadline for volunteers has been pushed back to May 1 to gather as many genuine fans of each era as possible.

The Jubilee festivities will be concentrated over a four-day bank holiday starting on Thursday, June 2.

Prince Louis to join a new school with his big brother George and sister Charlotte this September - as Kate releases a series of adorable snaps of him standing on a Norfolk beach with a cricket ball in hand to mark his fourth birthday

By Rebecca English, Royal Editor for the Mail on Sunday

Standing on a Norfolk beach, cricket ball in hand, Prince Louis looks every bit the young sportsman in this picture released to mark his fourth birthday.

A series of delightful images of the fifth in line to the throne, dressed casually in shorts and a grey wool star-print jumper, were taken as usual by his mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, earlier this month.

Keen photographer Kate, 40, always knows how to get the best out of her children and the smile on her youngest childs face shows that Louis is growing up to be a happy and contended little boy.

The pictures were released on his birthday yesterday, as the Daily Mail exclusively revealed how the youngster is set to join both his big brother, Prince George, eight, and sister, Princess Charlotte, six, at a new school this September.

A series of delightful images of Prince Louis, dressed casually in shorts and a grey wool star-print jumper, were taken as usual by his mother

The pictures come as the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal the youngster is set to join both his big brother, Prince George, eight, and sister, Princess Charlotte, six, at a new school this September

Their parents, who are looking to move to Berkshire imminently, are currently exploring options to have all three of their children at the same co-educational establishment, it is understood.

Earlier this year the Mail revealed that William and Kate were progressing rapidly with plans for a new life in the Home Counties. George is already earmarked to leave Thomass in Battersea, south-west London, for a new prep school in the royal county this autumn. But it has now emerged that he may be joined by Charlotte and Louis too.

Charlotte has always been super happy and settled at Thomass and it had been thought that Louis would join her later this year.

In one photo, Louis flashes a cheeky grin as he races towards the camera. Two more show the prince, dressed in a star print jumper, blue check shirt and teal shorts, holding a cricket ball, perhaps suggesting he is already a budding young sportsman.

The fourth and final photo shows Louis giving another gap-toothed grin as he looks up at the sky - the picture of a happy and healthy little boy.

Royal fans will be delighted to see new photos of Louis after missed out on recent royal engagements attended by his big brother and sister.

George, eight, and Charlotte, six, joined their parents first at the Duke of Edinburgh's Service of Thanksgiving, and then at Easter Sunday service, while Louis was left at home.

The windswept north Norfolk coast holds a special place in the Cambridges' hearts. It is where the family can unwind together by climbing sand dunes, learning to sail, or taking a bracing dip in the sea.

William and Kate memorably released a video montage of their family, partly shot on a Norfolk beach, to mark their 10th wedding anniversary last year.

The Duchess of Cambridge often takes photos of her children to mark their birthdays. Last year she snapped Prince Louis on his training bike ahead of his first day at nursery.

His birthday will have come as a welcome joy and distraction for William, 39, and Kate, 40, who have faced questions this week about Prince Harry's recent interviews with US media outlets.

In yet another controversial interview with a US broadcaster, the Duke of Sussex claimed on Wednesday one reason he flew to the UK last week to see his grandmother  for a supposedly private meeting  was because he wanted to make sure 'she's protected and got the right people around her'.

His controversial comment caused not just derision that it came from a man who has spent much of the last two-and-a-half years abroad and has caused his grandmother so much heartache, but also speculation as to who he could be referring to.

Harry is known to have a historical hatred for the so-called 'men in grey suits', the senior courtiers who advise the Queen.

Louis is currently enrolled at Willcocks Nursery in Kensington, only a few minutes from the familys home of Kensington Palace, where Charlotte also went.

But it seems that, possibly for practical reasons, the Cambridges are now considering keeping all three children together.

The royal couple have been seen touring several schools in the area and are keen to find one that is out of town and where all the facilities are on one campus, the Mail understands from multiple sources.

The news also suggests that the family may be considering upping sticks out of London altogether for a new life in the country, using Kensington Palace and their home there, Apartment 1A, as a work base.

They intend to keep the palace on even after they become Prince and Princess of Wales.

The series of pictures have come as the latest release of Kate's photos - which usually come on her children's birthdays. Pictured: Prince Louis, aged one

Kate has always had an ability to garner a smile out of her children in her photographs - and Louis is no exception. Pictured: Prince Louis, aged two

Last year's release from the Duchess of Cambridge also showed Prince Louis in activity as he rode a small red bike. Pictured: Prince Louis, aged three

Standing on a Norfolk beach, cricket ball in hand, Prince Louis looks every bit the young sportsman. Pictured: Prince Louis, aged four

In fact the Mail can reveal that William, 39, and Kate, 40, have recently been looking at large private homes in the Berkshire area, specifically in villages close to her parents home in Bucklebury, as well as more well-publicised homes on the Queens Windsor estate.

Kate is extremely close to her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who often look after her brood when she and William are away working or on royal tours and frequently pick them up from school.

And the duchess always speaks fondly of her idyllic childhood in the Berkshire countryside with her siblings, Pippa and James.

While it could be another 20 years before the couple accede to the throne, William and Kate are now starting to map out where they see their family settling down.

They are keen to afford their offspring as normal childhoods as possible and feel that the duchesss home county, which as well as being close to Kates family means they will be just a short drive from the Queen at Windsor Castle, is the perfect spot.

They intend to vacate their current country home in Norfolk, Anmer Hall, which will revert to the Queen.

One source said: Word is that all three children will be leaving their London schools. William and Kate, in particular, love the idea of their family growing up not far from her own childhood home. They are both country people at heart and Kate spends so much time with her family anyway. It makes perfect sense for them to all be at the same school together. If all three children are at school in Berkshire together it also means George wouldnt have to board.

The talk is that if they dont find a suitable place with the Queen at Windsor, they are likely to end up if not necessarily right next to Bucklebury, not far off it. They have been discreetly viewing potential properties in recent months.

Their decision may be influenced by finding somewhere with enough privacy. On the Windsor estate, where they have viewed several properties, they would already be within the royal security cordon.

A grand new private home would require the police establishing a whole new security set-up. But it can easily be done. Both the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have private homes in the Cotswolds as well as using Clarence House as a London base.

Kensington Palace declined to comment, but it is likely the family will make a formal announcement in the coming months.
The children's mother, Liliana Carrillo, has admitted to drowning the kids and said she was 'apologizing the whole time'

His suit also alleges an order granting him emergency custody of the three kids, Joanna, 3, Terry, 2, and Sierra, six-months-old, was never followed

Denton claims he contacted police and social workers 18 times about his ex-girlfriend's 'erratic behavior' but officials failed to take action

Erik Denton has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles city and county after his three children were allegedly murdered by their mother

A heartbroken father whose three young children were allegedly murdered by their mother is suing Los Angeles after he claims police and social workers failed to intervene despite his numerous pleas for help.

Erik Denton filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and county of Los Angeles on Thursday, more than a year after his three kids, Joanna, 3, Terry, 2, and Sierra, six-months-old, were found dead in an apartment.

His children's mother, Liliana Carrillo, fled to northern California, nearly 200 miles away, after their deaths. She later admitted to drowning the kids, claiming she wanted to 'protect' them from alleged abuse amid a bitter custody battle Denton.

The father claims he contacted authorities more than a dozen times about the 'dangers' Carrillo posed to their children, but the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) repeatedly ignored his warnings.

'There were at least 18 contact they made, in which the police department and protective services had a mandatory duty report it and to act and they did not,' Denton's attorney, David Casey, told CBS News. 'They repeatedly said, "Please, protect these children.''

Carrillo is charged with three counts of homicide and her case remains ongoing, according to online court records. She is scheduled to return to court next month and is being held in jail on more than $6 million bail.

Erik Denton has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles city and county after his three children - Joanna, 3, Terry, 2, and Sierra, six-months-old - were allegedly murdered by their mother. Denton is pictured with his kids in this undated photo

The wrongful death suit, which was reviewed by CBS, alleges that Denton was granted emergency custody of the three children more than a month before their deaths, citing psychotic episodes, hallucinations and paranoia that Carrillo had allegedly been experiencing.

However, according to the suit, the order was never followed.

The father also claims DCFS visited his ex-girlfriend and their children at least twice, but social workers never documented her 'alarming behavior' until just days before they were killed.

He also claims he begged police on numerous occasions to put Carrillo through a psychiatric evaluation, but officials declined to do so.

'The murders of Erik's three children would have been prevented if law enforcement officers and child welfare workers did what they were required to do by law, which is to step in and protect children who are at risk of abuse or neglect,' Casey said in a statement.

Liliana Carrillo, the children's mother, admitted to drowning the kids, claiming she wanted to she wanted to 'protect' her kids from alleged abuse amid a bitter custody battle Denton

Denton's attorney, David Casey (pictured Friday) said the father contacted police and social workers 18 times about Carrillo's dangerous behaviors but officials failed to take action

Denton sought custody of his three children last year, citing what he said was their mother's 'erratic and unstable behavior' and mental health issues.

Fearful for their safety, Denton petitioned the court for custody, alleging Carrillo was delusional and had taken the kids and refused to tell him where they were.

Carrillo then filed a restraining order against Denton and claimed he was an alcoholic who may have sexually abused their eldest child.

As the case wound through family courts in Tulare and Los Angeles counties, the parents traded accusations in dozens of pages of documents.

Police were called, social workers were consulted, alarming text messages and Facebook posts were saved as legal exhibits. But, within weeks, the children were dead.

Denton's lawsuit alleges that LAPD officers and social workers from the county's Department of Children and Family Services repeatedly ignored warnings about Carrillo's behavior and failed to investigate and cross-report their findings to other agencies as required under state law.

The attorney also noted that Denton's cousin, Teri Miller, who is an emergency room physician, also filed reports to LAPD about the children's well-being.

Like, Denton, Miller's concerns were allegedly dismissed.

'You see the efforts that Erik and Dr. Miller made in reaching out to the police department and to see repeatedly how they were ignored or disregarded, and the intervention would've made all the difference,' Casey said.

The attorney added: 'The fact that he's been able to deal with this has been remarkable, particularly after all the efforts he made to get the intervention of the police department and Child Protective Services.'

Erik Denton and Liliana Carrillo are pictured with two of their children

Denton claims DCFS visited Carrillo and their children at least twice, but social workers never documented her 'alarming behavior' until just days before they were killed. He is pictured holding one of his children during infancy

LA County DCFS declined to comment on the allegations, citing the pending litigation and confidential records, but offered the agency's condolences to the Denton family.

'Our mission to protect children is one we share with our partners in law enforcement and the community,' the department said in a statement issued to the Associated Press. 'We remain fiercely committed to strengthening our community partnerships to enhance the safety net for children and families.'

The LA city attorney's office told the news outlet it will review the lawsuit and declined further comment.

Representatives for the LA County counsel and LAPD did not respond to DailyMail.com's requests for comment on the lawsuit.

The public defender's office, which is representing Carrillo, also did not immediately return a request for comment.

The bodies of Joanna, Terry, and Sierra were found inside the family's apartment by their maternal grandmother in April 2021. Police are pictured outside the unit shortly after their deaths

Denton, who is pictured with two of his children, claimed Carrillo suffered from post-partum depression following the birth of their middle child, began therapy and later quit. He said she self-medicated with marijuana and, in texts and social media posts, said things like 'I wish I never had kids' and threatened to kill herself

The bodies of Joanna, Terry, and Sierra were found inside the family's apartment by their maternal grandmother in April 2021.

Carrillo, who had vanished up north, was later arrested on suspicion of carjacking, having stolen a truck. She said in her interview that she wanted to drive off of a cliff and kill herself.

During a jailhouse interview shortly after her arrest, Carrillo confessed to killing them, saying she drowned them 'as softly as she could'.

She said she wanted to protect them from their father, who she believes is a human trafficker and would have 'abused them'.

'I drowned them. I did it as softly, I don't know how to explain it .I didn't want them to be further abused,' said Carrillo, who was interviewed at the Lerdo Pre-Trial Facility in Kern County, KGET-TV reported.

'I promised them when they were born that I was going to protect them. I hugged them and I kissed them and I was apologizing the whole time,' she said. 'I loved my kids.'

'I wish my kids were alive, yes,' she said. 'Do I wish that I didn't have to do that? Yes. But I prefer them not being tortured and abused on a regular basis for for the rest of their lives.'

She didn't say how she drowned them.

Denton, who petitioned for custody of his kids in March 2021, alleged Carrillo was delusional and had taken the kids and refused to tell him where they were.

Erik Denton, left, is pictured with his three children who were allegedly stabbed to death in their apartment by their mother Liliana Carrillo, right, in Reseda, Los Angeles on April 10

Liliana Carrillo, 30, told KGET-TV that she drowned her kids Joanna, three, Terry, two and Sierra, six-months-old, claiming she wanted to protect them from their father, who she believes is a human trafficker and would have 'abused them'.

Denton's court filings from last year detailed how his ex suffered from post-partum depression following the birth of their middle child, began therapy and later quit.

He said she self-medicated with marijuana and, in texts and social media posts, said things like 'I wish I never had kids' and threatened to kill herself.

Carrillo also believed she was 'solely responsible' for the coronavirus pandemic, Denton alleged, and she thought that Porterville - where the family had lived until the end of February - was home to a 'giant sex trafficking ring.'

In her jailhouse interview, Carrillo said she had dealt with depression, anxiety and PTSD her whole life and had sought out a therapist for post-partum depression but contended that it was her husband who posed a threat to the children.

She alleged her daughter and a son had shown signs of abuse and that she had tried but failed to obtain help through social workers and law enforcement.

'I wish my kids were alive, yes. Do I wish I didn't have to do that, yes? But I prefer them not being tortured and abused on a regular basis for the rest of their life,' she said during last year's interview, adding that she expected to spend the rest of her life in prison.

When asked what her final message to her children, she replied: 'I love you, and I'm sorry.'

Photos, candles, flowers and balloons were placed as a memorial for the three children shortly after their deaths last year
Donald Trump took aim at Joe Biden's most recent gaffe during an Ohio rally where the former president said his successor is 'confused' and is 'taking orders from the Easter Bunny.'

'Our country is being destroyed, our country's going to hell,' Trump said to a crowd of thousands of supporters at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio on Saturday evening.

'We've never had anything like this and we have a president right now, sadly, who has absolutely no idea what the hell is happening,' he continued of Biden. 'He's shaking hands with the air. He's walking around, somewhat bewildered. I'd say  it's no good. And taking orders from the Easter Bunny. You see that one?'

'You know, the Easter Bunny was a political operative,' Trump chuckled. 'He did a good job, actually. We should hire that guy.'

Last week, a person dressed up as the Easter Bunny at the White House Easter Egg Roll was seen moving along a 'confused' Biden after he 'wandered off' to answer questions and take selfies with kids at the event.

Trump rambled about several topics during his more than hour-long rally 10 days before the Ohio primary election, including ranting about water pressure and claiming he saved the washing machine industry when he was in office.

He also claimed that the lack of credit he received on COVID vaccines was the fault of his public relations department and not his policies.

'Now you look at the Biden administration was unable to get the tests done, they created unyielding and unsustainable and totally horrific mandates and radical mask regulations,' Trump told his supporters.

'And we did just the opposite and we had far better success in every single category  except for public relations,' he admitted. 'You know we were too busy working to think about public relations.'

He claimed that Biden's team does 'a lousy job except they have a fake news, a fake press' that 'report fake stories all day long' to shield the current Democratic president.

When going into a rant about fake news, Trump said that he talks to his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, about how his rallies look on television  and mainly his hair.

He said that his wife is incredibly honest because she tells him that his hair doesn't look good.

'My wife calls me, 'How was the crowd?' I say  do we love our first lady, right?' Trump started with a loud cheer from the crowd for Melania.

Scroll down for video:

Donald Trump took aim at Joe Biden's most recent gaffe during an Ohio rally where the former president said his successor is 'confused' and is 'taking orders from the Easter Bunny'

He also insisted that the lack of credit he received on COVID vaccines was the fault of his public relations department

Supporters of Donald Trump gathered to see him speak in Ohio on Saturday evening as congressional candidates in the Buckeye State try to garner his biggest fans' support

Senate candidate J.D. Vance spoke before Trump's remarks at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio, just north of Columbus. The former president's endorsement of Vance sparked a firestorm of criticism

'But I call up, I say, 'So, how did it sound, how did it look on television, did I look good, was my hair in good shape?' And, often times, you know she gives me, she says  I mean I had 87,000 people in Texas, I call, 'How was it?' he asks.

He said that she responds with, 'You're alright.'

'Oh good. Alright, How did I look?' Trump continued in a reenactment of a conversation with his wife.

'Not good, the hair wasn't good,' Melanie would respond, according to the former president.

'I say, 'That's not good.' Now who would say that except somebody that's very honest and, I think, loves you very much, right?' he asked the crowd and was answered with more cheers and some laughter.

A separate rant on 'fake news' happened when Trump talked about the 2020 presidential election, which he continues to claim was stolen and rigged by Democrats.

He claimed that because the press doesn't want to give the story air time, that two cameras turned off their lights when he promoted a new film allegedly exposing the fraud behind the 2020 election.

'You remember, and I think just saw that Truth to Vote did a ballot harvesting operation, the likes of which has never been done in this country  took them almost a year. And they found corruption in the 20202 election, the likes of which nobody has ever seen.

'That is a blockbuster movie and the press, the fake news will do everything  in fact, even now as I speak two of the lights just went off. Two lights just went off,' Trump claimed of the camera on the media risers, which was met with major jeering from the thousands attending.

'This is communism,' the former president accused. 'This is the beginning of communism. That's when it starts  when you have no press. We have no press. Those two lights just went off  they don't want to talk about it.'

The visit also comes just 10 days before Ohioans head to the polls to decide who will represent the parties in the House and Senate races  but no candidates will appear on the May 3 ballot for the State House as lawmakers remain unable to get a new district map passed

One member of the crowd could be hearing yelling that it's time for a 'revolution.'

The former president arrived in Ohio 10 days before the primary elections on May 3 where multiple Republicans are looking to ride Trump's coattails to Washington, D.C.  including Senate candidate J.D. Vance.

Vance got some mixed reviews from the crowd at the rally on Saturday as many in attendance believe that the candidate is a 'never Trumper' who is trying to change his tune to get the pro-Trump vote.

'I'm very pleased to introduce the man with, by far, the best chance to defeat the radical Democrat nominee for Senate this November,' Trump said before inviting Vance on stage.

'And you know what? He's a guy that's said some bad shit about me. He did,' the former president conceded. 'But you know what, every one of the others did also. In fact, if I went by that standard I don't think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country. They all said bad, but they all came back.'

'Ultimately, I put that aside,' Trump said. 'By the way, he's been like incredible in the last period of time  long period of time.'

'I have to do what I have to do. We have to pick someone that can win and this guy  he's tough, he's smart, he's a former Marine, he's a Yale educated lawyer He's a fearless MAGA fighter, he fights like crazy. And he loves Ohio and frankly he's a great Buckeye.'

Vance got some mixed reviews from the crowd at the rally on Saturday as many in attendance believe that the candidate is a 'never Trumper' who is trying to change his tune to get the pro-Trump vote

Also appearing before Trump's speech was Republican congressional candidate Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, a former beauty queen who won Miss Ohio USA 2014

The now-common outdoor rally hosted by the former president included the usual food vendors and tents selling pro-Trump and anti-Biden swag, including signs calling the 2020 election a fraudulent, rigged process

While in office, Trump said that other than 'saving' the steel industry, he also rescued the washing machine industry.

'You know another industry saved  washing machines, a big industry, ok? People don't realize it,' Trump said.

'I had a man come in from Whirlpool, the chairman of Whirlpool, he came in to see me when I was President-elect,' he continued, adding that Ohio GOP Representative Jim Jordan said 'we have to do something' about saving the industry.

The former president was announced 15 minutes before he was set to take the stage.

The final speaker to tee up the former president  several hours before Trump actually took stage  was Senate primary candidate Vance, who earned some cheers along with some other lackluster welcomes to the stage.

'We're going to send J.D. Vance to the U.S. Senate,' Trump said at the top of his remarks.

'Right now our country is going to hell,' he continued. 'Under Biden, Pelosi and the radical Dems, it's back to America last.'

Circling the fairgrounds ahead of Trump's arrival were two crop plans flying banners reading: 'Put Trump in The White House' and 'Put Biden in a Home.' The signs were promoting the website fakemaskusa.com.

Thousands of Trump supporters descended on a muddy fairgrounds in Delaware County, Ohio around 3:00 p.m.

Fans of the former president enjoyed the first day of summer-like weather in the area with 85-degree heat and a beaming sun

Michael J. Lindell, the My Pillow CEO who continues to claim that the 2020 election was rigged, speaks on stage prior to President Trump's appearance. He received some of the loudest cheers of the evening, second only to Trump

The former president received a slew of criticism for endorsing J.D. Vance for the Senate primary, with many supporters claiming he is a 'never Trumper'.

The visit also comes just 10 days before Ohioans head to the polls to decide who will represent the parties in the House and Senate races  but no candidates will appear on the May 3 ballot for the State House as lawmakers remain unable to get a new district map passed.

While the Republican-controlled State House has proposed new district maps after the 2020 census resulted in the state losing one congressional seat, the Ohio Supreme Court has yet to approve any of the maps put forward.

Appearing before Trump's remarks at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio, just north of Columbus, is Senate candidate J.D. Vance and House candidates Max Miller, a former Marine, and Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, a former beauty queen who won Miss Ohio USA 2014.

Vance, who had a movie made based on his life, recently became the favorite to win the May 3 Republican primary after Trump's endorsement rescued the campaign short on funds and slipping in the polls.

Before that, Josh Mandel was long considered the frontrunner in the race vying for Republican Senator Rob Portman's seat after he announced days after President Joe Biden's inauguration that he would not seek a third term in the 2022 midterms.

Mandel is a more far-right candidate than Trump's pick, leading many supporters at the Ohio rally to speculate that Vance earned the endorsement due to his 'star power'.

Thousands of supporters of President Trump cheered as he claimed to have saved the washing machine industry while in office. 'You know another industry saved  washing machines, a big industry, ok? People don't realize it,' Trump said

The final speaker to tee up the former president was Senate primary candidate J.D. Vance. 'Right now our country is going to hell,' he said. 'Under Biden, Pelosi and the radical Dems, it's back to America last.'

The other Ohio Senator is Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who was reelected in 2018 for a third term, meaning he won't be up for a fourth until 2024.

Trump's endorsement of Vance led to intense backlash from his supporters, with many claiming that the candidate was a 'never Trumper' who chaged his tune to pander to the ex-president in order to try and rid his coattails amid falling poll numbers.

A letter penned by 33 Trump delegates in 2016 called on him to reconsider, writing: 'This endorsement of J.D. Vance is a betrayal to not only your Ohio supporters but Trump supporters across our great nation!'

Thousands of Trump supporters descended on a muddy fairgrounds in Delaware County, Ohio around 3:00 p.m. for the first day of summer-like weather in the area with 85-degree heat and a beaming sun.

The now-common outdoor rally hosted by the former president included the usual food vendors and tents selling pro-Trump and anti-Biden swag, including signs calling the 2020 election a fraudulent, rigged process.

Backlash for Trump's endorsement of Vance is most strong among supporters of Mandel, who will stump with Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz next week.

Trump sent out on Saturday afternoon an endorsement for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRosa, who is running for reelection.

'I won Ohio big, twice, and Frank is committed to 'making it easy to vote and impossible to cheat.' I give Frank LaRose my Complete and Total Endorsement!' the ex-president sent out from his Save America PAC five hours before he was set to take stage on Delaware County.

Another habitual statement from Trump previewed: 'Heading to Ohio for a big rally tonight, great crowd. See you there!'

Ahead of speakers taking stage, an ad played on the two jumbotron screens pointed out toward the crowd calling for voters to 'Save America from RINOs' by voting out more moderate, anti-Trump Republicans from Congress  like Liz Cheney and Peter Meijer.
He may be the only Minister rich enough to trade up from a flat above No 10 Downing Street, but Rishi Sunak and his family have moved to another sought-after address.

The Chancellor and his wife Akshata Murty have taken up residence with their children in their 6.6 million mews house in Kensington  and its the most expensive house on the west London street.

It is believed that Mr Sunak will remain at the flat above No 10 during the week and will join his wife and family in the mews mansion at the weekends.

House of Sunak: the Chancellor's family has moved to the most expensive house on the street

Though the Chancellor is traditionally described as living at No 11 Downing Street, in fact Mr Sunak lives at No 10 and it is Boris Johnson and Carrie who live in the larger four-bedroom flat next door.

The Sunaks are thought to have decided to move to be closer to their daughters school but the timing was unfortunate when removal vans were seen leaving Downing Street just as the Chancellor was facing calls to step down over his wife claiming non-dom status to avoid paying full UK tax.

She has since volunteered to pay UK tax on all her worldwide income, though she will keep her non-dom status which allows her to take advantage of Indias zero-rate inheritance tax on her familys business empire.

Now she is happily ensconced in her four-bedroom, two-bathroom mews home, reportedly bought for cash in 2010 a year after their wedding in India.

Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata pictured walking in central London in late January 2021

The Sunaks also own a sprawling manor house in North Yorkshire and another first-floor London flat less than a mile from the mews mansion, which they use as a holiday home for visiting relatives.

They also keep a home in Santa Monica, California.

A description of the mews on an architects website describes it as having a basement conversion and plenty of natural light thanks to a full-height window and rear light well. An extravagant staircase made of glass is a central feature.

Mrs Sunak is the daughter of the so-called Bill Gates of India, N. R. Narayana Murthy.

She has a 0.91 per cent stake in his tech empire Infosys, which puts her estimated net worth above the Queens.
Not only did Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's goal against Real Sociedad on Thursday earn Barcelona three vital points, it also placed him alongside some elite company.

The striker headed home from Ferran Torres' cross in the 11th minute in San Sebastian as Xavi's side claimed a 1-0 victory on their travels.

It was the first goal that Real Sociedad had conceded at home since December but extended Barca's winning run away from home in LaLiga to five matches.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (L) has scored nine goals in his first 11 LaLiga games for Barcelona, the first to do so since Zlatan Ibrahimovic (R)

The Catalan side are now up to second in the table, 15 points behind runaway leaders Real Madrid.

For Aubameyang, it was his ninth goal in 11 appearances in the league since joining from Arsenal at the start of February.

Having had his contract mutually terminated by the Gunners after a disciplinary breach, the 32-year-old has proved to be a sensational addition for Barca.

Aubameyang headed in a cross from Ferran Torres in the 11th minute against Real Sociedad

Ronaldo also made a superb start to life at Barcelona when he joined from PSV in 1996

He is the first player since Zlatan Ibrahimovic (also for Barcelona) in 2009 to score nine goals in his first 11 appearances in LaLiga.

The only other players to reach that tally in their inaugural 11 matches in the Spanish top-flight are Atletico Madrid striker Christian Vieri in 1997 and Barcelona stars Romario and Ronaldo in 1993 and 1996 respectively.

If those examples are anything to go by, Aubameyang's career at the Nou Camp should continue going from strength to strength.
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It took some persuasion to get my 72-year-old mum on board with a glamping trip. While camping holidays were a regular feature of my childhood, its been years since she last spent a night under canvas.

Happily, in the past decade camping has undergone a transformation, and the invention of glamping has turned a back-to-basics experience into something far more comfortable.

With my mum Margaret, a nine and 12-year-old in tow, we checked into East Shilvinghampton Farm near Weymouth in Dorset. It is part of the Feather Down Farms group  one of the pioneers of glamping on working farms. Originating in the Netherlands, it opened its first UK site in Hampshire in 2006 and the franchise now has 75 sites across Europe, including more than 30 in the UK.

Majestic: Eve McGowan, with her mum, Margaret, and a nine and 12-year-old in tow, checked into East Shilvinghampton Farm. Pictured is one of the eight canvas 'hideaways'

The farm, part of the Feather Down Farms group, is located near the 'golden sands' of Weymouth in Dorset (above)

At East Shilvinghampton, eight canvas hideaways are generously spaced in a semi- circle around a gently sloping paddock. All have charming wooden verandas from which to enjoy the big skies and panoramic views across the peaceful valley.

Glampers stay among the animals, which include goats, which children can pet and feed, chickens that provide daily eggs for the children to collect and alpacas you can take for a walk. But the Feather Down experience also has plenty of luxuries to entice reluctant campers.

The hideaways all feature proper beds with duvets and pillows, the kitchen has a sink with running water, there are en suite toilets and some have private showers too.

The Feather Down experience has 'plenty of luxuries to entice reluctant campers', including a kitchen with running water

Glampers can order pizzas to cook themselves in the pizza oven

Its not really camping at all, is it? says Mum with some relief. Lighting is from tea lights in storm lanterns, oil lamps and charming candelabras over the dining table. The effect, once the sun goes down, is utterly cosy.

Martin and Joby Bartlett run East Shilvinghampton, which has been in Martins family for three generations. Martin offers tours of the farm and Joby provides the glamping equivalent of room service, with meals either for you to reheat or delivered hot to your tent (dishes include beef casserole and lasagne).

Theres also a pizza night where guests can order pizzas from Joby to cook themselves in the pizza oven, and breakfast hampers stuffed full of locally sourced goodies.

The farm is ideal for exploring Dorsets Jurassic Coast. The red cliffs at West Bay (of ITVs Broadchurch fame) are less than half an hours drive away and closer still is Burton Bradstock, where the Hive Beach Cafe is a scenic spot for a cream tea.

Just five miles in the opposite direction are the golden sands of Weymouth, or head a little further on towards Lulworth Cove and the dramatic limestone arch of Durdle Door.

However, staying put while the children enjoy a free-range lifestyle is equally appealing, and the well-stocked honesty shop (where you can also charge your phones, shhh dont tell the kids) means you dont even have to venture out to the supermarket.

Eve says the farm is ideal for exploring Dorsets Jurassic Coast. The red cliffs at West Bay are less than half an hours drive away and closer still is Burton Bradstock (pictured)

Free range living: The family visited nearby Lulworth Cove and the dramatic limestone arch of Durdle Door. Pictured above at the latter is Granny Margaret with Eves children

The site suits family groups with the central fire pit providing the perfect communal meeting point at the end of the day. Feather Down offer takeover weekends where glampers can have the place to themselves.

Most guests make a return trip, says Martin, theres too much to see and do for one visit.

As for Granny? She says glamping is a lovely way to enjoy the fun side of camping with grandchildren without the strain of sleeping on the floor and late-night loo block visits.

So its likely well be back too, and perhaps next time well persuade the other grandparents to join our trip.
The Holiday Guru is always on hand to answer your questions.

Here, he tackles covid-related queries among others, with one reader seeking clarification on the latest U.S. travel rules.

Q. Is A Passenger Locator Form required for the U.S.? I have had conflicting advice from my travel agent and tour operator ahead of my trip to New York.

Delia Worth, via email.

Bite of the Big Apple: Follow the U.Ss Covid rules if youre heading to Liberty Island (above) in New York

A. No. Youll need an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), as well as proof of having been fully vaccinated against Covid. If flying, you will also need to show a negative test result or evidence of recovery from the virus. See Americas entry requirements at gov.uk.

Q. We have a favourite hotel in Mauritius that we like to go to at this time of year. Normally we book the hotel and our flights separately, but is it better to buy a package trip, given all of the recent airline cancellations?

Ellen Kelly, Lancaster.

A. Yes, a package from an ATOL (Air Travel Organisers Licence) protected tour operator is best, as you are legally due a refund within 14 days of any unforeseen cancellation.

Seven nights at your hotel, the Constance Prince Maurice, with ATOL-covered flights costs from 1,433pp B&B in June (travelrepublic.co.uk). This is cheaper than going DIY, which we worked out at 1,465pp.

Q. Why are car rental prices so high in Majorca? The lowest I could find for a two-week hire in June from Palma airport was more than 700. A couple of years ago I paid around 200.

Arthur Robins, Ringwood, Hampshire.

A. Global car-hire prices are high now due to a shortage of vehicles.

During the pandemic, rental companies sold fleets to stay afloat. There is also a worldwide shortage of semiconductors for new cars, meaning many firms cannot easily restock.

Its best to book rentals well in advance: Holiday Autos, for example, has a weeks hire in Majorca from 367 in late May (holidayautos.com).

Q. Could you clarify that Cyprus is out of the Schengen Zone, and consequently we would be able to take a holiday to Cyprus in addition to long stays in the Schengen area?

Tina and John Sweet, via email.

The Guru confirms that Cyprus is out of the Schengen Zone. Pictured is Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus

A. Yes. Your stay will not add days to your limit within the Schengen Zone  which is 90 days within any 180-day rolling period.

See the Frequently asked questions on the Schengen visa-free page of eeas.europa.eu for more information.

Q. British Airways says I must upload my Covid documents via the Verifly app prior to travel. I dont have a smartphone, so I cant do this. I am unable to download it any other way. Is there an alternative?

Ive been trying to reach British Airways on the phone all day and have been on hold for hours. I was even cut off twice.

Joe Smith, via email.

A. It is not mandatory to use the Verifly app, which is BAs way of speeding up the check-in process.

On arrival at check-in, if you have registered, you can go to a queue that ought to be quicker. However, if you have not signed up to Verifly, just show your NHS Covid travel pass to check-in staff.

Q. I am going to Italy in July and have to pay my deposit for the trip today. Could you please tell me what the entry rules are for this country?

Howard Graham, via email.

A reader with a trip booked to Italy asks the Guru about the entry requirements. Pictured is Rome, Italy's capital

A. You must have an NHS Covid travel pass (in either digital or paper form) or else have evidence of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure, or a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of departure.

If you have recovered from Covid in the past six months, you can also show a recovery certificate.

You will need to complete a passenger locator form at app.euplf.euapp.euplf.eu, too. See Italys entry requirements at gov.uk.

WERE HERE TO HELP

If you need travel advice, the Holiday Guru is here to answer your questions. Email us at holidayplanner@dailymail.co.uk
Some innovative companies are making travel easier for the disabled

Having a disability in 2022 shouldnt hold you back. But the reality is access difficulties, cost and a lack of choice mean the able-bodied are still travelling far more than disabled holidaymakers.

The National Travel Survey carried out just before the pandemic found disabled adults in England made on average 26 per cent fewer trips and travelled 41 per cent fewer miles than the non-disabled.

Thankfully, some innovative tour operators, airlines, hotels and self-catering companies are trying to redress the balance. Heres a few places to look.

Best for the blind and sighted

TRAVELEYES

By the age of 18, Amar Latif had lost 95 per cent of his sight. He went to Canada anyway, for his last year of university, then went jungle trekking in Nicaragua for a BBC documentary about travellers with disabilities. Now Amar runs his own tour company where, uniquely, each group trip has a mix of blind and visually impaired holidaymakers plus sighted travellers.

Each day, a sight-impaired person is paired up with a sighted group member, who will describe the sights in destinations such as the U.S. Deep South, Armenia, Menorca and Northern Ireland. Sighted travellers get up to 50 per cent off.

BEST FOR variety of assistance

LIMITLESS TRAVEL

Limitless Travel organises holidays with many types of assistance to destinations including the Cotswolds. Pictured is the village of Castle Combe in the area

Founded by Angus Drummond, a former investment banker who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of 22, Limitless Travel offers many types of assistance for holidaymakers. These range from help carrying luggage to a full one-to-one carer package to cover everything from getting dressed to a swimming partner.

Destinations include Rome, Crete, the Netherlands and Jersey, as well as cruises and UK stays: a five-day Cotswolds break is priced from 949.

BEST FOR safaris

2 BY 2 HOLIDAYS

Even able-bodied people can sometimes find a safari holiday challenging, but 2 By 2 is one of the few UK operators which offers trips to see the Big Five  leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant and rhinoceros.

The company has been organising wheelchair-accessible safaris to Africa for more than 20 years. It offers tailor-made trips to Kenyan, Namibian and South African game reserves. Vehicles fitted with ramps for power chairs are used on journeys into the bush.

A typical seven-night stay in Kruger National Park, South Africa, costs from 1,395pp for seven nights, excluding international flights.

BEST FOR self-catering

INDEPENDENT COTTAGES

Independent Cottages has a far wider range of accessible properties than most UK self-catering providers. More than 250 have at least partial wheelchair access.

The companys website also has a wonderfully opinionated guide as to which parts of Britain are best for accessible breaks.

Surprisingly, given the age of many of its buildings, Oxford scores highly with above-average wheelchair access, as do the beaches of Dorset and West Wales.

Prices for accessible cottages are reasonable too. At the moment, Driftwood Cottage in Combe Martin, North Devon, which sleeps four, costs from 249 for seven nights.

BEST FOR once-in-a-lifetime trips

RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL

Responsible Travel offers a 10-day trip to Kerla, above, for travellers with access needs

Kudos to Responsible Travel for noticing that the vast majority of accessible hotels and resorts are of the mega-chain variety.

This bespoke tour operator has gone in the other direction and specialises in smaller, characterful accommodation in places that are often difficult to go to for those with disabilities.

Its ten-day Kerala trip, which you can take either solo, with a partner or in a small group, is one of the most popular, opening up the mountains, houseboats, forts and beaches of this part of India to travellers with access needs.

Its not cheap, though. Prices start at 2,092pp, excluding flights. But, as Responsible Travel puts it (rather brilliantly), an accessible holiday is still a holiday. It just has special trimmings.

BEST FOR package vacations

TUI HOLIDAYS

Most of the big airlines offering package holidays dont provide much inspiration or help beyond the bare minimum when it comes to accessible travel.

TUI is the exception; it has more than 150 accessible hotels to choose from  with a strong focus on the Caribbean.

The company has a specialist customer phone line for people who want to have a more in-depth chat about their access needs before making a booking. It also has four types of specially adapted vehicle for transfers from the arrival airport to the hotel.

tui.co.uk/holidays. Call the special assistance team on 0203 451 2585
Tara Jayne is going under the knife once again in what might be her most dramatic transformation yet.

The Melbourne-based Botched star has already spent more than $200,000 reinventing herself as a human Bratz doll.

The 33-year-old confirmed the news of her upcoming surgeries while out in Melbourne earlier this week.

Changes: Australian Botched star Tara Jayne stepped out in Melbourne this week to reveal that she was flying to Istanbul for more plastic surgery

She left to the imagination in a plunging black top that showcased her sizeable breast implants.

Tara paired it with a leather miniskirt that featured a dangerously high split, along with a pair of matching thigh-high boots.

The Melbourne-based bombshell capped off the racy look with a hot pink faux fur coat.

She confirmed this week she would be heading to Istanbul later in the year for another round of cosmetic procedures, despite being warned against it.

Busting out! She left to the imagination in a plunging black top that showcased her sizeable breast implants

Thigh's the limit! Tara paired it with a leather miniskirt that featured a dangerously high split, along with a pair of matching thigh-high boots

Tara said she was undergoing more surgeries in the hope of 'becoming the very best version of myself'.

The cosmetic nurse is banned from having any further cosmetic surgery procedures in Australia.

Tara revealed her plans to have a face lift and breast augmentation surgery to further enhance her 37-inch bust.

Pole position: The surgery-addicted star clung to a pole outside as she posed for photos

She's also planning on undergoing a controversial new surgical procedure that permanently changes eye colour.

During this procedure, surgeons make a small incision in the cornea where they insert a silicone-based artificial iris.

Most iris implants are available in a handful of stock colours, such as blue, green, brown and black.

Tara said that as far as she's concerned, there's no limit when it comes to her plastic surgery procedures.

Peace out! The brunette flashed a peace sign as she strolled down the sidewalk

While there were people out there who thought her look was 'extreme', she said she loved what she saw in the mirror each morning.

'But there's always improvements that can be made, which is why I'm heading to Turkey for another round of surgeries,' she added.

'With me, it's not a case of less is more. It's the more, the better. I'm not happy with my breasts. In my eyes, they're too small.

Plastic fantastic: The Melbourne-based Botched star has already spent more than $200,000 reinventing herself as a human Bratz doll

'That's why I want them enlarged from 1050cc to 1500cc. They will look great once that is done.'

During her controversial appearance on Botched, surgeons Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow refused to give Tara larger breast implants.

Both plastic surgeons said they wouldn't consider the operation until the Melbourne cosmetic nurse put on more weight - Tara currently weighs just 45 kilograms.

'I don't see it as an issue. But if they won't do it then I'll get it done somewhere else, which is what I'm going to do,' she said.

She added: 'It is my body so it's my choice.'

No way: During her controversial appearance on Botched, surgeons Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow refused to give Tara larger breast implants

Plans: Tara revealed her plans to have a face lift and breast augmentation surgery to further enhance her 37-inch bust

Tara's past procedures include five breast augmentations, six nose jobs and endless rounds of Botox and filler.

She also wants canthoplasty (surgical eye reshaping) to give her a 'cat eye' appearance, in addition to changing the colour of her eyes.

In an interview with The Herald Sun on Sunday, Tara said she isn't addicted to cosmetic surgery and has not gone under the knife in two years.

'I don't think you should ever be ashamed of something that makes you feel good. My goal is to look plastic, not even real. I am dying to do more surgery,' she said.

Extensive: Tara's past procedures include five breast augmentations, six nose jobs and endless rounds of Botox and filler

She said that while others choose exercise or day trips to the beach to make themselves happy, she chooses surgery.

'By me doing these types of procedures, I am not hurting anyone, I am not saying to people that they should go out and get things done to them, I am simply doing something for myself that makes me feel good,' she added.

Tara said she's working out when she can travel to Turkey to see her surgeon in the near future.
Jason Biggs and his wife, Jenny Mollen, celebrated 14 years of wedded bliss.

The American Pie actor wrote a sweet message on Instagram to his one and only, ' In 14 years, my dreams have changed a lot. But the woman in them has very much stayed the same. Happy anniversary @jennymollen.'

The 43-year-old actor shared a series of photos of his wife from throughout their relationship.

Happy Anniversary: Jason Biggs and wife Jenny Mollen shared sweet anniversary messages on social media marking their 14th anniversary

Smitten: The two met on the set of the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Girl in 2007, and married in 2008

Among the anniversary Instagram posts: a photo of Biggs displaying their cake that had brown icing, along with an array of multi-colored flowers made of icing.

'14 years! I love you Staby,' it read on the top of the cake in sweet pink icing.

In the caption, she referenced their Earth Day wedding: 'What screams happy Earth Day anniversary more than a flower garden you can f**k? Love you Jason!'

The two met on the set of the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Girl in 2007 and fell head over heels in love.

They married nine months later in 2008.

Jenny described their whirlwind courtship in her own Instagram post.

Sweet treat: Biggs snuggled up next to their anniversary cake in one of the Instagram photos

No frills: Jenny, an actress turned author, described their no-frills wedding, writing '14 years ago, two people who'd known each other for only 9 months drove to a Calabasas FedEx Kinkos in their pajamas and got married'

'14 years ago, two people who'd known each other for only 9 months drove to a Calabasas FedEx Kinkos in their pajamas and got married.' she wrote.

'Who knows if that FedEx was even real or a figment of our imaginations or if the woman who married us was a licensed justice of the piece (sic) or just some down on her luck actress looking to make a quick 300 bucks.'

The Crazy, Stupid, Love actress continued, 'We may never know if our union is truly recognized by the state of California or if what happened that Earth Day wasn't just some psychedelic mushroom trip but what has come out of it has been mind bending, life altering and nothing short of a miracle. Happy Anniversary, Jason f***ing Biggs. Thank you for taking this trip w me.'

Love and marriage: The happy couple welcomed sons, Sid, in 2014 and Lazlo a few years later, in 2017

Jenny was a busy actress until around 2017, when she pulled back from onscreen work. The Arizona native now lists herself as a writer. She is the author of I Like You Just The Way I Am, which was turned into a TV series in which she starred in 2016.

Her latest book, City Of Likes, will be released June 14.

On her social media post, the author added a playful post script, '(Ps. Do you think this is a cute pic of you? My editors said no. But I really want to use it in the book. I know you sort of have only half your neck but I insisted you would be fine with it. As a precaution I figured this would be a good way to gage your thoughts. So.... what do you think?'

Book cover: In her anniversary message the best selling author said she'd like to use this picture in her upcoming book City of Likes and asks her husband 'So.... what do you think?'

The years seem to have been anything but boring for the couple. They welcomed sons, Sid, in 2014 and Lazlo a few years later, in 2017.

While Jenny has been writing books, Jason has been busy working in front of and behind the camera.

The New Jersey native is the host and executive producer of the reality show Jason Biggs' Cash at Your Door, in which he makes families work together through a series of tests to win $25 thousand. He's starring in the upcoming holiday film Best. Christmas. Ever.
As per the report by Screen Rant, Netflix is said to have canceled plans for a sequel to "Bright", starring Will Smith. "Bright" is a Netflix original film released in 2017.

The film, directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis, follows a detective (Smith) and his Orc companion (Joel Edgerton) as they try to retrieve a powerful wand before the wicked monsters that inhabit their version of Earth.

"Bright", per Screen Rant, was not well received by industry critics, garnering only a 27% Rotten Tomatoes critics score, but it was a hit with viewers, receiving an 83% audience rating.

In January 2018, a month after the first film's release, the sequel was confirmed, Complex reported.

According to a recent tweet from Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw, Netflix has "abandoned" its plans for "Bright 2". Shaw was tweeting an article about Smith's National Geographic film being delayed due to the now-famous "Oscars slap" incident with Chris Rock.

While Shaw mentioned "Bright 2's" cancellation as a footnote to his tweet, the reporter stated that it has nothing to do with Smith's "Oscars slap".

NatGeo has delayed the start of production on its big Will Smith show following the Slap. But it's still happening.



Netflix has also abandoned plans to make a sequel to Brright, but that is unrelated to the incident.@chrispalmeri https://t.co/rj5T5RNc3y  Lucas Shaw (@Lucas_Shaw) April 21, 2022

Some Projects of Smith Were Either Delayed or Abandoned Due to the Slapping Incident

Complex, citing the Bloomberg report in Shaw's tweet, said Smith's National Geographic film that has been delayed due to the now-famous "Oscars slap" is the nature series "Pole to Pole." The actor's journeys to the South and North Poles were intended to be documented in the series. "Pole to Pole" would be Smith's third NatGeo series, following "One Strange Rock" in 2018 and "Welcome to Earth" in 2021. Production will now begin in the fall, rather than next month.

Read More: Will Smith and Chris Rock Best Memes for Oscars 2022

It was said that Smith's projects with Netflix, such as the action film "Fast and Loose," have also been delayed. However, "The Council," a criminal biopic on Netflix, as well as another installment of "Bad Boys," appear to be moving forward,

Complex said the reason for the cancellation of "Bright 2" has yet to be revealed. Perhaps the streaming service wasn't pleased with how far the project had progressed since it was first announced. It's also likely that Netflix's recent subscriber loss has made "Bright 2" a casualty. However, until more information is released, the film's cancellation remains a matter of conjecture.

So What Exactly Is the So-Called Smith's 'Oscars Slap'?

Good to Know mentioned that Oscars is one of the most watched and cherished evenings of the year, where Hollywood's elite walk the red carpet and then take their seats to find out who captivated the Academy in this year's film offerings.

Smith came to the stage and slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith didn't seem thrilled by the comedian's comment that Jada's shaved hairdo reminded him of the classic film character G.I. Jane. Since 2018, Jada has been vocal about her hair loss condition, Alopecia.

While Smith won his first Oscar for his latest film King Richard, as per CNET, he has been banned from the Oscars for 10 years because of the slap.

Related Article: Apple TV+, Netflix Abandon Biopic Plans for Oscar Winner Will Smith
Lucciana Beynon has become one of Australia's biggest modelling exports over the last 12 months.

And now the 20-year-old has flaunted her curves for UK lingerie brand Pour Moi.

The glamorous model, who is the daughter of wealthy Australian Travis 'The Candyman' Beynon, wore pieces from the India Loves x Pour Moi edit and Pour Moi's Parisienne range.

Glamour: The Candyman's daughter Lucciana Beynon stuns in a lingerie campaign for UK brand Pour Moi

The brunette beauty looked sensational as she posed up a storm in the racy campaign.

Lucciana is a favourite among swimwear brands, and even walked the runway at Miami Swim Week.

She's also promoted brands like Lahana Activewear and boasts 150,000 Instagram followers.

It comes after Lucciana went public with former Love Island UK star Wes Nelson, 23, on Valentine's Day.

Stunning: The brunette beauty looked sensational as she posed up a storm in the campaign

She posted a photo on Instagram of herself kissing Wes on a balcony alongside the text 'mi amour', which translates to 'my love'.

The couple later went for dinner at Aqua Shard, on level 31 of The Shard in London.

Lucciana looked spectacular in a leopard-print dress, opted for a glossy makeup palette and styled her raven hair loosely.

The genetically blessed couple are rarely seen on social media together, and prefer to keep things private.

Style: The glamorous model wore pieces from the India Loves x Pour Moi edit and Pour Moi's Parisienne range

Despite only going 'Instagram official' recently, the pair have actually been an item since April last year.

'Wes met Lucciana in Dubai and it wasn't long before they started spending more time together,' a source told MailOnline at the time.

'Friends say they really get on and something may progress between them, especially as they continue to hang out together in London.

'Lucciana supports Wes' music career while she has ambitious plans with her modelling, they definitely inspire each other to do well.'

Lucciana's father Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon made his millions in the tobacco business, but is also well-known for his playboy ways and hosting extravagant parties at his lavish 15-bedroom mansion on the Gold Coast.
Ewan McGregors wedding in California this weekend was always going to be difficult for his betrayed ex-wife, Eve Mavrakis.

The French production designers discomfort has, however, been worsened by a new heartbreak, I hear.

Eve, 55, is understood to have split up with her long-term boyfriend, the Hollywood film composer Jonathan Elias, 66.

Eve, 55, is understood to have split up with her long-term boyfriend, the Hollywood film composer Jonathan Elias, 66

The Trainspotting star, 51, who has four children with Eve, met actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 37, on the set of U.S. crime drama Fargo

Eve and Jonathan really enjoyed each others company but sadly it didnt work out and they have parted ways, a friend tells me.

Elias, who collaborated with the likes of Sting and Sinead OConnor on his most recent album, met Eve four years ago through a mutual pal. She confirmed their romance to me last summer after they enjoyed a magical holiday in Lake Como, Italy. It was her first relationship since McGregor left her in 2017 after 22 years of marriage.

The Trainspotting star, 51, who has four children with Eve, met actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 37, on the set of U.S. crime drama Fargo. Photographs of the Star Wars actor kissing Winstead in a London restaurant had shocked his family and fans.

Ewans model daughter Clara later publicly described Winstead as a piece of trash and called her father an a******e. Clara, 26, subsequently made peace with her stepmother-to-be, apologising for her comments and congratulating her on the birth of her first child with the Scottish actor last summer. She described her newly born half-brother, Laurie, as the greatest gift.

By the time McGregors divorce was finalised in 2020, he had reportedly agreed to pay Eve 40,000 a month and share royalties from his movies.

Both Eve and Elias declined to comment.

The smart set's talking about... Josh and Delilah's baby news

Known for his rhymes about growing up in London, aristocratic rapper Josh de Lisser will soon have a new experience to provide inspiration: fatherhood.

Josh, 32  whose late stepfather the Marquess of Bute sold one of his stately homes, Dumfries House near Cumnock, Ayrshire, to Prince Charles for 45 million  tells me his girlfriend, Delilah Austin, 24, is expecting their first child  a girl.

Josh, 32, tells me his girlfriend, Delilah Austin, 24, is expecting their first child

Were very excited, he tells me. Its been the best surprise ever.

Delilah showed off her bump on an outing with Joshs sister, Game of Thrones actress Jazzy de Lisser, and family friend Cara Delevingne.

TV's Julia gets back in a bikini

The 51-year-old TV presenter has proudly put on a bikini again

Julia Bradbury spoke movingly of her reconstruction surgery after cancer in the Mail on Sundays You magazine last weekend, revealing that her mother had persuaded her to see her new breast as beautiful.

Now, the 51-year-old TV presenter has proudly put on a bikini again. I had no idea what life after a mastectomy would be like, says Bradbury, whos on holiday in Mauritius. I feel incredibly grateful that some things have gone my way. I was fortunate to be able to have immediate reconstruction after my breast was removed containing a 6cm tumour. Nothing prepares you for the shock and impact . . . and yet here I am wearing a bikini again.

Bradbury, who has three young children with property developer husband Gerard Cunningham, previously said of her new breast: I looked at it in my wardrobe mirror and it looked like a Plasticine boob.

William's chum faces driving ban

Hugh van Cutsem, whose daughter Grace memorably put her fingers in her ears on the Buckingham Palace balcony when she was a bridesmaid at Prince William and Kate Middletons wedding, is in trouble with the law.

I hear he faces a driving ban after being caught speeding at 89mph in a 60mph zone on a single carrriageway.

The royal pal, 47, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was clocked driving his high-powered Audi RS6 in Ickburgh, Norfolk

The royal pal, 47, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was clocked driving his high-powered Audi RS6 in Ickburgh, Norfolk, and pleaded guilty to the offence at the local magistrates court last month. This week a court date was fixed for June, when he faces disqualification.

William was an usher when van Cutsem, pictured, married Rose Astor in 2005 and is godfather to Grace.

Mrs May's 400k for six speeches

Theresa May continues to prove that former prime ministers can make a fortune from public speaking, even when theyre not necessarily known for their captivating addresses.

The MP has just recorded in the Register of Members Interests that she raked in a staggering 404,800  for only 40 hours work.

The fee, from the Cambridge Speaker Series in the U.S., was for delivering six speeches.

She was also paid the cost of her accomodation and flights, worth 3,400. It takes her total speech earnings in the three years since she left No 10 to well over 2 million.

She might catch up with moneybags Tony Blair if she carries on like this!

Sting sang Dont Stand So Close To Me but his wife, Trudie Styler, appeared to enjoy a close encounter with Eighties heart-throb Charles Dance.

After lunch at the Chelsea Arts Club, Game of Thrones star Dance, 75, cradled his friend Trudies face between his hands as he puckered up for a kiss.

After lunch at the Chelsea Arts Club, Game of Thrones star Charles Dance, 75, cradled his friend Trudies face between his hands as he puckered up for a kiss.

Trudie, 67, then left in a chauffeur-driven car while Dance returned to the club. The pair both appeared in Paris Connections, a 2010 film adaptation of a Jackie Collins novel. Dances girlfriend is Italian film producer Alessandra Alma Masi, 53.

Here's a three-pipe problem: why do objects keep disappearing from five-star hotels where Sherlock star Amanda Abbington was a guest?

I stayed in the Corinthia hotel [in London] for two nights and it was all-expenses-paid, so I just went nuts, and stole things, admits the actress, 48, who played Watsons wife, Mary, in the hit BBC drama.

I tend to steal things on film sets and . . . Its fine though, isnt it? I take small things like shampoos. Ive taken the vase before . . . it was a tiny one.

If I go into a bar somewhere abroad and theres a really nice glass, Ill have that away. Is that bad?'

London has lost its hold on hypnotist and self-help guru Paul McKenna, 58, whos put his velvet-swagged home in the capital on the market for just under 5 million, I can reveal.

The news will surprise his fans because earlier this year he gushed about wanting to return to the most happening city in the world with his wife, Kate, 47. After a decade spent in America, he said real friends were hard to find in Los Angeles.

Like a lot of people, Paul and Kate want to move to the country, one of their friends explains. They are looking in the Home Counties, but will probably keep a place in town, too.

The four-bedroom house is in a cobbled mews in Kensington, West London.

Head chef at Michelin-starred restaurant The Ledbury, Brett Graham has come up with an odd way to make his revamped Notting Hill venue stand out from the crowd  growing mushrooms outside the ladies loos.

From a large moisture-controlled cabinet, diners can pick from a range of fashionable fungi including lions mane, grey oysters and shiitakes. As a result of this and other opulent offerings, the price of a tasting menu has been elevated from 165 to 185.

Theres one for every guest, Graham gushes, adding: We let them choose their own and roast it for them.

Sounds like a fun-guy . . .

Shunning offers for her memoirs, George Harrisons widow Olivia has instead penned a book of verse dedicated to the late Beatle. The American, 73, says the collection, Came The Lightening, will feature 20 poems, marking the 20th year since the Something writers passing. It wont come cheap, at a hefty 285 for one of the 1,000 copies. Fans who invest will, though, receive a bookmark fashioned from the wood of a felled oak tree from the grounds of Friar Park, the couples home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Kate Rothschild split from Ben Goldsmith was bitter, but she has remained best friends with his sister, Jemima.

And to prove it, Kates appointed her as a godparent of her nine-month-old son. Kate is one of my favourite people in the world and I am so happy to be Arthurs godmother, Jemima tells me.

Arthurs father is entrepreneur Paul Forkan, 32. Kate, 39, has two teenage sons with Ben and also had a daughter, Iris, who was tragically killed aged 15 in a quad bike accident in 2019.
Thandiwe Newton reveals she's in hospital after injuring her foot.

The actress, 49, took to her Instagram stories on Friday from the emergency room in the hospital, where she told how she'd hurt herself by getting glass in her foot.

Her ordeal comes amid reports that she's separating from her husband of 24 years Ol Parker and that she's heading into rehab.

Ouch! Thandiwe Newton reveals she's in hospital after injuring her foot (pictured last month)

Thandiwe uploaded a picture of a man putting a blanket over an elderly woman, captioning the snap: 'Witnessing tender moment between mother and son.'

She then went on to explain why she was in the hospital, adding: 'In ER 'cause I got some stupid bit of glass in my foot.'

The Crash star concluded her post, adding: 'ouch though'.

Trouble in paradise? Her ordeal comes amid reports that she's separating from her husband of 24 years Ol Parker and that she's heading into rehab (pictured together in 2018)

It comes after it was alleged she has separated from her husband and is likely headed to rehab, according to a new report.

The report came four days after Thandiwe denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum. She has since been replaced in the role by Salma Hayek.

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'.

Injury: The actress, 49, took to her Instagram stories on Friday from the emergency room in the hospital, where she told how she'd hurt herself by getting glass in her foot

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.

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.'

Oh no: It comes after it was alleged she has separated from her husband and is likely headed to rehab, according to a new report (pictured in 2019)

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.'

The insider added that Thandiwe 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.

Woes: The report came four days after Thandiwe denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum . She has since been replaced in the role by Salma Hayek (pictured in 2019)

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.
Sam Frost has denied split rumours with her Australian Survivor star boyfriend, Jordie Hansen, 26.

The 33-year-old former Home and Away actress shared a picture of the pair together in bed on Saturday.

It comes after an insider told Daily Mail Australia on Friday that the pair had split.

Still going strong: Ex-Home and Away star Sam Frost, 33, denied split rumours on Saturday as she shared a selfie from bed with Survivor star boyfriend Jordie Hansen, 26

In the image, Sam and Jordie can be seen next to one another as he flashes the peace sign.

A source claimed to Daily Mail Australia that the former Home and Away actress, 33, ended things with the Australian Survivor: Blood V Water star, 26, after his ex-girlfriend publicly claimed he'd begun dating Sam just days after they broke up.

'Sam and Jordie have split. His ex appeared on a podcast and it upset Sam,' an insider alleged to Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

Split claims: It comes after an insider told Daily Mail Australia on Friday that the pair had split

'Jordie was on and off with two ex-girlfriends before he got with Sam,' the source added.

Jordie's former partner, Ash, told So Dramatic! this week that just two days after she and Jordie had split earlier this year, Jordie debuted his new romance with Sam.

The two had been high school sweethearts and had an on-off relationship since they were 17.

Daily Mail Australia had reached out to Sam for comment.

Road trip: Sam and Jordie, who is a landscaper from Victoria, confirmed their romance on April 4th by sharing videos and photos of themselves on a road trip from Sydney to the NSW South Coast

Sam and Jordie, who is a landscaper from Victoria, confirmed their romance on April 4th by sharing videos and photos of themselves on a road trip from Sydney to the NSW South Coast.

Shortly after, Jordie shared a series of pictures of Sam as the pair travelled together in his car.

'Are you kidding? STOP IT This is a win for the Everyman,' he began his caption, clearly referring to how he recently scored such a catch.

'They said it wasn't possible. You're a dreamer. Don't let anyone tell you you can't. Shoot for the stars kids,' he added.

Sam had earlier revealed that she was dating a friend of her younger brother, Alex, 26.

'I am seeing someone, it's really fun and I'm really happy, he treats me really well,' Sam told on The Herald Sun earlier this month.
Megan Fox took to Instagram on Friday to wish her fiance Machine Gun Kelly a happy 32nd birthday in a gushing Instagram post.

The Transformers star, 35, posted a photo of the rapper giving her a piggyback ride, and called him the love of her life as well as 'the most unique human I have ever met.'

The birthday wishes come after the cameras caught an awkward moment between the couple at the 2022 Daily Front Row Awards, where Megan turned her head away from her fiance as he attempted to kiss her.

Sweet: Megan Fox took to Instagram on Friday to wish her fiance Machine Gun Kelly a happy 32nd birthday in a gushing Instagram post

The actress started out her loving tribute writing a personal anecdote about the Rap Devil hitmaker being born too early.

'Today your mom told us that you were born a month early (you were SO meant to be a Gemini, you charming mercurial Svengali) and as a baby you were both "cuddly and fussy at the same time" and I couldnt have imagined a more apt description of you.'

The star went on, joking, 'EST please make Colson a shirt that says cuddly and fussy.'

Poetic: The Transformers star, 35, posted a photo of the rapper giving her a piggyback ride, and called him the love of her life as well as 'the most unique human I have ever met'

Date night: The pair enjoyed a birthday dinner in at Catch LA in Hollywood to celebrate

Gorgeous: Megan stunned in a black mini dress for the dinner, adding knee-high strapped criss-cross heels to her ensemble

Birthday boy: MGK sported a daring ensemble with an animal print two-piece, which included mesh black sleeves

She then heaped praises on her other half, writing a poetic message that singled out his best qualities.

'The world has no idea what a gentle, beautiful heart you have. How generous and how thoughtful you are How absurdly strange and smart and witty you are'

'You are by far the most unique human I have ever met. And if I could get the boy who has everything something special for his birthday - I would lift the veil off of their eyes so they could see what I see,' she went on.

Awkward! The birthday wishes come after the cameras caught an awkward moment between the couple at the 2022 Daily Front Row Awards, where Megan turned her head away from her fiance as he attempted to kiss her

Birthday boy: MGK also took to his Instagram on his special day, positing a variety of photos, with the first one being a snap of him and Megan surrounded by pink flowers and balloons

'Youre such a gorgeous soul. Im honored to love you and to be the recipient of your love. Happy Birthday love of my life  ' she wrapped-up her sweet caption.

In the sweet photo Fox is seen with a bright smile as she holds on to MGK - born Colson Baker - while wearing clear platform heels and a black hat with the graphic of the letter C in pink.

Meanwhile the rapper-turned-rocker dons a studded shirt, blue jeans and a pink hat.

Sweet: In another snap he was seen doing face masks with his daughter Casie Colson Baker, 12, as he sported a pink headband

Red hot ride: The rapper also showed off his toys, including a red hot vintage Ford Mustang

Sweet ride: He continued to display his love of cars, posing with another classy vintage ride as he flashed a peace sign

The lovely tribute comes after fans speculated that there might be trouble in paradise between the two stars, after a video of them surfaced from the red carpet that showed Megan dodging her fiance's kiss.

The couple - who got engaged in January 2022 in Puerto Rico - were standing off to the side of the red carpet with Megan's stylist Maeve Reilly nearby, who was being honored with the Style Curator Award.

Megan had a stony look on her face while MGK was smiling and kept her face expressionless as she not so subtly dodged his kiss until he eventually gave up and just smiled in surprise.

Two-wheel fun: MGK showed off more of his favorite things, posting a photo with a sleek purple rim bike

New tattoo? The Rap Devil hitmaker also added a photo of a tattoo on the top of his wrist that read 'bulletproof'

MGK also took to his Instagram on his special day, positing a variety of photos, with the first one being a snap of him and Megan surrounded by pink flowers and balloons.

'Grateful for the birthday love thank you all so much for rockin with me and my music,' he wrote in the caption.

In another snap he was seen doing face masks with his daughter Casie Colson Baker, 12, as he sported a pink headband.

Cute kitty: In a cute clip he lip-synched to his song, Make Up Sex, while playing around with a cat who wore a striped sweater

Happy: The birthday boy appeared to be in good spirits, flashing a bright smile and showing off his pink manicure

The pink-haired rapper also showed off his toys, including a red hot vintage Ford Mustang.

He continued to display his love of cars, posing with another classy vintage ride as he flashed a peace sign in another snap.

MGK showed off more of his favorite things, posting a photo with a sleek purple rim bike.

The hitmaker also added a photo of a tattoo on the top of his wrist that read 'bulletproof.'

In another cute clip he lip-synched to his song, Make Up Sex, while playing around with a cat who wore a striped sweater.

His good friend Travis Barker, 46, also wished him a happy birthday via Instagram Stories, posting a black and white photo of the two of them flipping off the camera
He's a star of the screen, big and small, with a growing family and a mezcal business to attend to with his co-founding partner Bryan Cranston.

And with the wails of his newborn son cutting into his sleep schedule, Aaron Paul decided to take his four-year-old daughter, Story, out for a walk around the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Friday afternoon.

During their time outside, the Breaking Bad star elicited a number of big beaming smiles from his little girl when he picked her up and put her on his shoulders for a portion of their walk.

Family man: Aaron Paul, 42, took a brief break from caring for his newborn son to take daughter Story, four, out for a walk in their Los Feliz neighborhood in Los Angeles

Paul, 42, stepped out with Story dressed in black jeans and a brown patterned cardigan sweater over a black t-shirt.

He also donned black leather shoes and had his brown hair cut to a grown out stubble, along with a manicured beard and mustache.

From the looks of his infectious smile, Paul was soaking in all the unconditional love that he shares with Story, who looked comfy in black pants with a matching sweater.

Story sporadically yelled with excitement as they marched together along the suburban streets.

Fixated: Story appeared to be having fun playing with her dad's hair during their stroll

On the go: The father-daughter duo made their way around the neighborhood

The acclaimed actor dished about the newest member of his family during a visit to The Late Late Show With James Corden on Thursday.

His guest spot on the late night talk show was part of the promotional push for his new science fiction thriller film, Dual, which also stars Karen Gillan, Theo James, Beulah Koale, Maija Paunio, Sanna-June Hyde, Andrei Alen and Kris Gummerus.

Written and directed by Riley Stearns, who's best known for his work on Faults (2014) and The Art Of Self-Defense (2019), the storyline follows a terminally ill woman named Sara who opts to clone herself as a way to spare her family from the pain of losing her.

But after a drastic and unexpected turn of events, Sara's health dramatically improves, leading to a fight to the death between her and her clone.

Gushing fan: Paul also shared about his fanboy reaction to Nicolas Cage on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Thursday

Fanboy: The Break Bad star was unabashed about his love for Cage

His idol: Paul has been a longtime fan of Nicolas Cage, who's currently out promoting his new film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

While he was there to promote Dual, Paul had ulterior motives to make an appearance on the talk show: to sit alongside fellow guest Nicolas Cage.

It turns out Paul is a huge Nicolas Cage fan, and he's not afraid to let everyone know that he's long been an unabashed fan.

'Got to hang with the one and only Nicolas Cage this evening with the incredible @j_corden,' the El Camino star gushed in the caption of a photo from their appearance together on Thursday.

He went on to ask his fans and followers to tune in if they want to 'hear me talk all things @dualmovieofficial and my obsession with Cage. I may look calm in this photo but on the inside I was freaking out.'

Tribute: The dressing room at The Late Late Show was full of Nicolas Cage memorabilia

Paying homage: The Nicolas Cage memorabilia at the studio included full-body cutouts, a pillow, blanket, movie posters

Paul had a big smile on his face when he grabbed hold of a Nicolas Cage cutout from his film Raising Arizona

Paul and his wife Lauren Parsekian, who will be celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary on May 26, welcomed their son Ryden about a month ago, and then went public with the baby news in an Instagram post this past Wednesday.

'My little man. Ryden Caspian Paul. So happy you are out in this world you beautiful boy you. I promise to make you proud little guy,' the proud papa began in the caption of a series of snaps of the newborn.

'We have been absorbing this baby boy for the last month and feel it's time to finally share the news of his arrival. We love you endlessly.'

In a sign of their mutual respect and love for each other, Paul asked his Breaking Bad co-star, Bryan Cranston, to be his boy's godfather.

'I asked Bryan on his birthday if he would be our baby's godfather,' he said during the guest spot, before teasing that Cranston initially turned down the offer.

'No, he's very excited, very honored. I love the man to death. He's one of my best friends in the world, and, so yeah, it was just a no-brainer,' he said of Cranston.

The Iconic Series, Breaking Bad is available to stream only on Stan in Australia.

Growing family: Paul went public with the arrival of his newborn son this week

Ryden Caspian Paul looked to be a bit tired in one of the photos his dad proudly displayed
Ben Affleck's rep revealed he has not been active on any dating apps in years, after Selling Sunset's Emma Hernan revealed they matched in 2019.

The clarification that he had been off Raya for at least two years ahead of his rekindling with his now-fiancee Jennifer Lopez, last April, comes after the 30-year-old spoke about their flirty online correspondence on the fifth episode of her hit Netflix reality series' fifth season.

'Raya has confirmed that he has not been an active member for several years,' the 49-year-old Gone Girl's rep confirmed to People.

False: Ben Affleck shut down rumors that he matched with Emma Hernan on dating app Raya, with his rep saying he has 'not been an active member for several years'; Pictured in 2021

Hernan claimed she connected with the Deep Water actor on the app during a conversation with costar Chrishell Stause.

The real estate agent alleged the two-time Oscar winner asked her 'to grab  coffee a few times.'

'He may or may not have been texting me,' she said coyly, before revealing he used a 'very sweet' 'opening pickup line' to get her attention.

What could have been: Hernan, 30, claimed she connected with Affleck, 49, on the elite dating app before he rekindled with fiancee Jennifer Lopez, 52, in April 2021; Seen on April 16, 2022

The reality star, who made it clear their messages happened 'right before' he reconnected with Lopez gushed: 'We have the Boston connection.'

The women initially began talking about the producer after Stause mentioned he went 'viral because he sent' something to another woman on the app, which has been dubbed as 'celebrity Tinder.'

They were referring to a TikTok, made by actress Nivine Jay, who shared a video of herself recalling the time she unmatched with Affleck because she thought his profile was fake last May.

During a conversation with pal Selling Sunset costar Chrishell Stause on the fifth episode of their hit Netflix reality series, the real estate agent alleged the two-time Oscar winner asked her 'to grab  coffee a few times' (Affleck pictured earlier this month)

So in love! Affleck and fiancee Jennifer Lopez recently announced their their second engagement, after getting back together nearly 18 years after they called off their wedding; pictured in February

'Thinking of the time I matched with Ben Affleck on Raya and thought it was fake so I unmatched him and he send me a video on Instagram,' Jay captioned the video of her looking upset.

Footage then panned to a recording the father-of-three sent her, in which he said: 'Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It's me!'

Raya is often described as the celebrity version of Tinder, as the dating app requires a membership and a vetting process, which is enticing to big movie stars like Affleck.

The app - which launched in 2015 - describes itself as being 'an exclusive dating and networking platform for people in creative industries.'

Happiness: The couple's relationship came as a shock to fans, heating up again nearly 17 years after their failed engagement; seen September 2021 in NYC

Making a splash! Lopez revealed she was naked in the bathtub when Affleck proposed to her for the second time with a emerald-cut green diamond

Jay, the woman who posted the video of Affleck, later clarified that she didn't believe Affleck was being a 'creep' when he reached out to her on Instagram after she unmatched the star on Raya, thinking he was an imposter.

'I'm seeing a lot of comments calling him a creep and l don't think that's fair. l wasn't making fun of him in the video,' Jay claimed to E! News in an interview. 'l was making fun of myself for thinking he was a catfish and it was just supposed to be funny.'

The video sparked a feverish response from his fans, while helping to launch her to five minutes of stardom, as she became the subject of much speculation in the hours after she posted her TikTok video.

Affleck has since become engaged to Lopez for the second time, nearly 18 years after they called off their first wedding.

Click and tell: Nivine Jay went viral on Monday when she posted a TikTok video about the experience

Membership in Raya costs $7.99 per month, but to join you must be referred by an existing member, and then their application is voted on by a 'membership committee'.

The acceptance rate for Raya membership applications is approximately eight percent. In addition to subscription fees, the company also charges for sponsored placement of user requests.

In 2021, Drew Barrymore revealed she saw 'a lot' of other celebrities on the app, saying: 'It was like looking through an Us Weekly.'

Drew, 46, even revealed how she 'got stood up by a guy who owned a restaurant' admitting that she 'did terribly' on the app.

Other stars rumored to have used the service include Moby, Lily Allen, Cara Delevingne, Raven-Symone, Tommy Lee, Chelsea Handler and Whitney Cummings.
Cillian Murphy stepped back in the past while shooting scenes for his upcoming film Oppenheimer in Los Angeles on Friday.

The actor, 45, was captured making his way around set in a charcoal grey suit with high-waisted pants.

The film's costume designers gave Murphy a light blue button-down shirt to layer underneath the blazer and a short red tie.

Blast from the past: Cillian Murphy stepped back in the past while shooting scenes for his upcoming film Oppenheimer in Los Angeles on Friday

A touch of gray flecked his dark brown hair as production assistants and other crew members moved vigorously around the set.

Murphy wasn't the only big name on set Friday. Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck was also present and accounted for.

Affleck, 46, donned a brown shirt and matching tie, typical of military personnel, and grey slacks as he looked down the street.

Hot set: The actor, 45, was captured making his way around set in a charcoal grey suit with high-waisted pants

Military man: Casey Affleck, 46, donned a brown shirt and matching tie, typical of military personnel, and gray slacks as he looked down the street

He walked in brown loafers and his dark hair was combed over neatly to the right.

Affleck is just the latest in the long line of stars Murphy has been spotted on set with over the last few couple weeks.

Chaplin actor Robert Downey Jr., Mary Poppins Returns actress Emily Blunt, The Martian star Matt Damon and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actor Dane DeHaan have all been on set with the Peaky Blinders actor recently.

Stars on set: A number of stars have been on set in recent days including Robert Downey Jr. (pictured left in 2013) who will play U.S. Secretary of Commerce Lewis Strauss. The Martian star Matt Damon (pictured right in 2021) stepped on set in a military uniform

This doesn't even include Gary Oldman, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Jack Quaid and many others who are also taking on roles in the film.

Oppenheimer is an adaptation of the 2005 book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

It follows Oppenheimer's life while he developed the atomic bomb for the shadowy Manhattan Project during World War II.

His work led to bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a devastating attack that killed thousands and put a final exclamation point on the second World War.

Oppenheimer's loving wife: Emily Blunt, pictured 2021, will play Oppenheimer's loving wife and biologist Katherine Oppenheimer Vissering

Working hard: Christopher Nolan, pictured on set, is directing the picture from an adapted screenplay he wrote himself

After America dropped the bombs, Oppenheimer campaigned for nuclear weapons controls to avert a potential nuclear war with the former Soviet Union.

Oppenheimer died in 1967 from throat cancer after years of smoking cigarettes. He was 62 years old.

Christopher Nolan is directing the picture from an adapted screenplay he wrote himself.

The current release date, set by Universal Pictures, is July 21, 2023
Lila Moss revealed she has an Apple AirTag attached to her insulin pump reader so she doesn't lose it as she candidly discussed her type one diabetes with Vogue.

The model, 19, opened up about her condition during a segment on Vogue's In The Bag YouTube series on Thursday, while revealing her handbag essentials.

Lila also revealed she carries sugar tablets as well as the device to control her blood sugar levels with her at all time.

Safe: Lila Moss revealed she has an Apple AirTag attached to her insulin pump reader so she doesn't lose it as she candidly discussed her type one diabetes with Vogue

While starring on Vogue's YouTube channel, she pulled out many items including ones to support her condition.

She said: 'I have some sugar tablets, in case my blood sugar goes low.'

'I'm diabetic so I have this which controls a pod on my leg, which gives me insulin. This is very important to keep in my bag, it comes with me everywhere'

The star - worried her essential device could get lost - added: 'I even have an apple air-tag to follow it around with my phone.'

Star: Lila has previously been praised for her ground-breaking decision to wear her insulin pump on the runway (pictured during MFW's Versace show with device visible on her thigh)

Lila has previously been praised for her ground-breaking decision to wear her insulin pump on the runway.

Speaking about her condition, she told The Kit: 'I think not many people know that I have diabetes.

'It's not visible from the outside, so no one would really know just by looking at you.'

Lila showed off her insulin pump as she strutted down the catwalk at the Versace special event during Milan Fashion Week this year wearing a swimsuit that revealed the device on her leg.

Sugar tablets: The model, 19, opened up about her condition during a segment on Vogue's In The Bag YouTube series on Thursday, while revealing her handbag essentials

Type 1 diabetes causes the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood to become too high.

It happens when your body cannot produce enough of a hormone called insulin, which controls blood glucose.

You need daily injections of insulin to keep your blood glucose levels under control.

Elsewhere during the chat with Vogue Lila spoke about her close relationship with her 'fun' mother Kate Moss as she revealed she carries an old polaroid of them together in her bag.

Family: Elsewhere during the chat with Vogue Lila spoke about her close relationship with her 'fun' mother Kate Moss as she revealed she carries an old polaroid of them together in her bag

The daughter of catwalk veteran Kate, 48, spoke on the close bond she has with her mother, while showing fans a throwback polaroid picture from when she was a baby.

Holding up the sentimental polaroid, Lila said: 'I think this was on my mother's 30th birthday, I could be wrong but I look quite young and she looks ready to go out. I think it's really cute.'

The blonde beauty went on to show their close bond by saying: 'If I could fit one person in my bag it would probably be my mum, she's fun and good at advice so I could ask her anything.'

Lila has taken the next step on a path well trodden by her supermodel mother by landing her first ever cover shoot for global fashion bible Vogue.

The young model was in familiar territory during the shoot, with Steven MeIsel a regular collaborator with Kate, who has herself covered Vogue on 43 occasions.

Speaking about growing up in the spotlight, Lila confessed that she was shocked by the attention surrounding her mother, admitting that she was surprised her friends even knew who she was.

She explained: 'I went to secondary school and everyone was like, 'Oh, your mum's Kate Moss!' You don't really have a filter when you're that young and I was like, 'How do you know who she is? She's old! She's old and boring!''

Adding more about her relationship with her mother, Lila told the fashion bible: 'I was quite protective over my mum.

Mother and daughter: The daughter of catwalk veteran Kate, 48, spoke on the close bond she has with her mother, while showing fans the throwback polaroid picture (seen in 2019)

'All my mum's friends say that I was so scary as a child. I was quite serious. But also, I would always copy her. She would always have her head down and not look at the camera, so I'd always put my head down and not look at the camera. I still do it.'

Yet Lila revealed that with time she's come to realise just how influential her mother is in the fashion world, saying: 'In the last three or four years, I've realised that her style is actually really cool. I'm having to admit it now.'

The teenager went on to note that while she steals Kate's Saint Laurent coats and her Chanel 2.55 bags, her supermodel mother often swipes her Adidas tracksuits.

Lila explained: 'She doesn't have a good trackies selection. She only has pyjamas. She probably would hate me saying that. She doesn't want anyone to know she wears trackies!'

A chip off the old catwalk! Lila has followed in her supermodel mother's footsteps after landing her first modelling gig aged 15 (pictured at the MFW Versace show)

Lila nabbed her first modelling gig at the age of 15 - nabbing a campaign for Marc Jacobs Beauty - at just a year older than her mother was when she entered the business.

Yet despite her mother being one of the famous models in the business, Lila revealed that Kate was keen to deter her from following in her footsteps.

'My mum always put me off [modelling],' Lila said. 'She was always like, 'If you wanna do it, you can, but I wouldn't recommend it.''

Despite her mother's apprehension, Lila insisted that she doesn't feel anxious at the thought that modelling success could bring the fame from which her parents tried to protect her.

She mused: 'Not really. I've seen it first-hand, so I'm much more able to cope with it. I've had to say no to people. But I'm always nice!'

Lila's father is journalist Jefferson Hack, with whom Kate was in a relationship in the early Noughties.

Jefferson and Kate - who dated from 2001 to 2004 with Lila being born in 2002 - have an amicable relationship and would ensure their daughter spent a regular amount of time with each of them in her childhood.
Charlotte Crosby has discussed her high-risk pregnancy after announcing she is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Jake Ankers.

The pregnant Geordie Shore star, 31, beamed from ear-to-ear as she held up the ultrasound scan in the post, while wearing a white bikini top as she soaked up the sun during her recent Dubai getaway.

In her caption, she revealed how she had been staring at the photo 'every single second of the day' and had been 'nervous' following her ectopic pregnancy in 2016 - after falling pregnant by her ex-boyfriend Gaz Beadle.

Pregnancy: Charlotte Crosby has discussed her high-risk pregnancy after announcing she is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Jake Ankers

The TV personality wrote: 'Our little baby. While we were on holiday I literally stared at my scan pictures every single second of the day, like thats our baby! Growing inside of me.

'Im holding up my absolute favourite scan picture! going into my scans was completely new to me, I was so nervous for so many reasons after my EP Im high risk for complications.

'BUT seeing the baby in the correct place with a healthy beating heart At our first ever scan was nothing short of a miracle to me and my partner .

Expecting: Revealing how she had been staring at the photo 'every single second of the day', she revealed she had been 'nervous' following her ectopic pregnancy in 2016

'I didnt expect to see much movement at our first ever scan but the baby had other plans, it was like a little acrobat in there turning and spinning and rolling around I was in awe!

'It was the most magical moment and this picture Im holding was right in the middle of one of the impressive tumbles and I just love it! 

'I love how you can see the little tiny shoulders, the cutest little back and he/shes little legs stretched out. I could sit here all day trying to guess what Im having. What do you guys think boy or girl???'

It comes after Charlotte confirmed her pregnancy in a heartwarming post she shared with her fans on Instagram on Tuesday.

Emotional: The TV personality wrote: 'Our little baby. While we were on holiday I literally stared at my scan pictures every single second of the day, like thats our baby! Growing inside of me'

Her announcement came just weeks after she hinted that she and Jake could get engaged in the future, after he admitted he may propose soon.

In her social media post, she shared the news in a video showing her pregnancy test and also filmed herself telling the happy news to her family.

She penned the caption: 'A moment I wasn't sure would ever be mine is here, it's mine (and Jake's) and i couldn't be happier to be sharing it with you allI'm having a baby.'

In the video, the reality star is seen going for a pregnancy scan where she hears the baby's heartbeat.

Scan: The reality star confirmed her pregnancy in a heartwarming post she shared with her fans on Instagram on Tuesday

Family: In a sweet clip, Charlotte is seen telling her parents, with her mother Letitia bursting into tears as they hugged

She is then seen telling her parents, with her mother Letitia bursting into tears as they hugged.

Letita then tells Charlotte that she and her father Gary were just discussing how happy there daughter has seemed lately as they sat around the table with Jake.

Letita says: 'You just know when you know, don't you Gary?'

'When you know what?' Charlotte asks.

'That it's the right person and you're happy. When we were away this weekend we were talking about, 'it's so nice that she's happy and she's settled and we know this is probably gonna be the right one.''

Love: Charlotte's mother Letitia tells her that she and her father Gary were just discussing how happy there daughter has seemed lately as they sat around the table with Jake

Gary then added: 'I've never known her so happy Jake.'

The rest of the video sees Charlotte and Jake sharing a kiss before she meets members of her extended family on Mother's Day to tell them the good news.

On Tuesday, the star gushed she'd finally found 'the One' with Jake after being 'cheated on' and 'used' by a string of exes.

Speaking in a YouTube Q&A, the star said she's avoided sharing photos of Jake on social media because she doesn't want to be abused by trolls.

She said: 'I've enjoyed getting to know someone and falling in love with someone behind closed doors, without people having their opinions.

Mother-to-be: In another clip from the video, Charlotte is seen looking throughn her sonogram images

Romance: Charlotte filmed herself sharing a kiss with Jake on Mother's Day

Congrats: Charlotte told her family the happy news on Mother's Day

'Without ''Sandra Brown'' saying ''oh not another one, not another one!'' which by the way can I just say right, something I don't like about this comment, if someone has had a few boyfriends, don't make that out to be a negative.

'Because at the end of the day it shows that that person would not stand for s**t, and if that person was being disrespected, they respected themselves enough to say 'I'm getting up and I'm off mate, this is not the life I expected.''

Charlotte continued: 'Not all of them, but a lot of men in my life have turned out to be that said person, in it for the wrong reasons, uses you, cheats on you, not the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

'So those comments, do you want us to be with Stephen f*****g Bear? Just be with one person who was an absolute s******d. I'm not going to settle until I know that this is perfect.

'Until I meet the man of my dreams who treats me nothing less than amazing. Who will treat me who I've treated everyone else who has been in my life.'

Expectant: Charlotte (pictured in an Instagram post shared on April 9) had been keeping her relationship with Jake under wraps

On meeting Jake, she added: 'I can honestly say this, I have never met anyone who has been so amazing. He is everything I've just said there.

'I feel myself getting emotional. Because I've been through all of those s***heads, and all them k*******s and it was all for a reason. It has led me to that happy ever after.'

Charlotte's pregnancy comes after the star was left with compromised fertility when she suffered an ectopic pregnancy in 2016.

The star previously described the extreme pain she was dealing with in the days leading up to being admitted to hospital - all the while posing for photoshoots and recording her fitness DVD believing the pain and bleeding was just a heavy period.

As a result of the ectopic pregnancy, Charlotte's fallopian tube had ruptured and was releasing toxins into her body.

Emotional: In 2016 Charlotte suffered an ectopic pregnancy, forcing doctors to remove part of her fallopian tube and ovary

The reality star had been keeping her boyfriend under wraps on Instagram, but finally made their romance social media official with a clip where she penned: 'Do you no how hard I had to force him to do this. Late to the trend I knoooowwwwwwwww but being late is kinda my thing.'

She then took to Stories to answer some questions from fans, with one saying they thought she was getting proposed to on the holiday.

While Charlotte confirmed she was not yet engaged, her beau said a proposal was coming in 'due course' as she giggled behind the camera.

She also shared an insight into the details of their relationship, revealing that the pair have been together for around seven months.

Over: Charlotte split from videographer Liam Beaumont in August 2021

She then revealed it 'feels like a year the amount of stuff we've already experienced together'.

The pair went public with their romance last year, and have been keeping the relationship under wraps - after her former relationship with Liam Beaumont ended in August 2021.

It was reported she broke up with the hunk, who she started dating in February last year, following a slew of furious arguments. It was also claimed she booted him out of her Newcastle home.

However, Charlotte later insisted their relationship ended on good terms, with the television personality telling MailOnline: 'Me and Liam shared some amazing memories together and the split is amicable.

'We have just realised we are both two very different people. I have learnt so much in this relationship and am thankful that it happened.

Over: Charlotte previously had a turbulent romance with Stephen Bear in 2017 (pictured) and later Joshua Ritchie in 2019

'Were there furious rows? No. Did I kick him out of the house? No. It's sad to see this negativity put on what was a good relationship. So I'd like to take back some control of the narrative, get some truth out there and draw a line under this.'

Suspicions about their split were first sparked among fans when Charlotte removed all images of Liam from her Instagram account.

It was then that reports surfaced regarding the row, with insiders telling publications that a row had descended into chaos and she had ejected him from her home.

Charlotte and Liam started dating in early 2020 after meeting in Dubai during their respective vacations.

The star's colourful love life also included a romance with Geordie Shore co-star Gary Beadle, but the pair split in 2016.

She went onto date Stephen Bear in 2017, and later Joshua Ritchie in 2019.
The Lapsus$ extortion gang is one of the more active hacking groups in 2022. Despite previous arrests, the group didn't stop its rampage within the world wide web.

The group has added yet another one to its list of hacked companies in the form of T-Mobile.

A recent report from Tech Crunch mentioned that the extortion group successfully hacked T-Mobile's servers, gaining information that could negatively affect the company and its customers.

T-Mobile is the seventh company the extortion gang attacked in the past four years following the data breach on software consultancy giant Globant on March 31.

T-Mobile Data Breach Details

According to Tech Crunch's report, Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security first discovered and revealed the security incident after obtaining a week's worth of private chat messages between the extortion group's core members in a private Telegram channel.

The members of the extortion group sent the messages during the week before the arrests of the gang's most active members in March, which included a 16-year-old boy with autism who was said to be the group's leader.

The hackers were said to have gotten access to T-Mobile's servers through compromising employee accounts, either by buying leaked credentials or through social engineering. The credentials Lapsus$ hackers acquired gave them access to the company's internal tools used for managing customers' accounts, which includes Atlas. They then attempted to find T-Mobile accounts associated with people in the FBI and Department of Defense but were blocked by the additional checks placed on these accounts.

Read More: Google Messages Bug May be Draining Your Battery  Is There a Fix?

However, as the hackers were able to access T-Mobile's internal tools, the hacking group could reassign someone's mobile phone number to a device they controlled. This modus operandi, more commonly known as "SIM swapping," allows an attacker to intercept a target's text messages and phone calls, including links sent through SMS for password resets or one-time codes sent for multi-factor authentication, per Krebs on Security.

The hackers were also able to steal at least some of the company's proprietary source code, which consists of more than 30,000 source code repositories.

T-Mobile's Response

Although it has not responded to multiple requests for comment, T-Mobile assured news outlets that "no customer or government information" was accessed during the incident.

"Several weeks ago, our monitoring tools detected a bad actor using stolen credentials to access internal systems that house operational tools software," T-Mobile said in its statement. "The systems accessed contained no customer or government information or other similarly sensitive information, and we have no evidence that the intruder was able to obtain anything of value."

T-Mobile also added that its systems and processes worked as designed, with the intrusion "rapidly shut down and closed off." The company also rendered the compromised credentials, which the hackers used, obsolete, making it harder for Lapsus$ to get in the same way they did this time.

Related Article: T-Mobile Data Breach Victime at Risk For Identity Theft: Here's How to Protect Yourself
Grant Denyer and his wife Chezzi have revealed that their youngest daughter, Sunday, may be communicating with her great grandmother - who is long dead.

The couple made the surprising claim about supernatural activity during their regular podcast It's All True? - explaining that the one-year-old appears to be responding to an unseen presence.

'It's the exact same reaction as if a person walks into a room,' Grant, 44 said.

Spooky: Grant Denyer (right) revealed that their youngest daughter, Sunday (left), may be channelling the child's great grandmother - from beyond the grave

Chezzi added that Sunday says 'Nana' when communicating with the spirit - a word the child has never heard from either parent.

The 41-year-old then explained how 'Nanny' was her own late grandmother's nickname.

To sort out the mystery, the celebrity couple discussed the spooky phenomenon with Tonia Reeves, Australia's Cowgirl Medium.

Family phenomena: Grant explained that the one-year-old appears to be responding to an unseen presence. Chezzi added that Sunday says 'Nana' when communicating with the spirit. Chezzi and Grant are pictured with their daughters

Grant said that Sunday now calls Chezzi 'Nana', instead of Mummy.

Reeves laughed and responded: 'Oh, that is excellent. What a power play from grandma from the other side!'

Only a month ago, Sunday was in recovery following surgery for severe hip dysplasia. Grant later revealed his daughter will have to wear body cast for 12 weeks.

Freaky! Grant said that Sunday now calls Chezzi 'Nana', instead of Mummy

The news brought an outpouring of support from friends and followers for Grant and Chezzi.

The pair married in 2010 and also have two older daughters together; Sailor, 10, and Scout, six.

Grant together with dance partner Lily Cornish, 22, were crowned Dancing with the Stars champions during the finale on April 3.
Toni Collette stars in the new miniseries The Staircase, as Kathleen, the wife of North Carolina crime novelist Michael Peterson, who is convicted was murdering her.

And the 49-year-old actress admitted that at first, she was reluctant to take on the role.

'I was blown away when [I was] asked to play Kathleen, but I did take pause,' she tells this week's issue of Stellar Magazine.

Pause: Toni Collette (pictured) stars in the new miniseries The Staircase, as Kathleen, the wife of North Carolina crime novelist Michael Peterson, who is convicted was murdering her. And the 49-year-old actress admitted that at first, she was reluctant to take on the role

'I questioned the actual purpose of retelling this story of tragic loss and, guilty or not, I certainly didn't want to further fan Michael Peterson's narcissistic flame.'

The Australian star was won over however by the idea that she could be an advocate for the victim.

'When I realised I could help give Kathleen a voice beyond victimhood, I was in' she added.

'I questioned the actual purpose of retelling this story of tragic loss and, guilty or not, I certainly didn't want to further fan Michael Peterson's narcissistic flame' she told Stellar Magazine. Toni is pictured in The Staircase alongside Colin Firth, who plays Peterson

Support: Toni was won over however by the idea that she could be an advocate for the victim. 'When I realised I could help give Kathleen a voice beyond victimhood, I was in' she added

Toni went on to say that the miniseries will delve into the Peterson's marriage, which the 2004 documentary, also called The Staircase, did not.

'We experience much more of Kathleen as a whole person, instead of being objectified as she was in the documentary' she said.

The miniseries examines the Peterson family's travails ahead of Kathleen being found dead at the bottom of a staircase in the family home on December 9, 2001; and the murder allegations against Michael, played by Colin Firth, who authorities said killed his spouse by throwing her down a staircase.

Michael Peterson has continually denied responsibility for his wife's death.

Denials: Michael Peterson (pictured) has continually denied responsibility for his wife's death

History: The miniseries examines the Peterson family's travails ahead of Kathleen (right) being found dead at the bottom of a staircase in the family home on December 9, 2001; and the murder allegations against Michael, who authorities said killed his spouse

He was convicted in her death in 2003, and was re-tried until he eventually accepted an Alford plea in 2017, which enabled him to take a reduced manslaughter sentence while not admitting guilt in his wife's death, and be released from custody.

Following the plea, Michael declared his innocence, saying of the legal move, according to the AP: 'Right now, I can live with this. It's not fair, It's not right. I'm innocent. This deal is not a good one for me... it is a great deal for the district attorney.

'The second most difficult thing I ever did in my life was to sit through that trial and listen to lies, perjury, fake evidence, made-up evidence, withheld evidence, unconstitutional searches so many times, I wanted to jump up and scream, "Liar! This is not right."'

The HBO series The Staircase will stream on BINGE from May 5, 2022.
Tommy Mallet has revealed that he is at risk for developing type two diabetes as he sets his sights on losing weight and enlists a top nutritionist to get healthy.

The former TOWIE star and entrepreneur, 29, exclusively told MailOnline that his 'whole world had been turned upside down' after being tested by doctors.

Ahead of the new series of Georgia and Tommy: Baby Steps - which follows him and his fiancee Georgia Kousoulou as they become parents - Tommy told of his health scare as well as discussing life with a young baby and his next career moves.

Upset: Tommy Mallet has revealed that he is at risk for developing type two diabetes as he sets his sights on losing weight and enlists a top nutritionist to get healthy (pictured last year)

He said of his health: 'My whole world has been turned upside down the last week to be honest with you. It is mad. I did a 360 test with blood tests and I am at risk of type 2 diabetes. I am really healthy.

'But with covid, I started eating a bit of sugar because I can't taste anything, and it seems to have got the better of me. I have been working really hard this last week, trying really hard to get my weight down.

'I have seen a top nutritionist so I am working on it but the baby has the flu and he has been crying all night. I have been up all night with him. So it is a bit of a warzone to be honest with you.'

Family: Ahead of the new series of Georgia and Tommy: Baby Steps - which follows him and his fiancee Georgia Kousoulou as they become parents - Tommy told of his health scare

He added: 'You still have to get up in the morning and do the morning feed No matter what you have to get up. We are still filming.'

During the chat he also lifted the lid on his family life and told how he felt about having any more children after their son Brody was born last year.

He said: 'After last night I can't answer that question. It would be nice to have a girl next but I can't even comment on that because at the minute.

'He has not slept all night. Me and Georgia are all over the place. The last thing on my mind is that!

Change: The former TOWIE star and entrepreneur, 29, exclusively told MailOnline that his 'whole world had been turned upside down' after being tested by doctors (his weight loss transformation is pictured last year

On how has life changed since becoming a parent, he added: 'With a baby you just work with whatever is happening that day. Sometimes it is a good day, sometimes it is a tough day.

'I give credit to Georgia because I go to work most days but I try to stay home as much as I can. I came in the other day and Georgia was holding her wee in, she couldn't even go to the toilet because Brody was running around in his walker!'

Elsewhere Tommy spoke about his footwear brand Mallet London, saying he is now 'set for life' with his millions and doesn't intend to sacrifice his family life for business.

He said: 'I was really selfish to build what I built. You dont get what I have got by not being selfish. You have to think about your end goal. Now I have achieved what I have achieved I am set for life.

'I was set for life years ago. So anything else is a blessing on top of it. If it is going to cost my peace I dont think I am going to be willing to do it to be honest with you. There is only so many times people can say well done.

'I will be more of a success if I bring a kid up. I am not willing to compromise my relationship with Brody to make myself any bigger.

Georgia and Tommy got engaged in February with the TOWIE star, 30, taking to Instagram to share the exciting news.

Cute: During the chat he also lifted the lid on his family life and told how he felt about having any more children after their son Brody was born last year

Tommy popped the question after eight years together on a beach pergola surrounded by roses after they jetted to Mexico for a family getaway.

Tommy's proposal comes after he and Georgia welcomed their first child, son Brody, in May 2021.

Georgia shared her engagement news alongside a snap of Tommy down on one knee, while she held their son, struggling to contain her excitement after being presented with a ring.

The reality star had decorated a beach pergola with hundreds of red roses for the grand gesture.

Confirming she had indeed accepted his proposal, Georgia captioned her post: 'OF COURSE I SAID YES.'

Watch episodes of Georgia and Tommy: Baby Steps on ITVBe on Sundays at 9PM and catch up on the first series on the ITV Hub
Harrison Ford kept two foster dogs because his family 'needed them' for comfort after his horrifying 2015 plane crash.

The 79-year-old actor and his wife Calista Flockhart, 57, have fostered many pooches over the years.

And after the pilot was left with a broken pelvis and ankle when his aircraft suffered engine failure and made an emergency landing, they decided to keep their foster dogs as they had become like family during the difficult time.

Puppy love: Harrison Ford kept two foster dogs because his family 'needed them' for comfort after his horrifying 2015 plane crash; he is seen in 2020

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times that was conducted at their home with four pooches by her side, Flockhart said: 'We kept them because we all needed them. And they needed us, or we needed them more than they needed us probably.'

The Indiana Jones star previously insisted the crash was not enough to put him off flying.

He said: 'It was one time - and I didn't crash, the plane crashed. I didn't get right out of it, but I'm fine now, it took a while.'

When asked if the incident had put him off flying, he added: 'No, it's a big part of who I am.'

Speaking her mind: In an interview with the Los Angeles Times that was conducted at their home with four pooches by her side, Flockhart said: 'We kept them because we all needed them. And they needed us, or we needed them more than they needed us probably'

Back in the saddle: The Indiana Jones star previously insisted the crash was not enough to put him off flying

In 2020, Harrison was ordered to take a training course following an improper runway crossing in April of that year.

The actor was previously told to hold short of the runway at Hawthorne Airport in California because another aircraft was practicing touch-and-go landings there, but he still crossed and taxied to the other end after mishearing his instructions.

The actor alarmed the tower operator at the time of his mishap after they told him to 'hold short' on his landing because of 'traffic on the runway.'

However, he accelerated onto the runway and began crossing, with the operator angrily saying the veteran pilot had ignored his instructions.

In hot water: In 2020, Harrison was ordered to take a training course following an improper runway crossing in April of that year; he is seen flying in 2001

Harrison profusely apologized and said he thought he was told he had been cleared to cross the runway.

Following an investigation into the incident by the Federal Aviation Administration, Ford had his name cleared of any wrongdoing on the basis that he agreed to take a special training course to help him brush up on his runway knowledge.

He was subsequently required to take a 'remedial runway incursion training course,' and when he successfully completed it, the FAA closed the book on his case with no additional action.

Working it out: Following an investigation into the incident by the Federal Aviation Administration, Ford had his name cleared of any wrongdoing on the basis that he agreed to take a special training course; he is seen in 2010

There was no danger of the aircraft's crashing because the other plane was 3,600 feet away from Harrison's when it hit the runway and was up in the air again long before reaching the area where the actor was.

A spokesperson for the actor said at the time: 'Mr. Ford crossed the airport's only runway in his aircraft after he misheard a radio instruction from ATC.'

They added: 'He immediately acknowledged the mistake and apologized to ATC for the error. The purpose of the flight was to maintain currency and proficiency of the aircraft.'
Kim Cattrall is celebrating her six-year anniversary with partner Russell Thomas.

Earlier this week, the 65-year-old Sex and the City star and her 50-year-old boyfriend were seen clinking glasses of champagne in a short video while marking their special occasion.

Liverpool-born Cattrall also wrote a short message in her post's caption that read 'celebrating 6 years' and added an emoji of a set of champagne glasses to toast the milestone.

Marking the occasion: Kim Cattrall celebrated her six-year anniversary with her partner, Russell Thomas, with a post that was shared to her Instagram account on Friday

Cattrall and Thomas initially met in 2016, when the latter of the two was working for BBC.

The Emmy-nominated actress was previously married to Larry Davis, although their marriage was annulled in 1979.

She was subsequently married to Andre J. Lyson, and their union was formally dissolved in 1989.

The star's third and final marriage was with Mark Levinson, and their time together lasted from 1998 until 2004.

In the past: Cattrall and Thomas initially met in 2016, when the latter of the two was working for BBC; they are seen in 2018

Cattrall eventually began a relationship with Thomas, and she often shares photos with her boyfriend to her Instagram account.

The Big Trouble in Little China actress spoke about her romance during an interview with People, where she noted that her now-partner made quite the effort to see her during their earlier days.

'We kind of liked each other, we kept in touch and then he came out to Vancouver. It was very brave of him,' she said.

Cattrall also stated that she and Thomas were initially unfamiliar with each other, although they quickly established a rapport.

Doing the most: The Big Trouble in Little China actress spoke about her romance during an interview with People, where she noted that her now-partner made quite the effort to see her during their earlier days; they are seen in 2019

She recalled: 'We didn't really know each other other than having a few meals together. But he came and we got along great, and we've been together ever since!'

The performer, who described her relationship with Thomas as 'so easy,' then spoke about why she enjoyed his presence.

She stated: 'I'm very comfortable around him. He's a firecracker and he's got a wicked sense of humor. And he's easy on the eyes!'

Speaking her mind: The performer, who described her relationship with Thomas as 'so easy,' then spoke about why she enjoyed his presence

Cattrall also gave the media outlet a bit of insight into how she and her partner remain close.

'We have tea together every morning, and after lunch usually another cup to get through the day,' they said.

The actress concluded by remarking: 'I love him, and he was worth waiting for.'
She may be Bridgertons leading lady, but Simone Ashleys latest look is more Pinball Wizard than Regency courtier.

The 27-year-old actress swapped dainty frocks and delicate slippers for a pair of chunky Prada boots reminiscent of Elton Johns costume in the 1975 psychedelic rock opera Tommy.

And while Miss Ashleys aristocratic alter ego Kate Sharma would be unlikely to wear the brushed rois leather and nylon boots, she may approve of the hefty price tag of 1,650.

Miss Ashley, 27, was pictured walking in London on Saturday wearing the flashy 1,650 clogs

With their two-and-a-half-inch heels, the Prada Monolith boots are a favourite with female fashionistas. Emma Watson and Rita Ora are among those spotted wearing similar footwear.

Miss Ashley, who teamed her boots with a lime green dress and a navy Versace coat, first won recognition for her appearance in Netflixs raunchy coming-of-age comedy Sex Education.

Of Indian heritage, she recently said that she felt she had to work much harder for success than her white colleagues.

Culture shock: it's all change from the frugality of Ashley's Bridgerton character Kate Sharma

Recalling periods as a struggling actress when she worked in a frozen yogurt shop to make ends meet, she told the Reign with Josh Smith podcast: I have had to work twice as hard and maybe I havent really said that enough to myself and given myself a pat on the back for that.

For me it has just always been like, Im just like any other actress, I can do this. I can have a script put in front of me and bring a character to life and Im smart and got creative ideas and I can do this.

Its the most rewarding feeling and you hope the goal is that one day it is just completely normalised and theres a sense of ease for women of all heritages and cultures to have doors open for them. Id like to think Im a bit of a fighter in that sense.
Sarah Jessica Parker looked radiant in a white jumpsuit under a tweed beige blazer while exiting a theater in New York City on Friday evening.

Just two weeks after contracting COVID-19, the 57-year-old Sex and the City actress appeared completely recovered on a glamorous night out.

She completed her chic ensemble with a pair of silver studded black open-toed heels, pink lipstick and sparkly stud earrings.

Feeling better: Sarah Jessica Parker looked radiant in a white jumpsuit under a tweed beige blazer while exiting a theater in New York City on Friday evening

Parker tested positive for the virus earlier this month just days after her husband Matthew Broderick announced his own positive test.

Their illnesses halted performances of Plaza Suite, the couple's three-act show during which they play three couples in a hotel suite.

'With both Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker positive for COVID, tonights performance of Plaza Suite is canceled,' the shows producers said in a statement to Variety.

Glowing: Just two weeks after contracting COVID-19, the 57-year-old Sex and the City actress appeared completely recovered on a glamorous night out

Double whammy: Parker tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago just days after her husband Matthew Broderick (pictured in March 2022) announced his own positive test

'The producers apologize for the inconvenience this has caused audience members. Ticket holders should contact their point of sale to reschedule for a future performance or obtain a refund.'

Before receiving her own positive test, Parker performed several times with Broderick's understudy, Tony winner Michael McGrath.

Plaza Suite was originally supposed to begin its run of previews back on March 13, 2020 but all Broadway theaters were shut down the day before because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The show went on: Before receiving her own positive test, Parker performed several times with Broderick's understudy, Tony winner Michael McGrath; seen last month

While it may seem that Parker is out relatively soon after testing positive just last week, the Hocus Pocus star is actually just following new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The government agency recommends that those who test positive should isolate at home for just five days. If someone does have to leave home for some reason, they should wear a mask that fits well.

Isolation can end after five days if the person exhibiting symptoms is free of fever for 24 hours and symptoms are improving.
They met on the set of a film about forbidden love and both Vanessa Kirby and Christopher Abbott have form for dating their co-stars.

So a sighting of the two enjoying a cosy evening at a trendy Soho bar last week was bound to create a frisson among the people-watchers of Londons Theatreland.

The pair, who met when they played a married couple in 19th Century romantic drama The World To Come in 2020, were deep in conversation at Ducksoup, a bar popular with staff from film production companies.

Kirby (left) and Abbott (right) drank and chatted at Ducksoup, a Soho haunt with crew clout

An onlooker said the stars looked super comfortable in each others company as they drank wine and chatted for a couple of hours at an outside table.

Dressed in a leopard-print jacket and crocodile-leather ankle boots, Ms Kirby, who found fame as Princess Margaret in The Crown, was also seen enjoying a cigarette.

The onlooker said: They were both smoking so were sitting outside. They seemed to be very familiar with one another, they were talking lots and there was the occasional smile.

Kirby and Abbott shared a cosy evening without her partner Callum Turner (couple pictured)

American actor Mr Abbott, best known as sweet-natured Charlie in the comedy drama series Girls, is currently working on the Marvel movie Kraven the Hunter now filming in London.

The two are understood to be single, and it is not known if they are romantically involved. However, both have had relationships with co-stars in the past.

Ms Kirby, 34, dated Callum Turner after they starred in 2014s Queen And Country. They got together a year later but parted in 2020, blaming busy schedules for their split.

Mr Abbott, 36, dated Vanity Fair actress Olivia Cooke whom he met on the set of Katie Says Goodbye in 2016. They split in 2019 and Ms Cooke went on to date EastEnders actor turned Hollywood star Ben Hardy.

Kirby shot to fame as Princess Margaret on The Crown and has since appeared in many films

Ms Kirby is a member of a group of young British stars nicknamed the new Primrose Hill set after the celebrity enclave in North-West London. She has also dated fellow Great Expectations actor Douglas Booth, a former boyfriend of Lily James.

Her latest role is playing Napoleons wife Josephine in a drama for Apple TV+.

Filming on the production, which chronicles Napoleons rise to power through his hot-and-cold relationship with his adulterous wife, is taking place in London.

Last year Ms Kirby received her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a first-time mother who loses a baby in the movie Pieces Of A Woman.
Ben Whishaw, the actor best known for his portrayal of James Bonds technical wizard Q, has split from his husband of ten years, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Hectic travel and work schedules are understood to have led to the 41-year-old star quietly separating from Mark Bradshaw.

While both are now thought to be dating other people, friends say the split is amicable and they continue to live together at their home in Hackney, East London.

Whishaw (left) and Bradshaw (right) pose with Naomie Harris (centre) at the Met Gala in 2016

A source said: Their marriage has fizzled. Bens husband has told friends he is seeing other people. Travel and work schedules have taken their toll. They still live together and apparently its all very amicable but theyve been seeing other people for a few months.

The couple met in 2009 on the set of Bright Star in which Mr Whishaw played the poet John Keats. Mr Bradshaw, a composer, wrote the score for the film.

They entered into a civil partnership in Sydney in 2012. It was said the pair were proud to do so and are very happy.

Mr Whishaw had not publicly discussed his sexuality before his marriage, saying at the time that he believed talking about his personal life as an actor was like shooting yourself in the foot.

An acclaimed stage actor, Mr Whishaw shot to international fame through his portrayal of gadget genius Q in 2012s Skyfall, opposite Daniel Craigs 007.

Whishaw won plaudits for his portrayal of tech wizard Q in the Bond films (picture from Skyfall)

He reprised the role in two subsequent films and, in a first for the Bond franchise, 2021s No Time To Die features the character preparing for a romantic dinner with a man.

Mr Whishaw is also the voice of Paddington Bear, starring alongside Hugh Bonneville in the hit childrens movies.

Most recently, Mr Whishaw won plaudits for his painfully accurate portrayal of life as a junior doctor on a maternity ward in the acclaimed BBC series This Is Going To Hurt.

In a case of life imitating art, Mr Whishaws character  based on author and medic Adam Kay  struggles to hold down a relationship with his live-in partner Harry amid mounting work pressure.

Australian-born Mr Bradshaw, 39, has composed scores for director Dame Jane Campion, including TV series Top of the Lake and Bright Star.

Mr Whishaw declined to comment last night.
Zero-Day exploits have significantly increased in numbers since 2021.

Google has published the Project Zero review for the year 2021. The results revealed a record number of zero-day exploits that have been labeled as "one of the most advanced attack methods" and have been demonstrated by some of the world's largest technology corporations.

Zero-Day exploits make a digital product vulnerable to cyberattacks in the form of bugs and different kinds of malicious malware. Zero-Day exploits are one of the most popular ways for threat actors to perform illegal acts towards a certain organization.

These Zero-Day vulnerabilities put systems and digital products at high risk due to their open nature to cyberattacks. What makes an exploit possible to breach is due to its nature of remaining undetected, which leaves systems, databases, and the like completely exposed to hackers.

A certain vulnerability can run and stay in the system for a long time unless a mitigation, also known as a patch or update, is released.

Zero-Day Exploit by Chinese Hackers

Zero-Day exploit attacks, as reported by Bleeping Computer, are largely done by threat groups from around the world to attack large companies.

As the report says, the most likely groups to take advantage of a zero-day flaw are China, Russia, and North Korea, but other groups could also take advantage of it. China tops the list for launching eight zero-day cyberattacks using detected vulnerabilities in large corporations.

An example of this is the notable case of Hafnium. Hafnium is a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group that exploited four zero-day vulnerabilities. One of which is the breach they did to Microsoft Exchange, Hafnium infiltrated servers and gained access to email communications of Western organizations.

They are then followed by Russia with two and North Korea with one.

Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, has noticed an increase in the number of ransomware operatives who are exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to breach networks and deploy their file-encrypting payloads.

According to the findings of the company, one out of every three malicious actors who exploited zero-day vulnerabilities was motivated by financial gain, a statistic that continues a growing trend from previous years.

In addition, most of them were linked to cyberespionage operations that were carried out by state-sponsored groups.

Read Also:Update Google Chrome Now: How To Download Chrome Security Update on Mac, Linux, Windows, Android

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in 2021

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in 2021 have increased dramatically as reported by Google's Project Zero team.

According to the end-of-year report for the team, there were 58 zero-day exploits discovered in 2021. That represents the highest number of digital exploits discovered since Project Zero was created in 2015, which was the previous record holder with a total of 28 digital exploits discovered.

In contrast, at the height of the pandemic, during which hackers increased their efforts on malicious cybercrime activity, Google's Project Zero team revealed 25 Zero-Day exploits in the year 2020.

However, in contrast, the increased number of Zero-Day exploits does not entirely mean an increase in cyberattacks. Google also clarified that the record-breaking 58 zero-day exploits that were made public were attributed to increased detection and disclosure of these zero-day vulnerabilities.

Google believes that the higher number of zero-day exploits discovered in 2021 is due to a more aggressive detection process, which has been aided by companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

In addition, the Project Zero team also credits the increased number of Zero-Day vulnerability reports to the disclosure of these flaws by security researchers.

Related Article: Google Chrome Security Update: CVE-2022-1096 a High-Severity Zero-Day Exploit
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Commentary: Global Security Initiative offers China's solution to global security dilemmas

14:17, April 23, 2022 By Han Bing, Zhang Yisheng ( Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday proposed a Global Security Initiative to promote security for all in the globe while delivering a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022.

The initiative is another global public good provided by China, injecting confidence and impetus into safeguarding and realizing global security, demonstrating China's commitment as a major country to upholding world peace and stability as well as to practicing fairness and justice.

In today's world, the prevailing trend of peace and development is facing serious challenges in the shadow of a once-in-a-century pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine military conflict. The competition among great powers is deeply affecting the whole world, with growing threats posed by hegemony and increasing deficits in peace, security, trust and governance.

Great visions are urgently needed in this turbulent and fluid world, as changes of the world, of the times and of history are unfolding in ways never seen before.

Photo taken on April 19, 2022 shows the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) International Conference Center in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

Xi proposed the Global Security Initiative with the future of all humanity in mind, which champions the commitment in six areas:

-- Stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work together to maintain world peace and security;

-- Stay committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, uphold non-interference in internal affairs, and respect the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries;

-- Stay committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, reject the Cold War mentality, oppose unilateralism, and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation;

-- Stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the pursuit of one's own security at the cost of others' security;

-- Stay committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises, reject double standards, and oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction;

-- Stay committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains, and work together on regional disputes and global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity.

The initiative embodies China's wisdom to address both symptoms and root causes, setting out the core concept, fundamental guidelines, important principles, long-term goals and feasible approach of upholding and achieving global security. With the macro thinking of top-level design and the micro perspective of solving practical problems, the initiative focuses on both real problems bearing on the security of mankind and a sustainable way to world peace.

Liu Qing, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the initiative put forward by Xi systematically explains China's solutions to global security dilemmas, and demonstrates Xi's wisdom as the leader of a major country.

The initiative upholds true multilateralism, which is about having international affairs addressed through consultation and the future of the world decided by everyone working together.

The Global Security Initiative, featuring true multilateralism, has been widely recognized by the international community.

A woman walks past the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States, Sept. 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Bambang Suryono, chairman of the Indonesian think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, said unlike some Western countries' unbalanced pursuit of their own security, China's Global Security Initiative seeks common security and is conducive to building an international order based on mutual respect, equality and mutual trust.

Shakeel Ramay, chief executive officer of Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development, said if the world wants to build a new security framework that is fairer and more equitable, it should act on the Global Security Initiative.

The initiative bears witness to China's capacity to match its actions to its words.

The initiative is open to the world and welcomes the participation of all countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday, adding that China, as the country that put forward this major initiative, will also take earnest actions in its implementation.

"We are ready to work through the UN and bilateral and multilateral channels to have in-depth exchange of views with all parties on the initiative so that we can inspire each other, pool global synergy, follow through on the initiative," Wang said.

Over the years, China has always acted as the bulwark of safeguarding peace and stability as well as promoting solidarity and cooperation.

A handover ceremony of a batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccine is held at Noor Khan Air Base near Islamabad, Pakistan, Feb. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

China's actions and contributions to fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country are notable around the world, from calling for the political settlement of regional hotspot issues to participating in international peacekeeping operations, and from its all-out efforts to help other countries fight against COVID-19 to actively dealing with climate change, as well as from upholding the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests to honoring the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and from promoting the common values of mankind to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

"China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, and always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order," Xi said at the Boao Forum.

Xi noted that as long as we join hands and never slacken in efforts, we will be able to build great synergy through win-win cooperation, overcome the various challenges along the way, and usher in a brighter and better future for humanity.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Did you ever experience leaving your phone in your pocket or somewhere and getting a feeling that it just might be ringing or vibrating from a call and text message when it is not at all?

There is actually a name for that and it is called Phantom Vibration Syndrome.

Is it harmful? What can you do stop it?

Here is what you should know about it:

Phantom Vibration Syndrome: What is It?

WebMD says that Phantom Vibration Syndrome happens when people get the feeling that their phone is vibrating when it actually is not. It was previously referred to as "ringxiety."

The article published on its website describes it as a modern-day phenomenon. "Apparently some of us are so concerned about missing a call or text that we've become extra aware of the sensations that mean one is incoming," WebMD adds.

The article mentions Robert Rosenberger, Ph.D., who is studying the effects of technology on human behavior. According to him, noticing a vibrating phone has become such a habit for people that even the slightest movement in clothing or anything feeling that resembles a vibration causes people to think that their phone is vibrating.

"Through bodily habit, your phone actually becomes a part of you, and you become trained to perceive the phone's vibrations as an incoming call or text," he said.

A report by CBS News cites licensed clinical social worker and associate professor of psychology Randi Smith, Ph.D., who says that Phantom Vibration Syndrom is "almost like a hallucination."

Dr. Smith notes that it can be really scary how people have become so dependent on their devices. For some people, it can be somewhat of an obsession already.

Studies About Phantom Vibration Syndrome

An article by NPR states that a study conducted in 2012 involving college students yielded results that show 90% of the participants have experienced phantom vibrations. It is also mentioned that 9 out of 10 participants in the study said that the feeling barely bothered them. There are those who said it did not bother them at all.

A similar study was conducted with hospital workers as participants of the survey. The participants of the survey said that the they get the feeling of their phone vibrating when it really is not either weekly or even monthly.

Read Also: Phone Walk: The Movement People Make While Using A Phone

How Do You Keep Your Anxiety Level Down?

Research psychologist Dr. Larry Rosen said that one way to manage your anxiety level and keep the Phantom Vibration Syndrome at bay is to step away from your phone and not use it for a while every now and then.

According to the article by NPR, people should spend around 30 minutes to one hour away from their phone, per Dr. Rosen.

Dr. Smith shares the same sentiment and says that students in particular should go on a "media fast."

Related Article: 7 Psychiatrist Tips To Help You Manage Anxiety
In seat blocking, a candidate who has secured a high rank chooses a seat in a private college in another state, and withdraws after the last round of counselling by paying the penalty. (Representational Image/ DC File)

Hyderabad: Amid allegations of private medical colleges blocking postgraduate seats, Director of Medical Education (DME) K Ramesh Reddy on Friday stated that no seat had been lost to students.

The DME, along with Dr B. Karunakar Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), and Director of Public Health Dr G. Srinivasa Rao was addressing the media over the seat blocking issue.

Dr Ramesh Reddy said a discrepancy had come to light when they contacted five high-ranking candidates who had chosen a PG seat during counselling on March 16. "We were shocked to find that these five candidates had even applied for a seat."

Dr Karunakar Reddy said that on becoming aware of the issue, letters were written to the five students stating that the university would take legal action against them if they were found guilty of blocking seats.

The students had submitted their certificates. The university then brought the issue to the notice of the Warangal police commissioner, with the names of 40 students suspected of blocking seats. The commissioner directed officers to register a case and start investigations.

The VC said students were directed to personally come to the university with their documents to register themselves.

Following this, two rankers who taken admission in colleges in the state wrote to the varsity saying that they had not applied to the colleges. This incident too was reported to the police.

Dr Ramesh Reddy said to prevent seat blocking, the Centre had increased the penalty for withdrawing after choosing a seat from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

In seat blocking, a candidate who has secured a high rank chooses a seat in a private college in another state, and withdraws after the last round of counselling by paying the penalty. The private college is able to fill that seat under the management quota category, for which it can charge as much as Rs 70 lakh to Rs 80 lakh.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Democratic Student Union (PDSU) has demanded that the state government deregister the private medical colleges and book criminal cases on those who blocked postgraduate seats. It demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge into the multi-crore scam which it said is repeated every year.

The PDSU demanded that the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) should reschedule the counselling process.

The ABVP held a dharna in front of the Directorate of Medical Education office and said that the CBCID should investigate the alleged seat blocking scandal and deregister the medical colleges involved. University officials who complained to the police should answer why the names of the private colleges, the ABVP said and wanted the colleges should be disclosed immediately.
Two students from Hyderabad were killed and three others injured in a road accident at Chicago, USA. (Representational Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: Two students from Hyderabad were killed and three others injured in a road accident at Chicago, USA. The accident occurred early on Thursday at Alexander County near Chicago.

Pichetti Vamsikrishna, 23, son of JNTU professor Padmaja Rani of Nizampet, and his friend Pawan Swarna, 23, were killed on the spot, while their friends D. Kalyan, K. Karthik and Uppalapati Srikanth were injured.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, sources close to Vamsikrishnas family said that he had gone to the US on December 29, 2021, to pursue a course in Masters in Science at the University of Southern Illinois. He was staying at a private hostel. His elder brother, Shasikiran, had gone to the US seven years ago, sources said.

It was stated that the group of 10 students in two cars were heading out for shopping when they met with the mishap. The car with Vamsikrishna had five students. While Pawan Swarna was driving the car, Vamsikrishna was seated behind him. A woman driver of a US origin dashed into their car from the side while they were trying to make a turn, killing Pawan and Vamsikrishna on the spot. The woman driver succumbed to injuries minutes later, sources said. The bodies of Pawan and Vamsikrishna are expected to reach Hyderabad by Monday.

The injured are being treated at a hospital in Chicago. Vamsikrishna and Pawan had completed their BTech at Gokaraju Rangaraju College in Hyderabad.

The University of Southern Illinois in a statement said that they had handed over the bodies of the two to their relatives and guardians. Since a case has been registered in connection with the accident, all the procedures required by law there have been completed.
Kishan Reddy was addressing the Union commerce ministry's 'stakeholders' outreach programme'. Union minister of state for commerce and industry Anupriya Patel, additional secretary Amit Yadav, joint secretary Srikar Reddy and state industries secretary Jayesh Ranjan attended the meeting. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: Union tourism minister Kishan Reddy said here on Saturday that Telangana state accounts for just about 3 per cent of India's total merchandise exports. There is a need to maximise the states potential in exports by improving the states logistics facilities, he said.

The minister urged exporters and manufacturers from the state to tap the huge export potential available in various sectors.

Kishan Reddy was addressing the Union commerce ministry's 'stakeholders' outreach programme'. Union minister of state for commerce and industry Anupriya Patel, additional secretary Amit Yadav, joint secretary Srikar Reddy and state industries secretary Jayesh Ranjan attended the meeting.

Industries minister Rama Rao who was invited as 'guest of honour' skipped the meeting.

Citing the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti Master Plan, Reddy said the Centre will develop as many as 100 PM GatiShakti Cargo Terminals for multimodal logistics facilities in the next three years. He urged industry leaders to realise the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat projected by PM Modi.

Union minister Anupriya Patel urged the stakeholders at the gathering to unlock the access to the neo markets that the recent game-changer trade agreements India signed with the UAE and Australia opened up.

Lauding Telangana for its efforts at creating district-specific export promotion councils, she said that the state has huge potential to emerge as a top export hub of the nation considering its strengths in sectors like pharmaceuticals, leather, gems and jewellery and electronic goods.
TIRUPATI: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy took to task previous state government, specifically then CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu saying they had betrayed womens self-help groups (SHGs) by going back on their electoral promise of 2014 to waive off all their pending loans.

Addressing a gathering after releasing the third tranche of YSR Sunna Vaddi  zero interest scheme  in Ongole on Friday, the Chief Minister pointed out that following the unkept promise, SHG women got caught in debt trap after not paying their loans trusting Naidu will keep his promise.

The total burden of all SHGs was over  14,205 crore and their businesses joined the non-performing assets (NPA) list. Even A grade SHGs slipped to C and D due to non-payment of loans, Jagan Mohan Reddy underlined. He said Naidu went on to discontinue Sunna Vaddi scheme for SHG women, burdening them with  3,036 crore as interest. By 2019, outstanding loans of SHGs reached  25,517 crore.

AP CM asserted that unlike during previous state governments time when 18.36 percent of SHGs had been on NPA list, present government has brought down this percentage to 0.73 percent, even though the number of women in SHGs had increased to 1.02 crore from 80 lakh.

Asserting that it is a great turnaround for SHGs from being defaulters to vibrant entrepreneurs, Jagan Mohan Reddy maintained that the success story came about due to YSRC government launching schemes like YSR Cheyutha, Asara and Amma Vodi, besides bringing in big corporate companies like Reliance, P&G and Amul, apart from lining up banks to extend loans for setting up grocery shops, poultry, dairy and other units to usher in economic and social empowerment.

The Chief Minister pulled up opposition parties and a section of media for equating AP with crisis-ridden Sri Lanka. He retorted that development within the state is causing heartburn within the gang of four comprising Naidu, his friendly media and Pawan Kalyan. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked: How can the state be Sri Lanka when it is implementing all its schemes without any hindrance.
Hyderabad: The Centre has received Rs 3,65,797 crore through taxes from Telangana since the formation of state in 2014-15 to 2020-21. In return, the Centre has released Rs 1,68,647 crore to Telangana state during this period, finance minister T. Harish Rao said on Saturday.

Harish Rao released year-wise data on taxation and Central funds to counter the claims of Union minister G. Kishan Reddy and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay that the Centre had released over Rs 3 lakh crore to the state since 2014.

Harish Rao said the BJP-government at the Centre owed Rs 7,183 crore from the allocations of the 13th and 14th Finance Commissions. He dared Kishan Reddy and Sanjay to ensure that the Centre paid these arrears.

The state remits money towards income tax, central excise, customs duty, service tax and GST. The Centre releases funds in the form of the states share in central taxes and GST, centrally sponsored schemes, Finance Commission grants, Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF), etc.

He said the Centre collected Rs 40,727 crore in 2014-15, Rs 52,250 crore in 2015-16, Rs 57,276 crore in 2016-17, Rs 52,996 crore in 2017-18, Rs 69,677 crore in 2018-19, Rs 46,754 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 46,117 crore in 2020-21 from Telangana. Of this, the data for 2019-20 and 2020-21 pertain to income-tax and other data is awaited, Harish Rao said.

The Centre released Rs 15,307 crore in 2014-15, Rs 21,745 crore in 2015-16, Rs 24,628 crore in 2016-17, Rs 24,479 crore in 2017-18, Rs 26,739 crore in 2018-19, Rs 27,586 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 28,163 crore in 2020-21.

Funds released in 2019-20 include GST compensation of Rs 2,263 crore, in 2020-21 include GST compensation of Rs 2,581 crore and GST settlement of Rs 2,638 crore and in 2021-22 GST compensation of Rs 2,006 crore.

Harish Rao lashed out at the Centre for denying funds to Telangana for which it is legally entitled.

Rao said Centre owed Rs 1,129.93 crore dues of the 13th Finance Commission grants, Rs 817.61 crore dues of 14th Finance Commission grants, Rs 1,103.70 crore of 15th Finance Commission grants, Rs 1,350 crore BRGF for 2019-20, 2021-22 and 2022-23, Rs 2,247 crore GST compensation, Rs 454 crore dues of centrally sponsored schemes transferred to Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation of state, totalling Rs 7,183.71 crore.

Harish Rao dared BJP leaders to prove his data wrong. If they could not, they should tender an unconditional apology to the people for lying on the Centre giving Rs 3 lakh crore to Telangana since 2014.

"On one hand, the BJP government at the Centre is denying funds to states. On the other hand, it is eating up revenue sources of states by levying various cesses under which the states will not get any share. The Centre pockets all funds collected through cess, Harish Rao said.

He said the states should get 41 per cent in Central taxes but due to the imposition of cess, states are not getting even 25 per cent. The Centre is collecting Rs 27 cess on petrol per litre and Rs 21 on diesel and states get nothing out of this. BJP has hatched a conspiracy to weaken states financially, Harish Rao alleged.

Year What Centre Collected What Centre Released 2014-15 Rs 40,727cr Rs 15,307cr 2015-16 Rs 52,250cr Rs 21,745cr 2016-17 Rs 57,276cr Rs 24,628cr 2017-18 Rs 52,996cr Rs 24,479cr 2018-19 Rs 69,677cr Rs 26,739cr 2019-20 Rs 46,754cr Rs 27,586cr 2020-21 Rs 46,117cr Rs 28,163cr Total Rs 3,65,797cr Rs 1,68,647cr

Money remitted to centre is from income tax, central excise, customs duty, service tax and GST. Data for 2019-20 and 20-21 pertain to income tax, other data awaited

Centre releases funds as states share in central taxes and GST, centrally sponsored schemes, Finance Commission grants, Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF).

Data: Finance minister T. Harish Rao

What Centre owes TS

Rs 1,129.93 crore of 13th Finance Commission grants

Rs 817.61 crore dues of 14th Finance Commission

Rs 1,103.70 crore of 15th Finance Commission

Rs 1,350 crore Backward Regions Grant Fund for 3 years

Rs 2,247 crore GST compensation

Rs 454 crore centrally sponsored schemes

Total: Rs 7,183.71 crore.
Indonesia's new palm oil export ban is likely to hit India, which is one of the biggest importers from the world's largest producer. An Indian trade group called the ban "rather unfortunate and totally unexpected."

The palm oil export ban will hurt other countries but is necessary to try to bring down the soaring domestic price of cooking oil driven up by Russia's war in Ukraine, Indonesia's finance minister told Reuters on Friday.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that with demand exceeding supplies, the ban announced earlier on Friday is "among the harshest moves" the government could take after previous measures failed to stabilise domestic prices.

"We know that this is not going to be the best result," for global supplies, she said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings. "If we are not going to export, that's definitely going to hit the other countries."

Also Read  Edible oil to get costlier as Indonesia bans palm oil exports

Besides India, China is also a major importer of palm oil from Indonesia, which accounts for more than half the world's supply. Palm oil is used in products from cooking oils to processed foods, cosmetics and biofuels.

Indrawati said previous measures requiring producers to reserve stocks for domestic use did not result in "the level of prices that we want. It's still too expensive for the ordinary household to buy those cooking oils."

At this week's meetings in Washington, policymakers have expressed concern about the growing prospects of food shortages due to the war in Ukraine, a major producer of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. World Bank President David Malpass said repeatedly that countries should avoid hoarding food stocks, export controls and other trade barriers to food.

'Country needs first'

But Indrawati, a former World Bank managing director, said that as a political leader and policymaker, food security issues needed to be defined first at the country level, then regionally and globally.

She likened the current food supply situation to the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, when countries competed with each other for masks, medical protective gear and other critical supplies. "Just like we were facing during the pandemic, we know this is not good in the medium and long term, but in the short term, you cannot stand in front of your people when you have the commodity which is needed by your people and you let (supplies) just go out" of the country.

Also Read  Palm oil becomes costliest edible oil as Ukraine war halts sunflower oil supply

Indonesia's move, which takes effect on April 28, caused prices of alternative vegetable oils to surge, with soybean oil hitting a record high on Friday. An Indian trade group called the ban "rather unfortunate and totally unexpected."

Indrawati said her government would analyze the impact of the measure on global and regional market dynamics.

For palm oil and other food commodities, she said the World Bank and other international institutions needed to focus on "supply side measures" to increase production.

But Indrawati said Indonesia has limited ability to increase palm oil production due to environmental concerns. Since 2018, the government stopped issuing new permits for palm oil plantations, which are often blamed for deforestation and destroying habitats of endangered animals such as orangutans.

Instead, Indonesia was focusing on improving infrastructure to allow producers to become more efficient and increasing production of other crops in high demand, including corn and soybeans, she said.

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The CNN Headquarters is pictured in Atlanta, April 21. CNN's brand-new streaming service, CNN+, is shutting down only a month after launch. AP-Yonhap





CNN is shutting down its CNN+ streaming service less than a month after its launch, a spectacular flameout for a venture that had attracted stars like Chris Wallace and Alison Roman and was seen as a way to attract a new generation of news consumers.







It started March 29, shortly before CNN was taken over by new corporate parents. The new leaders of Warner Bros. Discovery quickly let it be known they considered CNN+ an ill-conceived idea.







The subscription-based service will be shut down at the end of April. Executives said some CNN+ programming and employees will be absorbed into the television network and website but there will be layoffs. The head of CNN+, Andrew Morse, is leaving the company.







In a memo to employees Thursday, incoming CNN Chief Executive Chris Licht said consumers wanted ''simplicity and an all-in service'' rather than stand-alone offerings. Discovery had previously suggested that it wanted to merge the new company's separate streaming services, which include Discovery+ and HBO Max, into a single app.







In a Thursday town hall, executives also said that the service's inability to show live breaking news was a crucial failing. Because of contracts with cable and satellite companies, CNN+ could not stream the CNN television network.







''It's a little bit like The New York Times subscription without The New York Times,'' said J.B. Perrette, head of Discovery's streaming services.







Perrette said Discovery had learned from trying to launch its own news service in Poland, and in seeing the experiences of other paid streaming services in the United States such as Fox Nation, that CNN+ could not expect to get near one million subscribers. Unlike CNN+, which was charging customers $5.99 a month, broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC offer free news-streaming services.







''Those are the facts,'' Perrette said. ''We've learned from painful history, financially costly history.''







If the company is going to go in a different direction than CNN+, ''we can't let it go on one second more than it needs to,'' he said.







There had been skepticism from outside CNN about whether the streaming service could succeed, particularly given the glut of streaming services already available. Even Netflix, the streaming pioneer, is feeling the competitive pressure.







''This is a service leveraging the CNN brand that is not delivering the type of content that the CNN brand is known for, the live impactful news content,'' said Parks Associates research director Paul Erickson. ''It was already a bit of a tricky proposition to begin with''  even without the change in corporate ownership.







Under ATT, there were $100 million in development costs and some 500 employees assigned to building out CNN+. Perrette told the employees they would have ''first dibs'' on some 100 jobs currently open at CNN. Licht's memo said there would be at least six months of severance pay for departing staffers.







In the meeting, a CNN staff member wondered why ATT, CNN's previous corporate owner, was allowed to develop and start the service with new management coming in that clearly had its reservations about it. But executives said they were not allowed, until the takeover was formally approved weeks ago, to be involved in meetings about the service.







The executives said accountability for the rapid failure lies squarely with previous management.







''Would we have preferred to have this discussion six months ago, nine months ago?'' Perrette said. ''Couldn't do it.''







The CNN+ service's flagship was arguably Wallace's daily interview show, for which he left his previous job as ''Fox News Sunday'' host. Wallace did not immediately return a message seeking comment.







It also featured programming from food-media star Roman, former NPR host Audie Cornish, ex-NBC News host Kasie Hunt, Jemele Hill, Rex Chapman and current CNN personalities Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. Some of the shows hadn't even started yet.







Warner Bros. Discovery is led by Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who has his own vision for CNN and its Warner siblings.







Licht said in his memo that the ''incredibly difficult'' decision to shutter CNN+ is the right one for the long-term success of CNN. It will allow leaders to refocus resources on the core products that ''drive our singular focus: further enhancing CNN's journalism and its reputation as a global news leader.''







On the television network, Licht is expected to increase CNN's emphasis on news coverage with less commentary.







He told staff members that the decision was no reflection on the service that they had built.







Licht acknowledged in the staff meeting that the experience with CNN+, at least initially, will have repercussions with personnel and those who might want to come there.







''We have to own the erosion of trust and build it back,'' he said. (AP)


The emails that warned of bombs being planted in many Bengaluru schools earlier this month were sent from Pakistan and a West Asian nation, police said.

Quoting details provided by Gmail, a senior police officer told DH that the main server in the e-mail chain was located in Pakistan. All the emails were sent from 10 Gmail IDs.

Police are also said to have obtained clues about the identity of the e-mailers but are tight-lipped about it. The role of ISIS is also suspected.

Also Read | Bomb threat to Bengaluru schools, premises vacated

Four special teams of the Bengauru police are investigating the case in coordination with the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

The emails were sent to 15 upscale schools located in the city and the outskirts on the morning of April 8. While some schools received 5-6 identical e-mails, others were spammed with about 140 messages. The content of all the e-mails was similar.

Police searched all the schools before declaring the threat to be a hoax.

These were all automated e-mails. There was no hacking of any server, the officer added.

A source said it would be nearly impossible to track down the real culprits if no Indian was involved in it.

According to police, the purpose of sending the e-mails appeared to be creating fear.

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Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Saturday said there is sufficient coal availability in the country as 72.50 million tonnes (MT) of dry fuel is available at different sources and 22 MT at thermal power plants.

The minister asserted that available coal stocks will last for a month and availability is getting replenished on a daily basis with record production. Joshi said that at present 72.50 MT of coal is available at different sources of Coal India Ltd (CIL), Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) and coal washeries among others.

According to the government's provisional data, the total coal production during FY2021-22 was at 777.23 MT compared to 716 MT in FY21, recording a growth of 8.55 per cent, the coal ministry said in a statement. Coal India Ltd (CIL) production went up by 4.43 per cent to 622.64 MT in FY'22 from 596.24 MT in FY'21.

Also Read | India staring at power outage in multiple states

SCCL registered a growth of 28.55 per cent to 65.02 MT in FY'22 over 50.58 MT in FY'21. At the same time, coal production of captive mines has increased to 89.57 MT. During FY'21 it was only 69.18 MT.

Total coal dispatch during FY'22 increased by 18.43 per cent to 818.04 MT against 690.71 MT in FY'21. CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. Heatwaves across several parts of India, the consequent increase in power demand, and fears of a coal shortage have triggered planned blackouts in many states in the country, including Maharashtra.

Union Minister Raosaheb Danve said there was enough coal to supply to power plants and alleged that the Maharashtra government was busy blaming the Centre instead of providing electricity to citizens.

Also Read | Eight-hour blackouts hit India after hottest March on record

Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut had earlier said that load shedding in the state was a result of an increase in electricity demand relaxation of the Covid-19 curbs, and blamed the Centre for poor management of coal supply.

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As the aircraft prepares us to land at Praya, the International Airport of Lombok, we see the silver crests of crashing waves hitting the island shores. The urge to sink into them got stronger. Cradled by the Indian Ocean in the south and by the Bali Sea in the north, Lombok and the nearby Gili Islands are blessed with an abundance of coral reefs and underwater sea life.

Rising like a phoenix after the devastating 2018 earthquake, the Lombok Island in Indonesia is a little island that offers a mix of hectic outdoor adventurous activities with a good dose of unique centuries-old significant cultural treasures. In spite of several changes in rulers, the Sasak tribe of Lombok managed to not just survive but flourish and preserve its heritage, traditions and practices. We soon stumbled into the rich culture of the people of Lombok. Ende Sasak village tells the most intriguing story. The village showcases all their daily life activities, living styles and houses. The towering rice granaries, overlooking all the houses of the village, are proof of importance given to storage of food for survival since ancient times!

Villages of Sasak tribes like Ende, Sade, Sukarara that have preserved their traditional practices are ideal places to get insightful glimpses of Lombok culture. The Peresean, traditional stick-fighting competition, is a treat for the eyes. With sticks made of Rattan wood and their armour made of thick and hard buffalo skin, the scene gets more dramatic as thak thak, the sound of vigorous attacks increases. Till a few decades back, these fights would end with bloodshed, thankfully that practice has been put to an end.

In Lombok, every female member has to compulsorily learn weaving. Little girls are initiated into this art right from childhood. So rigid is the tradition that girls remain unmarried if they dont learn the art of weaving! Lombok is popular for Ikat and Songket handlooms. Pottery here has unique variations with shells, wicker, cane and wood. They are unusual combinations and make amazing pieces of art. Cukli art in pottery, from Banyumulek village, makes an excellent souvenir to add to your collection.

Myriad activities

When you are ready to delve into nature you need not go far. To the north is Mt Rinjani. For some serious adventure, hike this 3,726m tall mountain. Gunung Rinjani is the second-highest mountain in Indonesia, and holds spiritual significance for the local people. The National Park management uses the revenue from tourism activities and entry fees for conservation and maintenance of the Rinjani Trek, a project for ecotourism in Lombok.

After the trip to Benang Kelambu waterfalls, I was convinced that one can venture on their own to the nearby Benang Stokel and other nearby waterfalls. There are actually five of them! They make an ideal retreat to cool your sore limbs after the hike. These falls include the Sendang Gile and Tiu Kelep waterfalls, Mayang Putek waterfall, (the most unique one believed to have healing properties because of sulphur content) Jukut / Jeruk Manis (sweet orange) Waterfall and Tiu Tedja waterfall, the easiest one to reach among these. With divine beaches all around you, you will be super quenched in your hunt for sunrise and sunset photographs. We did a short hike to Merese Hill to catch a glimpse of the sinking sun. The water under its influence showed a different play of colours from yellow to golden and then finally deep purple to the darkest blue, almost nearing black! There are some hot photo spots like the pink beach in Tangsi in the east of Lombok and Batu Payung, a uniquely shaped rock in Tanjung Aan  favourite haunts of Instagrammers.

Stay & food

Fortunately, the stay was at good places with guides and gourmet meals. Budget stays would mean basic services. Mid-range offers better well-maintained facilities. But we made occasional stops at other restaurants too to taste the local cuisines that may never win culinary awards but are bursting with ethnic flavours.

Lomboks most popular  Plecing Kangkung  I can go back to Lombok again and again for this uncomplicated dish! Made with the least effort, it is blanched water spinach, served cold, with a dollop of special chilli sauce as a topping and with vegetables like bean sprouts, string beans and grated coconut. Wholesome food! Other iconic Lombok dishes are Ayam Taliwang  grilled chicken served with sambal (chilli paste) and Sate Bulayak.
Independent councillor on Derry City and Strabane District Council, Gary Donnelly, will be the main speaker at an Easter commemoration event being held in the city tomorrow by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM).

The event will take place at the republican plot in the City Cemetery at 1.30pm.

Michael Gallagher, from 32CSM, explained the decision to hold the event this weekend.

He said: The 24th of April is known as 'Republican Day' amongst Irish republicans as it is the anniversary of that seminal moment in our history when Pearse proclaimed the Republic from the steps of the GPO.

The Republic has long been misrepresented by Free Staters and their pro-British counterparts in the Six Counties who administer English rule. It is the duty of republicans to clearly define the Republic of the 1916 Proclamation and what it truly represents.

Republic Day is an opportunity to do so and challenge the narrative of those who prop up the counter democratic partitionist systems in Ireland today, whilst commemora- ting all those who gave their lives for Irish freedom.
Minister of State Colm Brophy Re-Launches Global Irish Festival Series in New York

Press release

Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, Mr. Colm Brophy T.D. undertook a two-day visit to New York on Monday 18 April as part of a series of stops across North America to meet with Irish-American communities and to highlight the return of the Global Irish Festival Series.

The Minister's visit was an opportunity to engage with Irish-America in the wake of the Covid pandemic and to see firsthand the special community-based support measures put in place through the Irish Government's Emigrant Support Programme. The Minister met with representatives from the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in the Bronx, the Aisling Community Center in Yonkers, and the New York Irish Center in Queens. He also met with Solace House, a crisis support agency, which provides counselling services for Irish across the New York area.

GAA President, Larry McCarthy, and New York GAA Chairperson, Joan Henchy, welcomed the Minister to Gaelic Park in the Bronx on Tuesday, where they discussed the growth of the GAA in New York. GAA representatives also outlined their long-term plans for the future development of Gaelic Park.

On Wednesday, Minister Brophy promoted Ireland as the place to visit this year by launching Failte Ireland's Global Irish Festival Series at the Consulate General in New York. The series places Ireland's counties at the centre of an effort to connect with their diasporas, and to build new relationships and ties that can boost tourism opportunities in each of Ireland's counties.

Addressing guests at the launch of the Global Irish Festival Series on Wednesday, Minister Brophy said:

"Festivals play a key role in delivering memorable visitor experiences and providing both overseas and domestic visitors with a unique reason to choose a destination. This year, the Global Irish Festival Series takes place along the Wild Atlantic Way and it is wonderful to see its return after a two-year gap."

Speaking following his meeting with representatves from diaspora organisations, Minister Brophy praised their efforts to support communities across the New York area:

"Our links with our Irish communities abroad are vital and it is important that we support the bonds of heritage and affinity, retaining the relationship between Ireland and her diaspora," he said, adding:

"I have in the past two days visited Irish Centres in Yonkers, the Bronx and Queens, and I have seen first-hand the vital work which they are able to undertake with the support of the Government's Emigrant Support Programme."

Minister Brophy continues his visit onwards to Atlanta, Georgia.

ENDS

For queries, contact Andrew.Byrne@dfa.ie.

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South Korea's daily tally of new COVID-19 cases stayed below 100,000 for the third day in a row Friday as the Omicron wave continues to gradually subside.







The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 75,449 infections, including 29 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 16,830,469.







The new daily total is down 5,609 cases from a day earlier and down 32,467 from the previous week, marking the lowest number for a Friday since Feb. 11.







The Omicron wave has been steadily declining after reaching a peak of 621,178 cases March 17.







The death toll came to 22,024, up 151 from the previous day for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent; while the number of critically ill patients came to 738, down 95.







Of the locally transmitted infections, Gyeonggi Province reported 18,441, Seoul added 12,352, and the southern city of Daegu, 3,966.







As of midnight Friday, 44.53 million, or 86.8 percent of the 52 million population, had been fully vaccinated, and 33.06 million, or 64.4 percent, had received their first COVID-19 booster shots, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)


Wildlife, local economies and tourism in Louth are to flourish, says The Heritage Council, with the announcement that is to grant almost 17,000 worth of funding for projects in the area. Funding from two of three Heritage Council schemes, which collectively help to conserve and restore built, cultural and natural heritage throughout the country, will be issued to grant recipients in Louth this year.

Three projects in Louth are to benefit from the funding. Under the Heritage Stewardship Grant funding, the County Museum in Dundalk is to receive 3,091 for the Dendro Project, which will see the building of a bespoke display case for the Museum's archaeological gallery in which a piece of petrified oak will be displayed.

Under the Community Heritage Grants scheme, Louth Nature Trust is to receive 3,758 for the development of the Louth Nature Trust website which will promote the Louth environment, wildlife, sites, community groups, species, habitats and environmental projects.

Also under the Community Heritage Grants scheme, Cooley Connect Well is to receive 10,000 for its Survey of Stone Structures of the Cooley Mountain Areas project. The purpose of this project is to locate and assess the state of the stones structures in order to preserve stone heritage; detail survey of repetitive stone structures in the Cooley Uplands Areas and develop an implementation plan.

The Heritage Council says that work on these projects can begin immediately and that the projects will all be completed by the end of the year. Commenting on the funding for which 200 projects across the country are set to benefit, Chairperson of The Heritage Council, Martina Moloney, said: The range of projects funded mirrors the variety of our heritage and the commitment of the grass roots groups who do such important work in caring for our heritage.

Virginia Teehan, Chief Executive of The Heritage Council, commented that: Individually, these projects will enrich local communities, preserving their history, safeguarding their local habitats. Collectively, they tell the story of a country where dedicated heritage professionals and volunteers understand the value of preservation, restoration and conservation.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh OBrien, TD, said: I would like to warmly welcome todays announcement by the Heritage Council. Funding of this nature is crucial in giving heritage volunteers and professionals the support they need to safeguard the built, cultural and natural heritage in our country. It is also a significant investment in this Governments commitments under the Programme for Government to promote and protect our heritage.
The European Union has reached a landmark deal to take aim at hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content online.

The move would force big tech companies to police themselves harder, make it easier for users to flag problems and empower regulators to punish non-compliance with billions in fines.

EU officials finally clinched the agreement in principle in the early hours of this morning (Saturday April 23) over the final details of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which will overhaul the digital rulebook for 27 countries and cement Europes reputation as the global leader in reining in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.

Its a wrap! We have a deal on the #DSA! Two years after we tabled the proposal @SchaldemoseMEP and @cedric_o  and our amazing teams  for great cooperation pic.twitter.com/8V8xE5Yw7w  Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) April 23, 2022

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said: With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care is coming to an end.

EU Commission vice president Margrethe Vestager added that with todays agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.

The act is the EUs third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the US, where lobbyists representing Silicon Valleys interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal legislators at bay.

While the US justice department and federal trade commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, US congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

Deal? Done  One step closer to new ground-breaking rules that will:  ensure online platforms are held responsible for tackling illegal & harmful content  better protect internet users help smaller platforms grow The #DigitalServicesAct soon across the EU #DSA  Digital EU (@DigitalEU) April 23, 2022

The EUs new rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their fundamental rights online, should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms algorithms.

Mr Breton said the EU will have plenty of power to back up the laws.

It entrusts the Commission with supervising very large platforms, including the possibility to impose effective and dissuasive sanctions of up to 6% of global turnover or even a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches, he said.

The tentative agreement was reached between the EU parliament and member states. It still needs to be officially rubber-stamped by those institutions but should pose no political problem.

Ben Scott, a former tech policy adviser to Hillary Clinton who is now executive director of advocacy group Reset, said: The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. Its the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets.

Negotiators had been hoping to hammer out a deal before French elections tomorrow (Sunday April 24). A new French government could stake out different positions on digital content.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 US presidential election, when Russia was found to have used social media platforms to try to influence the countrys vote.

Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened.

During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of allowing anti-vaccine falsehoods to thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to request companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an easy and effective way so that it can be swiftly removed.

Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardised so that they will work the same way on any online platform.

The tech giants have been lobbying furiously in Brussels to water down the EU rules.

Google said on Friday that it looks forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone.

Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services.

Facebook did not respond to requests for comment, and Twitter declined to comment.

The Digital Services Act would ban ads targeted at minors, as well as ads targeted at users based on their gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

It would also ban deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they did not intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show they are making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services. But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts.

This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the European Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers.

To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a supervisory fee, which could be up to 0.1% of their annual global net income, depending on the negotiations.

Ta da! 16 hours, lots of sweets (but cookies still declined We have a deal on the #DSA: The Digital Services Act will make sure that what is illegal offline is also seen & dealt with as illegal online  not as a slogan, as reality! And always protecting freedom of expression! pic.twitter.com/mUhU84Q9FS  Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) April 23, 2022

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EUs borders.

If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says: By golly, why dont American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers? its going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules elsewhere," Mr Scott said.

But the companies are not likely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank.

He said there is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU, Mr Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its so-called Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EUs General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behaviour of tech companies.




Rep. Hong Joon-pyo

The conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP) nominated Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, an ex-presidential contender, as its candidate for the mayoralty of the southern city of Daegu in the June 1 local elections, Saturday.







Hong, who competed against now President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol in the PPP presidential primary last year, beat two rivals, including Yoo Yeong-ha backed by former President Park Geun-hye, in the Daegu primary, conducted Thursday and Friday, party officials said.







The party also nominated Kim Jin-tae, a former two-term lawmaker, as its candidate for the governorship of Gangwon Province and Huh Hyang-jin, an ex-chancellor of Jeju National University, as the candidate for the governorship of the namesake province, party officials said. (Yonhap)


gettyimagesbank



Erin, a foreign student studying in a prestigious South Korean graduate school, shares her perspective on the word 'grateful' based on her experience as an inter-country adoptee. Ironically, the school of the university that she currently attends has her family's name, Underwood.  ED.



By Erin Underwood








By Lee Kyung-min







Expectations are mounting that Samsung Electronics will be able to report better-than-expected sales in Japan, as indicated by the number of preorders for the new Galaxy S22 series, which increased 50 percent compared to the S21 series.







Whether and how fast the Korean IT giant, with a market share of 9.7 percent, will be able to overtake its second-largest Japanese counterpart, Sharp, which accounts for 10 percent of the market, remains to be seen.







The Korean firm's rise in rank is a notable performance in an increasingly saturated smartphone market dominated by Apple which accounts for more than 60 percent of sales.







According to Strategy Analytics, a U.S. market analysis service provider, Japan's smartphone market shrank 5 percent last year compared to 2020.







Samsung Electronics said the 50 percent increase was for preorders of its latest models received in Japan from April 7 to April 20. Two local carriers, KDDI Corp. and NTT DoCoMo, will provide connection services.







The popularity of the Galaxy S22 Ultra was attributed to its S Pen that features a 0.7-millimeter tip with 4,096 pressure levels enabling both writing and sketching.







Samsung Electronics said it will continue strengthening its marketing efforts in Japan.







It began an exhibition "Catching and Collecting in the Sacred Forest," a joint project with a global media art group teamLab, from April 1.







Visitors can experience about 30 different animals through the smartphone-mediated experience in the new media art.







The firm opened Galaxy Harajuku, an eight-story building where visitors can have a variety of mobile experiences.







Samsung Electronics said early this month that its operating profit in the January-March period is forecast at 14.1 trillion won ($11.3 billion), up 50.3 percent from a year earlier, buoyed largely by robust sales of new smartphones and memory chips. It was the second-highest operating profit for Samsung since 15.6 trillion won logged in 2018.







The company will announce its official first-quarter earnings on April 28.


A CORK mum who beat cancer twice while waiting for a transplant described how her sisters selfless decision to donate a kidney brought them closer as a family.

Karen OSullivan was diagnosed with cancer on two separate occasions while trying to secure a place on the transplant list for an unrelated kidney condition.

After years of heartbreak, she was finally gifted a second chance by her younger sister Sandra Murphy.

Four years on, Karen opened up about the life-changing experience that cemented their bond as best friends as well as siblings.

It comes as transplant recipients across the country champion Organ Donor Awareness Week 2022- taking place from today to April 30. Organised by the Irish Kidney Association in association with the HSEs Organ Donation Transplant Ireland, this years campaign features photographs of people from all walks of life enjoying a collective 410 years of extra life courtesy of organ donors. They include heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas recipients.

Between 550 and 600 people are currently on waiting lists for organ transplants in Ireland. Some 206 transplant operations were carried out in Ireland in 2021-16 more than in 2020.

Impact of illness

Karen recalled how her uphill battle with serious illness began.

The Silversprings native, who now lives in Bantry, was told, before becoming pregnant with her first child, that only one of them would survive. Despite this shocking prognosis, Karen said the reality of her situation did not hit her for some time. Such was her determination to start a family, she decided to take the risk.

Luckily, both mother and baby Jamie-now 28- defied doctors odds and are living full and active lives.

Karen explained it was during her second pregnancy with now 26-year-old son Sean that her health took a dramatic turn.

She progressed to dialysis treatment in 2008.

The second pregnancy was unplanned, she said. When the doctor told me before my first pregnancy that it was going to be 50/50 in terms of whether me or Jamie survived, I still wanted to take the chance. Looking back, I dont think I realised just how serious things were.

Sandra Murphy and her sister Karen O'Sullivan.

Never losing hope

Despite being diagnosed with cancer twice during her 10 years on dialysis, Karen never lost hope.

I had been 10 years on dialysis and was diagnosed with two different types of cancer during that time. This meant that I would have to wait five years before I even made it onto the transplant list. However, an amazing specialist, Dr Sinead Kinsella fought for me and I was able to make it on after two. That was three years after my second cancer.

Dr Kinsella, who sadly died from cancer herself shortly after, wasnt the only one fighting Karens corner.

The mum-of-two explained: My sister Sandra decided to go forward and get tested and she was nearly a 99pc match. It was very hard for her to do what she has done for me. In a way, she had nothing to show for doing what she did. I came out of the hospital stronger than I was before and with this newfound glow and energy, but she had been healthy so came out weaker.

Karen said that words dont go far enough to express the gratitude she feels toward her sister.

Sandra has a great heart. I adore her for what she has done for me. Every time we meet I look at her and ask do I really have your kidney inside me? I dont think she even realises what she has done for me. I can now get out of bed without having to disconnect myself from a machine. I can take a shower without having a tube coming out of my chest that I constantly have to clean and mind. Sandra hasnt just given me a kidney. She has also given me my life back.

The sisters proved a huge support to each other in the run-up to their surgeries in 2018.

I was petrified for her and she was petrified for me. We are an emotional family who are always minding each other.

Paying it forward

Now, the pair is keen to pay it forward by encouraging as many people as possible to become organ donors.

We would love to see as many out there as possible become organ donors because of the number of people it might help. There are so many in need of transplants, some of whom are small children. You cant take your organs with you. This gives people the chance to have a small part of them live on.

Those who wish to support organ donation can do so by carrying the organ donor card, permitting for the inclusion of Code 115 on their drivers licence, or installing the digital organ donor card App on their phone. Donor Cards can be requested by visiting the www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card or to your phone. Readers can also contact the Irish Kidney Association by phone on 01 6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050.
THE consensus on Thursday evening was that Conal Creedons Pancho and Lefty Ride Again was the perfect choice for this years Cork City Libraries One City One Book festival, and the Farmgate Cafe was the perfect place to launch it.

The Cork author has been a Farmgate regular for decades and, if he didnt actually brew his stories there, they probably percolated under those wooden upstairs eaves.

Conal Creedon reading from Pancho and Lefty Ride Again, which has been chosen as the 'One City One Book' for Cork 2022, part of Cork World Book Fest.

According to Mr Creedon, Pancho and Lefty Ride Again is a digitally remastered re-issue of his 1995 short story collection Pancho and Lefty Ride Out, with 11 bonus tracks added.

Launching the festival, Judge Helen Boyle, a long-time friend of the author, described Mr Creedon as the quintessential Cork writer and said the book was a joy to read.

Its a perfect book for One City One Book, which is an effort to get people in Cork, and people visiting Cork, to read a book based in Cork, and Conals stories, as he says himself, are based in the spaghetti bowl of streets around Devonshire St where he was born and reared.

John Breen of Waterstones said the bookseller had been delighted to be asked some years ago by Cork City Librarys Patricia Looney to come on board the One City One Book festival. He said that he had been part of the panel that chose this years book and, after two years of Covid-19, there had simply been no other choice.

Everything about Conal is steeped in Cork City and his writing is steeped in his love of the characters and the history of the town, said Mr Breen.

Hes an amazing writer that doesnt get enough credit and doesnt give himself enough credit either.

This is an absolute gem of a book and it was the perfect choice for this year.

Ms Looney said the festival had run since 2016 and recognition for Mr Creedon was overdue.

Its a wonderful time for us to be back in person and to celebrate Conal, she said.

Speaking to The Echo yesterday, Mr Creedon said he was proud and humbled to be chosen for this years One City One Book.

We live is epic times, where a scuffle outside a chipper can seem like, if not become, a global event, he said.

Maybe its that post-Covid feeling but [Thursday] evening took on a special and emotional significance for me. There was a genuine sense of warmth in the room, that sense of feeling safe among my own, in the context of these epic times.

Angelus to Angelus!, a reading of Pancho and Lefty Ride Again takes place today at Crane Lane, beginning at midday.
OPERATIONS are to get underway today at the Port of Corks new 86m container facility in Ringaskiddy in a proud and monumental milestone for the company.

Port of Cork Company (PoCC) said the new Cork container terminal (CCT) is the largest Irish port investment in 100 years and positions Cork as an international gateway for trade.

This is a proud and monumental milestone for our people and our business, said Conor Mowlds, PoCC chief commercial officer. CCT is the largest investment in our 250-year history. Its a pivotal project in our strategic efforts to enhance and future-proof our offering.

Infrastructure needs

While the start of operations was widely welcomed, the need for improved infrastructure was highlighted.

This strategic enhancement for our city, region, and country highlights the value of our marine infrastructure, said Cork Chamber president Paula Cogan. It is now vital that the Government supports border and customs inspection infrastructure at the port, alongside the enhanced delivery of M28 in order to facilitate this continued expansion, advance connectivity, and signal to investors the visionary and globally competitive nature of Cork.

She also said the new terminal will build upon the already strong trade links between the Port of Cork and the US, and ultimately bring some peace of mind in the context of the global supply chain and international trade instability we are facing.

Fianna Fail councillor Gillian Coughlan, the mayor of Co Cork, said the level of investment in the new Cork container terminal is most welcome and demonstrates the importance of Cork Harbour as a commercial gateway, offering immense economic opportunities for both the immediate harbour area as well as the entire Cork region.

Communication with residents

Meanwhile, county councillors said communication with local residents would be vital as activity increased around the Ringaskiddy site.

Im part of a forum which meets quite regularly with the Port of Cork, including the chief executive of the Port of Cork and their community liaison person and local resident representatives as well, said Fianna Fail councillor Seamus McGrath.

Operations at the Port of Cork's new 86m container facility in Ringaskiddy are to get underway today in what has been hailed as a "proud and monumental milestone" for the company. Picture credit: Port of Cork Company.

That works quite well and, as I say, there has been an improvement in relations and progress has been made on issues identified but undoubtedly the increased activity on the ports site will bring challenges and I would be strongly encouraging that we would continue that relationship-building in terms of the forum that we have and that any issues that will arise will be dealt with quickly.

Mr McGrath said the start of operations at the site underscores the need for road improvements, stating that the M28 project has to be moved on as soon as possible.

Independent councillor Marcia DAlton also highlighted the need for ongoing communication with residents.

I would be very anxious that, important and all as the port is, communication and engagement with residents would be frequent and ongoing, she said.

I think thats the most important thing so that the port and the residents can co-exist as amicably as possible.

Residents will be reliant on the close co-operation, close working relationship, between the port and Cork County Council to ensure that the potential impacts of living so close to the port are minimised, but wishing them the best of luck with it and hoping that the new, modern facility will operate smoothly.

Initially, the new terminal will handle Independent Container Lines Cork-US service as well as the weekly Maersks Costarican service as PoCC continues relocating its deep-sea trans-ocean cargo business to Ringaskiddy.
St Stephen's College has been embroiled in controversy regarding its admission policy. While the DU VC, most of the faculty and students are opposed to the 85:15 weightage criteria, the college administration remains fixed on maintaining it. In a new turn to the situation, the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) students from St Stephen's College held a protest outside the college on Friday, April 23. They also put forth the demand for extra classes in the college.



Speaking about the matter, Sourya, a student of the college, says that the demonstration was held especially to demand the revoking of the admission policy. There shouldnt be such an exclusive and arbitrary process, and already with such a high cut-off, he said. The admission is currently a merit-based process. It has been seen that students from good private backgrounds, studying in elite schools and having excellent marks in the 12th standard are the ones who study in premier colleges, explained Harsh, a member of the KYS.



Elaborating further on the issue, he said, Almost 80-90% of the students at Delhi University are from elite, English-medium backgrounds. But it is a public-funded institution. So, if it is meant for everyone, where do the government school students go? Answering the question himself, Harsh adds, The government school students are unable to get an admission into the colleges because of the admission policy which is unfair to them."

What are they against?

The students are against two things, the first of which is the CUET and the second is St Stephens admission policy. CUET makes sure that only the private school students can clear the entrance and take an admission in colleges, says Harsh. He further explains that the number of government schools students opting for higher education is less and, on top of that, the entrance test was unfair to them.

Scenes from the protest | (Pic: KYS)

And regarding the St Stephen's admission policy, he opines that the interview should be scrapped. The interview is a screening process. It becomes one where the students are assessed and only those from elite backgrounds are taken in, he says. These institutions are saving their elitism. This should be stopped, he adds.

As a solution, he says that DU should also adopt some means to inculcate students from all backgrounds. The introduction of a 20% deprivation point and establishing a portal as JNU did, can be some options, though they are not completely satisfactory, he stated. And another good solution for welcoming more students into the elite colleges is to increase the number of seats, he said, for which the KYS has been asking St Stephen's to conduct evening classes as well.



All for good education

If an institution can provide good education, it should be accessible to a majority. And for that, the seats also have to be increased. Having more students will be developmental for the university as well. And for that seats need to be increased. But this means more infrastructure and more costs. So, we are asking them to use the existing infrastructure and start evening classes, so that the number of seats can be doubled, and more students can come in, Harsh said.



Harsh also added that this demand was not new and has been put forth to the college administration many times before, but it has not been worked on. Currently some colleges like the Satyavati College provide evening classes, says Harsh. The demand for physical classes has been placed so as to provide better opportunities to all, adds Sourya.



However, the student says that the St Stephen's administration is reluctant to roll back its admission policy. The administration has refused to budge, Sourya said. The former principal has written to them, the faculty and alumna have also stood with us, but the college is adamant about maintaining the 85:15 weightage criteria. The St Stephen's administration had earlier declared that it would give 85% weightage to the CUET exam and 15% weightage would be carried by the interview conducted by it for all the candidates.
The Walt Disney logo appears on a screen above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in this Aug. 7, 2017, file photo. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Friday that strips Walt Disney of self-governing authority at its Orlando-area parks in retaliation for its opposition to a new law that limits the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools. AP-Yonhap





Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Friday that strips Walt Disney of self-governing authority at its Orlando-area parks in retaliation for its opposition to a new law that limits the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.







On Thursday, the Republican-controlled legislature approved the bill, which will eliminate the special governing jurisdiction that allows the company to operate Walt Disney World Resort as its own city. Within the 25,000-acre tract, it operates four theme parks, two water parks and 175 miles of roadway.







Disney's special status "was really an aberration," DeSantis said at a news conference where he signed the bill into law. "No individual or no company in Florida is treated this way."







Disney did not immediately comment on the bill's signing.







While the financial impact on the company and the state is uncertain, the change could alter how Disney operates its sprawling Central Florida empire and sour the close relationship it has enjoyed with the state for more than 50 years.







The governor said Friday, that Disney would pay more taxes as a result of the law but did not elaborate.







DeSantis is a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate who has courted conservative voters on issues such as immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights.







With his latest move against Disney, DeSantis is attempting to burnish his conservative credentials by showing he is willing to stand up to what he described as a "woke" company based in California that does not share Florida's values.







Disney initially did not publicly oppose the LGBTQ legislation last month, prompting criticism from that community and some employees. The company later condemned the law and said it would suspend political donations in Florida pending a review.







The law, dubbed the "don't say gay" bill by critics, bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis backed the measure, saying it would give parents more control over their children's education.







Opponents call it a thinly veiled attempt to marginalize gay and transgender students, or the children of queer parents.







At a fundraiser in Seattle, Thursday, President Joe Biden weighed in on the clash between Disney and Florida Republicans. He said efforts to impose such constraints "have nothing to do with traditional conservative doctrine."







"I respect conservatives. There's nothing conservative about deciding you're going to throw Disney out of its present posture because Mickey Mouse ... should ... not be able to say, you know, gay."







While the bill appears to be an attack on Disney and sprawling Orlando theme parks, experts say the financial impact of the legislation on the company and the state is unclear at this stage.







DeSantis rushed the bill through the statehouse, pushing it through within three days of a special session, but it will not take effect until June 2023, giving the two sides time to adjust to the new reality.







The law dissolves the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created in the 1960s to lure Disney World to the state, after the much smaller Disneyland had become a hit theme park in California.







For more than half a century the district has enabled Disney to function like a county government, providing services such as fire-fighting, power, water and roads within Orange and Osceola counties. In turn Disney can issue bonds with tax advantages to pay for improvements.







Disney is a major political contributor in the state. In the 2020 election cycle, the company donated $4.8 million in total, including campaign funds to more than 100 individual Florida legislative members, some of whom sponsored Thursday's legislation, state records show.







It is unclear if the state or the company will be harmed most now that the bill has become law.







The Walt Disney Resort paid $780.3 million in state and local taxes in 2021, according to a fact sheet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Orange County tax collector Scott Randolph said the legislation will punish local taxpayers more than Disney. (Reuters)


An independent group of Amazon workers called Amazonians United is accusing the e-commerce giant of firing four workers in Queens because they "supported a labor organization." According to BuzzFeed News, the group filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board on April 14th, arguing that the company fired the workers for "protesting terms and conditions of employment." The group also said that Amazon made the move to "discourage union activities."

Workers at Amazon's warehouses in Long Island City and Woodsland staged a walkout back in March to demand a pay raise of $3 an hour and the reinstatement of their 20-minute rest breaks. A Motherboard report about the protest noted that the workers were earning around $15.75 to $17.25 an hour and that Amazon had shortened their rest breaks from 20 to 15 minutes. Workers at the Queens facilities also joined a petition that circulated in December demanding better inclement weather policy and the right to keep their phones with them in case of emergency.

This morning, in the first multi-state walkout in the US, over 60 workers in 3 delivery stations walked out. Amazonians United workers in ZYO1 and DBK1 in New York City and DMD9 in Maryland showed what solidarity looks like.



We demand a $3 raise! pic.twitter.com/wIYNUbEAon  Amazonians United New York City (@NYCAmazonians) March 16, 2022

As a labor organization, Amazonians United collectively fights for better policies that benefit workers without being an official union. It successfully fought for workplace policy changes and pay raises in the past. In this particular case, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) still has to review the group's complaint before it decides if it has any merit. Just a few days ago, the NLRB successfully convinced a judge to order Amazon to reinstate Staten Island warehouse worker Gerald Bryson. The judge sided with the labor board and agreed with its argument that the company fired Bryson in retaliation for participating in a COVID-19 safety protest back in 2020.
There's a big chance that Google's long-rumored smartwatch will be called the "Pixel Watch." The tech giant has filed paperwork with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark "Pixel Watch," 9to5Google reports. In its application, Google wrote that the name is intended to "cover the categories of smartwatches," "wearable computers in the nature of smartwatches," as well as smartwatch cases, straps and bands.

The trademark application didn't contain additional details about the device. But based on previous rumors and rendering leaks, the company's first in-house-developed smartwatch will have a circular face with no bezel. It's expected to have a heart rate sensor and other features found in devices by Fitbit, which Google purchased in 2021, as well. The device will reportedly cost more than a Fitbit, though, and will be a veritable Apple Watch competitor. It's also expected to run Wear OS 3, the tech giant's upcoming wearable platform that will only make its way to a handful of current smartwatches.

Jon Prosser, who's known for leaking upcoming releases in tech, previously said that Google is planning to launch its first smartwatch on May 26th. That doesn't sound unlikely, since the date coincides with the tech giant's annual I/O conference that usually takes place in May. However, as 9to5Google points out, Google has to go through a few more regulatory hurdles before the device's launch. Since the device hasn't been spotted in listings at the Federal Communications Commission and the Bluetooth SIG yet, May 26th might be too soon for its unveiling.
Vodafone Idea, a key telecom player in India, risks closure thanks to its massive commercial debt and the substantial levies and penalties it owes to the government. Its exit would weaken competition and hurt exchequer revenues. The government has offered to accept equity in Vodafone Idea as part payment to mitigate this risk. With its existing equity in BSNL/MTNL, the government faces a serious confl ict of interest through ownership in competing companies. Merging these companies would help them and promote policy objectives better.

This article analyses the option given to telecom service providers (TSPs) as part of the governments reform package, announced in September 2021, where the TSPs can turn the interest on their existing liability into equity shares to the government. The government realises the need to preserve competition in the Indian telecommunications sector that witnesses an impending concentration due to wrong policies.1 While the government has finally woken up to the imperative of ensuring optimal competition in this growing market, the suggested solution merits scrutiny in terms of its actual effects on the industry. The Background
Tamil Nadu has done relatively well, for sure, but whether the state presents a model is doubtful. In the wider context of the politics of development, the argument that Tamil Nadu shows that an approach, based in a politics of dignity and focused on status inequality can deliver, by institutionalising an inclusive populist mobilisation leading to a comparatively egalitarian developmental trajectory is not proven.

It has been recognised for several years nowthanks, in part, to earlier work by the authors of this important though problematic bookthat the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu (TN) has experienced a distinctive trajectory of development, and been more successful than had previously been widely acknowledged. The neighbouring state of Kerala has rightly been lauded for its success in regard to human development, while much has been made of the success of Gujarat in achieving high rates of economic growththough the Gujarat model associated with the chief ministership in the state of Narendra Modi has also been subject to robust criticism (Ghatak and Roy 2014). Only relatively recently has it been recognised that TN has succeeded in combining a performance in regard to aspects of human developmentparticularly healthcare and the provision of welfare through the public distribution systemthat compares quite well with that of Kerala, with a record of economic growth that compares with Gujarat. This is amply documented by Kalaiyarasan A and M Vijayabaskar, and the central aim of their book is to establish how the welfare interventions of successive governments of TN, driven by a concern to address social status-based inequalities, are linked to the emerging processes of accumulation and growth (Kalaiyarasan and Vijayabaskar 2021: 13). The originality of their analysis, by comparison with other accounts of the political economy of the statethough how convincing it is may be a matter for debatelies in an argument about how the interaction of the domains of social welfare policies and of economic incentive structures has shaped the development trajectory of the state. Their thesis is, it is the distinctive way that power and social justice were conceptualised by populist Dravidian mobilisation in the state that may explain its developmental trajectory (p 9). Others (including the present writer, in Harriss 2003) have emphasised the connection between the competitive populism of the two Dravidian political partiesthe Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)that have alternated in power in the state since 1967, with their shared history in the Self-respect Movement of the 1930s, and the states relative success in regard to human development. The two authors set out to show that the left populism of the Dravidian movement has also driven successful and, they argue, relatively inclusive economic growth.

So, what is the Dravidian Model? It is an approach to development driven by a quest for social justice, to be achieved by overcoming social status inequality, in this case the inequalities based on the caste hierarchy. The approach has emphasised the importance of affirmative action for those who have historically been subordinated by the upper castes, so as to improve their access to education and to modern jobs in administration and the public sphere more generally. It has emphasised, as welland it is here that Kalaiyarasan and Vijayabaskar challenge earlier accounts of the TN story (as, for example, by Harriss and Wyatt 2019)the achievement of inclusive economic growth, so as to generate many more of the kinds of jobs, which release those who have been shackled by caste-based inequality in rural society. The Dravidian Model has entailed support for education and the health and welfare of those who have been subjected to status subordination, a productivist ethos, and support for capital accumulation, so as to realise the structural transformation of the economy. Concern about land reform has not been seen as being of central importance assigned to it by the left movement, because the aim has been, effectively, to get Tamilians from the subordinated castes out of the villages and into modern jobs (bypassing the agrarian question, therefore, see Bernstein 1996). Strong support has been given, however, to the development of small and medium non-agricultural enterprises owned by the members of the lower castes, and so to the democratisation of capital ownership.
The Indian republic draws its cultural strength from historically evolved plurality in language practices.

Probal Dasgupta writes:

G Kanato Chophy, a Naga intellectual, sees himself as speaking on behalf of constitutional Indians who desire a common ground with fellow citizens. For a Naga, this common ground, he writes, is the idea of a modern and secular Indiaas the truly Ambedkar-inspired Constitution defines itnot the largely elite and Brahminical notion of a timeless Indian civilisation and tradition dating back thousands of years. Some of us may retort that these are merely Naga desires. That retort, however, misses the point. The Indian Constitution is a wish list. Most of its goals have remained out of reach because the desires in different regions of India have not converged. If mainstream Indians fail to meet the Nagas halfway and if we do not strengthen the constitutional basis of our republic together, then the goals that look remote today will remain unattainable.
Despite the recent gains, the relative size of the exports sector remains significantly below the peak levels.

It is celebration time at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The reason is the sudden surge in exports of goods and services in 202122 after registering a decline for two consecutive years. While the exports of goods zoomed by 43.8% to reach an all-time high of $419.7 billion in 202122, that of services rose by 20.9% to touch $249.2 billion. And the total exports of goods and services were valued at a humongous $668.9 billion after posting a 34.3% growth in 202122. However, these surging growth numbers hide more than they reveal. Because if one takes a three-year average to capture the impact of the fall in exports in the previous two years, the growth of goods, services, and the total exports in 202122 slump to 10%, 6.8%, and 8.5%, respectively. These are certainly decent figures, but no cause for any celebration.

Moreover, the surge in Indian exports is mainly due to global factors rather than the government trade policies. For instance, in the case of merchandise or goods exports, the flows initially rose at double-digit levels in the latter half of the last decade and then suddenly plunged in the last two years, with the exports even shrinking by 7.2% in 2020 following the disruptions caused by the pandemic. However, global exports then staged a marked recovery in 2021 by surging nearly 27%. This has also been reflected in the Indian goods exports that rose by a substantial 54.6% in 2021 after declining in the previous two years. Exports growth of the three largest global exportersGermany, China, and the United Stateswas a modest 24.1%, 28.1%, and 23.9%, respectively. Although Indian goods exports surged the highest among the major economies in 2021, the countrys share in global exports rose by just 0.1% from 2.4% in 2019 to 2.5% in 2021, while that of China rose much faster from 9.6% to 10.5% during the same period.
Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine has consolidated EU elite opinion along anti-Russia lines. The days when a plethora of European voices encouraged understanding and strategic empathy towards Russias declared security concerns are unlikely to return for the foreseeable future. The reduction of intra-EU divisions on Russia and the unprecedented level of sanctions adopted are certainly notable, even if questions remain over how long this cohesion can be sustained. Yet does cohesion alone necessarily imply that the EU will emerge from this conflict stronger?

The adoption of the EUs Strategic Compass last month provides some indications. Admittedly, the document represents more of a roadmap to defense integration than a genuine compass or grand strategy. Moreover, in surveying the EUs strategic environment, great detail and attention are paid to the EUs wider neighborhood, with only a passing thought devoted to the rising geo-strategic theater increasingly known as the Indo-Pacific. An EU that focuses on developing the instruments of geopolitical actorness in its own region may become stronger in a vertical sense, but horizontally (that is, geographically) it is likely a recipe for strategic shrinkage. Any strategy must take into account that with limited means, one cannot pursue all goals with the same priority. The EUs ability to embody a third way between the US and China in the Indo-Pacific faces obvious near- and even longer-term constraints.

Furthermore, becoming stronger does not necessarily imply becoming more secure. Even if arms control dialogue between the US and Russia resumes at some point due to sheer necessity, it has become impossible to imagine a return to anything resembling a European security architecture so long as Vladimir Putin remains in the Kremlin. Instead, we have been left with a protracted rivalry with Russia (and likely China as well) featuring incompatible visions of world order, in which Europe is increasingly a mere regional theater. Yet given its relative weakness and its internal character, the EU has a higher stake than the US in the survival of some rules-based multilateralism. The consequences of the war in Ukraine will therefore raise difficult questions regarding how to ensure European security in the short term, as well as over the trajectory of the transatlantic partnership over the longer term.

The European Zeitenwende  turning point  has also, to date, not produced a fundamental shift in the EUs mode of thinking about its neighborhood. Member states remain stuck in the lengthy and binary accession logic, torn between a desire to offer Ukraine (and other candidates) something concrete to underwrite its European future and the fear of undermining the blocs collective standards which might expose Brussels to further accusations of hypocrisy. As such, the EU has thus far demonstrated limits to which it is capable of even reacting decisively to events, to say nothing of developing the collective strategic approach necessary to behave proactively. One clear example of the limits of the EUs reactive approach to the Ukraine war lies in the realm of energy, where a strong dependency on Russia was allowed to build up over decades under the assumption that this would promote interdependence. Putins aggression has now shown that the dependence runs only one way, at least in the short run.

The EU depends on Russia for between 30 and 40% of its needs in all three fossil fuels. Oil and coal do not pose a major problem, as these commodities can be easily sourced from a deep global market. It is thus likely that the EU will soon be able to halt imports of coal and oil from Russia. However, this will have only a moderately negative impact on Russia, since it can sell the supplies no longer destined for Europe to other customers, even if Moscow may have to offer these at a discount. The real problem is with gas, for which the existing pipelines linking the EU to Russia provide the cheapest mode of transport. Russian gas is particularly important for Germany and Italy and these countries fear very high costs if an immediate ban on Russian gas imports were to be imposed. Among member states, there is general agreement on the long-term goal of drastically reducing imports of gas from Russia, but little clarity on how quickly this can be achieved. A gradual reduction, aided by an import tariff on Russian gas is the most likely way out.

The EU remains a young foreign policy actor, its effectiveness and decisiveness constrained by internal divisions which themselves are rooted in differing interests and historical memories among its members. Irrespective of progress towards defense integration, weaning itself off Russian gas is a prerequisite for the EU to acquire real unity and a strong position vis-a-vis Russia. This must be the first  but not the only  step towards turning the Strategic Compass into a clear roadmap, if not into a fully-fledged strategy.

Will Putins War in Ukraine Make the EU Stronger?  Commentary by Zachary Paikin and Daniel Gros  Italian Institute for International Political Studies / ISPI.

The Commentary can be downloaded here
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, the only person besides the governor with the ability to immediately stop the scheduled April 27 execution of Melissa Lucio, refused to do so on Tuesday, although he said he does not believe the execution will go forward as scheduled.

During an afternoon hearing of the Texas House Criminal Justice Reform committee, led by Rep. Jeff Leach, a Dallas Republican, lawmakers pressed Saenz to intervene. More than half of the 150 members of the House signed onto a letter last month calling for a reprieve, as Lucios application for clemency awaits a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott could grant a 30-day stay of execution, but cannot issue a pardon or commute Lucios death sentence to life without a recommendation from the board.

IN-DEPTH: Melissa Lucio could be the first Latina executed in Texas. Family members say her crime was a tragic accident

I would just beg you, urge you on behalf of Melissa and her attorneys but also the Legislature and a sense of justice  to push the pause button, Leach said at the hearing. Make no mistake: Washing your hands of the ability to make this decision yourself is very, very shocking and disappointing.

Growing increasingly more agitated throughout his testimony, Saenz refused to pull back the execution warrant. At one point, he said it would be unfair to the hundreds of others on death row who by the way, are also innocent, with a note of sarcasm that drew gasps from the crowd in the hearing room. He said there was no reason to delay Lucios execution.

Then Saenz clarified: I do not believe that this execution is going to go through on April 27, as he believes the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will issue a stay. Pressed by members of the committee, Saenz finally said he would delay the execution date if a court does not do so. Lawmakers were speechless for a moment, and one asked him to repeat himself.

A jury sentenced Lucio, a resident of Harlingen, to death in 2008 for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. The evidence against her largely consisted of bruising on the girls body and Lucios tearful admission that I guess I did it. Im responsible, after hours of aggressive interrogation.

Lucio has since maintained her innocence, and experts have raised serious doubts about her statement to investigators, saying her history as a survivor of physical and sexual abuse put her at increased risk of making a false confession.

BACKGROUND: 9 things to know about Melissa Lucio, the Texas mom who could be the first Latina executed in the modern era

During her trial, Lucios defense lawyers did not present evidence that would have supported their contention that Mariah had fallen down a flight of stairs two days earlier. Attorneys helping her challenge her conviction, as well as medical experts they have found to support them, say such a fall could have also caused her fatal injury and the bruising.

Five jurors from the original trial have since expressed regret for their decision to sentence Lucio to death. The original prosecutor was convicted on corruption charges in 2014.

One of the jurors testified at Tuesdays hearing: The idea that my vote to take a persons life was not based on complete and accurate information is horrifying  I was wrong to sentence Melissa Lucio to death.

Saenz, the DA, was unmoved.

You keep saying youre not going to relitigate it, but thats what youre doing  Im not going to get into it, he said. At this point, Im telling you that even if I have that authority, I will not do that. Even if I have that authority, I dont intend to do that.

He added later that he would withdraw the execution if a court does not do so before April 27, as there are pending legal matters.

Back in Harlingen

Lucio's sister Sonya Valencia Alvarez watched with tears in her eyes as Saenz said he did not believe Lucio's execution would go forward as scheduled on April 27, despite declining to withdraw her death warrant amid pleas from Texas lawmakers.

Flanked by her mother, Hope, and Melissa's five-year-old grandson, Elijah, Alvarez watched the hearing over Zoom from their home in Harlingen. The family said they were disappointed Saenz refused to intervene, but are still hopeful.

LUCIO CASE: Melissa Lucio's lawyers file petition with new evidence they say proves the mother of 14's innocence

"We were so scared, we are still scared, but we see God moving mountains for Melissa, for us, for her kids," Alvarez said. "It's just overwhelming because -- (her voice breaks) this is April. I believe she is coming home. I know that Melissa will be here soon."

Alvarez said overall, she was disappointed with the outcome of the hearing and that Saenz repeatedly stated he does not plan to make any unilateral moves in the case.

"He has the power to stop it now, but he refuses to," Alvarez said. "We are praying and hoping that he does the right thing...he is playing god (and) he is putting Melissas life in his hands."

"The DA was very much pressured, he felt a lot of pressure," another family member, Diane Cerda, said. "I think he is going to do the right thing. It might not have been today but I think that he will."

Landmark cases

The death penalty in Texas has taken on increased attention of late due to several landmark cases, including Lucios.

Lucios execution is scheduled for April 27, and Rodney Reed  a Black man convicted in Bastrop County of murdering a white woman by an all-white jury in 1996  awaits a decision from the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals on his death sentence.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who advocates against the death penalty, has called for clemency for both Reed and Lucio.

Since 1973, the modern era of the death penalty in the United States, there has been about one exoneration for a person on death row for every eight executions that have occurred, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In addition, Texas has executed 10 people since 1989 despite strong evidence of innocence, the group estimates.

False confessions to the crime have led to 30 exonerations in death penalty cases over that time.

The group also identifies child deaths as a common source of wrongful convictions due to faulty medical evidence and emotional jurors.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is set to be executed on April 27. In 2008, She was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Here are 5 things to know about Melissa Lucio's execution, her capital murder case, death row statistics and more.

If Lucio is executed on April 27, she would become the first Hispanic woman executed in Texas and the first woman on Texas death row to be executed since 2014.

Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to data on the TDCJ website.

According to TDCJ's Death Row Facts page, the average length of time spent on death row prior to execution is 11 years, the shortest time on death row prior to execution was 252 days and the longest time spent on death row before an execution was 31 years. The average age of inmates executed is 39 and the youngest man executed was at age 24.

Information about prosecuting district attorney

Lucio's case was held in Cameron County. During Lucio's trial, Cameron County, District Attorney, Armando Villalobos, was seeking re-election and came under scrutiny for failing to thoroughly investigate or prosecute more than 100 previous allegations of child abuse, stated a report from The Innocence Project.

After the capital murder trial of Lucio, the former D.A. was convicted for his role in a bribery and extortion scheme and is now serving a 13-year sentence in federal prison.

"Evidence presented at trial revealed that from October 2, 2006, through May 3, 2012, Villalobos and others were involved in a scheme to illegally generate income for themselves and others through a pattern of bribery and extortion, favoritism, improper influence, personal self-enrichment, self-dealing, concealment and conflict of interest," a portion of the press release from the U.S. Department of Justice states.

Details involving Lucio's confession

A report from the Texas Tribune stated that Lucio denied accusations and maintained her innocence for three hours and near the fifth hour of interrogation, Lucio confessed to the murder. Lucio has since maintained her innocence for the past 14 years while on death row.

According to the report, after about three hours of denying accusations from multiple police investigators, Lucio began to agree with Texas Ranger Victor Escalon.

"For about two more hours, Lucio conceded to Escalon," the report states. "She said she guessed she spanked Mariah out of frustration, a word police repeatedly suggested to her. She strongly denied responsibility for what Escalon believed was a pinch mark on Mariahs vulva, but the Ranger insisted she 'get it over with.'"

Attorneys in the Lucio case argue she was coerced into giving a false confession with a lack of evidence that supported the crime and capital murder conviction.

Clemency in Texas

Three humanitarian grants of clemency have been offered by Texas governors. This includes clemency granted to Henry Lee Lucas in 1998 by Gov. George W Bush, clemency granted to Kenneth Foster in 2008 by Gov. Rick Perry and clemency granted to Thomas Whitaker in 2018 by Gov. Greg Abbott, according to Robert Dunham, Executive Director with deathpenalty.org.

"The humanitarian grants of clemency does not include what we call 'administrative clemencies,' such as when Texas governors commuted groups of prisoners who became ineligible for the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to use capital punishment against juvenile offenders," Dunham explained via email.

Execution and lethal injection drugs

Lucio's execution date will include execution by lethal injection from the 13 doses, according to the lethal injection report published by the Texas Tribune. According to a Texas Tribune page tracking TDCJ lethal injection inventories, a total of 13 doses have been issued to the TDCJ and 11 of the 13 doses in stock have expiration dates that have been extended.

"Texas has been able to keep an adequate supply on hand, but part of that is because the state has repeatedly extended the expiration date of doses in stock  retesting the potency levels as the expiration date nears and then relabeling them," the report states.

"The practice has drawn sharp criticism from death penalty defense attorneys, who say the old drugs are causing painful executions," the report continued.

Kim Kardashian recently tweeted support for Lucio's clemency efforts

Lucio's case has inspired protests and a petition urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to offer clemency to the 53-year-old. Kim Kardashian recently used her social media platform to support Lucio's clemency efforts.

Kardashian has also spoken out in support of criminal justice reform in Texas in Bastrop County with the death row case of Rodney Reed, according to a 2021 report from The Innocence Project. Kardashian also took action to support a case in Tennessee involving the Alice Marie Johnson case. Johnson was serving a life sentence on drug charges in Memphis. The 63-year-old was ultimately released from prison in 2018.
The Texas Democratic Party is planning to apply to be one of the first states to vote on the 2024 presidential nomination.

The Democratic National Committee recently decided to allow new states to bid for the coveted status, which has long belonged to places like Iowa and New Hampshire. But after complaints throughout the 2020 primary  and Iowas disastrous caucus  the national party is looking to overhaul the calendar to kick off the nominating process in states that better reflect the diversity of the broader electorate.

The Texas party had been considering a bid, according to a state party spokesperson, Angelica Luna Kaufman. She said last week that the party had decided it would submit an application.

Because Texas has such a vibrant and diverse population, we believe candidates that would emerge from our primary would better represent and be better prepared to face the countrys growing dynamic and diverse population, Luna Kaufman said. The candidates that would come out of an earlier Texas primary would be quite a force. And a force is exactly what its going to take to win in 2024.

However, it could be a tricky process and starts out with uncertain odds. Moving up the primary date would ultimately be up to the Legislature, where Republicans are in charge.

States have until May 6 to submit a letter of interest to the DNC and then until June 3 to submit an application. The DNC could finalize the new calendar by the end of the summer.

In 2020, Iowa had its contest on Feb. 3, followed by New Hampshire on Feb. 11, Nevada on Feb. 22 and South Carolina on Feb. 29.

Texas already holds a relatively early primary, falling on the first Tuesday in March. But if the application is successful, Texas could join the ranks of states that vote before March and draw outsized attention from candidates and the media.

Candidates make regular trips to the early primary states and pay close attention to state-specific issues. Their showings in places like Iowa and New Hampshire have been known to make or break campaigns.

Iowa and New Hampshire, however, are overwhelmingly white, and their demographics fueled concerns in 2020 that Democrats were not living up to the diversity they preach. It also did not help that the 2020 Iowa caucus was beset with vote-counting problems that did not lead to a clear winner emerging until days later.

While Texas Democrats can be expected to press the case that the state is one of the most diverse in the country, they would also have to justify its massive size. One of the factors that the DNC is considering is feasibility, including the logistics of campaigning in a state.

Despite the March date, Texas still played a significant role in the 2020 primary. It was one of the Super Tuesday states where Joe Biden accelerated his comeback after winning the South Carolina primary, holding a primary-eve rally in Dallas where he was endorsed by former rivals including Beto ORourke.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Le minsitre de la Bonne Gouvernance a pris part a la Corporate Governance Conference qui a eu lieu le 21 avril 2022 au Ravenala Hotel a Balaclava.

Ladies and Gentlemen

A very good morning to all of you, whether you are present here or joining us virtually.

A very good morning to all of you, whether you are present here or joining us virtually.

I would like to extend my warmest welcome to you all for attending this Conference.

It is an honour for me to be here and address such a distinguished audience for a very timely Conference.

Governance  once a hazy term  has today become of prime importance in building strong governments, economies, communities and institutions.

As a nation, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a shared responsibility to manage our way of doing business according to a set of values with which we can all identify.

The formulation of such values and principles go a long way to help us create the culture and realise the future we want to see.

The presence of a wide interest group here today further confirms my belief that honesty, transparency, responsibility and accountability rank high in your pursuit of creating value for your companies and institutions.

Over the next few hours, this podium will host a panel of seasoned local and international speakers from public and private sectors.

And what brings us here today is undoubtedly the rise of a strong corporate conscience to do things the right way, the moral way in full transparency mode.

I wish here to congratulate the efforts of my team at the Ministry, the NCCG, the OPSG and the MIOD for this timely initiative and for creating such a conducive environment to shed light on current and future trends in Corporate Governance.

I take the opportunity to commend the Board and Management of the MIOD for its continued commitment to governance policy.

Now, more than ever, the Institute plays an important role in delivering on the good governance agenda supporting all the way the Vision and Policies of this Government and my Ministry as pave the way for Mauritius in an era of open, accountable, and participatory governance.

My Ministry will continue to play a leading role in maintaining a conducive legal and regulatory environment as well as foster public and private sector engagement in this common pursuit of effective Corporate Governance.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented challenges to the world and especially to small, trade-dependent island states such as Mauritius.

Our public agencies have demonstrated admirable resilience and supported critical systems and services for our citizens.

As a result, Mauritian businesses adapted rapidly to new ways of working.

Our response was not coincidental and our malleability was the result of the strong culture of governance in our public and private sectors.

As Mauritian businesses cope with modern-day challenges, a strong and sound Corporate Governance culture will be crucial to forging the new normal.

As the economy and the dynamics of the marketplace evolve and change, Board compositions need to be refreshed to bring in new talent, fresh perspectives and competencies that are more aligned with the strategic goals and ambitions of businesses.

The Boards of the future are going to differ significantly from the Boards of the past, and even significantly different from the Boards of today. [NK1]

In as much as board compositions may change, we can all safely agree that the best team members should bond around a sound culture that acts in the interest of businesses and their stakeholders.

We need Boards of Substance rather than Form.[NK2] At this challenging juncture, we need Competent and Courageous Boards.

And Boards need to subscribe to strong Governance Frameworks setting out key Objectives and Monitoring systems for each of the Governance elements including Strategy, Performance, Risk Management and Integrity.

One of the key Governance elements, which is on the menu for discussions today, is Risk Management.

Boards will be under increasing pressure to ensure they are effectively overseeing risk from a social and health perspectives to ensure the well-being of employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

The impact of COVID over the past two years has emphasized the importance of a sound culture and a valued human capital from Board to grass roots level.

In challenging and highly uncertain times, a strong risk intelligence culture is more than ever critical to ensure institutional resilience.

I look forward to hearing from you on this important aspect of Governance later during the day.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The other important Governance element is Integrity.

In the developmental journey of Mauritius, Environmental Sustainable Governance  ESG  should be more than an acronym.

The programme of the day promises interesting conversations on how ESG criteria will dominate Boardroom debates on how to do well by doing good.

There is a clear change in focus from financial performance and shareholder value maximization to more inclusive approach addressing the interests of a broader slate of stakeholders  customers, staff, suppliers, communities and Mother Nature.

The rise and movement of ESG from mere accessories to indispensable priorities is inevitable.

The world is waking up to the opportunity and we need to reinvent our societal, economic and business models to allow us to live in a sustainable manner.

There is a general toughening up of international standards and regulations that drive the ESG agenda.

Europe is leading the way on introducing ambitious ESG-related regulation through the EU Green Deal.

Europe has committed to join forces with every country which shares these goals to unlock the investments that will reshape the worlds economy.

Our countrys main export market is indeed Europe.

Are we ready to follow Europe in this ambitious agenda? [NK3]

Undoubtedly, much reflection and bold reform decisions would be required for Mauritius to meet the requirements of these new regulations.

I can assure you that my Ministry will be an important stakeholder to set the tone and act as an effective change agent for us to successfully meet these new requirements and ensure we are not left behind.

Ladies and Gentlemen

This event is happening at such an important time as we are building a stronger and more resilient Mauritius exiting the FATFs increased monitoring process.

And this is very much related to the subject matter which brings us together this morning.

Together, Public and Private sectors, we have put in place a practically-focussed and sustainable agenda that is dynamic and will evolve as the jurisdiction evolves.

We have put in place a sustainable approach that will be revisited as often as required to be at par with international best practice.

An approach, Ladies and Gentlemen, that drives Governments vision of sustainability in governance matters.

I stand before you and proud to say that we are among a few countries to have launched a Corporate Governance Scorecard which is part of our drive for sustainability.

We have mainstreamed Governance because Good Governance will bring about Good Behaviours, which will result in Good Decisions and in turn, Good Outcomes.

And, Good Governance, Ladies and Gentlemen, means greater transparency, transparency will generate trust, trust will draw investment, and investment will lead to growth and economic development.

As the global competition for capital increases, investors will choose to channel their funds to those countries and companies that have adopted good corporate governance standards in terms of investment protection and board practices as well as applying international accounting and disclosure standards.

I would wish to briefly touch on the current trends likely to shape the Corporate Governance agenda this year and beyond.

People across the world are changing the way they cook their food, the way they commute, the way they communicate, the way they heat their homes and the way they invest as well.

The desire to invest in sustainability is stronger than ever.

The mantra is put your money where the values are.

We expect increased shareholder scrutiny on whether companies are setting suitable environmental targets.

We have a class of more assertive, demanding shareholders requesting disclosure on a growing number of topics.

Ladies and Gentlemen

While investors will certainly pay much attention to ESG compliance, going forward the spotlight will also shine brighter on Board Inclusiveness and Diversity.

There will be greater expectations on the right board composition with commitments to self-assessment and overall Board evaluation.

It is expected that Boards will be subject to more scrutiny on issues such as independence, over-boarding, excessive tenure and diversity.

We are seeing how Boards are introducing skills matrix to ensure appropriate mix of directors.

We must be ready for higher levels of scrutiny and public oversight of Boards and Directors beyond anything we have experienced before.

These are trends in Corporate Governance which I am sure Dr Chris Pierce will be sharing with us today.

Distinguished guests

There can be no conversation happening anywhere without mention of technology.

Peoples relationship with technology will deepen as larger segments of the population rely more on digital connections for work, education, health care, daily commercial transactions and essential social interactions.

In this new normal, it is a fact that all businesses will eventually be technology-driven businesses. Boards need to make sure they are having those conversations and disrupting from the inside, rather than feeling the effects of disruption from the outside.

Old habits die hard they say and indeed we can still see much reluctance from many businesses to let go of outdated processes.

In this complacent if it aint broke dont fix it mindset, the time will soon come to either adapt or perish.

Esteemed Guests

In closing I would wish to share with you that the trust and reputation which our country now enjoys, particularly since we exited FATFs increased monitoring process, has propelled Mauritius in a global spotlight for the right reasons.

Our peers are keen to emulate our governance practices.

Our Financial Intelligence Unit is currently assisting 5 countries in the setting up of their own FIUs and my Ministry has been approached by several jurisdictions for sharing of knowledge and assistance with regard to their AML/CFT regime.

Even the EU is supportive for Mauritius to share best practice with peers.

Distinguished Guests

As stewards of the future, it is the commitment of Government to assist Boards and shakeholders to shape more responsible, resilient and sustainable times ahead.

So today, we would like to hear from you.

I am confident that this Conference will bring us up to speed on the latest international trends giving us an opportunity to discuss common issues with international experts, share experiences and reflect on corporate governance solutions appropriate for Mauritius.

Good corporate governance will generate an atmosphere of collective trust for Mauritius and its corporate sector and go a long way in strengthening the Mauritius Brand.

I am grateful for your time and attention and wish you an inspiring Conference.

Thank you
The Texas National Guard said Saturday a guardsman who is believed to have drowned in the Rio Grande was trying to rescue a pair of migrants involved in drug trafficking.

In a statement issued early afternoon, the guard said the solder attempted to help two migrants who appeared to be drowning as they illegally crossed the river from Mexico to the United States.

Initial reports from the Texas Rangers have determined that the two migrants were involved in illicit transnational narcotics trafficking, the statement continued. They remain in the custody of US Customs and Border Patrol. The statement said the Texas Rangers were taking the lead of the investigation of the incident.

The Texas Rangers did not return calls and emails seeking information about the guards statement. The U.S. Border Patrol stations public information office in Del Rio did not answer calls.

Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said Saturday he was unaware of the guards claim, adding his investigators didnt say anything about drugs. He also said the soldier had not been found.

On ExpressNews.com: Sheriff: Texas National Guard soldier drowns along Rio Grande in Eagle Pass

The guard said in its statement Saturday the search for the soldier will continue until we have exhausted all available resources.

The soldier went missing Friday morning after attempting a rescue in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. Schmerber, the sheriff, said he believed the soldier had drowned, while the guard has said reports of his death were inaccurate.

The guard said Saturday it had notified the soldiers family. In statements posted on its website and Twitter account, it said additional information, including the soldiers name, would be provided at a later date.

The Texas Military Department is thankful to all interagency partners for their continued support in this operation to locate our missing soldier, the guard said Saturday. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family of the soldier.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Border Patrol are assisting the operation, the guard reported.

sigc@express-news.net
When celebratory news reports announced that Texas would gain two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the eminent demographer Rogelio Saenz of the University of Texas at San Antonio began a counter-tally of sorts.

Yes, the 2020 census resulted in two new House districts for Texas (and two more electoral votes in presidential elections). But Saenz saw a loss.

Texas didnt actualize that third congressional seat, he said Friday, referring to earlier projections of what the census numbers would show.

In his estimation, a state with booming population growth, 95 percent of it attributable to people of color, failed to maximize the benefit by counting all its people.

It matters, because census data translates into fairer political representation in Washington, D.C., and fairer distribution of more than $1.5 trillion in federal spending every year.

Data gleaned so far from the Census Bureaus Post-Enumeration Survey, or PES, a postmortem of sorts, showed that the 2020 count missed 1 in 20 Latinos. That translates nationally into nearly 3.3 million Latinos, equivalent to the entire population of Utah.

In a piece published this week in English on LatinoRebels.com and in Spanish in La Voz in Austin, Saenz says the Latino undercount will turn out to be even higher in Texas, though he wouldnt predict by how much.

The census missed Texas Latinos, predominantly Mexican Americans, in areas along the border, throughout the Rio Grande Valley and in large urban centers such as San Antonio and Houston, he said.

Thats likely attributable to the pandemic, its disproportionately deadly impact on Latinos and political moves attempted by then-President Donald Trump.

Trump wanted a citizenship question inserted into the census, and he sought to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count.

Both efforts failed, but not without negative impact on Latinos, who were hesitant to participate in the census. Households of mixed-immigration status, especially, have avoided any activity that could expose relatives who arent in the country legally to deportation proceedings.

The U.S. Constitution calls for all people residing in the United States at the time of the census to be counted, regardless of their immigration status.

The troublesome undercounts are directly linked to the states inaction and its refusal to invest in a complete count.

Gov. Greg Abbott left it to cities, counties and advocacy groups to encourage residents to stand up and be counted, despite their fears.

The governor didnt use his bully pulpit to encourage Texans to take part, which wouldnt have cost him a cent, Saenz said.

In contrast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom put in a lot of money to make sure people got counted, Saenz said. California was projected to lose two congressional seats, but its efforts limited the loss to one.

The Census Bureau put enumerators back in the field for the Post-Enumeration Survey. They interviewed residents in 10,000 census blocks  the smallest geographic unit for which the bureau collects data  and compared the data collected to the results of the 2020 census.

The survey found that the 2020 count was on target nationally, missing just 0.2 percent of the population, or about 782,000 people. But that broad view disguises inequities within the data.

Whites and Asians were overcounted by 1.6 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, the survey found. Native Americans, Latinos and Blacks, by contrast, were undercounted at greater rates than in previous censuses.

The 2020 census missed 5.6 percent of Native Americans, nearly 5 percent of Latinos and 3 percent of Black residents.

The PES also found that renters were undercounted, while homeowners were overcounted, and that people under 50 were undercounted while those over 50 were overcounted.

The Census Bureau plans to release more detailed results from the Post-Enumeration Survey next month.

If the federal agency had good news, Saenz said, it has been in the person of Robert Santos, the San Antonio-born statistician who was appointed director of the Census Bureau by President Joe Biden. He is the first Latino to lead the agency.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio native becomes first Latino to lead Census Bureau

Santos elevation has been seen as very, very positive, Saenz said. Hes a major statistician, very well respected nationally and internationally. He has been well-received in communities of color and the larger population, too.

But then theres this: Texas two new congressional districts will be in Houston and Austin. According to one analysis, the district boundary lines drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature gives white voters effective control of both.

So, during the next decade, Latinos wont get their fair share of federal funds, will be underrepresented in Congress and will be subjected to voter-suppression laws devised by the Texas Legislature.

In a democracy, government is supposed to reflect the will of the people  all the people. We arent there yet.

eayala@express-news.net
Political parties have a way of redefining themselves over time.

For much of its history, the Democratic Party was a vehicle for segregation and racial bigotry. In the 1960s, Democrats recast themselves as the party of civil rights.

In the mid-20th century, conservative Republicans, led by Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, carried their small-government ethos into the realm of foreign policy, advocating for isolationism and bare-bones military budgets.

As GOP conservatism adapted to the tensions of the Cold War, however, Republican leaders such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan called for large increases in defense spending and the aggressive use of American military power.

Through all these political changes and permutations, there have been few constants. But one of the biggest ones is the way the GOP has defined itself for roughly 150 years as the party of business.

A June 1904 editorial in the Springfield (Mass.) Republican put it this way: The Republican Party means business, spells business, is business from its head to its heel.

An October 1923 piece in the Westmoreland (Kan.) Recorder proclaimed that the GOP has been the business party in this government for the past 60 years.

Thats not the case anymore.

On Friday, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, signed into law a bill designed to punish Disney, his states biggest private employer, by revoking Disney Worlds 55-year designation as a special tax district.

Disneys big crime, in the eyes of DeSantis and his Republican allies, was voicing opposition to Florida legislation (dubbed the Dont Say Gay bill) restricting classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Disney thought they ruled Florida, DeSantis said. They even tried to attack me to advance their woke agenda.

The new law will bring economic hardship down on the people of Florida.

Disneys Reedy Creek Improvement District allowed the company to levy extra taxes on itself to pay for services it needed. By dissolving the tax district, Florida Republicans are dumping that burden on Central Florida taxpayers. Early estimates are that Orange County residents will see their property taxes hiked by 20-25 percent to cover the lost revenue.

While its easy to see how the new law will hurt Florida, theres no discernible positive impact that the law will provide to the state. Its only purpose is to give GOP leaders a culture-war talking point.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott recently deployed state troopers to the border to inspect commercial trucks coming in from Mexico.

It was sold by the governor as a border-security action in response to President Joe Bidens announced plan to lift Title 42, a public health order which has been used since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to turn away asylum seekers at the border.

Abbotts grandstand ploy backed up traffic on the border, caused produce to rot and damaged trade between Mexico and the United States.

The border-inspection fiasco cost the state an estimated $4 billion and the equivalent of 36,000 jobs. It did not result in a single seizure of drugs, weapons or contraband.

It was a direct slap to businesses, said Bret Erickson, senior vice president of business affairs for Little Bear Produce in Edinburg.

Abbott seemed oblivious to these concerns. The same way he seemed oblivious to the concerns of business leaders in 2017 when Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed for a bathroom bill that would have prevented transgender individuals from using restrooms in schools and government buildings that match their gender identity.

Major Texas-based companies such as Southwest Airlines, AT&T, American Airlines and Texas Instruments denounced the bathroom bill. They said it would make it harder for Texas businesses to recruit workers. But Abbott and Patrick didnt care. The bill was blocked only because then-House Speaker Joe Straus refused to play along.

During last years legislative session, Texas Republicans went on the attack against tech companies, with a new law that prevents social media platforms from banning or restricting a user based on that persons viewpoint.

It was an obvious bit of payback against Twitter for permanently suspending the account of former President Donald Trump, the Republican Partys current standard-bearer.

Thats the new-model GOP. Using government power to give businesses the business.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
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The two Democratic candidates in a tightly contested May 24 primary runoff for Bexar County judge agreed the states property appraisal system is outdated.

State Rep. Ina Minjarez and former District Judge Peter Sakai also discussed their views on the countys digital divide and efforts to balance public health with the economy in the event of another COVID-19 surge during an hourlong forum hosted Friday by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other business groups. It was the first side-by-side forum featuring the two Democratic finalists vying to succeed Nelson Wolff, who has served as county judge since 2001.

Without mentioning her name, they also criticized the Republican nominee for county judge, former Commissioner Trish DeBerry, for her public disagreements with Sheriff Javier Salazar  who was among about 50 people in attendance.

Sakai, 67, referenced DeBerrys objections to Salazars proposal last year to accept $20,000 in private funds to purchase a patrol boat. Deberry called it a shiny new toy. The issue stirred controversy for months. But after DeBerry resigned in December to run for county judge, commissioners quietly accepted the donation of a $20,000 boat as part of a consent agenda in March.

On ExpressNews.com: Wolff says candidates to succeed him as county judge appear strong

DeBerry and Salazar also parted ways on hiring a consultant to study problems at the Bexar County Jail. As a result, the sheriff and commissioners hired separate consultants to study the facility, with preliminary findings expected to be released publicly as early as May.

We have spent a lot of time arguing over a boat. And apparently, we couldnt come to an agreement that we should just have one study. And thats what is going to separate me as your next county judge, Sakai said during the forum, which was streamed live.

Minjarez, 47, said, voters are tired of seeing commissioners arguing and behaving like children on a playground.

Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

They want to see the work done. They want to see that their tax money is being put to good use, she said.

Despite those feisty remarks, the two candidates were mutually respectful during the question-answer forum.

Sakai vowed to be a servant leader who would use the county judges office as a bully pulpit to advocate for appraisal and property tax reform in the Legislature and resolve a contractual dispute between musicians and management of the San Antonio Symphony. Minjarez said shed use her experience and training as a lawyer, former prosecutor and legislator to usher in a new era of county government, restoring public trust.

I will bring that back to Bexar County. I want to work on the trust issues, she said.

Touching on one topic now at the fore for homeowners who recently received appraisal notices, Minjarez said the state appraisal process is antiquated and needs to be completely revamped. The Legislature has had opportunities to address the problem but has mostly passed bills that amounted to Band-Aids, she said.

Now, with everyone facing their appraisal values and people getting put out of their homes because they cant pay their property taxes, I think state leadership now has no choice but to start actually facing the problem, Minjarez said.

Sakai said he supports some of Gov. Greg Abbotts ideas for tax relief, including an increase in state funding for public education, a 3 percent discount for early payment of taxes and a more open and transparent appraisal process. He emphasized that seniors, veterans and the disabled should have dignity and respect to age in place without being taxed out of their homes.

Minjarez and Sakai agreed that businesses should not be shut down if another COVID wave occurs in Bexar County. But they said businesses would be expected to develop their own health and safety plans to protect customers and employees during another outbreak.

Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

This COVID aint over. Were going to have challenges. And the county judge must be prepared to deal with the issues, Sakai said.

On ExpressNews.com: All of us are at a breaking point on property taxes

We cant have another shutdown. There needs to be a balance and measured approach, Minjarez said.

Both mentioned expansion of high-speed internet as a top priority for use of federal pandemic aid.

This is the one time we have the funds that are needed to close this digital divide, Minjarez said.

Sakai said he would require developers to include digital access as part of the basic infrastructure in exchange for incentives from the county.

Salazar, a Democrat, is not endorsing a candidate in the runoff but said hell work with either one. Its no secret that he wont be pulling for DeBerry, who faces the winner of the runoff in the Nov. 8 general election.

I can tell you who Im not endorsing, Salazar said, smiling.

shuddleston@express-news.net
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A coalition of menstrual health organizations is appealing a decision by the Texas Comptrollers Office to deny its protest against the state sales tax, which they say unfairly and unconstitutionally does not exempt tampons, pads and other hygienic products.

If the dispute isnt resolved on the administrative level, Meghan McElvy, partner at the Houston-based international law firm Baker Botts, said she plans to take the case all the way to the Texas Supreme Court if necessary. The law firm is taking up the case pro bono on behalf of the Texas Menstrual Equity Coalition.

Its just kind of a no-brainer issue to me, McElvy said. (Male) libido enhancers are tax-exempt, but medically necessary products for women are not.

The group, which includes a large number of youth-led advocacy organizations, has asked for a re-determination hearing from the Comptrollers Office. It comes after the agency denied their original request for a refund of sales tax on tampons, pads and panty liners bought by a Harris County woman.

The Comptrollers Office declined to comment, citing state law that makes refund claim information confidential.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

This is just the latest effort in a national movement that kicked off in the 2010s aiming to end the so-called tampon tax.

As of now, a slim majority, or 26 states, tax menstrual products, while the rest do not, either because they have exempted them or because theyre one of the five states that dont levy a sales tax, according to Period Law, an advocacy and legal organization.

States with exemptions include Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In Texas, state lawmakers in recent years have attempted to pass bills on the matter without success. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, who chairs the Texas Womens Health Caucus, has filed a bill every session since 2017. In 2021, House Bill 321 got out of committee but never made it to the House floor  the most progress any such bill has ever made.

Howard credited young women in high school and college, many of whom belong to groups that run donation drives to help low-income people access the products, with moving the needle last year by showing up in Austin to testify on the bill. She said she hopes to to build on their progress in the upcoming legislative session.

We know there are a large number of Texas girls and women who do not have enough money to afford these products, she said. (A sales tax exemption is) not going to go a long way, but its a step in right direction.

Howard said most of the pushback at the Legislature comes from members concerned about the budget. The Comptrollers Office estimated in 2021 that the bill would have cost the state about $42 million in lost revenue in the next two-year budget cycle.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a very small fiscal impact, Howard said. I keep going back to the discriminatory part of it because at some point, you make decisions because theyre the right decisions to make.

Zoe Kass, 18, a co-founder of the Texas Menstrual Equity Coalition and advocacy director of the Period Pact Houston, a youth-led organization working for menstrual equity, was one of the students who helped move the needle last year.

Kass said when she learned about other states efforts to end tampon taxes, she asked her dad if he might know any lawyers who would help the coalition tackle the issue in Texas, free of charge. He asked around and, to her surprise, Baker Botts agreed to help.

I was so excited because I was 17 at the time  youre kind of used to having people not take you very seriously, she said. So its really nice to have people who really know what theyre doing have that confidence in us.

Top hits: Get Houston Chronicle stories sent directly to your inbox

In the coalitions appeal to the Comptrollers Office, its argument is twofold: First, the states tax code already exempts wound care dressings, defined as an item that absorbs wound drainage, protects healing tissue, maintains a moist or dry wound environment (as appropriate), or prevents bacterial contamination. Examples include gauze and adhesive bandages.

Menstrual products serve the same purpose and should fall into that category, the coalition argues. It adds that other products that may not traditionally be considered wound care dressing, such as callous removers or callous cushions, already receive an exemption.

Secondly, the coalition asserts that the policy is unconstitutionally discriminatory because it denies equal treatment based on a persons sex, noting that male-specific products like libido enhancers and prostate vitamins are tax-exempt.

Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank, said the tampon tax phrase has confused some people who may mistakenly think it is a product-specific tax, when really it refers to the general sales tax being applied to menstrual products.

Loughead said exemptions of any kind cost taxpayers more in the long run because governments have to raise sales tax rates to keep up with those revenue losses.

There are other better solutions, she said.

The more economically neutral approach would be to keep the sales tax as broad as possible, so it applies to most final consumer goods and services, she said, adding that governments can still help low-income women access menstrual products in other ways, such as through spending-based programs like rebates or grants.

McElvy said its unclear to her whether the Comptrollers Office as an agency has ever considered this issue before.

It may have just been something thats been done that way so long theyve just never thought about it because no one ever raised the issue before, she said. So were certainly very hopeful that they take this opportunity to make it right.

taylor.goldenstein.@chron.com
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The comprehensive service center of Weifang International Kite Festival, based in Weifang city, east China's Shandong province, flew a kite themed China's space station to celebrate the return of Shenzhou-13 astronauts to Earth after a six-month stay in space at the Weifang Binhai International Flying Field on the morning of April 17.

The kite, whose main body is the shape of China's Tiangong space station, is 3.5 meters wide, 8 meters long and 3.5 meters in height, with a total body-tail length of 150 meters. It has gone through many test flights and been improved for many times.

The kite, which took over two months to be completed, was made by over 20 kite craftsmen from a local kite-making company, including Liu Zhijiang, a fourth-generation representative inheritor of Weifang traditional kites, an intangible cultural heritage in China.

By combining traditional kite-making techniques and modern digital technologies, the kite vividly reproduced the docking of China's Shenzhou manned spacecraft with the Tiangong space station and astronauts' spacewalk when it was maneuvered for different movements in the sky.

The kite represents Weifang people's sincere wishes for China's aerospace development, for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and for humankind's dream of exploring the space.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220422005650/en/

Contacts:

Beijing Jiandanshiji Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Fangjing Peng

yidan@jiandanshiji.com

https://www.jiandanshiji.com/

18514216084
Shanghai to toughen prevention measures as local COVID infections rise

Chinadaily.com.cn) 14:28, April 23, 2022

A medical worker works at the emergency room of Minhang Hospital affiliated to Fudan University in East China's Shanghai, April 20, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

The tally of new COVID-19 locally transmitted infections in Shanghai increased slightly on Friday after a few days of decline, as the city reported 2,736 local confirmed cases and 20,634 asymptomatic carriers.

According to Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai Health Commission, the top five regions with the highest new infection increases from Thursday were Pudong New Area, Songjiang, Baoshan, Huangpu and Yangpu districts.

"Recent data indicated the city's epidemic situation is still at a critical, challenging stage," Wu said at a news briefing on Saturday.

The rise in data on Friday, Wu said, is concerned with cluster transmissions at construction sites, companies in operation, and old neighborhoods featuring shared facilities like bathrooms and kitchens.

"We'll toughen the prevention and control measures in related venues, strengthen self-health monitoring, mass screenings as well as disinfection," she added.

As of Friday, a total of 157 severe cases and 18 patients in critical condition are under treatment at designated hospitals. Twelve died with the average age of 88.2 years old, all with severe underlying conditions and diseases.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Afterparty, a Los Angeles, CA-based NFT platform empowering creators with the tools and community to directly monetize and manage their fan relationships, closed a $4m funding round.

The round, which brought total capital raised to $7m, saw participation from over 25 entrepreneurs, creators, and VCs, including

Paris Hiltons 11:11 Media,

Spencer Rascoff (Zillow),

Jason Calacanis (The Syndicate),

David Friedberg (The Production Board),

Nicole Farb (Headline),

Andre Iguodala (NBA player, Catalyst Fund),

Rudy Cline-Thomas (Mastry, Inc.),

Reade Seiff (Sunset DAM),

Desiree Gruber (Full Picture),

Blockchange Ventures,

Acrew Capital, and

TenOneTen Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to introduce an NFT ticketing platform for artists.

Led by David Fields, CEO, Afterparty empowers creators to use NFTs as a tool to unlock interactive, real-world experiences. These tokens represent dynamic, creative festivals, artist events and deep artist-fan connections.

Holding one of Afterpartys NFTs unlocks access to the Afterparty universe, which includes the upcoming Los Angeles Afterparty NFT Art & Music Festival Halloween weekend with the inaugural festival held last March returning to Las Vegas in 2023. Additional token-gated experiences include gallery showings at the LA Afterparty House, pop-up events at Art Basel, and much more.

FinSMEs

23/04/2022
SATURDAY

Wedding and Event Showcase, 1 to 4 p.m., Greater Jefferson Community Center, 107 N. Main St., Jefferson. Come get information on places to hold an event or a small wedding. Local vendors will be on hand, including photographers and wedding designers. Participants can also visit two sites: the 1854 Jacob Conser House and the historic Jefferson United Methodist Church. Information: 541-979-3652 or amybailey.jeffersonmuseum@gmail.com.

SUNDAY

Corvallis Youth Symphony Association spring concerts, LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St. Willamette Valley Junior Honors Symphony, 2:30 p.m.; Corvallis Youth Symphony, 4 p.m. The performances will include selections by Schubert, Sibelius and Mussorgsky, as well as the Wieniawksi Violin Concerto in D minor, performed by CYS concertmaster and young soloist Beatrice Lobscheid. Adult advance-sale tickets, $10; $12 at the door; available at cysassoc.org/tickets. Students through college and music educators will be admitted free of charge. Information: 541-766-4903 or cysassoc@peak.org.

MONDAY

Willamette Writers on the River-Corvallis Open Mic Night, 6:30 p.m. Zoom. All genres are welcome, but readings should be suitable for mixed audiences. Registration: www.willamettewriters.org/event.

Benton County commissioner forum, 7 p.m., Zoom. Commissioner primary candidates Pat Malone and Helen Higgins will speak. Moderator: Jason J. Dorsette, president of the Linn Benton NAACP Branch. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Corvallis and the NAACP. The Zoom link is available at wwv.corvallis.or.us/event/county-commissioner-forum.

"Holocaust Memorial Week: How Masculinity and Alcohol Fed Mass Murder," 7 p.m., Zoom. Lecture by Edward B. Westermann, Regents Professor of History at Texas A&M University. He has published extensively on World War II and the Holocaust. This talk will be based on his book, Drunk on Genocide: Alcoholism and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany. Moderated by Kara Ritzheimer. Registration: erin.sneller@oregonstate.edu. Presented by the Oregon State University College of Liberal Arts, the Center for the Humanities, donations to the OSU Foundation's Holocaust Memorial Fund, the city of Corvallis, the OSU Provost's Fund for Excellence and Beit Am.

Items for this calendar are pulled from the user-generated calendar that runs on our websites. For further information, write to jane.stoltz@lee.net.

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TORONTO, March 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunwing, in partnership with leading luggage and handbag retailer, Bentley, is pleased to announce the donation of more than 250 new and gently used books and backpacks to the children of Concepcion Bona School in the Dominican Republic.



This comes as a result of the successful back-to-school initiative spearheaded by Sunwing and Bentley in August 2021 to support children in destinations throughout the Caribbean that have been negatively impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Donations were collected in select Bentley retail stores across Quebec and Ontario.

We are grateful to Bentley for their continued partnership with Sunwing and ongoing support of educational initiatives in destination, commented Samantha Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer at Sunwing. The local communities in the Dominican Republic rely heavily on the tourism industry for educational and employment opportunities, and the last two years have meant the need for more support. Sunwing and Bentley have collaborated to donate useful resources to local schoolchildren in support of their educational development at a critical time.

Along with their English teacher and school principal, 25 students from Concepcion Bona School were invited to Royalton Splash Punta Cana An Autograph Collection All Inclusive Resort and Casino to collect the donations for their class and school, and enjoy the amenities on property for a full day of fun. To celebrate the occasion, the students were joined by Sandrine Giry of Bentley, Sunwing Experiences and Nexus Tours representatives, Royalton Luxury Resorts Executive Team including Stefano Sturni, General Manager, Royalton Splash Punta Cana, Juan Tunon, Regional Director of Operations, Spanish Caribbean and Lucia Grullon, Regional Commercial Director for the Dominican Republic, and the hotel brands Talent and Culture Managers and Sustainable Tourism Coordinator.

We are thrilled to have collectively donated more than 250 books and backpacks to schoolchildren in the Dominican Republic, said Sandrine Giry, Vice President of Buying and Merchandising at Bentley. It was a pleasure to be on the ground with Sunwing in Punta Cana this month to see first-hand how we, with the support of our customers, have been able to make a positive contribution to the community.

The donated books and backpacks were flown to Punta Cana on board Sunwing Airlines at no cost, while Sunwing Experiences was instrumental in ensuring a seamless delivery to Royalton Splash Punta Cana.

As part of an ongoing commitment to give back to the local communities, the Royalton Luxury Resorts Executive Team hosts free English classes each week at Concepcion Bona School for 376 students in grades four through six, helping to enrich their lives and jumpstart a new generation of tourism professionals.

The efforts of the hotel brand further reinforce the work of Sunwings Flying Start program, which aims to ensure that students in destinations that Sunwing serves are provided with the tools and building blocks needed for a successful education. Sunwings Flying Start initiative was established in 2018 and to date has supported educational programs in Jamaica, Tobago, Antigua and the Dominican Republic.

About Sunwing

The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing has more flights to the south than any other leisure carrier with convenient direct service from airports across Canada to popular sun destinations across the U.S.A., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. This scale enables Sunwing to offer customers exclusive deals at top-rated resorts in the most popular vacation destinations as well as cruise packages and seasonal domestic flight service. Sunwing customers benefit from the assistance of the companys own knowledgeable destination representatives, who greet them upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. The company supports the communities where it operates through the Sunwing Foundation, a charitable initiative focused on the support and development of youth and humanitarian aid.

About Bentley

With over thirty years of customer service, Bentley has developed a strong reputation for retailing both travel and everyday bags, becoming synonymous with excellence and providing impeccable customer service in over 160 locations across our country.

For more information:

Melanie Anne Filipp

Director, Corporate Communications & Media Relations

Sunwing Travel Group

1-800-387-5602 | media@sunwing.ca

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e0c92d4b-734b-4a7d-8ef9-2332b83b8c17

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9beba79d-ed29-43c3-b5bc-cc740653bc8c
CONWAY, Ark., April 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Home BancShares, Inc. (NYSE: HOMB) (Home or the Company), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Centennial Bank (Centennial), today announced that J. Pat Hickman, former Chairman of Happy Bancshares, Inc. (Happy), has been appointed as a member of the Companys Board of Directors as contemplated by the merger agreement for the Companys acquisition of Happy, which was completed on April 1, 2022.



Pat Hickman founded an excellent, quality community bank in Happy State Bank, said John W. Allison, Chairman of Home BancShares. Pat is well known and respected both in Texas and throughout the United States. Pat has over forty-five years of banking experience as well as an amazing following. As a result of the Happy Bank acquisition, the Board of HOMB voted to name Pat as a Director, and I look forward to his contribution to the Home BancShares Board, added Allison.



I am most excited to be joining the Home BancShares Board of Directors. Home is recognized as one of the elite banking companies in the United States, stated Hickman. Its an honor for me to assist in ushering this great bank into the great state of Texas, and I am happy to be part of the Home team, continued Hickman.



Hickman has been a board member and chair of several community and banking groups over the years including his service as past-chair of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas and the Texas Banking Commissioners Council. Mr. Hickman and his wife Nancy live in Canyon, Texas.

General

Home BancShares, Inc. is a bank holding company, headquartered in Conway, Arkansas. Our wholly-owned subsidiary, Centennial Bank, provides a broad range of commercial and retail banking plus related financial services to businesses, real estate developers, investors, individuals and municipalities. Centennial Bank has branch locations in Arkansas, Florida, Texas, South Alabama and New York City. The Companys common stock is traded through the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HOMB.





FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Donna Townsell

Director of Investor Relations

Home BancShares, Inc.

(501) 328-4625
Pasadena, April 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pasadena, California -

California: Stampede Insurance Services, an independent insurance agency based in Pasadena, CA, is happy to announce its new partnership with Bliss Drive. Bliss Drive is a well-known digital marketing company specializing in B2B inbound lead generation solutions. One of the key products offered by Stampede Insurance in Pasadena is general liability insurance. They want to point out that every business is exposed to the risk of accidents and injuries happening on the business premises. General liability insurance coverage can provide the protection needed by California businesses in case unexpected events happen where the business is forced to spend on legal fees.

Rene Rebollo, a spokesperson for Stampede Insurance Services, says, California general liability insurance, along with your property and work comp policies, protects your business if you're sued for personal injury or property damage. A typical policy will cover those accidents or damages that occur on-site or as a result of using goods or services sold by the company. In addition, coverages can be designed to cover additional costs like attorney fees or court costs.

Stampede Insurance agents can help clients in taking into account all aspects of the general liability insurance package in order for the client to have the most relevant policy available. These agents will help in customizing a particular plan that works for businesses in Pasadena, including the Long Beach, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Bernardino, and Riverside areas. The company is also licensed to offer its services in Alabama, Arizona, California (#0H18184), Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas.

They can also provide contractors general liability insurance and other coverages that are essential for contractors, such as commercial auto coverage, business risk insurance, and insurance for tools and equipment. California contractors' insurance can be quite confusing at times, which is why their agents are always ready to assist clients during the process of choosing the proper coverage for a particular company.

Meanwhile, Bliss Drive believes that search engine optimization (SEO) is a key component of any successful online marketing strategy. If done correctly, SEO can help in significantly improving a websites visibility when a potential customer searches for a particular keyword or phrase. And it is vital to maintain high rankings on the major search engines, or else the competition will eventually catch up and surpass the companys position on the search engine pages. Bliss Drive crafts full-spectrum SEO campaigns after in-depth planning and research, and these are supported by real-world data. They combine proven methodologies and cutting-edge technology with their proprietary approaches for coming up with custom-fitted solutions that are based on the requirements of a particular company.

Richard Fong, founder, and CEO of Bliss Drive, LLC, says, Pasadenas population is just over 140,000, which means that businesses can take advantage of the diverse economy mixed with Pasadenas small-city environment. Doing business in a smaller city means that your reputation is more important than ever. Word-of-mouth travels fast, and the key to securing loyal customers in the area is to establish yourself as a leader in your industry. This is why digital marketing is so important, as it helps spread the word about your business while allowing you to interact directly with your customers.

Having started its operation in 2010, Stampede Insurance Services is capable of servicing clients throughout the nation and are licensed in many of the states. Each one of their clients is provided with a dedicated team of experts that work together to expertly all of the clients concerns. They specialize in general liability, business owners policy, builders risk, bonds, contractors, commercial auto, commercial property, commercial umbrella, and workers compensation insurance and allow clients to save money on their business insurance. They also offer all kinds of personal insurance coverages to clients in all of their licensed states, including homeowners insurance, boat & watercraft insurance, auto insurance, motorcycle insurance, and flood insurance. They also provide condo insurance, earthquake insurance, landlord insurance, renters insurance, and manufactured / mobile home insurance.

People who want to learn more about the liability insurance services offered by Stampede Insurance Services can check out their website at https://stampedeinsurance.com/business-insurance/liability-insurance, or contact them on the phone or through email.

###

For more information about Stampede Insurance Services, contact the company here:



Stampede Insurance Services

888-476-0696

info@stampedeinsurance.com

40 N Altadena Dr Suite 205, Pasadena, CA 91107
NEW YORK, April 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Cano Health, Inc. f/k/a Jaws Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: CANO, CANO.WS, JWS, JWS.U, JWS WS) between May 18, 2020 and February 25, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period), of the important May 17, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.



SO WHAT: If you purchased Cano Health securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Cano Health class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=4271 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than May 17, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs Bar. Many of the firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Cano Health overstated its due diligence efforts and expertise with respect to acquiring target businesses; (2) accordingly, Cano Health performed inadequate due diligence into whether the Company, post-Business Combination, could properly account for the timing of revenue recognition as prescribed by ASC 606, particularly with respect to Medicare risk adjustments; (3) as a result, Cano Health misstated its capitated revenue, direct patient expense, accounts receivable, net of unpaid service provider costs, and accounts payable and accrued expenses; (4) accordingly, Cano Health was at an increased risk of failing to timely file one or more of its periodic financial reports; and (5) as a result, defendants public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Cano Health class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=4271 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

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

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
Paris, France, April 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quick Intro

X-Cash Foundation is a no-ICO open-source blockchain project that aims to create innovations in the privacy coin space.

The community-driven project is based on an open-source protocol developed for Web 3.0 privacy.

X-Cash is listed on different exchange platforms and traded against BTC, LTC, ETH, and USDT.

X-Cash Foundation is a self-funded crypto project introduced in 2018 to create a privacy-centered crypto coin inherited from the cryptocurrency Monero. The project offers a new addition to the privacy coin space and will provide a toolbox for the upcoming stages of the web. The project is currently working on launching Sidechain Payments to make payment transactions on the X-Cash blockchain faster.

About X-Cash Foundation and its features

The community-driven open-source protocol aims to decentralize anonymous governance and offer privacy when required. Developed on the famous Monero, the project aims to introduce cutting-edge features in the private crypto space.





Features

The project is aimed to a reliable toolbox to manage the Web3.0 privacy with its three technological features as follows:

Public or private transactions

X-Cash offers privacy flexibility (privacy when needed). Users can utilize the wallet on the blockchain to carry out public and private transactions at their discretion, ensuring anonymity and transparency when needed. These transactions also offer Privacy Swap and sign private and public transactions cryptographically.

Delegated Proof-of-Private-Stake (dPoS)

It involves staking options where users can provide their vote through XCash staking and get rewarded. They also offer features like Randomized Block Producer Selection, where the forging delegate is selected at random using Verifiable Random Functions (VRF), ultimately delegate security.

Sidechains

The project's innovation is visible through its capacity to onboard user blockchain, and since the delegates host these blockchains, they are customizable, secure, and economical. In addition, these sidechains do not require any hardware. They have automated deployment eliminating extensive coding requirements and are highly customizable. Finally, they are also scalable and cost-effective.

The X-Cash project highlights

This unique open-source project is by the non-profit organization X-Cash Foundation that manages X-Cash. It features the following highlights:

It is an open-source project built by dedicated contributors, and every project in the X-Cash is open to public contributions through GitHub.

The X-Cash Foundation assesses and evaluates proposed project ideas by the X-Cash community to provide funding.

The X-Cash project is funded entirely by the founding team without an ICO.

XCash coins allocation

X-Cash project is based on transparency, and hence, its allocation is verified every time with reserve-proofs. Despite being a private cryptocurrency, users can publicly track project spending.

The XCASH coins are the native currency essential for creating sidechains, smart contracts, and governance. The coins are essential for using different services and products offered by the X-Cash blockchain. X-Cash is currently listed on multiple exchange platforms. Users can trade X-Cash coins against BTC, LTC, ETH, USDT, etc.

From the total X-Cash coin supply, 60% goes to mint, 14.2% to airdrop, 10% to XCash development, 5% to private investors fund and team rewards each, and 5.8% to contributor fund.

Roadmap

The open-source blockchain protocol, X-Cash Project, follows a technological vision of developing core components initially. The company is constantly trying to add and review technical solutions per community requirements and develop essential Web 3.0 framework parts.

The project has introduced features like Delegated Proof-Of-Private-Stake, Flexprivacy, and wXCASH or wrapped XCASH ERC20 bridge for X-Cash. The developers are currently working on introducing Sidechain Payments for quick payment transactions on the X-Cash blockchain. The project will also introduce NFTs, sidechains, and smart contracts, in the future stages.

For more details on X-Cash, visit their website on:

Website: https://www.xcash.foundation/

Join the X-Cash community on:

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/4CAahnd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/XCashCrypto

Telegram: https://t.me/xcashglobal

GitHub: https://www.xcash.foundation/contribute#github-repo
MIAMI, April 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The team behind DCB World  a limited-edition original art NFT created by the most licensed artist in history, Romero Britto  hosted its first Twitter Space to announce its new utility, the "888 Draw." This new format will guarantee a winner for every draw, triggered when 888 tickets are minted, ensuring 33 ETH for three lucky holders.

The Space was attended by Britto, along with several members of the DCB World team, including serial tech entrepreneur Ayman Jomaa, Founder of DCB, Arwa Damon, a renowned journalist for CNN and founder of INARA, the charity benefiting from proceeds of the NFT collection sales, whose valuable work helps to improve the lives of children impacted by conflict. Other attendees included partners of DCB World Chaker Khazaal, Author, Wissam Breidy, a prominent media figure, and Evan Luthra, a star in the crypto and NFT world. Dana Al Fardan, the first female Qatari composer and prominent figure in the Arab music scene also joined the space to engage with the conversation.

Britto's DCB NFT is an original artwork that is elevated by the addition of the gaming dimension that DCB World made possible with full transparency thanks to the technology of Chainlink, the most widely used oracle network for powering hybrid smart contracts. During the Space discussion, Britto expressed his admiration for this NFT collection which he believes reflects the pillars of his art: dreams, happiness, and giving back to the community.

Jomaa, whose passion for innovation led him to become one of the first investors in the metaverse with projects like Mojo Lens, the world's first true smart contact lens, elaborated on the project further: "The NFT serves as a ticket that holds a unique number, allowing its owner to enter a lifetime weekly draw for prize money. This makes it the first non-fungible ticket that never expires. For eternity." Breidy added to his comments that the project will give holders different utilities, such as the access to exclusive play to earn games.

The team also announced that all early holders will receive free DCB tokens. This unique ticket promises access to exclusive events in real life and in the metaverse. Holders of this NFT also have the option to order a physical version of their virtual art.

Other announcements took place during the conversation, including an exclusive benefit for holders of the NFTs from Al Fardan. The 1,000,000th DCB X Britto NFT will be auctioned, revealing an exclusive song by the renowned composer.

For those interested in the work done by INARA, Khazaal also announced during the Space that the first surgery for a child, funded by proceeds from DCB World, will take place soon. This life-saving procedure will be completed thanks to the people who already purchased the NFT. "I can't be more grateful to all of you; partners, holders, and this awesome community," said Damon who is herself new to the NFT and Web 3.0 world.

Watch for regular updates on Discord, Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter  NFT project with high utility.

DCB World redefines NFTs.



-ENDS-

Creator: Romero Britto

Developer: DCB World

DCB World Media Office: media@dcb.world

OBCIDO PR and Marketing: OBCIDO Inc. Katharine Gordon: katharine@obcido.com.

Phone: +1.917.608.0404

Related Images











Image 1: DCB World X Romero Britto NFT Launch





Romero Britto, Ayman Jomaa, Arwa Damon, Evan Luthra, Chaker Khazaal, Wissam Breidy, Dana Al Fardan









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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In a development that has highlighted how much the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is incapacitated, Rujeko Police Station in Masvingo urban is reported to have hijacked City Councils public toilet which is a few meters from the station and is reportedly locking away members of the public who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the facility.

This came out in a full council meeting held at Town House on April 21 2022 when the recently re-elected ward 7 councilor Richard Musekiwa raised the concern.

Musekiwa said the police post has no toilet of their own, and officers have resorted to using the public toilet which they are reportedly personalizing.

Police in Rujeko have personalized the public toilet in the suburb yet it is a council-owned property and it should be accessed by the public not the police to make it their property, said Musekiwa.

He said police have since put a padlock to deprive hundreds of people who ply and stay close to Rujeko A shops.

Ward 8 councilor Against Chiteme also said the police camp should construct their own toilet than depriving residents access to their toilet.

Rujeko police station should construct their own toilet instead of taking over council property leaving the public without ablution facilities, said Chiteme.

Masvingo City Council Mayor Collen Maboke said the police station should just be closed as no such institution is allowed to operate without a toilet.

No one is allowed or should operate without a toilet and those without toilets must be shut down. So if Rujeko police base does not have a toilet, they should just close, said Maboke.

Efforts to get a comment from acting provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Lloyd Masundire were futile as he was not reachable.

When Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Kazembe Kazembe and Commissioner General of Police, Godwin Matanga visited Masvingo in April 2021, they toured police posts including Rujeko and were told that there were lots of shortages in terms of resources in police departments, chief among them being shortage of toilets at many camps.

Officer Commanding Masvingo Province Commissioner David Mahoya told Kazembe and Commissioner General Matanga that the province was faced with shortages of toilets, offices, police vehicles, stationery, fuel and accommodation among other things and also said the case of Rujeko police station was worrying saying under normal circumstances, the station would be condemned as there were no toilets as well as office space.

Literally there is no police station here, there are no toilets, the place is small, officer in charge shares offices with other staffers and no vehicles to deliver services, said Commissioner Mahoya.

During that visit Kazembe said government was aware of the challenges being faced by the police which include accommodation for officers saying concerted efforts were being made to address that but up to now nothing has materialized. TellZimNews
Sergio Perez had a mediocre qualifying session for the sprint race at the wet Imola, but a day later he managed to recover excellently. Christian Horner stated that a place in the top-four would be a good result for the Mexican and in the end he secured third place on the grid.

Ironclad Perez

"With the red flags we were unlucky and couldn't really get to a lap," said Perez, who is happy with his comeback. "Today we recovered and we are in a good position for tomorrow. It would be ideal to score a one-two tomorrow. That will be good for us, but probably not for the Tifosi, but we will try."

Perez drove the seventh quickest time on Friday, but he managed to overtake four cars in the 21-lap sprint race in Italy, and he will be able to start putting the pressure on Charles Leclerc from the first moment. Meanwhile, the 32-year-old veteran will have to look over his shoulder, as Carlos Sainz managed to move up from P10 to fourth place.

The speed of the Red Bull is at least impressive. Especially in terms of tyre degradation, it all looks good for the RB18, but that does not offer guarantees for Sunday. Max Verstappen also warned that Red Bull does not know if they will be as strong on the mediums as the softs.
Helmut Marko estimates Max Verstappen's chances at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as impressive. According to the Red Bull Racing advisor, Ferrari is in fact suffering from the same problems as Verstappen and Sergio Perez two weeks ago. The problems at the start should also be solved on Sunday.

"The graining we suffered from in Australia has affected Ferrari here," Marko said in an interview with ServusTV after the sprint race. The 78-year-old Austrian saw that Leclerc's pace was getting bad with every kilometer."One more lap and Perez would have been past him too."

Red Bull knows exactly what the Italians are suffering from and Marko thinks Ferrari will face a tricky Sunday as a result. "You can only change the wing, but that's not going to make the difference." It is true that tomorrow will also be driven on harder compounds than the softs, so maybe that will help Ferrari somewhat.

Cause of Verstappen's poor start

Verstappen's poor start is also discussed by the Austrian television station."It was in the programming, the synchronisation didn't work," said Marko, who is delighted with his Dutch pupil's recovery. "Max caught up in a fantastic way and managed to make up a point in the World Cup. The speed is good."
The sprint race in Imola marked revenge for Red Bull Racing, but the team will need to carry that line forward into Sunday's race. Adrian Newey explains why things seem to be going so much easier for the Austrian racing team in Imola than two weeks ago in Melbourne.

The Red Bull Racing and Ferrari cars are very much matched, but the difference is in the details. The F1-75 is faster in the corners, while the RB18 gains time on the straights. This is also the conclusion of top designer Newey according to Auto, Motor und Sport.

Newey on difference from Melbourne

"The Ferrari has the best handling in the slow corners, both with the engine and the car," concluded Red Bull Racing's technical director. However, this proved not enough for Charles Leclerc to take the victory in the sprint race.

Read more Saturday in Imola | Verstappen reclaims favourite role for Red Bull

Max Verstappen 's victory draws a big contrast with the Australian Grand Prix, in which the Dutchman crashed out with technical problems after a difficult weekend. According to Newey, the defeat in Melbourne was a warning to the engineers, but the weekend did not provide any direct lessons for Imola. "It's not comparable. It was a different car, a different track and different conditions," he notes.

One area where Red Bull can improve, according to Newey, is in finding the perfect balance of the car. With that, the team seems to have no problem at all in Imola.
Global lithium ion production capacity could reach over 6,000 GWh (6 TWh) by the end of the decade based on current plans, as companies accelerate gigafactory construction in Europe and the US, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Total lithium-ion capacity existing or being built has doubled since the beginning of 2021, following announcements of new plants by Chinese and South Korean battery producers, according to Benchmarks Gigafactory Assessment.

The numbers highlight the increasingly global spread of battery gigafactories, as automakers look to secure local supply chains to lower costs and reduce the risk of trade disruption. While China still dominates global battery production, announcements for North American and European battery cell plants are accelerating, Benchmark said.

LG Energy Solutions said it would invest KRW 1.7 trillion (US$1.4 billion) to build a 11 GWh cell plant in Arizona (earlier post), while Mercedes-Benz announced a battery partnership project with Envision AESC, with plans for a 30 GWh plant to be located in Kentucky (earlier post).

In March Chinas EVE Energy announced plans to set up its first European battery plant with an estimated capacity of 30 GWh in Debrecen, Hungary.

North Americas share of the global battery capacity is set to grow to 10% by 2026 from 6% currently, according to Benchmark, while Europes is set to grow to 12% from 7%.

At 6 TWh of capacity the world could produce around 109 million EVs, although this is based on all the plants coming into production and operating at full capacity. In reality, its likely that around 70% of the gigafactories in pipeline will come into production with an average global capacity utilization of 70%, according to Simon Moores, chief executive of Benchmark.

Of the 6 TWh of planned and existing battery capacity, around 26% is from Tier 1 battery producers, according to Benchmark. Tier 1 is defined as a battery manufacturer that is qualified to supply more than one multinational automaker outside of Chinae.g., Chinas CATL, Panasonic, BYD, Envision AESC, LG Energy Solution, SK Innovation, and Samsung SDI.

The Tier 1 producers led the majority of announcements of new cell capacity in March and April, according to Benchmark.

Lithium lagging. Battery capacity is currently growing at twice the speed of lithium raw material supply. A total of 6 TWh of annual battery production would require around 5 million tonnes of lithium, according to Benchmark. Production of lithium last year was around 480,000 tonnes of LCE.

Meeting the 2030 growth targets for electric vehicles will require the lithium industry to step up production, Teslas senior vice president for Powertrain and Energy Engineering, Drew Baglino, said this week.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that a total of 300 TWh is needed to transition the world to sustainable energy via batteries for heating and transport.
A FORMER Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) Director Ordinance, Colonel Shakeman Terrence Chizengwe, walked out of service empty-handed after he refused to go through disciplinary hearing.

Chizengwe opted to retire without terminal benefits after years of service to avoid General Court Martial.

However, facts regarding his dismissal remain unknown.

At law, he had two options, to go through prosecution or to retire without benefits.

His bosses say Chizengwe chose to retire without benefits after the former colonel filed a High Court application insisting that he had rights to pension.

But in his opposing application, Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Philip Valerio Sibanda dismissed Chizengwes demands for a pension.

Sight must not be lost of the fact that this matter is borne out of Chizengwes acts of misconduct  More curiously, he does not deny that he was facing credible allegations of misconduct, Sibanda submitted.

He does not deny that the recommendation that he be subjected to a General Court Martial trial was justified.

He has no problem with the fact that the proceedings were held in confidence, which thus protects his integrity through non-disclosure of the facts and allegations forming charges of misconduct he was facing.

According to Sibanda, Chizengwe was offered an extension of six months in employment if he wished to undergo a court martial.

He declined that offer, the army boss said. All he is prepared to do is to have the decision of March 1, 2021 impugned and its consequences set aside for his pecuniary benefit.

Chizengwe had told the High court that he was forced to retire under duress. Newsday
The US Department of Energy (DOE), in coordination with General Motors (GM) and MathWorks, announced the launch of the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle (EV) Challenge, a collegiate research and experimental learning competition that challenges hundreds of students to engineer novel technologies for battery electric vehicles through a combined $6-million investment.

GM will provide student teams across 15 academic institutions with a Cadillac LYRIQ, the brands first all-electric vehicle, to develop and to demonstrate technology that utilizes automation and vehicle-to-everything connectivity.

Selected teams will demonstrate the potential of connected and automated vehicle technologies, which allow for semi-autonomous vehicles and advanced propulsion systems to improve energy efficiency. This technology can improve safety along roadways while supporting emissions reductions within the transportation sector.

The teams will also use a combination of on-board sensors and bidirectional vehicle-to-everything connectivity to enable the export of electricity from electric vehicle batteries to other loads such as recreational uses, homes, or supporting the electrical grid.

Teams from the following universities have been selected to begin the competition this fall:

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, FL) / Bethune-Cookman University (Daytona Beach, FL)

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL)

McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS)

Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) / Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, OH)

University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)

University of California, Riverside (Riverside, CA)

University of California, Davis (Davis, CA)

University of Texas, Austin (Austin, TX)

University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)

Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)

West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV)

The challenge will span four years and after each year, teams will be evaluated on their vehicle design and process. Each year, winning teams will be awarded prize money from EcoCAR sponsors to further support the their program.

The EcoCAR EV Challenge, managed by DOEs Argonne National Laboratory, builds on a 34-year history of DOE Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions. More than 27,000 students from 93 unique educational institutions have participated to date, seeding the industry with engineers who have helped redefine the automobile over the last three decades.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Infinium, an electrofuels company (earlier post). The agreement, which builds on MHIs 2021 investment in Infinium (earlier post), will focus on exploring the deployment of Infiniums proprietary electrofuels technology in the Japanese market.

Infinium electrofuels are classified as ultra-low carbon fuels because they reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 97% when compared to traditional jet and diesel fuels. They are a drop-in replacement for fossil-based fuels and can be used in airplanes, trucks, and ships without the need for costly engine modifications.





Infinium utilizes waste CO 2 and hydrogen, which are converted to synthetic gas using Infiniums proprietary, patented CO2Cat catalyst. The synthetic gas is then fed through a second reactor and proprietary production step to convert synthesis gas directly into liquid fuels.

By combining Infinium Electrofuels production technology with MHI Groups CO 2 capture technology and value chain solutions, MHI aims to accelerate the realization of a carbon-neutral society in Japan, alongside its existing strategies such as EV-oriented transportation, CO 2 recovery and carbon offsets.

This collaboration also supports the Japanese governments Green Growth Strategy, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030 (from 2013 levels) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The use of carbon-neutral fuels is expected to play a key role in decarbonizing industries where this is typically challenging such as long-distance transportation, air transportation, and marine transportation, where electric vehicles are considered difficult to utilize at scale.




Greenwich-based law firm Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan is welcoming Jevera Kaye Hennessey as a partner in its Trusts & Estates Department.

She is joining the law firm from Kaye and Hennessey in Greenwich.

It is a privilege to welcome our friend and former colleague to the firm. Jeveras deep knowledge of the law and her well-known commitment to client service and professionalism will enhance the firms ability to provide legal services to our clients, whether in the context of planning, estate and trust administration or probate litigation, said Charlie Pieterse, co-managing partner at Whitman Breed.

Years ago, I worked at the predecessor firm to WBAM, along with many of the same attorneys that I will now have the pleasure of working with again, Hennessey said. We have since collaborated on many projects, which speaks to the wonderful relationship weve maintained. I am excited to serve my clients at my new firm, and to offer them the broad legal service platform available at WBAM.

Hennessey practices in all areas of estate and trust planning and administration and breaks down complex matters into digestible bites for her clients. She advises on estate and gift tax issues as well as creating documents to carry out her clients plans. For many years, she was a regular estate planning course instructor in the Town of Greenwich Continuing Education program.

Hennessey has also lectured on probate and estate planning topics through the Greenwich Bar Association, the Fairfield County Bar Association, Connecticut Bar Association, and other private groups.

We are excited to have Jevera joining the firm. Jevera is an extremely talented trusts and estates lawyer who will provide additional depth and leadership to our Trusts & Estates Department. Jeveras addition is yet another reminder of the firms continuing commitment to the Trust & Estate practice area, said Kevin Walsh, Whitman Breeds other co-managing partner.

Whitman Breed is a full-service law firm with a history dating back more than a century. The firms team of attorneys are advocates and advisers providing legal services to businesses and private clients across a broad range of practices and industries from their offices in Greenwich.

Tarrytown concert benefits Ukraine

A Show of Caring  A Concert to Benefit Ukraine, which was held at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Westchester County, N.Y., raised nearly $28,000 for charities providing humanitarian and medical aid to the citizens of Ukraine.

The event on March 27 entertained a sold-out audience of more than 700 with a poignant program of songs, visuals and stories reflecting the vibrant culture of the country that was invaded by Russia in late February.

A variety of musical genres was performed on a stage decorated with sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine. Performers included pianist Irena Portenko; the 30-plus member Ukrainian Dumka Chorus of New York that was recently seen on Saturday Night Live; pianist Svetlana Gorokhovich; countertenor Jeffrey Palmer; and Metropolitan Opera bass Stefan Szkafarowsky.

Portenko opened the program with Toccata, a lively song by Arkady Filipenko, performed against a backdrop of photographer Jerome Strauss colorful aerial views of a peaceful Kyiv photographed before the war.

Bjorn Olsson, executive director of the Tarrytown Music Hall, then introduced U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, and Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.

My heart is heavy just like all of yours, and Im very angry. But we should also be encouraged by the incredible strength we have seen the Ukrainian people summon, as well as the United States, leading not just our NATO allies but the rest of the free world to bring pressure down on Vladimir Putin and Russia. Weve got a long way to go, but I sincerely believe that when all is said and done, Ukraine will be free, said Jones, D-N.Y.

The Russian military has suppressed the freedom of the people of Ukraine, Latimer said.

This concert reminded us that music is a universal language. All across this globe, music unites us, even if our languages are not the same. The people of Ukraine, desire the same thing we all do, freedom. We believe in freedom. We pray for the Ukrainian people, and we stand by them, he said.

Feiner said it was probably the most inspiring event he has ever attended as town supervisor.

I kept thinking that I want to do more to help. I am sure that others who attended the concert also left with a desire to do more for the cause, he said.

The concert ended with cry of Slava Ukraini! which means Glory to Ukraine!

Portenko has established a fund to help musicians made homeless by the conflict at www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-displaced-ukrainian-musicians.

Purchase College honors five local students

Purchase College is celebrating the achievements of more than 1,250 students who have been named to the Deans List for the Fall 2021 semester, including five local students.

The honored students are Sophia Catalano, Ryan Fabacher and Aidan Flaherty, all of Greenwich; Andrew Alford of Riverside; and Kelsey Donovan of Old Greenwich.

Students in Bachelor of Arts and Science programs who earned this academic honor have maintained a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher. For Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music Performance programs, a semester GPA of 3.75 is required.

Purchase College in Purchase, N.Y., is part of the State University of New York network.

Celebrating the birth of a new baby; a wedding or engagement; a high school or college graduation; or an honor at work? Send information on celebrations involving Greenwich people or places to gtcitydesk@hearstmediact.com.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later.

The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter.

Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood thats home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown.

Bibi Stewart of Anne Arundel, Maryland, was approaching the line to pick up her 12-year-old twins when she heard the gunfire ring out. She said it sounded like the shots were coming from above and at a distance.

They did it right at dismissal, she said.

Stewart said she saw glass shattering in a bridge connecting different wings of the school and she saw the tires of cars in the pickup line shot out.

Theyre just saying theyre OK and hiding in the school with their friends and adults, she said of her children.

Police suspect some of the bullets fired from the high-powered rifle may have traveled several blocks. At least two businesses nearby reported bullet holes in their windows.

Police in tactical gear were seen escorting people  including college students from nearby campuses  out of apartment buildings in the area. Officers pointed their rifles upward toward other buildings and windows as the people moved quickly down the street with their hands raised above their heads.

I had to look in parents eyes tonight who are terrified ... thinking of what might happen to their children, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference. And we have experienced this too much in our country. The epidemic of gun violence, the easy access to weapons, has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school.

Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

We will get to the bottom of this. We will find what the motive is, Contee said. His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community.

The gunman had posted a video of the shooting on 4chan, though police are still working to determine whether it was streamed live or recorded and then uploaded online, Contee said. The video shows people running frantically as rapid gunfire rains from above and the gunman seemingly following them through a sight as they flee for cover.

The University of the District of Columbia, which is located nearby, went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place. In a tweet Friday, the college said there was an active shooting incident near student housing."

Eduardo Bugay, a student at the college, said he was in his first-floor apartment in the AVA building  the building where the gunman was eventually found  when he heard the shots.

At first I was confused, he said, not sure what he was hearing. Then, he said, he got scared.

Bugay said the university sent emails telling students to stay in place. About 30 to 40 minutes after he first heard the gunshots, police came knocking on his door to escort him and others from the building.

A slew of law enforcement officials and emergency crews were sent to the scene. Agents from the FBI arrived in an armored vehicle and the U.S. Secret Service said its officers were aiding police in the search and at the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also assisting in the investigation.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the U.S. Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man attempted to set himself on fire outside the building. The man was rushed by police helicopter to a local hospital and his condition wasn't immediately known.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last pocket of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced he would meet Sunday in his nation's capital with the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the U.S. secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment.

Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy gave little detail about logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results  not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.

It would be the first high-level U.S. trip to Kyiv since the war began Feb. 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country's foreign minister. Zelenskyys last face-to-face meeting with a U.S. leader was Feb. 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A 3-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, officials said. Zelenskyy said 18 more were wounded.

The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening? Zelenskyy said. They are just bastards. ... I dont have any other words for it, just bastards.

The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The command post was hit on Friday, killing two generals and critically wounding another, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said in a statement. The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a Zelenskyy adviser, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it was attacked.

The fate of the Ukrainians in the sprawling and besieged seaside steel mill in Mariupol, where Russia says its forces have taken the rest of the city, wasnt immediately clear. Earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly taken two days earlier in which women and children holed up underground, some for as long as two months, said they longed to see the sun.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, one woman in the video said. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.

Russia said it took control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses. Russian attacks also struck populated areas.

Associated Press journalists observed shelling in residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; regional Gov. Oleh Sinehubov said three people were killed. In the Luhansk area of the Donbas, Gov. Serhiy Haidai said six people died during the shelling of a village, Gorskoi.

In Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas, the AP witnessed two soldiers arriving at a hospital, one of them mortally wounded.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged Sloviansk apartment, Anna Direnskaya, 70, said, I want peace."

One of many native Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, Direnskaya said she wishes Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and that there should be no enmity between them.

"Why is this happening?" she said. I dont know.

While British officials said Russian forces had not gained significant new ground, Ukrainian officials announced a nationwide curfew ahead of Easter Sunday, a sign of the wars disruption and threat to the entire country.

Mariupol has been a key Russian objective and has taken on outsize importance in the war. Completing its capture would give Russia its biggest victory yet, after a nearly two-month siege reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin.

It would deprive Ukrainian of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere and establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014. Russia-backed separatists control parts of the Donbas.

An adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Russian forces resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal plant and were also trying to storm it, in an apparent reversal of tactics. Two days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had given an order not to send troops in but instead to blockade the plant.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.

Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraines National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of about two dozen women and children. Its contents could not be independently verified. But if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.

The video shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives havent seen neither the sky nor the sun since they left home Feb. 27.

The regiments deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told the AP the video was shot Thursday. The Azov Regiment has its roots in the Azov Battalion, which was formed by far-right activists in 2014 at the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and has elicited criticism for some of its tactics.

More than 100,000 people  down from a prewar population of about 430,000  are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat. Ukrainian authorities estimate that over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

Yet another attempt to evacuate women, children and older adults from Mariupol failed Saturday. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupols mayor, said Russian forces did not allow Ukrainian-organized buses to take residents to Zaporizhzhia, a city 227 kilometers (141 miles) to the northwest.

At 11 oclock, at least 200 Mariupol residents gathered near the Port City shopping center, waiting for evacuation, Andryushchenko posted on the Telegram messaging app. The Russian military drove up to the Mariupol residents and ordered them to disperse, because now there will be shelling.

At the same time, he said, Russian buses assembled about 200 meters (yards) away. Residents who boarded those were told they were being taken to separatist-occupied territory and not allowed to disembark, Andryushchenko said. His account could not be independently verified.

In the attack on Odesa, Russian troops fired at least six missiles, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko said via Telegram. Residential buildings were hit. It is already known about one victim. He burned in his car in a courtyard of one of the buildings.

Zelenskyy's news conference was held in a Kyiv subway station, where he paused at one point as a train noisily passed through. The subway system, which includes the worlds deepest station, attracted widespread attention early in the war when hordes of people took shelter there.

Regarding the expected visit Sunday by U.S. officials, Zelenskyy said: I believe that we will be able to get agreements from the United States or part of that package on arming Ukraine which we agreed on earlier. Besides, we have strategic questions about security guarantees, which it is time to discuss in detail, because the United States will be one of those leaders of security countries for our state.

___

Fisch reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Associated Press staff members around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will return to the House chamber Sunday to deliver his annual State of the State address in front of lawmakers at the Capitol for the first time since the COVID-19 began.

The Democratic governor's address will be the last of his first term before facing a stiff challenge from Republicans in the November election. He's expected to use the address to thank a whole lot of Minnesotans for braving the worst of the pandemic before highlighting his budget plans and calling for compromise in the divided Legislature to end the session.

In 2020, Walz taped a shortened version of his annual address from the governor's mansion in St. Paul. He delivered the 2021 address from a classroom at Mankato West High School, where he was a teacher before being elected to the U.S House.

The governor is expected to highlight his proposed supplemental budget plan, which includes direct payments, dubbed Walz checks, of $500 to single filers and $1,000 to joint filers. His proposal also includes a $2.7 billion infrastructure package, in addition to tax, education and public safety spending.

The address comes as lawmakers head into the home stretch of the legislative session, where they must figure out how to use the state's $9.25 billion budget surplus and more than $1 billion in federal pandemic funds. The divided chambers remain far apart on spending and policy items weeks before the May 23 adjournment. The GOP-controlled Senate is pushing for permanent income tax cuts, while House Democrats are seeking targeted tax credits and increases in spending.

Legislative leaders also remain deadlocked on whether to replenish the state's unemployment insurance trust fund and pay back the federal government for jobless aid during the pandemic, causing an automatic tax increase on employers statewide after lawmakers missed a March 15 deadline. Senate Republicans want to use $2.7 billion to refill the trust fund. But House Democrats have tied that to a $1 billion proposal for $1,500 checks to front-line workers who braved the pandemic, up from $250 million agreed to by both sides last year that wasn't doled out.

Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, told reporters Thursday that legislative leaders expect to resume negotiations Monday. Shes optimistic they can reach a deal by April 30, which is tax payments are due for employers.

Walz has criticized the Legislature for not yet reaching an agreement and said he will provide a path forward during his address.

Im going to call for us to get that done, Walz told reporters Wednesday. Because the deadline is truly upon us, and its simply fiscally irresponsible not to deal with it.

A spokeswoman for Senate Republicans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

___

Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Its tini time. Photo: Scott Semler; Prop Styling: Adrian Ababovic

This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

Ive been attending quite a bit of theater over the past few months, and thankfully its not because I have friends who went to Tisch. Instead, the performance Ive seen is the carefully rehearsed sound of martini orders followed by the tang of metal cards on bars and tables across New York City. And the more I see it, the more I realize that something interesting happened between the sober-curious boom of last summer and the vodka-laden, cigarette smoke-filled lines that have been forming outside of New Yorks bars and restaurants this spring.

Historically, martinis are a drink of gravitas for me, conjuring images of tailored suits, men with money clips and thick stacks of cash, or my dad after work at the bar of a Chinese restaurant waiting for our familys takeout order. But the martini culture Ive been observing recently looks nothing like this. Im talking about tables of friends around burgers and French fries, sloshing back martinis in front of the flash of phone cameras. Twenty-somethings ordering another round at happy hour (a death wish, if you ask me). Massive batched martinis at spring kickbacks (another death wish). Ordering a martini has become an activity, something that someone does as much as something that someone drinks.

You are not wrong about this martini thing, Toby Cecchini, the owner of Brooklyns Long Island Bar says. It caught everybody unaware. In the same way that years ago all these 20-year-olds were ordering old-fashioneds all of a sudden. We went from making four or five of those for older customers a year to every kid across the bar ordering old-fashioneds without any idea of what they were. I was like What the hell is going on? and everyone was like Oh, its this show Mad Men. But where is the martini coming from? Complete blowback from the pandemic.

Every day, Cecchini gets a printout of the numbers the bar did the night before. For years, it was a battle between the Long Island Gimlet (a light lime drink) and the Dolores Del Rio (a play on a spicy margarita). Suddenly, six months ago, the martini was wiping everything out. I was like, Oh my God, we did 71 martinis last night? And 36 gimlets? I recently turned to my business partner and was like, I guess were just a martini bar now. I watch these kids hammering martinis and Im like, good Lord.

The timelessness of the drink is certainly playing its part in this recent martini boom: Last weekend I was at a house party and met Isabela Weeks, a self-proclaimed party girl and artist who mused on the martini renaissance between sips of a neon-green Celsius energy drink and tequila (its all that was left on the bar). I noticed a shift last year where people were becoming more mindful of their health and wellness, which I suspect was in relation to the pandemic and a widely felt lack of purpose and direction, she explained. But now, as nightlife has been restored to its original glory, it seems that once again we have shifted to a period of excess and pleasure-seeking, a no thoughts, head empty philosophy of life. We want to be sexy again  go to sexy dinners, kiss our sexy friends, and drink sexy drinks. Or rather, we want to seem sexy. This resonated, as I myself had been toying with hot-girl mantras in group texts to the point where I debated if it was still a bit, or just my life.

Weekss party-girl consensus is as follows: Espresso martinis have been deemed basic, vodka cranberries trigger war flashbacks to the trenches of Meatpacking, and Cosmopolitans are a dead giveaway that you believe that you are Carrie Bradshaw. Martinis are for people that believe they are Carrie Bradshaw, but have enough sense to be embarrassed by it.

She adds that a martini order means something other drink orders do not: I often order martinis around people who I want to believe that I am interesting. And while the drinks exude sophistication, they are pretty boozy, which means that you can get drunk pretty quickly, and it in turn saves money  great for a girl on a budget who wants to give the illusion that she knows the ways of the world. (Later that night, I ordered a martini at the Nines, where the party had moved, and I delighted in swirling an icy olive around my mouth while people watched. When I woke up the next day, I saw dozens of Instagram Stories from strangers who also ordered martinis that night.)

Call some friends. Have some fun. Photo: Scott Semler; Prop Styling: Adrian Ababovic

Martinis are also a move away from the whole natural-wine bonanza of a few years ago, a drink that offered some kind of higher moral imperative of being closer to the land and less processed or whatever. Martinis offer no such sanctimoniousness: Theyre not good for you, theyre just good, posits chef and entrepreneur Jonah Reider. A martini is judged on the execution: so impossibly ice cold its surprising its not solid, one elegant garnish, dangerously filled to the top of the most inconvenient un-ergonomic glass shape of all time  and preferably with leftover martini sitting in a spillover cup sitting on ice.

But even the elegance of the classic martini service sometimes takes a backseat. I recently third-wheeled a date with Will Ryan and Emily Schultz, where they showed me a photo of a water bottle of martinis that they served at a party. It both terrified and amazed me.

I think coming out of the pandemic there was this idea that we were going to somehow reinvent social interaction because we hadnt seen each other for so long, Ryan, a beverage professional, told me. Wellness culture thrives online and not in the real world, where people are stressed and want an actual escape that is not their Calm App. A lethal martini is the perfect antidote: Its everything that we werent raised on: Its salty, savory, and able to get you shit-faced, quick. This is such an escape from the sweet alcoholic drinks of our past and the seltzers of pre-pandemic.

In times like these, I call Al Culliton, a writer and cocktail historian based in Massachusetts. Youre right, martinis are everywhere right now! they told me. The martini is similar in its iconic status to New York itself  when you think of either, dozens, nay hundreds, of images swirl in your mind. But how historically accurate are the images? The answer is that it doesnt matter! Its just as interesting to understand how history is perceived as it is to actually know the ins and outs of a historical period.

This overall sense of yearning, for a supreme romance with New York or anything else, is something Ive observed recently as well. I find people in my world are discovering life is more malleable than they once thought, which can result in surprising life decisions, like breakups or converting to Catholicism or getting plastered on martinis on a Wednesday because were all still working from home and we can just turn off the camera on Zoom.

I think it is a perfect pressure valve for everything people are feeling, Cecchini predicts. Everywhere you look you see war, you hear keep your mask on, or dont keep your mask on  people are tired of toeing lines. Theyre just like, Give me something that transgresses the bounds. Cecchini, too, knows that ordering a martini is an attempt to capture some sort of classic romance: The martini harkens back to so many things that were so solid and representationally correct. You dont have to think about it. Its a big solid punch in the face and sometimes thats just what you need.

One Great Story: A Nightly Newsletter for the Best of New York The one story you shouldnt miss today, selected by New Yorks editors. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.
A couple of days ago the full specs of vivo's upcoming X80 Pro leaked, and today the vanilla X80 has received the same treatment. Not just that, but we have some renders of the phone to go with the specs too.

The X80 is said to come with a 6.78-inch 1080p 120 Hz AMOLED touchscreen with an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC at the helm, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 256 or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, and a 32 MP front-facing camera.

On the rear there's a triple camera system, with a 50 MP 1/1.56" main sensor with f/1.75 aperture, a 12 MP ultrawide, and a 12 MP "portrait telephoto" (so most likely 2x zoom). The phone measures 165 x 75.2 x 8.3 mm, and weighs 205g. It will run OriginOS Ocean with Android 12 underneath. The battery is a 4,500 mAh unit with support for 80W wired charging.

Compared to the Pro, the vanilla X80 has the same size screen but it's lower-res, while the battery is 200 mAh smaller. It also seems likely, based on the most recent rumors, that the Pro employs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

The X80 foregoes wireless charging support unlike its Pro sibling, and the rear camera system is different too - with the only shared camera between the two seemingly being the 12 MP portrait shooter. The X80 Pro has a 50 MP main sensor too, but with an f/1.57 aperture, and there's also a 48 MP ultrawide as well as an 8 MP periscope zoom lens.

The X80 series will debut vivo's newly improved V1+ dedicated imaging chip, which is the first such piece of silicon to work with high-end SoCs from both Qualcomm and MediaTek. The phones will be made official at an event on April 25.

Source




Haiti - Politic : 3rd high level meeting of international partners on Haiti





In a note, the United States Department of State informs that Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, participated to a senior-level international partners meeting on Haiti on April 21. Hosted by France, this meeting convened international partner countries and international organizations for the third time in the past four months in support of progress on the challenges facing Haiti. Participants encouraged political accord among Haitian actors so elections can take place as soon as conditions permit.



This meeting also reaffirms our efforts in providing advisory support, training, and other resources to the Haitian National Police (HNP). In addition to deploying additional trainers and refurbishing HNP training facilities, the United States has delivered 60 new vehicles to the PNH.



We are working with PNH leadership to develop an elite unit capable of high-impact arrests and anti-gang operations, as well as expand its community policing efforts to regain the trust of citizens in gang-affected neighborhoods.



We commend our partners who have also contributed to building the operational capacity of the HNP. We continue to work with international partners and organizations to support Haitis response to complex security challenges.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - NOTICE : Text contest on the thought of Jacques Stephen Alexis





As part of the centenary of the birth of Jacques Stephen Alexis (born April 22, 1922), "Ayiti bel", the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation (FOKAL), the International Center for Haitian, Caribbean and Afro-Canadian Documentation and Information (CIDIHCA) and the Haitian Society of History, Geography and Geology, are launching a text contest to mark the thinking of our great world-famous writer and encourage the discovery and reading of his works.



This competition is open to the general population in Haiti and more particularly to young people, including students of the new secondary 3-NS 3 (rheto) and new secondary-NS 4 (philo).



No prior registration or fees are required.



Candidates must compete with a single unpublished text, not yet published or in the process of being published, on one of the following three subjects:



Subject 1 :

How can Jacques Stephen Alexis, through his life and/or his work, help us to experience or understand what Haiti has become today ?



Subject 2 :

Why should the novels and other stories of Jacques Stephen Alexis constitute fundamental reading for secondary school students in Haiti ?



Subject 3 :

Show how Jacques Stephen Alexis succeeded in reconciling in his work a strong indigenist, nationalist tendency with a universalist humanism.



The works will be received, only by email on: AyitiBel@AyitiBel.org no later than June 22, 2022 inclusive.



Download the competition criteria and conditions (PDF) : https://fokal.org/images/nouvel_fokal/2022/Avril_2022/RE%CC%80GLEMENTS_-_APPEL_A%CC%80_LA_PENSE%CC%81E.pdf



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Forbidden to fly, small planes visible in the sky

While the National Office of Civil Aviation (OFNAC) banned the flight of private aircraft until further notice https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36488-haiti-news-zapping.html after the crash on April 20 of a small plane Cesna-207 on the rail road (commune of Carrefour) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36473-haiti-flash-a-small-plane-crashes-in-a-street-of-carrefour-11-victims.html several witnesses report having seen small planes continue to fly over Jacmel.



Impossible elections according to Andre Michel

Thursday, April 21 at a press conference, Me Andre Michel, spokesperson for the radical opposition known as the "Democratic and Popular Sector", who signed the "Political Agreement for a Peaceful and Effective Governance of the Interim Period" on September 11 with the executive https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34802-haiti-flash-the-political-agreement-of-the-pm-published-in-the-official-journal-full-text.html estimated that the elections are not possible in Haiti until the country is free of gangs.



Archahaie : Torrential rains partial assessment

The torrential rains that fell on the town of Arcahaie caused flooding in the Matheux region. Provisional assessment: one dead, heads of cattle washed away by the waters and devastated plantations.



New vote of Haiti against Russia

Haiti voted at the Organization of American States (OAS) for the suspension of Russia as an observer in the Permanent Council of the Organization because of the war in Ukraine. 25 countries voted for, 0 against and 8 abstentions including Brazil, Argentina, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mexico. This is the second sanction of Haiti after the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council (HRC) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36387-haiti-news-zapping.html



Quebec : Donation of 11 cameras to the Jacmel film institute

As part of a partnership between the cinema department of the CEGEP de Saint-Laurent (Quebec) and the Jacmel artists' institute. The CEGEP will donate 11 cameras to the cinema division of the institute, which is facing financial difficulties. The CEGEP having renewed its cameras, the old cameras in perfect working order will be sent to Haiti in order to allow more Haitians to learn the workings of the 7th Art.



Cesna-207 crash, OFNAC and ANN sued ?

The former member of the 47th Legislature Wilnet Content (1st district of Jacmel) says he is ready to hire a law firm in the USA in favor of people whose relatives lost their lives in Carrefour in the crash on April 20 of a small Cesna-207 plane on the road des rails (commune of Carrefour) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36473-haiti-flash-a-small-plane-crashes-in-a-street-of-carrefour-11-victims.html and who flew without insurance or commercial license This complaint will be filed against the National Office of Civil Aviation (OFNAC) and the National Airport Authority (AAN) for negligence.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
Judge rejects appeal of Shepherd license revocation

The path to saving the Thos. Shepherd & Son funeral home and cemetery business continued to narrow this week with a pair of decisive courtroom losses for the businesss attorney.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge William Coward rejected an appeal by Shepherd attorney Michael Edney of the order in December that shut down the funeral home, revoked the funeral director license of the late Thomas R. Tom Shepherd and revoked the crematory manager permit of his wife, Melody Shepherd.

In a sweeping win for the N.C. Board of Funeral Service, Coward dismissed Edneys petition for judicial review of the revocation order, denied his motion to temporarily block the revocation pending appeal, ordered the business to:

Cease and desist all copying, downloading and retaining of active pre-need contracts"

Turn over to the board all records of the contracts

Destroy all electronic and hard copies after the transfer is complete



Were pleased that the court give it careful and thoughtful consideration, Catherine E. Lee, general counsel for the regulatory agency, said outside the Transylvania County Courthouse after the hearing concluded. Well be getting the files back to make sure that consumers are protected. I think the consumers are the winners here.

The Board of Funeral Service had its own copies of the preneed contracts because funeral homes are required to file with them with the agency. But Lee and the agencys director say they need any supporting files or other documents the funeral home might have retained. Although Edney said in a hearing before Judge Coward on Feb. 14 that he intended to drop his appeal of the revocation and turn over the preneed contracts, that never happened. Instead, Edney renewed his effort to appeal the revocation order. On Tuesday he argued that the judge should honor the constitutional property rights that we have in those contracts.

The state board first offered the 550 preneed contracts to Jackson Funeral Service based solely on the fact that it was the closest funeral home to the Shepherd business on South Church Street. When owner Jay Jackson turned them down, the contracts went to Shuler Forest Lawn. (Under the law, consumers have the right to transfer preneed contracts themselves to whatever funeral business they choose.)

Edney told Judge Coward said that he has a letter of intent from another funeral home that wants to buy the funeral home. Edney said that he told the Board of Funeral Service on March 9 that we had a potential buyer.

Instead of granting him more time, they go behind my back and go behind the courts back and take the contracts and give them to someone else, he said. The court should not allow the board to continue to violate the rights and laws by assigning the contracts to the company that one of the board members sits on. It doesnt pass the smell test.

Edney argued that the revocation ought to be vacated because Tom Shepherd died on Dec. 31. Further, he argued that the hearing via Zoom last November took place with no attorney present representing Tom and Melody Shepherd and at a time Tom Shepherd was on his death bed and unable to participate.

The day after Cowards ruling in favor of the funeral service board, Judge Marvin Pope dealt the Shepherd business another setback, impounding the 30-acre Shepherd Memorial Park and appointing a receiver to manage, control and administer all property, business, finances and affairs of the cemetery. The Shepherd corporation shall not manage or administer the affairs of the cemetery, Pope said in his order.
Xiplomacy: Xi's vision a significant contribution to global security governance

Xinhua) 15:44, April 23, 2022

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday proposed a Global Security Initiative to promote security for all in the world, further enriching the global security governance with Chinese wisdom.

In a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, Xi called for staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work together to maintain world peace and security.

Xi has put forward his thoughts and vision on security governance on multiple occasions, some of which were reflected in the set of books "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

As the world is marking the World Book Day 2022 on Saturday, it is of special significance to refer to the classic set of books and review the highlights of Xi's thoughts in this regard.

On Jan. 28, 2013

"The Chinese nation loves peace," Xi said at the third group study session of the Political Bureau of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

"To abolish war and achieve peace has been the most pressing and profound aspiration of the Chinese people since the advent of modern times," he said, adding that "what we abhor is turbulence, what we want is stability and what we hope to see is world peace."

"Whether we will succeed in our pursuit of peaceful development to a large extent hinges on whether we can turn opportunities in the rest of the world into China's opportunities and China's opportunities into those for the rest of the world so that China and other countries can engage in sound interactions and make mutually beneficial progress," he said.

On March 24, 2014

In a speech at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Xi said, "We must follow the approach of enhancing security for the sake of development and promoting development by upholding security, and bring the goals of development and security in alignment with each other."

"We need to foster a peaceful and stable international environment, encourage harmonious and friendly relations between countries, and conduct exchanges among different civilizations in an amicable and open-minded manner," he said.

On May 19, 2014

"Seeking political solutions is the right path to address the seemingly endless sequence of international flashpoints," Xi said in talks with then United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"Exerting pressure won't work, and external military intervention will make things worse," noted the Chinese president, stressing that both the UN and the rest of the international community should adhere to political solutions to all conflicts.

Jan. 17, 2017

"Today, mankind has become a close-knit community of shared future. Countries have extensive converging interests and are mutually dependent. All countries have the right to development. At the same time, they should view their own interests in a broader context and refrain from pursuing their interests at the expense of others," Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos.

"Countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are all equal members of the international community. As such, they are entitled to participate in decision-making, enjoy rights, and fulfill obligations on an equal basis," Xi said, noting that "emerging markets and developing countries deserve greater representation and voice."

Jan. 18, 2017

In a speech at the UN office at Geneva, Xi pointed out, "Sovereign equality has been the most important norm governing state-to-state relations over the past centuries, and the cardinal principle observed by the United Nations and its agencies and institutions."

"The essence of sovereign equality is that the sovereignty and dignity of all countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, must be respected; their internal affairs brook no interference, and they have the right to independently choose their social system and development path."

"When we have sincerity, goodwill, and political wisdom, no conflict is too big to settle and no ice is too thick to break," Xi noted.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
Hill College Board of Regents March 2022 meeting summary

Jessyca Brown

Friday, April 1st, 2022 1:38 PM

Academics, General Events

Hillsboro, TX

The Hill College Board of Regents met Tuesday, March 22, 2022, for their monthly meeting.

Board President David Teel called the meeting to order at 11:01 a.m.

Regent Bill Galiga gave the invocation.

Minutes from the February 2022 regular meeting and closed session and minutes from the March 1, 2022, special called meeting were reviewed. Regent Jolene Lehmann moved to approve the minutes and Regent Bill Auvenshine seconded. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Dr. Pam Boehm gave the Presidents Report:

Presidents Report was included in the email brief.

Dr. William Auvenshine Library open house event on March 24 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

The Performing Arts Series: The Stoneleighs, a Rolling Stones tribute band, will perform March 24 at 7:30 p.m. with a reception to follow honoring Dr. Boehm.

Hill College Rodeo is March 25 & 26 at the Hill College Rodeo Grounds.

Boots and Suits is April 7 at The James event center in Joshua. Tickets are $60, as well as various sponsorship levels.

Board President Teel presented Consideration of Cancellation of Election. Regent Auvenshine made a motion to cancel the election with no opposing candidates. Regent Allan Lane seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Billy Don Curbo presented the Consideration of Approval of TASB Risk Management Fund Interlocal Agreement. Regent Jennifer Nowlin made a motion to accept the recent changes as presented and was seconded by Regent Galiga. The motion passed.

Billy Don Curbo presented Consideration of Approval of Fees including the increase in the OSHA 10-hour training course for WLDG 1413 from $25 to $32 beginning July 1, 2022. Jessyca Brown presented Consideration of Approval of Fees including fees for the ACE facility rental and event security charges to $45 per hour with a three-hour minimum. Regent Tony Marley made a motion to accept the fees as presented and was seconded by Regent Lane. The motion passed.

Dr. Schindler presented Consideration of Approval of Affiliation Agreement with Decatur Hospital & Hill College Echocardiography Program. Regent Auvenshine made a motion to accept the standard clinical agreement and was seconded by Regent Rick Sullins. The motion passed.

John Versluis presented Consideration of Approval of Resolution for the Texas Heritage Museum. Regent Nowlin made a motion to accept the resolution and was seconded by Regent Dwight Lloyd. The motion passed. John also distributed the Texas Heritage Museum Strategic Plan to the board.

Regent Nowlin made a motion to amend the agenda to Personnel Considerations and was seconded by Regent Marley. The motion passed.

Jamie Jaska presented the recent Hill College personnel hires and resignations. Regent Lane made a motion to accept the recent personnel changes and Regent Galiga seconded. The motion passed.

Regent Nowlin made a motion to adjourn to Executive Session to discuss agenda item g, Consideration of Approval to Finalize Presidential Search Brochure and was seconded by Regent Marley. The board adjourned to Executive Session at 11:15 a.m.

Regent Nowlin made a motion to return to Regular Session at 12:05 p.m. and was seconded by Regent Lane.

With a motion from Regent Lane and a second by Regent Auvenshine, the Presidential Search Brochure was approved with modifications.

With no further business to conduct, Regent Marley made a motion to adjourn, Regent Auvenshine seconded. The meeting adjourned at 12:07 p.m.
Katherine Persson never dreamed that after her retirement as president of Lone Star College-Kingwood she would launch a second career as a published author.

But that is exactly what happened.

Persson will discuss her work and sign copies of her recently published first book, Overcoming Disaster: What Colleges Learned from Catastrophe to Recovery, at a special Lone Star Foundation event in the LSC-Kingwood Student Conference Center on Friday April 29 at 3 p.m.

All proceeds from the sale of the book benefit Lone Star College Foundation, whose mission is to change lives through student scholarships and quality educational programs.

Persson, who retired from her position at the college in September 2020, said she felt driven to write the book to chronicle the experience of the schools recovery from Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast in August 2017.

I wanted to write the book that I wish had been there when we went through our experience, she said.

Encouraged to expand the book beyond the scope of Lone Star Colleges recovery from Harvey, Persson reached out to two other college administrators whose schools had also undergone a traumatic experience and had recovered from it.

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Dr. Rita Cavin was interim president of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon in 2015 when an active shooter killed eight students and a faculty member before taking his own life. As president of Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, Dr. John R. Holdnak guided that school through its recovery from Hurricane Michael, which hit the Florida Panhandle in October 10, 2018 as the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the area.

Both academic leaders agreed to share their stories of recovery from disaster with Persson for inclusion in her book.

The book deals not only the disasters that befell the three schools, but also tells the stories of human and institutional resiliency as the schools and the surrounding communities recovered from their respective disasters.

Persson recalls that Lone Stars Kingwood campus suffered the loss of 80% of its building, which were devasted by the floodwaters and polluted by wastewater from a nearby city of Houston wastewater treatment plant that overflowed in the flood. We lost 113 classrooms overnight, so trying to find a place to operate out of when a whole community has been flooded and devastated, was challenging, she said.

We had partners in the community that gave their spaces to us in businesses and churches, she said. Even with all the donated space, the college still did not have enough space to conduct the classes that it was scheduled to hold, forcing the school to quickly adapt to an online learning mode.

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Then it was training all the faculty to teach online, Persson said. That in itself was a whirlwind process that took a little over three weeks.

While Gulf Coast State College in Florida had likewise been hit by a devastating hurricane, it faced somewhat different challenges in its recovery than did the Kingwood Lone Star campus, Person said.

They still had standing buildings, unlike us. Our buildings were totally polluted; we had to totally gut them, she said. But they had no telephone poles, no internet, no infrastructure and they had to also be operational within 27 days for the veterans, otherwise their veterans would lose their benefits.

For her contribution to the book, Dr. Cavin shared the harrowing story of how a mass shooting at her school impacted the college and the surrounding community and the story of the healing process that followed. Her story was so compelling that Persson felt the need to share it with a broader audience, because that could happen to any of us.

The process of writing about these traumatic events often proved difficult for the fledgling author.

I would find myself writing, telling our stories about these harrowing things and -- some still choke me up. I just have to walk away and leave my writing and go outside and emotionally regroup, or go for a walk before I could get back to it.

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Persson said she hopes that readers of her book will take away the message that the impacts of a disaster on a school or a community will last far longer than the initial clean-up period. Many people who had not experienced a Harvey or this kind of a disaster say within a month afterwards, Well are you guys whole yet? Why do you still talk about this? she said.

And they just dont understand that was a year-and-a-half process to become whole, not only in terms of the buildings, but with dealing with PTSD for a whole community, including college employees and students. You have to acknowledge and honor that.

Persson said that if she does write another book, it will likely be a work of fiction, and unlike her first literary work, something that is fun to write.

It would be very different, because this was so hard to do, Persson said. It was a difficult story to tell on one hand, but theres also a lot of triumph, because all three of these institutions have come back.

The event at the college will begin with a discussion hosted by Nancy Shortsleeve, a member of the Lone Star College Funds board of directors followed by a book signing. Those interested can pre-order Overcoming Disaster: What Colleges Learned from Catastrophe to Recovery on Amazon.Com.
Music Class in the Park: The Childrens Music Class in the Park with Vivaldi is scheduled for 10-10:45 a.m. Thursday, April 28, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Vivaldi Music Academy welcomes families with children ages 1-5 years old to join them in the Plaza for a free, fun morning full of singing, dancing and learning. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/mryvtdks.

Lyrics & Lawn Games: Lyrics & Lawn Games featuring Flashback (80s) is slated for 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, April 29, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Sugar Land Town Square is turning the Plaza into one big backyard party with lawn games and live 80s music by Flashback. Sugar Land Space Cowboys will be on-site providing games and activities with their Comet Crew. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/2p9b2epp.

April 30

Michael Jackson tribute: The Town Square Tribute to Michael Jackson is slated for 7:30-9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Michael Jackson impersonator Danny Dash Andrews is one of the worlds most in-demand tribute artists. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/4ssharwr.

May 1

Carbon Fee & Dividend: Members of Citizens Climate Lobby explain the ins and outs of carbon fee and dividend as an economic policy tool to address climate change at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, in this online event. Learn about the positive impact not only on the environment, but also on jobs, the economy, and human health. And, carbon fee & dividend has been deemed by economists as the fastest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of any economic policy approach. But, best of all, carbon fee & dividend is designed to ensure equity and justice, a key concern of people of all faith/spiritual traditions. Register at https://tinyurl.com/4wrayura. Contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com for more details.

The Art of Wining & Dining: The Art of Wining & Dining is scheduled for 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Tickets range from $10 to $25. Enjoy a variety of bites from some of Town Squares most popular restaurants, browse local artisans selections of handcrafted goods, listen to the sounds of live music and more. VIP tickets are $25 and include unlimited food samples, one drink ticket for standard-sized glasses of wine or beer, a swag bag and reserved seating. General admission tickets are $10 and include five food samples. Additional samples can be purchased for $2 each. Free entry for children under 12 years of age. Onsite raffle tickets are $5 each. For tickets go to https://tinyurl.com/2p89fx25. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/yvukcb4w.

May 3

Sugar Land City Council: The Sugar Land City Council is scheduled to meet for its regular session at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, at Sugar Land City Hall, 2700 Town Center Blvd. N. For more information go to www.sugarlandtx.gov.

Rosenberg City Council: The Rosenberg City Council is scheduled to meet for its regular session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, at Rosenberg City Hall, 2110 4th St. Council meetings may be viewed live on YouTube, the city of Rosenberg website, or by Rosenberg Comcast customers on channel 16. For more information go to www.rosenbergtx.gov.

Breakfast in the Bend: Join the Central Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce for Breakfast in the Bend from 8 to 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 3, at Fort Bend Womens Center, 1500 Pultar Road in Richmond. The event is free for members and registration for prospective members is $20. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/msm446fk.

May 5

Cinco De Mayo Street Dance: Discover Downtown Rosenberg presents a Cinco De Mayo Street Dance from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, May 5, in Historic Downtown Rosenberg. Come out and dance the night away to the sounds of a live Mariachi Band. This event is free and open to the public. Downtown restaurants and food trucks will be open and on-site for evening dinner and drinks. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/yckrfnz6.

May 6

Sing-A-Long Karaoke: Sugar Land Sing-A-Long Karaoke is set for 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Grab your singin family and friends and come hang out with us for a fun and interactive evening. Microphone will be sanitized between each performance. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/49c8ea37.

May 7

Corvette Owners Club show: Corvette Owners Club of Houston Spring Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. Are you a car enthusiast? Fulfill your need for speed and come check out the Corvettes on display along Plaza Drive and in the surface lot along Town Center Boulevard. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/28d7zrtz.

Cinco De Mayo Party: Cinco De Mayo Party in the Plaza with Groupo Batacha is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Sugar Land Town Square at 15958 City Walk. The word Batacha is Afro-Cuban slang for fun times, and thats exactly what happens when Grupo Batacha performs, evoking the flavor of the Caribbean with their hot mix of fiery salsa, sweet boleros, fast merengues and traditional cumbias. For more information go to https://tinyurl.com/57vdzj6k.

Election Day: Many area municipalities and school districts are holding elections. For more information in Harris County go to https://harrisvotes.com or in Fort Bend County go to https://tinyurl.com/yc3pyhh7.

May 14

Outdoor Skills Day: Texas A&M Agrilife Extension presents a program open to all youth in grades third thru 12th from 7:45 a.m. to 4, with activates including first aid, fishing, wildlife IS and much more at Jones Creek Ranch Park, 7714 FM 359 Road in Richmond. Cost is $25 per family of two with an additional $5 for each additional youth, and is limited to 30 youth participants. Adults/volunteers are encouraged to stay and assist. Registration closes May 6 at 11:59 p.m. can be found at https://agrilife.org/ftbend4h/beyond-the-project/workshops-clinics-camps.

May 16

Richmond City Commission: The city of Richmond will hold its regular commission meeting on Monday, May 16, at 4:30 p.m. at the City Hall Annex located at 600 Morton St. in Richmond. For questions, contact City Manager Terri Vela at tvela@richmondtx.gov or 281-342-5456.

Missouri City City Council: The regular meeting of the Missouri City City Council is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, May 16, in the City Hall, Council Chamber at 1522 Texas Parkway. For more information go to www.missouricitytx.gov.

May 17

Sugar Land City Council: The Sugar Land City Council is scheduled to meet for its regular session at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, at Sugar Land City Hall, 2700 Town Center Blvd. N. For more information go to www.sugarlandtx.gov.

Rosenberg City Council: The Rosenberg City Council is scheduled to meet for its regular session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, at Rosenberg City Hall, 2110 4th St. Council meetings may be viewed live on YouTube, the city of Rosenberg website, or by Rosenberg Comcast customers on channel 16. For more information go to www.rosenbergtx.gov.

May 22

Farmers market: The Farmers Market at La Centerra is presented the second and fourth Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 23501 Cinco Ranch Blvd. in Katy. There will be local vendors and artisans at Heritage Square selling honey, cheese, fresh eggs, seasonal vegetables and more. To become a vendor email customer@yourneighborhoodfarmersmarket.com.

Strike Out Autism: Together with Presenting Sponsor Fred and Mabel R. Parks Foundation, Hope For Three will host their 2022 Grand Slam Event of the year, Strike Out Autism on May 22 at Constellation Field. The Family Fun Day is an afternoon full of autism awareness, smiles, laughter and acceptance for more than 100 local families living with autism. Parents, siblings and children on the autism spectrum will feel like MVPs for the day and must register now because of limited availability. Reserved stadium seat tickets are available at www.hopeforthree.org/events. Team players (volunteers) wanted, and All-Star Sponsors and Underwriters needed to give help and hope to local families and children. Call 281-245-0640 or email contact@hopeforthree.org to learn more.

May 27

Clements graduation: The graduation ceremony for Clements High School is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, May 27, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Hightower graduation: The graduation ceremony for Hightower High School is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday, May 27, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Austin graduation: The graduation ceremony for Austin High School is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, May 27, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Travis graduation: The graduation ceremony for Travis High School is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 27, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Kempner graduation: The graduation ceremony for Kempner High School is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, May 27, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

May 28

Ridge Point graduation: The graduation ceremony for Ridgepoint High School is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Willowridge graduation: The graduation ceremony for Willowridge High School is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Dulles graduation: The graduation ceremony for Dulles High School is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Elkins graduation: The graduation ceremony for Elkins High School is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Marshall graduation: The graduation ceremony for Marshall High School is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

Bush graduation: The graduation ceremony for Bush High School is scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Toyota Center located at 1510 Polk St. in Houston. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony. For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com/graduation.

June 14

Maker Station Summer Camps: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension presents the Maker Station Camps focusing on creating something from nothing. Campers will create, plan, and build and much more. The camp is open to third- through eighth-grade students from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, at the Fort Bend County Education Center at 1402 Band Road in Rosenberg. The cost $75 per camp which includes daily snacks. Campers should bring a packed lunch daily. For more information and to register visit https://agrilife.org/ftbend4h/beyond-the-project/workshops-clinics-camps.

June 30

Maker Station Summer Camps: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension presents the Maker Station Camps focusing on creating something from nothing. Campers will create, plan, and build and much more. The camp is open to third- through eighth-grade students from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, June 30, at the Fort Bend County Education Center at 1402 Band Road in Rosenberg. The cost $75 per camp which includes daily snacks. Campers should bring a packed lunch daily. For more information and to register visit https://agrilife.org/ftbend4h/beyond-the-project/workshops-clinics-camps.

July 12

Maker Station Summer Camps: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension presents the Maker Station Camps focusing on creating something from nothing. Campers will create, plan, and build and much more. The camp is open to third- through eighth-grade students from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 12, at the Fort Bend County Education Center at 1402 Band Road in Rosenberg. The cost $75 per camp which includes daily snacks. Campers should bring a packed lunch daily. For more information and to register visit https://agrilife.org/ftbend4h/beyond-the-project/workshops-clinics-camps.

July 18-22

Earth Kids Kind Kamp: Join Texas A&M AgriLife Extension for Earth Kids Kind Kamp. They will be exploring entomology, wildlife, nature and more July 18-22. The camp is open to third- through fifth-grade students from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds. The cost $80 which includes daily snacks and camp T-shirt. Campers should bring a packed lunch daily. For more information contact Angela Romans at angela.bosier@ag.tamu.edu or 281-342-3034.

July 28

Maker Station Summer Camps: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension presents the Maker Station Camps focusing on creating something from nothing. Campers will create, plan, and build and much more. The camp is open to third- through eighth-grade students from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 28, at the Fort Bend County Education Center at 1402 Band Road in Rosenberg. The cost $75 per camp which includes daily snacks. Campers should bring a packed lunch daily. For more information and to register visit https://agrilife.org/ftbend4h/beyond-the-project/workshops-clinics-camps.
John Tedesco / Houston Chronicle

Houston police officers responding to reports of gunfire Friday evening found a man who had been shot to death in a car alongside a distraught but uninjured 4-year-old boy.

The mans relationship to the child was unclear, said HPD Lt. Larry Crowson. But its likely the boy witnessed the fatal shooting of his parent or caregiver.
Riverside Terrace soon may get its first officially recognized historic district, over the objections of many neighborhood residents.

Under a proposal approved Thursday by the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission, 18 homes in the neighborhood will be given the designation, if City Council agrees. And more such districts may be coming to the area, according to proponents of the idea.

The prospect is creating tension among the members of this centrally located, ethnically diverse and historically rich neighborhood, as well as exacerbating concerns about the gentrification it is already experiencing.

Historic Third Ward is a very wonderful set of neighborhoods and it's time that a toehold was established in Third Ward, so we started with a piece of Riverside Terrace that makes sense, said Asif Mahmood, a homeowner who owns several properties in the proposed district and on Friday formally applied for the designation.

But many homeowners who spoke at the HAHC meeting Thursday arent convinced the First Riverside Terrace district, as it would be called, makes sense either.

Mahmood, for his part, argues that this is about protecting the history of the neighborhood as well as the city.

I believe that this history is a gift that we have inherited, and I believe it is incumbent on us to be good historians to honor it by preserving it, he said at the hearing, which he attended remotely.

Most Houstonians would agree with that, as a general matter. Most would also agree that historic preservation has not traditionally been Houstons forte, and still isnt.

But this hearing served as a reminder that maintaining physical structures isnt the same thing as preserving historyor the best way to achieve that goal, necessarily.

Homeowners opposed to the designation, in this case, worry that such a move would restrict their ability to make changes to their own homes, and raise the costs of routine repair and maintenance as well as property tax burdens in the neighborhood. (If you need to replace a window on a historic home, for example, you might not be able to simply go to Home Depot and choose from the options available there.) They also argue that the process hasnt featured enough public input or debate.

Phyllis Moss, who opposes the proposed designation, was one of several Riverside Terrace homeowners raising the latter point.

Several years ago, she told the commission, she worked to bring parking restrictions to her block of Wichita Street. The citys process in that case required her to talk to all of her neighbors and secure their support before the city did anything.

"When it comes to my home, I would think that value was even higher than restricting my parking," Moss said.

There should be a meeting before a district is even proposed, to see if people have any interest in it whatsoever, she said, after the hearing. By the time the letter comes, youre already in the proposed district.

She has a point. Houstons preservation ordinance was initially adopted in 1995, but it didnt really become enforceable until it was strengthened in 2010.

As it stands, an application for a historic designation can be initiated by 10 percent of the tract owners in a given district (meaning people who collectively own at least ten percent of the properties, not ten percent of the people who own any property).

At that point, the city is required to hold a public meeting, after which all the property owners in the district are sent a letter, asking to vote on the question within 15 days. If two-thirds of them agree, the district can be established.

A supermajority is a high bar, generally speaking. But its a bar that can be easily lowered, as the city of Houstons FAQ on the process explains bluntly: If less than 67% support is received, the planning director may modify the proposed boundaries to create a district in which 67% of the owners are in favor.

Heres how that played out in this case: Mahmood applied for the designation along with two other homeowners, who each own one property. The district they proposed would have included 51 tracts, but failed to win the support of a supermajority.

And so the city simply redrew the boundaries of the district to include just 18 tracts, in which a supermajority could be, and was, achieved.

This is gerrymandering, argued Linchi Lopez, another property owner who opposes the plan, at the hearing. Certainly, that analogy comes to mind.

Lopez told me shes skeptical of doing anything that would tie the hands of future Houstonians-who may, she observed, live in a city thats very different than the Houston of today, or simply have different preferences regarding housing. But beyond that, she agreed with Moss that the deck had seemingly been stacked in favor of the homeowners who want the designationleaving everyone else with little time and opportunity to reply.

I spent endless hours to get to where Im at, Lopez said. I dont want somebody else to have to go through this. I want the ordinance to be written correctly and fairly for everyone involved.

An unavoidable conclusion here is that for the proposed designation to go forward at this point would leave neighbors at odds with one another, as the result of a process that gave short shrift to their views-a point that several members of the commission acknowledged, before voting to proceed anyway.

But that should give City Council pause, especially since were talking about Riverside Terrace. Theres no question that this neighborhood is historically significant, as well as well-situated and beautiful. And there are many lovely homes in the proposed district-including the Lewis-White home, a two-story brick house in a Mediterranean-influenced style, which was in 2018 designated as a historical landmark by the city.

But the historical significance of this particular neighborhood has little to do with its architecture, ultimately. Rather, the historical significance of Riverside Terraceand Third Ward more generallyhas to do with the people who have made their homes there over the generations, and in many cases across multiple generations.

The neighborhood now known as Riverside Terrace was first settled, according to historians, by Black families, many of them formerly enslaved. After the land was bought by developers in the 1920s, it became known as the Jewish River Oaks, as deed restrictions in River Oaks, founded in 1927, itself excluded families of that faith.

In 1952 Jack Caesar, a Black cattleman, bought a home in Riverside Terrace, despite similar discrimination: his secretary, who was white, made the purchase, then transferred the deed. The following year, a bomb was detonated on the Caesar familys porch; they stayed. More affluent Black families moved to Riverside Terrace over the subsequent years, resulting in a degree of white flight from the Black River Oaks, but also a sense of community among the families who remaineda sense of community which is currently being tested.

River Oaks, incidentally, does not include any officially designated historic districts.

Mahmood, reached on Friday, was sanguine about the controversy. You know, these are complexities of modern life, he told me. Riverside Terrace is already experiencing gentrification, he observed, and will continue to do so regardless of any historical designation.

The neighborhood is extraordinary and is slowly getting discovered, he said, adding: It's not like you can hide the location.

Mahmood said he didnt have a comment on the process concerns that had been raised at the HAHC meeting the previous day: The process is what it is. If the powers that be feel that the process needs improvement, fine--they should improve it.

They should. This case illustrates why.

Mosss point about her fight for street parking restrictions is a salient one. As she said, she had to put in a fair amount of effort in pursuit of that goal, and talk to all of her neighbors individually. As a result, she was able to achieve the change she sought in her neighborhood; she also did so without leaving anyone feeling unheard or causing conflicts between neighbors that may fester for some time.

Thats the kind of process that shows respect for the integrity of a neighborhood, as well as ones neighborsand the kind of process Houstonians should insist on, in order to genuinely preserve and honor our history.

erica.grieder@chron.com
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HARLINGEN - For months, Melissa Lucio and her family have waited to hear if her scheduled execution, set for Wednesday, will be halted.

That wait could now be over, as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to make a recommendation about her request for a stay sometime Monday, according to multiple sources and news reports. If the board stays her planned date for lethal injection, Gov. Greg Abbott could commute the South Texas mothers sentence to life or grant a reprieve to allow the board to consider exculpatory evidence in the death of her toddler daughter.

There are other multiple legal motions pending that could alter her fate, according to her lawyers.

A TROUBLING LIST: How many innocent people are executed in Texas? Melissa Lucio case spotlights a troubling list

If the board rejects Lucios request for a stay, the only other way her life may be spared is if Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz withdraws her death warrant. He has said previously he would let the courts and the board make their determinations but said if no one took steps to slow the process, he would intervene in the execution.

The Harlingen mother of 14 was convicted of capital murder in 2008 for the death of her 2-year-old, Mariah Alvarez.

Courtesy the Innocence Project

Lucio has maintained her innocence  she and her family call Mariah's death a tragic accident caused by a fall down a flight of hazardous stairs. At trial, lawyers painted Lucio as a ruthless child abuser.

Courtesy the Innocence Project

On a hot Friday afternoon in Harlingen, Melissa's mother, Esperanza Correa Trevino, and her sister, Sonya Valencia Alvarez, sat at Correas kitchen table to pray for Melissa.

Texas Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, who is not related to the family, led the rosary. Continue to allow us to live with hope, he said.

Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

With the 53-year-old mothers execution two days away, hope is all the family can do. They've spent the past three months holding protests, rallies and press conferences across the state. Theyve attended legislative hearings and pleaded with the public to watch a 2020 documentary that presents a case for Lucios innocence.

Yi-Chin Lee, Photographer / Staff photographer Yi-Chin Lee, Photographer / Staff photographer Yi-Chin Lee, Photographer / Staff photographer Yi-Chin Lee, Photographer / Staff photographer Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

The exhaustion showed on their faces. The condemned womans mother Esperanza, who true to her name has remained unwaveringly hopeful, squinted tightly, head down, clutching her rosary in one hand and a tissue in the other. She looked pained as she prayed intensely for her daughter to return home.

Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Solidarity gatherings and rallies calling for clemency were held Saturday in at least 14 cities Saturday, including Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, according to Death Penalty Action, a statewide organization that advocates for the end of executions.

Abbott also has the power to grant inmates a one-time, 30-day stay of execution without needing a recommendation from the board. But he has rarely taken that step.

Abbott said during an April 21 press conference he had not received a report from the board yet, but that if and when one comes, he would consider it and "take whatever action I think is appropriate."

LUCIO CASE: More than half of Texas senators join growing call to stop Melissa Lucio's execution

If the courts, the board, the governor and the local DA dont take action, Lucio would become the first Latina put to death by Texas in the modern era and the first woman since 2014.

So Friday, staving off the afternoon heat in her mothers kitchen, Lucios family prayed.

We love you Melissa Lucio

God have mercy on us

Christ redeem us

Her sister, standing in her SAVE MELISSA LUCIO T-shirt with Lucios photo on it, wiped away tears as she recited the prayer. Alvarez occasionally looked down at her mother, who opened her eyes occasionally to let a few tears escape. She quickly wiped them away.

Pray for us

Pray for us

Pray for us

The smell of carne asada simmering on the stove filled the thick, hot air in the modest home where Lucio once raised her children. A small fan mounted on the wall in the kitchen failed to cool the packed room. As the family continued whispering prayers, gusts of wind made the turquoise windchimes on the front porch sing.

Outside, SAVE MELISSA LUCIO/LIBREN A MELISSA LUCIO signs adorned the front gate and sidewalk. A banner reading SALVEMOS A MELISSA hung from the fence. Uplifting phrases such as LET YOUR FAITH BE BIGGER THAN YOUR FEARS were sprinkled throughout the house.

Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

On the fridge, a poem on a pink magnet decorated with butterflies begins, "Mom, I love you."

The poem ends with, "Most of all, a mother should be a loving woman who is always there when needed. You are everything that a mother should be and more.

I can't wait to hold my sister, I still have faith she is coming home, Alvarez said.

Her mother's tears started to flow freely.

We are waiting for Melissa to walk through those doors, Alvarez continued.

Later that day, the prayers kept flowing at a vigil for Lucio at the Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle in San Juan, an ornately decorated, massive church considered among the states most popular pilgrimage spots. Families took photos on the churchs sprawling grounds, in front of statues and crosses.

Church volunteers passed out flyers asking congregants and supporters to pledge to end the death penalty. Lucios family occupied pews near the front, holding signs that had the words CAPITAL PUNISHMENT crossed out.

Marie D. De JesAs/Staff photographer Marie D. De JesAs/Staff photographer Bishop of Brownsville Daniel Flores shakes hands with the family of Death row prisoner Melissa Lucio during a prayer vigil at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Shrine, Friday, April 22, 2022, in San Juan. (Marie D. De Jesus/Staff photographer) Bishop of Brownsville Daniel Flores shakes hands with the family of Death row prisoner Melissa Lucio during a prayer vigil at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Shrine, Friday, April 22, 2022, in San Juan. (Marie D. De Jesus/Staff photographer)

At that point, Lucio had five, rather than just three days before she was scheduled to be in the Huntsville death chamber.

Five days away five days away, Alvarez said, her voice breaking. Her adopted son, Elijah, who is Lucios grandson, fidgeted at the podium while she spoke, peeking his head around to look at the crowd every so often.

Marie D. De JesAs/Staff photographer

Were scared, we don't want to wait until the last minute, she said to the small crowd.

Wait and hope was all that was left.

rebecca.hennes@chron.com
Gov. Greg Abbott may not yet be Texas longest-serving governor. Hell need to beat Beto ORourke this fall and then win again four years later to rival Rick Perrys nearly 14-year tenure. But in Abbotts seven years, hes arguably become the most powerful governor in Texas history.

Whats interesting, and perhaps a little frightening, is that his power stems not from his politics or his popularity, but from the pandemic-era state of emergency he has declared again and again since March 2020. The same statutes that have allowed him to assume direct control of the states COVID-19 response have also allowed him to declare an emergency on the southern border, thereby sidestepping carefully crafted checks on a gubernatorial office that Texan forefathers intended to be one of the weakest in the nation.

While governors  and local county judges and mayors  need special authority to act in the face of fast-moving, deadly crises, such power is poorly suited for ongoing emergencies that can linger for years.

Lawmakers who updated emergency powers laws in 1987 must have known this on some level, as they made a governors declaration good for only up to 30 days. What they likely hadnt anticipated is a crisis that drags on and a governor who would so liberally define emergency as to include the influx of migrants at the border, a situation that is already policed by thousands of federal personnel, including armed border agents.

Abbotts use of emergency powers has shown him a poor steward of such unusual and untrammeled authority. Before he fundamentally reshapes the nature of his office, as prescribed by the Texas Constitution, we call on lawmakers to impose checks on when, how, and how long Abbott  or any governor  may use emergency powers.

Efforts to strengthen the office

In ordinary times, a Texas governors power primarily rests on three pillars: bully pulpit, legislative veto, and appointing boards to oversee state agencies  all of which are purposefully limited by the state constitution approved in 1876.

Notably, the governor cant dictate the decisions of his agency appointees  nor can he remove appointees without cause. The governors only role in the states budget is an after-the-fact, line-item veto. Setting the regular legislative agenda is almost exclusively the purview of the House speaker and lieutenant governor. Even executive authority is parsed out among independently elected officials.

Our constitution was written in the nineteenth century by people terrified of centralized government, said Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, just ahead of the 1999 session of the Texas Legislature, when he introduced a constitutional amendment to consolidate much of the states executive authority under the control of the governor. I believe when the people of Texas vote for a governor they think they are voting for that candidate's programs and philosophy and platform, but the governor has no real authority to institute those things.

Ratliff was a widely respected statesman, but that bill never got out of committee.

Nearly 30 years before, Democratic Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes had campaigned for governor in part on a call for a constitutional convention, which he hoped would elevate the powers of Texas chief executive. Barnes, whod also served as House speaker, had come to see the governor as the weak link in a three-person leadership team.

Ironically, though I lost that race, the call for the constitutional convention succeeded, Barnes told the editorial board last week. My plans had been to recommend that we strengthen the office of governor, and in particular its authority in the budget-making process. People have always perceived that the governor ran the state, but the real power  especially the power to write the budget  has rested in the hands of the speaker and the lieutenant governor.

Alas, the 1974 convention, the only one since 1875, ended up leaving the governors powers untouched. So when Lt. Gov. Rick Perry took over for President-elect George W. Bush as governor in 2000, he inherited the same weak office, yet took full advantage of one change Barnes had helped push through in 1972: extending the terms from two years to four of statewide officers, governor included. By the time Perry began his third full term as governor, he had appointed every member of every state commission or board, effectively outlasting a key constitutional restraint on his power: the staggered terms of board members.

Even that didnt allow him to direct the affairs of state agencies, as Abbott has.

Abuse of power

Texas emergency powers laws, as updated in 1987 as part of a broader change to executive branch governance, state that if a governor believes conditions warrant it, he or she may act as commander in chief of each state agency and issue decrees  or executive orders  to dictate operations.

That authority came in handy during the worst months of the pandemic, including when Abbott needed to impose partial shutdowns on businesses. Republicans to Abbotts right faulted his overreach, and while this board believes Abbotts orders were needed  they often didnt go far enough  critics have a point when they ask what checks exist to prevent a governor from declaring a phony emergency and simply seizing and keeping power indefinitely.

Answer: nothing. That is, not until the Legislature next meets and lawmakers band together to exert some oversight, something a few members called for earlier this year  nearly two years after Abbott first issued his emergency declaration. Their efforts were unsuccessful, however, and the Legislature left untouched Abbotts apparent endless ability to run the state through decree. And that should concern any Texan who believes in limited government.

Border example

Consider Abbotts use of emergency powers on the border. On what grounds, other than his own political ambitions, did he hang his declaration that the influx of migrants crossing over from Mexico represented a true emergency, requiring extraordinary power? Enforcing federal immigration law isnt in his job description.

Sending thousands of Texas National Guard troops and DPS officers to the border as part of Operation Lone Star  and the misleading data the state has produced to justify it  has been controversial enough. As they arrested migrants on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, local jails were quickly overwhelmed. Nevertheless, Abbotts emergency powers have enabled him to sidestep ordinary spending safeguards and avoid the bidding process altogether in awarding contracts.

Chronicle reporters Jay Root and Jasper Scherer revealed this month that as arrests began last summer, the Texas Department of Emergency Management made at least 12 purchases without formal bids to support Operation Lone Star, spending up to $45 million. Tens of millions of dollars in new spending has been approved since then.

Hes just abusing emergency powers at this point, said state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, vice-chair of the House appropriations committee. When were spending this amount of taxpayer dollars, its important for us to honor our constituents with transparency and accountability.

The solution

The remedy isnt to cancel a governors ability to tap into special powers during an emergency. Its to make sure the powers dont outlast the crisis, or in the case of an extended emergency, to make sure a single office-holder isnt calling the shots for months or even years without input from the Legislature.

Just when and how that input is given will take some give and take among lawmakers and the governors office next session. We believe its a vital conversation. The men who wrote Texas 1876 constitution were indeed scared of a power-hungry centralized government that was no longer accountable to the people. The behavior of Governor Abbott over the past two years has validated their concerns.
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In an extremely rare event, a wild elephant gave birth to twin calves in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.

According to Forest Department officials, the the elephant gave birth three days ago which was witnessed by tourists and staffers.

The pregnant elephant which was in the herd was spotted near the old ticket counter.

Screengrab

Gave birth away from the herd

"It was struggling to give birth. Soon, it went to a nearby water body. Thereafter, the mother elephant was found coming out of the water body with two calves," an official said.

The tourists and staffers were enthralled to witness such a joyful and hearty moment.

Many had captured the moments on their cameras and mobile phones. The authorities cleared the crowd and let the free movement of mother elephant and calves into the deep forests.

#Wildlife activists, animal lovers and environmentalists are celebrating as a wild cow elephant gave birth to twin calves in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in #Karnataka's Chamarajanagar district. pic.twitter.com/m2JJRGgzzU  IANS (@ians_india) April 21, 2022

The mother elephant, which was not coming out of water initially seeing a huge crowd, came out with calves after the crowd was sent away.

"We constituted two teams. One of them distracted the mother elephant and drew it away from the site while the other team helped the calves get out of the water," said Ramesh Kumar, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

Screengrab

The Forest Department staff jumped into the ditch and lifted the twins out of the water as the mother, scared by human presence, looked on from a rock she had climbed.

Extremely rare for a reason

While the mother and calves are said to be in good health, next few days will be crucial for the survival of the twins.

Mother elephants do not produce enough milk to feed two calves, making their chances of survival less.

Baby elephants depend on their mother for four to six years.

Elephants have a gestation period of 22 months and they usually give birth surrounded by the herd, which was not the case here.

Elephant twins account for less than 1% of births in the wild, making this encounter a rare event.

Forest authorities explained that it is a rare phenomenon for an elephant to deliver calves. They had a record of such a feat in Bandipur Tiger Reserve forests in 1980's.

Twin brothers Sujay and Vijay walk down a road passing through the woods, after grazing out in the wild, and playing in the intermittent downpour, all day long. They were born fifty years ago, to cow elephant Devaki, and have been the centre of attraction at the camp since then. pic.twitter.com/T60fmBVUaI   (@harisree_18) October 7, 2021

A similar case was also reported from the Mudumalai reserve in Tamil Nadu a few years ago.

Another suspected twins in Kerala

There is also a chance that the newborns may not be the only elephant twins that were born recently.

In Kerala's Athirappilly, a mother elephant was recently photographed with two calves, of same age.

Mathrubhumi

The three-member family was spotted together in several places, unaccompanied by the herd, leading to suspicion that the calves could be twins.

However, the Kerala Forest Department has not been able to confirm if the two calves, believed to be around a year old are twins.

There is also a chance that the one of the calves was adopted by a member of the same herd, after its biological mother died, which is a common occurrence among wild elephants.

For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
The discovery of a new type of stellar explosion called a "micronova" has shook astronauts. The explosion was noted through thermonuclear blasts that were discovered on the polar regions of a white dwarf, a kind of burned-out star that swallows material from a companion star.

This micronova is the least powerful type of star explosion assessed by scientists so far. It has less energy than a blast called a nova wherein a white dwarf's "entire surface blows up." This explosion is small compared to a supernova that takes place when some giant stars are in the process of dying.

Reuters

Only third micronova to be noted

From Earth, micronovae are observed as bursts of light that last for about 10 hours. So far, they've been seen on three white dwarfs, Reuters reported. The first one was seen on a white dwarf situated 1,680 light years away from Earth, another 3,720 light years away, and the last one situated 4,900 light years away. For the uninitiated, a light year is the distance light travels in a year - 9.5 trillion kilometres (or 5.9 trillion miles).

Also read: NASA's New Metal Alloy Could Build Space Vehicles With Exceptional Strength



Reuters

"The discovery was an unexpected surprise. It goes to show just how dynamic the universe is. These events are fast and sporadic. Finding them requires looking at the right place at the right time," said Simone Scaringi, an astronomer from Durham University in England, who is also lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

What even are white dwarfs?

Simply put, white dwarfs are some of the densest objects in the universe that come into being after a dying star's core collapses. White dwarfs are peculiar, for they have the mass of similar to our Sun, but diameter similar to that of Earth. Even our central star, the Sun will die in a similar fashion.

Micronovae usually happen in specific binary systems, wherein a white dwarf is in orbit with another star. For micronovae to take place, a white dwarf needs a strong magnetic field and a low-mass normal companion star.

Also read: Scientists Discover 'Big Boss' Space Laser 5 Billion Light-Years Away From Earth



Owing to the white dwarf's gravitational pull, the companion star keeps losing hydrogen. This hydrogen runs across the white dwarf's magnetic poles that are somewhat similar to the process that causes auroras on Earth.

Representative image

How does a micronova blast occur?

Scientists say owing to accumulating columns of gas at the white dwarf's poles, pressure and temperature are driven upward - creating conditions for a thermonuclear fusion to take place. At this stage, hydrogen is converted into helium... and bam! A thermonuclear bomb then goes off!

Even then, the explosion is localised, i.e., it does not lead to the destruction of a white dwarf, but instead keeps repeating itself. According to Scaringi, each micronova event burns through material that is equal to one large asteroid, or over a millionth of Earth's mass.

NASA

Also read: IISc, ISRO Develop Scalable Method To Make Space Bricks Using Mars Soil

Micronova may be benign explosions in the larger scheme of universe. With regular nova explosions, more mass is burnt and the impact is felt across the white dwarf. But in micronovae, stolen energy from a companion star is distributed only in polar regions.

This micronovae was discovered by scientists who were assessing data from NASA's TESS space telescope. For this purpose, scientists used the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope. What do you think about the discovery of this new stellar explosion? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.



References

Dunham, W. (2022, April 20). Surprised astronomers find new type of star explosion - a micronova. Reuters.
Killer alien jellyfish may be a routine sight on Europa, one of Jupiter's 79 moons. According to experts, Europa has the right conditions for scary stingers, ones that may be deadlier than ones found on Earth.

How did scientists reach this conclusion? They were studying newly formed "gashes" on Greenland and found them similar to terrain on Jupiter's moon Europa.

In the 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft first photographed "double ridges" around 1,000 feet high and almost a kilometre apart. At the time, it was unclear what caused this ridges to appear, until scientists noted a similar pattern in north-west Greenland, where ice had fractures around a pocket of pressurised water.

Unsplash

The breathtaking surprise

Greenland is considered a fertile breeding region for jellyfish, slugs, shrimps, and snails. Now scientists believe that Jupiter's moon Europa may be blessed with abundant underwater life deep below the ice in a salty ocean.

NASA

Professor Dustin Schroeder, of Californias University of Stanford, told The Sun - "Because it is closer to the surface - where you get interesting chemicals from space, other moons and the volcanoes of Io - there is a possibility life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell."

Also read: One Of Jupiter's 79 Moons Probably Has Alien Life, Claims Physics-Based Simulation

Schroeder believes that if what scientists saw on Greenland is how things unfold on Europa, then "there is water everywhere."

Unsplash

According to The Sun, jellyfish on Europa would be way deadlier than the ones on Earth - even fatal to humans depending on their evolution. On Earth, jellyfish are considered generally harmless, but in case humans touch jellyfish, then they discharge a series of venoms that result in a lot of pain for the recipient, and sometimes lethal consequences.

Also read: See Jupiter's Beautiful Red And White Belts Like Never Before In New Pic



The discovery was made by accident. Turns out, the researchers were there to study climate change when they found ridges similar to the ones on Europa, Jupiter's moon.

NASA

What do you think about the possibility of killer jellyfish on Europa? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.



References

Coleman, L. (2022, April 20). Killer alien jellyfish may be lurking in the water on Jupiters moon. . . The Sun.
A Harvard scientist has claimed alien technology may have crash-landed into the Pacific Ocean and is plotting a mission to find all about it.

Avi Loeb, a controversial astrophysicist, believes an interstellar object that crash-landed on Earth in 2014 was some form of spacecraft.



Representational Image/iStock

Last week, a US Space Command (USSC) report confirmed that the object was from another star system.



The agency concluded that the projectile  which streaked across the sky off the coast of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea  was a meteor.



However, professor Loeb is of a different view. He claimed that the object could have been built by extraterrestrials.

Boston Globe

"Our discovery of an interstellar meteor heralds a new research frontier, the Harvard astronomer wrote in an essay for The Debrief.



"The fundamental question is whether any interstellar meteor might indicate a composition that is unambiguously artificial in origin. Better still, perhaps some technological components would survive the impact," he added.

Loeb has spent decades studying astronomy and more recently has been dwelling on the possibility that life exists beyond Earth.

His extraordinary claims frequently make headlines and he has faced criticism from others in his field over his outlandish extraterrestrial theories.

In his essay, he noted that a retrieval expedition could be achieved using scooping magnets to explore the 10 square kilometre region of the Pacific Ocean where the object is thought to have landed.

My dream is to press some buttons on a functional piece of equipment that was manufactured outside of Earth, he added.



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"Korean Reunification" is Must for Regional Security and Development

Leading Korea experts in the United States and South Korea said the election of Yoon Suk-yeol as the next president of South Korea, North Korea's reactivation of missile tests, and Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine underscored the need for a strong and credible international security architecture, a recommitment to the U.S.-ROK alliance, and robust support for a free and unified Korea as the ultimate solution for Northeast Asia regional peace and development.





U.S. Congressional leaders, ROK National Assembly members, Korea experts, North Korean defectors, and U.S. and ROK military leaders expressed support for the incoming administration and guarded hopes for advances in the complex process of reunification during an April 21 virtual forum.





General Vincent Brooks, former commander of the combined Korean and United States forces in the Republic of Korea, called for a strong posture by the ROK  U.S. alliance. "North Korea, China, and Russia will seek to weaken the linkage between South Korea and the United States," Gen. Brooks told the forum. "They will do that by creating issues on matters that should otherwise be resolved [and]putting pressure on matters of security, matters of economy, matters of policy."





Col. David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the president-elect must recognize that "the only acceptable durable political arrangement that will serve the Korean people and ROK and U.S. interests is the establishment of the United Republic of Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, free-market economics and human rights as determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea."





Six distinguished members of the Republic of Korea's National Assembly urged China to support peace and create space for cooperation between the two Koreas, at the same time strengthening a multilateral security framework among allies who share the noble values of liberal democracy.





"Emerging and never-before-seen threats and challenges require even closer cooperation and more sustained partnership to ensure shared prosperity and security in the years and decades ahead," said U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. "This effort includes taking steps to deepen our trilateral cooperation with Japan, enhance plurilateral cooperation to keep the Indo-Pacific free, open, and inclusive, and strive towards the denuclearization of North Korea and a free and unified Korean Peninsula."





Global Peace Foundation (GPF) Founder and Chairman Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon condemned Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine and the toll of destruction and human suffering while praising the courage and determination of the Ukrainian people and resolute international response.





"The Ukrainian crisis is a rude awakening that should be a catalyst for a bold new approach and clear strategic thinking across the Korean peninsula," the GPF chairman said. "That should begin with the people of South Korea who enjoy freedom but have become indifferent."





"A unified Korea that upholds fundamental human rights and values should become the clearly stated and actively pursued policy of ROK's new Yoon administration, as well as the U.S., allies, and the United Nations. This would provide a clear end goal for Korea policy and a framework for all negotiations with North Korea."





The forum was convened both virtually and in person in Seoul, Korea.
Clicking book has rarely required more nerve. No sooner were people planning holidays following the Covid surge, than Putin sent further shockwaves through European travel.

But if those sprawling queues at our airports havent given the game away (with Dublin Airport now operating at 90% of pre-pandemic levels) it seems our pent-up wanderlust for sun, sea and not-Russia, cannot be discouraged.

So where should we consider for a budget break? This week, I chatted to industry experts about their thoughts on summer 2022.

Russia on the Rack

One significant travel impact of the war in Ukraine is on Russia as a destination, literally and figuratively cancelled, with resorts such as Sochi and the nations popular cities likely to suffer most.

John Spollen, Cassidy Travel CEO says: All our tours dealing with Russia were quickly pulled. So in terms of Irish travellers, that means our cruises to St Petersburg were typically rerouted to other destinations around the Baltic. And on that, Baltic States are still doing well and are not as affected as people thought. Despite the war which we and our customers are acutely aware of, I think theres a consumer confidence out there now.

More Room at the Inn

Due to sanctions and the falling ruble, the collapse of the huge and ever-growing outbound Russian tourism spells a major impact for some of their most popular markets from Turkey to Thailand.

Spollen explains: Russians made 45m overseas trips in 2019, so now many destinations are writing off these tourists. As a result, in Europe, youll find many destinations like Turkey, Cyprus and Croatia with thousands of beds to fill which could mean better value for consumers.

Balancing the Budget

Mary Denton, CEO of Sunway Holidays, says people are a bit cautious about spending big: When we were coming out of Covid, things were looking great, and people were booking holidays but while the invasion in Ukraine initially saw things slow down somewhat, its not having a big impact on bookings. What is having an impact on, however, is the cost of living, so its more peoples pockets that are impacting decisions rather than a concern about travelling. I think perhaps people are a little more cautious right now. Theyve had no summer holiday for the last three years, theyve perhaps built up some savings, but now, with day to day costs, the last few weeks have been particularly tough on people.

Favourite Destinations

Of the hundreds of thousands of us planning to travel, where are we planning to lay out our beach towels? It seems that a combination of old favourites and bucket list options are really taking off.

Despite all the world events, bookings are still really strong and Spain and Portugal are always our top destinations, but were now seeing both Turkey and Greece becoming very popular as well as destinations like Morocco which are proving very popular down to their great price, Denton explains.

I think theres a lot more confidence now in terms of Covid too; most of the passenger locator forms are now gone  Spain just removed theirs last week  and I think if people are fully vaccinated and take all the precautions, they can travel with a lot more confidence.

Insurance is the Best Policy

Amid the reality of Covid still impacting travel arrangements, interest in travel insurance is understandably soaring.

Our policies provide cover for emergency medical and other expenses incurred abroad if you catch Covid-19, says Jason Whelan, head of travel insurance, Blue Insurance.

That cover provides for any reasonable additional transport or accommodation expenses incurred, up to the standard of your original booking; if it is medically necessary for you to stay beyond your scheduled return date, up to the amount of 2,000.

Policies also include cover for irrecoverable, unused, pre-paid charges (eg match or concert tickets) if you receive a Covid diagnosis within 14 days of your trips start date and cant travel for medical reasons.

Deals of the Week

NYC & Jamaica!

A trip is twice as nice when its a twin gateway escape to the Caribbean and the US with Cassidy Travel. Their Double the Fun in New York & Jamaica trip is a 10-night getaway: three nights in the four-star Mela Hotel, off Times Square in Manhattan, before you jet off for a seven-night all-inclusive stay at the four-star Riu hotel on Jamaicas iconic Montego Bay.

Prices from 1979pp including return flights from Dublin.

cassidytravel.ie

Sunway Deals

Sunway is offering great packages across the Mediterranean this summer, from Majorca to Malta, but if youre looking for a budget option, consider looking a little further east this summer.

Kusadasi, one of Turkeys top resorts, may be on the touristy side but tear yourself away from your hotel pool to enjoy excellent nearby attractions  from the ancient city of Ephesus to the Greek Island of Samos.

May departures from Dublin start from 399pp based on flights, transfers and a B&B stay at the four-star Golden Day Wings hotel.

sunway.ie

Aer Lingus Breaks

The airline is currently offering a three-night city break in Barcelona from 339pps. The deal includes return flights from Dublin to Barcelona as well as accommodation at the reasonably-rated Onix Liceo Hotel. The four-star property is just one block from the thriving Las Ramblas strip meaning youll spend less on Ubers and have more money for wine and tapas. This fare is based on travel in May 2022 but for more packages see holidays with aerlingus.com

Morocco Value

Morocco is one of the destinations offering the best value right now and if youre looking for an alternative to Agadir, consider thriving, trending Marrakech. Tropical Sky has a seven-night all-inclusive package at the star Iberostar Club Palmeraie, just 15 minutes from the city. The package which starts from 719pp also includes flights from Dublin, private transfers and is valid for travel between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023.

Tropicalsky.ie
Update: Following the recovery of a body in the River Road area of Ashtown, this afternoon, Saturday April 23, the missing person appeal in respect of Craig Gifford has been stood down.

An Garda Siochana have thanked media and public for their assistance in this matter.
A group of people protested near the Russian embassy in Dublin this afternoon over the many reports of rape emerging from war-torn Ukraine.

It was the second Saturday that the group, growing in numbers, stood outside the embassy with bags over their heads, some with their hands tied and all with red liquid smeared on their legs.

Irish and Ukrainian, men and women gathered and stood in silence for half an hour in solidarity with those who have been raped and sexually assaulted amid the ongoing war.

One participant said those from Ukraine are very stressed and worried about the wellbeing of their family and friends back home.

Participants stood in silence for half an hour this afternoon with bags over their heads and signs.

"The stories are coming out and testimonies are being made but there are an awful lot of women that don't want to," Aoife from Kilkenny told the Irish Examiner.

"They have husbands or partners that are fighting and they don't want them to know that they have been raped or sexually assaulted.

"A lot of the older women as well, it is a very Catholic country, and there is a huge amount of stigma with it."

Now in its second week with plans in place to return next Saturday morning at 10am for 45 minutes, Aoife said they have received great public support from cars and passers-by.

The group are keen to stress that the protest is both peaceful and not political, it is simply about looking out for other people.

This is us trying to send a message, even if it's by pictures over the internet that gets picked up. We are sending the message that we here in Ireland see you and we support you."

Rape of civilians in war is not unique to Ukraine, it is unfortunately used as a weapon by invading forces in most wars. Women, men, children - no one is considered safe from the horrific violence.

Earlier this month, the withdrawal of Russian forces from the outskirts of Kyiv brought more allegations of war crimes, including rape of women.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said scores of civilians who had been killed were found on the streets.

Mr Arestovych said some people were shot in the head and had their hands bound, and some bodies showed signs of torture, rape and burning.

United Nations official Sima Bahous told the Security Council: "We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence."

Kateryna Cherepakha, president of rights group La Strada-Ukraine, told the council: "Violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine."

Russia's deputy UN ambassador denied the allegations.

Another peaceful protest will be staged in the same location next Saturday and will last 45 minutes.

Today's protest in Dublin is not only an effort to highlight the acts of sexual violence allegedly being perpetrated by Russian forces but to emphasise the need to other countries to support the survivors.

Should those who have endured rape or assault reach another country, there needs to be support available to them.

This support needs to come in many forms, said Aoife. It is not just the physical healing - although that is hugely important - but it is also the mental and emotional trauma that people need help with.

People will need to be able to avail of STI screenings and HIV tests and various other medical services. There must also be help for those who discover that they are pregnant as a result of being raped.

Aoife said that a conversation needs to be had, not just in Ireland but in other countries too.

"How do we deal with it? How do we provide a safe place and who is trained to have these conversations?"

This, Aoife said, is the often overlooked damage of war.

"We can rebuild buildings and we can rebuild hospitals. But rebuilding people? As a human race we don't tend to be so good at it."
A missing man's body was discovered in Dublin this afternoon and the matter has been referred to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) because he had earlier had an interaction with gardai.

After a body was found in the River Road area of Ashtown today, gardai stood down the missing person appeal for Craig Gifford (21).
Imprisonments a subject that you could argue has never been more topical.

After the global pandemic of Covid-19, and the resulting lockdowns that confined all of us within the same four walls of our homes, or within the few kilometres around our homes during the better spells, many of us have a newfound appreciation for our freedom.

We also have a far greater understanding than we ever wanted of what its like to feel caged in.

Someone whos been all too familiar with the topic of imprisonment since well before the pandemic, however, is John Crotty.

Since 2016, hes been working as the manager of Spike Island, home to what was once the largest prison in the world and a location that held prisoners as recently as 2004. It is a joke among the staff that most of their offices still have the original prison bars outside their windows.

The vast, 104-acres site chronicles thousands of years of Irelands troubled history, including the Famine years and the War of Independence.

It takes a village ... or an island!

The view of Spike Island, looking across from Haulbowline Island Recreational Park.

Tasked with communicating the immense history of the place are a wide variety of staff, which ranges anywhere between the fifteen workers currently employed, to up to forty staff in the busier summer peak. There are also several volunteers, many of them former residents of the island, and members of the Community Employment Scheme working at the not-for-profit company, to facilitate visits and further develop the island location.

As much as the incredible true stories and relics that make up the fabric of the place, what really sets Spike Island apart is this expert team. Our guides are very passionate, and our biggest strength is our staff, John says proudly. Our entire team, from the maintenance to the cleaners and kiosk staff, does a great job presenting the location and welcoming the visitor. We almost insist that everybody does a guided tour when they visit too because we know the guides are going to get across the wonderful depth of history we have.

That depth of history spans over more than 1,300 years, dating all the way back to the 7th century. Spike Island has seen so much activity and different characters in the time since, John explains. Originally, in its earliest days, it would have been known for its monastic use, then with the Cromwellian era the British came and later built one of the largest star-shaped fortresses in the world on the island, one that would cost over a billion euro to construct today. The fort was a home to the British and Irish military, so anybody whos into their military history is awe-struck by the scale of military endeavour that they discover, which spans over two consecutive centuries from 1779 to 1985.

The prison also captures the imagination of everybody that visits, because there are so many stories related to it. From desperate famine era victims that you could not class as criminals, to hardened gang bosses like Martin Cahill. The island was used as a prison for the first time back in the 1600s during Cromwell's invasion, but the island is most famous for the Victorian era prison, which opened in 1847 and held famine victims. Those were primarily people who were convicted of petty crimes like stealing a loaf of bread just to stay alive, so you cant help but be moved when you hear their story. During that time, Spike became the largest prison in the world, with 2,300 convicts. An awful lot of people connect with that era, as its a part of Irish history that we all feel is familiar to us, almost like it happened yesterday, and it represents a sad pinnacle of centuries of Irish oppression.

Visitors young and old will find something to resonate with in Spike Island's 1,300 years of history.

Rebel Inspiration

Then in even more recent history, you move forward to the island's next prison, which held the Irish Republican prisoners in the 18th century. What you gain from that part of the tour is really a celebration of Irish freedom. 1,200 rebels were held on the island during the War of Independence, many of whom kept fabulous diaries containing rich stories about how they felt, what they thought, and why they wanted Ireland to be liberated from British rule. We have all those diaries on display in our Independence museum, and again its one that captures the hearts and minds of so many visitors.

Letters and diaries kept by Republican prisoners are one of the highlights of the Spike Island tour.

After that, the tour takes you all the way up to our very last prison cells, which were opened in 1985, and held prisoners until as recently as 2004. The one-way system we operate during the tour means youre taken on a loop starting from the earliest parts of the prison, the 1800s prison, following a route around the fort where the last thing you see are the modern prison cells, where prisoners were walking on the very same ground just two decades ago. The overall impact, once youve walked that entire loop and taken in the tragedy and the real, lived experiences from each section of the island, really blows people away during each tour. Many have called it Ireland in a day  a trip through Irelands ancient monastic history, through centuries of British oppression and rebellion to our ultimate freedom, with stories of Irish social life thrown in that soften the story.

It should be noted, however, that the impact of the Spike Island experience can be felt before youve even stepped foot on the place! To get to the island, visitors start off in beautiful Cobh, which of course has a fascinating history all of its own. We always make a point of giving people that bit of history about Cobh and advising them to set aside extra time to explore the place," John says. "Once you board the ferry from Cobh, though, you start travelling towards Spike Island and theres that wonderful feeling of escape, which is quite ironic for a prison island! The journey over is just so serene, and then once you step on to the island you immediately feel like youre somewhere much further away, like youre free from the real world. Whats fantastic about the island is we have no cars, nobodys living there, so theres no dogs barking or horns blasting. It really is a peaceful sanctuary almost, where you can get away from the mainland and contemplate.

Rose Carroll, Cork County Council, John Crotty, Cllr Sheila O'Callaghan and Conor Nelligan, Cork County Council Heritage Officer, attending the official opening of the 'Old Cork in Colour' exhibition at the Mitchell Hall on Spike Island.

New additions

These days, theres something extra special to contemplate upon during your visit. Earlier this month, the Old Cork in Colour exhibition was launched at Spike Island. Featuring over thirty images from the best-selling Old Ireland in Colour books in ways youve never seen before, as well as some showstopping new additions, its a must-see this summer.

Its been such a fantastic opportunity to work with the experts in the Old Ireland in Colour team, because we had all these historic images of Spike Island that have never been colourised," John beams. "Its been amazing not only to see them being given new life, but also to give plenty of other iconic pictures from Cork the same treatment, and house them here on Spike Island."

One such image thats now on display at Spike Island is the last picture ever taken of Michael Collins. I was stunned to discover that picture had never been digitised and properly colourised before, because that process so often reveals new details that we never would have seen before from images of Irish history John explains. I think not only the Collins piece, but the whole exhibit, will generate an awful lot of interest amongst people in Cork. Weve covered pretty much the whole county in there  people will find images of Kinsale, Bantry, Cobh and loads more.

Spike's new exhibit features the last picture ever taken of Michael Collins, from 22 August 1922, in Bandon.

Id really encourage people to come see it while they can. I suppose the whole idea behind what were aiming to do, with both Old Cork in Colour but also Spike Island in general, is to stir up that Irish passion and remind people of the wonderful history we have.

The Old Cork in Colour exhibit is running in Spike Island until November 2022.

For further details, and to book tickets, head to www.spikeislandcork.ie.
Junta Watch Junta Watch: Regime Chiefs Thingyan Party Backfires; Billions Wasted on Honorary Titles for Dictators and More

Min Aung Hlaing enjoys Thingyan at the militarys pavilion in Pyin Oo Lwin in April 2022.

Min Aung Hlaings Thingyan celebration reveals growing divisions within the army

Senior General Min Aung Hlaings plan to use the Thingyan Water Festival, traditionally the countrys largest and most important annual celebration, to create an impression of normalcy returning to Myanmar backfired spectacularly when photos of the coup leader celebrating the festival in strained fashion went viral on social media.

Ahead of Myanmars traditional New Year festival, Min Aung Hlaing instructed junta-controlled ministries and region and state governments to organize lively parties. As the regime boss, Min Aung Hlaing should have been celebrating Thingyan in public in the capital, Naypyitaw, or in Yangon or Mandalay. Instead, he spent three days of Thingyan, April 14-16, in Pyin Oo Lwin, a garrison town that is home to military academies and thousands of soldiers.

Some people have suggested that he was there to rally support of military personnel for his regime amid increased defections. However, the coup leader did not seem to be at ease while celebrating Thingyan at the military pavilion in Pyin Oo Lwin. Instead, he was accompanied by his personal bodyguards at all times in the pavilion, further confirming the growing divisions within the military.

Other key regime figures, including deputy junta boss Soe Win, also failed to appear in public during Thingyan. Apart from the junta-organized pavilions, streets across the country were deserted as most Myanmar people boycotted the festival. The military regime reportedly hired people and forced civil servants to take part in the festival to create an impression that its Thingyan pavilions were crowded with revelers.

On New Years Day itself, junta-controlled newspapers reported that the Thingyan Festival ended successfully, reflecting the solidarity between the government, Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] and the people.

Coup leader wastes billions on hollow titles

Over 1.5 billion kyats of public money was wasted by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing when he conferred honorary titles on individuals including himself on April 17, Myanmars New Years Day.

Some 146 individuals received honorary titles, with the list of recipients dominated by regime figures. The junta chief displayed a serious lack of modesty by awarding himself two of the highest honorary titles: Sadoe Thiri Thudhamma  the Most Glorious Order of Truth  and Sadoe Maha Thray Sithu  the Order of the Union of Myanmar.

The titles come with gold braided salwe, a belt worn over the right shoulder and across the chest. The salwe for the highest title, Agga Maha Thiri Thudhamma, is made of 45 ticals of gold, and the salwe for the lowest-ranking title is made of five ticals of gold.

Among the recipients, some posthumous, were Myanmars previous dictators: Ne Win, Saw Maung and Than Shwe. While Min Aung Hlaing awarded himself 40 ticals of gold, he gave his mentor Than Shwe just eight ticals.

Min Aung Hlaing has been preaching the virtues of thrift, with Myanmar mired in economic chaos due to post-coup political turmoil. But he has also been spending billions on unnecessary things such as Februarys grand military parade to mark Union Day. He also ordered huge sums to be spent on the Thingyan Festival that most people in the country boycotted.

Regime in defensive mode

Myanmars military regime has issued an unusual emergency alert to all its units across the country to limit troop mobilizations and which puts them on standby for possible attacks, especially by resistance forces.

The order follows the shadow National Unity Governments (NUG) statement that it was preparing more offensives against regime troops.

At the same time, junta forces are sustaining heavy casualties, especially in Sagaing Region, Karen and Kayah states, due to intensifying attacks from resistance groups fighting alongside ethnic armed organizations such as the Kachin Independence Army and Karen National Liberation Army.

Myanmar military defectors said the alert was unusual because it isnt time-specific, and similar alerts are normally issued a week before Armed Forces Day in March and commanders quarterly meetings.

Defectors said that the alert was putting the military into defensive mode, as it seems that the regime is reacting to the NUGs plan and is buying time to prepare.

Karen State: the deadliest place for junta soldiers

The total number of junta soldiers killed in Karen State since the start of the year now stands at 1,215.

The Karen National Union (KNU), whose soldiers are fighting alongside resistance forces against the military regime, said this week that over 160 junta troops were killed in the first two weeks of April in over 200 clashes with ethnic Karen fighters in Karen State, southeast Myanmar.

March was the deadliest month for junta forces in Karen State so far this year, with 429 deaths reported in a total of 510 clashes. Numbers released by the KNU show there were 435 clashes in January with 313 regime deaths and 421 clashes in February with 311 regime deaths.

Fighting between regime forces and the KNU has intensified since junta troops raided the town of Lay Kay Kaw in Karen States Myawaddy Township on December 14.

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TexteZone1

VUEZ and IRSN have been collaborating for 20 years on one aspect of long-term cooling of a nuclear reactor during an accident situation, specifically the efficiency of the sumps, the ultimate means for protecting the core in these situations. VUEZ and IRSN have built several experimental systems to study the efficiency of filters protecting these sumps from the risk of clogging with all kinds of debris (fibres, paint, concrete dust, adhesive, etc.) that may fall into the sumps.

The Viktoria facility, the most recent, developed as part of the partnership between VUEZ and IRSN, turned ten years old in December 2021.









The meeting between VUEZ and IRSN, on 13 April at the Viktoria site, was an opportunity to review ten years of collaboration and to exchange information on experimental programmes for studying various filter models used for 900 MWe French reactors and for the EPR. The programmes will continue in 2022 and 2023 to test the filters 1300 MWe reactors. In the longer term, the possibilities of building an international programme around Viktoria, which would also enable VUEZ and IRSN to perform services for foreign industry players, were also discussed.

The VUEZ and IRSN teams, led by Cyril Svolik, Chairman of the VUEZ Board, and Jean-Christophe Niel, Director General of IRSN, hosted the French Ambassador in Slovakia, His Excellency Pascal Le Deunff, who wanted to visit this facility to affirm, once again, Frances commitment to continued collaboration with Slovakia in the nuclear field.

This visit to Viktoria was also an opportunity for Jean-Christophe Niel to meet VUJE (our TSO counterpart), UJD (the nuclear safety authority) and the Slovakian Secretary of State for Energy (M. K Galek).





With the Secretary of State and the Director of the Nuclear Safety Authority, Mrs. M. Ziakova, in the presence of the French Ambassador, Jean-Christophe Niel was able to discuss current issues related to the state of Ukrainian nuclear facilities, in the context of the Russian invasion, and what consequences this situation may have for EU countries. The discussions with the President of the Nuclear Safety Authority also dealt with the importance, for nuclear countries, of preserving dedicated nuclear safety research tools, necessary for maintaining high-quality nuclear safety expertise, which is indispensable for the work of nuclear safety authorities and for protecting the environment and the public.
The ABC News presenter who was found to be hosting public Twitter lists on her account of those she categorised as Labor Trolls and Lobotomised Shitheads appears to have gone missing.

Fauziah Ibrahim normally fronts up for the ABC News morning program on the weekend, along with Joanna Nicholson.

But on Saturday and again on Sunday, Nicholson was joined by John Barron, who hosts the Planet America program. The ABC has made no public statement about the change or why it was necessitated.

I haven't seen one tweet lamenting the absence of Fauziah Ibrahim.?  Dirk Cook (@DirkCook6) April 23, 2022

Ibrahim has changed the picture on her Twitter account from an ABC News logo to something quite different as cen be seen above. The old photo can be seen here.

The ABC wason Tuesday for a clarification as to what had actually happened, given that there were doubts over whether Ibrahim's Twitter account had been breached or whether she had created the lists herself.

A change of personnel: John Barron joined Joanna Nicholson on the ABC News morning program on Sunday.

No reply was received from the ABC that day.

Glad to see the inimitable John Barron on ABC weekend news breakfast today.

If Fauziah Ibrahim had been on I would have immediately turned it off.

Her behaviour has no place on the ABC.  Pinky Jones (@PinkyDink4) April 22, 2022

An ABC spokesperson attempted to play down the faux pas last Sunday when iTWire  the first to report on the snafu  contacted the corporation, by saying the account was a personal one.

But as reported, the ABC has rules for its staff who maintain personal Twitter accounts.

In it, the corporation says while personal posts are not required to adhere to the corporation's editorial polices, two areas  impartiality and independence and integrity  should not be compromised.
Viet Nams tra fish (pangasius) industry is seeing a strong recovery after three years of gloom.

Total tra export value reached US$646 million in the first quarter of 2022, posting year-on-year growth of 88 per cent, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The association said pangasius exports to mainland China and Hong Kong have increased again. In the first three months of 2022, the total export value of pangasius to those markets reached $183.4 million, an increase of more than 163 per cent over the same period last year. Of which, the export value of pangasius in March reached $97.5 million, up 119 per cent. The tra export to those markets is forecast to be even more optimistic in the next quarter.

During the first three months, the pangasius exports to Malaysia also recovered after more than two years being affected by the pandemic. The total export value of frozen pangasius to this market was $7.45 million, up 138 per cent over the same period last year.

At present, Malaysia is the destination of nearly 40 Vietnamese pangasius exporting enterprises with diversified export products. Viet Nam and China are still the two leading suppliers of white fish products for Malaysia. Of which, Viet Nam has taken the lead, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the total import value for white fish to Malaysia.

Viet Nams pangasius exports to the US market also gained growth in the first quarter of this year. The total export value of pangasius to the US reached $160 million, up 123 per cent year on year.

The local enterprises have been promoting tra exports to the US after the final result of the 17th period of review in the period on anti-dumping tax for Vietnamese tra concluded no enterprises should be imposed the tax.

It is forecast that the demand for essential goods, including food and seafood, will increase sharply, which will be a good opportunity for the businesses to export frozen pangasius to this market, according to VASEP.

Meanwhile, after many years of reduction in pangasius exports to the EU, the pangasius export value to this market jumped by 86.2 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2022 to $46.7 million. The pangasius export value to major markets in the bloc increased sharply, including the Netherlands (86 per cent), Germany (97 per cent), Belgium (120 per cent), and Spain (67 per cent).

The high world demand for pangasius has pulled the average export price of frozen pangasius fillets to $3.4 per kilo, an increase of $0.25 compared to January 2022.

In the second quarter of this year, the pangasius exports to these major markets are forecast to continue the high growth when consumer demand is estimated to surge due to competitive pangasius prices and a shortage of cod and pollock supply from Russia.

Duong Nghia Quoc, chairman of the Viet Nam Pangasius Association, said that China was a potential market for Vietnamese pangasius. This is the leading market in pangasius imports from Viet Nam, followed by the US and EU markets.

Now, China has a high demand to import Vietnamese pangasius. Therefore, along with the promotion of trade relations between the two countries, it is essential to provide information about the "Zero COVID" policy and food safety and hygiene regulations of China for local businesses, according to Quoc.

For the EU, this is a traditional market. Impacts from the pandemic and many other factors made the exports to this market decrease. However, the market has recently enhanced imports again.

Therefore, there are many export opportunities for Vietnamese pangasius and also local businesses this year.

The price of commercial pangasius in the domestic market recorded an increase of 40 per cent to VN30,000 per kilo compared to the beginning of the year.

According to experts, higher prices for raw materials of fish and feed by 10-20 per cent compared to 2021 have been one of the main reasons for increases in the price of finished fish products.

In addition, the pandemic caused tra farming area to shrink, and a shortage of commercial fish for export contributed to pushing up prices.  VNS
A sobbing mother, who had at last located and buried her daughter killed in tragedy-scarred Bucha, was held in a long embrace from a woman pushed by her own pain to try to help.

Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska, a mayoral advisor in the Ukrainian town synonymous with war crimes accusations against Russia, is aiding families in the grim process of finding dead loved ones in overwhelmed morgues.

She comprehends in a very intimate way their needs and feelings  her husband was killed in 2014 fighting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraines east in Ilovaisk, the scene of a particularly bloody battle.

I feel the pain of these people, she said Friday outside the busy morgue in Bucha, a town near Kyiv where some 20 civilians found dead on a single street sparked international condemnation.

For me its very personal, I understand how important it is for the families to be sure and to bury (their relatives), she added, as black or white body bags were carried on a forklift to a morgue entrance.

Authorities have recovered over 400 bodies from Bucha since the fighting ended locally, both people killed during the Russian invasion and those dead from other causes, and the town asked surrounding morgues for help, leaving relatives scrambling to locate the remains of their loved ones.

The problem was that the bodies are elsewhere and the relatives are here, Skoryk-Shkarivska said, noting that corpses were being brought back for families to identify and claim.

 Bodies dont scare me anymore 

Nadia Kovalenkos 45-year-old daughter Inna was killed March 19 by an explosive strike while retrieving water for the family, and the womans relatives temporarily buried her as the fighting raged around them.

After Russian forces retreated from the area, authorities came to exhume Kovalenkos daughter for examination and preparation for permanent burial  yet it took time to get her back.

I had to come here maybe four days in a row, and there was a line of people waiting, Kovalenko said Friday. We waited and we found her. Yesterday we buried her.

She hugged Skoryk-Shkarivska as tears rolled down her face, and her body heaved with sobs.

Its over. You did everything you could, Skoryk-Shkarivska said.

For other families though, their effort to lay their dead to rest is not yet complete.

Today I came here, and Ive been coming here for two weeks already, to look at the bodies and find my husband, said 52-year-old Tania Boikiv, with a mask and gloves she wears while looking at corpses in order to identify him.

She said Russian troops took her husband from their home and held him in a different village for two weeks and then beat him to death as they retreated.

One of her most significant leads is a photo a priest took of the dead that she believes shows him.

The most terrible thing in my life is that my husband, my loved one, is gone. I dont know what could be worse, Boikiv told AFP.

The dead bodies dont scare me anymore, compared to the tragedy in my life, she added. It would be a consolation to bury him, to visit his grave.
A Gambian man goes on trial in Germany on Monday in a landmark case for crimes committed under the countrys dictatorship, but at home, the quest for justice is proving to be long and hard.

Bai Lowe will go into the dock in the northern town of Celle, charged with crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder.

He allegedly worked as a driver for the Junglers  a death squad that underpinned dictator Yahya Jammeh, whose 22-year reign ended in 2017 after he suffered a shock election defeat and fled to Equatorial Guinea.

Lowe is accused of two murders and an attempted murder, one of which is the 2004 killing of AFPs correspondent in Banjul, Deyda Hydara, who was also editor of the independent daily The Point.

Lowe will be the first alleged member of the dreaded Junglers to go on trial.

I am confident that justice will be done, said Hydaras son, Baba Hydara, 45.

Germany is a neutral country and I am expecting a fair trial.

But he pointed to the gruelling 18-year struggle to get to this point and the challenges for securing justice in The Gambia.

There is a lot of expectations, he said. This is just a first battle win, but the war is still on.

Lowe is being prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity, including war crimes and genocide, regardless of where they were committed.

Germany has been particularly active in pursuing such cases linked to the Syrian regime, and in January sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life in jail for crimes against humanity.

 Scarred country 

The smallest nation in continental Africa and deeply impoverished, The Gambia bears many scars from the Jammeh era.

His regime was notorious for crushing dissent, through murder, disappearances, torture, rape and castration.

Ayesha Jammeh, who works at The Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations, pointed to a lack of judicial resources but also the lack of political will to prosecute Jammehs abusers.

It would have been much easier for us to have (the Lowe case) here in The Gambia, she said.

Victims could go to the courts and represent their families to ensure that they are going to be face-to-face with the persons who violated the rights of their loved one, she said.

Jammehs successor, Adama Barrow, set up a South African-style Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to probe allegations of Jammeh-era abuses.

After hearing lengthy testimony, the panel last year published a 17-volume litany of abuses.

It was not empowered to prosecute those responsible.

Instead, it issued a raft of recommendations, which included that Jammeh and his accomplices be brought before an international court held under the authority of the African Union or West Africas regional bloc, ECOWAS.

 Scepticism 

But many fear the government is dragging its feet on implementing the recommendations.

Some blame a rapprochement between Barrow and members of Jammehs APRC party, which they say has deepened following legislative elections this month.

His government has until May 25 to publish a white paper, and Barrow has until the end of June to announce his decisions.

Scepticism has been fed by the appointment by legislators on April 14 of a former Jammeh ally, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, as speaker of parliament.

The speaker, the deputy speaker, these people have shown their opposition to the TRRC from the onset, Essa Njie, 32, a political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, told AFP.

And now we are having these same people in parliament (and) we are expecting also the new cabinet that will come (may include) members of the APRC, he said.

I am highly pessimistic that there will be justice for the victims in this country, he said.

Perpetrators outside the country will run the risk of prosecution under the principle of universal jurisdiction, but perpetrators that are here  some of them, not all but some of them  will likely escape punishment, he said.

Hydara said that the Lowe case would be used to show the government that other channels exist for securing justice if it chose to mothball the TRRC recommendations.

We will never just sit down and give up, he said. No. We will keep on fighting.
Ukrainian officials Saturday accused Russia of thwarting a fresh attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and killing six people in a strike on Odessa, all but burying hopes of a truce for Orthodox Easter.

With the war poised to enter its third month on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said fierce battles were raging in the east and the United Nations said nearly 5.2 million people had fled the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin to end the war, which began with a full-scale Russian invasion on February 24.

I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it, Zelensky said, adding he was not afraid to meet the Russian leader. But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in the besieged port city of Mariupol were killed.

Around 200 residents gathered at an evacuation meeting point announced by Kyiv in Mariupol on Saturday but they were dispersed by Russian forces, city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding: The evacuation was thwarted.

He claimed others had been told to board buses headed to places controlled by Russia. The strategic city has been devastated by weeks of intense Russian bombardment.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had said earlier that Ukraine would try again to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the city  pivotal to Russias war plans, and which the Kremlin claims to have liberated.

Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are holed up inside a sprawling steel plant in Mariupol, and Kyiv has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to allow civilians to exit safely.

But on Saturday a Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the factory.

 Six dead in Odessa 

Our defenders hold on regardless of the very difficult situation and even carry out counter raids, he said.

Further west, Russia said it had targeted a major depot stocking foreign weapons near Odessa on the Black Sea coast.

Russian armed forces today disabled with high-precision and long-range missiles a logistics terminal at the military airfield near Odessa where a large batch of foreign weapons delivered by the United States and European countries were stored, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Another strike on Odessa killed six people, including a three-month-old baby, Ukrainian officials said, upending the relative calm the city has enjoyed since the beginning of the war.

The countrys emergency services said a missile struck a 15-storey residential building, sparking a fire that took 90 minutes to extinguish.

Odessa city hall said eight people were admitted to hospital.

It was a terrifying night, said Yelena, with black bags under tear-reddened eyes in Ukraines second city of Kharkiv, where residents said random Russian strikes could come at any hour, day or night.

At 10:00 pm it all started, everything shook, she recalled. There were two strikes, later there were more, we were no longer able to sleep and spent all night in the corridor.

The governor of Ukraines eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Ukranian forces had retaken three villages near the Russian border after fierce battles in which two people had been killed.

 Evacuate if you can 

In nearby Lugansk, governor Sergiy Gaiday said shelling was round the clock and urged people near the front to evacuate if you have the chance.

The latest fighting comes a day after a senior Russian military officer said the second phase of the special operation had begun.

One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine, Major General Rustam Minnekaev said.

Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the north of Ukraine after being frustrated in their attempts to take the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the south.

Minnekaev said the focus was to provide a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and towards a breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova, Transnistria, where the general claimed Russian-speaking people were being oppressed.

Ukrainian authorities have vowed to fight on and drive the Russian troops from their land, but they also sought an Easter pause.

Unfortunately, Russia rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce, Zelensky said earlier this week.

 End badly 

Ukrainian authorities urged those celebrating Orthodox Easter to follow religious services online and to respect curfews in place across the country.

Support the defenders of Ukraine and stay at home for our security and yours, said Kyrylo Timoshenko from the presidents office.

Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russias region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, said on Telegram that a Russian border post had been hit by Ukranian mortar fire, although there were no casualties.

Near the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, the hamlet of Lysychansk has largely turned into a ghost town but a small market is still operating, providing food and other supplies after the towns other market was bombed.

This is going to end badly, said an elderly woman in line for vegetables, fearing a targeted strike by Russian forces similar to a deadly train station rocket attack in the nearby town of Kramatorsk on April 8 that killed at least 52 people.

Russias change of strategic focus to southern and eastern Ukraine saw invading forces leave behind a trail of indiscriminate destruction and civilian bodies around Kyiv, including in the commuter town of Bucha.

A United Nations mission to Bucha documented the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians there, the UNs Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Russian forces had indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes.

burs-ds/jm/ach/jj
SBS TV's upcoming romance drama "Woori The Virgin" shared its first glimpse of Hong Ji Yoon and Shin Dong Wook, the two splendid stars joining Im Soo Hyang and Sung Hoon in the main cast!

Hong Ji Yoon Gets Entangled in a Sticky Situation With Im Soo Hyang, Sung Hoon

"Woori The Virgin" keeps the fans and viewers amped as it releases another set of stills ahead of its premier!

SBS TV's "Woori The Virgin" is a South Korean remake of the American drama "Jane The Virgin."

It follows the story of Oh Woo Ri, played by Im Soo Hyang, who gets unexpectedly pregnant despite maintaining her purity before marriage.

The newly released photos feature actress Hong Ji Yoon who transforms into Lee Ma Ri, a woman who's completely fake except for her beautiful visage.

Her alluring aura and sophisticated looks entice viewers to stare at her. In one photo, she holds baby shoes in her palms. This raises curiosity as to what kind of ploy she has in her head.

She is a cunning woman who forced Raphael (Sung Hoon), the handsome cosmetics company CEO, to marry her despite not loving each other truthfully.

Although she's totally annoying sometimes, she has an unexpected side that everyone will find difficult to hate. In particular, Lee Ma Ri struggles to save her deteriorating marriage with Raphael who wants to divorce her.

Lee Ma Ri finds herself in a sticky situation with Oh Woo Ri (Im Soo Hyang), the woman who becomes pregnant with her husband's baby accidentally.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Woori The Virgin' First Look: Im Soo Hyang Finds Herself in Serious Predicament That Can Change Her Life

Things are expected to take an interesting turn when Lee Ma Ri and Oh Woo Ri meet. The legal wife and the baby mama raises excitement as to what kind of agreement or altercation the two will be involved in.

Shin Dong Wook Transforms Into Im Soo Hyang's Loyal Boyfriend in 'Woori The Virgin'

Actor Shin Dong Wook joins in the fun as Oh Woo Ri's loving boyfriend, Lee Kang Jae!

Lee Kang Jae is a passionate police detective in the violent crime department who lives a principled life. Despite his oozing charisma and bravado, he becomes a hopeless romantic and smitten for Oh Woo Ri.

Shin Dong Wook's photo stills capture his perfect transformation into Lee Kang Jae, who possesses handsome looks and a captivating smile.

When he's not in his police uniform, he's often seen wearing casual knitwear and shirts, exuding the warmth of a loyal man.

The awkward and unconventional situation between him, Oh Woo Ri and Sung Hoon, and how he reacts as a boyfriend, raises the expectation index to a new high.

Shin Dong Wook's chemistry with Im Soo Hyang is also one of the factors that fans and viewers look forward to in the upcoming drama.

'Woori The Virgin' Production Unit on Hong Ji Yoon, Shin Dong Wook's Casting

The production unit casted adept and promising stars in the upcoming SBS TV rom-com "Woori The Virgin."

During the first script reading, the production team was surprised by actress Hong Ji Yoon who convincingly transformed into Lee Ma Ri without hassle.

"Her gaze, emotional acting and personality changed according to the situations," a representative from the production team said. "Without a doubt, her unique charms will mesmerize the viewers through the new drama."

Meanwhile, they described Shin Dong Wook's acting as perfect, delicate, and expressive.

"Shin Dong Wook resembles Lee Kang Jae, and he made the filming set at ease with his personality," they stated. "Through his performance, he gave his character life."

Furthermore, "Woori The Virgin" airs for the first time on Monday, May 9 at 10:00 p.m. KST on SBS TV.

ICYMI, watch the intriguing teaser of the drama here:

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
The Kettle Valley Rail Trail between Penticton and Little Tunnel was busy on the Easter weekend so photographers had to wait between groups of hikers and cyclists to capture panoramic views Okanagan Lake and Summerland off in the distance, above.
Area residents came together Saturday in a Kenosha town hall meeting on how to create safe, trauma-free schools locally.

The Kenosha Education Justice Coalition hosted the event, organizing it in the aftermath of an incident last month in which a Kenosha police officer, working off-duty as a school safety officer, restrained a 12-year-old girl, and in doing so placed his knee on the back of her neck.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been called in to look at the incident at the request of Kenosha Police Chief Eric Larsen, according to news reports. The FBI will determine if there were any civil rights violations.

In March, videos began circulating of Shawn Guetschow, 37, an off-duty Kenosha Police officer employed by Kenosha Unified as a security officer, kneeling on the back of the neck of a 12-year-old Black girl. Guetschow, who is white, had intervened in a fight between two students before using the restraining move. He has resigned from his post with Kenosha Unified, and has been working a desk position with the police department while the case is investigated.

Organizers of Saturdays town hall, which was open to the community, said it was meant to start conversations about how KUSD can address student behavior more meaningfully and safely.

More than two dozen residents attended the 90-minute gathering Saturday at the Grace Welcome Center, 2006 60th St., which opened with a brief presentation about current security personnel and training in the Kenosha Unified School District. Attendees were then broken into discussion groups, and shared their group discussion at the end of the meeting.

Kendra Koeppen Mulwana, the lead organizer for the town hall, said the event wasnt meant to be overly controversial or polarizing, but rather solutions-based.

Its not the goal of today, were trying to educate people about the systems in place, Koeppen Mulwana said. Regardless of who you are, we all agree our students are not getting the education they deserve.

Tanya McLean, director of Leaders of Kenosha and a member of the coalition, said she was looking forward to more such town halls.

A lot of really great ideas and suggestions came out of this, McLean said. These difficult conversations have to happen.

At the end of the event, Koeppen Mulwana asked attendees to consider signing their petition calling for various changes to KUSDs security policies, including requiring all Kenosha Police officers in local schools undergo mandatory Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training and increasing mental health support in Wisconsin schools. The petition can be seen at https://chng.it/bRfgdKmZ.

Attendees were also invited to speak at the Kenosha Unified School Board meeting on Monday night.

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On December 27, 2017, as the result of a medication error, 75-year-old Charlene Murphey died tragically at Nashvilles Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The nurse who administered the medication, RaDonda Vaught, was criminally convicted for the mishap and the case ultimately caught the attention of the entire global health care community.

Unfortunately, medical errors are not an uncommon occurrence in health care. In fact, they are believed to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Some estimates predict that one in 12 patients is impacted by a preventable medical error, but that number could be even higher as a central database has yet to be created to help formally track these figures. What makes this case unique is that medical errors are typically reviewed by the hospital where it occurred or even the state medical board when deemed necessary, but in this instance, it went to a criminal court where Vaught was found guilty of gross neglect and negligent homicide.

This sets a dangerous precedent for the health care industry. Before this case, shaming and punishing health care workers when an incident occurred had already led to a culture of silence. In fact, 76.9 percent of nurses fear the reactions of administrators and colleagues after reporting an error. Even more alarming is that 95 percent of medication errors are not reported due to concerns of the punishment. However, the unnecessary death of Murphey underscores that not reporting near misses or errors in care for fear of repercussions has allowed for procedural inefficiencies and systemic problems to occur.

In this situation, Vaught had a good clinical reputation and as soon as she realized the mistake, she notified her supervisors and the clinicians involved. She expressed remorse and was devastated. So, the underlying question is how did this error occur and how can we prevent this tragic event from happening again?

Health care professionals are human and despite their best efforts, make mistakes like the rest of us. And while Vaught did not intend to hurt the patient, there were multiple systemic events that compounded to result in this misfortune:

The dispensing machine delivered the wrong medication, and the override should have only been functional in a crisis situation for a specific list of categorized emergent drugs.

The scanner tasked with identifying the right patient and drug were not available.

Vaught was multi-tasking.

Vaught received an order to go to the ED and a PET scan; but should not have received both orders at the same time.

The order for no monitoring was for when the patient was in the step-down unit, not the PET scan, but this was misinterpreted by the staff nurse who directed Vaught.

There was a lack of standardized processes for medication administration or checklists in the electronic medical record to help prevent an error.

Murphey didnt undergo proper evaluation before the sedatives were ordered.

All these underlying missteps led up to the death of Murphy, many of which could have been avoided to ultimately save her life. To combat these errors, it is critical the health care industry embrace full transparency rather than criminalize it. Transparency allows health systems to learn from its critical mistakes, thereby enhancing patient safety and the overall quality of care. The hospital governance boards and leadership teams need to instill a culture of safety as well as the value of open and transparent communication across their institutions. Today, only 32 percent of health facilities surveyed said to have informed adult patients when medical errors occurred and that simply has to change. Health care organizations must report to patients and their families when errors take place if we want to see a decrease in medical mishaps.

To improve patient care and avoid the unnecessary harm of patients, health systems should focus on the following:

Creating a culture of safety. To truly minimize preventable harm, the health care industry would benefit from becoming a more reliable industry, like that of aviation or nuclear power, by better anticipating problems before they occur and remaining transparent about issues and root causes when they do happen. This requires a significant commitment by the executive team, and governing body as the journey to a culture of safety will not succeed without their leadership, continuous reinforcement and modeling of behavior. A culture of safety will provide an awareness of potential patient harm at every touchpoint across the organization; train leaders and staff in improvement processes; and commit to a model of transparent, open, and honest communication.

Supporting honesty and transparency. The Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) toolkit is a well-studied Communication and Resolution Program (CRP) used by many health care organizations and practitioners to improve patient safety through an empathetic, fair, and just approach to medical errors. This approach focuses on putting patients, families, and caregivers first and providing timely, thorough, and just resolutions after adverse events occur. Through this process, health care organizations and their patients can feel confident that processes will be examined in real-time and clear communication will occur, even in an unexpected event. This will lead to better patient understanding and satisfaction and stronger support of the staff involved in the incident.

Aligning incentives. Patient safety needs to be a top priority for everyone involved in patient care. This includes the governance board, the C-suite, nurses, and all those in between. To see a true shift, aligning incentives based on health systems use of evidence-based best practices can increase adoption and ultimately reduce patient harm.

What happened to Murphey at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2017 was very heartbreaking and while it should have never happened, it brought a necessary light around the systemic issues in the health care system that must be addressed in order to avoid any similar occurrences in the future. Criminalization is not the answer. In fact, the health care workers in these instances are second victims that also need support. This underscores the need for the health care industry to build in processes to support the inevitable occurrence of human error. This can include implementing technology to keep staff on the correct path; prioritizing transparency to ensure mistakes are not covered up but learned from; involving patients and family members in the care process; and aligning incentives so that health care facilities are urged to utilize evidence-based best practices.

The criminalization of true medical errors will be a step backwards for patient safety as there will be a reluctance to speak up when an incident occurs. The health care industry should instead pivot to transparency and learning from mistakes to reach the goal of zero preventable deaths caused by medical error.

Michael Ramsay is an anesthesiologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Have you ever had feelings of depression?

I regretted asking that question the moment it slipped out of my mouth. In the span of what felt like 5 minutes but was probably 30 seconds, both the patient and I immediately became awkward. The patient hesitated and her breathing hitched. My heart rate became rapid and my palms got sweaty. Her eyes turned red, her face tilted downwards, her fingers tremored. By the end of those 30 seconds, I really regretted asking her.

That question was on my list of things to ask because she had mentioned feeling depressed at the last appointment. I hadnt asked it before because I thought the translator simply used that word to describe how she felt about her back pain which was her chief complaint. But before I could take it back, the words had already left, and the impact had already been made.

She began to silently cry, and I immediately walked toward her, but I didnt know what to say because my Spanish was limited to hola and gracias.

She always spoke directly to the translator, so I thought that if I stepped forward and put my hand on her shoulder, it would be intruding on the moment between her and the translator. I was the one who asked her the question though; I felt it was my responsibility to be next to her. I listened to her talk about why she felt the way she did, but because I couldnt communicate with her, I was on the outskirts of the conversation between her and the translator.

A plethora of emotions took over me at that moment: worry about her situation, anger at myself for my lack of Spanish knowledge, fear of asking that question again. After the encounter, my attending told me that difficult questions are OK to ask, especially if they can help us better treat the patient. But why did it feel like I failed my patient?

This is often the feeling I have when there is a language barrier. It is this feeling of hopelessness and like there is always something missing in our relationship. However, its something that we cant avoid or completely fix. So, I did whatever was in my power at that moment which was to stand by her and get her a cup of water after she settled down a bit.

In this profession, many of our patients will have issues that we cannot fix. We will continue to feel upset, hopeless, and suffer when our patients struggle. These emotions are okay to have because they help us to be empathetic and kind caregivers.

Should we really ever feel comfortable in a room where we discuss topics like depression, miscarriage, or abuse with our patients?

I hope that even five years from now, I still feel a bit awkward or nervous when I have these conversations. It will become a reminder of how medicine is a difficult field but also equally rewarding when you are able to provide some relief. When I walked out of clinic that night, I was still a bit upset. It was already difficult to communicate with my patient, let alone make her feel better. This feeling, though, also made me more eager to improve. Not just improving my Spanish, of course, but also becoming stronger for my patients so that I can be their support when they need me to.

Aatqa Memon is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com




Unification Minister nominee Kwon Young-se on Friday called for a bipartisan policy on North Korea.







"Only when a bipartisan North Korea policy is drawn up on the foundation of a national consensus will it be possible to pursue policies in a sustainable and consistent manner," he said at a seminar organized by the national unity committee under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team.







Kwon said the reunification of Germany demonstrated the need to pursue bipartisan policies in order to achieve the peaceful reunification of North and South Korea.







"North Korea's complete denuclearization and the completion of peaceful reunification are the greatest tasks facing our people," he said.







"We must break from the old dichotomy that conservatives are anti-North Korea and progressives are pro-North Korea and build a policy of unity," he added. (Yonhap)






The United States' approval rating in South Korea jumped at one of the steepest rates among Asian countries in 2021, a poll showed Friday..







The approval rating of U.S. leadership in South Korea climbed to 59 percent last year from 30 percent a year earlier, according to Gallup.







The increase marks the second highest among 33 Asian countries where the poll was conducted between April 2021 and January 2022.







"Ratings of U.S. leadership showed substantial improvement in 13 Asian countries and territories in 2021, including South Korea, where ratings increased 29 percentage points," Gallup said on its website.







The median approval of U.S. leadership in Asia was 41 percent.







The approval rate for U.S. leadership in Laos increased from 4 percent in 2020 to 34 percent last year, representing the sharpest rate increase among nations surveyed. The highest approval rating for U.S. leadership was in the Philippines at 71 percent, a traditionally strong U.S. ally in the region, said Gallup.







The relationship between South Korea and the U.S., despite their seven-decades old alliance, soured under former U.S. President Donald Trump who had threatened to pull U.S. troops out of South Korea unless Seoul sharply increased its burden sharing to maintain some 28,500 U.S. service members stationed on the peninsula. (Yonhap)


Hyundai Motor sold one of its factories in Beijing last year, at a time moves have accelerated to relocate production bases from China. Korea Times file



Greater production costs, US-China rivalry and China's zero-COVID approach weighing on Korean businesses



By Kim Bo-eun



HONG KONG  With its cheap and abundant manpower, China has long relished its role as the so-called world's factory, offering lower production costs to lure global brands and retain domestic manufacturers for decades.



But a gradual rise in expenses, such as labor costs, has been weakening China's role as a go-to source of production for companies over the past five years, according to a new report by the Korea International Trade Association.



Multinational firms are being increasingly pressured to move production away from mainland China to destinations such as Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia, the association said.



That includes some of South Korea's largest businesses, including Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor, which have relocated factories from mainland China to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia in recent years.



The trend to relocate production began years ago and was further fuelled by desires to avoid tariffs stemming from a trade war between China and the U.S. Then came the pandemic.



Supply-chain disruptions for critically important goods such as computer chips have forced some economies to bring production home. This also helps them safeguard the supply of essential resources in the face of geopolitical tensions and uncertainties.



And governments have even begun to offer incentives for companies that reshore.



But when returning to their country of origin is not the best option, companies consider those that can offer the best operating environment and minimal supply-chain disruptions, including in the context of the U.S.-China rivalry.



Sometimes that means keeping certain operations in China, but moving others.



For instance, Samsung, LG and Hyundai still have factories operating in China: Samsung has a large chip plant in Xian and a factory producing household appliances in Suzhou; LG has plants producing display panels and batteries; and Hyundai Motor also has manufacturing plants.



But the intensifying competition between the world's two largest economies, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, has prompted the U.S. to create a regional economic alliance known as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework?(IPEF).



This initiative is seen as a means to build supply chains  with crucial items such as semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries  that exclude China.



The U.S. has sought the membership of key developed economies in the region, and countries such as Japan, Australia and South Korea are expected to join.





South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks on the phone with U.S. President Joe Biden at his home in southern Seoul, following his election on March 10. Provided by People Power Party
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Navy has begun an investigation after three sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington were recently found dead.

The suspected suicide deaths occurred on April 9, 10, and 15, according to multiple U.S. media reports.

The USS George Washington has been docked at Newport News Shipbuilding in the eastern state of Virginia for a major overhaul since August 2017.

The process includes a replacement of the vessel's nuclear fuel and upgrades for future use.

A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters earlier this week that the Navy was "investigating these deaths."

"I don't believe that they are aware of any indications that they are related," the spokesperson said. "That's what they believe right now."

A total of seven USS George Washington crew members have reportedly died in the past ten months, including the three recent deaths.

Suicide rates among active duty service members in the U.S. military increased by 41.4 percent from 2015 to 2020, according to official data.

Some 580 members of the U.S. military, including 384 active duty service members, died by suicide in 2020.
Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) [India], April 23 (ANI): After poll victory in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in his maiden foray in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, saying that they did not leave any stone unturned to loot the state that has been blessed with abundant resources.

Alleging that the Opposition has been targeting him, Kejriwal said that Congress ruled the mountain state for 30 years while BJP was in power for 17 years the hilly state.

Also Read | Maharashtra | A BJP Delegation Met Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey Regarding   Latest Tweet by ANI.

"Both these parties looted Himachal Pradesh and now they are cursing me," he said.

The AAP national convenor claimed that the BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Minister Anurag Thakur target him in their speeches, apprehending the poll challenge from the AAP in the state.

Also Read | Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Pays Tribute To Great Freedom Fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh Ahead of Amit Shahs Visit.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Jairam Thakur for his statement that "the Delhi model is not acceptable in the state", Kejriwal said, "Delhi model means an honest government."

On Thakur's statement that "societal and political circumstances are different here", Kejriwal slammed the ruling BJP in the state and said, "It is not a question of circumstances, but your intentions which are wrong."

Giving an example of the "Dehli model", Kejriwal invited the Chief Minister to visit the national capital and see government schools there.

"It is time to make 'Naya Himachal Pradesh'. I urge all the good people in the BJP and Congress to leave their parties and join the AAP. I request the people of this state to give AAP a chance," Kejriwal said.

He also said that he has heard that the BJP will hold early Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

Alleging that Thakur copies the schemes of the AAP, Kejriwal said, "In an examination hall, the Chief Minister was copying from his answer script. I wrote that Delhi would be given 300 units of free electricity, and he wrote 125 units of free electricity would be provided in Himachal. It is said you need to be smart even to cheat."

Kejriwal claimed that the Chief Minister was pulled up for announcing free electricity in the state by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): A day after attending various events in Madhya Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday will spend the whole day in Bihar and engage in public and political events beginning with a programme to honour freedom fighter Veer Kunwar Singh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Shah's Bihar visit is part of his three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Puducherry that started on Friday.

Also Read | SC Rejects Challenge To MPID Act Validity, Upholds Order To Attach Properties of 63 Moons Technologies by Maharashtra Govt.

As per the engagements, Shah will visit Jagdishpur in Bihar's Bhojpur district and attend an event organized to celebrate 'Babu Veer Kunwar Singh Vijayutsav'.

The Home Minister will garland the photograph of freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav at the event scheduled at 12.50 pm and later address a gathering around 1.20 pm.

Also Read | Over 11 Million People Flee Ukraine Since Beginning of War, Says UN.

Shah will subsequently visit Jamuhar area in Bihar's Sasaram in Rohtas district where he is scheduled to participate in first convocation address of Gopal Narayan Singh Vishwavidyalaya around 3.38 pm.

On day one of his visit to Madhya Pradesh, Shah attended the 48th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) meet in Bhopal as a chief guest and a Forest Committee Conference.

Addressing both the events, the Home Minister mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is the government of the poor, tribals, dalits, and backward and its main objective is the welfare of the poor.

The Home Minister also said that the Modi government has achieved a huge success in finding a permanent solution to three problems - terrorism in Kashmir, Left Wing Extremism and drugs and armed groups in the North East.

"Many armed groups have joined the mainstream by laying down their arms, after the abrogation of Article 370, and a new era of enthusiasm and development has begun in Kashmir," Shah addressed on Friday in 48th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) meet.

"This change has come following analyzes and understanding of the issue, thorough discussions about remedies, work in progress on basis of a strategy," said Shah.

He also advised police departments to institutionalize a 10-year policing strategy and perform annual reviews. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhopal/Khargone (MP), Apr 23 (PTI) Police have arrested a man, who is accused of firing at Superintendent of Police (SP) Siddharth Chaudhary during the recent violence in Khargone city of Madhya Pradesh, an official said.

Also Read | SC Rejects Challenge To MPID Act Validity, Upholds Order To Attach Properties of 63 Moons Technologies by Maharashtra Govt.

Meanwhile, the local administration on Saturday relaxed the curfew in Khargone for nine hours at a stretch - from 8 am to 5 pm.

"The accused, identified as Mohsin aka Waseem, has been arrested in the case of firing at SP Siddharth Chaudhary in Sanjay Nagar area of Khargone during the April 10 violence," Inspector General (IG) of Police Nimar Zone, Tilak Singh, said.

Also Read | Over 11 Million People Flee Ukraine Since Beginning of War, Says UN.

A police team arrested Mohsin on Friday from Kasrawad police station area, he said.

Four criminal cases were already registered against Mohsin, including those related to the sale of illegal arms and assault, Singh said.

"Police will interrogate the accused to collect information about his accomplices," he said.

Khargone SP Siddharth Choudhary is currently on leave as he is undergoing treatment after sustaining a bullet injury in his leg.

Communal clashes had erupted in Khargone city on Ram Navami on April 10, during which shops and houses were damaged, vehicles torched and stones hurled.

The curfew in Khargone city was relaxed for nine hours in one go on Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm, officials said.

The curfew was clamped after the violence. But since April 14, the local administration has been relaxing the curfew for intervals of two hours. On Wednesday it was relaxed for six hours.

As per the order, the curfew relaxation will not be applicable to the local agricultural market, petrol pumps and for the sale of kerosene from Public Distribution System (PDS) shops.

During the curfew relaxation period, shops selling milk, vegetables, medicines, and barber's shops among others, are allowed to remain open, but religious places have been asked to be kept shut.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai, Apr 23 (PTI) In a veiled attack on the BJP, the Congress on Saturday said some people are creating a political controversy over the recital of Hanuman Chalisa to divert the people's attention from the issues of unemployment and price rise.

Also Read | Ramzan 2022 Time Table: Sehri and Iftar Timings for 22nd Roza of Ramadan on April 24 in Mumbai, Delhi, and Lucknow.

The call by Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai had led to strident protests by Shiv Sainiks.

Also Read | Rajasthan Shocker: 3-Year-Old Minor Girl Raped, Killed and Thrown Into Well in Chittorgarh.

The politician couple withdrew their plan to chant Hanuman Chalisa amid a high drama on Saturday that culminated in their arrest on the charge of creating enmity between different groups.

Talking to reporters, Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat said the Central government has "failed" on all fronts and people are suffering due to the hike in prices of fuel and unemployment.

"To divert attention from all these issues, some people are deliberately stoking political controversy by announcing to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray," Thorat alleged.

He said the law and order situation in Maharashtra is fine but some people are trying to disturb the peace by playing politics over Hanuman Chalisa.

"The MVA government is aware of the politics of opponents. Our government is strong and stable and all allies are united. We firmly back the chief minister. People of the state are intelligent and will not fall for such tactics," said Thorat, who holds the revenue portfolio in the tripartite MVA government.

Thorat said the Congress-NCP combine had backed Navneet Rana in the Amravati constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, "but she changed colours soon after the result".

"We made a mistake by supporting her," he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By By Siddharth Sharma

New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): The Congress panel set up by president Sonia Gandhi to work out a revival plan, as suggested by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, has submitted a report on its findings on Friday.

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Two members of the panel, KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met Sonia Gandhi at her residence to submit the report to her.

As per a Congress leader part of the panel, the committee went through Kishor's proposals in detail and submitted its report to Sonia Gandhi.

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"Now, she will decide on Prashant Kishor's role in the party," the leader told ANI.

The group, comprising Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, and Mukul Wasnik, has submitted their opinion in a detailed report on Kishor's suggestions.

According to sources, most of the suggestions have been found to be practical and useful. "As far as Prashant Kishor's role is concerned, Gandhi will take the final call on it."

Sources have also hinted that senior party leaders hold different views about Kishor and his role in the party.

"It looks like a strange equation. He is neither formally part of I-PAC nor does he hold any position in the organisation. Yet, they don't function without him," a senior Congress leader said. Ashok Gehlot has openly praised Prashant Kishor saying that he is a "brand". Veerapa Moily has said that those opposing Kishor's entry to the party are "anti-reformers".

Some leaders have also said that Kishor's relations with a few regional parties could benefit Congress if he formally joins the party.

Getting Kishor to join the Congress is a big challenge that the party will be facing, especially the decision of the capacity he'd be holding. Kishor's proactive role can leave many leaders uncomfortable. (ANI)

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Mumbai, Apr 23 (PTI) Once touted as the alter-ego of his uncle, the late Bal Thackeray, MNS chief Raj Thackeray finds himself in an electoral corner after successive drubbings and is attempting to reinvent himself by expanding his vistas from just the Marathi manoos card to a more macro Hindutva appeal.

While it is debatable if Raj Thackeray will indeed find success, political watchers are agreed that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader has to seize the moment or get further marginalized as his cousin Uddhav Thackeray moves ahead in his tenure as Maharashtra chief minister in alliance with the Congress and the NCP.

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"In the past, he launched his party on Marathi manoos' but that did not have the desired impact. This is the moment for him to relaunch his party which has become irrelevant, Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) told PTI.

Stressing that Raj Thackeray, 54, is looking to relaunch his party using the Hindutva card after failing to yield electoral success, he added that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena cannot do the hardline politics it is known for given that it is in government and the MNS can fill the space.

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The timing also matters, looking at the temperature politics in the country, Kumar added, referring to Hindutva politics getting traction in several parts of the country.

Vaibhav Purandare, senior journalist and author of Bal Thackeray  the rise and fall of Shiv Sena, concurred.

The MNS chief, he said, is following in the footsteps of Bal Thackeray and his hardline Hindutva positioning comes at a time the BJP is accusing the Sena of abandoning Hindutva and joining hands with the Congress and the NCP who coined the word 'Hindutva terror'.

Raj seems to have concluded that anti-Modi politics will not help. Plus, there is no basic contradiction in the Marathi manoos agenda and Hindutva, Purandare told PTI.

Perhaps in consonance with expert-speak, Raj Thackeray in the last 15 days has hit the headlines for his diktat to remove speakers atop mosques in Maharashtra by May 3, forcing the Uddhav Thackeray-led government to call a meeting of top police officials to work on the dos and don'ts on the use of loudspeakers.

While the Sena has accused the MNS of acting at the behest of the BJP, Raj Thackeray has said the issue of loudspeakers on mosques is social and not religious. He also announced a visit to the temple town of Ayodhya and performed a 'Maha aarti' on Hanuman Jayanti in Pune. Maharashtra Tourism minister and Uddhav Thackeray's son Aaditya announced his trip to Ayodhya early next month on the same day.

Known to successfully ape his uncle Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray is following the optics too and is now being seen with a saffron shawl wrapped around him. He starts his speech with the familiar "Jamlelya majhya tamam Hindu Mata, bhagini ani bhadhu(Greetings to my Hindu mothers, sisters and brothers), just as Bal Thackeray did.

The MNS has also announced a 'Maha aarti' across the state on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya which falls on May 3.

Will this be enough to pull him out the electoral doldrums is the question.

The MNS was founded in 2006 after Raj Thackeray quit the Shiv Sena over who would be Bal Thackeray's political heir. He took up the issue of the sons of the soil, the agenda on which the Shiv Sena was built in 1966.

In 2007, in its debut municipal polls, the MNS won seven seats, followed by 27 in 2012 the highest so far for the party in Mumbai, one of its core base areas. In 2017, it won only seven seats.

In 2009, riding on the sons of the soil plank, Raj Thackeray ate into the Shiv Sena-BJP votes in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik. In the assembly elections in the same year, MNS bagged 13 seats of 288. This paved the way for an easy win for the Congress-NCP.

The 2009 Assembly polls has been the best performance of the MNS so far. It has been a rapid slide since.

In 2014, it contested 219 seats and forfeited its deposit in 209. It won just one seat and bagged 3.15 per cent of the votes. I

In the May 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Raj Thackeray openly advocated the candidature of Narendra Modi for the prime minister's post and fielded candidates mostly against the Sena. More than a year ahead of the polls, he also visited Gujarat and praised Modi. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Raj Thackeray did a U-turn and took up cudgels against Modi but did not contest the polls. Experts view this as help offered to the Congress-NCP alliance. In the assembly polls held the same year, the MNS contested 101 seats and forfeited its deposit in 86 seats. It bagged only one seat in the state and garnered 2.25 per cent votes.

Prakash Akolkar, senior journalist and author of Jai Maharashtra  Ha Shiv Sena navacha itihas hain, a book on the Sena and its evolution, said Raj Thackeray's aim all along has been to attack his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.

Whatever positions Raj took, his target was Uddhav... Even in shifting to this new(hardline Hindutva), Raj's target remains Uddhav, Akolkar said.

Purandare added that Raj Thackeray's shift to Hindutva politics also comes as several civic bodies, including the cash-rich BMC, known as the lifeline of the Sena, go to the polls this year.

Kapil Patil, a research assistant with the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, noted that Raj Thackeray recently had meetings with BJP leaders  state unit chief Chandrakant Patil, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

Raj Thackeray was born to Shrikant Thackeray, Bal Thackeray's younger brother. Growing up in the shadow of his uncle, Raj Thackeray went on to head the Sena's student wing, the Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena, and was often spoken of as Bal Thackeray's political heir. His physical appearance, oratory and working style were seen to mirror that of his uncle.

Uddhav and Raj are cousins from both sides. Their mothers Meena and Kunda are also siblings.

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Jaipur, Apr 23 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday condemned the arrest of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani by the Assam Police calling it an abuse of power.

The arrest of Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani by the Assam Police for tweeting against the Prime Minister is an abuse of power. This dictatorial attitude of the central and BJP governments is like a blemish on democracy and is against the constitution," Gehlot tweeted in Hindi.

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He wrote, "If politicians are arrested for making statements against the Prime Minister, chief ministers, then perhaps the number of jails in the country will fall short."

Mevani, an Independent MLA backed by the Congress, was arrested from Palanpur city of Gujarat on Wednesday night. An FIR was earlier registered against him at Assam's Kokrajhar Police Station for his tweet.

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According to the FIR, Mevani in the alleged tweet had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "considered Godse as God".

Gehlot also criticised the registration of cases against Alka Lamba and Kumar Vishwas in Punjab.

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab is also following the steps of BJP. Punjab Police has proved this by registering a case against Alka Lamba and Kumar Vishwas for making political statements, Gehlot wrote in another tweet.

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New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): A Nepal-based racketeer this week was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment after almost eight years of his involvement in a case linked to the recovery of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Abi Mohammed Ansar, a resident of Hariharpur in the Simraungarh area of Nepal's Bara district, was awarded five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 by an NIA Special Court on Wednesday here in a case pertaining to the seizure of high-quality FICN seized from Indira Gandhi International Airport on April 18, 2014.

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The NIA said that Ansar was caught with high-quality FICN of Rs 1,000 denomination having a face value of Rs 49,88,000 by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) from IGI Airport on April 18, 2014, which was re-registered by the NIA on June 25, 2014.

The NIA filed a charge sheet in the case against two accused persons on January 2, 2015, and subsequently, a supplementary chargesheet was filed against three accused persons on November 23, 2017.

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Earlier, on April 4 this year, the NIA Special Court, New Delhi had convicted one accused in the case. (ANI)

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Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], April 23 (ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday refuted the news of an attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bunker in the Tengpona area of Pulwama saying that it is fake and baseless.

"A fake news is being circulated on social media platforms about an attack on CRPF bunker in Tengpona area of Pulwama which is totally fake and baseless. It has been verified on the ground that no such incident has taken place," the police press release read.

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The police requested all to avoid such rumours and warned the mongers of strict action according to the law.

"General Public is requested not to pay heed to the rumours. Rumour mongers shall be dealt with strictly as per law," the release further read.

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Meanwhile, two terrorists were neutralised by security forces during an encounter that took place in the wee hours on Friday in Jammu's Sunjwan area.

Two AK-47 rifles, arms and ammunition, satellite phones and some documents were recovered from them.

According to the police, the terrorists killed were planning a suicide attack in any area with heavily deployed security.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu's Samba is scheduled on Sunday (April 24), on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Diwas, to address the panchayats of the country from Palli, Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Friday said that the killed terrorists could be a part of a "big conspiracy" to sabotage PM Modi's visit to the union territory.

He also stated, "The sudden launch of terrorists in the area and their immediate action for the task assigned makes it appear like a fresh infiltration, as no terrorism background was found." (ANI)

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New Delhi, Apr 23 (PTI) A Delhi court on Saturday extended by eight days the custodial interrogation of five persons, booked under the stringent National Security Act in connection with the April 16 Jahangirpuri violence.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mayank Goel sent Ansar, the alleged "main conspirator" behind the violence; Sonu, who was seen in a video opening fire during the clashes Salim, Ahir and Dilshad to further police custody after they were produced before the court on expiry of their earlier custody.

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The court, meanwhile, issued non bail able warrants (NBWs) against accused Sanwar Kalia, Saddam Khan, Anwar, Chand and Salman after police said they were absconding.

"Eight days PC (police custody) remand of accused is granted. Accused be produced on May 1 through VC," the court said.

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During the arguments, police told the court that all five arrested accused were required for further interrogation and to confront all the co-accused persons with each other.

The police said the accused were required for linking the chain of incident, to ascertain the role of each and every one of them, to find out the source of illegal weapons which were used in the alleged offence and for tracing the other accused persons involved in the case.

"Sustained interrogation with all the accused person involved in the offence is required," the prosecution told the court.

The court also sent four accused - Aksar, Mohd. Ali, Gulam Rasul and Sheikh Hamid - to judicial custody till April 30.

Clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession at Jahangirpuri on Saturday, leaving eight police personnel and a local resident injured.

According to police, there was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes and some vehicles were also torched.

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New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): More than 19.91 crore balance and unutilized COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with States and Union Territories (UTs) to be administered, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its official statement on Saturday.

"More than 19.91 Cr (19,91,99,925) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through the Government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category," said the ministry.

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"More than 192.43 crore (1,92,43,47,405) balance and unutilized COVID-19 Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered," it added.The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country, said the ministry.

As per the ministry, the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination started on January 16, 2021. The new phase of universalization of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on June 21, 2021.As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them with COVID Vaccines free of cost.

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In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.

The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, and advanced visibility of vaccines available to the states and UTs for enabling better planning by them and streamlining the vaccine supply chain. (ANI)

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New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday to discuss the governance initiatives of the Madhya Pradesh government.

"Met MP CM Shri @ChouhanShivraj ji, who discussed the good governance initiatives of the MP Government and how their transformative schemes are bringing a positive change in people's lives," tweeted the Prime Minister today.

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Chouhan said that "Mahayagya" of good governance, development and public welfare will continue in Madhya Pradesh under the guidance of the Prime Minister.

"Met Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and informed about the schemes of development and welfare of Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister provided his guidance on many subjects. Under the guidance of the Prime Minister, the Mahayagya of good governance, development and public welfare will continue in Madhya Pradesh," the MP Chief Minister tweeted.

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"Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji always has affection for Madhya Pradesh. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Prime Minister for all possible cooperation for the development of the state," he said in another tweet. (ANI)

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Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], April 23 (ANI): Security arrangements have been strengthened ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir's Palli on Sunday.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to address panchayats across the country on 'Panchayati Raj Diwas' tomorrow.

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Every year, April 24 is celebrated as the National Panchayati Raj Day.

The Prime minister will address a gathering including more than 30,000 Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members of Jammu and Kashmir while PRIs from across the country will be connected virtually for the Prime Minister's address.

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Palli panchayat is in the Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The date - April 24, 1993 - marks a defining moment in the history of decentralization of power to the grassroots, with the institutionalization of Panchayati Raj, through the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 which came into force with effect from that day.

Panchayat Palli in Jammu has been selected for the Panchayati Raj Diwas function this year and an exhibition showcasing the latest innovations will be put up enabling farmers, sarpanchs and village heads to improve their income and their produce.

Amongst important innovations that are planned to be showcased, are geospatial technology for rural development and farmers, apps usable by farmers for weather forecast for five days, lavender cultivation famously known as purple revolution, biotechnology innovation to increase the production of apple on the same land to increase farmers' income, drone application for pesticide spray and waste treatment, the shelf life of fruits to be increased through atomic radiation, etc. (ANI)

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Jammu, Apr 23 (PTI) Three policemen have been suspended and a deputy superintendent of police has been removed for alleged delay in registration of a rape case in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, officials said.

On the orders of Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, they will also face a departmental inquiry for dereliction of duty in the matter related to the rape of a minor girl.

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Station House Officer (SHO) Ali Imran, Assistant Sub-Inspector Rattan Lal, Head Constable Satwinder Singh were placed under suspension and Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Vijaypur, Vishal Manhas, was removed from his post and attached with Zonal police headquarter for "poor supervision and control", the officials said.

As per the complaint, a heinous crime was committed with an 11-year-old girl by accused Shammi after entering her house in Bazigar Basti in Vijaypur tehsil on intervening night of April 16 and 17, they said.

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The mother of girl approached the police station Vijaypur but the SHO and other officials caused delay in registration of case and exercised undue influence and changed the nature of the complaint while forcing complainant to enter into compromise with the accused, the officials said.

The minor girl and mother were not treated as per the laid down procedure of POSCO, they said.

As the DGP came to know about the case and role of officials through a report of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), he ordered probe through crime branch, and special team confirmed the commission of offence against the minor girl, prompting the SHO to register a delayed case in this regard, they said.

As per the order issued by DGP, the conduct of some of these officials is unbecoming and warrant action as the duties were not performed in the given manner, which amount to grave dereliction of duty.

They connive in avoiding the registration of the case and investigation into the heinous crime, the order said.

DGP also ordered a departmental inquiry against them headed by Commandant Radhmi Wazir.

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Dar es Salaam [Tanzania], April 23 (ANI/Xinhua): The Pharmacy Council of Tanzania has launched a nationwide crackdown on unregistered pharmacies as 23 of them were closed on Friday in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday.

Elizabeth Shekalaghe, the registrar of the Pharmacy Council of Tanzania, said the crackdown to expose the unregistered pharmacies is continuous and will be conducted across the country, said the statement.

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The statement said the Council appealed to members of the public to report to relevant authorities pharmacies that they suspected to have been operating illegally.

"Some of the unregistered pharmacies are offering medical services such as laboratory tests which is illegal," said Shekalaghe.

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She said most of the mushrooming pharmacies in the east African nation have employed unqualified staff which endangered the lives of patients seeking medicines in pharmacies.

State-run Pharmacy Council of Tanzania regulates the pharmacy professionals practice and overseas registration of pharmacists by ensuring that they have the skills and knowledge to deliver effective health care that meets the changing needs of the community. (ANI/Xinhua)

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Sao Paulo, Apr 22 (AP) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has issued a pardon for a recently convicted ally, setting off backlash from adversaries claiming the president is overstepping his constitutional bounds and once again undermining the Supreme Court.

Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday convicted lawmaker Daniel Silveira by 10 votes to one for inciting physical attacks on the court's justices as well as other authorities.

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He was also stripped of his seat in Congress and barred from running for any office in October's elections.

Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast his decision is necessary for the nation to walk on the paths determined by the constitution.

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Freedom of speech is an essential foundation of our society, the Brazilian president said. Later, his decree insisted Silveira was convicted unduly.

Supporters of the president have repeatedly asked him to defend Silveira from what they see as political persecution.

The president has had a fractious relationship with the top court's justices since he took office in January 2019.

More recently, he has targeted those who also lead the country's top electoral authority, claiming without any evidence that the Brazilian electronic voting system could be rigged.

Bolsonaro is trailing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in early polls, and many politicians and analysts see his confrontations with the court and electoral authorities as indicative he may not concede the election if he loses.

Bolsonaro has just transformed the institution of pardons into an institutional disgrace, Ciro Gomes, who has polled third below 10 per cent, said on Twitter.

He is trying to accelerate in his march toward a coup. But he will not be successful.

Gomes and other politicians promised to take Bolsonaro's decree to the Supreme Court, arguing the president cannot make such decision based on personal interests. (AP)

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Prague [Czech Republic], April 23 (ANI/Sputnik): Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters on Saturday that he would support a request by Defense Minister Jana Cernochova to add another 1.4 billion crowns ($63 million) to the 2022 defense budget.

Earlier in the day, Cernochova asked the finance ministry for an increase in her ministry's budget to buy more military supplies.

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"This will be the first concrete step in our intention to increase investments in defense by 48 billion crowns (about $2.1 billion) over the next three years," Fiala said.

According to the prime minister, due to the fact that Czech defense enterprises will also participate in the supply of military materials for the defense ministry, "it will simultaneously support the national industry, the economy as a whole and employment."

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In early April, Czech parliament agreed to increase the defense budget by 1 billion crowns (about $45 million) at Cernochova's request due to the conflict in Ukraine, bringing the defense budget for 2022 to 89.1 billion crowns (about $4 billion). (ANI/Sputnik)

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Islamabad/London, Apr 23 (PTI) PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will take oath as Pakistan's foreign minister in a day or two, a senior party leader said on Saturday, ending speculation that all allies of the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are not on the same page.

The Bhutto-Zardari family's 33-year-old scion who is the front-runner for the coveted post of the foreign minister did not take the oath on Tuesday, giving rise to speculation about his reluctance to join the new government.

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Qamar Zaman Kaira, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, in a conversation with journalists on London confirmed that Bilawal will take oath as the foreign minister in a day or two, the Geo News reported.

A day after he excused himself from taking the oath as the foreign minister, Bilawal headed to London where he met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif during which they discussed the "overall political situation" in Pakistan and vowed to work together on issues pertaining to politics and national interest.

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PPP and PML-N -- the two main political parties -- have been alternatively in power when the military was not ruling the country. The powerful Army has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75 plus years of existence.

Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb had earlier assured that the PPP Chairman would take the oath after he returns to Pakistan.

Kaira told reporters that Bilawal had left for Pakistan after he held two meetings with the PML-N supremo to exchange views on political matters, the Geo report said.

PPP is the second largest party in the current coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who was appointed on April 11.

In their last meeting, Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal  the two key allies in the ruling coalition  discussed ways forward after a "constitutional victory for democracy, the rule of law and supremacy of parliament" and agreed to work closely to "repair the rot across the board," read a joint statement.

The joint statement said that during the meeting both leaders agreed that they have accomplished a great deal whenever they work together.

Matters relating to the broad roadmap for the future with the consensus of all democratic forces and the unfinished business left on the "Charter of Democracy" were also discussed in the meeting.

It was also agreed that high-level summitry is needed to brainstorm the path ahead for a new charter, read the statement.

Although there was speculation that PPP wanted more stake in the government, sources privy to the meeting confirmed that Bilawal and Nawaz Sharif did not discuss anything related to the posts of Senate, Punjab governor or presidency during their meetings, the Geo report said.

Nawaz Sharif -- against whom several corruption cases were launched by the government of former prime minister Imran Khan -- had left for London in November 2019 after the Lahore High Court granted him a four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment.

The 72-year-old former prime minister had given an undertaking to the Lahore High Court to return to Pakistan, citing his record to face the process of law and justice within four weeks or as soon as he is declared healthy and fit to travel by doctors. Nawaz Sharif was also given bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven-year imprisonment in Lahore's high-security Kot Lakhpat jail.

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Kabul [Afghanistan], April 23 (ANI): The UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, expressed his deep sorrow over Friday afternoon's horrific attack in Kunduz province which has reportedly killed dozens of people.

An explosion tore through Mawlawi Sekander Mosque in Imam Sahib district, northern Kunduz, as worshippers gathered for Friday afternoon prayers.

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At least 33 people including children and 43 wounded, Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban said. Officials fear the number of casualties could rise further.

Alakbarov condemned the attack, the second in Kunduz province in as many days, and conveyed his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and those affected, and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

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"This week's tragic events are a painful reminder of the insecurity and dangers facing the Afghan people daily," Alakbarov said. "The indiscriminate use of improvised explosive devices, which has already caused more than a hundred civilian casualties this week, is unacceptable and must cease immediately."

Alakbarov reminded all parties to fully adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law, and ensure the safety of civilians and civilian facilities, and called for accountability for crimes perpetrated. (ANI)

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The Delhi Police said on Saturday that it has arrested two people for murdering a man by smashing his face with bricks and later dumping his body on a vacant plot in the national capital.
At a time when the Iranian nuclear talks are about to reach an agreement, #Iran and world powers have adjourned their talks, mostly over whether the #US will remove #Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (#IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) list. pic.twitter.com/UlLUTjRpOG IANS (@ians_india) April 22, 2022

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The #Maharashtra GST Department raided and detected cash, silver bars worth Rs 10 crore, plus a business turnover of a staggering Rs.1,764 crore from an office measuring just 35 sq.feet -- smaller than a home toilet. pic.twitter.com/03D3mnObao IANS (@ians_india) April 23, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Two alleged drug traffickers for the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva in Mexico are expected to be extradited to the United States to go to the courts where they are wanted.

According to Borderland Beat, court documents showed that Rodolfo "L" and Alberto David "R" are in the extradition process.

Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) had already granted the extraditions in both cases. However, the suspects' respective defenses responded with "amparos," which were denied to them last February.

Between 2002 and 2016, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva operators allegedly coordinated several shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to the U.S.

READ NEXT: El Chapo's Sons of Sinaloa Cartel Organized a 'Narco Fiesta' Ahead of Christmas Day in Mexico Town, Raffled off Brand New Cars

Sinaloa Cartel and Beltran Leyva Operators

According to U.S. agents, Rodolfo had been a leader of organizations based in Mexico, and he collaborated with the Sinaloa Cartel and later with the Beltran Leyva.

Rodolfo reportedly participated between 2002 and 2003 in sending several shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, then to the U.S. by sea and land.

Rodolfo allegedly operated through close cooperation arrangements with South American drug suppliers to benefit the Sinaloa Cartel or the Beltran Leyva.

The indictment against Rodolfo before the District Court of Columbia was filed for the crime of criminal association to distribute five kilos or more of cocaine, according to Infobae. Rodolfo has been held in the federal prison of Villa Aldama in the Mexico's state of Veracruz since December 30, 2016.

On the other hand, Alberto David allegedly imported large quantities of methamphetamine into the U.S. for distribution and sent big amounts of money back to Mexico from the sale of drugs.

His group was a Sinaloa-based drug trafficking organization. He allegedly worked in the organization linked to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva between 2005 and 2014.

The arrest warrant for the purpose of extradition against him was executed in February 2016. It was reportedly required by the District Court for the Southern District of California in a proceeding filed in July 2014.

The extradition request stated that Alberto David's group oversaw the distribution and sales of a considerable amount of methamphetamine and arranged for the drugs to be brought into the U.S. by courier.

His group also allegedly coordinated the logistics of storing the drugs in safe houses and transporting them to the organization's distributors and customers in various parts of California and other places in the U.S. They also collected the profits from the sale of methamphetamine in the U.S. and sent it to Mexico.

The investigation identified Alberto David as one of the most important drug traffickers of the said organization that supervised the distribution and sales of methamphetamine and arranged for the drugs to be smuggled into the U.S. by courier.

Alberto David is currently being held at the El Castillo Penitentiary Center in Mazatlan in Mexico's Sinaloa state.

The Sinaloa Cartel and Beltran Leyva Cartel in Mexico

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico's largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations. The group was founded in the late 1980s and headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera.

Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel earned its reputation through violence and outfought several rival groups.

El Chapo's four sons namely Joaquin Guzman Lopez, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, and Jesus Alfredo Guzman had reportedly assumed leadership roles in the Sinaloa Cartel with their uncle Aureliano "El Guano" Guzman and co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada after El Chapo was arrested and extradited to the U.S.

El Chapo was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX Florence "supermax" prison after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019. The Beltran Leyva reportedly worked with the Sinaloa Cartel before the two split and started a bloody war in 2008.

During his time as leader, the cartel boss Hector Beltran Leyva, alias "El H," strengthened an alliance with the Los Zetas cartel in an effort to stave off elimination following the battle with the Sinaloa Cartel.

But by 2021, InsightCrime reported that the organization was no longer a relevant player, although some splinter groups still claim the name.

READ MORE: U.S. Agents Can't Just Step on Mexico's Soil to Arrest El Chapo's Sons of Sinaloa Cartel, Pres. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Says

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: On the Frontline of Mexico's Drug War | Hotspots - From Sky News






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A Garda investigation into the disclosure of a confidential document by Leo Varadkar has been completed and a file of evidence has been sent to prosecutors.

The Tanaiste is under investigation for passing a copy of the official document to a friend of his while he was Taoiseach.

Varadkar has admitted that in April 2019 he sent a copy of a doctors pay deal between the State and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) to Dr Maitiu O Tuathail.

Dr O Tuathail was head of the rival organisation, the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), at the time.

Varadkar has apologised for disclosing the document but has denied breaking any laws.

He has said he does not think his actions will result in criminal charges.

Varadkar is due to become Taoiseach again in December 2022, replacing Micheal Martin as part of the coalition deal that saw Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party form a government in 2020.

A Garda spokesman said today (Saturday April 23): An Garda Siochana can confirm that an investigation file on this matter has been submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution for its consideration.

As this matter is now for consideration by the Office of the DPP, An Garda Siochana will not be commenting any further.
A young man has been stabbed and at least 10 others injured by a lone attacker in a town centre in the UK.

Warwickshire Police said a 33-year-old man has been arrested, while a man in his 20s is in a stable condition in hospital after being stabbed in Bedworth town centre, just north of Coventry this morning (Saturday April 23).

Police believe the suspect, from Bedworth, walked along Coventry Road and Gilbert Close, where he assaulted at least 10 people just before 8am.

Police said the victims who have been identified so far as suffering minor injuries are assisting officers with the investigation.

Detective Sergeant Rich Simpkins described it as a nasty incident and appealed for anyone else injured to come forward.

He said: This was a nasty incident which has left a number of people with injuries and I know this will cause the community great concern.

The public can expect to see a heightened police presence in and around Bedworth town centre to provide reassurance while our officers continue to conduct their enquiries.

We have a man in custody and are not looking for any further suspects in connection with this incident.

We know that a number of people were in the area at around the time of the incident and that there may be more members of the public who may have been approached or assaulted by the suspect.

If you were approached by the suspect or may have witnessed the incident, I would urge you to get in touch.

Any information you may have could really assist with our investigation.

Anyone with information should call 101 quoting incident number 91 of 23 April.

Details can also be provided anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A Waste Water Treatment Plant at Kilclare or other small rural communities is "not provided for" in the Rural Water programme.

Cllr Des Guckian asked the Council to investigate the possibility of installing one as "there are many houses in that part along the Carrick and Ballinamore boundary which need such a service."

But despite getting full support from councillors at the Carrick Municipal District Meeting, Cllr Guckian was informed "it is too far and too costly" to consider connecting the houses to the closest sewer network.

The Council stated in reply to Cllr Guckian's motion, "Irish Water who are now the statutory body for the provision of water services in the State has similar policies and do not consider the provision of sewerage treatment services in rural settings such as this.

"Planning permissions granted in rural settings generally are conditional on the provision of a proper certified single house onsite wastewater treatment systems and its continued operation and maintenance to provide adequate treatment to avoid pollution.

"Domestic Wastewater Treatment (Septic Tank) grants are available if upgrades are required up to 85% of the costs subject to a maximum of 5,000. Householders may apply to the Environment Department of Leitrim County Council for this grant support."

Cllr Finola Armstrong McGuire supported the motion and also noted that Hartley residents are "crying out" to get connected.

Cllr Paddy Farrell stated that "If Hartley cant get sorted on the edge of (Carrick-on-Shannon), Kilclare have little hope."

Cllr Guckian asked the council to write to Irish Water to ask them to do more for rural communities.
New York, US (PANA) - Marking International Mother Earth Day, UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid, on Friday called for collective action to safeguard biodiversity and protect ecosystems
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Riga, Latvia on April 20. GINTS IVUSKANS / AFP

Following days of pressure because its support for Ukraine was deemed too hesitant, Berlin has reasserted its ambition to call a halt to its energy dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the short term. Visiting Riga on Wednesday, April 20, to meet with her Baltic counterparts, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock promised that, by the end of the year, Germany "will be done with Russian oil."

More on this topic Subscribers only Germany weighs risks of life without Russian gas and oil

"I therefore say here clearly and unequivocally, yes, Germany is also completely phasing out Russian energy imports," she said, acknowledging "the big mistakes" that her country had made in its policy toward Moscow in recent years. She said that the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline was a "fatal mistake". In concrete terms, Germany plans to halve its imports of Russian oil by the summer and stop them by the end of the year. Ms. Baerbock added that the gas embargo would follow, "as part of a common European roadmap", without any elaboration as to the deadline. So far, the Ministry for Economic Affairs has alluded to a complete withdrawal by the summer of 2024.

Admittedly, this is not the first time that the government has said that it will be independent of Russian oil by the end of 2022. On March 25, the Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Habeck, had already proposed a similar timeline. But the government's procrastination has since cast so much doubt on Berlin's willingness to ramp up its pressure on Moscow that this reaffirmation seemed very much needed.

Heavy infrastructure

Russia currently provides 35% of German oil supplies. Behind this figure lies heavy infrastructure, a legacy of the past: Two thirds of Russian oil imported by Germany comes through a pipeline named "Druzhba", meaning "friendship" in Russian. For sixty years, this pipeline, passing through Belarus and Poland, has been supplying crude oil to the Schwedt/Oder refinery in the Brandenburg region and the Leuna refinery in Saxony-Anhalt. Both sites produce gasoline, diesel, heating oil and kerosene for use throughout eastern Germany.

The Leuna refinery is operated by the Total Group, which announced in March that it had amended its contracts, with oil imports from Russia having fallen by half since mid-April. And an end to all supply relations with Russia is scheduled for the end of 2022. The Schwedt/Oder refinery, on the other hand, poses a much more serious problem: It is 92%-owned by the Russian state group Rosneft. "We are paying a high price here for the fact that a Russian group, despite the war in Crimea, was allowed to have such a decisive influence in energy supply," lamented the Ministry for Economic Affairs in late March.

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United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on April 13 in Washington. CHIP SOMODEVILLA / AFP

For the past two months, the American strategy against Russia has included an important diplomatic component, along with economic sanctions, and military support given to Ukraine. It involves making Moscow disreputable internationally. This is the explanation for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's decision to boycott several multilateral G20 meetings scheduled for this week in Washington. By rejecting any return to normalcy in the run-up to the summit mid-November in Indonesia, the Biden administration wants to make relevant countries face their responsibilities. But neither China nor India are pursuing the U.S. desire to turn Russia into a pariah, and the Indonesian presidency has explicitly refused to exclude Moscow from the meetings.

So, the decision of Ms Yellen appears to be mostly symbolic. The American official did participate in the opening session on Wednesday, April 20, in the presence of her Ukrainian counterpart and guest, Serhii Martchenko. Then, just as Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was scheduled to speak via video link, Janet Yellen got up and left the room, accompanied by Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, among others. From a distance, other ministers and central bank governors turned off their cameras. Once again, Americans and Europeans wanted to present a united front against Russia. Mr. Siluanov is on the U.S. sanctions list as a member of his country's Security Council.

Asked on March 23 about a possible exclusion of Russia from the G20, the American national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, stressed the need for coordination with allies of the United States. He added that there could be no question of "business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community." The next day, in Brussels, President Joe Biden specified that, if Russia's exclusion from the G20 "could not be achieved" because of the opposition of certain states, then Ukraine should be allowed to participate in the meetings.

Difficult consensus

Unlike the G7 format, which brings together countries close to the United States and displays more cohesion, the G20 represents a more diverse and less politically unified forum, where Washington cannot easily impose its views, along with its European allies. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, it was sidelined from the G8, which became the G7, but not from the G20, which is much more divided on the issue. Despite the seriousness and scale of the war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, numerous diplomatic exchanges between capitals in recent weeks have not led to the emergence of a consensus.

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Image provided by the French Army showing Caucasian soldiers covering a dozen bodies with sand near the Gossi military base in Mali. AP

In a rare move, the French army released a video to several media outlets, including Le Monde, showing 11 men in military uniforms surrounding a mass grave, some of them digging in the sand and burying a dozen bodies. The aim is to blame the massacre on soldiers who are part of Operation Barkhane, which is being led by the French military. While the terms of the information war are not yet clear, what the French army has done undoubtedly meets the definition of a retaliation.

As Le Monde was able to confirm independently, the scene was filmed in northern Mali, less than 4 kilometers from the Gossi military base, which the French soldiers had left two days before. The quality of of the video, filmed from the air, makes it impossible to determine the skin pigmentation of the people surrounding the corpses, but the fatigues do not match those of the Malian army. "We have very precise information that they are Wagner men [part of a Russian paramilitary organization]. There is no doubt about it," said the French army.

According to one officer, this evidence is backed up by electromagnetic intelligence, cyber intelligence and human intelligence. "Our mission remains the fight against the armed terrorist groups, not the surveillance of Wagner. But we suspected that something would happen after we left Gossi, that a manipulation would occur. So we anticipated it," he explained, bringing up previous accusations against Barkhane soldiers. Namely, this includes various abuses and trafficking in gold and arms to jihadists, as when a French convoy was blocked in Tera, Niger, in November 2021, causing the death of three demonstrators.

'Disinformation maneuvers'

According to the army, "these disinformation maneuvers"  which aim to tarnish France's image and the actions of its soldiers who are withdrawing from Mali  are the work of the Russian Wagner Group that is considered to be very close to the Kremlin. According to the general staff, in the wake of operations in the Central African Republic, Russia has deployed over 1,000 mercenaries alongside the Malian junta since the start of the year.

Following a "thorough" survey, the French army transferred the Gossi base to the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) on Tuesday, April 19. Now, the army is keeping a watchful eye on the area and on social networks. According to the general staff, on late Wednesday afternoon, "a French recording device" first registered "a dozen individuals of Caucasian appearance, most probably belonging to the Wagner Group," and a detachment of Malian soldiers setting up positions in Gossi. Then an aerial shot of the camp was taken at 9:55 p.m., showing a small group of soldiers, probably Malians, sleeping under the stars, next to tents.

"When we saw an initial tweet on Wednesday at 10:06 p.m. [mentioning 'a crime against the Malian people done by the French' (sic)], we said to ourselves that this was the first act of an information attack," the general staff said. "The next day around noon, a first photo appeared. That was act two." It was posted on Twitter with the caption: "This is what the French left behind when they left the base at Gossi... We can't keep quiet about this!" Act two would be the release of a video on Thursday, shortly after 4:30 p.m.

More from Le Monde Afrique: Subscribers only Russia's involvement in the Central African Republic disrupted by the war in Ukraine

'Proof of manipulation'

The author of the tweets, Dia Diarra, describes himself as a "former Malian soldier/patriot/political analyst" and has a photo of Colonel Assimi Goita, the interim president of Mali, on his profile. A few days earlier, Dia Diarra had a photo of Alexander Murillo, a Colombian registered on the Russian social network VKontakte. "It is definitely a fake profile created by Wagner," said the army, which, this time, is in a position to retaliate in the "information war" being waged.

And on Thursday, April 21 at 9:50 a.m., a drone filmed the burial scene "by chance," according to the army. In addition to the shots of people shoveling sand, at least one individual can be seen filming or photographing the action. The position and movements of said individual correspond to the photos posted by Dia Diarra. For the army, this is "proof of the manipulation" intended to incriminate Barkhane, and the opportunity has arisen for a counter-offensive to avoid being associated with this massacre and to halt the spread of accusations on social media. The "war of perceptions," in the words of Chief of the Defense Staff Thierry Burkhard, is one of his institution's missions.

But the French army did not want to release the content from Bounti, where it is accused by the United Nations of having killed at least 22 people, mostly civilians, in the bombing of a wedding on January 3, 2021. "In Bounti, we carried out an operation to neutralize an armed terrorist group and therefore we implemented means of detection, identification and strikes," military staff said, denying any blunder. "Here, it was just observation."

Allegations of abuses

The question of the origin of the bodies filmed in Gossi remains. According to the French military, the bodies "may have come from the operation conducted by Wagner and the Malian army in Hombori on April 19, where nearly 600 people were arrested." On that day, on the outskirts of this town 70 kilometers south of Gossi, a Wagner mercenary died after his vehicle exploded on a mine. "They then retaliated by launching an operation in the village," said a Malian aid worker. "It was a market day. Some terrorists were hidden. There was an exchange of fire. Then the soldiers attacked everyone, assaulting the inhabitants and robbing them of their jewelry, money and phones while others fired in all directions." About 20 people were reportedly killed during the operation, according to the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled).

In central Mali, there have been repeated allegations of abuses committed by Malian soldiers and their Russian auxiliaries. Since the beginning of the year, about 450 people have been killed in their joint operations, according to Acled. The deadliest occurred in Moura, a village in the Mopti region, between March 27 and 31. More than 380 locals were killed in the attack, described by the Malian army as "an appropriate large-scale air-land operation" that neutralized "203 fighters from armed terrorist groups."

In a new tweet on April 22, the Dia Diarra Twitter account confirmed that "the FAMa conducted an operation in Hombori (a new terrorist supply site)," but that "all those arrested have been released. FAMa is committed to respecting human rights during operations."

Cyril Bensimon and Morgane Le Cam Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
A MAN has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a business premises in West Limerick.

Detective Garda Elaine OKeefe told Newcastle West Court she met the defendant by arrangement for the purpose of arrest. She gave evidence of arresting, charging and cautioning the male with sexual assault.

He made no reply to the charge after caution, said Garda OKeefe.

It is alleged the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sexually assaulted a woman in a business premises in West Limerick on a date in May, 2021.

Judge Carol Anne Coolican asked for brief facts so she could decide on whether the case could be dealt with at district court level or if it should go to the circuit court.

The alleged injured party is not to be identified, said Judge Coolican.

Det Garda OKeefe said on the date in question the injured party alleged she was sexually assaulted by the accused.

It involved touching of her private area, said Det Garda OKeefe.

Judge Coolican said she would accept jurisdiction at this point.

Kate Cussen, solicitor who represented the defendant, made an application for free legal aid which was granted.

There was no objection to bail subject to a number of conditions. He is to have no contact with the injured party; surrender his passport; and sign on one day a week in a garda station.

Judge Coolican imposed reporting restrictions on the media in attendance - not to identify the alleged injured party or the accuseds place of work.

The case was adjourned until June.
A NEW exhibition opens this week portraying the children of a Limerick housing estate.

Youth of the Island Field is a collection of portraits by award-winning documentary photographer Tamara Eckhardt.

Built in the 1930s, St Marys Park was the first social housing estate in Limerick. Located on Kings Island and bordered by the River Shannon, the estate is almost cut off from the surrounding city, and is known locally as the Island Field.

Since 2019 Tamara has been visiting and accompanying young people on the Island Field, and getting to know their families.

The portraits show the physical appearance of the children, but also hint at their personalities and everyday activities including playing, minding relatives, repairing toys, caring for animals, and the moments in between, offering intimate insights into their life.

Tamara lives and works as a portrait and documentary photographer in Berlin.

Her focus is often on marginalised or isolated social groups who experience prejudice or negative portrayal in mainstream media; she aims to capture a more nuanced portrait of communities

Youth of the Island Field will run from April 20 to June 11 at Ormston House. The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Limerick City & County Council.
In the midst of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, China's largest credit card brand Unionpay has become the latest financial services network to suspend its negotiations with the Russian banks after payment giants Visa and Mastercard closed down their services in the country fearing the devasting sanctions.

As per media reports, the payment processor is reportedly worried about being the target of sanctions from the US and other countries if it works with sanctioned Russian banks. These sanctions might include being barred from doing business with an American individual or company, or importing goods to or exporting goods from the U.S. Effectively, the sanctions could sever UnionPay from the global financial system--which is a lot more lucrative than Russia's domestic scene.

Launched in 2002, Unionpay is a state-led financial services network operated by China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, and is the world's second-largest card brand with a 32 per cent market share, according to 2020 data from the Nilson Report.

On Wednesday, Russian newspaper RBC reported that UnionPay, the Chinese state-led financial services network, had suspended negotiations with Russian banks on issuing new bank cards for their customers, now unable to make purchases outside Russia as a result of Visa's and Mastercard's withdrawal. (Russians could still use the cards to make domestic purchases, owing to Russia's local Mir payment system.)

The G7 leaders have already agreed on a ban on all new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy.

When Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted payments giants Visa and Mastercard to suspend services in the country, Moscow expected it could lean on the Chinese alternative, UnionPay, to plug the holes torn out of its domestic banking system. However, the plan now appears to have fallen flat, as UnionPay has reportedly decided not to expand its presence in the country.

Both the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, two of China's largest lending banks, have also stopped offering clients finance options for purchases of Russian commodities, reports Bloomberg.

And Huawei Technologies--one of the few remaining suppliers of 5G technology in Russia after Nokia and Ericsson pulled out of the country in February--has suspended new orders of network equipment for Russian customers, notes Russian outlet Izvestia.

UnionPay's hesitance to enter the Russian market is the latest example of large Chinese companies growing wary of doing business in Russia, despite the fact that China has not officially joined Western leaders in piling sanctions on Russia.

Officially, China has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia, deeming them counterproductive to the peace process. Chinese officials have also blamed the U.S. and Western organizations like NATO for escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, US media reported.

Furthermore, "China doesn't want to give "western countries any excuses for sanctions, bans, or boycotts," Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance Securities, told Fortune last month.

China, in recent times, has advised its companies to adopt a "cautious" approach towards deals with Russia as the country appears to be succumbing to the Western powers who have imposed severe sanctions on Russia.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
BY ALASTAIR GALE | UPDATED 4 18, 2022 08:39  EDT

Kyivs successful use of internet to counter Moscow highlights Taiwans reliance on undersea internet cables that China could cut

The war in Ukraine is reviving concerns in Taiwan and some Asia-Pacific nations about the fragility of their internet connections because they rely on undersea cables that could be severed in a Chinese attack.

Ukrainians have used the internet to rally resistance to Russias invasion, counter Moscows propaganda and win international support, including through President Volodymyr Zelenskys appeals for weapons. Ukraine has extensive internet connections across its land borders and most of the country has remained online despite Russian attacks on internet infrastructure.

In contrast, Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims, receives and sends about 95% of its data-and-voice traffic via cables that lie on the seabed. Currently officials say about 14 cablesbundles of fiber-optic lines about the thickness of a garden hoseare in operation, and they reach land at four locations on Taiwans coast.

If the cables were to be cut at sea by submarines or divers, or if military strikes were to destroy the lightly protected landing stations, most of the island would be thrown offline.

Were very vulnerable," said Kenny Huang, chief executive of Taiwan Network Information Center, a government-affiliated cybersecurity and internet-domain-registration organization.

There are no clear signs that China plans to invade Taiwan, but Beijing says it hasnt ruled out the use of military force to take control of the island. Chinas military doctrine indicates it would seek to achieve air, maritime and information superiority before attempting an amphibious assault on Taiwan, said Ivan Kanapathy, who was director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia on the White Houses National Security Council staff from 2018 to 2021.

Observing Ukraines highly effective use of media, Beijing likely judges that disconnecting Taiwan from the world would greatly improve Chinas chances of success" if it invades, Mr. Kanapathy said.

China hasnt threatened to attack seabed cables. Western government officials have expressed concerns about threats to seabed cables from Russian ships and submarines in recent years, but security analysts say China also has the means to sever them. The Chinese foreign ministry didnt respond to a question about seabed cables but said tension in the Taiwan Strait shouldnt be exaggerated.

In December, the U.S. said companies owned by Chinas Hengtong Group that lay and manage seabed cables have links to the Chinese military. Washington restricted their access to U.S. investment and technology. Hengtong didnt respond to requests for comment.

Wong Po-tsung, the deputy head of Taiwans National Communications Commission, said the government closely monitors internet connectivity and would be alerted within an hour if an outage occurs. By law, landing stations are protected by the police, coast guard and the military if necessary.

Japan also relies heavily on seabed cables and worries about being drawn into a conflict with China over Taiwan or some other islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. Most of Japans seabed cables arrive at two landing stations, including one near Tokyo.

If you go there, all the optical fiber cables are gathered in one space thats two meters by two meters. If its bombed, everything is lost," said Nobukatsu Kanehara, deputy secretary-general of Japans National Security Secretariat from 2013 to 2019.

An extreme example of internet vulnerability came earlier this year when an undersea volcanic eruption severed the single cable connecting Tonga to the internet, creating a near blackout of information about the extent of damage on the tiny Pacific archipelago for days.

In a war game conducted by the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, participants simulated Russian and Chinese attacks on seabed cables. In nearly every case, the attackers were able to disrupt and degrade U.S., allied, and partner communications, and contributed to confusion and distraction at the strategic level," the think tank said in a report last year.

Seabed cables are essential plumbing for the global economy. One recent report estimated the contribution of seabed cables to the U.S. economy at nearly $649 billion, or about 3% of U.S. gross domestic product.

The Asia-Pacific region has some of the highest concentrations of the roughly 436 active seabed cables that extend more than 800,000 miles around the world. The cables, most of which are privately owned by internet companies, are also a security risk because they might be tapped to intercept data.

Even if all its sea cables were severed, Taiwan would still retain some connection to the internet via satellites, with priority given to the government and military. Data capacity from satellite connections is a tiny fraction of that from seabed cables, however, and specialist terminals are needed to receive connections from satellites.

Taiwan is encouraging the construction of new cables to provide more sources of internet connection and it will likely add one or two more landing stations in the next five years, said Mr. Huang, the CEO of Taiwan Network Information Center.

In December, the U.S. gave approval to Alphabet Inc.s Google and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. for a new cable that would link Taiwan with the U.S. and the Philippines as early as this year. The companies are also teaming up to build a new cable linking Taiwan with Japan and other countries in Asia that is expected to be ready to operate in 2024.

Alexander Huang, a former deputy minister in the government council handling relations with China and a security adviser to successive Taiwan governments, said an early-warning system might be developed to guard the cables from interference at sea, but there are no easy solutions.

We have known about this vulnerability for a long time but it is very costly to deal with," Mr. Huang said.

Joyu Wang contributed to this article.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  The idea was presented to Florida lawmakers in a movie house outside Orlando 55 years ago, with Walt Disney, who had died less than two months earlier, helping make the pitch from the screen: Let Disney form its own government and in exchange it would create a futuristic city of tomorrow.

That city never materialized, but Walt Disney World became an economic juggernaut with four theme parks and two dozen hotels, while its government retained unprecedented powers in deciding what and how to build, issuing bonds and holding the ability to build its own nuclear plant if it wanted.

Now, five decades later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking lawmakers to end Disney's government in a move that jeopardizes the symbiotic relationship between the state and company. The high-profile attack by a politician from a GOP party that has historically championed its ties to business follows the companys opposition to what critics have dubbed the  Dont Say Gay  law barring instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

Republican Rep. Randy Fine, sponsor of the bill to scrap the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the Disney government entity is known, said it is time for a change.

You kick the hornet's nest, things come up. And I will say this: You got me on one thing  this bill does target one company. It targets the Walt Disney Co., Fine said. "You want to know why? Because they are the only company in the state that has ever been granted the right to govern themselves.

In an email fundraising pitch Wednesday, DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, put it this way:

Disney has gotten away with special deals from the state of Florida for way too long. It took a look under the hood to see what Disney has become to truly understand their inappropriate influence, the governor's email said.

If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy, the email added.

Disney, based in Burbank, California, had more than $67 billion in revenue in 2021 and has declined comment on the Florida legislation, which passed the state Senate on Wednesday and is being considered by the House in a special session of the Republican-dominated Legislature. The effective date of the measure would be June 2023, leaving time to develop a compromise short of completely abolishing the district.

Before Reedy Creek became Disney's government, it was a drainage district created to help manage the 27,000 acres (10,926 hectares) that the company secretly acquired parcel by parcel in the mid-1960s.

At first, news accounts speculated that a new and large industrial complex might be coming to the area. Some reports linked it to the Kennedy Space Center about an hour's drive away in Cape Canaveral. Finally, on Oct. 21, 1965, the Orlando Sentinel broke a story with this headline: We Say: Mystery Industry is Disney.'"

A few days later, then-Gov. Haydon Burns confirmed the Disney plan, saying it would be the greatest attraction in the history of Florida.

That would prove true over the decades as metro Orlando became the most visited destination in the U.S., attracting 75 million tourists annually before the pandemic. The metro area, which added Universal and SeaWorld theme park resorts, grew from 305,000 residents in 1970, the year before Disney World opened, to almost 2.7 million residents last year.

In some ways, the Reedy Creek Improvement District was built on a misrepresentation when company officials came to Florida lawmakers with their plans to build an East Coast Disneyland. After the companys first theme park in southern California was built in the 1950s, motels and tourist shops encroached around the property, and Walt Disney wanted to make sure the same thing didnt happen in Florida.

Along with a theme park, Disney officials led by Roy Disney, Walts brother, told Florida lawmakers in 1967 that they planned to build a futuristic city  the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, also known as Epcot.

The proposed city would include a rapid transit system and urban planning innovations, so Disney needed autonomy in the district for building and deciding how to use the land, they said. The futuristic city never materialized, and instead Epcot morphed into a second theme park that opened in 1982.

They said they were going to do one thing and they did another, said retired Rollins College political scientist Richard Foglesong, whose book, Married to the Mouse recounted the formation of Reedy Creek. "In that respect, it was legally infirm. I think that is a factual argument.

Reedy Creek was allowed to build its own roads, run its own wastewater treatment plants, operate its own fire department, set its own building codes and inspect Disney buildings for safety. In the current budget year, the district had $169 million in revenues and $178 million in expenditures.

Reedy Creek essentially runs a midsize city. On any given day, as many as 350,000 people are on Disney World property as theme park visitors, overnight hotel guests or employees. The district has to manage the traffic, dispose of the waste and control the plentiful mosquitoes in a territory once called Mosquito County.

Even though Reedy Creeks primary task is to operate Disney World, it is home to less than 50 residents living in manufactured homes in two tiny communities, Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. The two municipalities were formed to support the legal framework of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is governed by a five-member Board of Supervisors with four-year terms. The supervisors must be landowners within Reedy Creek, and to qualify, Disney gives them a small piece of land that they must give back once they leave the board.

That's not the only thing Disney has given out over the decades.

Disney has been a major political player in Florida and the country. The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political campaign spending, reported that in the 2020 campaign cycle, Walt Disney Co. and affiliates made more than $20 million in political contributions to both Republicans and Democrats.

That year, the most recent in which figures are available, Disney-related entities funneled $10.5 million to the America First Action committee, which supports former President Donald Trump. Disney also contributed $1.2 million to support President Joe Bidens campaign.

I think Disney is stuck a bit, Foglesong said. They had tried to play it both ways, making contributions to what you can only call right-wing Republicans. They thought they could have it both ways -- be the company of motherhood and apple pie and fund these reactionary Republican politicians.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Miamicurt
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libya's permanent representative to the UN, Taher al-Sonni, announced that Libya "has joined the countries sponsoring the (VetoInitiative) resolution, which requires a special meeting of the UN General Assembly when the veto is used in the Security Council
A video spreading across social media of Volodymyr Zelensky with a bag of cocaine on his desk is  of course  fake, and the latest in an ongoing smear campaign against the Ukrainian president.

In the manipulated video, a not-inconspicuous amount of white powder is seen next to Zelensky as he conducts a video conference with Elon Musk.

It didnt take long before the original, cocaine-less clip resurfaced  BBC disinformation journalist Shayan Sardarizeh noted the original video was from March  but by then hundreds of pro-Russian, English-speaking Twitter accounts had spread the shallow fake video.

Disinformation investigative group Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins also shared a side-by-side comparison of the digitally altered video and the original:

Pro-Russian accounts are currently sharing a video (left) that has a big ol' pile of cocaine digitally added to smear Zelensky. The original video (right), sans cocaine, can be found here https://t.co/cChEsa7Sbj pic.twitter.com/JAfGsiEIDj  Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) April 23, 2022

Pro-Russia Ukrainian politician Ilya Kiva previously appeared on Kremlin-funded media in March to propagate the Zelensky drug use smear. He is a drug addict. Cocaine, Kiva, facing treason charges in Ukraine, said on Russias Channel 1 (via The Mirror). His addiction to cocaine also distorts reality.

Another video that circulated on social media featured a clip of a years-old interview where Zelensky praises the drug, saying it gives energy for the whole day. A deeper dive into the interview revealed that Zelensky was just really addicted to coffee. I dont use drugs, Zelensky added.

The drug rumors even date back to when Zelensky was running for president, resulting in both he and his opponent Petro Poroshenko  rumored to have an alcohol addiction  agreeing to blood screening tests that were broadcast live, the AFP reported. Both candidates passed.

However, since then, every sniffle seen in a Zelensky video that is uploaded online has been labeled as a side effect of cocaine use by the hundreds of pro-Russian social media accounts that spread the videos online, culminating in the obviously fake pile-of-coke video this weekend.

As Rolling Stone recently reported, as Russias military wages a more and more brutal campaign against Ukraine, Vladimir Putins propagandists have been in overdrive.
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There are a few artists whove been flagship artists for Record Store Day in its 15 years of existence  among them, the Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band and David Bowie, all of whom have had multiple exclusive LP releases for RSD  but maybe none have seemed quite so synonymous with the day as jazz piano great Bill Evans. And Resonance Records, the archival label that has been behind the wave of live Evans releases, is doubling down on the legend this weekend with twin titles, Morning Glory and Inner Spirit, both recorded in Buenos Aires in the 1970s but never officially released until now.

As with all the previous Resonance Evans titles before them, this pair of double-LPs is not likely to last a full day in stock at most of the indie music shops that have ordered it. Which is hardly to say the music will vaporize: A CD release of both albums will follow just a week later, versus the previous month-long window that Evans fans used to have to wait for a wide release of the sets. But the hardcore want the very limited vinyl versions and will be rubbing elbows in line this weekend with all the Taylor Swifties out to land her exclusive release.

Still, theres even more up the sleeve of Zev Feldman, the co-president of Resonance (with founder George Klabin) and the noted jazz detective for the great lengths he goes to to find and buy rights to tapes that have been held underground for years. With Resonance or another label he works with, Elemental Records, Feldman has three more collections coming out Saturday in addition to the Evans albums: the Chet Baker Trios Live in Paris; Albert Aylers Revelations, a five-LP boxed set; and Charles Mingus The Lost Album from Ronnie Scotts, a three-LP set. None of these was turned around quickly to get in on some kind of perceived 2022 boom: Feldman says hes been working on the Mingus collection with the musicians estate in some capacity for 11 years.

Even for anyone who plans to sleep in, wait a week and buy any of these releases on CD at leisure, April is a sweet month to be a classic jazz fan.

This is the most monumental Record Store Day for me yet, says Feldman, whos never put five releases into the market at one time before. Ive been working on these projects for the last couple years, and its fitting to have them all out on the 15th anniversary of RSD. These are all very important and really cover all ends of the jazz music spectrum to appeal to different audiences.

For some years, Feldman was of different minds about how big a window to leave between the limited vinyl and unlimited CD versions of the covetable albums they release. Eventually some experimentation led to the realization that in almost all cases the vinyl will disappear in a flash regardless of whether the music will be out digitally practically a minute later.

We really appreciate the folks at RSD for allowing us to also release these projects on CD and digital, Feldman says. The reality is that each LP will ship sold out and be gone right away. Then well shift gears and focus on the CD and digital sales opportunities. I want to make sure people are able to get their hands on this music one way or another. All the press stories generate a lot of excitement, and its not a lot of fun if people have to wait a month to get the CD. I like to remind people that brick and mortar retail need our help all year round to sell CDs as well as LPs.

He adds, Were still not putting these albums up for streaming right away, and usually like to wait a while as part of our methodology. The physical sales allow us to recoup on the mammoth investment of these projects with all the love and attention we pour on them. These projects are massive undertakings for labels, and were just eternally grateful to RSD, as their passion and support allows a lot of these projects to see the light of day that otherwise might be too risky to embark on.

Of what has turned out to be Resonances unofficial flagship artist, Feldman says, Its really exciting to know that weve made a difference, thanks to the Record Store Day organization, in being able to elevate Bill Evans profile so high. It just worked out that way. There has been an abundancy of projects, and weve been able to harness the RSD vehicle to bring them to the marketplace. He toured the world and played concerts for many, many years. Fortunately, lots of his concerts have been documented at a high quality, providing us with a golden opportunity to build something special with Rolls Royce quality. I hope people will keep coming back.

The extensive liner notes on the Evans projects include interviews with all the surviving musicians from the two trios represented (Evans himself died in 1980, but Eddie Gomez, Marty Morell, Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera live and speak on), as well as essays or chats with historians and fellow piano greats (like Richie Beirach and Enrico Pieranunzi). The writers and interviewees note the unusual circumstances of the two Buenos Aires concerts, which took place in 1973 and 1979. Both took place during especially volatile periods of turmoil in Argentina, which is purported to have had an effect on the audiences moods, if not the musicians. (Both shows have also been bootlegged before, Feldman notes, but not at this level of quality  and obviously not with the musicians or their survivors being paid.)

The 73 concert in particular has some oddities to it: Due to its last minute-nature, it took place with minimal setup in a cavernous, freezing cold historic theater at which everyone involved had to wear overcoats and at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. Not anyones idea of a prototypical jazz setting, but attendees swore it was one of the greatest concerts theyd ever seen, and the often encore-eschewing Evans succumbed to the raucous good will and returned to the stage three times.

The music never starts out at a climactic level. Bill Evans knew how to play to his audience, in addition to playing for himself and creating the music as he envisioned, says Zeldman. Looking at a lot of his recordings, theres a beauty and subtlety. It doesnt need to be a big flash right out of the gate. Evans has the ability to bring an audience to their hands and knees, and its apparent by way the audiences responded.

Generally speaking, he adds of Evans, Hes one of the great musicians and jazz composers of the 20th century, and his music transcends generations and audiences. Theres something to be said about the beauty and uniqueness of his music. Im grateful that people are making these discoveries for themselves. Theres always that instance when you hear an artist for the first time and it captivates you. I think weve been able to accomplish that feeling for a lot of new and old Bill Evans fans for RSD.

Feldman isnt wanting his other releases to get lost in Saturdays Evans gold rush, of course, and thats unlikely given the iconic caliber of everyone represented.

He elaborates on the others, staring with Mingus The Lost Album from Ronnie Scotts, which wont be mistaken for an Evans-style trio record. It features saxophonists Charles McPherson and Bobby Jones, trumpeter Jon Faddis, pianist John Foster and drummer Roy Brooks. These shows were professionally recorded by a mobile 8-track recording truck for a future release that never materialized, until now. For the booklet, we have notes from acclaimed British author Brian Priestley, who attended these concerts in 1972 and interviewed Mingus and McPherson backstage during the run, which weve included excerpts of in the booklet. I also interviewed social commentator and writer Fran Lebowitz, bass icons Christian McBride and Eddie Gomez, and Charles McPherson for the booklet. Serious Mingus fans dont have this recording. Its also a celebration of Mingus centennial, as he was born on April 22, 1922.

Ayler is perhaps more of an acquired taste for the vaster public, but lots of acquisition will be happening with his set, one of two on the Elemental label this year The Albert Ayler complete Fondation Maeght recordings from 1970 is a very personal project for me, Feldman says. I carried those tapes on my back for years looking for a label, until I luckily connected with the good folks at Elemental Music in Barcelona. They had a relationship, as did I, working with the folks at Ina France, who oversee the radio and TV archives of the French government. The Ayler set was captured in glorious stereo by the ORTF and contain over two hours of previously unissued music. We beat the bootleggers and presented all the music the way it happened back in July of 1970, just a short while before he died. This is the first official release of the complete recordings in the original sequence, and as far as I know the only time all the musicians and rights holders have been paid. Fans and associates who contributed to the liner notes as writers or interviewees speak to the breadth of the adventuresome musicians following, including jazz and rock figures Carlos Santana, Sonic Youths Thurston Moore, Carla Bley, John Zorn, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Joe Lovano, Bill Laswell, Reggie Workman, James Brandon Lewis, Patty Waters, Annette Peacock, Marc Ribot and Zoh Amba.

And the Baker title, also for Elemental, represents a first-time collaboration with the estate of one of jazzs primary figures. These are not just any Chet Baker recordings, but superb live performances that capture an important of part of Bakers career, arguably in his third act, that were well-recorded and had never been bootlegged. These are recordings from 1983 and 1984 captured by Radio France featuring trios of trumpet/vocals, with the late Parisian pianist Michele Grallier and bassists Riccardo Del Fra and Dominique Lamerle. These unique trio settings allowed Baker to really stretch out in wonderful ways. Of course we paid all the musicians, and curated an unbelievable package with liner notes by Ashley Kahn, Franck Bergerot and Pascal Rozat, plus interviews with the living sidemen, bassists Riccardo Del Fra and Dominique Lemerle, and former Baker pianist Richie Beirach.

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A bomb threat was reported on Friday afternoon at Premier High School, prompting the evacuation of the school, according to Laredo police.

The LPD Bomb Squad searched the property and no devices were located. An investigation is underway to determine the origin of the threat call, authorities said.
Gov. Greg Abbott increasing inspections of commercial trucks entering from Mexico in the hopes of staunching illegal smuggling activity resulted in zero migrants detentions or illegal drug seizures, despite allegedly costing the Lone Star State billions of dollars.

Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller stated in an email to supporters this week that the enhanced truck inspections cost Texas consumers and businesses an estimated $4.3 billion "despite not catching a single illegal alien or confiscating a single gram of illegal drugs."

"However, Governor Abbott successfully persuaded Mexico states to enhance security on their side of the border," Miller added. "Both of these things are true at the same time."

The Texas Tribune reports that over an eight-day period beginning on April 8, troopers conducted more than 1,400 truck inspections. Despite no drugs being discovered, troopers managed to take 850 trucks off the road for various equipment violations, including under-inflated tires, broken turn signals and oil leaks.

The inspections also created a backlog of 18-wheelers on both sides of the border, with some truckers reporting waiting more than 30 hours for a process that typically takes three hours, according to the Dallas Morning News. The delays resulted in $240 million in spoiled produce and empty shelves at local markets.

Miller's estimate roughly coincides with findings released by The Perryman Group, a Waco-based economic analysis firm, which estimates the delays cost the state $4.2 billion in gross domestic product and the U.S. nearly $9 billion in GDP.

Abbott ordered the enhanced truck inspections in response 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. Last week, the Republican leader called off the inspection initiative after signing agreements with leaders of four Mexican states that border Texas who said they would increase border security measures.

Despite the economic impacts of shutting down traffic at the border, Abbott isn't ruling out reinstating the policy. Asked about the impacts during a roundtable with law enforcement in San Antonio Thursday, Abbott responded, "Obviously there are concerns about the economy but there are even larger concerns about the unabated immigration that the Biden administration is promoting."
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Members of the Libyan-American Business Association have expressed concern that political uncertainty, militia mobilization, and disruptions to oil and gas production are clouding the business environment in Libya and affecting the quality of life of the Libyan people
The first major incident in the Civil War to impact on County Longford was when Patrick Columb, a Free State soldier, was killed on the streets of Mullingar on 27 April 1922, just 100 years ago next Wednesday.

Patrick Columb was born in Dernaferst, Gowna, Co Cavan, literally a couple of hundred metres from the Longford border.

The Columb family, like most of their neighbours, associated more with Longford that Cavan. Patrick attended Pulladoey National School and Moyne Latin School, both in Longford, and the family would have gone to the church and shops in Aughnacliffe.

Three of the Columb brothers, Patrick, Frank and John James were in the Colmcille Company of the IRA during the War of Independence but, when the Treaty was signed, there was a parting of the ways. Frank and John James took the anti-Treaty side and Frank served a period of internment. Patrick, on the other hand, joined the new Free State Army.

As the British evacuated military and police barracks throughout the twenty-six counties, a scene of great confusion emerged. Some barracks were handed over to members of the new Free State Army, while others were handed over to the anti-Treaty IRA.

In Munster, most of them were taken in hand by anti-Treaty forces. In the town of Mullingar, a typically confused situation emerged. The military barracks was under the control of the Free State, while the IRA held the police barracks and the courthouse.

A delicate situation continued in Mullingar for a couple of weeks until the fateful morning of 27 April when an ultimatum was issued by the Free State side demanding the evacuation of the police barracks.

Shots were exchanged and Patrick Columb was shot dead, as well as Thomas Leavy from the anti-Treaty side. A commission of enquiry was set up to investigate the circumstances of both deaths, but there was no agreement as to who fired the fatal shots.

The remains of Patrick Columb were taken on a Crossley tender from Mullingar to Longford and met by large crowds at St Mels Cathedral.

The coffin was removed from the tender and carried on the shoulders of his comrades up New Street, Ballymahon Street and back by Dublin Street, with the Foresters Band heading the procession.

Shops in the town closed their doors. From there, the remains were taken to Colmcille Church where an all-night vigil was held. The funeral and burial took place on 29 April 1922.

The tragedy of Patrick Columbs death was a major talking point in Colmcille for decades, until the last of those who knew him passed away in the 1980s. Patrick was just 20 years of age at the time of his death.

Within a couple of weeks of Patricks death, the Military Barracks in Mullingar was renamed Columb Barracks, and so it remained until its closure in March 2012.



The story of Patrick Columb is given in detail in the recently published book, Longfords Republican Story 1900 -2000 by Sean O Suilleabhain.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdelhamid al-Dbaiba, visited the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli on Saturday, during which he inquired about the progress on security plans during the elections
Longford socialites, fashionistas and horse racing enthusiasts will descend in their hundreds on Punchestown racecourse on Wednesday, April 27, for the 18th annual Longford GAA race day in association with main sponsors, Sherry FitzGerald Brady OFlaherty, Maynooth.

The race day is the county boards main fundraiser and since its introduction back in 2003, it has raised almost 1.7 million.

The pandemic put paid to race day plans in 2020 and 2021 and organisers are thrilled to be back this year.

Lanesboro native Eamon OFlaherty said Sherry FitzGerald Brady OFlaherty are delighted to be associated with the event which takes place on the day of the coveted Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup.

Chairperson of the Race Day organising committee, Martin Skelly pointed out that one of the most enjoyable features of race day is the fact that so many Longfordians who may be living elsewhere are provided with the opportunity to meet up with each other and catch up.

Tickets for this year's event are priced at 160 per person or table of ten 1,600. Contact Martin Skelly (086) 804 0296, Eamon Reilly 086 261 0556, Albert Cooney (086) 811 8580, John Bannon 086 259 7942 or Dublin Coordinator Padraig Brady 086 241 7560 for more information.

Mr Skelly said there is significant demand for tickets and while he is expecting the event to be a sell out, he is advising patrons that a limited number of tickets are still available.

The Longford GAA Race Day will feature a best dressed lady & best dressed gentleman competition (kindly sponsored by Padraig & Mairead Brady), four course meal, race card, celebrity tipster Johnny Ward from The Racing Post, bar facilities, bookies in pavilion and top class music with Busy Fingers (sponsored by MJ Keogh and Seamus Ross) immediately after the last race until late.

There will also be an auction, with All-Ireland tickets up for grabs, and Eamon OFlaherty will be in charge of the gavel.
Its amazing the number of insignificant details that remain in the back of our mind even although they were of no real importance at the time. When I was 13 (which was a long time ago) a friend of my brothers had a piece of advice that was of no real use when he mentioned it.

He was head of patents in London for Unilever, a global company that is still a household name. He told me the main job of a good boss was to make himself totally dispensable. He had to set up his department so that it ran on well-oiled wheels even when he wasnt there. I thought of him last week when I went to Sa Goleta for their 13.20 menu del dia.

As Sa Goleta (the word means schooner) is one of Palmas busiest restaurants, I phoned at 9.15am to reserve a table. One of the owners, Leo or Josefina, usually picks up the phone, but that morning I got the answering machine. As I dont like talking to machines I rang back later and a waitress took the call.

I was slightly surprised that neither Leo nor Josefina had answered the phone earlier, but it was nothing to worry about. When I was sitting in the restaurant at 3.15pm and looking at the menu, I suddenly realised that Leo, who is in charge of the dining room, wasnt there. I asked a waitress about him and she replied that he was on holiday. And Josefina? She was also on holiday. All kinds of alarm bells started to ring. Josefina is Sa Goleta. Sa Goleta is Josefina. Shes in the kitchen on her own. She doesnt have a deputy. The kitchen is not set up so that it will run on well-oiled wheels when shes not there.

I thought it wouldnt be fair to judge Sa Goleta when its captain wasnt on the bridge and keeping the ship on course. That day I was eating with Marcos Madrigal, the head butcher at the supermarket of El Corte Ingles in Jaime III. When he arrived I explained the situation and wondered if we should eat elsewhere. But we eventually decided it wouldnt be a bad idea to eat at Sa Goleta to see how it worked when the bosses were away on holiday  in Mexico, no less, not along the street in Can Pastilla.

Marcos started with a cream of broccoli and courgette soup that was very much to his liking. The broccoli added flavour to the soup and the courgettes gave it texture. There was even more taste and texture in the form of little croutons.

Marcos had a picana steak for his main course, a Brazilian cut that started to become popular in Spain about eight years ago, although this cut is also sold here but under the name of tapilla.

Marcos gave me a quick rundown on what the picana is and which part of the cow it comes from. It is a huge muscle on the upper part of the leg that is broad at the top, tapering down to a point.

Its the kind of cut that can be sliced into broad thin steaks, or cut into thick strips.

His was a thinnish steak with a rim of fat that kept it nicely moist, and he asked for it to be underdone. I tasted a small piece and it was beautifully tender and full of flavour.

Sa Goleta usually has six or seven desserts on offer and two or three are always homemade, the others being bought in but from reliable sources. Marcos had a classic homemade flan that was as splendid as it looks.

Deep-fried fish was worth a 10

Josefina Perez is the sole cook (as well as soul cook) at Sa Goleta and because she was on holiday with husband Leo there was a big question mark over how the usually superb menu del dia would be without her in the kitchen.

The fillet of gallo was worth a 10. Photos: Andrew Valente

I was especially doubtful about a deep-fried fish fillet that was one of the main course choices. Most professionals are inclined to overcook fish because thats how the vast majority of customers prefer it. Thats why when ordering fish I always ask the waiter to ask the cook if my order (for any kind of fish) could please be undercooked rather than overdone.

The young Uruguayan cook called Giovanni who was standing in for Josefina got the message, understood what I meant, and produced a beautifully deep-fried piece of fish.

The high temperature of the oil caused the skin on the underside of the fillet to buckle up and that produced a nice twisted-over look. But the main thing was that the flesh of the fish was moist and tasty which is exactly how I wanted it to be. And that was why I gave it a 10 rating.

I had started off with their meat and vegetables paella. This was another test for stand-in cook Giovanni because Josefina specialises in paellas and has about eight on the a la carte menu.

The meat and veg paella was a generous portion.

The problem with menu del dia paellas is that by the time the last couple of portions are served, the rice can be dry and overcooked. But that doesnt happen at Sa Goleta because when paella is a menu del dia choice it is so popular it gets used up before the rice has had time to become overcooked. That happened with Giovannis paella so the rice was still nicely al dente and the myriad of little pieces of pork had been previously fried until crisp on the outside and, therefore, bursting with taste.

My dessert was a delicious baked apple, a dish I seldom see on restaurant menus and one I always order when its available. Ive never been able to understand why more restaurant cooks dont do baked apples. Once they are in the oven they look after themselves  and they always turn out rather nice. Its actually quite difficult to ruin a baked apple.

The baked apple was superb.

This apple was baked with a red wine reduction that was seductively flavoured with cinnamon: a sprinkle of powder at the end, with strips of the stick used during the cooking time. A lovely end to any meal.

The verdict

Ive been going to Sa Goleta since they first opened some 12 years ago and I have never known owners Leo and Josefina to go away on holiday and leave the restaurant in charge of others. But everything was perfectly under control with a Uruguayan cook called Giovanni in the kitchen and members of the family running the dining room. Leo and Josefina now know they can go on holiday more frequently and Sa Goleta will be in good hands. Their 13.20 menu del dia is one of the best in Palma and no place I know of has a bigger choice of dishes: usually six or seven starters, mains and desserts. Josefina specialises in paella and theres a choice of about a dozen. Her roast suckling pig, eaten soon after it comes out of the oven at 1pm, is the best I know of, but be sure to have it as soon as possible after 1.30pm. The roast suckling pig is available on the menu del dia with a 4 supplement.

The place

Restaurante Sa Goleta, Avda Argentina 34, Palma, just before you get to the Sant Sebastia church, coming from the centre of Palma. Tel:971-450155. Closed on Mondays. This restaurant is one of the busiest in Palma and you should always book a table on any day of the week. They open only for lunch from 1pm.

The bill

We had no extras, so the 13.20 menu del dia for two came to 26.40, a super price for such a good meal. A memorable main course choice is roast suckling pig which is at its best when ordered as soon as the restaurant opens at 1pm. If having the suckling pig on the menu del dia there is a supplement of 4.
Palma will be the main base for Mediterranean cruises this summer according to the employers' association CLIA, APEAM and shipping companies, including TUI Cruise.

"The evolution of cruise tourism will be positive with more traffic in Palma than in 2019, said director of TUI Spain in the Balearic Islands & TUI Destination Services, Ian Livesey. From May to October an increase in activity is expected and Palma will benefit from that, because the cruise passengers will stay in hotels in the Balearic capital either before or after their cruise, which will have an economic impact in all the productive sectors in Palma and the rest of Mallorca.

"This type of cruise passenger stays in a hotel, rents a car, shops in stores and eats in restaurants in Palma, which is highly valuable to all productive sectors, adds Palma & Cala Mayor Hotel Association President. "The base cruise passenger boosts boutique and urban hotel occupancy in Palma by about three points and can guarantee average occupancy of 75% throughout the year."

APEAM & Shipping Companies

TUI Cruises and Aida Cruises are promoting Palma as a cruise base and shipping companies MSC and Costa are also planning more cruise ship departures and arrivals, because Palma has exceptional air connectivity, hotels, shops, restaurants and other complementary services, said APEAMs Commission of Consignees President in the Balearics, Beatriz Orejudo. She also pointed out that mainland ports such as Alicante have made a strong commitment to the cruise ship segment because of the benefits it brings.

Orejudo says shipping companies are actively looking for ways to reduce the impact of cruise tourism in destination ports.

The sector strives to be a profitable, sustainable and environmentally friendly business model, she insists. In terms of sustainability, the cruise industry strives to respond to the environmental challenges it faces, reinforcing waste management policies and practices, water treatment policies, reducing atmospheric emissions and adopting good sustainable practices.

Shipping companies included in CLIA agree that the evolution of Mediterranean cruise tourism in the wake of the pandemic is very positive, with reservations forecast to be much higher than expected despite the fact that Covid protocols and capacity controls are still in place on all ships.

Because of the Russia-Ukraine war, several cruise ships that were supposed to stopover in Greece, Turkey or Egypt have come to Palma instead in the last few weeks.

Palma offers everything, including security, hence it is the port chosen as an alternative if a detour has to be made for any reason, said the CLIA.

Since January, there has been a maximum of three cruise ships per day in Palma and there will only be 18 days this year with four cruise ships docked.

The Balearic Port Authority cannot deny the docking of any ship in Palma, whether or not it is a cruise ship, because it is classified as a port of refuge, by the central Government.
TO THE EDITOR:

On April 22 the News Advocate published a guest editorial by Kent Lassman declaring that Earth Day should be retired.

I wondered what he was thinking. He is correct that air pollution hasnt gotten so bad that we have to wear helmet air filtration systems. However, links between air pollution and asthma are well-established and there is empirical evidence suggesting a connection with lung disease.

On the other hand, air pollution helps to cut down on global warming. However, Kent cant use that argument to support a policy for continued air pollution, because he argues that there isnt such a thing as climate change.

He then goes on to argue that despite 50 years of Earth Day, there has been no appreciable improvement in Earths health. I guess his point there is that we should just give up. Imagine the president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute taking the stand that giving up is the best policy to take when faced with adversity.

But this is what really got me. In the fifth paragraph he refers to activists who campaign for bizarre, radical depopulation and decarbonization." He then goes on to argue that what we need is adaptation, citing the Dutch as a good example (president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute lauding a socialist country?).

And might not the type of adaptation we need be a move away from carbon-based fuels into more carbon-neutral power sources such as solar and wind? The fact of the matter is that most adaptation is radical when it first occurs. People always make fun of new ideas. Think Henry Ford being shouted at to: Get a horse.

And then after calling depopulation a bizarre, radical notion, he goes on to argue that all things must die for some reason anyway; with an implication of why worry about it.

So Im left confused. Is Kent Lassman arguing for depopulation and alternative energy or against them? In any case I dont see how any of this bears on getting rid of Earth Day. Maybe hes just opposed to taking care of the planet -- our home.

Brian Maiville

Dexter and Manistee
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During Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's intense defamation trial, the actor's taste in tattoos came up in court on Wednesday, when he revealed that there is one in particular that his ex-wife didn't like.

Deep was asked about Heard's claims that the first time he hit her was in response to a comment about a tattoo. The actor pointed out that this did not happen and reiterated that he never hit Heard or any other woman.

He added that this specific accusation never made sense to him because he would have no reason to hit a woman for making fun of his tattoo.

Heard was questioned about whether she objected to any of his tattoos, she responded that she had changed "Winona forever"-a reference to her previous relationship with actress Winona Ryder-to "Wino forever." Although it was not clear if Heard influenced the change.

The actor who brings Captain Jack Sparrow to life in Pirates of the Caribbean claimed that Heard encouraged him to get a tattoo of her. Shortly after doing so, he said, "everything started to go off the rails" in their relationship."

I was doing my best to get her to smile instead of frowning," he detailed.

Johnny and Winona

One of the most important women in Johnny Depp's life has been Winona Ryder, with whom he formed one of the favorite couples of the 1990s.And although their relationship, which included an engagement to marry, lasted only three years, their friendship continued as time went on.

Winona pulled away when Johnny began his romance with Amber

For many years, the two celebrities continued their friendship, feeling respect for each other. However, when Ryder learned that Depp had left his wife to start a relationship with Amber Heard, she completely changed her feelings for him.

The actor allegedly had an affair with Amber while he was still with Vanessa Paradis, and when Winona found out, she refused to work with him.

She defended him against Heard's accusations

Prior to this trial, a few years ago, in an affidavit, Ryder noted, "The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the furthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved."
There is a proposal surrounding US parents to deliver stimulus checks.

Senator from Utah Mitt Romney proposed the Family Security Act.

The Family Security Act aims to cut child poverty by providing most parents with a $350 monthly payment for each child under age six and $250 for each older child to age 17.

The maximum monthly amount permitted per family will be $1,250.

All families with a single tax-filer making up to $200,000 and joint-filers households with children making $400,000 will secure the benefit.

What if I earned a bit more than the limit?

According to the information received, single-filers or joint-filers earning more will receive $50 less for every $1,000 above those thresholds a family makes.

"Unlike the Child Tax Credit, there is a catch to the proposal - beneficiaries must work, volunteer, or train for at least 80 hours a month, and that's likely why it hasn't become official yet," said Dave Basner.

"While members from both parties are in favor of assisting families, having a work requirement is a sticking point that is currently being negotiated."

A study revealed Romney's proposal could increase poverty overall

According to Washington State University, the proposal is meant to alleviate child poverty.

However, the Economic Modeling made by WSU found evidence that would cause poverty to rise among single-mother families.

Single-mother families' poverty could increase from 26.5% to 45.5%, tripling the number of children in deep poverty.

"Using a structural model to evaluate this particular proposal shows that reducing incentives to work will create more poverty among single-mother families, and therefore, it's likely to increase deep child poverty as well," said Salvador Ortigueira, senior author of the study and a WSU professor of economics.

According to the WSU study, the proposal would replace the Earned Income Tax Credit that low- and middle-income working parents receive when filing their taxes.

It also would eliminate another aid program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, to help pay for the cash transfers.

"There's a bit of a distinction between helping people in poverty with tax credits versus non-conditional income assistance. The current policy is a mix of both," said Ortigueira

"If you move the mix from a tax credit toward a guaranteed income, that small change can have very large effects, especially for the population of single mothers because they are very sensitive to these changes."
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RTHK: Zelensky calls for meeting with Putin to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called again for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an effort to "put an end to the war".

"I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," he told a news conference at a metro station in the heart of the Ukrainian capital, adding that he was "not afraid to meet" Putin if it would lead to a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

"From the beginning, I have insisted on talks with the Russian president," he said. "It's not that I want [to meet him], it's that I have to meet him so as to settle this conflict by diplomatic means.

"We have confidence in our partners, but we have no confidence in Russia," he added.

Zelensky also repeated his warning that they would break off talks if Russia killed the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in the besieged Black Sea port of Mariupol.

"If our men are killed in Mariupol and if these pseudo-referendums are organised in the [southern] region of Kherson, then Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process," he said.

He was ready to exchange Ukraine's soldiers defending the city "in whatever format" to save "these people who find themselves in a horrible situation, surrounded". (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-04-23. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The Defense Ministers of China and Vietnam walk together to the Chinese side of the border on April 23, 2022. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)

BEIJING, April 23 -- The seventh China-Vietnam Border Defense Friendship Exchange was held on April 23 in Longzhou County of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Quang Hoa County of Vietnam's Cao Bang Province, and relevant port areas. Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe and Vietnamese Defense Minister General Phan Van Giang led delegations to participate in the event respectively.

General Wei Fenghe said that Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee , have been steering the China-Vietnam relations for sound development. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the two sides have held border defense friendship exchanges for two consecutive years, demonstrating the profound friendship of "comrades and brothers" of the two countries and maintaining the good momentum of friendly exchanges between the two militaries.

General Wei Fenghe pointed out that the two militaries should maintain high-level strategic communication, strengthen maritime security cooperation, promote exchanges in professional fields and strengthen multilateral coordination. Both sides should improve the border defense cooperation mechanism, crack down on cross-border crimes, strengthen pandemic prevention and control, and jointly safeguard peace and tranquility along the China-Vietnam border. The two militaries should also properly handle maritime disputes, guard against interference and sabotage by countries outside the region, advance cooperation in the South China Sea, and jointly uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea, General Wei added.

General Phan Van Giang thanked China for providing Vietnam with COVID-19 vaccine assistance and wished the 20th CPC National Congress a success. He said that developing Vietnam-China relations is a diplomatic priority of Vietnam and the defense cooperation is an important pillar of Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership .

He added that Vietnam is willing to deepen practical cooperation with China in border defense cooperation, military political work, military medicine, etc, and make new contributions to maintaining border peace and stability and promoting bilateral relations.

The two sides also exchanged views on the international and regional security situation and the situation in Ukraine.

During the event, both sides added paint to the inscriptions of a boundary monument No. 943 (1) erected along the China-Vietnam border, planted friendship trees and visited a local primary school in Vietnam.

The picture shows General Wei Fenghe (R) and General Phan Van Giang (L) pose for a photo in front of the boundary monument No.943 (1) erected along the China-Vietnam border on April 23, 2022. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
The Intercept, April 14, 2022

EIGHT MONTHS AFTER a U.S.-supported government in Afghanistan was defeated by the Taliban, violence against civilians and politically motivated violence persist in the country even as incidents have become harder to report and verify amid an intensifying information blackout, a report published today reveals.

Journalists and women, particularly those participating in or covering demonstrations in opposition to Taliban rule, have been increasingly targeted, as have members of the former government and security forces. But Taliban infighting, clashes between the Taliban and the Islamic State, and incidents involving half a dozen anti-Taliban armed groups that have emerged or regrouped in recent months are also increasing, raising the prospect of escalating political violence in the months ahead. The data was compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, in partnership with Afghan Peace Watch, an Afghan-run violence monitoring group.

The analysis underscores the growing challenge of monitoring reports of political violence at a time when more than 300 Afghan news outlets have shut down, and while many of those that continue to operate have been forced to adapt to Taliban censorship or face significant threats to their staffs safety.

The reporting environment, in addition to the political landscape of course, changed really dramatically after the Taliban takeover in August, Roudabeh Kishi, ACLEDS director of research and innovation, told The Intercept. The outlets that remain open are facing a lot of censorship, and they are really unable to report on whats happening on the ground because of the security risks that they face. [Journalists] that do risk reporting anything that contradicts the Taliban narrative have faced threats, intimidation. And even beyond that, some have been jailed, some have been tortured.

ACLED, which has been tracking violence in Afghanistan since 2017, noted that attacks against civilians have increased in recent months. The Taliban are the main perpetrator, in about half of the reported cases, but the Islamic State and unidentified armed groups are also responsible, although researchers believe at least some of the latter are acting on behalf of the Taliban but trying to mask their involvement.

Civilians have been singled out for their profession or ethnicity, the report notes, with former government officials accounting for 30 percent of Taliban attacks, which sometimes extend to family members. Despite the Taliban promising them amnesty, some 500 former government officials were killed or forcibly disappeared in the first six months of Taliban rule, according to a recent investigation. Minority communities such Hazaras, Uzbeks, and Tajiks have also been targeted and had their land forcibly seized.

Women, who have continued to stage protests against the Talibans repressive measures despite the Taliban repeatedly quelling such demonstrations with force, have also been a primary target, particularly in the first months of this year. In some cases, demonstrators have responded to the crackdown by shifting tactics, staging smaller protests in private spaces, recording speeches and promoting them on social media. Many activists, many women activists, are being targeted specifically for their participation in these demonstrations, noted Kishi. Which I think makes these protests particularly important to be tracking.

Reporting Under Censorship

With scores of journalists and human rights defenders having fledAfghanistan in the weeks following the Taliban takeover, groups monitoring incidents of political violence and human rights abuses have had to adapt.

It has become extremely difficult to collect reliable data, Ghulam Sakhi, a researcher with Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, an Afghan-based human rights group whose members are now abroad, told The Intercept. Sakhi, whose group was not involved in the report, said that its findings are consistent with what he and his colleagues have also monitored from afar. He noted that victims of violence, particularly those released from Taliban detention, are being intimidated against reporting their experiences.

If they share with anybody, they will be targeted again, Sakhi said.He also noted increased Taliban surveillance of journalists and civil society members known to track allegations of abuse. They text you regularly and follow you on social media. They stop you here and there, just to somehow try to intimidate you and always keep you scared, so that you do not do anything or publish anything that is against the Talibans official narrative, he added.

Most of Afghan Peace Watchs staff left the country last summer, causing the group to briefly pause its monitoring of casualties and political violence. In order to get around restrictions on the ground, the group now relies on a network of more than 200 activists, elders, teachers, and community leaders spread in provinces across the country, operating undercover to verify allegations of abuse and reports of violence. The group also tracks and independently verifies social media reports in multiple languages, and it monitors official statements from the Taliban.

But we know as a fact that they are hiding the truth, Habib Khan Totakhil, a member of Afghan Peace Watch who is outside the country, told The Intercept.

Since December, when Afghan Peace Watch resumed operating, it has tracked more than 800 incidents of political violence that were not covered by local media outlets.Among the most notable trends is a significant uptick in clashes between the Taliban and armed groups that oppose them, like the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, as well as the departure of a growing number of disillusioned Taliban fighters to the ranks of the Islamic State.

We have reports of Islamic State attacks from Kandahar, which is the birthplace of the Taliban, noted Khan. The Islamic State has a widespread reach all through the country, and that was not the case before the collapse.
Foreign Policy, April 20, 2022

Violence is intensifying in Afghanistan eight months after the United States retreat allowed the Taliban to return to power, fueling concerns that the country may again become a hub of instability and terrorism across South and Central Asia and beyond.

Afghanistan has long been a base for militants with ambitions for global jihad. Dozens of groups that have been present since the Talibans last turn in power from 1996 to 2001 are again operational, looking for opportunities to expand their reach, said security, diplomatic, and military sources.

Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Lashkar-e-Taiba are the most prominent of about 20 militant groups identified by the United States and the United Nations as having an armed presence in Afghanistan throughout the 20 years of its republic.

Afghanistan is al Qaeda and al Qaeda is Afghanistan, said Ali Mohammad Ali, a security expert and consultant who worked with the former Kabul government. Warnings that a Taliban return to power could reignite the terrorist threat that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were ignored ahead of the Trump administrations 2020 deal to pull out of the country and essentially hand over Afghanistan to the militant group. Under the terms of that deal, the Taliban pledged not to attack U.S. forces or the United States. Instead, Afghanistan is now a base for attacks on neighboring countries, including Pakistan and, seemingly, Uzbekistan.

If Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is again turning into an exporter of terror, its in part because of the collapse of its economy and law and order; security across the country is virtually nonexistent. An uptick in violencefrom anti-Taliban attacks by a disparate but growing resistance to suicide attacks targeting ethnic minorities like Hazarasindicates the Islamists are fast losing whatever governing grip they might have had. Militancy is thriving, much of it deployed to geopolitical ends.

The Talibans inability to govern has effectively provided a carte blanche for terrorist groups to operate in and from Afghanistans territory, Ali said.

Some of the terror groups operating in Afghanistan, such as the local Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State-Khorasan, have teamed up with the IMU to destabilize some Central Asian neighbors that remain in Russias sphere of influence, said Mirwais Naab, a former deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan.

The Islamic State-Khorasan announced in a video on Monday that it had fired 10 rockets at a military base in Uzbekistan. Naab described it as an attempt by [the Islamic State] to claim the IMU mission in Uzbekistan and connect itself with sleeping cells and extremist groups there. But I dont see much difference between them. They are operating very closely.

It was not immediately possible to verify the veracity of the Islamic State-Khorasan claim. The Uzbek government called it a provocation and said in a statement it was absolutely untrue and that the border region was stable.But there may be a geopolitical motive behind attacks on Afghanistans Central Asian neighbors: Russia.

Many Central Asian states see their relationship with Moscow as a potential liability following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions that will send economic and social problems their way. Tight supplies of pricey commodities could bring unrest, as fuel price hikes did earlier this year in Kazakhstan. Loss of migrant workers remittances from Russia will cull billions of dollars from their economies, said Central Asia expert Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a Singapore think tank.

Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and even Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have all signaled varying levels of unease with Russias war in Ukraine. Pantucci said some countries with large Russian-speaking populations regard Russian nationalism as a bigger potential threat than jihadism. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the richest of the Central Asian states, have publicly distanced themselves from Russia over the war. Along with public expressions of disdain for the violence and support for Ukraines territorial integrity, both countries have sent emergency supplies of food, medicine, clothing, and bedding to Ukraine.

These actions will not have endeared Central Asian countries to Moscow, which has stopped grain and fertilizer exports and may play tough on access to outlets for oil, gas, and other export commodities. But Russia may have a trump card: its historic links to Afghanistan. Soviet support for a communist government in Kabul led to a Russian invasion in 1979 and a 10-year proxy war with the United States that ended with the rise of the Taliban.

Ties persist. In 2020, Russia offered Taliban militants payment to target U.S. and allied troops on the battlefield. Russiaalong with China, Iran, and Pakistanwas one of the few countries to support the Talibans return and is so far the only country to accredit a Taliban diplomat and call for the group to be formally recognized.

Given the increasingly cozy relationship between Russia and the Taliban and the latters marriage of convenience with ISKP, it is likely that Moscow signaled the Taliban to influence ISKP to strike the Central Asians states, said Ali, the security consultant. The endgame, he said, is to quell any flirtation with independence and ensure that the Central Asian states understand the value of Moscows security umbrella.

The Taliban, riven with divisions of their own, are in a tough position to deal with threats from their associates and neighborsand vice versa. China, which could invest in mining and infrastructure, wants the Taliban to deport members of the ETIM, which seeks independence for the Muslim-majority Chinese region of Xinjiang. Ethnic Uzbek and Tajik leaders of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan oppose the deportation of Uyghurs to almost certain execution.

The fear of the northern guys is that if the Taliban are going to throw the Uyghurs under the bus, why wouldnt they throw the Uzbeks under the bus too? Pantucci said. The Taliban need a trade-based relationship with Uzbekistan, which supplies much of Afghanistans electricity.

Thats not the Talibans only problem. Pakistan has been infuriated by the enduring alliance between the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and the Afghan Taliban that Islamabad helped bring back to power. Contrary to Pakistans expectations, the TTP, like Islamist groups the world over, was energized by the Talibans victory.

A January report by the U.S. Institute of Peace said Pakistan had long argued the TTP was largely a byproduct of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan combined with external support from the former Afghan government in cahoots with India and expected its threat would diminish with the Talibans victory. The opposite has happened, with the Taliban enabling TTP attacks on Pakistani military targets. Acting Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqanihimself a sanctioned terroristhas offered to mediate a peace deal.

Pakistani air raids in Afghanistans eastern Khost and Kunar provinces over the weekend killed more than 40 people, Afghan officials said.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
For a man, shaving has become a bonafide ritual. A rite of passage that's been passed down from generation to generation; from father to son, and beyond. Gillette has been a part of this tradition, by grooming men of all ages for as long as we can remember.

With the ever-evolving mindset of the modern man comes changes in their grooming rituals as well. Today, the trends are all about well-groomed beards, subtle yet strong body hair, or perfectly shaven faces. Men have started investing more and more in keeping themselves prim and proper, and we welcome the new era where a man can look and feel his absolute best.

One of the most essential parts of grooming for men is taming their body and facial hair. Whether its trimming and styling or shaping beard, hair removal tools have become an essential part of every mans beauty station. Grooming your beard right means using the right tools. Blades, design and precision are fundamental for a beard that looks good and feels even better .

When it comes to handheld trimmers, men obviously look for a brand that offers them the best-in-class technology and premium quality products that they can rely on. And who better to serve them, than the ever-reliable Gillette? - A mainstay of the shaving industry for generations.

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Braun

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Currently, there are three categories that are moving the market. Whether you want to shave your beard, trim your hair, or get rid of hair down there, here are three product ranges you can choose from:

1) Trimmers & Stylers

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Braun

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Agrolytics Corp has been recognized as the 2021 Midland SmartZone Business of the Year, honoring its technology solution for indoor farming.

Established July 2020, Agrolytics Corp is an agri-tech solution provider of indoor farming technology and data analytics for commercial farmers, nonprofit organizations, and boutique farmers. Their Recipe-based Ecosystem for Agricultural Processes (REAP) technology will help eliminate food shortages by allowing growers to operate closer to the consumer, in secured locations, urban food deserts and extreme climate with a vision to enable any crop to be grown anywhere.

Agrolytics Corp will receive their recognition at the Michigan Celebrates Small Business gala in early May alongside three other Midland County small businesses.

Agrolytics is dedicated to improving Michigans economic landscape by accelerating their innovative technologies, said President + CEO of CMURC Erin Strang. The team really utilized all of the resources available through the MEDC SmartZone network to support the growth of their company - including space, programs and investment."

In 2021, Agrolytics partnered with the Saginaw Youth Development Corporation (YDC) to build an automated indoor farm pilot. The pilot will be the basis for a future, and much larger scale indoor farm, to be built for YDC's Food Scarcity Initiative.

Securing a three-year agreement with YDC was huge for us, said Bob Cummer, President and CEO of Agrolytics. The agreement, valued at greater than $1.2 million, is an opportunity for Agrolytics to install our revolutionary REAP indoor farming ecosystem in several underserved Michigan communities; thus, helping to eliminate food deserts by providing these communities with pesticide-free produce year-round.

The design of the scaled farm demonstration is made possible through SmartZone support services provided by CMURC in partnership with the Midland Business Alliance (MBA). CMURC and the MBA were awarded Business Accelerator Funds (BAF) to provide additional professional services on behalf of client company Agrolytics. The Michigan Celebrates Small Business program is administered by the Michigan Small Business Development Center in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Agrolytics work directly ties in with the YDCs socially focused efforts to impact food insecurity in their community, and is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to solving a critical issue both locally and across the globe! said Nicole Wilson, MBA Vice President of Economic Development.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran resumed talks with regional rival Saudi Arabia months after secret Baghdad-brokered talks were suspended, state-linked media reported Saturday.

The Iranian news website Nournews, considered to be close to the countrys Supreme National Security Council, said a fifth round of talks was held in Baghdad. Ranking security officials from both sides as well as Iraqi and Omani officials, participated it said. It was not immediately clear when the talks took place. The fourth round took place in September.

Nournews reported a positive atmosphere permeated the talks increasing hopes for steps on the path of resumption of ties between the two nations, including a joint meeting of foreign ministers. Nournews also published a photo of two Iranian and Saudi officials standing at the side of Iraqi premier Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Iraq borders both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iran, the largest Shiite Muslim country in the world, and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Angry Iranians protesting the execution stormed two Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, fueling years of animosity between the nations.

In March, Tehran said it temporarily suspend the talks, aimed at defusing yearslong tensions, after Saudi Arabia put to death 81 people convicted of crimes ranging from killings to ties to militant groups. Activists believe more three dozen Shiites were among those executed.

The Baghdad-mediated talks between the regional foes began quietly in Iraqs capital last year as Saudi Arabia sought a way to end its disastrous war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The conflict has spawned one of the worlds worst humanitarian disasters and brought bombs from rebel drones and missiles raining down on Saudi airports and oil facilities.

Saudi Shiites, who live primarily in the kingdoms oil-rich east, have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens. Saudi Arabias executions of Shiites have stirred regional unrest in the past.
MECOSTA COUNTY  Deputies with the Mecosta County Sheriffs Office responded to the following calls April 19-22. All calls may not be reported. All suspects are assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Deputies responded to four car-versus-deer crashes and seven car crashes without injury.

A civil dispute was reported in a residence on 14 Mile Road in Big Rapids Township. Caller reported a male was sitting outside her residence and would not leave her alone. Male said he just wanted to apologize and she wouldn't talk to him.

A report of retail fraud was made at the Paris Dollar General in Green Township. A clerk reported that a male from a prior retail fraud complaint was back stealing. Deputies stopped him in the parking lot, and he allegedly admitted to stealing on three separate occasions. Appearance citation was issued and trespassed.

A traffic stop near Northland Drive and 6 Mile in Aetna Township led to arrest of female for a contempt of court warrant. Vehicle left at residence. Lodged without incident.

Contact with an occupied vehicle near Perry Avenue and the Park-N-Ride resulted in male being arrested for a failure to appear warrant out of 77th district court.

Deputies responded to a three-vehicle personal injury accident near Northland Drive and 17 Mile Road.

A male was cited for littering in Canadian Lakes.

A suspicious person was reported at a laundry mat in the 100 block of South Sheridan Avenue in Remus. A male was arrested for probation violation (possession of alcohol) and lodge at Mecosta County Jail without incident.

A larceny was reported at the Menards in the 14000 block of 215th Avenue. An employee reported that items had been taken from her purse. The suspect allegedly used her debit card in Paris. Case is under investigation.

A traffic stop near 5 Mile and 130th in Deerfield Township for equipment led to driver being issued appearance citation for no license and no insurance. Weeks towed the vehicle.

Turfing was reported at Highlands Woods Park.

A violation of controlled substance act was reported in the 18000 block of 8 Mile Road in Mecosta Township. Deputies arrested a female for possession of meth and probation violation.

A report of threats and unlawful recording in a private place was made in the 11000 block of Apache Wells Court in Morton Township. A female received a screenshot from another female asking if it was her in the picture having sex with a male. The male had filmed their sexual encounter without female's knowledge.

A civil issue was reported in the 21000 block of 3 Mile Road in Aetna Township. A male allegedly used a skid-steer to smooth out some potholes on the easement, then start taking out some pine trees to widen the easement. A neighbor called to complain.

A request was made for a wellbeing check in the 5000 block of South Birch Drive. A male caller said one of his children called him saying they found a meth pipe in their mother's purse. Mother said she does use meth from time to time but denied the pipe.

A domestic issue was reported in the 9000 block of 170th in Austin Township. A female allegedly wanted to evict boyfriend. She claims he pushed her down during a verbal argument. Deputies saw no signs of injury, and both parties separated. Male was served 30 day eviction notice. The case was sent to the prosecutor for review.

A suspicious complaint was made in the 18000 block of Arthur Road regarding spent shell casings in the roadway.

A report involving a juvenile was made in the 6000 block of 2 Mile Road in Hinton Township. According to the deputies, a 17-year-old male reportedly went to work the night before and didn't come home. He did send his mother a text that he was OK, but she couldn't get him to answer his phone now. Deputies were unable to locate him.

A traffic stop for speeding near Jefferson and 230th in Aetna Township led to the driver being issued an appearance ticket for no insurance and improper plate. The plate on 2012 Dodge Caravan belonged to a 2014 Ford F-250, according to the MCSO. Plate was confiscated.

A traffic stop for expired plate near Jefferson and 190th in Aetna Township resulted in driver being issued appearance ticket for no insurance and improper plate. The plate on 2005 Chevy Trailblazer belonged to a 2004 Ford F-150, according to the MCSO. Plate was confiscated.

A suspicious situation was reported near Park Road and Northland Drive. A caller returned home to find a male allegedly hiding behind their shed. No entry was made. Male allegedly said he was a prophet and appeared to be on drugs. EMS transported male to the hospital for a head injury and some confusion. The caller was arrested for an outstanding court warrant.
Folklore Surrounding Lunar Eclipses

In terms of folklore, lunar eclipses have caused fear, inspired curiosity and have been associated with myths, legends and superstitions throughout history and across cultures. Here are 12 examples of folklore and superstitions that weave themselves around lunar eclipses.

1. A popular superstition in India is to avoid eating during an eclipse. Cooking, eating and drinking are avoided during the eclipse period as the food goes "bad" during the eclipse.

2. Some people believe that an eclipse is a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse. Scholars find its source in the Bible. According to Joel 2:31: "The Sun will turn to darkness, and the Moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes."

3. In Tibet, people think that good and bad deeds are multiplied during an eclipse.

4. For the Batammaliba people of Togo and Benin in Western Africa, an eclipse meant that the Sun and Moon are fighting. The Batammaliba people would pray so that the celestial bodies resolve their conflict.

5. In many parts of the world, pregnant women are advised to stay indoors as it is believed that the dark moon will curse the unborn child. They are also not supposed to use knives or sharp metal objects fearing that they will leave a birthmark on the body of the unborn child.

6. In India, it is believed that if you cut yourself during an eclipse you bleed for a longer time and it can leave a scar for a lifetime.

7. The Inca saw an eclipse as an attack on the moon by a jaguar. It was believed that after the moon was attacked, the jaguar would descend on Earth to unleash its wrath. The Inca would make a lot of noise and force their dogs to howl and bark to drive away the eclipse.

8. The Aztecs predicted that if a solar eclipse was accompanied by an earthquake, the world would come to an end. Every year, a ritual human sacrifice would take place to appease the gods and stop the world from ending.

9. The Greeks thought an eclipse meant that the gods would rain down punishment on the king. To save the king from their wrath, a substitute king would be placed instead of the real one. Once the eclipse was over, the substitute king would be executed.

10. In Norse Mythology, sky wolves Hati and Skoll would chase the Sun and the Moon, waiting for Ragnarok. When they would swallow their prey, the sun or the moon, it would mean the destruction of the Viking gods and eternal darkness on Earth. The eclipses were seen as near-misses at Ragnarok.

11. In some Australian aboriginal cultures, an eclipse meant that the Sun and the Moon are having more children. Their children would appear in the night sky as stars.

12. The Kalina of Suriname believed that the Sun and the Moon are siblings and an eclipse meant that one of them knocked the other out.

Source: Mike Murray, Delta College Planetarium manager and astronomer
The Huron Daily Tribune once again presented its Design An Ad contest this year, where students in area schools design ads for area advertisers to be featured.

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Check out the winners below and grab a copy of the weekend edition of the Huron Daily Tribune to see more of the ads that were designed this year.
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PARIS (AP)  From attacks on wokeism to crackdowns on mosques, Frances presidential campaign has been especially challenging for voters of immigrant heritage and religious minorities, as discourse painting them as the other has gained ground across a swath of French society.

French voters head to polls on Sunday in a runoff vote between centrist incumbent Emmanuel Macron and nationalist rival Marine Le Pen, wrapping up a campaign that experts have seen as unusually dominated by discriminatory discourse and proposals targeting immigration and Islam.

With Le Pen proposing to ban Muslim headscarves in public, women like 19-year-old student Naila Ouazarf are in a bind.

I want a president who accepts me as a person, said Ouazarf, clad in a beige robe and matching head covering. She said she would defy the promised law should Le Pen become president and pay a fine, if necessary.

Macron attacked Le Pen on the headscarf issue during their presidential debate Wednesday, warning it could stoke civil war.

In the first-round vote, far-right candidates Le Pen and Eric Zemmour together collected nearly a third of votes. An elementary school teacher in the ethnically diverse Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Thursday described pupils who are scared to death because of the campaign.

Le Pens National Rally party, formerly called the National Front, has a history of ties with neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers and militias that opposed Algerias war for independence from colonial France. Le Pen has distanced herself from that past and softened her public image.

But a top priority of her election program is to prioritize French citizens over immigrants for welfare benefits, a move that critics see as institutionalizing discrimination. Le Pen also wants to ban Muslim women from wearing headscaves in public, to toughen asylum rules and to sharply curtail immigration.

She has gained ground among voters since 2017, when she lost badly to Macron. This time around, Le Pen has put a greater emphasis on policies to help the working poor.

Saint-Denis student Yanis Benahmed, 20, said he was unconvinced by the candidate's attempt to broader her appeal.

We live in this city, and we know exactly how things are, the kind of people you have here," he said. Le Pen "wants to clean everything. With everything shes said and her family history, we know exactly what her plan is. And Zemmour didnt make it any better.

The rabble-rousing Zemmour, who placed fourth in the first-round vote, boosted Le Pen's popularity by making her seem softer. He has multiple convictions for inciting racial or religious hatred in France.

Zemmour also has promoted the baseless great replacement conspiracy theory, used as justification by the white supremacists who committed massacres in New Zealands Christchurch and in El Paso, Texas, and attacked a California synagogue.

Eric Zemmours presence placed the issue (of Islam and immigration) on the side of aggressive and violent stigmatization, Cecile Alduy, a Stanford semiologist who has studied Zemmours language, told The Associated Press. Meanwhile, there is a decline in humanist values: words such as equality, human rights, fight against discrimination, or gender are qualified as politically correct or wokeism by a large swath of media, public intellectuals, and ministers of the current government.

For some experts and anti-racist groups in France, Macron, too, is at fault for the current climate. His administration has adopted legislation and language that echoes some far-right mottos in hopes of eating into Le Pens support.

Racial profiling and police brutality targeting people of color, which activists in France have long decried, have also remained a concern. During Macron's presidency, France saw repeated protests against police violence after George Floyd, a Black American, died at the hands of police in the U.S.

Also under Macron's watch, France passed a law against terrorism that enshrined in common law a state of emergency imposed after the deadly 2015 attacks on the Bataclan theater, Paris cafes and Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

The law extended the governments right to search people, conduct surveillance, control movement and shut down some schools and religious sites in the name of fighting extremism.

Human rights watchdogs warned the law was discriminatory. In some cases, Muslims may have been targeted because of their religious practice, considered to be radical, by authorities, without substantiating why they constituted a threat for public order or security, Amnesty International said.

In 2021, the government passed another law targeting what Macron labeled separatism by Muslim radicals. The measure extended the states oversight of associations and religious sites. The governments own watchdog argued that the laws scope was too broad.

Abdourahmane Ridouane has seen this firsthand. In February, two police officers handed him a notice of closure for the mosque he manages in the southwestern town of Pessac in Bordeaux wine country.

Authorities argued the mosques criticism of state Islamophobia allegedly encouraged and justified Muslim rebellion and terrorism. The authorities also criticized anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian posts on the mosque's social media page.

Ridouane challenged the action and won on appeal. The appeals court found the closure was a grave and manifest illegal infringement on religious liberty. The state took the case to Frances highest court, which is expected to rule in the case soon.

I felt deeply saddened by a process I deemed unworthy of a democratic state, Ridouane told the AP.

Islam is France's No. 2 religion, though there are no hard data on the races and religions of voters because of France's doctrine of colorblindness, which sees all citizens as universally French and encourages assimilation. Critics say the principle allows authorities to ignore deep-seated discrimination, both on the French mainland and in overseas French territories where most voters arent white.

France has also seen the rise of criticism of Islamo-leftism and wokeism, and Macrons government has commissioned a study into its presence in French universities. Yet race or colonial studies research departments don't exist in French universities, because they are seen as contrary to French universalism.

The election comes in this climate, the increasing right-wing and conservative discourse, a retreat into a white, universalist, colorblind discourse blind to all discriminations and systemic racism in French society, said Nacira Guenif, an anthropology and sociology professor at Paris VIII University who focuses on race and gender.

On the left, meanwhile, denial prevails, Guenif said, because many left-wing French voters are profoundly uncomfortable with the question of race because they think that talking about race makes you racist.

The criticism of so-called wokeism, championed in particular by Zemmours campaign, is reminiscent of attacks on critical race theory in the U.S. Critical race theory is an academic framework that analyzes American history through the lens of racism. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions, which maintain the dominance of white people.

Despite concerns over some of the policies adopted in France under Macron, Ridouane, the Pessac mosque director, has no doubt for whom he will - and for whom he won't - cast his vote for president on Sunday.

If Le Pen manages to take the levers of power, it will be the worst thing we will have ever seen, he said.

___

Elaine Ganley in Paris and Sylvie Corbet and Alex Turnbull in Saint-Denis contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022
MIDDLETOWN  Recent visitors to Middletown City Hall are finding themselves drawn toward a second-floor office, lured by a mysterious purple-blue glow.

The light emanates from a saltwater reef tank filled with exotic fish, other creatures and vegetation. This newly installed six-gallon aquarium at the Land Use Department has since become a veritable attraction for those of all ages.

Every element of the tank is alive, Middletown Environmental Planner James Sipperly said.

Not only do the mushrooms, snails, coral, baby star and other fish draw in workers in need of a mental break, those waiting for services no longer complain about the wait, he said.

One day, someone came up with an idea to bring a fishbowl into the office to place on the counter for the public. The idea was to give citizens something to watch while waiting to get plans, maps or other records, Sipperly explained.

It never materialized, Sipperly said. However, as people discussed the idea more, he thought bigger might be better.

A fish in a fishbowl, like a beta fish, isnt really going to do too much, he said. So why not a whole tank?

Now, members of the public will wander in  not necessarily to conduct business, but rather, to gaze at the microcosm of marine life, Sipperly said. When they have questions, we educate them about the vegetation and the corals and live anemone.

It gives them the opportunity to pass the time looking at the display, Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski said. Its also a great conversation starter as people admire the fish, and talk about the fish they have now or used to. Weve heard some good stories.

Both men paid for the aquarium themselves, at a cost of about $800, Sipperly said. No city funds were used for the project, besides electricity to run the pump.

Stephen Cocco, owner of Aquascapes in Portland, who installed the tank, is offering his maintenance services pro bono. His clients include Mohegan Sun, Sipperly said.

Cocco stops by once a month to inspect the tank and change out a third of the water.

When children stop by City Hall with their parents, Kozikowski said, staff are more than pleased to offer a chair so they can get an up-close look.

Inevitably, kids are delighted to see the two clown fish and two Royal Blue Tang, which they instantly identify as Nemo and Dory from the Disney movie.

Its the cutest thing, Sipperly said. People are so grateful that we allowed their kids to come in. They love it.

Now, staff in other departments want the same for their offices, he added. In fact, Sipperly said, three of those who checked out the setup took Coccos business card and have had similar aquariums installed in their own homes.

Some municipal workers that stop by end up lingering a bit, saying, I needed this. Can I stay here and de-stress a little bit?  including the mayor and chief of staff, Sipperly explained.

We tell other staff if they need a mental break for a few minutes to come down and stare at the tank for a while, Kozikowski said.

Land use workers put food into the tank at the same time every day. We train them. We put our hand over it, and they actually almost jump out of the water a little bit knowing theyre going to get fed. City employees know 3 oclock is feeding time, Sipperly said with a laugh.

Many stop by for five or 10 minutes to enjoy the experience.

The tank has an added benefit, Sipperly said. Sometimes it takes staff a while to find records people are seeking, and folks can get impatient at how long it takes. Now, Sipperly said, they dont mind the wait one bit.

As soon as the first few flakes fall down the tank, the shrimp-in-residence scurries out from its hiding place, tentacles all aflutter, eager to be first.

The office is usually a quiet one, so the new sounds of the filter and pump and people being able to watch marine life playing in the water is a welcome change, Kozikowski added.

Everything has a nice movement, Sipperly said. Theres tons of color, you can see the current, everything is waving and the fish are swimming. Its very, very soothing.

Were hoping to provide this little public service benefit for staff and the public. It makes the office feel friendlier and inviting, Kozikowski said. Its been great for morale.

His department handles regulatory matters, so any chance we can make it more fun and brighter in the office, we do, Kozikowski said.

The Land Use department is located on the second floor of City Hall, at 245 deKoven Drive.
HADDAM  An 85-year-old man died after a house fire in Haddam Thursday afternoon, according to state police.

The Connecticut State Police Fire and Investigation Unit was called to help investigate a fire at a home on Plains Road in Haddam around 3 p.m.

While fighting the fire, the Haddam Fire Department and other first responders searched the home and found 85-year-old Donald Thody.

First responders got Thody out of the home and gave him treatment. He was then taken to Middlesex Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified Thodys immediate cause of death as smoke inhalation, thermal injuries and other significant conditions.

Police said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but There is no apparent criminal aspect at this time.
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TULSA, Okla. (AP)  A man whose attorney said he fatally shot a Tulsa police sergeant and wounded another because he feared for his life during a traffic stop was convicted of murder Friday.

A Tulsa County jury deliberated about three hours before convicting David Anthony Ware, 34, in the death of Sgt. Craig Johnson and wounding of Officer Aurash Zarkeshan. Ware faces a possible death sentence when that phase of the trial begins Monday.

In closing arguments, Wares attorney, Kevin Adams, again showed jurors a still photograph taken from a police video in which Johnson is seen kicking Ware during the traffic stop early on June 29, 2020. Adams argued that Ware feared for his life because the officers beat, kicked, pepper-sprayed and shot him with a stun gun.

With those actions, police stop being a law enforcement officer and become a lawbreaker, Adams told jurors.

However, prosecutor Kevin Gray told jurors that Ware brought the violence on himself by refusing to comply with officers' instructions and resisting.

He deprived Sgt. Johnson of his unalienable right to life, Gray told the jury.

Gray had told jurors during opening statements that Zarkeshan pulled Ware over about 3 a.m. after he saw him run a stop sign and take a wide turn into another lane of traffic. Ware then failed to produce a drivers license or proof of insurance when Zarkeshan asked him to provide those documents, Gray said.

Zarkeshan testified that he had not watched video of the shooting because I dont want to see myself or my friend be shot.

Adams told jurors during closing arguments, You guys have done something that most members of the Tulsa Police Department havent: You watched the video.

Matthew Hall was convicted of being an accessory to a felony for driving Ware from the scene after the shooting.
You may have heard a law made sexual harassment illegal in the military, but what does that mean?

Sexual assault has always been illegal under Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- Rape and Sexual Assault. Rather than made illegal by their own article, cases of sexual harassment were instead broadly covered under Article 134. Otherwise known as the General Article, it criminalizes "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, [and] all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."

Related: Biden Order Elevates Sexual Harassment as Separate Military Crime After Guillen Murder

A law signed by President Joe Biden in early 2022 changed that. Public Law 117-81, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, contains language making sexual harassment a stand-alone crime under the UCMJ. This new law defined and codified sexual harassment, making it illegal under a new subsection of Article 134.

Background

The most recent Workplace and Gender Relations Survey found that in fiscal year 2019, 6,236 service members reported being sexually assaulted, a 3% increase from 2018. A 2020 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members was postponed due to COVID-19.

While sexual assault and sexual harassment are related problems, sexual harassment in the military has not been consistently tracked. However, in 2019, the military reported 1,021 sexual harassment complaints, up 10% from the previous year. On Jan. 26, 2022, Biden signed an executive order, updating the Manual for Courts-Martial to include sexual harassment as a crime, as directed by Public Law 117-81.

New Law Makes Sexual Harassment a Crime In Military

The 2022 law defines sexual harassment as "conduct in which a person knowingly makes unwelcome sexual advances, demands or requests for sexual favors, or knowingly engages in other conduct of a sexual nature."

That includes sexual conduct that would lead a reasonable person to believe submitting to is:

A term or condition of that person's job, pay, career, benefits or entitlements;

Used as a basis for decisions affecting that person's job, pay, career, benefits or entitlements;

So severe, repetitive or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

This conduct is also such that it has the potential to disrupt good military order or bring discredit upon the military.

Current Sexual Assault Reporting Process

According to the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), active-duty members subjected to sexual assault in the military currently have two options for reporting the crime: restricted reporting and unrestricted reporting.

Restricted Reporting

Restricted reporting is confidential. The victim may report the crime to their sexual assault response coordinator (SARC), sexual assault prevention and response victim advocate (SAPR VA) or health-care providers, according to SAPRO.

Confidential restricted reporting can ensure the victim receives health care, advocacy services and legal advice without notifying command or law enforcement officials. The command will be notified that "an assault" has occurred and provided very limited details that do not include the identity of the victim, SAPRO says.

The restricted reporting option does not trigger an investigation, and as a result, the alleged perpetrator will not be investigated or charged. The victim must also return to their workplace as normal; even if it means working with the person who allegedly assaulted them, they will not receive any victim protections, such as a military restraining order or reassignment of themselves or their attacker to a different command or location. However, the victim will have the option of reporting their alleged attacker to the CATCH program, an anonymous program designed to track and capture serial offenders.

A restricted report allows the victim to report the crime to specially trained personnel who help them receive health care, advocacy services and legal advice without notifying command or law enforcement officials. This policy provides victims some personal space and time as well as increased control over the release and management of their personal information; it is intended to empower them to seek relevant information and support to understand exactly what is involved in a criminal investigation.

A member may change their restricted report to an unrestricted report at any time if they wish to proceed with criminal charges.

Unrestricted Reporting

Unlike restricted reporting, unrestricted reporting immediately triggers an official investigation.

According to SAPRO, this option is recommended for victims of sexual assault who desire an official investigation and command notification in addition to health care, victim advocacy and legal services. When selecting unrestricted reporting, one should use current reporting channels including:

Law enforcement

Chain of command

Sexual assault response coordinator (SARC)

SAPR victim advocate (SAPR VA)

Health-care personnel

Unrestricted reporting triggers a full-blown criminal investigation. Evidence will be gathered, interviews will commence and the victim may be assigned a designated special victims' counsel to serve as their attorney, according to SAPRO. Even though that process could be very difficult, this option allows the victim to receive protection from their assailant and opens the door for prosecution of the offender. Unrestricted reporting also opens the possibility of expedited transfer to a new command and protection services for the victim.

New Rules for Reporting Sexual Harassment

The law also created a new independent investigation system for sexual harassment incidents; however, this portion of the law will not be effective until January 2024.

According to the law, within 72 hours of receiving a sexual harassment complaint, the commanding officer must forward the complaint to the newly formed independent investigative team. The commanding officer must also forward the formal complaint or a detailed description to the next superior officer in the chain of command. The local command is blocked by law from participating in any aspects of the investigation, or possible legal action resulting from the complaint.

The law also dictates that the independent investigative board complete their investigation within 14 days.

It is unclear if DoD will apply this new investigative board rule to cases of sexual assault as well as sexual harassment.

Conclusion

While sexual harassment is now formally illegal under the UCMJ, there is no servicewide documented procedure for safe and anonymous reporting of it, like there exists for sexual assault.

Although some branches have begun moving all sexual harassment case investigations and judicial authority outside of the chai-of-command of the affected parties, the new external independent investigative system for sexual harassment incidents is not mandated to be operational until late 2023.

See: Congress Pushes to Remove Sexual Harassment Prosecutions from Chain of Command

Until then, victims of sexual harassment will either have to rely on their local command to take action, or submit a complaint of sexual assault using current regulations if physical contact occurred.

Victims of sexual assault can also contact the Safe Helpline, a secure, confidential and anonymous crisis support service specially designed for members of the military community affected by sexual assault. The Safe Helpline is available via a mobile app or on any electronic device. It lists military, civilian, religious and law enforcement contacts to assist victims of sexual assault.

Know All Your Legal Rights and Benefits

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Editor's Note: This story includes details of an alleged sexual assault.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Maj. Gen. William Cooley, the first Air Force general to ever face a military trial, was found guilty Saturday of forcibly kissing his sister-in-law during a family barbecue in 2018.

Military judge Col. Christina Jimenez ruled Cooley, the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, was guilty of the count, and he now faces the possibility of seven years' confinement, separation and loss of pay and benefits during a sentencing hearing on Monday.

He was found not guilty on two additional counts that included allegations he groped the victim at the get-together. The case was decided by the judge, rather than a jury, at Cooley's request. The general also declined to testify in his own defense during days of court-martial hearings this week that included testimony from the victim and the general's brother.

Read Next: VA Unveils New Plan to House LA's Homeless Veterans, Falls Flat with Advocacy Groups

The sister-in-law, in a statement read by her lawyer, Ryan Guilds, as she teared up while standing behind the assembled reporters, expressed hope that the verdict means coming forward "won't be this difficult for the next survivor."

"Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer is finally being held accountable for his heinous actions," she said in the statement.

Invoking the soldier killed at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2020 after being sexually harassed, the sister-in-law added that "Vanessa Guillen's spirit has been with me on this journey, and while this process has been incredibly invasive not only for me but also my immediate family and closest friends, I know there are countless other people who have been silenced forever, like Vanessa, so staying silent was simply never an option."

Cooley's case marked the first time criminal charges against an Air Force general officer reached a court-martial. The case came as the Pentagon attempts to stamp out sexual assault in the ranks after years of failing efforts, as well as congressional pressure on the military to better combat sexual violence.

Congress recently mandated changes to the military justice system that will give independent prosecutors the decision to prosecute sex crimes rather than commanders, a change lawmakers and advocates hope will result in more prosecutions.

In a written statement after the verdict was handed down, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Arnold Bunch said the trial demonstrated the service's "commitment to prevent sexual assault, protect victims and take appropriate action against offenders when it occurs."

Before Jimenez's ruling, the prosecution and defense on Friday meticulously laid out their cases in nearly three hours of closing arguments.

In the prosecution's telling, Cooley -- his inhibitions lowered after a night of drinking at a family barbecue and thinking of himself as "so important" he could do whatever he wanted -- acted on years of fantasies and tried to force himself on his sister-in-law. She alleges that, during a brief car ride after the party, he tried to yank her hand over his crotch and then, when they were back in her garage, pushed her into the car window, forcibly kissed her, put his hand on her breast and then moved his hand to between her legs.

"Some may ask, why didn't [she] scream out to her husband when she got out of the car? Why didn't she scream about what happened? Why didn't she yell for help?" said Lt. Col. Matthew Neil, who delivered the closing argument for the prosecution. "Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to judge her now, but nobody knows how they're going to react in that situation until they are faced with it."

Prosecutors pointed to a note Cooley wrote to his sister-in-law and brother, as well as emails he wrote to himself and later deleted, where he appeared to admit what happened.

In the note, Cooley wrote that he "hurt" his brother and sister-in-law for his "own selfish ego" and was "stunned by his own deplorable actions."

"He also says in that ... email, 'I saw that alone time with [his sister-in-law], albeit short, was an opportunity to expand my conquests with an attractive woman,'" Neil said.

Neil also highlighted testimony from family friends who were at the barbecue, as well as testimony from the sister-in-law's priest, who said she told them about the incident a couple weeks later and appeared distressed while doing so. The priest's testimony was particularly important, Neil argued, because it was a one-on-one meeting without her husband present and she "had no reason to go to a member of the clergy and tell him something that's not true."

The defense's case rested largely on a voicemail the sister-in-law left Cooley two days after the alleged incident in which she said her husband "knows we kissed."

Prosecutors argued that statement says nothing about whether she consented.

"She didn't ask for it, she didn't want it, and this voicemail doesn't say she did," Neil said. "It was [her] effort to show grace."

But the defense argued the voicemail proved the only thing that happened in the car was a consensual kiss.

"This case begins and ends with this voicemail," said Maj. Shea Hoxie, who delivered the closing argument for the defense. The sister-in-law "said on the stand that her biggest regret in this case was that voicemail. That is her biggest regret in this case because she accidentally memorialized the truth."

In the defense's telling, the sister-in-law concocted the allegations of sexual assault because, after her marriage nearly fell apart in 2016 when her husband cheated on her, she was fearful of his reaction to finding out she and his brother consensually kissed.

The defense also argued the sister-in-law and brother, who is a civilian Air Force employee, were worried about his career and so "gaslit" Cooley into adopting their version of events.

The sister-in-law, Hoxie concluded, was intent on "destroying Maj. Gen. Cooley's life. But she can't delete that voicemail. She can't delete the truth."

Cooley did not testify in his own defense, and his lawyers called no witnesses to the stand. As court started Friday, Jimenez asked Cooley whether it was his personal decision not to testify, to which he replied, "Yes, your honor."

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: Air Force General Tried for Sex Assault Will Not Testify as Court-Martial Nears an End
H.E. Alhaji Said Sinare has said the 2024 elections will be based on the economic situation of Ghanaians.

The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper, Benjamin Emmanuel Ephson has predicted doom for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should it lose in the next general elections.

According to him, the NDC losing the election in 2024 would be a huge blow to the party, dampen morale and possibly lead to the partys downfall.

"The NDC will implode if they lose the election in 2024," he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.

But the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) says the NDC will win the 2024 elections, but that victory could elude the party if former President John Dramani Mahama leads it as flagbearer.

Reacting to the EIU report in a Facebook post on Thursday, April 21, the national vice chairman, H.E. Alhaji Said Sinare said, "Ghanaians are fed up with these bare-bones stories that lack serious foundational principles."

He continued that Ghanaians are only waiting for their Savior, the NDC under John Dramani Mahama to return and no amount of sponsored publications will be enough this time to torture the minds of the discerning Ghanaians.

According to him, pollsters have started using the name of former President John Dramani Mahama to resurrect and revitalize their porous and collapsing intelligence units, considering the fact that the majority of this country has lost faith in their sponsored election polls.

He added that they should rather use their poll platforms to publish reports that would enlighten the good people of Ghana about how the insensitive Nana/Bawumia-led NPP government has crippled sensitive sectors of the economy and brought untold hardships to the ordinary people of this country.

Read his full statement below:

The good people of this country will vote based on their economic circumstances, not on polls conducted by paid pollsters working assiduously to favor the interests of their paymasters.

Ghanaians are fed up with these bare-bones stories that lack serious foundational principles.

They intend to use the name of Ghana's next president, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, to resurrect and revitalize their porous and collapsing intelligence units, considering the fact that the majority of this country has lost faith in their sponsored election polls.

They should rather use their poll platforms to publish reports that would enlighten the good people of Ghana about how the insensitive Nana/Bawumia-led NPP government has crippled sensitive sectors of the economy and brought untold hardships to the ordinary people of this country.

Ghanaians are only waiting for their Savior, the great NDC through H.E. John Dramani Mahama, to return, and no amount of sponsored publications will be enough this time to torture the minds of discerning Ghanaians.

#EnoughisEnough
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday assigned himself the power to appoint the head of the electoral commission, further extending his power grab months ahead of critical polls.

Critics of Saied say he wants to create a tame electoral commission ahead of a referendum slated for July on constitutional reforms, and legislative elections due in December.

Saied, according to an official decree, will now have the power to name three of the seven members of the electoral commission, known by its acronym ISIE, including its president.

The former law professor, elected in 2019 amid public anger against the political class, sacked the government on July 25 last year.

He also froze parliament and seized wide-ranging powers, and later moved to rule by decree in moves opponents have dubbed a "coup".

The election commission, created in 2012, has currently nine members with its president appointed by parliament.

Saied dissolved parliament last month, dealing another blow to the political system in place since the North African country's 2011 revolt which sparked the Arab Spring.

ISIE's current president, Nabil Baffoun, is a critic of Saied and has warned that any change in the commission composition by presidential decree would be "unlawful".

Last month, Saied inaugurated a "temporary" council of judges to replace an independent watchdog he abolished as he seized sweeping powers over the judiciary.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Nedbank Corporate Property Finance commits funding and acquires stake in the new R450 million Newmarket Value Centre in Alberton.



Nedbank Corporate Property Finance has bought a stake in the R450 million Newmarket Value Centre in Alberton  another sign of financier bullishness about the South African property market, particularly the retail sector.

The bank commited funding and entered into a partnership with Rejem Property Development (Pty) Ltd and Style Star Investments (Pty) Ltd to develop the retail centre.

As part of the greater Newmarket Park mixed-use development, being undertaken by Rejem and Linton, the 34 000 m value centre boasts tenants such as Builders Warehouse, Virgin Active, Food Lovers Market and Checkers Hypermarket.

Restaurants include Spur, John Dory, Panarottis and Mugg & Bean. The centre is expected to open in October 2015.

The transaction has been made possible through a joint venture between Nedbank Corporate Property Finances investment arm (acting through Linton Projects (Pty) Ltd), Rejem and Style Star, a division of the Moolman Group. Linton Projects and Rejem jointly own 56% of the undivided shares in the project, while Style Star owns the remaining 44%.



Ken Reynolds, regional executive: Nedbank Corporate Property Finance for Gauteng says that the centre is being designed to become an 80 000 m regional shopping centre in time.

The development site is the old Newmarket racecourse, and Newmarket Park is a 77.3 hectare property south-east of the Alberton CBD. It is surrounded by well established residential areas and there is scope for major development in this node," he said.

Reynolds added that the bank financed and holds an equity stake in the Makro that opened on the site in April last year, making the value centre our second development in the park so far.



Rejem Property Development and the Moolman Group have strong reputations in property development, with sound knowledge and experience, and Nedbank Corporate Property Finance is proud to partner with these trusted and successful developers once again, he said.

We have established a close relationship with both parties and will continue to be a dependable partner that not only provides agile solutions but also equity partnerships where appropriate. Our continued collaboration with strong developers, as well as our equity stake in developments such as this one highlight why Nedbank continues lead the market in realising property opportunities, concludes Reynolds.
As France heads to the polls this Sunday for the second round of the presidential election, with incumbent Emmanuel Macron facing a strong challenge from far-right contender Marine Le Pen, Paris Perspective looks at the rise of populism in France and how it might effect international relations, particularly with the United States.

Since the beginning of Putin's war in Ukraine, NATO, the transatlantic alliance founded to contain any war on the European continent, has been resurrected as Washington's bulwark against Russian aggression.

Only recently, President Macron called the organisation "brain dead". Le Pen called it a "Cold War relic" and the entire organisation was facing an existential threat until the Ukraine invasion.

Now NATO has invited itself back into the presidential debate, and become a focal point of the foreign policy platforms of each candidate.

If she were to win the French presidency, Marine Le Pen says Paris would repeat France's 1966 move of leaving NATO's integrated military command all while adhering to its key article 5 on mutual protection.

Once the war in Ukraine comes to an end, she says, there should be a "strategic rapprochement" between NATO and Russia.

A French exit would essentially withdraw the only EU nuclear power from the command structure of the US-led military alliance of 30 countries.

State of play between France and the United States

As France looked "across the pond" during the United States 2020 presidential elections, many were expecting a massive re-set in relations between traditional European allies and the White House when Joe Biden beat the mercurial Donald Trump, but that didn't really happen.

The world looked aghast at Biden's shambolic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, and France had a diplomatic meltdown in August 2021 when a submarine deal with Australia was undercut by a US-UK nuclear deal, the so-called AUKUS fiasco.

So eight months later, and a potential reset of France's agenda in the Elysee Palace in play, how do relations stand between Paris and Washington?

"They're be going pretty well in everyone's opinion," says Robert James Oliver, political analyst and active member of Republicans in France.

"Just a few months ago we had the Vice President Kamala Harris visiting Paris. But relationships aren't necessarily between countries as much as they are between the individuals running them. With somebody like Biden he's not all that offensive."

However, the seismic shift in international diplomacy and the rejuvenation of traditional alliances didn't happen, and the last 18 months have seen the Biden administration maintaining the status quo on US foreign policy.

Oliver says that it's not exactly the status quo inherited from the Trump presidency but the transatlantic relationship is a bit warmer than it was.

"I would say that's because of the personalities that are involved. The United States has come out of a long period of apologising to the rest of the world. People in the US want their jobs back. So they are still "America First" and there are still people who don't believe that they should have to give up everything for for a foreign country."

Despite EU concerns, the USA calls the shots

Despite the shuttle diplomacy prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine - spearheaded by President Macron - the European Union was quite unsettled by being side-lined by both Washington and Moscow in the negotiations.

Was that a calculated snub from the Biden administration to the technocrats in Brussels or just normal US foreign policy tactics when dealing with Putin?

Oliver believes it's a little bit of everything. "You have the European Union, which is about 400 million people scattered through 27 states, some sharing a currency, some not. Each state is a sovereign country with its own its own military force - NATO is an amalgamation of them."

"The United States, which is individual states, under one sovereign government under one currency that's guaranteed by the federal government,is different.

"Who guarantees the EU? What is it backed up by? It's the same thing with NATO. What's backing up NATO? NATO is essentially 400 million people in Europe plus 350 million in the United States, with the United States being a far stronger power, with atomic weapons."

So when it comes to dealing with potential aggressors, Washington will lay claim to have the upper hand in negotiations.

"NATO was created by the United States so that wars would be contained in Europe," Oliver underlines.

So if France were to pull out of NATO's military command, as suggested by Marine Le Pen, how would that wash with Washington?

"You mean if France were to pull out again?" Oliver laughs. "And so France is back in NATO. Really? Can we have our next discussion at the French NATO base here in France? Can we have our discussion there? Because I don't think we're going to find it!"

The political analyst believes that France's role in NATO remains hazy.

"We don't know what kind of a player France is in NATO. They've been very supportive militarily. But in actually stepping up to the plate, that's questionable."

Unlike the Norwegians who are very much involved, and have been since the end of World War Two.

"I was recently in Norway in September," Oliver explains "and I saw their exercises and what they do. They showed me one of the fjords where they have sonar plates to specifically catch the Russians when they sneak in. So they're a very, very strong ally."

"Today we have this situation where Europe is forced to defend Europe with the backing of NATO once again. But the whole [Ukraine invasion] is backfiring on Putin rather than weakening Europe.

"He's actually strengthened it with countries that never before wanted to be a part of NATO like Finland actually speaking about joining", Oliver says.

Political repercussions

Following her comments on NATO and her continued Euroskepticism, if Marine Le Pen manages to unseat Macron, how would her rise to power be greeted by the Biden administration?

"I don't know how similar Trump and Le Pen are today! To tell you the truth I'm not sure she will unseat Macron but if she does, you still have a congress, you still have a parliament here in France - a very strong parliament.

"It's doubtful she'll get everything she wishes for, but she will scare the daylights out of people for a while! Her image is not a good one in the world," Oliver asserts.

However, will the rise of far-right populism in France have any effect on the Trumpist factions of US society in the run-up to mid-term elections in November?

For Oliver you first have to distinguish between the politicians running Washington and the average person in the street.

"When you start to talk about the average guy in the street, they don't know anything about French politics.

"The people on the street understand France from a perspective, when there's an issue of whether France is on our side or not on our side", says Oliver. When France refused to join the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, "there were people in front of the French Embassy on Fifth Avenue, pouring bottles of French wine down the drain. We were laughing with friends while taking a French class then at Alliance Francais," quips Oliver.

"These people are so stupid! They already bought the wine, why didn't they just drink it and not buy anymore?"

Any lessons learned from Trump and Brexit?

When it comes to the French electorate, many are asking how the far-right has risen so far in the polls, despite the brutal lessons learned after four years of Donald Trump in the White House.

For Oliver, a lot of Le Pen's rhetoric is "hot air". Following the lines of Brexiteer Nigel Farage won't work for Le Pen, when she mentions "restructuring" the European Union as an association of sovereign states.

"We can see the similarities, but will Le Pen actually pull out of the EU?" Oliver questions.

No matter who wins the election on Sunday, Franco-US relations will remain top of the presidential agenda over the next five years. Oliver says that underlining France's support for the United States remains central to everything, and is more important than France's internal politics.

"Brexit had no effect on Americans. If you're going to fly on a family vacation to London, you're still going to pay in pounds, whether or not England is part of the EU," says Oliver.

"But NATO would be something Americans would pay a lot of attention to, as they did when De Gaulle took them out in the 1960s. That would be a shock," concludes Oliver.

And making sure that France and the US are still on the same page when it comes to tackling Russia or any threat to NATO would be paramount.

Watch full video here.

Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.

Recorded and edited by Vincent Pora and Erwan Rome

Robert James Oliver is a political analyst and active member of Republicans in France based in Paris.
Niger MPs on Friday voted in favour of allowing the deployment of foreign forces fighting jihadists in the impoverished Sahel nation.

After several hours of debate, the members of parliament voted 131 in favour and 31 against.

Some activists have been campaigning against the presence of foreign troops, branding them occupiers who threaten national sovereignty.

However, the outcome of the vote was in little doubt with the parliament in Niamey totally dominated by allies of President Mohamed Bazoum.

Niger has the support of several Western countries in its battle against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked jihadists, including the United States and France, which have military bases in the capital and the Agadez region in the north.

"Entering into new partnerships in no way calls into question our sovereignty over the national territory," said Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.

The agreed text "unequivocally indicates the openness of our country to conclude alliances" against jihadists, he said.

Niger "is practically surrounded by armed terrorist groups", the head of government said.

He also referred to the ongoing withdrawal of the French anti-jihadist Barkhane force and the smaller Takuba force of European special forces from neighbouring Mali.

Two jihadist insurgencies

The prime minister opened the door to increased collaboration with France, in particular.

According to the government document handed to MPs and seen by AFP, the current situation requires Niger and other countries to commit to "an effective fight against terrorism, in the framework of bilateral or multilateral cooperation, either current or in the future."

"The special forces of friendly countries will be deployed... (and) installed on the territories of members of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) facing the threat."

These include Benin, Ghana, Niger and Ivory, the document stated.

US and French special forces are already operational in Niger, which has declared itself ready to host more. But their possible deployment in the other countries has not been officially mentioned previously.

According to the document, in Niger, "which already houses foreign troops bases, new sites will be set up nearer the theatres of operation" in Mali, where multiple jihadist groups operate.

"The locations and operational methods" of these forces will be discussed with Niger's military hierarchy, it stated.

There was opposition to the parliamentary vote on Friday, but it failed to carry the day.

"We cannot give the government a blank check," said opposition parliamentarian Soumana Sanda, while another mentioned "grey areas".

France is reconfiguring its anti-jihadist forces in the Sahel after its relationship with Mali broke down following a military coup in August 2020.

Germany, which runs a logistics outpost in Niamey, has set up a centre close to the border with Mali to train Nigerien special forces. Italy and Canada are also involved in special forces training.

Niger. By AFP

The poorest country in the world according to the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing two jihadist insurgencies.

One is unfurling in the southwest of the country, coming from neighbouring Mali, while the other is in the southeast, from Nigeria.

Criticism of the presence of foreign forces prompted Bazoum to announce in February that he would ask parliament to agree on any new "arrangements" with foreign partners to tackle the jihadists.
The network of more than 30 biological laboratories with the financial and organizational support of the United States engaged in research work on the study of deadly pathogens and viruses was deployed on the territory of Ukraine after 2014. The customer of the work carried out is the Office of Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the US Department of Defense.

The work was carried out in three main directions. The biological situation in the proposed areas of deployment of military contingents of NATO member countries was monitored. On a regular basis, the collection and export of strains of dangerous microorganisms to the United States was carried out. Research work was carried out to study potential biological weapons agents specific to this region, which have natural foci and are capable of being transmitted to humans.

In February 2022, employees of these laboratories handed over documentary materials indicating that the Americans had urgently cleaned up traces of a military biological program being implemented in Ukraine, funded by the US Department of Defense. It became known that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has set a task to destroy the bioagents in the laboratories. This circumstance confirms that Washington and Kiev seriously feared that irrefutable evidence of practical work to enhance the pathogenic properties of microorganisms using synthetic biology methods would fall into the hands of foreign experts. This activity is a violation of the International Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons.

The project codenamed UP-4 is of the greatest interest in this regard. The purpose of this study was to identify bird diseases that pose the greatest danger to humans and have the maximum potential to destabilize the epidemiological situation in a particular region in a limited period of time. In addition, during the work, scientists identified the places of the largest concentration of birds, where it would be possible to infect the entire flock with a particularly dangerous pathogen and then import them to friendly countries.

Conducting such studies may indicate that American and Ukrainian military biologists intended to use birds as a means of delivering weapons of mass destruction. This approach is one of the most reckless, inhumane and extremely irresponsible methods of warfare. After launching such a living weapon its creators will inevitably lose control over it, and the epidemic can spread over large territories in a matter of days. Of particular concern is the fact that experiments like the UP-4 project are being conducted near densely populated areas of European countries that are considered allies of the United States, whose security, however, is clearly neglected by American partners.

Ukrainian scientists regularly transferred samples of biomaterials to interested persons and organizations abroad. The samples sent include not only carriers of diseases (fleas, etc.), but also blood serum of representatives of the Slavic ethnic group. This circumstance indicates that specialists of American biological laboratories in Ukraine conducted a study of the effects of pathogens on people, taking into account racial and ethnic factors. This may indicate the Pentagon's interest in developing selective biological weapons aimed at individual ethnic groups (ethnic weapons).

In addition to the United States, Germany has its own military biological programs on the territory of Ukraine. Their goal is to study the potential of deadly diseases, such as Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, in the conditions of Eastern Europe. Thus, within the framework of this work, the German Institute of Tropical Medicine named after B.Nocht organized cooperation with the public Health center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, during which the Ukrainian side undertook to supply blood samples of Slavic ethnos from different regions of the country. Along with this, German specialists regularly visited Ukrainian hospitals in Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv, where they personally got acquainted with the peculiarities of the course of diseases in the local population. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bundeswehr funded the project.

The actions of Germany, previously unknown to the general public, pose the same threat as the biological experiments of the United States and require detailed study.

The disclosure of documents on the activities of the biological laboratories of the United States in Ukraine produced the effect of an exploding bomb in the international information space. US Deputy Secretary of State V. Nuland at Congressional hearings was forced to admit the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine but rejected accusations of developing prohibited types of weapons of mass destruction in them. Against this background, the representative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, expressed serious concern about the inhumane nature of the American military biological program and demanded that Washington disclose information about its goals, objectives and content, and also took the initiative to organize international inspections at US military biological facilities. Conservative American media demanded the immediate closure of all US biological laboratories abroad.

The published documents indisputably testify to the development of a new type of biological weapons by the United States in Ukrainian laboratories.

The US military-biological activity in Ukraine violates the Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons and is a direct threat to biological security for the states of Central and Eastern Europe.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, 22nd April 2022, commissioned the Atlantic Life Sciences Ltd, a company operating under Governments 1-District-1-Factory initiative.

Speaking at the commissioning, President Akufo-Addo stated that the ceremony is in further fulfilment of the promise by Government, in partnership with the private sector, to set up at least one medium to large scale enterprise in every district of Ghana.

According to the President Whilst previous attempts at rural economic revitalisation in Ghana have focused mainly on the provision of physical infrastructural facilities, the One-District-One-Factory Programme focuses on the promotion of commercially viable business ventures, to generate sustainable and accelerated economic development for rural communities.

He stated that Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd., with the support of Government in 2017, has established this new facility in the healthcare sector, engaged in the manufacture of vaccines, anti-snake serums, eye drops, inhalation anaesthesia products, syrups, tablets, and capsules, in Larkpleku, under the One District One Factory (1D1F) Programme.

It is the one hundred and seventh (107th) factory completed and operating under the 1D1F initiative, out of the two hundred and seventy-eight (278) enterprises being established and rehabilitated across the country, and I congratulate the promoters and management of the company for taking advantage of this Programme, he said.

President Akufo-Addo was happy to note that the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with Ghana EXIM Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, has since 2017 supported this company to benefit from the 1D1F Programme.

Out of the total investment for the project, which is estimated at thirty-five million dollars (US$35 million), Ghana Exim Bank provided a credit facility to the tune of ten million dollars ($10 million) for the procurement of plant, equipment, and machinery.

This, according to the President, underscores the kind of support given by Government to the private sector to take advantage of economic opportunities in the country.

President Akufo-Addo was pleased to learn that this new factory is generating some three hundred and eighty (380) direct jobs, and, when fully operational, will generate additional direct employment for some four hundred (400) workers. In addition, the facility is expected to create a total of two thousand, five hundred (2,500) indirect jobs.

He commended the collaborative work, between the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Health, Ghana Exim Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Food and Drugs Authority, Traditional Authorities, and foreign partners of the company, for providing the requisite support towards the establishment of the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
Guinea's ousted president Alpha Conde is "finally free" and can receive visitors, the junta who overthrew him has said.

Conde became Guinea's first democratically elected president in 2010, but the 84-year-old was deposed by army officers last year and replaced by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.

He was allowed to go to the United Arab Emirates for medical treatment in January, coming back to Guinea on April 10.

His party, Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) has said that he was not truly free before or after his trip, and demanded his "total and unconditional freedom,".

To back up its call, the RPG suspended its participation at a junta-organised national reconciliation conference in protest at his detention.

A statement by the junta published late Friday said that Doumbouya "informs national and international opinion that the former president of the republic is finally free".

"While continuing to benefit from adequate protection, he can receive on demand members of his biological and political family, friends and close ones," it said.

The statement said Conde will stay at his wife's house in the capital Conakry until his own private house is constructed in the suburb of Kipe.

"The dignity and integrality of professor Alpha Conde will always be preserved," the statement said.

The coup followed fierce protests over Conde's successful bid for a third term in office -- which critics said breached the constitution.

Doumbouya, who has been sworn in as interim president, has promised to restore civilian rule, but resisted international pressure to commit to a date.
France on Saturday prepared to choose between centrist President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen. The winner of Sunday's runoff will rule the country for the next five years after a bitterly contested and divisive election campaign.

Macron is the favourite to win re-election in the decisive second-round ballot on Sunday, and there are indications he bolstered his advantage with a combative performance in Wednesday's televised debate against a defensive Le Pen.

But the president and his allies have insisted over the last week that nothing is in the bag, with a strong turnout crucial to avoid a shock in France comparable to the 2016 polls that led to Brexit in Britain and the rise to power of Donald Trump in the United States.

A Le Pen victory would also send shockwaves across Europe. Left-wing EU leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have pleaded with France to choose Macron over his rival.

Campaign blackout in force

Saturday is marked by a campaign blackout, with no campaigning allowed and no more polls published.

Macron and Le Pen threw themselves into a final flurry of campaigning Friday, firing off attacks in interviews before last-minute walkabouts and rallies.

Le Pen insisted that opinion polls giving Macron the lead would be proved wrong and took aim at her rival's plan to push the retirement age to 65 from 62.

Macron for his part said Le Pen was trying to mask an authoritarian "extreme right" platform that stigmatises Muslims with her plan to outlaw headscarves in public.

Analysts say abstention rates could reach 25 to 30 percent, in particular among left-wing voters unhappy with Macron's pro-business agenda, not least his tax cuts for businesses and the highest earners.

Spring school holidays will also be in full swing across much of the country this weekend, increasing the chances that many voters will not cast ballots.

No clear help from Melenchon

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who scored a close third-place finish in the first-round vote on 10 April, has refused to allow Macron an easy ride by pointedly refusing to urge his millions of followers to back the president while insisting they must not cast a single vote for Le Pen.

Polls have shown Macron with a lead of some 10 percentage points.

The result is predicted to be closer than in 2017, when the same candidates faced off and Macron carried the day with 66 percent to 34 percent.
Madina Member of Parliament (MP), Hon. Francis Xavier Sosu wants processes for the decoupling of the office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice to be fast-tracked.

According to the Parliamentarian, Judicial power and administration of Justice must be independent of each other and definitely not subject to public advise of the AG.

The AG, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame has received several criticisms for calling for severe sanctions against lawyers who take to social media to lambast judges after unfavourable judgments.

Reacting to Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dames pronouncements, Hon. Francis Xavier Sosu has advised the AG to stay away from the judiciary.

In a statement, the Madina MP insists that the Rule of Law is seriously endangered under the current government.

According to him, the posturing and public statements of the Attorney General who is the Principal Legal Advisor to the Government only feed into the perceptions that the AG is in bed with the Judiciary.

As Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, I am more convinced that we must fast track the decoupling of the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice. While this will not necessarily completely remove the tendency of collusions, it will be the most reasonably probable way of reducing such duplicity, Francis Xavier Sosu notes in his statement.

He further charge lawyers to stand firm and not be afraid of threats.

Read the statement from the Madina MP below:

Rule of Law is seriously endangered under this administration and unfortunately the posturing and public statements of the Attorney General who is the Principal Legal advisor to Government only feeds into the perceptions that the AG is in bed with the Judiciary.

Let me advise the AG to stay away from the Judiciary. Judicial power and administration of Justice must be independent and impartial and definitely not subject to the public advise of the AG.

Justice emanates from the people and the people have fundamental rights under the 1992 Constitutional to hold the Judiciary accountable through mainstream media and social media which ever may be applicable. The people do that through strict scrutiny of judgments and actions of the Judiciary. As such, every lawyer owes a duty to the Constitution of Ghana to be loyal to the Constitution and RULE OF LAW.

LAWYERS MUST DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND RULE OF LAW AND NOT THE JUDICIARY. Our Loyalty as Lawyers must be to the Rule of Law. There are ways the Courts deal with matters and persons whose actions are scandalous of the courts but an action which is scandalous of the Courts are matters of fact and not of mere expression of partisan views and positions on the Judiciary.

For us to have effective Justice and confidence in the justice system, we must rather be advising all Institutions of State particularly institutions of Justice such as The Ghana Police Service, Attorney General and Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary to assert and reaffirm their constitutional independence not only in words but also in actions.

As Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, I am more convinced that we must fast track the decoupling of the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice. While this will not necessarily completely remove the tendency of collusions, it will be the most reasonably probable way of reducing such duplicity.

No Lawyer must be afraid of these threats. Fear not if you are a true Apostle of the Rule of Law. Persevere with Justice For All; Injustice to None.
The Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Western Region, Mr. Charles Bissue says the party will be guided by the forecast of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ahead of the 2024 general elections.

In the five-year forecast of the EIU, it predicted that the ruling NPP government will be kicked out in the next election.

Our baseline forecast is that ongoing public dissatisfaction with the slow pace of improvements in governancesuch as infrastructure development, job creation and easing of corruptionwill trigger anti-incumbency factors and push the electorate to seek a change. The NDC, therefore, stands a reasonable chance of winning the 2024 elections, the EIU said in its latest forecast.

Reacting to the projection in an interview on TV3 on Saturday, April 23, 3033, Mr. Charles Bissue says the NPP will use it to its advantage by ensuring it puts in more effort.

He said he has no doubt that once the Ghanaian economy bounces back before the next general elections, the NPP will defy the projections of EIU.

This EIU report will help us to work on ourselves. If the economy bounces back we will be fine, Charles Bissue said on the Key Points programme.

Despite predicting victory for the NDC, the EIU forecast adds that the largest opposition party will have a higher chance if its restrategises and goes into the next general election with a different flagbearer other than former President John Dramani Mahama.
23.04.2022 LISTEN

Something bizarre was stated on April 14, 2022, during a digital White House Convening on Equity seminar. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra of the USA said, By the way, we know that vaccines are killing people of color  blacks, Latinos, indigenous people  at about two times the rate of white Americans.

I watched the aforementioned video this week. Jumping to my feet, I shouted to my spouse, What did he just say? Is this a joke? Did he mean to say that? What is going on? Did the Biden administration tell him to say that? This is horrendous. Did he misspeak? Was it a gaffe? The host did not interrupt him with a correction. But Becerra continued the conversation and returned to hailing the vaccine as the solution to the coronavirus.

In September 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos for ABCs This Week news program. When Obama misspoke and said he was a Muslim instead of a Christian, the host interrupted. Obama corrected himself.

Being confused and baffled, I searched the internet for an update that stated HHS Secretary Becerra made a Freudian slip of the tongue. None was forthcoming.

I searched the HHS website. On Feb 8, 2022  HHS Secretary Becerra gave remarks at the Health Affairs Journal Virtual Symposium on Racism and Health. Becerra stated, COVID-19 has killed Black Americans, Latinos and Indigenous Americans at two times the rate as White Americans.

So, I am assuming Becerra made a mistake and said vaccines when he meant COVID-19.

Where is mainstream media? I could only find information about Becerras initial statement on the following websites:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/OgjNcnZua4Gr/

https://nworeport.me/2022/04/20/vax-ethnic-cleansing-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-confirms-vaccines-are-killing-blacks-and-latinos-at-two-times-the-rate-of-white-americans/

https://doctorbob.com/2022/04/22/vax-ethnic-cleansing-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-confirms-vaccines-are-killing-blacks-and-latinos-at-two-times-the-rate-of-white-americans/

https://www.onenewspage.com/n/Health/1zobamv7a6/VAX-ETHNIC-CLEANSING-HHS-Secretary-Xavier-Becerra-confirms.htm

https://www.survivethenews.com/hhs-secretary-becerra-claims-covid-vaccines-kill-people-of-color-at-twice-the-rate-of-whites-vows-to-work-harder-to-get-more-people-vacc/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/hhs-secretary-becerra-claims-covid-vaccines-kill-people-color-twice-rate-whites-vows-work-harder-get-people-vaccinated/

The Miami Standard newspaper at https://miamistandard.news/2022/04/19/vax-ethnic-cleansing-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-confirms-vaccines-are-killing-blacks-and-latinos-at-two-times-the-rate-of-white-americans/ picked up the story from Natural News: He confirmed what weve been warning about since day one of the vaccine depopulation drive: People of Color are being killed by covid vaccines at a much higher rate than WhitesPut another way, the experimental gene therapy injections called vaccines are depopulation weapons targeting all of humanity, but they disproportionately kill far more Blacks and Latinos on a per-capita basis. Visit www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-19-vax-ethnic-cleansing-hhs-secretary-becerra-confirms-vaccines-are-killing-blacks-and-latinos.html.

Again, I ask: Why hasnt the Biden administration made an official response that HHS Secretary Becerra made a slip of the tongue?

Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is a syndicated opinion-editorial columnist. She lives in USA.
23.04.2022 LISTEN

Visits to Honiara, part plea, part threat. Delegations equipped with a note of harassment. That was the initial Australian effort to convince the Solomon Islands that the decision to make a security pact with Beijing was simply not appropriate in the lotus land of Washingtons Pacific empire.

Despite an election campaign warming up, Senator Zed Seselja found time to tell Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare that Australia remained dedicated to supporting the security needs of the Solomon Islands, and would do so swiftly, transparently and with full respect for its sovereignty. The Pacific country remained a friend, part of the Pacific family. He went on to respectfully urge the Solomon Islands to reject the security pact with China and consult the Pacific family in the spirit of regional openness and transparency, consistent with our regions security frameworks.

Having not convinced Honiara to change course, a range of reactions are being registered. David Llewellyn-Smith, former owner of the Asia Pacific foreign affairs journal The Diplomat, took leave of his senses by suggesting that a Chinese naval base in the Solomons would see the effective end of our sovereignty and democracy. In a spray of hysteria, he suggested that this was Australias Cuban missile crisis.

The Labor opposition, desperate to win office on May 21, are calling this one of the greatest intelligence failures since the Second World War, which perhaps shows their somewhat tenuous command of history. Their leader, Anthony Albanese, seeking some safe mooring in a campaign that has lacked lustre, was particularly strident. It was a chance to show that Labor was not shaky or wobbly on national security. The security agreement between China and the Solomons is a massive failure of our foreign policy, stated the opposition leader as he campaigned in Bomaderry in southern New South Wales. We are closer here today to the Solomon Islands than we are to Perth. That shows how strategic they are to Australia.

This belligerent, simple note might have been stronger were it not for the fact that his deputy, Richard Marles, had previously made the unpopular suggestion that the Pacific islands were somehow sovereign entities who needed to be treated as such while China, in providing development assistance to them, should be welcome in offering it. The goons of the Rupert Murdoch roundtable capitalised, hoping to find a Chinese Red under Marless bed.

Scratching for electoral gains, Labor thought that it was inappropriate to have sent the junior minister, as if that would have made much of a difference. Foreign Minister Marise Payne, it was said, should have been flown in to bully those misguided savages into submission.

In Australia, the message being fanned is that the deputy  in this case, Canberra  failed in the task, leaving it to the United States to come in and hold up what seemed like a sinking ship of strategy. The United States very much relies upon Australia and sees Australia as playing that key role in the Indo-Pacific, lamented Albanese. Australia and Scott Morrison have gone missing.

The Morrison government poured water on such criticism by suggesting a fair share of oriental deviousness at play. Not only had the likes of Defence Minister Peter Dutton been advised by the intelligence fraternity to keep matters tame in terms of attacking the security pact; the agreement was the product of bribery. On radio, Dutton responded to a question from 3AW host Neil Mitchell about the suggestion. You asked the question about bribery and corruption  we dont pay off, we dont bribe people, and the Chinese certainly do.

This clean linen view of Australian conduct is fabulously ignorant, ignoring such inglorious chapters as the oil-for-food scandal which saw the Australian Wheat Board pay $300 million in kickbacks between 1999 and 2004 to the Iraq regime via Alia, a Jordanian trucking company. These bribing arrangements, which breached UN Security Council sanctions imposed after Baghdads invasion of Kuwait in 1991, were unmasked in 2005.

With Australia failing to change minds, the paladins of the US imperium prepared to badger and bore Honiara. On the list: President Joe Bidens National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink; and National Security Affairs Indo-Pacific chief Kurt Campbell. It seemed like an absurd gathering of heft for a small Pacific Island state.

The theme was unmistakable. A bullying tone was struck in a message from National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, who seemed to forget the Solomons was not some ramshackle protectorate of the Five Eyes. Officials from the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia had shared concerns about [the] proposed security framework between the Solomon Islands and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and its serious risks to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

At the Washington Post, Henry Olsen was trying to speak home truths about an empire facing rust and decline. The unipolar world that came into being after the demise of the Soviet Union had ended. Our adversaries can fight back, and they are increasingly using every means at their disposal to push back against American influence.

He went on to put focus upon the thin stretch of territory in the Pacific that has exercised so many in Washington and Canberra. Lose too many places such as the Solomon Islands, and the threat will start to get uncomfortably close to home. It was more prudent to spend big and push outward now rather than to be boxed into a corner later. In other words, more bribery, the very thing tut-tutted by Dutton, was needed.

As for the Solomon Islands itself, divided, fragmented and vulnerable to internal dissent and disagreement, Sogavare is unrepentant. When a helpless mouse is cornered by vicious cats it will do anything to survive. He has already told his countrys parliament that there is no intention to ask China to build a military base in Solomon Islands. He felt insulted by such suggestions and felt that there was only one side to pick: our national security interest.

His confidant and former prime minister Danny Philip also reminded critics barking about the lack of transparency over the Sino-Solomon Islands deal that they should know better. People in Australia know very little about Pine Gap in the middle of the desert, the military base of the United States. There were agreements that open up all major ports in Australia that are not being seen by all the citizens of that country.

Unfortunately for the government in Honiara, thoughts of invasion and pre-emptive action on the part of Australia, possibly with aid from the United States, cannot be ruled out. Instead of being parked in an asylum of inoffensive obscurity, pundits such as Llewellyn-Smith are encouraging invasion and conquest. Australia, he advocates in a refreshing burst of honest blood-filled jingoism, should invade and capture Guadalcanal such that we engineer regime change in Honiara.

Sovereignty for the Pacific was always a qualified concept for those exercising true naval power, and US-Australian conduct in recent weeks has made an utter nonsense of it. At least some cavalier types are willing to own up to it.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: [email protected]
Hollywood star Will Smith was spotted at the Mumbai airport on Saturday. Reports say Smith is in India to meet spiritual leader Sadhguru, following the incident at the Oscars where he slapped Chris Rock onstage, leading to speculation over his personal life.

Smith was seen interacting and laughing with people around.

'The Pursuit of Happyness' actor hit the headlines because of the incident at the Oscars where he assaulted comedian Chris Rock after the latter made fun of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head.

Post that Smith has been banned from attending any Academy event for the next 10 years, including the Oscars. He had won the Best Actor award for 'King Richard'.

A picture showed Will Smith at the airport in Mumbai. As per reports, he is staying at the JW Marriott Hotel in Juhu.

The actor has visited India on several occasions. He last came in 2019 for the shooting of his reality show 'The Bucket List'. He also visited Haridwar and took part in the 'Ganga Aarti'.

After the slap incident, Will also took to Instagram to apologise to Chris.

He wrote: "Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally."

Post the incident, his visit to India has assumed significance in light of reports of Smith's marital troubles.
23.04.2022 LISTEN

The Duke and Duchess of Wessex canceled the trip to the Caribbean on short notice. Islanders expressed their grievances over the involvement of the Royal family and the Monarchy as an institution during the time of slavery. Tribes in Namibia demand from Germany a huge lump sum for healing of the wounds caused by Colonial Germany. Ukraine starts calculating the cost of war inflicted on the nation by Russia including the cost of five million refugees for which in Germany German taxpayers have to pay  3500 monthly for the ones that have made it to us so far (over 250.000 x 3500=  875 million monthly).

The Roman Empire, the Osman Empire, the China Ming Dynasty, Napoleon Bonaparte wars in Europe, the war of the Achemenidian Empire, the Ashanti Empire in West Africa, and e.g. war against the Fantes 1806-07, Alexander the Great invasion of nations, the Holy Roman Empire of German descent wars, the Spanish invasion of South America, the European settlers taking lands by war from the natives in the lands, raise the important question whether or not aggressors need to be held morally and financially accountable for their action, how this must be calculated, can be enforced and when it can be seen as unrealistic but most painful to an old or new nation.

In ancient times nobody thought seriously of reparation even feeling the loss and pain as individuals or nations. The world consistently has become smaller and closer during the past few generations to is called globalization. The term includes the fact that countries cannot run away but are inclined even closer these modern days. Unlike humans that can separate from each other for good by getting divorced.

Germany has not asked France to pay reparation for the destruction by Napoleon's army, nor did Russia or other European countries. The successors of Alexander the Great, we were not asked by Egypt, India, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq to pay reparation. In ancient times and later war was regarded as another means of politics and not something to be held morally and financially to account.

The wars of the nineteenth century have not seen demands for reparation in peace treaties. The dancing Congress of 1815 in Vienna decided on the new structure of Europe after ousting Napoleon to his final exile from the continent.

World War I started to see a change in the thinking of relationships between occupied nations and aggressors be it in the framework of Colonialism or war for dominion over neighbors or taking territories inside nations by various fractions. World War II and the formation of the United Nations extended a change in the attitude toward the issue. (Germany paid reparation as set out in the peace treaty.)

The USA has still not compensated the native Indians for the harm caused regardless of promises made nor e.g. paid for the cost of the Iraq, Vietnam War, or Afghanistan wars caused on the foreign nations. It must be seen whether or not Russia will pay for preparation to Ukraine for damage to the nation.

Is anyone in for a bet with me for a bar of chocolate that Russia will refuse to pay? My take is: that they will laugh about any such idea. Does anyone have another view on it?
23.04.2022 LISTEN

If one is born in a country without a vigorous literary tradition, one's contribution to the political and social history of the country can, at best, be only half-acknowledged by its intelligentsia.

Such was the case with the late Mr Justice R S Blay, former Judge of the Supreme Court and a member of the two most important commissions set up by the British colonialist to draw up recommendations on the constitutional changes necessary for transforming the Gold Coast into an independent Ghana.

These Commissions were the Watson Commission (1948) and the Coussey Commission (1949.) Before being appointed a member of both Commissions, R S Blay had not only achieved enormous success in private practice as a lawyer, but also, he had been elected a member of the Gold Coast Legislative Council.

He was also one of the few Ghanaians appointed by the British to be a High Court judge.

But spectacular as these achievements were, it was Blay's role in helping to found the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) that marks him out as one of the most intelligent and courageous statesmen Ghana has ever produced.

For although he was obviously respected by the colonial government of the Gold Coast (as evidenced by his appointment to two such important Commissions as Watson and Coussey) he nevertheless became a founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC)  a body that made no secret of its wish to bury British rule in the Gold Coast!

Blay was, in fact, the third founding member of the UGCC, and its first Vice-Chairman. Since the chair of the organisation, Pa Grant, was not as well versed in legal and political matters as Blay was, Blay could be said to have been one of the leading lights of the UGCC (alongside the organisation's other brilliant lawyers, Dr J B Danquah/ Mr Edward Akufo-Addo and Mr E Ako Adjei.)

But ironically, R S Blay is never mentioned as a member of the UGCC's Big Six! What happened?

The reason Blay is that Blay was not arrested and detained with the rest of the Big Six. For the British colonial authorities did NOT think it prudent to arrest and detain him, like they did to the others!

You see, Blay was a very poplar lawyer in Sekondi-Takoradi, who not only represented the municipality in the Legislative Council, but was also, the man to whom the politically-conscious urban workers and market women turned for rescue, whenever they fell foul of British law.

So, at the time the arrests of UGCC leaders were being carried out in 1948 (following the strikes and riots that occurred after the shooting to death, by a British policeman, of Sergeant Adjetey and two other ex-servicemen at the Chistiansborg Crossroads in Accra) workers and market women threw a cordon around the premises of R S Blay, in Sekondi-Takoradi.

They sang and danced in a provocative manner, daring the authorities to come and break their crowd up! The British, aware that the port and railway workers (as well as the market traders in Sekondi-Takoradi) were more militant than their counterparts elsewhere, left them alone. Meanwhile, Blay, who had packed a suitcase, ready and waiting at home to be arrested, waited in vain. The British had decided that a one-day house arrest was enough for him!

But in denying Blay an arrest, the British had, unwittingly, done Blay the greatest harm by erasing his name from the list of the heroes of Ghana's struggle for independence! For Ghana should have had a BigSeven to honour as heroes, not just a Big Six! And, as far as I know, no-one has bothered to set the record straight!

But Ghanaian history had not finished with selling R S Blay short! After independence, Blay was appointed a Supreme Court Judge  in 1962. But the man who appointed him, President Kwame Nkrumah, got annoyed with Blay when the latter sent him a strong protest, following Nkrumah's dismissal of the Chief Justice of the time, Sir Arku Korsah and two other Supreme Court judges (Mr Justice Van Lare,and Mr Justice Edward Akufo-Addo) for acquitting a former Minister of Information, Mr Tawia Adamafio and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr E Ako Adjei (and others) who had been charged with attempting to assassinate President Kwame Nkrumah, at Kulungugu in August 1962.

Nkrumah sacked Blay (along with another Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Kofi Adumua Bossman, who had also protested against the dismissal of the Chief Justice.) Blay was short-changed by history a second time because  although the dismissal of Sir Arku Korsah and the two other Supreme Court judges is well reported in the legal annals of Ghana, the dismissal of Blay and Bossman for protesting against that legal aberration, is seldom mentioned.

Yet it's of great significance, in that it was one of the few times in Ghana when men in high office had risked their jobs by protesting against the actions of higher authority against their colleagues.

Robert Samuel Blay was born in April 1901 at Esiama in the Western Region. In 1920, he went to study law at the University of London and was called to the bar in June, 1926. It was as a student in London that he became active in politics, serving as an executive member of the West African Students Union.

On his return to Ghana in 1926, Robert joined the Aborigines Rights Protection Society. He later became a founding member and the first Vice-Chair of the United Gold Coast Convention.

Among RS Blay's children (with hus wife, Diana) is Mrs Mary Chinery Hesse, former ambassador and now Chancellor of the University of Ghana. The owner of Daily Guide Media, Mr Freddy Blay, is his nephew.

R S Blay died in December 1979. Ghana has neglected him long enough and must make amend as soon aas possible.
23.04.2022 LISTEN

Air Vice Marshal Michael Appiah-Agyekum, Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Administration of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), has advised journalists to desist from publishing news that will compromise national security.

"We need to get to the point where no respectable news organisation has any interest in endangering soldiers or intelligence agents so that the national security is not compromised," he said.

The Air Vice-Marshal gave the advice at the inauguration of the Defence Press Corps (DPC) in Accra.

The occasion was also used to elect and swear in an executive body to manage the corps.

Air Vice-Marshal Appiah-Agyekum said the GAF and the media were two critical actors that must work together for national development, stressing that a good media-military relationship is vital for a sustainable democracy.

He, therefore, urged the DPC to collaborate closely with GAF to develop strategies for enhancing mutual understanding.

Mr Roland Affail Monney, President, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), said the inauguration of the DPC would promote subject-related reporting.

He urged journalists to perform their duty with utmost professionalism and competence to promote national cohesion.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Kofi Ampeah-Woode, Dean of DPC, appealed to GAF to take care of the Corps' welfare issues, and train members to appreciate the efforts of the Military in promoting national security.

He expressed the commitment of members of the corps to professionalism and responsible journalism.

In attendance were representatives from the Judiciary, WASH, Parliament, and Prisons press corps.

Mr Monney swore in the five-member executive body made up of Mr Kofi Ampeah-Woode (Dean), Mrs Linda Tenyah Ayettey (Vice Dean), Ms Bernice Bessey (Secretary), Ms Christiana Afua Nyarko (Treasurer) and Mr Jackson Kwabena Adu (Organiser).

GNA
Two people, Friday, got drowned in a dam at Agortornugbeve, a farming community near Tadzewu in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region.

The deceased, Hovey Wovenu, popularly known as 'Torgbui' and Etse Wovenu, also known as 'Sugar,' both in their 40s died in the dam.

Mr Ameku Vincent, an eyewitness told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) they left home Friday morning to visit their farm after which his two uncles (now deceased) decided to bathe in the dam.

He said Hovey made the first attempt to bathe in the dam, where he was seen moving deeper and, in an attempt, to rescue him both brothers drowned in the dam.

Mr Adjei William, another eyewitness, whose farm is around the same area, disclosed to the GNA that he was spraying his farm when an alarm was raised to rescue them.

I quickly moved into the dam to search for them, but all to no avail so we called for help from community members, he said.

He added that the duo remained drowned for close to two hours before their dead bodies were found by a search party.

Mr Meli Attipoe, the Assemblymember for the area, told the GNA the incident occurred around 1240 hours on Friday.

He said a team of Police officers were at the scene and later moved the bodies for further examination at the Akatsi Municipal Hospital.

Deceased bodies are currently at the St. Paul's Hospital morgue at Akatsi awaiting autopsy.

The Police at Tadzewu is yet to comment on the matter when GNA sought confirmation.

GNA
23.04.2022 LISTEN

The final funeral rites of the 24-year-old Immigration officer, Michael Otoo, who was shot dead by unknown assailants at Kokoligu, a village between Nandom and Hamile in the Upper West Region has been performed in Accra.

The funeral rites, which were observed at Bishop Alleyn Zion church in Accra, had family, friends, sympathizers, and the top hierarchy of the immigration service in attendance.

Some friends and family members shared some fond memories of Michael Otoo with Citi News.

Michael was very charitable, he was always willing to share the little he had with others. He also had a cheerful countenance. He was the life of the party, a friend shared.

Michael was very hard-working and meticulous, I recall how he would always walk around with a red and blue pen in his side pocket. We are heartbroken, but we console ourselves with the hope that he is resting peacefully in the bosom of the Father.

Meanwhile, the late Michael Otoo, who died in the line of duty, has been promoted posthumously from AICO1 to ICO.

Crime scene experts from the Ghana Police Service, Defence Intelligence operatives, and other security personnel have been deployed to the Upper Region to investigate the circumstances under which AICO Michael Otoo was shot dead.

---citinewsroom
The Spanish Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Jose Javier Gutierrez Blanco-Navarrete has paid a courtesy call on the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command (WNC) who also doubles as the 2 Garrison Commander, Commodore Samuel Walker on Wednesday 20 April 2022.

The visit was to reinforce the cooperation between the Ghana Navy and Spain through the European Union (EU) with regard to maritime security and defence, as the EU was committed to the stability of the Gulf of Guinea.

According to the Ambassador, Ghana remained a top priority when it comes to maritime security because of her achievements in democracy and regional stability.

He mentioned that the Brussels and European Union Member States Capitals were working on their reinforcement strategies to support the Yaounde Maritime Architecture.

He added that, they had analysed an initiative in Brussels where an assessment would be made to determine the best way to implement the initiative in the field of intelligence and maintenance for vessels as well as technical assistance in capacity building which will strengthen the maritime security and defence to enable it fight maritime threats and terrorism.

H.E Blanco-Navarrete reiterated that with the berthing of Spanish Naval Ship Serviola P.71 at the WNC, it was an opportunity for them to cooperate with the Ghana Navy in the fight against maritime threats, know their challenges, and how best they could be supported.

He said there was a good opportunity for Ghana in the context of the EU cooperation with the Yaounde Architecture because, Ghana had the capacity and will, to play a leading role and also benefit from the European Union schemes.

He added that, in as much as maritime security was a key priority of the EU, the geopolitical changes in some parts of the world were an opportunity for them to promote investment and build a strong partnership with Ghana.

On his part, the FOC expressed his joy to have received the Ambassador and his entourage at the Base and their interest in finding out the challenges that confronted the Ghana Navy.

He said, maritime safety and security was not an individual issue but an international one which needed the cooperation of all countries concerned.

He noted that it was a brilliant idea for Spain to bring their vessel to the shores of the Western Naval Command to engage them on maritime safety and security in order to get first-hand information on what pertains on the ground.

Commodore Walker expressed their readiness to work with Spain in terms of maritime safety and security and hailed the Yaounde Architecture with the hope that gradual conscientisation and awareness will bring realism to the architecture and its execution, which would help enhance maritime safety and security.

He also called for a capacity-building programme for the naval personnel and other stakeholders in the maritime security domain.

He noted that Ghana was non-aligned to any specific country and was, therefore, ready to work and cooperate with any country as far as maritime safety and security were concerned.

He presented a plaque to the Ambassador as a sign of appreciation.

The FOC led the Ambassador and his entourage to the Paramount Chief of the Essikado Traditional Area, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, where they were received customarily.

Nana Nketsia was hopeful that the cooperation between the two countries and their interaction on maritime safety and security will be enhanced to enable them fight against maritime threats within the sub-region.

The Ambassador also presented a plaque to the Chief as a sign of appreciation.

The Ambassador was accompanied by the Deputy Head of Spanish Embassy, Mrs Maria Higon Valasco, Captain of the Spain Naval Ship Serviola, Lieutenant Commander Joaquin Pita Da Veiga and Executive Officer, Lt Manuel Castro Rodriguez.
Mr. Samuel Fletcher, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Volta River Authority (VRA) has disclosed that the activities of mechanics, welders, and other artisan workers who operate within the VRA pathway pose a danger to the entire country should there be a blast.

Mr. Fletcher further added that the gas pipeline that aids in the supply of electricity to the public and for industrial purposes could be affected by the constant existence of the encroachers under the pylons.

He said the authority has, therefore, intensified efforts to evict the encroachers on its right of way within some Communities in Tema Newton, KponeKatamanso, and its adjoining communities.

This was disclosed during a stakeholders meeting held at the VRA Tema Thermal Power Complex (TTPC), which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) at Kpone.

He added that the situation has become a National Security issue and needed to be tackled with some sense of urgency adding that the least mistake by the encroachers could spell doom for the entire country which could plunge the nation back to the days of Dumsor.

The VRA CSR Manager again hinted that it was the responsibility of the various key players in the energy sector to protect lives and properties and to ensure nothing impedes the supply of power for public and commercial consumption.

Mr. Fletcher again opined that the sensitization process to have the squatters and the mechanics relocate to different places began long ago saying that the compulsory eviction exercise could commence by May 2022 in Tema Newton and would be replicated in other communities where such hazardous activities have been identified.

Present at the meeting were heads of the various security services, representatives from the Traditional Authorities, officials from Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA) amongst some important dignitaries in the energy sector.
The African Continental Common Currency (ACCC) Agenda, must start now! Your currency is your economic power, Africa must develop its own currency, Dr. Chris Kpodar, President of Solomon Investment Ghana Limited has stated in Tema.

Dr Kpodar an Artificial Intelligence Expert, therefore, call on the African Union (AU) to champion the struggle for African Economic Independence through ACCC Agenda, you cannot depend on other currencies to transact business.

He said the use of Dollars, Euro, Pounds, and CFA respectively by African Anglophones and Francophones was an indication of their strings attached to their former colonial masters who were still controlling their affairs through the usage of money, it is time to achieve economic independence.

Dr Kpodar was speaking on the topic: The justification for African Continental Common Currency backed by resources, not by dollar, at the Ghana News Agency-Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue.

The GNA Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world and address global issues which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

He noted that African countries must start setting the pillars for the ACCC Agenda.

He indicated that when Africa gets its common currency which would be also backed by its many natural resources they would be properly empowered economically and developmentally.

The President of Solomon Investment Ghana Limited observed that if Ghana and the other African countries could come together as a community, as they have many precious resources, they could have a competitive and comparative advantage over the Western countries that were currently dominating the world because of their currencies.

He noted, however, that the current group of African leaders and governments lacks the individual country power to push through with the ACCC agenda to replace other foreign currencies which dominate trading even from African-country-to-African-country trading based.

Dr. Kpodar, who is also a Chief Technical Advisor for the Centre for Greater Impact Africa (CGIA) said it would be difficult for a common currency vision for Africa to be achieved by the current leaders of the various countries as the will and commitment to do so was not available.

On the whole, there isnt much hope for the present people who are in power, currently most of them have to go before we can do better; in general, we need a new generation that is putting pressure because the dreams of our fathers were not achieved by our leaders, he stressed.

He added that another problem was that the AU itself as an organ, was not functioning well as its activities were still being financed by the foreign countries, therefore, it was difficult to formulate policies that would affect those countries.

As to whether civil society groups and academia could also push for the ACCC Agenda implementation, Dr. Kpodar said, the intelligential and the rest had become too civilized to take up the place that their forbearers took, as they knew the risk of life so much that they were not ready to die for their countries or the continent.

He stated that the younger ones needed to be taught to be patriotic instead of being nationalistic if the continent wants to have a common currency backed by its resources.

He emphasized that We shouldnt be nationalistic but rather patriotism, the love for humankind and dying for the right is gone, so its the young ones we need to give that sensitization to. The older generation has lost it along the line and it is due to what is being imposed on us to adopt.

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager, touted the promotion of the African Continental Common Currency Agenda which would ignite the true transformation from the political to the economic independence of African Countries.

He noted that it is time for Africans to start another struggle for economic independence, our forefathers fought for political independence, the struggle for true independence was truncated with the freedom euphoria.

The current leaders must work out and champion another mass struggle for economic independence that is the only way for the African Continent to enjoy total liberation.

He, therefore, stressed the need to upscale the discussion on the ACCC Agenda across the African States and challenged the AU to create the enabling topics around the issues to generate interest.

Mr. Ameyibor also urged the political, academic, and economic classes as well as the civil society organizations, religious leaders, and the media to galvanize the necessary discourse on the ACCC Agenda.
Ms. Alice Wairimu Nderitu was appointed the Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide about a year ago. Since then, she has traversed several continents in her efforts to help prevent genocides. As the world commemorates 28 years since the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Africa Renewals Zipporah Musau caught up with Ms. Nderitu for an interview. Here are excerpts:

What exactly is the role of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide?

First, thank you for inviting me to this interview, especially now because April is a very special month for my Office. On 7 April we commemorate Kwibuka  to remember the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

It is also a special day for us because my office was created on 7 April 2004, the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi.

This Office was created with a mandate to advance the prevention of genocide. My specific role is to act as a mechanism of early warning. I analyze information and assess risks, based on my office's Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, a Tool for Prevention. I assess the risks of genocide, from looking at serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, of ethnic and racial origin that, if not prevented or halted, might lead to genocide. In specific circumstances where information is limited or not available, I undertake field missions to consolidate analysis in understanding of specific situations of concern. I then make recommendations to the UN Secretary-General and through him the UN Security Council of any potential situations that could result in genocide.

At the same time, I also liaise within the UN system on prevention initiatives and capacity building where required, as well as provide technical assistance to Member States and regional organizations on genocide prevention initiatives.

So, in other words, I do everything that I possibly can when I have the information, to prevent genocide from happening.

Hate speech

The United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech represents the commitment of the UN to address and counter hate speech globally. It introduces a working definition of hate speech as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other forms. This is not a legal definition but aims at facilitating policy and programming in and outside the United Nations.

The UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech includes 13 specific commitments for the UN to address and counter hate speech in an holistic way (including by: tackling the root causes - which may include intolerance and hatred along identity lines; keeping hate speech from escalating, online and offline, into incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence; protecting the victims; and enhancing partnership with relevant actors) and in line with international human right standards, in particular with freedom of opinion and expression.

As Focal Point for the implementation of the Strategy, my Office provides support to UN entities and Member States to develop context-specific hate speech strategies. There is recognition that hate speech has always been a precursor to genocide - from Rwanda to Bosnia Herzegovina, to the Holocaust. In Rwanda, it was the dehumanization of the Tutsi as cockroaches, during the Holocaust it was the dehumanization of Jews as a cancer that needed to be removed. This is why it is so important that people must be reminded of what hate speech can do.

The UN strategy addresses these conditions of hate speech, through a situation analysis of among others, political and social developments and outlines relevant legal frameworks.

How do you certify a situation as genocide?

I'm often asked whether I can certify a situation as a genocide. My answer is that I do not investigate, conduct human rights monitoring, or legally qualify situations either ongoing or from the past as genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.

What I do is to make assessments as to whether there is a risk of genocide occurring in a particular situation, with the objective of preventing or halting those crimes in case they are suspected to be already occurring.

So what constitutes a genocide in today's world?

Genocide is drawn from the framing of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The word genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer who lobbied for this Convention to be in place. The Convention was adopted in 1948. And as we speak, right now, more than 150 countries are party to this Convention.

The Convention defines what constitutes a genocide and confirms that genocide, whether committed in times of peace or in times of war, is a crime under international law.

In the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group.

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

What are the possible risk factors?

In terms of possible causes, the risk factors that I spoke about earlier that we analyze include behavior, circumstances or elements that create an environment conducive to the commission of genocide. For instance, risk factors for genocide includes inter-group tensions; patterns of discrimination against some groups; or signs of an intent to destroy in whole or in part, a protected group. This can be broken down to discriminatory, segregation, exclusionary practices towards any ethnic, national, racial or religious group, or even legislation against that group.

Risk factors also include for example, a denial of the existence of any group. A history of atrocity crimes, by which I mean genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, committed with impunity against some groups is also a risk factor.

Other risk factors include tensions in terms of access to resources from the State, socio-economic disparities, participation in decision making processes, or when you notice that there are tensions around some types of groups such as political, social, or cultural, that could then develop on national, ethnic, racial or religious lines. An absence of national mechanisms or initiatives to deal with identity-based conflict, may mean you have a society that has risk factors of genocide.

The red flags for genocide would be ethnically, nationally, racially, or religiously motivated attacks or profiling of some people, because this really does constitute a dangerous trajectory that heightens the risk of genocide. And when you notice that populations are not protected equally, then that's a red flag. When you notice human rights violations, breakdown of legal systems or violation of international humanitarian law, or when you see specific targeting of groups, then you know, that these are red flags.

Are there examples of that happening currently?

I would say that there are several situations of concern around minorities, indigenous people and people of African descent being targeted in some contexts.

We have very specific ethnic clashes. And of course, we are frequently speaking to Member States, engaging UN mechanisms and working in this context to create buffers and to enhance prevention.

What numbers are we talking about for it to qualify as genocide?

It doesn't matter. It's really not about numbers. When we get into numbers, then we begin to complicate issues because for example, in Bosnia Herzegovina, over 8,000 people were killed. In Rwanda, a million people were killed within three months, and in the Holocaust, six million people lost their lives. If you go to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, as you walk out there is a plaque at the door with an inscription: Often, people think about genocide in terms of numbers. People are waiting to hear one million people have died. What they don't realize is that it's six people dying here, three there, 20 others tomorrow, the day after another five and so on. All these numbers add up, such that one day, you will have the one million people you're looking for on your hands. So long as those conditions, which can lead to genocide exist, we should be very careful. Those initial three or 12 deaths could just be the beginning of a genocide.

It has been 76 years of the UN, why haven't we seen the end to these atrocities and genocide? What are the challenges in fighting this vice?

We often forget that efforts to prevent genocide only go back to the creation of the UN, when even the word genocide was created and then became law as part of the 1948 Convention. The world came together after World War II and the devastation of the Holocaust, with a common commitment to protect future generations from the risk of genocide and came up with that convention.

What we forget oftentimes is that there hasn't always been interest in preventing genocides. Wars were common - World War I, World War II, there was also the 100 years war in Europe, there were also wars in Asia, Africa - there have been wars since time immemorial, with communities trying to decimate each other. It wasnt until the end of World II that the world said enough! We're going to work on ending this.

It is therefore a challenge to stop something in 76 years that has been going on for centuries - since the beginning of the world.

What are the challenges?

The challenge is that we still don't have a critical mass of people willing to build bridges , to build relationships, willing to say that we're not going to have war anymore.

Also, we have very poor methods of ensuring that the willing buyer-willing seller business of weapons is either managed or brought to a stop.

How can we get out of these challenges?

We need more and not less engagement. This means working with community-based organisations, civil society, Member States, and regional organizations and international organizations.

Are there any hot spots currently?

Many years of mediating armed conflict, sometimes in very dangerous places before I joined the UN, have taught me that hot spots are issues, not geographical spaces. I would say that if you know any geographical space that has ethnic violence, human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, looting of property, mass executions, arbitrary arrests, killings, rape, displacement of populations, destruction of property, hate speech, stigmatization, ethnic profiling, and the absence of the rule of law - then that is a hotspot.

This year marks 28 years since the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, where nearly a million people were killed in less than three months. What lessons can countries learn from this experience? And what can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

We must have a culture of independent and impartial investigations into allegations of violations and abuses of human rights. We need to do better to ensure accountability for serious violations committed so as not to perpetuate that environment that exposes the civilian populations to a higher risk of atrocity crimes.

When hate speech begins, people may initially see it as harmless, but it doesn't always end up as so. We need to understand that hate speech is the foundation for genocide.

There shouldn't be tolerance for hate speech and ethnic stereotyping. When hate speech begins, people may initially see it as harmless, but it doesn't always end up as so. We need to understand that hate speech is the foundation for genocide. To perpetuate the genocide in Rwanda against the Tutsi, they had to be profiled as insects, as cockroaches that needed to be killed. And when we think of how often we hear those kinds of stereotypes around the world, people referred to as weeds that need to be uprooted, as cancers that need to be removed, there are lessons we need to learn.

There are also lessons to learn, in understanding that social media was created to get people to engage with each other and socialize but at the same time, hate speech can be amplified through social media.

We should worry about amplification of hate speech through radio, and through all these common mediums, that really amplify voices.

So specifically for Rwanda. I spent time there last year. I had just been appointed to this office as the Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, it was extremely important for me to travel to Rwanda to pay my respects to the victims and survivors.

What lessons we can draw from Rwanda?

A lesson we can draw from Rwanda is that acknowledging the past in understanding the suffering of one another is extremely important.

I went to Rwanda and Bosnia Herzegovina to pay my respects to the victims and the survivors. But at the same time, I wanted to speak out strongly against genocide denial. I am glad that people speaking up against genocide denial has gained traction. Now, people are brave enough to face these genocide deniers and I'm glad that this is happening, because we must counter the Holocaust deniers as well as those who deny the Srebrenica and Rwanda genocides.

We must work strongly against the glorification of genocidaires and war criminals. We must not celebrate people who perpetrated genocides. Sometimes the pull of the ethnic community is so strong, so that people feel that this is a genocidaire, but he's our genocidaire. We really must stop the glorification of genocidaires. They are criminals. That a person can organise the killing of millions of people and that the ethnic, the racial, the religious, or the national inclination of their community is to support that person is something we should really interrogate.

The other lesson we need to learn is to avoid the attribution of collective guilt and understand that in any society, there are political differences about the way society should be organized. However, polarization that feeds on hatred, incitement and denial of past crimes, especially on genocide denial, is not acceptable and must be countered, we are here to counter it.

One of the reasons I speak so strongly about denial of genocide, is that we know that denial of genocide actually constitutes preparation for another genocide. We have also learned that no society is free of risk, and no country is immune to genocide, especially where these crimes have occurred in the past.

We've learned that we must be alert because the risk of recurrence of genocide is always there. One of the reasons I speak so strongly about denial of genocide, is that we know that denial of genocide actually constitutes preparation for another genocide.

We have also learned that no society is free of risk, and no country is immune to genocide, especially where these crimes have occurred in the past.

So ultimately, I would say the biggest lesson is that there's a lot of work to be done around building consensus among a critical mass of people to share the same objective in which we work towards a world free of hate and division, where genocide no longer happens.

We have to often explain to people what hate speech can do, in terms of leading up to genocide, and I worry that the world has not learned its lessons and that the world hasn't learned that communities can live together in peace and dignity, because really, that is the inherent right that we are born with.

You have talked about a New approach to preventing Genocide, which involves engaging communities at the grassroots directly. How does this method work?

I consider it a priority to translate, from an inter-generational perspective, the concept of genocide prevention as an international, regional, and national norm into a practical reality implemented at the community level. So much research points at genocide happening within local communities, pointing at civilians as the primary target.

Prevention of genocide is still largely understood as an approach that should be taken from national, regional, and international perspectives. However, prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes, must become a reality at the community level.

We have begun to do so at the community level as regards analysis of atrocity crimes - communities need to be equipped to understand what is happening to them as well as respond. Strengthening analysis and response at the community level allows us to be context-specific and to listen more. It is important that we adapt our analysis methodology to the needs of the specific contexts.

Communities living in situations where risk factors for genocide exist need to be listened to more, sometimes they know what response actions can be more effective. We need to be able to accommodate their knowledge and sustain efforts without losing the current traction we have of preventing genocide at the national, regional and international level.

We are therefore building traction worldwide for locally-led initiatives on prevention of genocide by strengthening the capacities of community organizations, through for instance, identifying the policy and advocacy processes within the genocide and other atrocity crimes prevention fields with the potential for most impact at community level, building a global movement of relationships between local practitioners and local academics to initiate research, sharing best practices on prevention of atrocity crimes and supporting use of social media to prevent atrocity crimes.

The other mandate for your office is dealing with hate speech. What would you describe as hate speech and how can we counter it?

There is no common definition of hate speech, but we have the UN definition of hate speech contained in our Plan of Action against hate speech. Usually, we recommend to people to adopt our UN definition and we have convinced social media companies to adopt it.

We have the international legal standards for forms of hate speech that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence, but we don't have an international legal definition for hate speech. The characterization of what is hateful is controversial and disputed.

Often people speak about hate speech in context, for example, like in the US, where freedom of expression is held so strongly, there is always pushback against using the term hate speech, because they say there's a very thin line between freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

According to the UN, hate speech is any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender, or other forms of identity. This provides guidance to the entire UN system on how to tackle hate speech in a holistic way and we have the UN plan of action.

According to the UN, hate speech is any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender, or other forms of identity. This provides guidance to the entire UN system on how to tackle hate speech in a holistic way and we have the UN plan of action.

The UN Strategy and Plan of Action has 13 commitments that provide a kind of blueprint for action to contain and address hate speech in line with international human rights standards.

How would these work in Africa?

The 13 commitments are wide and varied. For Member States in Africa, one of the most important commitments is enhancing partnerships with the external actors, including other Member States. It really stresses the need for the UN to act together with other stakeholders to curb this phenomenon.

Tech and social media companies also have a role to play in countering hate speech. We have spent a lot of time meeting with these companies, my Office has a tradition of having roundtables to discuss these issues.

Which tech and social media companies are you involving in the UN strategy against hate speech?

In October, I briefed the UN Security Council on the topic of tech and social media companies and hate speech and invited companies to brief - including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Tik Tok, Apple, YouTube, etc. We continue to meet them periodically and talk about what we can do better in containing hate speech.

We tell these companies that hate speech has proliferated online and that they have amplified this phenomenon. This is the conversation that we took to the UN Security Council, we made it public. We talked about how hate speech has increased - especially the reach and speed through which hate speech is spread.

We've noticed that for minority groups, or those perceived to be different, they continue to be targets and victims of hate speech. They continue to be scapegoated for challenges faced by communities or countries. And we saw that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was such a crisis in terms of hate speech against minorities.

Hate speech in the past has contributed to conflict and violence, and of course, genocides including the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The genocide in Srebrenica, was characterized by dehumanization and derogatory language in speeches by political leaders, among others.

In Iraq, a campaign that was launched by Daesh/ISIL against minority groups like the Yazidi, much of it was accompanied by hate speech and does point to the likely commission of a genocide.

In Myanmar, hate speech was used to describe Rohingya as sub-human.

What is your message as the world commemorate 28 years since the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda?

When I visited Rwanda last year, I reminded Rwandans that their country has great historical significance to the existence of my mandate. I traveled to Rwanda from Bosnia Herzegovina, where the Srebrenica genocide happened.

For Rwanda, Martin Luther King said the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Justice must continue to be done. Those people who perpetrated genocide need to be brought to justice.

It's a good thing what is happening, and not just in Rwanda. We saw in Germany last year, quite a number of people, many of them in their 90s standing trial. There was a 96-year-old woman who was a secretary to the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, she faced trial for complicity in the killings of people in the camp. There was even a 100-year-old man who allegedly served as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp, and he stood trial. It is common knowledge that we have many indicted people who are still at large, and some of them are living normal lives in Member States of the UN without fear of being brought to justice. This impunity undermines what my Office stands for.

As the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser for Prevention of Genocide to the Secretary-General, it is incumbent on my Office to join hands with everybody who is seeking accountability for perpetrators of genocide and related crimes, and to help to provide very strong deterrence to would-be perpetrators of genocide.

Related links:

Video message by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on the occasion of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Genocide perpetrators must be brought to book - Op-Ed by Ms. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, (Africa Renewal, 7 April 2022)

Outreach Program on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the United Nations

Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre: Using the past to protect the present and future (Africa Renewal, 18 August 2020)

Genocide happens when democracy is absent - Interview with Ms. Tali Nates, Founder and Executive Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, (Africa Renewal, 18 August 2020)

For more information on COVID-19, visit www.un.org/coronavirus

Africa Renewal
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has rolled out an anti-human-induced flooding programme to ensure that the Tema Region was protected from man-made disasters.

Mr. Frank Asante, Public Relations Officer of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), who disclosed it, said We in Tema want to have a flooding-free raining season, we have put in measures to remove human-induced flooding, the residents must join and work with the assembly to ensure that our target is achieved.

Mr. Asante an interview monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema, identified some of the TMA Anti-Human-Induced pre-raining activities as the deployment of the National Disaster Management Organization(NADMO) personnel who engaged people in the communities and guided them as to how best they could keep their environment to avoid the human-induced flood.

Other activities included desilting of major drains which are the storm drains to allow the free flow of running water as well as equipping the assembly members whose areas have such drains with the necessary equipment to undertake regular desilting of the drains.

He noted that the idea of this operation was to allow the drains to carry a lot of running water out of the community into the bigger water bodies and ultimately into the sea.

Mr. Asante said the assembly has adopted proactive instead of reactive measures this year to reduce incidents of flooding in Tema as much as possible to prevent disasters from happening.

He also noted that the operation clean your frontage campaign ties into what TMA seeks to achieve adding that the operation entails cleanliness and ensuring that all the drains and surroundings are clean which the aim of the assembly was also.

The operation clean your frontage fits correctly into what we seek to achieve and I am glad the message has gone down well to the people, he added.

He said they are currently going out with their men and ensuring that residents adhere to the directive and offenders would be given the necessary caution after which if they dont correct the wrongdoings, the lawfully prescribed punishment would be applied.

He said there has been improvement ever since the implementation of the operation and the consciousness it has brought because everybody was now making sure of the cleanliness of their area.

He advised residents not to live in flood-prone areas adding that in situations where they find themselves in the flooding areas, they are to move to safe havens in the communities.

The safe havens are higher ground in the communities that they can move to temporarily for safety especially when the rains come in the night, he said.

He urged the media to help in advocating and sensitization the message so that they can achieve a hundred percent clean Tema and Ghana as a whole.

at the weekend called on the residents of Tema and its environs to help the Assembly to have a flood-free raining season.
Delhi logged 1,042 fresh Covid Cases in a day, the highest since February 10 (1,104), with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent while two people died due to the infection, according to data shared by the city health department on Friday.

The mask rule, which was dropped recently, has been reinforced as Covid cases inch upwards. Those found without a mask will be fined Rs 500. However, those travelling in private cars do not need to wear mask.

The Delhi government is paying particular attention to schools, as reports of children getting infected have emerged. Students and staff should not be allowed to enter schools without thermal scanning, the Delhi government said today in a set of COVID-19 guidelines issued for schools.
Mrs. Martha Okai, a Senior Revenue Officer, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed that in the bid to move toward a more digitalized economy, the GRA has now made it possible for taxpayers to file returns and pay taxes online with ease.

She said GRA over the period analyzed the inconveniences clients faced in filing manually with long wait times at tax offices and the bother of interrupting their busy schedules to file the returns and pay taxes at the Taxpayer Service Centre hence the migration to more online transactions.

Mrs. Okai stated this during a Tax and Good Governance sensitization seminar organized at Tema, which was on the theme: "Filing Tax Returns Online: The Convenient Way," monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) to help educate people on becoming regular taxpayers.

Mrs. Okai urged taxpayers to juxtapose the new and improved service of GRA online filing returns at taxpayersportal.com and paying via ghana.gov as against the old system where the taxpayer had to struggle to GRA nearest office.

She said individuals are to file returns using the Ghana card or the Tax Identification Number (TIN) online.

She said, 'whatever an individual does, they are obliged to pay their taxes as they earn income as citizens'.

Mrs. Okai added, if individuals owned businesses and have employees, the law demands that they must deduct their employees taxes from their salaries and pay directly to GRA."

She also said that paying taxes helps the government provide for the citizens needs like the construction of good roads, schools, free school feeding, free SHS, and other developmental projects.

Mr. Dickson Yevugah the GRA Principal Revenue Officer mentioned that the taxpayers portal was available to download on the Google play store and also the Apple store to help citizens pay their taxes without going to any GRA offices.

He elaborated that one can open www.ghana.gov.gh from their browser, click on Menu, and select SIGN UP to provide all information needed.
The Delhi Police is preparing to conduct a bone ossification test of a minor who had been apprehended in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case, according to sources.

The Delhi Police will have to move a plea at the Rohini court for permission to conduct the test as it is mandatory.

The sources said that the juvenile might have played a trick to save himself from going to jail and hence they want to conduct the test.

"We had shown him as an adult and filled his arresting memo. Later he claimed that he was a juvenile. His family reached the court and submitted documents of his to prove that he was minor. After the order of the court, the accused was sent to JJB. Later, theJJB sent him to a child observation home," the police said.

Now the police has decided to go to court for the test to determine his real age.

Not only this, his documents will also be examined.

If documents are found forged, a separate case of fraud will be lodged against the family.
April 23, 2022

The 'Rules Based Order' Knows No Distance

Remarks by President Biden Providing an Update on Russia and Ukraine, Feb 15 2022

Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.

The distance between the U.S. (New York) and the Ukraine (Lviv) is 7,194 kilometer (4,470 miles). The distance between Russia and Ukraine is zero kilometer (zero miles). They are neighboring countries.

---

Readout of Senior Administration Travel to Hawaii, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands, Apr 22, 2022

The two sides engaged in substantial discussion around the recently signed security agreement between Solomon Islands and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Solomon Islands representatives indicated that the agreement had solely domestic applications, but the U.S. delegation noted there are potential regional security implications of the accord, including for the United States and its allies and partners. The U.S. delegation outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose, scope, and transparency of the agreement. If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly.

The distance between the continental U.S. (Los Angeles) and the Solomon Islands is 9,845 kilometer (6,118 miles). The distance between the continental China (Shanghai) and the Solomon Islands is 5,901 kilometer (3,667 miles).

Posted by b on April 23, 2022 at 9:55 UTC | Permalink

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Xinhua writers Bai Xu, Wang Aona, Ye Shan

CANBERRA/JAKARTA/TOKYO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- French Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus might have never imagined that his book, The Plague, could become popular again among readers nowadays, who found their own life during the COVID-19 pandemic mirrored in the classic novel of mid-19th century.

"I bought this book during the COVID-19 pandemic, and found its plot highly identical to what is happening now in the world," said a Chinese web user nicknamed Mengzhentanxiaoxiong, or Detective Bear, on the online shopping platform Dangdang.com.

"I know that the pandemic will not end soon, but as I learned from the book, the way to combat the disease is to do your job well. I think I will be inspired by it until the end of COVID-19," he wrote.

While the World Book and Copyright Day falls on Saturday, people were once again reminded to pick up the classics and found inspiration from them.

The Plague tells the story of a plague that swept the French Algerian city of Oran, with snapshots of life of different people. They were separated from their loved ones. Some people had tried to escape while some decided to help. There were lives lost, but there were also efforts to combat the disease and bring hope to others.

"I love old literature. I think that we can look to old literature to see what happened in the past, in terms of how society is dealt with and lived with infectious diseases," said Nancy Baxter, a leading Australian epidemiologist who heads the University of Melbourne's School of Population and Global Health.

The world has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years, with half a billion cases reported so far and more than 6 million deaths.

It is not the first pandemic to hit the world, and could hardly be the last as well.

According to Camus, everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; "yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky." There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.

Professor Baxter noted that as science moved on, people could improve how they manage diseases, but not just through things like vaccines.

She gave an example of cholera, the controlling of which requires sanitation. Therefore, she said that investment in public health and infrastructure would be equally important.

"We can use those (old literature) to say, how do we do better than previous generations in terms of actually managing this both from a scientific perspective in terms of treatments and vaccines, but also from a public health perspective, in terms of improving our conditions so that pandemic is hard to transmit," said the epidemiologist.

If pandemic is a symbolic war, the real warfare on the planet, in spite of peace in most parts, could also invoke people's thoughts.

Rod Campbell, research director in the Australia Institute, told Xinhua that one of his favorites was Catch 22 by U.S. writer Joseph Heller. "It's actually quite a funny book, even though it is all about the madness of war," he said.

Campbell said that he never thought that the war between Russia and Ukraine would break out. "Catch 22 shows you that it doesn't have to make sense, war can still happen."

The Last Train from Hiroshima, by American author Charles Pellegrino, is about the cruelty of war, documenting life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the time immediately preceding, during and following the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan in World War II.

The depiction of the bombing is vivid enough to arouse people's fear of war. But what's more valuable in the book was its reflection of shifting roles of "persecutor" and "victim".

Japan was an invader in WWII. According to Pellegrino, before the atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, some schools in Hiroshima were changed into makeshift military plants, while teenagers were learning how to become suicide bombers.

Decades later, flames and ashes were gone from Hiroshima, but the ghost of war has never left. The previous persecutor, the United States, and the previous victim, Japan, are now alliance in the Quad, while the U.S. is still upgrading its nuclear weapons.

"This book warned against militarism brainwashing, and tolled an alarm of the disastrous consequences of war," said Mao Danqing, professor at Kobe International University in Japan.

No matter war or pandemic, or other problems including education, housing, employment and so on, readers also tend to seek for solution from some new books.

Bambang Suryono, chairman of Indonesia's think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, told Xinhua that for scholars and politicians, The Governance of China by Chinese President Xi Jinping would be inspirational, as many of the problems that many developing countries could have were discussed in the book, and the "Chinese solution" was valuable.

Suryono said what impressed him in the book was the view of putting the people first. "The government could win the hearts of its people only after it takes practical measures to crack down on corruption, lift people out of poverty, and improve medical service and infrastructure," he said.

He also liked the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which he thought would be from the traditional Chinese philosophy of great harmony in the world.

"The idea is very important for today's world, where there are conflicts and uncertainty," said the scholar. "It means that in spite of differences, countries could still cooperate and coexist." 


Facing mounting demands to step down by protestors for three weeks continuously, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has said China has assured help to solve the urgent economic crisis in the country. Rajapaksa on Friday said in a telephone conversation with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who assured him that China will support Sri Lanka for economic and social stability. "Had a very productive conversation with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. I reiterated #SriLanka's gratitude to #China for the longstanding friendship and for assuring support to address some of the crucial needs affecting peoples' livelihoods and well-being in these difficult times," the Sri Lankan Prime Minister tweeted following the telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister's Office said the Chinese Premier made this comment in a phone conversation with Rajapaksa on Friday. The Prime Minister's Office issuing a statement said Li Keqiang has noted that China understands the difficulties and challenges that Sri Lanka was facing, and it will do its best to uplift the livelihoods of the people of Sri Lanka. "We understand the difficulties you are going through. We will work together to avoid these difficulties," the Prime Minister's Office added. Chinese Prime Minister has guaranteed that both the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments will work together in solving the urgent financial issues, the Prime Minister's Office said. The two leaders also discussed on further talks on the Free Trade Agreement, reducing Sri Lanka's trade deficit, and attracting more Chinese tourists to the country. Chinese leader's assurance comes in the wake of Beijing's pledge on Thursday of an urgent emergency humanitarian aid of RMB 200 million which would be provided to Sri Lanka, China International Development Cooperation Agency had announced that the humanitarian aid will include rice, medicines, production materials and other essentials, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Friday. However, China has been keeping mum on the request of Sri Lanka, one of the members of 146 Belt and Road initiative, for debt rescheduling and $2.5 billion.




DOVER, Del. (AP)  The judge presiding over the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy has approved the organization's request to sell its warehouse and distribution center in North Carolina for roughly $13.5 million and lease back the property from the buyer.

The BSA wants to use some of the proceeds from the sale approved by the court Friday as part of its contribution to a proposed $2.6 billion fund to compensate tens of thousands of men who claim they were sexually abused as children while involved in Scouting.

After a monthlong trial, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein continues to weigh whether to approve the Boy Scouts reorganization plan.

The Boy Scouts of America sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 to stave off a flood of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders and volunteers over several decades. At the time, the BSA was facing about 275 filed lawsuits and was aware of roughly another 1,400 pending claims. But more than 82,200 abuse claims have been submitted in the bankruptcy.

Attorneys for BSA insurers, including those that have since reached settlements and now support the plan, have said the sheer volume of claims is an indication of fraud and the result of aggressive client solicitation by attorneys and for-profit claims aggregators.

The reorganization plan calls for the BSA and its 250 local councils, along with settling insurance companies and troop sponsoring organizations, to contribute some $2.6 billion in cash and property to a fund for abuse victims. In return, those entities would be released from further liability, meaning they could not be sued for Scout-related abuse claims.

At Fridays hearing, Silverstein noted that the findings that the BSA and plan proponents are asking her to make in confirming the plan present her with issues that she has never previously faced as a bankruptcy judge.

Quite frankly, probably none of my previous rulings in eight years really dealt with this particular type of issue, where there are such extensive findings that people are asking me to make, and where the findings are particularly controversial, she said.

When an attorney representing a group of insurers opposed to the plan noted that the BSA had filed hundreds of pages of documents in the wee hours Friday morning with plan modifications and revisions, the judge assured him that he would have time to review and respond to them before she rules.

Youre not in danger of a forthcoming decision in the next few days, said Silverstein. She must decide a host of controversial and complex issues involving not just the Boy Scouts, but the BSAs insurers, its 250 local councils, and tens of thousands of troop sponsoring organizations.

Opposing insurers have argued that the plan violates their rights under policies they issued, and that the findings that plan supporters want Silverstein make would bind them to the proposed trust distribution procedures and make it difficult to challenge claim decisions. In an email, one attorney for abuse claimants described such binding trust distribution procedures as a Holy Grail that mass tort lawyers have been chasing for years. Insurers say approval by the judge would set a dangerous precedent tort lawyers would use to their advantage in future lawsuits.

Perhaps the most contentious issue, and the one most fraught with legal difficulty, is whether third parties, including settling insurers, local councils and troop sponsors, should be allowed to escape future liability by contributing to the victims fund, or at least not objecting to the plan.

Some survivors argue that releasing their claims against non-debtor third parties without their consent violates their due process rights. The U.S. bankruptcy trustee, the governments watchdog in Chapter 11 bankruptcies, argues that such releases are not allowed under the bankruptcy code.

Such nonconsensual third-party releases, spawned by asbestos and product-liability cases, have been criticized as an unconstitutional form of bankruptcy grifting, where non-debtor entities obtain benefits by joining with a debtor to resolve mass-tort litigation in bankruptcy.
LONDON (AP)  Taking aim at hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content online, the European Union is nearing agreement on a sweeping law that would force big tech companies to police themselves harder, make it easier for users to flag problems, and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.

EU officials negotiated into the late hours of Friday night over the final details of the Digital Services Act, which would overhaul the digital rulebook for 27 countries and cement Europe's reputation as the global leader in reining in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. But midnight passed without an agreement announced, though several EU officials tweeting about the proceedings expressed optimism that things were getting close.

The act would be the EU's third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the U.S., where lobbyists representing Silicon Valley's interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay.

While the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

The EU's new rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their fundamental rights online, would make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms algorithms.

The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. Its the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets, said Ben Scott, a former tech policy advisor to Hillary Clinton who's now executive director of advocacy group Reset.

Once agreed to in principle, the law would still need to be approved by the European Parliament and European Council, though that is not expected to be a major hurdle. It has not been decided when the law would go into effect.

Negotiators had been hoping to hammer out a deal before the end of Friday, ahead of French elections Sunday. A new French government could stake out different positions on digital content.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russia was found to have used social media platforms to try to influence the country's vote. Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened. During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of allowing anti-vaccine falsehoods to thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to request companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an easy and effective way so that it can be swiftly removed. Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardized so that they will work the same way on any online platform.

Companies that violate the rules face fines amounting to as much as 6% of their annual global revenue, which for tech giants would mean billions of dollars. Repeat offenders could be banned from the EU market.

The tech giants have been lobbying furiously in Brussels to water down the EU rules. Google said in a statement on Friday that it looks forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone. Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services. Facebook didn't respond to requests for comment, and Twitter declined to comment.

The Digital Services Act would ban ads targeted at minors, as well as ads targeted at users based on their gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. It would also ban deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they didnt intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show they're making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services. But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts. This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the European Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a supervisory fee," which could be up to 0.1% of their annual global net income, depending on the negotiations.

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EU's borders.

If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says By golly, why dont American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers, its going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules elsewhere, Scott said.

But the companies aren't likely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank. There is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU, Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its so-called Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behavior of tech companies. Much of the problem centers on the fact that a companys lead privacy regulator is in the country where its European head office is located, which for most tech companies is Ireland.

Irish regulators have opened dozens of data-privacy investigations, but have only issued judgements for a handful. Critics say the the problem is understaffing, but the Irish regulator says the cases are complex and time consuming.

EU officials say they have learned from that experience and will make the blocs executive Commission the enforcer for the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

__

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay contributed to this story.
At least 128 people were killed and 161 others were injured in violent incidents last week, the deadliest week since the regime change last year in Afghanistan, Pajhwok News reported.

Pakistan fighter jets bombarded Waziristan refugees' homes in Khost province and carried out similar strikes hitting villages in Kunar's Sheltan district last Friday night.

According to local sources, 41 people, including women and children, were killed and 21 others were injured in the airstrikes. Six people were killed in Pakistan bombardment in Kunar province.

Reports showed 40 people were killed and 70 others were injured in blasts and targeted attacks in the Qala-i-Zal and Imam Sahib districts of Kunduz province.

Twelve people were killed and 41 others injured in a bomb blast inside a mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif earlier in the week. According to reports, Daesh militant outfit claimed responsibility for the blast.

Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the UN called Pakistan's attacks on Khost and Kunar provinces a clear act of invasion of Afghan territory and formally complained to the UN Security Council about the matter.

The Afghan foreign ministry summoned the Pakistani envoy to Kabul over the attack and asked Pakistan to refrain from repeating such acts in the future.

Many Afghans in various parts of the country condemned Pakistan's attacks and said they were ready to defend their country.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also expressed concern over Pakistan's attacks on Afghanistan and civilian casualties caused by them, saying that civilians should not be targeted in any fight.

Attacks on civilians in Afghanistan last week have also been widely condemned on national and international levels, Pajhwok News reported.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Eight weeks into the war, the Biden administration's decision to dramatically ramp up delivery of artillery guns to Ukraine signals a deepening American commitment at a pivotal stage of fighting for the country's industrial heartland.

It also brings into stark relief Moscow's warning that continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine would have unpredictable" consequences, suggesting that Russia sees the international wave of weaponry as a growing obstacle to its invasion as well as a Western provocation.

We're in a critical window of time now, President Joe Biden said Thursday in announcing he had approved an additional $800 million in battlefield aid that includes 72 of the U.S. Army's 155mm howitzers, along with 144,000 artillery rounds and more than 120 armed drones that will require training for Ukrainian operators.

This brings to $3.4 billion the amount of security assistance provided since Russia began its invasion Feb. 24. That is an extraordinary total of U.S. military aid for a country to which the United States has no defense treaty obligation.

A look at the U.S. assistance and U.S. expectations for what it will accomplish:

WHY IS ARTILLERY SO IMPORTANT NOW?

Heavy weapons such as artillery are shaping up as a key feature of the unfolding battle for Ukraine's eastern region known as the Donbas. The relatively flat terrain is suited for what the military calls maneuver warfare  the movement of tanks and other ground forces backed by long-range guns like the 155mm howitzer.

The Russians have been deploying their own additional artillery to the Donbas region in recent days, along with more ground troops and other material to support and sustain what could be a long fight for terrain in Ukraine's industrial heartland.

The howitzers the U.S. is sending to Ukraine will be the latest American model, known as the M777, used by the Army and the Marine Corps. Smaller and more maneuverable than the older model, the M777 can be deployed on the battlefield by heavy-lift helicopters and moved relatively quickly between positions by seven-ton trucks that also are being provided by the Pentagon.

What makes it important is the kind of fighting that we expect in the Donbas. Because of the terrain, because it's open, because it's flat, because it's not as urban, we can expect the Russians to rely on long-range fires  artillery in particular," said John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. So we know that this is going to be part of the Russians' playbook.

A senior U.S. defense official said the first of the 72 howitzers are expected to begin moving to Europe by this weekend. Of 18 other 155mm howitzers that Biden approved last week for shipment to Ukraine, an unspecified number already are in Europe, and U.S. howitzer training for Ukrainian personnel began Wednesday in an undisclosed country outside of Ukraine.

WILL THIS BE ENOUGH TO HOLD OFF THE RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE?

Probably not, and Biden said he already has asked the Pentagon to get to work on additional potential military assistance.

Biden said this phase of Russia's invasion will be more limited in terms of geography but not in terms of brutality. He also acknowledged that he needs Congress to approve the funds necessary to continue providing key weapons to Ukraine beyond the latest $800 million package, which he said would ensure a steady flow of arms only for the next few weeks.

U.S. officials say the Russians are trying to adjust their approach in Ukraine after early setbacks, suggesting the fight could be a long one.

After failing to take Kyiv, the capital, in the early weeks of its multipronged invasion, Russia has since narrowed its objectives by focusing on the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014, and on a stretch of coastal territory along the Sea of Azov from Mariupol to the Crimean Peninsula. One Russian advantage is this regions proximity to Russian territory, which allows for shorter supply lines than earlier battles in Ukraines north.

WHAT ELSE IS THE U.S. PROVIDING?

In addition to the 72 howitzers and the vehicles required to move them around the battlefield, the new weapons package for Ukraine includes artillery rounds and armed drones from U.S. Air Force stocks. Still in the pipeline from a separate $800 million weapons package announced only last week is a wide range of articles, including radars used to enable the targeting of Russian artillery, as well as air surveillance radars and unmanned coastal drone vessels.

Artillery and drones are the exact things Ukraine will need as Russia heads into its next campaign in the East and South, said Mark Montgomery, a retired Navy rear admiral who previously served with U.S. European Command in helping improve U.S.-Ukrainian military relations. Montgomery is now an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The drone included in the latest package is called the Phoenix Ghost, made by a U.S. company, Aevex Aerospace, which bills itself as a leader in full-spectrum airborne intelligence solutions. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, declined to describe the drone's capabilities beyond saying that it is used largely but not exclusively to attack targets. It also has onboard cameras.

Kirby said the drones are especially well suited for the terrain on which the Ukrainians are fighting in the Donbas.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty is featured prominently at the Paseo de Susana Park in Hagatna, as seen April 29, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy had a positive call with Donald Trump and appeared to be suffering little political blowback Friday from the release of audio in which he suggested the president should resign shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

McCarthy worked swiftly to shore up support among Republicans, calling and texting many lawmakers about his conversation with Trump as he rushed to contain the fallout. Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that he has had a very good relationship with McCarthy.

In the audio, first posted Thursday by The New York Times and aired on Rachel Maddows MSNBC show, McCarthy is heard discussing with House Republicans the Democratic effort to remove Trump from office after the president's supporters stormed the Capitol.

In the recording of a Jan. 10, 2021, discussion, McCarthy says he would tell Trump, I think it will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.

McCarthy released a statement Thursday calling the report totally false and wrong. His spokesman, Mark Bednar, told the newspaper, McCarthy never said hed call Trump to say he should resign.

But on Friday, the Times released another recording, this time of a Jan. 11, 2021, Republican conference call. In the audio, McCarthy can be heard telling his caucus that he had asked the former president if he felt responsible for the deadly insurrection and that Trump acknowledged some responsibility.

I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? McCarthy says on this recording. Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and hed need to acknowledge that.

In his first public statement since the audio was released, Trump told the Journal late Friday: Ive had actually a very good relationship with McCarthy. "I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.

He made a call. I heard the call. I didnt like the call, Trump said. But almost immediately, as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there  you know, the support was very strong."

When asked about the Jan. 11 recording, Trump told the Journal: No, thats false. I never claimed responsibility.

The release of the audio could threaten the Republican House leader's hold on power. McCarthy is in line to become speaker if Republicans win control in the fall's election, and he is heavily reliant on Trump's support to get there. But a person familiar with McCarthy's Thursday call with Trump described it as positive.

I'm not mad at you," Trump told McCarthy in a call Thursday afternoon, according to a second person familiar with the conversation. Both people were granted anonymity to discuss the call. McCarthy and his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Trump call.

Trump and McCarthy had a strained relationship immediately after the Capitol attack, but mended their alliance after the GOP leader flew to the former presidents resort in Florida to patch up their differences.

The Times report Thursday was adapted from a coming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future, by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

There has been no indication that McCarthy actually told Trump he should resign. In the same conversation, McCarthy told his colleagues he doubted Trump would take the advice to step aside rather than be pushed.

That would be my recommendation, McCarthy is heard saying in response to a question from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who would emerge as a staunch Trump critic. I dont think he will take it, but I dont know."

The crowd that attacked the Capitol marched there from a rally near the White House where Trump had implored them to fight to overturn the election result. However, he has strongly denied responsibility for the violence.

Trump remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party, despite his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection and his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.

McCarthy indicated during an interview with The Associated Press this week in California how important Trump remains to his party and its prospects for winning control of the House this fall. Hell motivate, get a lot of people out, McCarthy said at a GOP event in Fresno.

President Joe Biden, asked about McCarthy's situation Friday, said: This aint your fathers Republican Party."

Biden suggested Trump's grip on the GOP is strong. This is a MAGA party now, he told reporters, referring to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.

The audio depicts a very different McCarthy from the one who has been leading House Republicans over the last year and a half and who has remained allied with Trump even after delivering a speech on the House floor shortly after Jan. 6, during which he called the attack on the Capitol un-American." At the time, McCarthy called the assault among the saddest days of his career and told his fellow Republicans that Trump bears responsibility for the violence.

Even after the violence, though, McCarthy joined half of the House Republicans in voting to challenge Bidens 2020 election victory.

Since then, the California Republican has distanced himself from any criticism of Trump and has avoided directly linking him to what happened. Within weeks of the siege at the Capitol, McCarthy said he did not think Trump provoked the attack, as other prominent Republicans said at the time.

Instead, McCarthy has cozied up to Trump, visiting the former president at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.

McCarthy, 57, has been strategically charting his own delicate course toward the speaker's gavel, well aware of the support he'll need from hard-right members who have created headaches with inflammatory actions and statements.

No other Republican leader in the House has amassed the standing to challenge McCarthy for the leadership. McCarthy has recruited the class of newcomers bolstering GOP ranks and raised millions to bolster Republican campaigns. He has tried to temper his closest rivals, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, even as he works to shore up the votes that would be needed to become speaker.

So long as Trump continues to back McCarthy, whom he had once fondly called My Kevin, the job is the Californians to lose.

Several Republican lawmakers came out in force Friday to defend McCarthy and reiterate that his road to speakership is still on track.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, tweeted that months from now, Republicans will win back the majority and and Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House.

On a Fox Business show, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she supports McCarthy 100%.

Still, McCarthy has also been a person of interest for the House committee investigating the storming of the Capitol on Jan 6. The select committee, which Cheney vice-chairs, requested an interview with McCarthy in mid-January, seeking information on his communications with Trump and White House staff in the week after the violence, including a conversation with Trump that was reportedly heated.

McCarthy issued a statement at the time saying he would refuse to cooperate because he saw the investigation as not legitimate and accused the panel of abuse of power.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
IMF team will support Sri Lankas efforts to overcome the current economic crisis by working closely with the authorities on their economic program

Following statement issued by the IMF on 23 April 2022

Washington, DC: During the 2022 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other senior members of IMF management met with a Sri Lankan delegation, led by Finance Minister Ali Sabry and Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe, and discussed policy actions to address economic challenges. The IMF team for Sri Lanka held initial technical discussions on an IMF-supported program with the delegation. Masahiro Nozaki, mission chief for Sri Lanka, issued the following statement today:

During April 1822, the Sri Lankan delegation and the IMF team had fruitful technical discussions on the authorities request for an IMF-supported program. The discussions covered recent economic and financial developments in Sri Lanka, the need for implementing a credible and coherent strategy to restore macroeconomic stability, and the importance of stronger social safety nets to mitigate the adverse impact of the current economic crisis on the poor and vulnerable. The IMF team welcomed the authorities plan to engage in a collaborative dialogue with their creditors.

Going forward, the IMF team will support Sri Lankas efforts to overcome the current economic crisis by working closely with the authorities on their economic program, and by engaging with all other stakeholders in support of a timely resolution of the crisis.
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.

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.

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 CLUE, which collects and reports auto and personal property claims. You can request your comprehensive report at 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.

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 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.
On a partly cloudy spring morning, a full compliment of Rotarians and the current 14 members of the CEO program with their instructor  dressed smartly in their business casual  gathered April 12 in the Holiday Inn Express meeting room. Never had so many chairs been used during a Sunrise Rotary meeting.

Rotarians in attendance were President Jane Becker, Don Pigg, Sonie Smith, Sarah Edmiston, Jay Jamison, Pat Pennell, Gordon Jumper, Sarah Robinson, Brittany Nickel, Cindy Boehlke and Linda Meece, making it a perfect-attendance meeting. Chatter quieted when President Jane Becker rang the meeting open at 6:58 a.m., followed by Jay leading the Pledge of Allegiance, Gordon leading the recitation of the Four-Way Test, and Pat Pennell giving the invocation.

Rotations were made by Jay, Jane, Sarah Robinson, Sonie and Don. Pat gave all the Rotarians a chance to donate to the scholarship fund with Recognitions. President Jane explained all the clubs strange ways to the patient high school seniors. The previous Saturdays Food Raiser was discussed. Some 500 pounds of food and hygiene items were collected at County Market for The Salvation Army. Don, who transported the donations, weighed his pick-up truck twice so we knew how much was gathered. The club reimbursed him the $25 cost. We will have to wait to learn the amount of the monetary donations, because no one had a key to the red kettle. The grant was discussed. Club members were reminded to sell red geraniums at $5 each. Forms need to be turned in at next weeks meeting.

Finally, Jenifer Sellars, facilitator for the Morgan/Scott CEO program, stepped up to the podium to introduce the students and explain how the CEO program helps the student become entrepreneurs. We learned about the club business to raise seed money, about funding and mentors, how the students join, and more. While successfully using a laptop and projector, each student introduced their business, what school they attend, their plans for the future, and how many sets of twins are involved with the club. After several questions, each student shook President Janes hand. There were several group pictures taken before President Jane rang the meeting to a close at 7:30 a.m.

 Submitted by Sarah Edmiston

Jacksonville Noon Rotary

President Cathy Jo Littleton Wahl called to order the April15 meeting of Jacksonville Rotary Club at noon at Hamiltons. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and America was sung.

Volunteers were thanked, including Phyllis Lape, Jan Ryan, Joan McQuillan and Kevin Heitz, greeters and 50-50; Craig Albers and Joe Kaufmann, sergeants-at-arms; Cathy Jo Littleton-Wahl, Reflections; note taker Anne Jackson; Craig Albers, Recognitions and Rotations; and tech guru Dan Lepper.

Announcements:

 The Scholar-Athlete Banquet will be at 6 p.m. April 28.

 The Polio Plus Jars are on the tables.

 We are looking for host families for the exchange program.

 Mike Schneider encouraged people to participate in Rotary Day at the Ball Park.

 Anne Jackson encouraged the group to vote for a name for the newly revamped tree program. More information coming!

 The club was honored this week by the United Way for club participation in its efforts.

 Joe Kaufmann encouraged folks to participate in the Positive Impact Project at 8:45 a.m. April 23.

Upcoming events:

April 16: District Assembly at John Woods Community College in Quincy

April 18: Fourth of July Parade Committee meets at 5 p.m.

April 23: Positive Impact Project starts at 8:45 a.m.

April 27: Jacksonville Area Museum (volunteer opportunity)

April 28: Scholar-Athlete Banquet

April 29: Fifth Friday Social; there will be no noon meeting.

May 2: Tree Committee meets at 8:30 a.m. at Kims Place.

May 2: Membership Committee meets at noon at the Chamber of Commerce office.

May 2: Community Service Committee meets at 4 p.m. at 405 Finley St.

May 2: First Monday at Bahans

May 4: Wheel Committee will meet at 5 p.m. at the Home Instead office.

Craig Albers was in charge of Recognitions and Rotations. We heard from and collected a dollar from Bob McLin, Jan Ryan, Dan Lepper and Chuck Sheaff.

We welcomed past-District Gov. Rod Buffington, who was in charge of the program and did a great job.

Keith Lape drew unsuccessfully for the 50-50 drawing.

The Four-Way Test was recited and the meeting was adjourned at 1 p.m.

 Submitted by Anne Jackson

South Inn-Morganettes Home Extension Unit

South Inn-Morganettes Home Extension Unit met April 18 at the Home Extension Office.

Joyce Winner was our hostess and began the meeting by leading members in the Pledge of Allegiance. There were seven members present. Each member answered roll call by sharing spring flowers that are growing in their yards.

The March minutes were read and approved. Nancy Wynn gave the treasurer's report, noting six members paid our unit's $5 dues for this year. She also reminded those who haven't yet paid the Morgan County yearly membership dues to do so this month.

Joyce reminded members of the upcoming Morgan County HCE annual meeting on June 16. It will be at the Home Extension Office with registration at 9:30 a.m. The speaker will be a representative from Ameren Illinois to share information on how they are working to create safe havens for butterflies, bees, birds and other pollinators in select right-of-way locations.

Joyce presented an interesting lesson on "Happy Hacks for More Positivity and Improved Well-Being" followed by members participating in a fun discussion.

Refreshments were served by hostess Joyce Winner.

Our next meeting will be at 1:30 p.m. May 15 at the Home Extension Office. Doris Heady will be the hostess. Mary Jo Sparrow will present the lesson on edible centerpieces.

 Submitted by Mary Jo Sparrow

Morgan County Right to Life

Morgan County Right to Life will have a flower and plant sale from noon to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday  or until items are sold out  at K.C. Hall, 320 E. State St.

For more information or preorders, call Evelyn Gonzalez at 217-243-4940 or 217-473-2234.

 Submitted by Mary Gray

Carlinville Area Hospital Auxiliary

Carlinville Area Hospital Auxiliary will have its first dinner meeting of the year at 5:30 p.m. May 10 at Carlinville United Methodist Church on South Broad Street, just off the town square.

Reservations are required to Vice President Rhonda Caveny-Jones at 217-854-7607 by May 6.

Guests are welcome to any auxiliary meeting but are especially encouraged to attend the dinner meetings in May and November. The dinner meeting offers insight into the organizations programs, activities, future plans and, in some cases, matters on which to vote.

Guests will have a chance to socialize with members and other guests and will have a chance to become auxiliary members if they choose. Membership is always voluntary. Prospective members are not required to live in Carlinville; the auxiliary encourages those in surrounding communities to help support our local hospital.

Membership options include paying the $10 annual dues to be designated as an active member who wants to be involved in the organizations programs and paying $15 annual dues as an inactive member who wants to support the organization without active involvement in its activities.

Since the new hospital was built in November 2011, the auxiliary has collected $16,450 in active and inactive membership dues that contribute to the auxiliarys fundraising efforts.

We have 117 members right now and we are always looking for new members, especially younger people and more men to help balance our core membership, membership coordinator Kelly Kaganich said. Were a diverse group but we still look for new ideas and new approaches to what we already do well.

For more information, contact Kaganich at 217-854-7317.

Since November 2011, the auxiliary has presented more than $180,000 in cash and material contributions to the hospital. The money raised is intended to enhance and enrich the patient health care provided by Carlinville Area Hospital and its clinics.

Among the groups fundraising efforts and programs are:

 Retail Therapy Gift Shop: Housed in the hospital lobby, the gift shop is the primary source of funding for equipment, programs, hardware, software and service enhancements that benefit patients and hospital staff.

 Commemorative Brick Program: Started in 2010 to help fund the new hospital, the program continues because of ongoing demand for the etched pavers that comprise the patio in front of the hospital. With the brick program and a successful Follies night, the auxiliary surpassed its original $75,000 pledge, increased it to $100,000 and then surpassed that goal. It since has generated an additional $14,000 from brick sales.

 Blood drives: While not a fundraising effort, the auxiliarys three annual blood drives are an important community service. The three drives produce, on average, between 150 and 175 pints of blood in its various forms: whole blood, plasma, double reds and platelets. The donated blood is distributed through ImpactLife to Springfield-area hospitals and clinics, including Carlinville Area Hospital.

 The CareLink Emergency-Alert Program: This program provides patients in need of emergency care away from the hospital with an easy, press-of-a-button alert to responsive medical professionals. The cost is minimal, with a small percentage going to the auxiliary for its hospital-support efforts.

 Greeter-Escort Service: Although suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, auxiliary volunteers would be stationed in the hospital lobby to greet incoming patients and guide them and visitors to their destination within the hospital. Volunteers perform the same greeter-escort roles during auxiliary blood drives.

 Medical-Career College Scholarship Program: Started in 2016, this program provides $1,000 scholarships to each of two Macoupin County high school students who have shown exemplary academic performance and community service contributions and plan to pursue a career in a medical field at a fully accredited college or university.

 The 5K Fun Run & Walk: Suspended during the pandemic, this one-day event provided an opportunity for runners, joggers and walkers to have fun while getting into shape or staying in shape. All participants received free, commemorative T-shirts and were awarded trophies in various age groups. Proceeds from the run went to the auxiliarys support fund.

 Daisy and Tulip Awards: These two awards celebrate exceptional service on the part of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and related support staff. Recipients are given commemorative awards and special treats. The Daisy and Tulip awards recognize individuals, but they are also symbols of the high levels of achievement and TLC the entire nursing staff reaches every day, Auxiliary President Patty Bouillon said.

The May dinner meeting is part of our continuing effort to communicate our goals and our action plans to the hospital staff and to the public, Bouillon said. The meeting also gives non-members a chance to see what a dynamic organization we are and how we have evolved from the auxiliary that formed when the original Carlinville Area Hospital opened in 1952. We have many more members now and, with men joining, we have a more diverse group.

 Submitted by Rich Minster

 Compiled by Angela Bauer
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With the fluctuation of the weather, farmers waiting to plant their crop have to pay close attention to predictions in hopes of planting their corn or soybeans at just the right time.

To early and the seeds could be hit with a freeze or too late and there won't be enough time to grow.

Morgan County farmer Wes White said it comes down to planning and preparing.

"We like about 10 days of dry weather to plant," White said. "You want everything planned out so when it's time to go, you can go."

Though in Illinois, the weather changes so drastically that farmers play a bit of a guessing game and all they can do is make sure they are ready to go when the time comes.

White said for farmers, planning is a major part of getting a good crop and getting things done on time.

Though there are the things they can't plan for, White said there are steps to take that help minimize the impact of nature.

White said a big part of dealing with the struggles weather brings is taking care of the fields.

Decisions on tilling the field, drainage and cover crops help farmers as they deal with the various weather.

"It all starts with soil health," White said.

The way farmers till their fields is one aspects that impact soil health and field conditions.

Leaving stocks on the field after harvest helps prevent soil erosion and provides nutrients to the soil. Or for some fields, planting cover crops also helps prevents erosion or soil from washing away during heavy rains.

"It helps protect the ground and contains moisture," White said. "When it rains, the rain doesn't hit loose soil."

The other way of dealing with heavy rains is having drainage tile that will allow excess water to drain off the field. Having the proper drainage prevents standing water and prevents the lose of soil or chemicals.

When it comes time to plant, the weather can determine when a farmer gets into the field.

"We have to watch the long-term forecast so we don't plant too soon," White said.

White said having the properly maintained equipment is necessary.

When the weather is bad and farmers can not be in the fields, White said he takes the time to make sure his equipment is ready to go.

"You have to make sure the equipment is ready to go when you get that chance," White said. "You don't want to miss it because your equipment broke down.."

Aaron Dufelmeier, the director of the University of Illinois Extension Office serving Calhoun, Cass, Greene, Morgan and Scott counties, said planting times are determined by a variety of aspects, including the weather and number of acres.

"Someone with more acres will need more time to plant," Dufelmeier said. "Mother Nature can affect or change a farmer's plan."

The development in equipment has also helped.

Dufelmeier said the advances in technology have made the process of planting easier and quicker, allowing farmers to plant in smaller time frames.

"Farmers have to be prepared in that April time frame according to the growing calendar," Dufelmeier said. "Even though it's cold, wet and windy, it doesn't feel like planting season."

The development of seeds has also helped farmers when dealing with the weather.

Hybrid seeds have changed over the years, allowing farmers to plant with less risk of a seed failing to sprout if there is a little change in the weather.

"Plants are more resilient," White said. "These hybrids can withstand more, making a heartier plant."

The hybrid seeds have been developed to withstand colder temperatures, so if there is a minor freeze after planted most should survive, White said.

Also, seeds have been developed with a drought guard that can withstand periods without rain.

"They keep trying to come up with ways to protect against things like that," White said.

White said it is getting harder for farmers to predict the weather, however.

"It seems the weather goes more from one extreme to the other," he said.

With climate change, White said many farmers look at ways to go green.

"Climate change is one of the biggest issues," White said. "We need to do things to prevent it and slow the big swings in the weather extremes."

Farmers with livestock also have to take precautions.

Shelter and bedding are the most important things for live stock when there are weather events.

"If you are having weather, you have to make sure there is dry bedding, a place for them to lay," White said. "There also should be some type of wind break because you don't want them standing in the wind."

White said farmers have to plan for more food when the weather is cold because animals tend to eat more during colder weather.

Dufelmeier said farmers are at the mercy of the weather.

"We can only do what we can do and have to leave it up to Mother Nature to do the rest," Dufelmeier said.
Just days after the state shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois farmer and brewer Matt Riggs faced a sober reckoning.

"We were a draft-only brewery, so I had $100,000 worth of beer packaged in kegs and ready to go, and with the bars and restaurants, closed, I had zero market," said Riggs, owner of Riggs Beer Co. in Urbana.

But as a fifth generation grain farmer whose family has witnessed the devastation wrought by droughts and floods dating back to the 19th Century, the disaster that arrived in March 2020 prompted Riggs to pivot, not panic.

After locating a mobile canner, Riggs began transferring his kegged beer supply, that was originally headed to wholesalers, into aluminum cans, and before long, the company's new retail product was on the shelves at central Illinois grocers, including Wal-Mart and Schnucks.

And since Riggs grows and harvests the grain for the brewery on 60 of the 316 acres at his family farm, the business managed to avoid supply chain disruptions that have hampered many food and beverage operations two years into the pandemic.

"The pandemic forced our hand, because I had always liked being draft only," said Riggs, adding that the brewery is now seeing a resurgence in orders for its draft beer in kegs, due to stepped up demand from bars and restaurants.

"It's been a weird couple of years, and I wish it would never have happened, but you have to deal with reality," Riggs said.

Despite enduring two years of pandemic-era hardships, many Illinois farmers like Riggs say their decisions to take risks and embrace new business models two years ago have led to some silver linings.

From local growers who avoided supply chain and transportation troubles that continue to impede large companies importing products from overseas, to the surging popularity of home delivered fruits and vegetables, many Illinois food purveyors say they are surviving, and in some instances, thriving.

"For farmers who could change their business operations quickly, including the cashless delivery of local foods, it worked out well, and it might not have happened without the pandemic," said Douglas Gucker, a local food systems and small farms educator at the University of Illinois Extension office.

"They had to quickly morph and change, and for some farmers, the transition went really well, and today, they're bigger and better," Gucker said.

Given the dependence on weather and trade conditions, farmers face high levels of risk and a modest return in profits even during the best of times, Gucker said.

But for Illinois farmers who took the initiative, and quickly created "e-stores" to take advantage of new demand for their products, the now ubiquitous grocery delivery model allowed them to continue operating, even during the early days of the pandemic.

"As a farmer, in addition to having plan A, you need to always be ready to move to plan B and plan C as the situation warrants," Gucker said.

"Farming is a rewarding life, and also full of risk, and they do this because they love growing and supplying food, but to live, they need to make a living too," Gucker said.

For farmer John Peterson, the founder of Angelic Organics, the early days of the pandemic brought a 50% surge in demand for his organic vegetables, including a crew of new customers who were alarmed by empty shelves and supply chain shortages at their neighborhood grocery stores.

"It was a very hard thing to do, and we were under a lot of pressure, but people seemed desperate," said Peterson, 72, who operates his community supported agriculture farm, known as a CSA, in Caledonia, Ill., about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

Some Illinois growers, including Gotham Greens, which operates two urban farms in Chicago's Pullman Park neighborhood, continue to see high demand.

"With indoor farming, you take the climate variant out of the equation, and can deliver locally grown produce 365 days of the year," said Viraj Puri, founder and CEO of the New York City-based company, which operates a network of greenhouses across the U.S.

By embracing a sustainable agriculture ethos  the greenhouses use 95% less water and 97% less land than conventional farms  Gotham Greens has a dramatically shorter production and distribution supply chain, allowing them to deliver lettuce and basil within hours, Puri said.

"We saw a huge bump in demand since the pandemic started, and it has been steadily increasing, so we're doing our best to keep up," Puri said.

Gotham Greens products grown at the Chicago greenhouses and sold at area supermarkets, including Whole Foods and Jewel-Osco, are not only fresher, but they have a longer shelf life, Puri said.

"We have a lot of consistency and reliability in our supply chain, and at a lower cost, because we're not having to ship our greens thousands of miles away from where they're grown," Puri said.

Chicago Region Food System Fund has awarded more than $8.4 million in grants to 105 nonprofit organizations during the pandemic to address hunger and business disruption by supporting local food systems.

While the funding was originally planned as a series of grants awarded from June 2020 through early 2021, officials have extended the grantmaking through 2022.

"What we really found interesting, was how quickly people pivoted after the initial shock," said Karen Lehman, director of Fresh Taste, which manages the fund.

One problem exacerbated by the pandemic was the negative impact of the consolidation of food processing and storage facilities across the U.S., Lehman said.

"Some of the meat processing plants didn't keep their workers safe, and they ended up with COVID," Lehman said.

"There were bottlenecks and pileups, which really showed the need for decentralization, and not just for meat processing, but for grain millers too," Lehman said.

For Liz Stelk, executive director of the nonprofit Illinois Stewardship Alliance, a $227,000 grant from Lehman's organization will provide funding to 27 farms, all of which are within a 300-mile radius of Chicago.

"We've gotten a bunch of different proposals, everything from those in need of a really large, walk-in freezer for storage, those who need to extend their water lines for irrigation, and farms that need trucks to transport their products to markets," Stelk said.

The local food evolution is not only about buying and eating local produce, meat, dairy and other products, but improving equity, food access and economic development, said Raghela Scavuzzo, associate director of food systems development at the Illinois Farm Bureau.

"Illinois had seen steady growth in the development of the local food infrastructure leading up to the pandemic, which I think is the reason why our farmers were really prepared and ready to pivot," Scavuzzo said.
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The following are being sought on arrest warrants, according to various sheriffs departments. The addresses listed are the last known addresses provided by the warrants and may be outdated.

 David A. Feehery, 28, of 368 Illinois Route 106 W., Winchester, is being sought on a warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

He is a white male standing 6 foot 1 and weighing 235 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes.

 Rikki M. Farris, 27, of 1019 March St., Beardstown, is being sought on a warrant accusing her of failing to appear in court on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

She is a white female standing 5 foot 1 and weighing 100 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 James R. Merryman, 55, of 556 N. Detton St., Pittsfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:15 p.m. Thursday on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Brian C. Downs, 40, of 750 E. Chambers St. was arrested at 1:43 p.m. Friday in the 200 block of East Morton Avenue on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. He also was charged with resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

 A 12-year-old girl was cited at 1:40 p.m. Friday on a charge of disorderly conduct for fighting with another student at Jacksonville Middle School, 664 Lincoln Ave.

 Steven E. Easley, 42, homeless, was arrested at 7:05 p.m. Thursday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and criminal trespassing after police said he was at a location in the 400 block of South Clay Avenue from which he was prohibited.

ACCIDENTS

 Clyde L. Hazelwood, 87, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of disobeying a traffic control device after the car he was driving and one being driven by Carolyn I. Hadden, 79, of Jacksonville collided at 1:32 p.m. Thursday at West Walnut Street and Westgate Avenue.

OTHER REPORTS

 Police are investigating a report that a man pointed a firearm at a woman about 9:20 p.m. Thursday in the 300 block of Ninth Avenue.

 Police are investigating a report that a man pulled a knife on people in a car at 7:50 p.m. Thursday in the 100 block of South Johnson Street.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
apos tophy/Getty Images

Rotary Club of Jacksonville is putting new roots into its tree program by relaunching it with the name Rotary Green.

Since 2015, the program formerly known as Jacksonville Tree Project, has involved donations of upward of $40,000 to plant trees across town.
"Go play!" Who hasn't heard this from their parents? This phrase meant spending time outside, with friends, or playing with traditional toys for generations of kids. And then there was a pandemic. But even before that, today's pop culture, entices young children away from conventional play (blocks, puzzles, books, trucks, dolls, and pretend) by the lure of screen time on electronic devices.

According to the Pew Research Center, 26% of U.S. parents surveyed reported that their children aged 11 or younger spend too much time on smartphones or playing video games. Pew Research also noted that a whopping 60% of children "began engaging with a smartphone before the age of 5."

The case for reading

These statistics cause alarm, as child development experts from the Michigan Health Lab have found that kids spend more time on electronic devices instead of participating in traditional childhood play. The American Academy of Pediatrics proposes that children between the ages of two and five have no more than one hour of screen time per day, a recommendation some disagree with.

"I don't advise giving young children access to electronic devices or screens at all during early childhood," said Dr. Errol Baptist, who maintains a thriving practice and teaches medical students as a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. "What I tell parents from the beginning is that children should learn how to read. Reading to children starts during pregnancy. From that point onward, parents should encourage children to read, first with picture books and then with books containing prose. The important thing is to emphasize reading, learning, and acquiring knowledge; not learning how to kill someone in a video game."

The benefits of hands-on childhood play, Baptist says, are numerous. "Traditional toy play makes kids think; it allows them to develop critical-thinking skills, construct things and use their imaginations. Kids understand relationships when they can take stuffed animals or dolls and put them in real-life situations."

"When kids come in for an office visit, I will first check up' their stuffed animal and then do a check up on the child. Traditional play gives kids the opportunity to develop their ideas instead of having a screen tell them what to do," he said.

Baptist advocates screen time for kids on an age-dependent basis only, which he feels should start later in childhood. However, he acknowledges that educational television shows and computer learning games supplement traditional play and reading.

"In my 45 years of my pediatric practice, based on experience and evidence, it is obvious that children exposed to reading do well later in life. If parents start with a habit of reading, this teaches children the importance of life-long learning. Children who learn to read at an early age have that practice ingrained in them."

Developmental divide

Another compelling reason to severely limit screen time for kids relates to brain development in young children. Elaine Sharpe, associate professor of psychology at Rockford University, explains why. "Children aged three and younger cannot determine the real world from the fantasy world. Watching a screen confuses some of their reasoning and presents the world in two dimensions. Young children are tactile, hands-on learners, and that is not how things present on a screen."

Sharpe said traditional play also helps children develop skills they will utilize throughout their lives. "Traditional play helps foster creativity. The situations children act out with their toys mimic what they are going through in real life. They're trying to integrate their own lives into their imaginative play."

"Interactive make-believe play, especially with peers, siblings, or family members, also develops a young child's ability to read faces, understand social skills and learn empathy," she said.

Sharpe says that relying on electronic devices to entertain children poses developmental risks. "Increased screen time over creative play can lead to sleep issues, behavior problems, and obesity. Because a screen can change rapidly, it's harder for children to process what they see, possibly contributing to attention deficit disorders."

"When kids play with traditional toys, they are in charge of the action; it moves at their pace. Children have time to process the scene because they are orchestrating it," she said. "Traditional play sets the foundation for decision making, problem solving and fine motor skills."

Play-based curriculum

Engaging young children in traditional play is the basis for Rockford Public Schools' early childhood curriculum. Vicki Sherman, a preschool teacher for 21 years, has her classroom set up to facilitate hands-on interaction among her students.

"I have various play-based centers which the kids rotate through each day. They plan and review what centers they visit. My students can choose dramatic play, block building, science, reading, manipulatives, art, and sensory centers," she said. "I also have the Cozy Cube, which is an area where kids can retreat and have some quiet time."

Since beginning her career, Sherman said that electronic device usage among her students has become more commonplace.

"I have seen a change in my students' behaviors through the years as technology has evolved. Nowadays, kids start engaging with electronic devices when they're practically babies; they struggle to pay attention and have shorter attention spans."

"When I first started teaching preschool, there were no smartphones or tablets, so there were fewer ways small children could engage in screen time," she said. "Kids just had TV or educational computer games."

Sherman advocates reading and play, encouraging young children to use their fine motor skills. "Writing skills seem to be more difficult for young children to master. Kids are playing on electronic devices instead of using crayons or coloring books. Any toy that helps children build fine motor skills can be very beneficial."
A celebration of Celtic culture is coming to New Berlin next month.

The Springfield Area Highland Games and Celtic Festival will be from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. May 14 at the Sangamon County Fairgrounds. The event will include competitions for traditional Celtic athletic events such as the caber toss, sheaf toss and Scottish hammer throw.

In addition to sports, the festival will include Celtic animals  Clydesdale horses, Highland cows and Irish wolfhounds  Highland dance and piping competitions, a British car show, and demonstrations of historical European martial arts by the Society for Creative Anachronism. Musical performers include traditional Irish music group Turas, Celtic folk band Broken Brogue and Celtic fusion band The Emerald Underground.

The event is held yearly by the St. Andrew's Society of Central Illinois, a nonprofit organization that seeks to educate and promote Celtic culture throughout the state.

The tradition of the Highland Games is said to have begun in 2000 B.C. in Ireland before migrating to Scotland in the fourth and fifth centuries. In the United States, the first Highland Games took place in 1836 in New York, with one in Detroit soon after. Today, there are more than 200 Highland Games taking place across the U.S. and Canada.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for children and seniors. A limited number of V.I.P. tickets are $20 for children, $45 for adults or $80 for two adults. Tickets are available online at the societys website, centralillinoiscelts.com.
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TOKYO (AP)  A tour boat with 26 people aboard was missing in the frigid waters of northern Japan on Saturday, hours after sending a distress call that it was sinking, the coast guard said.

No survivors have been found after more than 10 hours of intense search involving six patrol boats, five aircraft and divers. The coast guard said it will continue the search through the night.

The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in early afternoon, saying the ships bow had flooded and it was beginning to sink and tilt while traveling off the western coast of Shiretoko Peninsula in the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said.

The tour boat has since lost contact, according to the coast guard. It said the boat was carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew.

Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing.

An official of the vessel's operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment as he had to respond to calls from worried families of the passengers.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was attending a two-day water summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan, was canceling his program for Sunday and was set to return to Tokyo to deal with the missing boat, the NHK public broadcaster reported.

High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fisheries cooperative. Japanese media reports said fishing boats had returned to port before noon because of the bad weather.

NHK said there was a warning for high waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet) high.

Yoshihiko Yamada, a Tokai University marine science professor, said the boat was likely to have run aground after it was tossed around in high waves and damaged, flooded and probably sank. A tour boat of that size usually does not carry a life boat, and passengers possibly could not jump out of a rapidly sinking vessel with its windows probably closed to shield them from strong winds.

In an interview with the TBS television, Yamada said there is also a slight possibility that the boat might have been hit by a whale.

The cold temperature and strong wind could cause hypothermia and put the passengers in severe conditions for survival, according to Jun Abe, vice chairman of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research. It's a very severe condition especially when they are wet," Abe told TBS.

According to the operator's website, the tour takes about three hours and offers a scenic view of the western coast of the peninsula, including the nature and animals such as whales, dolphins and the brown bear. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous as the southernmost region to see drifting sea ice.
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Planting season has arrived in Ukraine. Boot marks stamped in the frozen earth have thawed. But the Pavlovych family's fields remain untouched in a lonely landscape of checkpoints and churches.

The family learned their 25-year-old soldier son, Roman, had been killed near the besieged city of Mariupol. And, the father, also named Roman, left for the war himself.

"The front line is full of our best people. And now they are dying," said the mother, Maria. In tears, she sat in her son's bedroom in their warm brick home, his medals and photos spread before her.

The Pavlovych family knows a second front line in Russia's war runs through the farmland here in western Ukraine, far from the daily resistance against the invasion. It is an uphill battle for farmers to feed not only their country but the world.

Ukraine and Russia account for a third of global wheat and barley exports, leaving millions across North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia facing the potential loss of access to the affordable supplies they need for bread and noodles. The war has raised the specter of food shortages and political instability in countries reliant on Ukrainian wheat, including Indonesia, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon.

It is unclear how many farmers will be able to plant or tend to their harvests with the war raging, forcing those like Pavlovych to the front lines. And the challenges keep growing.

Infrastructure  from ports and roads to farm equipment  is snarled and damaged, meaning critical supplies like fuel are difficult to get and routes for export almost impossible to reach. Fertilizer producers are paralyzed by nearby fighting, and a prolonged winter may disrupt spring yields.

"How can we sow under the blows of Russian artillery? How can we sow when the enemy deliberately mines the fields, destroys fuel bases?" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a recent address. "We do not know what harvest we will have and whether we'll be able to export."

An airport not far from the Pavlovych home was bombed in the early days of the war, sending unexploded ordnance into nearby fields now planted with warning signs instead of corn.

The thudding sounds of efforts to safely dispose of the ordnance could be heard last week beside the younger Pavlovych's flower-strewn grave.

There is no time to lose, even as families mourn. The northwestern Lviv region near the border with Poland, far from the heart of what is known as Ukraine's breadbasket in the south, is being asked to plant all the available fields it can, said Ivan Kilgan, head of the regional agricultural association.

Still, the region won't be able to reach its pre-war levels.

"We are expecting to produce more than 50 million tons of cereals. Previously, we produced more than 80 million tons. It's logical. Less land, less harvest," Kilgan said.

Standing in a frigid barn containing more than 1,000 tons of wheat and soy, Kilgan vowed to send tons of flour to feed Ukraine's army. He's planting 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) this year, up from 1,200 hectares (around 3,000 acres).

And yet he's short on fertilizer. For the extra production he plans, he needs more than double the 300 tons of fertilizer he has.

"If the world wants Ukrainian bread, it needs to help with this," Kilgan said. In his office, he showed blueprints for more grain elevators and put them aside with frustration: "Now, these are just paper."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the world to avert "a hurricane of hunger" from the disruption to Ukrainian grains, which the World Food Program relies on for about half of its wheat supplies.

Alternative wheat supplies will be more expensive and hit poor households elsewhere in the world, said Megan Konar, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign whose research focuses on the intersection of food, water and trade.

"Winter wheat is the biggest wheat crop in Ukraine and Russia, which was planted last fall and due to be harvested early this summer," she said. "This crop would be impacted if people are not available to work in the fields to harvest."

Corn, which is planted in the spring, also will be affected if fighting impedes farmers, she added.

That's true of those whose fields have been mined or bombed in parts of the heavily hit southern and central key growing areas, said Tetyana Hetman, head of the agriculture department in the Lviv region.

"We have already been approached by farmers from other regions to find land plots that they can cultivate" in the Lviv region to try to ensure the country's food security, she said.

Concerned about feeding its own people, Ukraine's government has limited exports of oats, millet, buckwheat, sugar, salt, rye, cattle and meat. Under specific licensing, wheat, corn, chicken meat and eggs, and sunflower oil can be shipped.

Ukraine does have sufficient food reserves, deputy minister of agrarian policy and food Taras Vysotsky told local media.

He said Ukraine consumes 8 million tons of wheat per year and has about 6 million tons on hand. It also has a two-year supply of corn, a five-year supply of sunflower oil and enough sugar for 1 years.

Many Ukrainians have more immediate worries than harvests, with their country at stake.

An estimated 500 residents have gone to war out of 14,500 in the largely agricultural villages in this part of the Lviv region, said Bogdan Yusviak, who leads the local territorial council.

In his village, Pavlovych was the first to die.

His parents don't know how it happened. The first hint that something had gone terribly wrong was the arrival of their son's belongings by mail. Thirty minutes later, someone called about his death, his mother said.

Roman loved farming, his parents said, the way he loved to take in stray animals. Even at the front, he would advise his parents on questions like whether to plant potatoes this year. He told his father, in training for battle, that he'd be more useful at home and in the fields.

Now, those fields lay empty. "We have no time," his father said, his hands clasped before him.

Standing outside near the gate of their home, his mother looked up at the evergreen trees nearby.

"Those trees grew up with him," Maria Pavlovych said of her son. Now, she said, she and his girlfriend go to the cemetery and take turns crying.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to meet separately with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine next week to make urgent, face-to-face pleas for peace, the world body said Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Guterres is to meet Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that Putin will also host the U.N. chief.

The U.N. later said that Guterres will head Thursday to Ukraine to see President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

In both visits, Guterres aims to discuss steps that can be taken right now to stop the fighting and help people get to safety, U.N. spokesperson Eri Kaneko said.

He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently," she said.

Guterres had asked Tuesday to meet with the presidents in their respective capitals.

Guterres has urged Russia to stop its attack since it began two months ago, in what he called the saddest moment in his five years in the U.N.'s top job. He appealed Tuesday for a four-day humanitarian pause in fighting leading up to Sunday's Orthodox Easter holiday.

Stop the bloodshed and destruction. Open a window for dialogue and peace," he implored.

Guterres sent the U.N.'s top humanitarian official to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month to explore the possibilities of a cease-fire.

But the secretary-general had faced questions about whether he himself should travel to press for peace. In a recent letter, former U.N. officials called on him to step up his personal, public involvement.

Whatever overtures may have been made privately, the now-planned trip is a visible symbol of what the United Nations is supposed to be standing for, which is peace and security, one of the letter-writers, former U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, said by phone Friday.

I dont think any of us should have exaggerated expectations about what the secretary-general will be able to accomplish, but he has significant moral power, said Feltman, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Its important that the secretary-general have these conversations.

Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon went to Moscow and Kyiv in March 2014 to try to foster talks and diplomacy as Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
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Soil, being one of the most critical parts of farming, is something that all farmers must keep a very close eye on if they want to have a good crop.

Healthy soil requires a combination of various factors. For one, it needs to be made of around 1% to 4% of organic matter to feed nutrients to crops, as well as have a pH level between 6.3% to 7%.

An important part of good soil is structure, or the way particles organize themselves. Duane Friend, state master naturalist for the University of Illinois Extension, said the topsoil should look like crumbs of dirt.

Each time you pick up a little crumb, Friend said, thats thousands and thousands and thousands of individual soil particles. And that lets water move through that soil better and that lets roots move through that soil better.

Farmers must look out for many threats to their soils quality. One such issue is compaction, where heavy objects like harvesting equipment crush the soil underneath, destroying its structure. Friend said that, once broken, soil structure can take years, decades or even hundreds of years to rebuild.

One of the most persistent threats to farmers soil is erosion, usually from heavy rainfall. According to a 2021 article from the National Resources Defense Council, erosion is responsible for more than $36 billion in productivity losses in the U.S. every year.

There are a multitude of ways that farmers try to maintain their soils health. One way is reducing or eliminating the amount of tillage done on their land.

However, Friend acknowledged that sometimes, tilling is unavoidable. Some farmers, such as Hunter Sauer of Sauer Farms in Winchester, also say low-to-no-till farming has the potential to carry illnesses that affect crops.

Basically, he said, most of your bugs and diseases and stuff live on the top of the ground in the residue. Its good once in a while to get that turned over.

As for the issue of erosion, farmers can minimize its effects by using techniques like planting cover crops in between growing seasons, which maintain both soil and root structure when normal crops are absent.

At Sauer Farms, two of the ways farmers deal with rain-based erosion are tile and grassed waterways.

Tile refers to perforated plastic piping that runs underneath fields and collects excess water from the soil to runoff areas. Risers that stick above ground funnel water that gathers on the field.

Meanwhile, grassed waterways are strips of vegetation planted on slopes between fields. When heavy rains fall, the water flows down the slopes to a runoff area. Normally, this would carry soil with it, but the grass slows the water down to a degree where any erosion is minimized.

Jenny Sauer-Schmigdall, Hunter Sauers daughter and another farmer at Sauer Farms, said of the two, grassed waterways were more effective at cutting down erosion.

When you have two clear water bottles, she said, and you collect water from the tile and water from the grassed waterways, it is exceptionally clear out of the grass because it has all those different little filters that it gets to go through, and it actually creates a cleaner environment.

However, whether it is tilling practices or erosion prevention, both Sauer and Sauer-Schmigdall said there is no one-size-fits-all solution for farming.

It all depends on what works for you [and] for your land, Sauer-Schmigdall said.
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For years Americans have been told autonomous technology was improving and that driverless vehicles were just around the corner.

Finally theyre here, but to catch a glimpse of them, you'll need to go to a farm rather than look along city streets.

Beginning this fall, green 14-ton tractors that can plow day or night with no one sitting in the cab, or even watching nearby, will come off the John Deere factory assembly line in Waterloo, Iowa, harkening the age of autonomous farming.

The development follows more than a decade-long effort by the worlds largest farm equipment manufacturer, and marks a milestone for automation advocates, who for years have been explaining why driverless cars arent quite ready for prime time.

Im glad to see theyre coming out and will stimulate the other technologies, said Raj Rajkumar, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert in autonomous cars.

Deere isnt saying yet how much the autonomous tractors will cost but the new technology will be added onto tractors that sell for about $500,000, said Ben Haber, a company spokesman. The company plans to operate the autonomous tractors on 10 to 50 farms by this fall before significantly increasing the number in following years.

For the past decade, the supposedly imminent debut of autonomous vehicles on city streets and freeways has been repeatedly pushed off as companies struggled to guarantee their safety.

But, Rajkumar notes, tractors have it easier because they dont need to contend with other vehicles, pedestrians or the complexities of an urban scene. Tractors can make use of consistent GPS data, unlike cars that can lose contact traveling through tunnels or amid tall buildings.

Or as Joel Dawson, a Deere production director, put it, You arent going to see a crosswalk in most cornfields in Iowa or Nebraska.

Modern tractors already have GPS guides that handle steering and turning to ensure optimum plowing, seeding and harvesting. They also use real-time streams of data to make changes if needed because of soil conditions, the amount of fertilizer applied or other factors.

The autonomous tractor will now let farmers hook up a plow behind a tractor, start the machine with a swipe of a smart phone and then leave it to rumble up and down a field on its own.

The driverless tractors are equipped with six pairs of cameras that work like human eyes and can provide a 360-degree image. When filtered through computer algorithms, the tractor is able to determine where it is in the field and will abruptly stop if there is anything unfamiliar in its path.

Farmers often grow crops on different parcels of land that are miles apart, so while the tractor plows in one field a farmer can work at another, drive into town for supplies or spend time with their families at home. Given that less than 2% of Americans work on farms and rural populations have dwindled for decades, the autonomous tractors also are expected to help with chronic labor shortages.

The shift to ever-more sophisticated tractors is part of a movement that emphasizes planting, fertilizing and harvesting during narrow windows of time when conditions are perfect. If new technology can help farmers complete a job when soil and air temperatures are just right ahead of approaching wet weather, for example, it can mean more plentiful crops months later.

If I dont get this field tilled today and it rains tonight, that could mean we dont get the field planted for another week and that has real cost implications in a lot of operations, said Ryan Berman, who works on agricultural technology issues at Iowa State University. If you can move an extra 80 or 100 acres into that optimal window, that can be worth thousands of dollars every year, probably tens of thousands.

Still, the tractor wont be for everyone.

Ed Anderson, director of research for the Iowa Soybean Association, cited the substantial cost, and noted that some farmers prefer hands-on work rather than overseeing operations via a smartphone.

Another industry giant, CNH Industrial, also is developing autonomous capabilities for its Case and New Holland tractors, and other companies are exploring using numerous smaller autonomous machines to handle other farm work.
French election: Macron in pole position, Le Pen racing hard View Photo

PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in the countrys presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home.

A Macron victory in this vote  which could have far-reaching repercussions for Europes future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine  would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist  yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll. Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who will either cast a blank vote or not vote at all.

Overseas French territories allowed voters to start casting ballots Saturday in polling stations that ranged from near the Caribbean shore in the Antilles to the savannahs of French Guiana on the South American coast.

Back on the French mainland, workers assembled a stage Saturday beneath the Eiffel Tower where Macron is expected to make his post-election speech, win or lose.

Frances April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates, and who becomes the countrys next leader  Macron or Le Pen  will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but dont want to see Le Pen in power either. Macron issued multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days in hopes of securing their support.

Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trumps election happened: Im not going, whats the point? I can tell you that they regretted it the next day, Macron warned this week on France 5 television.

So if you want to avoid the unthinkable  choose for yourself! he urged hesitant French voters.

The two rivals were combative in the final days before Sundays election, clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate. No campaigning is allowed through the weekend, and polling is banned.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pens far-right party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger civil war in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right, Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to do everything during his five-year term so that the French have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.

Five years later, that challenge has not been met. Le Pen has consolidated her place on Frances political scene after rebranding herself as less extreme.

Le Pens campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russias war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as Frances first woman president.

She criticized Macrons calamitous presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

Im not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macrons policies  his economic record is also catastrophic, she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, said even if Macron is reelected, there is a big problem, he added. A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.

He said that means Macron will face a big level of mistrust in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while still protecting social benefits. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise Frances minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says thats the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In several European newspapers on Thursday, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about populists and the extreme right who hold Putin as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.

A Le Pen victory would be a traumatic moment, not only for France, but for European Union and for international relationships, especially with the USA, Lazar said, noting that Le Pen wants a distant relationship between France and the USA.

In any case, Sundays winner will soon face another obstacle in governing France: A legislative election in June will decide who controls a majority of seats in Frances National Assembly.

Already, the battles promise to be hard-fought.

___

AP Journalists Catherine Gaschka and Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to that story.

___

Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022

By SYLVIE CORBET

The Associated Press
Ham radio workshop held at Gujarat University A full featured two day Amateur Radio Workshop was conducted by Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP (Regional Coordinator, AMSAT-INDIA) on April 5-6, 2022, at renowned university PDEU in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India



40 highly interested students of EC & ICT (plus faculties) dived into the fascinating World of Amateur Radio for two days. Total 8 hours of packed program was scheduled, on day 1 from 1330 to 1730 & for day 2 0900 to 1300 (IST).



On day 1 (5th April 2022), step by step I covered History & Introduction of Amateur Radio, Operating procedure, Modulations, Bands & Frequency allocations, Morse Code, RST Systems, Phonetic, Q-Codes, License Grades, Procedure to obtain Ham License etc. I always encourage students to ask their doubts at any point of my presentation, and with such practice I really get a number of interesting questions which I enjoy to answer all.



I tried to convey the real image of Ham operators Life - how Ham Radio is involved in our daily life. Students have been crazy when I said, a bachelor male operator is free to roam here & there and hence hes known as VFO, but when he gets settled (after marriage) he is known as Crystal Controlled (Universal fact)! Also they wonder to know how we ham community extends our respect to even 75 year old female operator by mentioning them as Young Lady (YL). I explained how we use different numbers like 59 & 73, but warned not to use random figures like 88 for any YL as you might be in trouble (hi..hi..). All phases of life from being a Harmonic, OM, YL, Fundamental, Silent Key etc terms are part of radio operators life!



A good collection of Radio stuff was carefully displayed for the benefit of students, which includes, HTs, VHF/HF Base, PSU, Cables, Connectors, Adaptors, SWR / Power Meter, Frequency meter, L/C meter, NanoVNA, Dummy Load, Sound Card Interface, RTL-SDR Dongle, CPO, Morse Key, Electronic Keyer, Paddle, Fox hunt tape measure Antenna, GP Antenna, Telescopic Antenna, Dual Band Yagi Antenna, IOio Antenna, Attenuator, Offset Attenuator, Cube Satellite Model etc. Also I displayed my IC-705 SDR QRP Rig with LiFePO4 Power pack for various Demos!



All EC & ICT students really enjoyed & learnt the feature/functioning of most of the displayed stuff by trying it themselves. Additionally hundreds of my QSL cards, Log Book, Call book, various Awards, Ham Radio study books and interesting articles were kept on display which was thoroughly observed by students. They were amazed to see NASA QSL for Juno flyby experiment, Japan & German research centers QSL from Antarctica, Awards for ARISS SSTV event and many more from IOTA, FD etc activation. I explained how we can send and receive paper QSL Cards very economically via QSL Bureau worldwide. Highlighted our ARSIs QSL Bureau services from India.



All over first day was fully packed with lots of learning, enjoying radio stuff & clearing dozens of doubts of students. I got nice support from my family ham members VU3EXP Sakshi Vagadia & VU3GLY Priyesh Vagadia who accompanied me from my QTH Rajkot.



On day 2 (6th April 2022) we started our workshop at 0900. We had planned a series of practical demonstrations on this day. Initially I presented roles & objectives of various Ham organizations like AMSAT, ARISS & ARRL and informed how giant efforts are made by these organizations to promote Amateur Radio Satellite Activities, Encourage School Students towards STEM, and offering the ultimate knowledge base for radio hams. Also highlighted AMSAT-INDIAs activities and its contribution of two Satellites VO-52 & AISAT. We gave an idea on how ARSI represents the interests of Indian Hams before national & international regulatory. GIAR Club was also recognized for their excellent Emergency Communication support to the State Government during natural calamities.



We have gracious presence of GIAR ham members incl. VU3IKI Ke Ke, VU3DVA Dipakbhai, VU3VDC Vitthhalbhai & VU3HXS Dhirenbhai at the workshop.



I presented how students can be engaged with ARISS ISS SSTV Events by receiving sstv Image with simple RTL-SDR Dongle & small homebrewed yagi antenna. We gave a live demo of the student's SSTV Image transmission & reception with the help of two stations installed in the venue. Participants were wondering to see the Picture being transmitted in audio format & received/converted back to Student image.



Thereafter Morse code demo was carried out which was equally interesting for Students. I randomly asked the student's name & generated his code with paddle & electronic keyer, the name was decoded by the software and projected on the screen! Students were taught the importance of Morse code (SOS) even for emergencies, though advised not to use codes during college exams! hi..hi..



For the Digital Communication demo, I invited students & faculties to send me a few messages. I converted those text messages into PSK31 audio signals & transmitted from station one, second station received & decoded each message mentioned with students name. It was fun to view student messages/ feedback projected on a big screen. Also briefed on various digital modes Ham operator uses.



Students then very well understood why Ham Radio is also known as the oldest Social Media, by seeing all such techniques we use since decades, that too without any mobile network or internet !!



Our Satellite Communication Demo was scheduled at 1047 (IST) with AO-91 Cube-Sat. The reason to choose this bird was suitable pass time & very good elevation of 63 degree, two days back we already checked this bird & it was functional. I already requested a few VU Hams to respond & support our Sat Demo.



All students & faculties get assembled at Rooftop by 1030. I used a pair of HT, IOio Dual Band Antenna and Tracking app in my simple setup. I explained various terms of satellite & basic procedure of operation to the group. All the students were very curious to see how a tiny cube-sat of 1.3 kg extend long distance communication within its footprint. I connected a wired (bluetooth) speaker with a bit of a long cable so the group can hear Reception. But as some of us have experienced, Murphy strikes at the last moment and my speaker failed just before appearing of AO-91 !!! There was no time for troubleshooting, I immediately used my headphone to avoid the audio loop, as it was my full duplex configuration. Two minutes later I could hear a strong signal of VU2LBW Lucky, I copied him 59, exchanged reports and established a successful Sat QSO. Lucky was really loud & clear with his decent setup.



I was willing to let faculty/student experience this live contact, I ask Lucky to address & respond again and I handed Headphone & Mic to Prof. Jigar Shah, Lucky patiently talked with him conveyed his Callsign, Handle & QTH Bangalore (MK82TV), Prof. enjoyed the live demo and responded well.



We also gave a chance to one more female student; meanwhile I was continuously tracking the satellite & aiming the antenna towards it. Before LOS I heard another good Station VU2UUU Kaustav Saha from Gurgaon (ML88NK), I worked with him too with 59 reports.



So it was a semi successful Satellite Demo as I could not allow all students to listen to ongoing (Rx) conversation. But participants were very happy to learn the complete procedure; they were thrilled to witness the potential of amateur radio satellites. Later on Lucky VU2LBW favored me by sharing our Sat QSO recording, which was circulated amongst all students for reference & memory!



At 1100 there was short tea break, participants were so enthusiastic that even in leisure time they been to radio stuff exhibition area to have closer look and learn more on devices like NanoVNA, CubeSat (model), Morse Keyer/Paddle, Signalink USB, RTL-SDR dongle, Icom IC-705 etc, I enjoyed interaction and satisfying their queries.



We were towards the ending session. I presented what are the interesting events radio amateurs enjoy & carry out globally, which includes Sp. Callsign Activation (highlighted my activated call AT1JCB), Field Day, Contests, Light House operation, IOTA (illustrated AT2SL), JOTA, Hill Top, Fox Hunting (ARDF), High Altitude Balloon Deployment & Tracking, EME, ARISS SSTV & Student outreach Program, SatCom, Satellite Telemetry decoding, Radio Astronomy, Meteor Scatter, Ham Fest etc.



I conveyed objectives & brief procedures of all these events into which Radio Hams love to be engaged. Participants learnt that Amateur Radio is much more than a Communication device! I always promote Ham Radio as an experimenting platform which has something for every genre.



At the end, students were asked to split into four groups to enjoy VHF Demo, students learnt how to operate a HT, Started giving calls to other groups, responding to the caller, giving feedback & comments over radio! Our fellow hams incl. VU3EXP, VU3IKI, VU3HXS, VU3VDC, VU3DVA and VU3GLY nicely assisted each group. Faculties incl. program coordinator Prof. Jigar Shah & HoD ICT Prof. Gangaprasad Pandey Sir conveyed Vote of Thanks over Radio. On behalf of our Ham team Sakshi Vagadia VU3EXP thanks to all participants & PDPU University for organizing this memorable workshop.



At 1300 our workshop concluded. Was nice to see students come out with learning something new & exciting, many showed their interest to be Radio Ham & enjoy this fascinating and unique hobby. Everybody liked our slogan One World One Language. There were huge efforts collectively made for this workshop and I wish to get some shining radio amateurs in the future.



I would like to specially thank VU2LBW Lucky & VU2UUU Kaustav for his valuable support during Satellite Demo, I understand they had devoted time on busy working day, after all thats the spirit of Radio Amateur.



I thank PDEU University, Program Coordinator Prof Jigar Shah & HoD ICT Prof Gangaprasad Pandey Sir for extending excellent support & hospitality for our team and for making this workshop fruitful.



I have uploaded all Workshop Photos in YouTube.



Watch Glimpse of Ham Radio Workshop at PDEU University Gandhinagar by Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFf4g4Ubm1k



A special note I would like to make it, I read & learnt about Ham Radio 35 years back in one well-known Gujarati science magazine named Scope, brilliantly written by Shri Nagendra Vijay Sir. After completing my workshop, during the return journey at Ahmedabad (Bopal), I got the opportunity to meet & take the blessing of Shri Nagendra Vijay Sir. What a brilliant personality, highly knowledgeable, but very low profile gentleman I ever met. I was inspired to begin my Ham journey by reading all his Article & dedicated Ham Radio Book! To meet my mentor was a great moment for me; I hereby dedicate all my accomplishment to my knowledge guru (teacher) Shri Nagendra Vijay Sir. He still continues to inspire thousands of readers with his science magazine named Safari. I felt without giving credit to this author, my article will be incomplete.



Thanks & 73



Rajesh P. Vagadia  VU2EXP

Rajkot (Gujarat) India

Regional Coordinator,

West India Zone,

AMSAT-INDIA
Militants in Afghanistan strike Pakistan army post, kill 3 View Photo

ISLAMABAD (AP)  Militants in Afghanistan fired heavy weapons across the border into a Pakistani military outpost overnight, killing three personnel, the army said Saturday, in the latest violence to rattle the volatile region.

A firefight ensued with the militants firing toward the army post in Pakistans rugged North Waziristan region, and several were killed, the statement said. There was no immediate way to independently confirm details of the attack.

It comes as Afghanistan is reeling from a series of explosions in recent days, including the bombing of a mosque in northern Kunduz province on Friday that killed 33 people, including several students of an adjacent religious school or madrassa.

That includes an attack Thursday on the Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Kabul that killed seven children. It re-opened on Saturday, with children remembering their fallen classmates with roses.

The striking increase in attacks in Afghanistan  as well as in neighboring Pakistan  highlights the growing security challenge facing Afghanistans Taliban rulers, who swept to power last August in the closing days of the chaotic withdrawal of American and NATO troops ending their 20-year war.

Even as their harsh religiously motivated edicts, which seemed reminiscent of their late 1990s rule, drew harsh criticism, their seemingly heavy-handed approach to security brought early expectations of improved safety.

However a vicious Islamic State affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasn Province, or IS-K  which claimed the recent spate of attacks in Afghanistan as well as a growing number in neighboring Pakistan  is proving an intractable challenge.

IS-K took responsibility for a series of attacks across Afghanistan on Thursday, most of which targeted the countrys minority Shiites who the radical Sunni Muslim group revile as heretics.

Still, the IS-K, which is an enemy of Afghanistans Taliban rulers, is not the only militant organization in Afghanistan contributing to the security dilemma facing Kabuls religiously driven government.

The violent Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or (TTP)  which the United Nations says numbers around 10,000 in Afghanistan  has stepped up its assault on Pakistans military outposts from its Afghan hideouts. Even the upstart IS-K has taken responsibility for some of the attacks targeting Pakistani military personnel, damaging relations between the two countries.

Afghanistans Taliban rulers have promised no militant group would use its soil as a base to attack another country, but Kabul has yet to arrest or hand over any TTP leaders in Afghanistan to Pakistan. Other militant groups also operating in Afghanistan include Chinas militant Uighurs of East Turkistan Movement, which seeks independence for northwest China, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Some of the groups are loosely allied to the IS-K , while others act more independently, but on Saturday Pakistans military statement warned Afghanistans Taliban rulers to do more.

Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that the Afghan Government will not allow conduct of such activities, in future, said the Pakistan military statement.

After seven of its troops were killed in an ambush earlier this month, Pakistan on April 16 retaliated with bombing raids inside Afghanistan that locals in Afghanistans eastern Khost province said killed dozens of refugees. The United Nations Education Fund (UNICEF) confirmed 20 children were killed in the strikes in Afghanistans border provinces of Khost and Kunar.

At the Abdul Rahim Shaheed School, which was among the IS-K targets in the Thursday attacks, school principal Ghulam Haider Husseini handed roses to each student as they arrived.

He also gave students a pen saying it is our pen who will bring about a change in this situation.

Separately, the Taliban on Saturday closed the lucrative Islam Qala border crossing with Iran after the two countries squabbled over a road Afghanistans Taliban rulers planned to build in the area, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran media said the dispute was handed over to the Iranian and Afghan interior ministries to sort out.

Iran and Afghanistan share three border crossings along their more than 900 -kilometer (560-mile) border.

____

Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Islamabad, Mohammad Shoaib Amin in Kabul, Afghanistan and Nasser Karimi in Tehran Iran contributed to this report.

By KATHY GANNON

Associated Press
Michigan GOP picks candidates with Trump clout on the line View Photo

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Two candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday, clearing their path to face Democratic incumbents in the fall.

The meeting of thousands of delegates was a test of Trumps clout in the party.

His allies  attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, a lawyer, and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, a community college instructor  emerged victorious from three-person fields at the 10-hour endorsement convention in downtown Grand Rapids.

The political newcomers support Trumps false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state. They will be officially nominated at a second convention in August and challenge Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in November.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. But he won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard that was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

Trump has said his preferred candidates would not let Michigan be stolen in the next presidential election. He lost the state by 154,000 votes to Joe Biden. Trumps slate drew criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and was frustrated that party leaders openly backed them rather than be neutral.

State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said such critics are poor losers.

Were going to unite together, and we will be able to win this election this fall, he said.

DePernos main rival for the nomination was Leonard, the partys 2018 attorney general nominee whom Trump later nominated for U.S. attorney in western Michigan. State Rep. Ryan Berman, who finished third, urged his supporters to back Leonard in the runoff.

Bernadette Smith, one of the partys vice chairs, said DePerno is the only candidate who will fight for election integrity. As DePernos supporters walked to the front of the hall to demonstrate their support, a video played of Trump touting DePerno and calling Leonard a RINO  or Republican in name only.

DePerno unsuccessfully sued after human error led rural Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno was in the field working when no one else was, Smith said.

He may face repercussions over the Antrim lawsuit.

DePerno recently confirmed that the states Attorney Grievance Commission is investigating him. Nessel last year began a separate probe after a Republican-led legislative committee said people were making baseless allegations about the results in Antrim to raise money or publicity for their own ends. The panels report did not specify whom should be investigated, but the people mentioned in it include DePerno.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman supported Leonard.

Mark my words: Democrats are motivated and we will only win if we put our best candidates forward, he said. I truly believe hes the only candidate in this race with integrity, grit, determination and the skills to not only win in November but to perform the duties of attorney general on day one.

DePerno, however, said he can unite Republicans and defeat Nessel.

She is literally drunk on power and we are going to end that, he said.

In the secretary of states race, Karamo defeated state Rep. Beau LaFave and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.

Were going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in, Karamo said.

In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party used machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-counted the ballots in a compromise with activists.

Nominees for Michigans statewide races are chosen at conventions except in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries. The midterm election climate is expected to favor Republicans, but incumbent attorney generals and secretaries of state rarely lose.

The state Democratic Party said the GOP should be ashamed of its endorsed candidates. Chair Lavora Barnes called Karamo a fear-spreading, inexperienced extremist and said DePerno is a Trump lackey willing to protect the former president but not all Michiganders.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00

By DAVID EGGERT

Associated Press
Live updates | Ukraine says it hit Russian command post View Photo

KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency posted a statement saying the command post was hit on Friday and two generals were killed and one was critically wounded.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it came under attack. He said their fate was unknown.

The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in the east

 Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

 Sanctions hit Russian economy, though Putin says otherwise

 Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 Follow all AP stories on Russias war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said new evidence is emerging that shows Russian troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol and then tried to cover it up. He said Ukraine has intercepted Russian conversations about how they are concealing the traces of their crimes. Satellite images have shown what appear to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.

Zelenskyy said the Russians set up filtration camps near Mariupol for those trying to leave the city, which has largely been reduced to rubble. He said those who survive these camps are sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. Many of them, he said, are children.

He said he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday about the situation in Mariupol and the general course of the war.

Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible for the missile attack on Odesa, which he said killed eight people and wounded 18.

Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to observe a curfew and not attend Orthodox Easter services overnight. The lengthy services traditionally begin late Saturday and run through Sunday morning. But starting from 5 a.m. you may go to the church in your city, town or community, he said.

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SLOVIANSK, Ukraine  The sound of outgoing artillery and air raid sirens were heard Saturday in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas that had come under Russian attack the day before.

Two servicemen were brought to a hospital from a nearby town, but one of them was mortally wounded and could not be saved.

The Russian strike early Friday had damaged several buildings, including a school.

The war has brought back painful memories for residents of Sloviansk, where in 2014 Ukrainian government forces repulsed Russia-backed separatists after a fierce battle. In the years since, the separatists maintained control over part of the Donbas, and Moscow has now set out to capture the entire region.

Anna Direnskaya, 70, said she and her son and daughter-in-law decided to remain in Sloviansk.

I lived through 2014. I was also here. I didnt go anywhere and I dont want to go anywhere. I am not hiding from myself, she said while sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged apartment building. I want peace.

Direnskaya, who like many in eastern Ukraine is a native Russian speaker, said she wishes the Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and there is no enmity between them.

Why did this happen? Why is this happening? I dont know. Tell everyone I want peace and quiet, she said.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

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WARSAW, Poland  Poland and Ukraine have signed an agreement increasing cooperation in the railway transport sector, aiming to help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion affects its ports.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polands premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, met on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Morawiecki said on Facebook that they both agreed that current sanctions on Russia are insufficient, which can be seen by the condition of the Russian currency, bonds or inflation. They appealed to the international community for tougher steps that would stop Russias aggression on Ukraine and for more military aid to help Ukraine.

Morawiecki drew special attention to the plight of civilians seeking protection in a steel plant in Mariupol, as he called for the assistance.

In Mariupol soldiers  or rather Russian criminals want to make women and children starve to death. They are waiting until they run out of water. What kind of strategy is that? This is not war. This is genocide.

___

ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April.

But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.

Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.

NATO-member Turkey has been trying to balance its close relations with Moscow and Kyiv and has positioned itself as a mediator between the two. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia but has closed the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to some Russian warships.

The country has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as talks between the two countries negotiating teams.

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BERLIN  Germanys former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: I dont do mea culpa.

In an interview with the newspaper published Saturday, Schroeder also claims that his long-time friend President Vladimir Putin of Russia is interested in ending the war with Ukraine.

Schroeder reportedly blasted German officials who now criticize his efforts to procure Russian energy supplies for Germany, saying that they all went along with it for the last 30 years.

In the interview, he called the war in Ukraine a mistake and said atrocities need to be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself ordered killings of civilians such as those allegedly committed by Russian troops in Bucha.

Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private mission to broker peace with Ukraine, claimed the Russian president is interested in ending the war.

But thats not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified, the New York Times quoted him saying, without elaborating.

___

LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said he promised more defense weaponry is on the way to Ukraine while speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday afternoon, the latest chat between the two leaders who talk to each other regularly.

The British leader told Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom is sending more weaponry including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.

Johnson also confirmed to Zelenskyy that the U.K. would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also updated the Ukrainian leader on new U.K. sanctions designations against members of the Russian military and told him the British government was helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

The two also discussed the U.K.s work on long term security solutions and financial support with international partners.

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, Downing Street said in a statement.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines president says five people including a three-month-old infant were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

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HELSINKI  Hundreds of protesters belonging to Latvias sizable Russian-speaking community have taken part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic nations capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscows aggression on Ukraine.

Participants of Saturdays rally entitled The Russian Voice Against War waved Ukrainian flags and posters with inscriptions such as Stop the genocide in Ukraine and Complete Russian gas and oil embargo at the central Freedom Monument, Latvias public broadcaster LSM reported.

Organizers said the protest aimed to demonstrate that many of Latvias Russian-speakers are not aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscows actions criminal.

Ethnic Russians make up around 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, like Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of the all citizens.

Earlier this week, Latvias Parliament unanimously declared killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official has announced a country-wide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office, said in a video address Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion  Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson  the curfew will run from 7 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

In others regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv and Lviv, the curfew will run from 11 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal, Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.

Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

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LVIV, Ukraine  Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Unfortunately, the enemy doesnt have such a concept as a major religious holiday, Kozytskyy wrote. They are so beastly that they dont understand what Easter is.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraines National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plants tunnels for up to two months.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness.

Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen neither the sky, nor the sun. We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt, the girl pleads.

Azovs deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.

According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the regions civilian infrastructure 56 times.

Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai says that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

Haidai said Saturday on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna got the most of it.

In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. Not all survived, Haidai wrote.

He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.

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KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukraine militarys General Staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived to Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

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KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A Fresno man who was part a California child exploitation ring in which members filmed themselves sexually abusing more than 20 children and then distributed the footage on the dark web was sentenced to life in prison Friday, prosecutors said.

What John Richard Brinson Jr. did those children was evil, Judge Andre Birotte Jr. said in Los Angeles federal court.

I dont know how else to say it, Birotte said.

Brinson, 28, pleaded guilty in July to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and four counts of production of child pornography, each representing a different victim.

The life sentence imposed in this case is warranted by the defendants callous and violent abuse of children, some of whom were filmed while screaming in pain, U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison said in a statement. The child exploitation enterprise impacted more than 20 victims  children who were sexually assaulted, sometimes repeatedly, solely for the pleasure of this defendant and his cohorts.

Brinson distributed and advertised child exploitation materials in 2016 and 2017 on a website dedicated to sexual abuse of children up to 5 years old, prosecutors said. The site on the dark web allowed him to hide his identity and meet two of his co-defendants, Arlan Harrell, of Hawthorne, and Moises Martinez, of San Jose.

Harrell and Martinez each separately brought children to Brinsons home that they abused together while shooting child pornography video.

Harrell, who pleaded guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, obtaining custody of a minor for purposes of producing child pornography, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography, was sentenced to life in prison in February.

Martinez pleaded guilty to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and production of child pornography and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Brinsons roommate, Keith Lawniczak, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a child. He let Brinson live in the house for free and admitted that he benefited by being able to watch the sexual abuse, according to court documents.
PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in the country's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home.

A Macron victory in this vote  which could have far-reaching repercussions for Europe's future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine  would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist  yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll. Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who will either cast a blank vote or not vote at all.

Overseas French territories allowed voters to start casting ballots Saturday in polling stations that ranged from near the Caribbean shore in the Antilles to the savannahs of French Guiana on the South American coast.

Back on the French mainland, workers assembled a stage Saturday beneath the Eiffel Tower where Macron is expected to make his post-election speech, win or lose.

France's April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates, and who becomes the country's next leader  Macron or Le Pen  will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but dont want to see Le Pen in power either. Macron issued multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days in hopes of securing their support.

"Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: Im not going, whats the point? I can tell you that they regretted it the next day, Macron warned this week on France 5 television.

So if you want to avoid the unthinkable ... choose for yourself! he urged hesitant French voters.

The two rivals were combative in the final days before Sunday's election, clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate. No campaigning is allowed through the weekend, and polling is banned.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pens far-right party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger civil war in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right, Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to do everything during his five-year term so that the French have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.

Five years later, that challenge has not been met. Le Pen has consolidated her place on France's political scene after rebranding herself as less extreme.

Le Pen's campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russias war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as Frances first woman president.

She criticized Macron's calamitous presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

I'm not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macrons policies ... his economic record is also catastrophic, she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, said even if Macron is reelected, "there is a big problem," he added. A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.

He said that means Macron will face a big level of mistrust in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while still protecting social benefits. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise France's minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In several European newspapers on Thursday, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about populists and the extreme right who hold Putin as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.

A Le Pen victory would be a traumatic moment, not only for France, but for European Union and for international relationships, especially with the USA," Lazar said, noting that Le Pen "wants a distant relationship between France and the USA.

In any case, Sunday's winner will soon face another obstacle in governing France: A legislative election in June will decide who controls a majority of seats in France's National Assembly.

Already, the battles promise to be hard-fought.

___

AP Journalists Catherine Gaschka and Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to that story.

___

Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Two candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday, clearing their path to face Democratic incumbents in the fall.

The meeting of thousands of delegates was a test of Trumps clout in the party.

His allies  attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, a lawyer, and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, a community college instructor  emerged victorious from three-person fields at the 10-hour endorsement convention in downtown Grand Rapids.

The political newcomers support Trumps false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state. They will be officially nominated at a second convention in August and challenge Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in November.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. But he won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard that was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

Trump has said his preferred candidates would not let Michigan be stolen in the next presidential election. He lost the state by 154,000 votes to Joe Biden. Trump's slate drew criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and was frustrated that party leaders openly backed them rather than be neutral.

State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said such critics are poor losers."

We're going to unite together, and we will be able to win this election this fall, he said.

DePernos main rival for the nomination was Leonard, the partys 2018 attorney general nominee whom Trump later nominated for U.S. attorney in western Michigan. State Rep. Ryan Berman, who finished third, urged his supporters to back Leonard in the runoff.

Bernadette Smith, one of the partys vice chairs, said DePerno is the only candidate who will fight for election integrity. As DePerno's supporters walked to the front of the hall to demonstrate their support, a video played of Trump touting DePerno and calling Leonard a RINO  or Republican in name only.

DePerno unsuccessfully sued after human error led rural Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno was in "the field working when no one else was, Smith said.

He may face repercussions over the Antrim lawsuit.

DePerno recently confirmed that the states Attorney Grievance Commission is investigating him. Nessel last year began a separate probe after a Republican-led legislative committee said people were making baseless allegations about the results in Antrim to raise money or publicity for their own ends. The panels report did not specify whom should be investigated, but the people mentioned in it include DePerno.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman supported Leonard.

Mark my words: Democrats are motivated and we will only win if we put our best candidates forward, he said. I truly believe he's the only candidate in this race with integrity, grit, determination and the skills to not only win in November but to perform the duties of attorney general on day one.

DePerno, however, said he can unite Republicans and defeat Nessel.

She is literally drunk on power and we are going to end that, he said.

In the secretary of state's race, Karamo defeated state Rep. Beau LaFave and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.

We're going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in, Karamo said.

In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party used machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-counted the ballots in a compromise with activists.

Nominees for Michigans statewide races are chosen at conventions except in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries. The midterm election climate is expected to favor Republicans, but incumbent attorney generals and secretaries of state rarely lose.

The state Democratic Party said the GOP should be ashamed of its endorsed candidates. Chair Lavora Barnes called Karamo a fear-spreading, inexperienced extremist and said DePerno is a Trump lackey" willing to protect the former president but not all Michiganders.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later.

The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter.

Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood thats home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown.

Bibi Stewart of Anne Arundel, Maryland, was approaching the line to pick up her 12-year-old twins when she heard the gunfire ring out. She said it sounded like the shots were coming from above and at a distance.

They did it right at dismissal, she said.

Stewart said she saw glass shattering in a bridge connecting different wings of the school and she saw the tires of cars in the pickup line shot out.

Theyre just saying theyre OK and hiding in the school with their friends and adults, she said of her children.

Police suspect some of the bullets fired from the high-powered rifle may have traveled several blocks. At least two businesses nearby reported bullet holes in their windows.

Police in tactical gear were seen escorting people  including college students from nearby campuses  out of apartment buildings in the area. Officers pointed their rifles upward toward other buildings and windows as the people moved quickly down the street with their hands raised above their heads.

I had to look in parents eyes tonight who are terrified ... thinking of what might happen to their children, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference. And we have experienced this too much in our country. The epidemic of gun violence, the easy access to weapons, has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school.

Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

We will get to the bottom of this. We will find what the motive is, Contee said. His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community.

The gunman had posted a video of the shooting on 4chan, though police are still working to determine whether it was streamed live or recorded and then uploaded online, Contee said. The video shows people running frantically as rapid gunfire rains from above and the gunman seemingly following them through a sight as they flee for cover.

The University of the District of Columbia, which is located nearby, went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place. In a tweet Friday, the college said there was an active shooting incident near student housing."

Eduardo Bugay, a student at the college, said he was in his first-floor apartment in the AVA building  the building where the gunman was eventually found  when he heard the shots.

At first I was confused, he said, not sure what he was hearing. Then, he said, he got scared.

Bugay said the university sent emails telling students to stay in place. About 30 to 40 minutes after he first heard the gunshots, police came knocking on his door to escort him and others from the building.

A slew of law enforcement officials and emergency crews were sent to the scene. Agents from the FBI arrived in an armored vehicle and the U.S. Secret Service said its officers were aiding police in the search and at the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also assisting in the investigation.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the U.S. Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man attempted to set himself on fire outside the building. The man was rushed by police helicopter to a local hospital and his condition wasn't immediately known.
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP)  Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined Adam Laxalt, a GOP candidate for Senate from Nevada, in bashing Nevadas senior Democratic U.S. senator during a campaign rally Friday at an affluent retirement enclave in suburban Las Vegas.

Nevada is at the very front of the battle to take this country back, Cruz said to applause from an audience of about 140 people at a ballroom in Sun City Anthem. Im here today because Im supporting my friend, Adam Laxalt.

Laxalt, who characterizes his bid to unseat Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto as an effort to flip the evenly split Senate to Republican, emphasized the support that he and Cruz have from former President Donald Trump.

Laxalt served as co-chairman of Trumps 2020 campaign in Nevada, and led failed legal challenges to Democratic President Joe Bidens win in the battleground state.

Cruz mocked and derided Biden and joined Laxalt in linking Cortez Masto to a key campaign issue heading toward the June 14 GOP primary  the cost of gasoline. Cruz tied prices not to war in Ukraine, but to Biden campaign promises and administration policies.

When you go fill up your truck and its 100 bucks or 150 bucks, Cruz said, when a mom today, coming home from school fills up her minivan and its 150 bucks to do it. Thats hurting people in this state. Its hurting people across the country.

Nevada Democratic Victory representative, Olivia Davis, pointed to Laxalts work, after he lost his 2018 bid for governor in Nevada, with a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents a major oil company reaping profits from high prices.

While Nevadans are paying high gas prices at the pump, Adam Laxalt has tried to blame everyone but his D.C. law firms big oil clients for rising prices, Davis said.

Laxalt, during the rally, never mentioned his primary opponent, Reno businessman and U.S. Army veteran Sam Brown.

Laxalt and Cruz made stops Thursday in northern Nevada, where Laxalt also criticized Cortez Mastos stance on coronavirus policies and border security.

Both Laxalt and Cortez Masto served as Nevada attorney general, and Laxalt has made law enforcement a theme of his campaign.

Cortez Masto campaign aide Sigalle Reshef responded Friday, saying Cortez Masto has worked with Republicans to deliver billions of dollars in border security funding and led efforts in the Senate to support Nevada law enforcement.

Cortez Masto has no primary challenger and a more than 5-to-1 advantage in campaign funds to spend over either of the GOP candidates.

Laxalt told the crowd they can expect a Cortez Masto television advertising blitz, but that they cant trust the media. He directed his supporters to his internet website instead.
Early voting for the May 7 special election begins Monday.

Most early voting places will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday between April 25 to May 3.

There are polling places in each Hale County community. Interested voters can cast their ballots at any of the following locations during the two-week early voting period.

Justice Center assembly room, 225 S. Broadway in Plainview; open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Abernathy City Hall, 811 Ave. D; open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Lemond Community Center, 110 Stevenson St. in Hale Center; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Petersburg City Hall, 1524 Main St.; open 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 1:30 to 5 p.m.; It will close at 4 p.m. on both Fridays.

Election day is May 7. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

On this day, voters must vote in the precincts where theyre registered to vote.

The following notes where each precinct can vote:

Ollie Liner Center: 101,102,103,104,105,108,110,111,112,202,203,204,205,206,304,305,306,307,406,407,408,409,419,420

Lemond Community Center: 213,316,317

Abernathy City Hall: 215,318

Petersburg Community Center: 214

Mail ballots must be requested by April 26. Those interested can mail applications to: Latrice Kemp, Hale County Clerk, 500 Broadway Room 140, Plainview, Texas 79072, (806)291-5261.
FRIDAY: A customer departed for St. Johns, Arizona in his Stinson. Tyler Gann departed for Dallas Addison and Miami, Florida in the Piaggio P-180 Avanti prop jet. Raj Horan departed for Rockport in his Bellanca Viking. A customer flew in from Lake Havasu City, Arizona for fuel, then flew to Meridian, Mississippi and Venice, Florida in his Piper Cherokee Arrow. A customer departed for Hilton Head, South Carolina in his Beech F-33 Bonanza. Matt Horan flew over from their spray strip in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk to leave for a customer to pick up and take to Dalhart. A U.S. Navy Beech 100 King Air prop jet flew in from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station for a touch and go, then to Amarillo. A customer flew in from Shady Shores near Denton for fuel, business, and later back to Shady Shores in his Beech Baron. A customer flew in from Dalhart to drop off a pilot to pick up the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, then flew to Slaton in his Beech Bonanza. A customer flew in from Bulverde for fuel, then headed for Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado in his Piper Comanche. A customer flew in from in his Grumman Cheetah for fuel, and to spend the night.

SATURDAY: A customer flew to Sunray and back in his Cessna 172 Skyhawk. A customer departed for Waco in his Grumman Cheetah. A customer flew in from McKinney and Vernon for fuel, then flew to the Hereford area working on powerlines for Xcel Energy, returning later for fuel, then back out to the Floydada area, then back for fuel, and to spend the night in their MD-600 jet helicopter. A customer flew to Arlington in his Beech Duke. A customer departed for Waco in his Grumman Cheetah. A customer flew in from Boulder, Colorado for fuel, then headed to Houma, Louisiana in his Mooney. A customer flew in from Pueblo, Colorado for fuel, then flew to Del Rio in his Cessna 182 Skylane.

SUNDAY: A customer departed to work on powerlines in the area for Xcel Energy, returning later for fuel in their MD-600 jet helicopter then departed to Vernon. Cody Williams flew locally in his Cessna 172. A customer flew locally in his glider. David Patterson departed to El Paso, pick up an Angel Flight passenger, then flew to San Angelo to drop off, before later returning to Plainview in his Beech V-35B Bonanza. Raj Horan returned from Rockport in his Bellanca Viking.

MONDAY: A customer in a Cessna T182 Turbo flew in from Lubbock for a touch and go then departed back to Lubbock. A customer in flew in from Jerome, Idaho for fuel, business, and later back to Jerome in their Cessna 560 Citation XLS+ jet. Med-Trans flew in from Lubbock in their Bell 407 jet helicopter to fly above the funeral procession of Harrison Hart from Wayland Baptist to Parklawn Memorial Cemetery, and later flew back to Lubbock for continued maintenance. Our thoughts and prayers to the families of Harrison Hart, from all of us at Rocket Aviation, LP. He will be missed by his friends at the airport!!

TUESDAY: A customer flew in from Temple for fuel, breakfast, business, and later back to Temple in his Cirrus SR-22 Turbo. McCoys Corporation flew in from San Marcos and San Angelo for fuel, business, and later to Alpine in their Cessna 525 Citation CJ-3 jet. Jake Williams flew in from Lockney to check out a place for the Turbine 802 Air Tractor prop jet to park, then back to Lockney.

WEDNESDAY: John Schwarz and Scott Braga flew in from Huntsville for fuel, then to Childress and Huntsville in a Beech 200 King Air prop jet. Jake Williams flew over from Lockney to pick up a dab of chemical, then flew out to spray, then back to Lockney in the Turbine 802 Air Tractor prop jet. A customer flew in the local area in his Ash 31 MI powered glider. Hawkeye Helicopter flew in from Greeley, Colorado, Great Bend, Kansas, and Borger in their Cessna 182 Skylane for fuel, and to spend the night. A customer flew in from Fort Worth for fuel, then flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico in his Kaman K-1200 jet helicopter.

THURSDAY: Hawkeye Helicopter departed for the Denver City area patrolling pipeline, and later back for fuel, then flew to Borger and Greeley, Colorado in the Cessna 182 Skylane. A customer flew to Deming, New Mexico and back in his Beech Duke. Jake Williams flew in twice to pick up loads of chemical, and later back to Lockney in the Turbine 802 Air Tractor prop jet. Ron Lowe flew in from Cotton Center after annual inspection for fuel and storage in his Ercoupe. A customer flew in from Fort Worth for fuel, lunch, then back to Fort Worth in her Cessna 182 Skylane. A customer flew up from Lubbock for a touch and go, then back to the Hub City in his Cessna 182 Skylane. A customer flew in from Bullhead City, and Sedona, Arizona for fuel, then flew to Marshall in his Experimental RV-6. Trey Weathers, pilot for Barr Air Patrol, and Rayleigh Rowell, flew in from Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Libby, New Mexico patrolling pipeline in their Cessna 182 Skylane for fuel, and to spend the night.
There is a basic political reality to be understood here. Although a no-confidence motion could defeat the current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government, it is unrealistic to think that an impeachment motion against the President could be passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Editorial

This note is not for him, but about him. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has a vast knowledge of many political and economic theories. But we feel that many of the decisions he made about the ground politics of this country are not so practical. Unfortunately, despite the colossal political and economic crisis facing the country at the moment, there is no significant change in his political behaviours. He is missing out on another golden opportunity by wasting time on politically impractical and unwise proposals.

Sajith Premadasa

At this juncture, Sajith needs to work with those who understand the subject matter of his party and other political parties to form an interim government and become its prime minister. But he is focusing on removing the incumbent prime minister after the removal of the president. In other words, he is working towards clearing the land. But no one with an understanding of the political history of this country sees it as an intelligent judgement. The politics of this country, which is built on an ill democracy, is occupied with various internal conflicts and conspiracies like the politics in many other democracies around the globe. What is important to sustain political power in such a complex situation is political tactics, not fancy political theories.

There is a basic political reality to be understood here. Although a no-confidence motion could defeat the current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government, it is unrealistic to think that an impeachment motion against the President could be passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Against this backdrop, a political alliance with the President is a mutually beneficial solution not only for both parties but also for the country. What is needed at the moment is not to make the failure of the government a commodity, but a prudent political compromise. Sajith should learn from an Italian diplomat who lived during the renaissance, Niccolo Machiavelli at this moment and not from Gandhi. Machiavelli believed that a successful prince should appear to show the characteristics of both the 'lion' and the 'fox'. Machiavelli saw a combination of these paradigms as the best way for a ruler to gain and retain power. Isnt it the obvious reality that any politician faces when it comes to political power?

Our suggestion is loud and clear. This is the moment for the Opposition Leader to initiate a constructive political dialogue with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to reach mutual agreements. Based on that agreement, action can be taken to show the majority in Parliament and immediately appoint an interim government under his premiership. Then he can give opportunities to his party's politicians such as Champika Ranawaka, Sarath Fonseka, Harsha de Silva and politicians representing other parties such as Wijedasa Rajapaksha, Ranil Wickremesinghe, MA Sumanthiran, as well as a person like his close adviser but controversial intellect Dr Dayan Jayatilleke to represent the interim government.

If the Leader of the Opposition wants to establish his political future as the national leader, he must immediately seize the opportunity emerging out of the current political and economic crisis. This is one of the crucial moments of his political carrier. Most likely this could be the last chance he got. If he seizes this opportunity, it will pave the way for him to consolidate his political power in the forthcoming presidential election. There is no political advantage to the Leader of the Opposition in booting out this golden opportunity and hanging on to complex political issues such as the repealing of the executive presidency. Over to you, Sajith!
(Editors note: This project is a collaboration between the Plainview Herald and Saint Francis Ministries to showcase kids who are cleared for adoption.)

Dezirae is a sweet and honest teen girl. She loves to read, spend time with animals, and go out and about running errands or going shopping.

The 16-year-old does well in school; she makes good grades and really enjoys math.

Like many teen girls, she is outgoing and personable. Dezirae takes her time getting to know and trust others, but is fiercely loyal and loving. She looks out for those she cares for and is a well-spoken advocate for herself and other youth.

Dezirae would love nothing more than to find her forever family that values her and gives her a sense of belonging. Her sense of humor is infectious, and her dynamic personality is fun to be around.

Dezirae often smiles and refers to herself as "extra", and she is indeed - extra fun, extra special, and extra loveable! What family wouldnt enjoy all that Dezirae has to offer?

---

Dezirae is among the children listed on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE) website. Visit https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Application/TARE/Home.aspx/Default for more details.

Saint Francis Ministries is a nonprofit organization and a community-based care provider for the Texas Department of Family Protective Services Region 1. This region includes 41 counties across the Panhandle and South Plains.

To learn more about fostering or adopting, those interested are encouraged to attend one of the monthly virtual meetings hosted by Saint Francis Ministries and other child placing agencies. The meetings provide information about how to get started, the basic qualifications and more, in addition to providing opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Those interested can visit Saint Francis Texas on Facebook @SFMtexas to register for the online meetings, which can also be found below:

The meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday of the month (Lubbock area  https://lubbock-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com) and the third Thursday of the month (Amarillo area  https://amarillo-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com).

For more information, please contact Erin Baxter at (806) 317-5631 or email texasinfo@st-francis.org. Visit Saint Francis Ministries online at https://saintfrancisministries.org.
DeLorean Motors Reimagined is the latest major company getting ready to make San Antonio its home, and its getting a few big deals to entice the automotive company to stay. But DeLorean isn't the only big company that has moved into San Antonio or Texas for that matter.

From one of the Bay Area's oldest tech companies to a brewing company making it's return to the Alamo City, big companies seem to like what Texas has to offer. Most of these companies have moved from California, including a certain electric vehicle maker. You know the one.

Perhaps they're following Californians, nearly 500,000 of them have moved to Texas since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe its the more than 14 million people available in the civilian labor force or the 49 Fortune 500 companies in Texas, according to the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office.

Here some of the companies that have moved to San Antonio and Texas within the past decade.

San Antonio

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Pabst Brewing Co.

The beer brewing company announced in October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that it was ready to move from California and call San Antonio home again.

It wasn't its brewing operations that were returning, but instead the corporate headquarters that are now settled in the historic Rand Building downtown.

Photo by Robin Jerstad

Nissei America Inc.

The Japan-based plastics manufacturer moved its U.S. headquarters to Brooks on the Southside in June 2021, which was also home to its $21 million factory that opened in 2018. Nissei also left California.

Nissei President Hozumi Yoda said that San Antonio "offers easy and quick access to other areas in the U.S."

Courtesy, Cuisine Solutions

Cuisine Solutions

Cuisine Solutions also chose Brooks in 2021 when it opened its $200 million, 315,000-square-foot plant that makes sous vide products. Cuisine Solutions was moving from Virginia.

Cuisine Solutions Chairman Stanislas Vilgrain told the San Antonio Business Journal at its grand opening that it plans to move its headquarters to San Antonio as well.

Billy Calzada /Staff file photo

OKIN Process

Add another one to the list of companies at Brooks. This Czech Republic-based company that provides business processing services picked San Antonio for its U.S. headquarters in 2018.

Texas

Courtesy of Hewlett Packard Enterprises

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

One of the oldest tech companies that was originally based in what was once the tech capital of the U.S., Silicon Valley, moved its headquarters to Houston in December 2020.

Hewlett Packard said in a blog post that Houston has long been its largest U.S. employment hub and a site to retain and recruit talent.

SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla

We can't make this list without mentioning this one. Elon Musk moved himself and Tesla out of Palo Alto to Austin in December 2021.

Musk just showed off the nearly 1 million-square-foot Giga Factory in spectacular fashion earlier this month.

Fox /Fox Image Collection via Getty Images

Gordon Ramsay

Stunning.

Not the star chef himself, instead Gordon Ramsay announced in December 2021 that he will move his restaurant headquarters from California to Dallas.

The new Texas-based team plans to launch 18 restaurants in cities including Boston, Miami, and Chicago this year.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Lu Muying died on April 1 in a government quarantine facility in Shanghai, with her family on the phone as doctors tried to resuscitate her. She had tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and was moved there in line with government policy that all coronavirus cases be centrally isolated.

But the 99-year-old, who was just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday, was not counted as a COVID-19 death in Shanghai's official tally. In fact, the city of more than 25 million has only reported 25 coronavirus deaths despite an outbreak that has spanned nearly two months and infected hundreds of thousands of people in the worlds third-largest city.

Lus death underscores how the true extent of the virus toll in Shanghai has been obscured by Chinese authorities. Doctors told Lu's relatives she died because COVID-19 exacerbated her underlying heart disease and high blood pressure, yet she still was not counted.

Interviews with family members of patients who have tested positive, a publicly released phone call with a government health official and an internet archive compiled by families of the dead all raise issues with how the city is counting its cases and deaths, almost certainly resulting in a marked undercount.

The result is a blurred portrait of an outbreak that has sweeping ramifications for both the people of Shanghai and the rest of the world, given the citys place as an economic, manufacturing and shipping hub.

An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the numbers have been clouded by the way Chinese health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standard than the rest of the world.

In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.

But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

If the deaths could be ascribed to underlying disease, they will always report it as such and will not count it as a COVID-related death, thats their pattern for many years, said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kongs medical school.

That narrower criteria means China's COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations.

Both Jin and Zhang said this has been Chinas practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.

However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated Chinas own regulations and muddied the virus true toll.

During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as symptomatic, three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered asymptomatic even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches.

This way of classifying asymptomatic cases conflicts with China's past national guidelines. It's also a sharp change from January, when Wu Fan, a member of Shanghais epidemic prevention expert group, said that those with even the slightest symptoms, like fatigue or a sore throat, would be strictly classified as a symptomatic case.

Further adding to the confusion, the city has overlapping systems to track whether someone has the virus. City residents primarily rely on what's called their Health Cloud, a mobile application that allows them to see their COVID-19 test results. However, the Shanghai health authorities have a separate system to track COVID-19 test results, and they have the sole authority to confirm cases. At times, the data between the systems conflict.

In practice, these shifting and inconsistent processes give China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wiggle room to determine COVID-related deaths, said the Chinese health official, allowing them to rule out the coronavirus as being the cause of death for people who didnt have lung scans or positive test results logged on their apps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.

In response to questions about Shanghai's COVID-19 figures, Chinas top medical authority, the National Health Commission, said in a fax that there is no basis to suspect the accuracy of Chinas epidemic data and statistics. Shanghais city government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghais lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far.

Chinese media reports on the unrecorded COVID-19 deaths have been swiftly censored, and many criticisms of Shanghais stringent measures expunged online. Instead, state media has continued to uphold China's zero-COVID approach as proof of the success of its political system, especially as the world's official death toll climbs past 6.2 million.

Earlier this month, doubts over the data burst into public view when a Shanghai resident uploaded a recording of a phone conversation he had with a CDC officer in which he questioned why city health authorities told his father he had tested positive for COVID-19 when data on his fathers mobile application showed up as negative.

Didnt I tell you to not look at the Health Cloud?" said the official, Zhu Weiping, referring to the app. "The positive cases are only from us notifying people.

Others skeptical of the data include relatives of Zong Shan, an 86-year-old former Russian translator who died March 29. Despite testing positive and being moved to a government quarantine facility, online test results showed Zong supposedly was negative for COVID-19 on the day of her death.

My relative, like most of the other people in Shanghai who were notified as positive, all reported negative results on the Health Cloud app, one of Zong's relatives said, declining to be named for fear of retribution.

Zong was taken to a government quarantine facility from the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital on March 29, and died there that night. The family was told by hospital staff she was being transferred after she tested positive for COVID-19. But they didn't think the virus was the biggest threat to her health  rather, it was the dearth of nursing care at the quarantine facility. Zong needed to be fed liquids and couldn't eat without assistance.

She had been in stable condition before the transfer, said a relative. When the family asked for the cause of death, doctors didn't give a clear answer.

They gave me very vague answers. One minute they said it was stroke, then they said this was also just a hypothesis, said the relative. But on one point, they were very clear, they said it had nothing to do with COVID. Her lungs were clear.

Lu, who was also transferred from the Donghai hospital, would have celebrated her 100th birthday on April 16; her relatives had ordered a cake and gotten permission to host a small celebration Thursday. But when she tested positive, the family made mental preparations for her death, acknowledging she had lived a long life.

But the strange thing, a relative said, was the night before she died, the doctor had specifically called the family to let them know Lu was now testing negative for COVID-19. Ultimately, the doctor said she died because the virus had worsened her underlying illnesses, said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.

Further, the family knew of another patient from the same hospital, a neighbor, who died the day after being transferred to a quarantine facility on March 25 and also had not been counted.

Jin, the Hong Kong virologist, noted the potential political benefits of Shanghai's low official COVID-19 death toll.

They might claim this is their achievement, and this is their victory, Jin said.

___

Kang reported from Beijing. Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang contributed from Beijing.
There isnt much on the road to Archer City. Twenty-six miles south of Wichita Falls and 140 miles northwest of Dallas, one doesnt end up in Archer City by accident. But this spring, my uncle and I made the trip to visit the town made famous by arguably Texas greatest writer of all time.

The late Larry McMurtry gained fame for his novels The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, and Lonesome Dove, the latter celebrated as arguably the greatest Western novel. Archer City was his hometown and it was there he established Booked Up, a chain of bookstores filled with thousands of books McMurtry collected over the years.

McMurtry passed away in March 2021, at the age of 84, but Booked Up still remains.

Peter L. Scamardo II

When you enter the store, the walls are lined with books in every language, some dating as far back as the 17th century. A saddle and statues of horses sit adjacent to glass cases with some of the more valuable items.

One shelf is reserved entirely for signed copies of McMurtrys fiction. It sits opposite a wall with photos of McMurtry over the years, as well as a framed Variety magazine featuring an image from Brokeback Mountain, which won him the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay with Diana Ossana in 2006.

A circular table with four chairs for reading completes the stage. But the real treasures are in the warehouse-like back of Booked Up. There sits thousands of books, poetry collections, histories, biographies, and countless other texts line the walls of the shop, as well as a table full of McMurtrys works and a typewriter I assume belonged to the late Pulitzer winner.

Standing there, surrounded by more books than I could ever hope to read, I was overwhelmed. Im the type of person who dreams of having a room full of books in their house. Books are precious to me. I love the feel of them in my hands. I love thinking about how many lives a used book has lived, or how many years have passed since the text was written. Booked Up may as well have been Book Heaven.

I think I just am better informed, McMurtry said to Texas Monthly in 2013. I have 28,000 books in my home. Most of which Ive read or at least considered. Thats what Ive found lacking in Texas literature, and I said it. They havent read enough. They havent traveled enough. They havent seen enough of the world.

Peter L. Scamardo II

The Last Bookstore

Ive only ever felt the feeling I had visiting Booked Up in one other town. Hay-on-Wye in Wales. For those who dont know, Hay-on-Wye, home of the Hay Festival, is a town of around 2,000 people famous for its 12 bookstores. Every shop in the town has shelves packed to the prim with new and used books and every year the Hay Festival brings some of the most famous authors in the world to the small town.

McMurtry wanted Archer City to become Texas version of Hay-on-Wye. A destination for bibliophiles from all over the world. For a time, it was almost a reality. McMurtry established four Booked Up stores in the 80s and by 2013 hed collected 450,000 books for the four stores. Archer City established hotels and restaurants as Lonesome Dove solidified McMurtrys legacy in literary royalty, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986.

Ironically, McMurtry always called himself a minor regional novelist.

Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle

Because there might not be anything out there thats not minor, McMurtry said to Texas Monthly in 2013. In fact, sub-minor is what a lot of it would be. Understand that in the silver light of history almost all writers are minor. A generation just passing might produce five writers that are not minor, might not produce but two or three.

But as the years went by, and McMurtrys family showed little interest in maintaining the stores, the dream started to fade. In 2013, McMurtry sold 300,000 of his collected books in an auction as he closed three of the four Booked Up stores.

With McMurtrys passing last year, it made our trip to Archer City that more urgent. We wondered how much longer wed have the opportunity to visit the fabled store.

My uncle is a confessed bibliophile. I remember visiting his Navasota home and looking at his offices built-in bookshelf stuffed with paperbacks. Im more of a book hoarder. Ive read probably 1/3 of the books on my bookshelf. Regardless, we were both determined to add to our respective collections.

There were no cliche tumbleweeds heading to Archer City, but the streets were bare and the Dairy Queen was the only restaurant open that Saturday afternoon. Were it not for a funeral taking place at the neighboring First United Methodist Church, our car would've been the only one on the street.

In the store, I searched desperately for a used copy of Lonesome Dove, having never read it, but the store runner, whos worked there since she was a student at Archer City High School in the 80s, says they cant keep them on the shelves.

I also looked for books by Cormac McCarthy, a personal favorite Texas author whos award winning works include The Road, No Country for Old Men, and All the Pretty Horses, but couldnt find him in the expanse of shelves. I ended up leaving with Still Wild: Short Fiction of the American West 1950s to Present, Telegraph Days by McMurtry, and At Home Abroad by Mark Twain.

I couldve sat around for hours reading anything from Ernest Hemingway to Stephen King, but Booked Up is only open Thursdays through Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. That day it closed at 4 p.m. You can do things like that in a small town.

Peter L. Scamardo II

Stories that last

I've read that McMurtry wasn't the most pleasant person to be around at times, but I fully agree with his "writing process."

I like making stuff up, he said to Texas Monthly in 2016. I just write. You either do it, or you dont.

But what I took away from the trip was the power books still have. I thought about the time and effort that goes into writing, printing, and binding a physical book. Yes, eBooks have changed the publishing world, and theyre factually more profitable to writers, but theres nothing like a printed book.

Peter L. Scamardo II

For the writer, its a physical stamp on this earth. They created something thats going to pass through dozens of hands over generations. Every book in every bookstore, especially used books, has a story to tell with every wrinkle of the page.

I couldnt help but think about my own published book. It doesnt hold a candle to McMurtry, but publishing it was just as precious as writing it. Its a shout out to the universe that I was here. Its motivation to make the next one that much better.

Its okay to be minor, McMurtry said to Texas Monthly in 2013. In fact, if you can be minor, youve made a considerable achievement, because most people dont register on the scale of minor or major at all.

David Woo / Dallas Morning News

Now that World Book Day has arrived, I hope everyone is taking a moment to reflect on their favorite books and what those stories mean to them. Stories are precious. They tell us who we are, where weve been, and where were going. Maybe their favorite book inspires the next great writer. Or maybe it just makes them feel good. Both are equally important.

To those who love long drives down country roads, take the trip to Archer City. Its a long drive regardless of where youre coming from, but youll experience a unique Texas site that might not be there forever.

San Antonians should head to the San Antonio Book Festival on May 21 to see over 90 authors as it holds its first in-person festival since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Texans everywhere should head to the Texas Book Festival in November 5-6 in Austin.
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ATLANTA (AP)  U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was hostile during testimony Friday in a hearing on her eligibility to run for reelection, saying she did not remember liking and making various social media posts surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year and accusing an opposing lawyer of using chopped videos and twisting her words.

Voters in the Georgia congresswomans district have said Greene helped facilitate the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that disrupted certification of President Joe Bidens victory, making her ineligible for reelection under a rarely cited section of the 14th Amendment dealing with insurrection or rebellion.

But Greene  who, the day before the Capitol riot, proclaimed on TV that this is "our 1776 moment  testified that she's never endorsed violence.

Greene is set to appear on the Republican ballot for Georgias May 24 primary and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. The administrative law judge who oversaw the hearing must present his findings to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will then make the ultimate determination over whether Greene is qualified.

Greene has repeatedly denied aiding or engaging in an insurrection and has filed a lawsuit alleging that the law the voters are using to challenge her eligibility is itself unconstitutional.

But Ron Fein, a lawyer for the voters who filed the challenge, said Greene took an oath and then broke it by engaging in an insurrection. While Greene wasnt on the steps of the Capitol, she nevertheless played an important role in stoking Republican fury ahead of the attack, Fein said.

Unlike the Civil War and other insurrections that involved military uniforms and tactics, he said, The leaders of this insurrection were among us, on Facebook, on Twitter, on corners of social media that would make your stomach hurt.

Andrew Celli, a lawyer for the voters, questioned Greene about posts on her social media accounts. She repeatedly responded, I don't recall," or I don't remember.

When asked about the fact that her Facebook account had, in 2019, liked a post calling for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be shot in the head, Greene said she had no memory of that and said someone else could have been responsible.

Whenever Celli suggested that she'd endorsed the use of violence to interrupt the certification of the electoral votes, Greene asserted she doesn't support violence and was encouraging peaceful protest.

Celli played a clip of an interview Greene did Jan. 5, 2021, in which she said this is our 1776 moment. When Celli asked if she was aware some Trump supporters used that reference as a call to violence, Greene said that wasn't her intention and that she was talking about her plans to object to the certification of electoral votes.

I was talking about the courage to object, she said.

Celli appeared to grow frustrated at times when she didnt directly answer his questions and accused him of was speculating.

Ms. Greene, Im just asking questions, he said.

Im just answering, she responded.

Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot sometimes seemed exasperated by repeated rephrasing of questions and at times told Celli to move on. He also repeatedly admonished Greene supporters for clapping or cheering during the proceedings.

James Bopp, a lawyer for Greene, said his client did not engage in the attack on the Capitol, and the challengers are making a very serious charge with significant ramifications.

They want to deny the right to vote to the thousands of people living in the 14th District of Georgia by removing Greene from the ballot, he said.

At the time of the riot, Greene was in a dark hallway at the Capitol urging people via social media to be safe and remain calm, he said.

Rep. Greene was a victim of this attack, Bopp said, adding that she believed her life could be in danger.

Bopp said that Greene was engaging in protected political speech. He also argued that the administrative hearing process is meant to address basic qualification questions, not to evaluate major constitutional and federal claims.

Dozens of Greene supporters attended the hearing, including U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and staunch Greene ally.

The challenge to Greene's eligibility to run for reelection was filed by five voters who live in her district, and the procedure for such a challenge is outlined in Georgia law.

The law says any voter who's eligible to vote for a candidate can challenge that candidate's qualifications by filing a written complaint. The secretary of state then has to request a hearing before an administrative law judge.

Beaudrot asked both sides to submit briefs by midnight Thursday, and said he would try to make a decision within a week after that.

Once he submits findings, Raffensperger will be tasked with deciding the eligibility of Greene, a Trump loyalist, as he faces a tough primary challenge from a Trump-endorsed candidate. Raffensperger attracted Trumps wrath shortly after the 2020 election when he refused to take steps to overturn Trumps narrow loss in the state.

The 14th Amendment says no one can serve in Congress who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. Ratified shortly after the Civil War, it aimed to keep representatives who had fought for the Confederacy from returning to Congress.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in Atlanta on Monday declined a request from Greene to halt the challenge process. Greene is appealing that ruling.

The Georgia complaint was filed on the voters' behalf by Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group.

The group filed similar challenges on behalf of voters in Arizona, where a judge on Friday ruled to keep three Republicans on the ballot, and in North Carolina against Republican U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at the rally that preceded the riot.

A federal judge last month blocked the challenge against Cawthorn, writing that laws approved by Congress in 1872 and 1898 mean the 14th Amendment section cant apply to current House members.

___

Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed reporting.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Satellite images released Thursday showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, and local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians there in an effort to conceal the slaughter taking place in the siege of the port city.

The images emerged hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the battle for the Mariupol, despite the presence of an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters who were still holed up at a giant steel mill. Putin ordered his troops not to storm the stronghold but to seal it off so that not even a fly comes through.

Satellite image provider Maxar Technologies released the photos, which it said showed more than 200 mass graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting. The imagery showed long rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused the Russians of hiding their military crimes by taking the bodies of civilians from the city and burying them in Manhush.

The graves could hold as many as 9,000 dead, the Mariupol City Council said Thursday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Boychenko labeled Russian actions in the city as the new Babi Yar, a reference to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.

The bodies of the dead were being brought by the truckload and actually simply being dumped in mounds, an aide to Boychenko, Piotr Andryushchenko, said on Telegram.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were discovered in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv after Russian troops retreated three weeks ago, Russian officials denied that their soldiers killed any civilians there and accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities.

In a statement, Maxar said a review of previous images indicates that the graves in Manhush were dug in late March and expanded in recent weeks.

After nearly two lethal months of bombardment that largely reduced Mariupol to a smoking ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port.

But a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Moscow's estimate, have stubbornly held out for weeks at the steel plant, despite a pummeling from Russian forces and repeated demands for their surrender. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped there, according to Ukrainian officials.

Instead of sending troops to finish off the defenders in a potentially bloody frontal assault, Russia apparently intends to maintain the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food or ammunition.

Boychenko rejected any notion that Mariupol had fallen into Russian hands.

The city was, is and remains Ukrainian, he declared. Today our brave warriors, our heroes, are defending our city.

The capture of Mariupol would represent the Kremlins biggest victory yet of the war in Ukraine. It would help Moscow secure more of the coastline, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and free up more forces to join the larger and potentially more consequential battle now underway for Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas.

Putin expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops in deciding against sending them in to clear out the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, where the die-hard defenders were hiding in a maze of underground passageways.

At a joint appearance with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin declared, The completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success, and he offered congratulations to Shoigu.

Shoigu predicted the steel plant could be taken in three to four days, but Putin said that would be pointless."

There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities, the Russian leader said. Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly comes through.

The plant covers 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is threaded with some 24 kilometers (15 miles) of tunnels and bunkers.

The Russian agenda now is not to capture these really difficult places where the Ukrainians can hold out in the urban centers, but to try and capture territory and also to encircle the Ukrainian forces and declare a huge victory, retired British Rear Adm. Chris Parry said.

Russian officials for weeks have said capturing the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas is the wars main objective. Moscows forces opened the new phase of the fighting this week along a 300-mile (480-kilometer) front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Azov Sea.

While Russia continued heavy air and artillery attacks in those areas, it did not appear to gain any significant ground over the past few days, according to military analysts, who said Moscow's forces were still ramping up the offensive.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagons assessment, said the Ukrainians were hindering the Russian effort to push south from Izyum.

Rockets struck a neighborhood of Kharkiv on Thursday, and at least two civilians were burned to death in their car. A school and a residential building were also hit, and firefighters tried to put out a blaze and search for anyone trapped.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops kidnapped a local official heading up a humanitarian convoy in the southern Kherson region. She said the Russians offered to free him in exchange for Russian prisoners of war, but she characterized that as unacceptable.

Vereshchuk also said efforts to establish three humanitarian corridors in the Kherson region failed Thursday because Russian troops did not hold their fire.

Western nations, meanwhile, rushed to pour heavy weapons into Ukraine to help it counter the offensive in the east.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance, including heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones. But he also warned that the $13.6 billion approved last month by Congress for military and humanitarian aid is almost exhausted and more will be needed.

All told, more than 100,000 people were believed trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, which had a prewar population of about 430,000. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The city has seized worldwide attention as the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war, including deadly airstrikes on a maternity hospital and a theater.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of launching attacks to block civilian evacuations from the city. On Thursday, at least two Russian attacks hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, a way station for people fleeing Mariupol. No one was wounded, the regional governor said.

Among those who arrived in Zaporizhzhia after fleeing Mariupol were Yuriy and Polina Lulac, who spent nearly two months living in a basement with at least a dozen other people. There was no running water and little food, Yuriy Lulac said.

What was happening there was so horrible that you cant describe it, said the native Russian speaker who used a derogatory word for the Russian troops, saying they were killing people for nothing.

Mariupol is gone. In the courtyards there are just graves and crosses, Lulac said.

The Red Cross said it expected to to evacuate 1,500 people by bus, but that the Russians allowed only a few dozen to leave and pulled some people off of the buses.

Dmitriy Antipenko said he lived mostly in a basement with his wife and father-in-law amid death and destruction.

In the courtyard, there was a little cemetery, and we buried seven people there, Antipenko said, wiping away tears.

___

Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine; Yesica Fisch in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine; Danica Kirka in London; and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani 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
We are told that negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv aimed at some form of peace talks have not led to any progress. Perhaps, Ukraine is not in the mood to meet for talks on talks.

by Victor Cherubim

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson on a two day visit to India was given a tumultuous reception and treated like a maharaj, is reported to have said, that he believes the war in Ukraine could last until the end of 2023.

While at long last, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, will travel to Russia next week, (April 26, 2022) to be received by President Putin and for talks with Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, in what is their first meeting, since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

We are told that negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv aimed at some form of peace talks have not led to any progress. Perhaps, Ukraine is not in the mood to meet for talks on talks. Russian officials on the other hand state their proposals to their Ukrainian counterparts and negotiators, offered five days ago remain unanswered.

Would anyone doubt or deny Ukrainian stance as fighting, shelling, bombing and burying the dead, has not only stopped in the siege of the port city of Mariupol, particularly in the precincts of the Azovstal Steel Mills where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are holed in and holding out against all odds of the Russian Army.

President Vladimir Putin, we are informed, has ordered his Russian forces, not to storm the Steel Mill. However, he has ordered his troops to do so in such a way that not a single fly would pass.

Ukrainian authorities have estimated that over 1000 civilians are inside the steel plant along with the fighters, and will fight to the last. The Ukrainian Government maintains that Russia

may have taken parts of the Donbas region, but Mariupol is still in Ukrainian hands.

How long will it last?

A communique from Russias Embassy in Iceland has stated: a number of Western States continue to actively stuff Ukraine with heavy armaments, among them are howitzers, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters, drones etc. It is no secret that United States has agreed US$ 800 million worth of arms to Ukraine in the last few days.

Whilst all this goes on Ukrainian exiles have retorted on twitter: You never complained when the Soviet Union got stuffed with heavy weapons in World War II.

The tears and tales of horror of escapees from Mariupol tell a poignant story of mans inhumanity to man, as they arrive by train to Zaporizhzhia, that Russians are killing people for nothing.

We also hear Mariupol is totally destroyed, graves and crosses litter the yards, following over two months of shelling and starvation, as humanitarian corridors are not allowing, or in fact preventing refugees leaving due to incessant bombardment.

Do I have to repeat this stoic resistance?

From monuments in honour of Alexander Pushkin to Gagarin, Ukraine has rid itself of Russian symbols, one at a time.

Russia on the other hand has destroyed everything that Ukraine has built since Soviet days, as tit for tat. It appears it is a vendetta without end.

Brother arraigned against brother, as many know there have been both Russian and Ukrainian speakers, intermarried inside and outside Ukrainian and Russian borders, especially in Eastern Ukraine.

People on both sides are fighting an insane war, as if there has some acrimonious plodding perhaps, by an unknown hand. This is seen by the venom in this war. A bucket of red paint was thrown on a statue of Russias great Poet, writer, Alexander Pushkin, in the centre of the western Ukrainian city of Tenopilin.

Many of the towns and cities in Ukraine have purged statues of Lenin. They were removed in the 1990s and 2000s especially during the Maidan Uprising, in 2013/14.

In 2015 after the annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian Parliament passed de-communisation laws, banning vestiges of Soviet symbols.

The atrocities now committed by both sides has been brewing over decades, if nothing else.

President Putins justification was that modern, Western leaning Ukraine was a constant threat and that Russia could not feel, safe, develop and exist

Whilst people wanted a different Ukraine, Russia with its vast empire, was naturally incited to anger which has now blown all over, so called affluent neighbour, Ukraine.

Historians in future decades will be excited to analyse the causes and consequences of this war of attrition.

In the meantime, the world is calling both Russia and Ukraine to come to its senses, come to some form of understanding of not destroying both cultures, or committing unheard atrocities and the tyranny of the innocents.

When will this war end is the only question on everybodys mind?

Wars begin in the minds of men, and in the minds of women, that the defences of peace has to be built. This is in the Charter of the United Nations. We hope the visit of the UN

Secretary General, to Moscow will bring some form of realisation of this iconic statement to both Russia and Ukraine.

Perhaps, a small island nation, like ours, can play a role in bringing both parties to Sri Lanka to negotiate a deal, in resolving this incomparable stalemate, as we too divert attention in containing our political and economic impasse.

Compassion is what the Buddha taught, has a much greater meaning in the world of today.
While the lack of any big Covid news absent the Administrations foot shuffling when its mask mandate was shot down, that does not mean Covid should be ignored. Our Covid brain trust and readers have been sending news.

Fresh from IM Doc:

62 patients who are COVID positive  either ill themselves or found during testing or primary contacts. Again, zero unvaccinated. Of the 62 -35 were primary vaccinations, an additional 11 are with one booster  and the other 16 were 2 boostered. I had no partial VAX or J&J this week. ZERO unvaccinated. That makes 7 weeks of not seeing a single unvaxxed patient. Colleagues all over America are reporting similar issues  usually less than 5% unvaxxed are being reported. Something is going on. I do not believe for a minute it is because the unvaxxed have decided not to seek care. Nor is it young and healthy excuse  many of the positive vaxxed patients are young and healthy. I am becoming increasingly concerned that this may go pear-shaped if/when a more noxious variant emerges. And another alarming issue is rearing its ugly head again. THIS TIME MUCH EARLIER. This did not start last year until the mid to late summer. I have had to admit 3 patients this week  all adults  all 3 with RSV pneumonia. All 3 fully vaxxed and double boosted for COVID. One of these was a little old lady with DM  the other 2 were young men, healthy and robust. All had severe pneumonia. I have never admitted an adult with RSV until the COVID vaccines. Not once in 30 years. Here we go again. Thankfully, so far, the COVID has been pretty mild. None required admission this week. However, I am certain that at most 5-10 were reported to the health officials. Severe under-reporting is going on. THERE IS A REASON THE CDC and BIDEN PROVIDED AMERICA WITH THE FREE TESTS  AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PATIENT CARE.

Needless to say, its not encouraging to see the vaccinated feeling sick enough that they need to see doctors. Regarding the apparent underrepresentation of the unvaccinated, it may be that they are on average more cautious than the vaccinated, who were sold repeatedly on the idea that being vaccinated protected them from getting Covid, or at least from getting all that sick. While the plural of anecdote is not date, the two unvaccinated people I know are insanely careful, hardly seeing anyone and well masked when they do.

Lamberts Covid data wraps have shown the MA wastewater count rising to a level that was at the high end for all waves before Omicron. It had fallen off this week, but that may be an artifact of Easter/spring vacation holidays.

Additional cheery news:

There is a theoretical risk that serial covid infections could predispose to a future more severe reinfection It's very simple, no need to go wild The recent VA paper lends this theory of decompensation credibility  Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) April 18, 2022

It's a complex multivariable system. Let's see if infections progressively get milder. I think not. https://t.co/PnF6hIPtPV  Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) April 18, 2022

Note this hypothesis could also help explain what IM Doc is seeing: individuals who got asymptomatic cases (as in they may not have realized they contracted Covid) before now getting symptomatic ones.

More variants and more waves:

If COVID rising again in Gauteng, South Africa; its likely driven in part by emergence of B4, B5 omicron variants Experimental evidence indicates vaccine induced antibodies dont neutralize B4, B5 as well as B1, B2 and immunity from prior B1 infection may not be as protective https://t.co/vbDYYSD1Ve  Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) April 22, 2022

And its growing!

R is above 1 in all provinces other than Limpopo. So cases are rising rapidly in most provinces. pic.twitter.com/wA3A0cWZFA  Louis Rossouw (@lrossouw) April 21, 2022

Scientist GM points out this wave is a month ahead of schedule. He also points out the inconsistency in Gottliebs carrying water for the Administration:

In the meantime, in the US, we have some not nice subvariants to watch (hat tip guurst):

Signs of the 6th wave of the #SARSCoV2 pandemic are multiplying. In the near future, we seem to be saying '#BA2, #BA4, #BA5 waves are now in the US'. https://t.co/YnO0b9kXIs  Abdulkadir YILMAZ (@a__virologist) April 22, 2022

The #BA2 and BA.2 subvariants rates has increased enough to cause a wave. In addition, #BA4 cases are seen in some regions. We know that BA.4 is much more contagious than BA.2. pic.twitter.com/HgELdca8oS  Abdulkadir YILMAZ (@a__virologist) April 22, 2022

In particular, the #BA2 subvariant BA.2.12.1 needs to be followed carefully. BA.2.12.1 seems to have a 68% growth advantage over BA.2.https://t.co/KkHfLTrMQ0  Abdulkadir YILMAZ (@a__virologist) April 22, 2022

So its too early to even try to call trajectories, but these emerging variants have the potential to cause yet more trouble, particularly in the US, where we are again throwing caution to the wind.
(Natural News) The administration of President Joe Biden has just extended the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate for illegals attempting to enter America.

On Thursday, April 21, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it has extended the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for illegal aliens who want to enter America by land or sea borders. DHS explained that it was doing this by extending its Title 19 requirements, which gave the Biden administration the power to keep enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for illegals.

Illegals at Americas land and sea borders need to verbally attest to their vaccination status and show Customs and Border Protection agents a written record of vaccination from a government health agency or other recognized government institution, along with their passports and other necessary documents.

This requirement applies to all illegals, regardless of whether they are traveling for essential or non-essential purposes. It does not apply to American citizens, U.S. nationals or lawful permanent residents. (Related: States form Border Strike Force; refuse to wait for Biden to do something about surge.)

These requirements were extended in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and several other federal agencies, wrote the DHS in a press release.

International travelers arriving in the United States by air over the age of two and regardless of citizenship must provide a negative COVID-19 test before arriving. Non-U.S. citizens must also show proof of vaccination.

Vaccine mandate policy criticized for affecting economic recovery

There are some very limited exceptions to the DHS requirements, including for those who can prove they have recently recovered from COVID-19, certain essential workers and students.

But in January, the DHS extended its COVID-19 vaccination requirements to include students and foreign essential workers, including truck drivers and nurses. This move was strongly criticized by business groups as another example of the federal government encroaching on economic activity.

Chuck Lippstreau, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association, strongly criticized the DHS for its failure to provide commonsense exceptions to this policy, including truck drivers bringing agricultural goods into America.

Lippstreau added that the vaccine mandate flies in the face of reality on the ground here in Michigan, where our agricultural sector continues facing supply disruptions, increases in cross-border trucking costs and an ongoing driver shortage.

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to protecting public health while facilitating lawful trade and travel, which is essential to our economic security, claimed DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement.

But the expansion of the mandate to include essential workers and the strong criticism from members of the business community showed that the White House may not properly understand what is essential to economic security.

Homeland Security has not provided an expiration date for the COVID-19 vaccine requirement, only stating that it could amend or rescind the requirements at any time.

In determining whether and when to rescind this order, DHS anticipates that it will take account of whether the vaccination requirements for non-U.S. air travelers remain in place, said the DHS.

The extension of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for illegal border crossers came just days after a federal judge in Florida struck down a CDC-imposed mandate requiring travelers to wear masks on public transit across the country. The Department of Justice said it plans to appeal the judges decision, following a recommendation to do so from the CDC.

Learn more about Americas issues with immigration and border security at Migrants.news.

Watch this clip from InfoWars as host Harrison Smith talks about how border crossings are reaching record highs.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

TX Sheriff: Border patrol told me to be ready for ports of entry being overrun, were talking about deputies in riot gear.

US government stole $17 million from taxpayers to buy hotel rooms for migrants that were never even used.

21 States file lawsuit to stop Biden administration from lifting Title 42 health order for southern border.

Secret plan to flood America with millions of economic migrants exposed as Biden regime declares war on American citizens.

Border mayor sounds the alarm: Whats coming on the 23rd of May wont even be describable.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

DHS.gov

Reuters.com

NYTimes.com

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) When the New York Post published its bombshell report on Hunter Biden shortly ahead of the the 2020 presidential election in which his father faced President Trump, the story was quickly stifled by much of the mainstream media, with plenty of help from Big Tech. After all, it made their favored candidate look pretty bad by illustrating how Joe Biden knew about his sons corrupt business dealings with Ukraine.

The storys source was a water-damaged laptop abandoned by Hunter at a Mac repair shop that contained proof that he sold influence during his fathers reign as vice president and that Joe was aware of it. The laptop also contained an X-rated 12-minute video that appeared to depict Hunter smoking crack while engaging in a sex act with a woman and countless other sexually explicit images.

Now, the story is in the spotlight again as the Justice Departments investigation into Hunters business activity gains steam. And despite all the so-called fact check articles at the time claiming the story was some sort of Russian hoax, even the very liberal New York Times has now admitted it has authenticated emails from the abandoned laptop belonging to Hunter at the center of the story.

At the time, Facebook broke its own fact-checking policy to suppress the story and stop it from being spread. Their fact-checking partner, Lead Stories, posted more than a dozen fact checks rebutting claims in the story about Hunters sexual misconduct and drug use. Its fact-checking partner FactCheck.org, meanwhile, claimed the laptop story was false and widely debunked. In the time from October 20 to November 3, 2020, their fact-checking partner PolitiFact ran a series of favorable fact checks on Hunter in the days leading up to the election, at least three of which were related to his infamous laptop.

Twitter, meanwhile, disabled the link to the story on the same day it was published with a disclaimer reading: Warning: this link may be unsafe. They also restricted the New York Posts account from October 14 to October 30. The platform then targeted political influencers who attempted to share the story, such as then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, whose personal account was locked, along with conservative host Dana Loesch and the Trump Campaign. Although Twitters then-CEO, Jack Dorsey, eventually admitted this response was a mistake during Senate questioning, they had already accomplished what they set out to do, casting doubt on the veracity of this story when the election was right around the corner.

Snopes, who had initially repeated a claim by 51 intelligence officials that the laptop story has the earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation in October 2020, finally conceded in March this year that the New York Times did indeed authenticate the emails on Hunters laptop.

The New York Times recently admitted: Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.

Poll shows how Big Tech censorship may have cost Trump the election

The admissions by Twitter, The New York Times, Snopes, The Washington Post, and all the other outlets who can no longer deny this story came far too late to save the country from making a mistake. According to research by The Polling Company for the Media Research Center carried out after the election, 45.1 percent of Biden voters across seven important swing states said they were not aware of the scandal involving Biden and Hunter.

The poll found that a full awareness of the scandal would have resulted in 9.4 percent of Biden voters choosing not to vote for him. This would have flipped all of the six swing states in which he won over to Trump, providing him with 311 electoral votes. In other words, Big Tech censorship may have cost Trump the election.

Sources for this article include:

NewsBusters.org

NewsBusters.org

NYPost.com
(Natural News) An oil company owned by the Chinese government announced plans to drop its assets in Western countries for fear of sanctions that may be imposed on it.

Industry sources confirmed to Reuters in late March that China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is preparing to divest its operations in the U.S., U.K. and Canada due to the looming threat of sanctions. The state-owned oil giant is seeking to unravel its $15 billion investment in CNOOC Petroleum North America, which was formerly the Canadian oil company Nexen prior to the Chinese firms acquisition in 2013.

Nexens former assets in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Athabasca oil sands in Canada produce approximately 220,000 barrels of oil per day.

The four industry sources told Reuters that CNOOC has hired Bank of America to start preparing a formal sale of its North Sea assets. CNOOCs North Sea assets include the Buzzard, Golden Eagle, Scott, Telford and Rochelle oil fields. The Chinese firm holds a 43.2 percent stake in the Buzzard field, while it has a 36.5 percent stake in Golden Eagle.

CNOOCs North Sea assets could raise more than $3 billion if the sale pushes through. Both the state-owned oil firm and Bank of America declined to comment on the matter.

According to two Chinese industry executives who were among the four sources, the planned sale was part of a broader review of CNOOCs international assets. The state-owned oil giant has made sizeable discoveries in Bohai Bay and has established new development prospects in Guyana and Uganda. These endeavors have given CNOOC the confidence to offload the Western assets, added the two executives.

The timing of the planned sale appears to line up with a sharp increase in gas and oil prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February. Tightening supply due to sanctions against Russia and increasing demand is set to continue pushing prices up.

Beijing fears sanctions from the West

One of the sources said CNOOCs top brass found managing former Nexen assets in Western nations uncomfortable due to red tape and higher operating costs. However, another source from the banking industry remarked that China fears tariffs and other possible sanctions that could impact its future investments.

CNOOC itself acknowledged the risk of sanctions the U.S. could impose in its 2021 annual report. Different levels of the U.S. government  federal, state or local  may impose economic sanctions of varying severity against certain countries. It is impossible to predict whether the business or the company or its affiliates, the countries [or] regions where the business is conducted or its partners will be affected by the U.S. sanctions in the future due to [policy] changes, the report stated.

If this happens, [CNOOC] may not be able to continue to carry out relevant business, or it may not be able to continue to carry out business in the affected countries or regions. [It may also harm] the companys opportunity or ability to obtain new business. (Related: China strategically developed contingency plans years ago to withstand economic sanctions, WWIII.)

Senior Chinese business finance columnist Chen Siyu told the Epoch Times that the Wests sanctions against Russia struck fear into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chinas ambiguous stance over the Russia-Ukraine war has also contributed to this fear of potential sanctions, he added. If the U.S. and other countries push through with seizing Chinese assets overseas, Beijing will incur massive technological and economic assets  which explains its move to rapidly divest overseas assets.

The CCP has to rely on the U.S. whether it likes to or not. On one hand, it sends mixed signals on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both withdrawing [from] and providing support to Russia. On the other hand, it [is strengthening] domestic food production [in fear of Western sanctions], said Chen.

CommunistChina.news has more stories about Beijing selling off overseas assets to avoid the fallout of sanctions.

Watch Harrison Smith of American Journal talk about China and Saudi Arabias plan to create the petroyuan below.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Biden REMOVES tariffs on 352 products from CHINA.

China stocks on a DOWNHILL trend as COVID cases rise.

As grain prices reach historic highs, China is stockpiling food supplies from around the world.

U.S.-dominated global financial system facing collapse as China begins buying Russian coal and oil in yuan, not petrodollars.

Communist China controls LME commodities exchange; regime changes the rules at whim to protect key traders linked to China.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Reuters.com

CNOOCLtd.com [PDF]

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) One of the most talented vaccine creators in the world has warned that the coming onslaught of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine injuries and deaths will be so large that a total collapse of the health system is inevitable.

Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, who used to work as a senior program manager at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), warned listeners in a Message to Austria regarding that countrys lockdown measures that the true fight for health is in not getting vaccinated.

Last year, as you may recall, Vanden Bossche stated publicly that trying to vaccinate people in the midst of a pandemic is about the worst thing you can do if stopping the spread is truly your goal.

We need to help them as much as we can because they will need extensive treatment, in many cases, Vanden Bossche said about the fully vaccinated who have no idea what will soon become of them.

The number of fully jabbed requiring hospitalization, he further warned, is now steadily increasing with no end in sight.

Whereas more and more, with training of the innate immune system, with more exposure to the virus, more and more non-vaccinated people get protected, he further explained.

This will lead inevitably  and I am not a doomsday preacher  but this will inevitably lead to a collapse of our health system. It cannot be otherwise.

COVID vaccines actually suppress innate immunity, leaving the body more prone to diseases

Contrary to what is widely claimed, injecting these poisons into human bodies does not promote strengthened immunity. In fact, the jabs are suppressing innate immunity, which is required for generalized protection against disease.

Man-made chemical cocktails, in this case experimental in nature, cannot substitute for innate immunity, Vanden Bossche stressed, nor do they contribute to so-called herd immunity.

With this in mind, it is especially egregious to inject children with the stuff since their innate immunity can easily be suppressed by vaccinal antibodies, Vanden Bossche warned.

[Their] antibodies are so young and so naive that they can easily be outcompeted by vaccinal antibodies, he added.

This is actually true for all vaccines, which compete against and usually defeat innate immunity, leaving a person prone to autoimmune disorders and other problems throughout his life.

The fact that children have a zero percent risk of dying from the Fauci Flu, or even showing symptoms of infections, makes the jab push on them even more nefarious. How many vaccinated children will now suffer a lifetime of health problems due to getting injected?

In Vanden Bossches view, jabbing children with these biological agents is an absolute no go!

We cannot vaccinate our children with these vaccines, he says.

Adults are similarly damaged by the shots, which likewise suppress adult immunity. Depending on a persons age and existing health status, getting shot could mean a death sentence, even if it does not happen immediately.

And the booster shots? Vanden Bossche called the concept absolutely insane during a recent presentation, further calling them dangerous nonsense that should not be done!

Those who remain unvaccinated should stay that way no matter what, Vanden Bossche said. They more than likely already possess immunity to whatever it is that is circulating under the name of covid, and any interference with that via an injection will likely trigger health problems.

Very importantly, all are protected, Vanden Bossche said about the unvaccinated. They all are still protected against severe disease and the majority of them will be protected against very mild or moderate disease. COVID, he added, is not a disease of healthy people.

People who are in good health have a healthy innate immune system that can deal with a number of respiratory viruses without any problem, he said.

The latest news about Chinese Virus injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources include:

GlobalResearch.ca

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Implantable microchips are now being marketed as the ultimate in convenience, but their goal is to ultimately create the Internet of Bodies (IoB)  an ecosystem of sensors designed to monitor, analyze and modify human bodies and their behavior.

They would allow you to open doors without keys or buy things without your wallet.

Sweden is one of the first countries to adopt implantable microchips to become more or less a cashless society. The implant will replace the need for debit and credit cards altogether, along with identification and keys. To pay for items, all you have to do is place your hand near a contactless card reader to register payment. (Related: Implantable chips for humans to be implemented globally.)

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Swedes have been chipped so far, although authorities claimed that they dont know the exact number as there is still no central registry.

The chips are said to be untrackable at present, but this may not remain so in the future. While early microchips contain only limited amounts of information, implementing a global digital identification system would include everything imaginable about a person, from online search histories and medical information to personal banking data, social credit score, and more.

With the IoB, nothing will be private  biosensors that measure and monitor biological functioning and emotional states will also be developed. This could also include biosensors that detect diseases by tracking chemical reactions inside the body. For instance, it could determine whether or not you have been infected with a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 or influenza, even before symptoms emerge. (Related: Microchipping technology can track your COVID vaccination status and other digital details with a simple phone scan.)

Implanted chips could make people vulnerable to hackers and surveillance

Financial technology expert Theodora Lau noted that implanted payment chips are already an extension of the Internet of Things  as in they are a way of connecting and exchanging data. Thus, the benefits must be weighed against the potential risks, especially when more personal information begins to be migrated into them, leaving people vulnerable to hackers and surveillance.

How much are we willing to pay, for the sake of convenience? Where do we draw the line when it comes to privacy and security? Who will be protecting the critical infrastructure, and the humans that are part of it? Lau asked.

There are also other concerns surrounding implantable microchips. Just about any smartphone can read the chip with a proper scanner installed, and anybody would be able to hack it, according to Dr. Geoff Watson, a consultant anesthetist who has teamed up with the chips inventor to help ensure that the implant procedure is carried out to a medical standard.

Many say they have no privacy fears around the current microchips, but it is reasonable to suspect that privacy concerns will also rise with the amount of information held in them. Credit card theft was rare in the beginning, but today, information gets stolen and identity theft has become rampant.

There is no reason to believe that theft and fraud wont happen with microchipping becoming more commonplace, and the risk will increase with government involvement and control over behavior and spending once the microchips get connected to personal finances and programmable digital currencies.

History professor Yuval Noah Harari warned that humans are now hackable animals, meaning the technology exists by which a company or the government can know a person better than they know themselves, and can be very dangerous if misused.

He predicted that algorithms will be used to make decisions that historically have been made by humans themselves, including whether or not a person can get hired for a particular job or whether they are granted a loan, among other things.

Harari also discussed transhumanism in a separate interview, noting that technology is now learning to produce bodies and minds through augmented bodies, cloud technology and artificial-intelligence connections, and that one of the greatest challenge now is what to do with people that have become obsolete in the process.

Follow FutureTech.news for more information about microchips and what it means for information and privacy.

Watch the video below to know more about Yuval Hararis interpretation of the Great Reset narrative.

This video is from the Thrivetime Show channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Swedish startup introduces implantable microchip that can store a COVID passport under your skin.

Michigan passes bill to voluntarily microchip humans with RFID transponders.

Skynet microchip breakthrough announced that will ENSLAVE humanity with AI cyberlords the end of humanity approaches.

DARPA uses mainstream media to flaunt implantable microchip to stop coronavirus in its tracks.

Mark of the Beast: CIA, CCP unveil Vaccine Credential Initiative that will involve microchip tracking of vaccine status.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

MiamiStandardNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Dr. Naomi Wolf, one of the people combing the recent batch of Pfizer documents released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), found that the company actually knew the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine of its fellow Big Pharma company Moderna can damage the immune system.

In the April 19 episode of The Ben Armstrong Show, the host explained that Pfizer indicated in the documents that 100 micrograms of Modernas mRNA vaccine is enough to damage a persons immune system.

In a clip from The War Room with Steve Bannon, Wolf explained that Pfizer knew Modernas vaccine destroys lymphocytes or suppresses them. Lymphocytes are white blood cells or helper cells that help with immune response.

This suppression could explain why vaccinated individuals are the ones that are getting sick and the ones who are getting infected with COVID. The internal documents showed that the trials were abandoned due to its reaction, and those who got the vaccine have had their immune systems compromised.

Early in the pandemic, Wolf said they have seen the data of peoples immune systems clearly being damaged due to the suppression of the immune system. (Related: Pfizer, FDA knew their COVID vaccine causes immunosuppression, ADE, VAED.)

If any vaccine had one percent of what these vaccines have done, theyd have been pulled and said to dangerously do more harm than good, Armstrong said. Instead, Big Pharma execs and health officials are encouraging more shots.

And because of your immune system being brought down, if you have a weakness, somewhere, health-wise, you might not even know youve had this weakness because your body is doing fine. But when you lower that immune system, all of a sudden, a weakness hit you like people were getting heart conditions, Armstrong went on.

The 100 micrograms of mRNA lipid nanoparticles, which are now known to be dangerous, go to a persons bloodstream. When injected, people feel joint pain, muscle pain, extensive fevers and even cardiac problems as a result of different dosages.

Armstrong said whats even more problematic is that the FDA is pushing to give these dangerous vaccines to children, despite knowing what they knew about the vaccines and knowing that the COVID-19 virus in itself is not dangerous for children.

EU warns against too many shots, too soon

While the U.S. is forcing vaccines on everyone as early as age five, the European Union warned against too many shots, too soon. Regulators said too many COVID-19 vaccine boosters could affect the immune system, exposing people to even more illnesses. Countries are told that they may want to leave more time between shots and to make sure that they are given out during specific cold seasons.

There is not a lot of information so far about the Moderna vaccine  after all, the documents studied were from Pfizer. (Related: Latest Pfizer document dump shows the company had to hire 2,400 new employees to handle wave of COVID vaccine adverse events.)

Another prominent figure in the fight against the vaccines, Dr. Peter McCullough, previously said he is so confident about the different doses at this stage that he would testify in court against the vaccine manufacturing companies because their data had been clear that they were not giving out the same doses for everyone.

Pfizer and the FDA knew that the vaccines are failing; that their efficacy is waning. However, they are still pushing these vaccines despite all the data. Scientific evidence proved that the vaccines have done more harm than good as people are still getting sick with COVID, and will continue to do so if the rollout of these vaccines continues.

Follow Vaccines.news for more updates on the Pfizer COVID-19 documents.

Watch the video below to know more about the latest Pfizer document release.

This video is from the channel The New American on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Pfizer panicking after judge orders accelerated release of COVID vaccine documents amid fears business will be harmed.

Childrens Health Defense to sue FDA over fraudulent Pfizer covid vaccine approval.

Former Pfizer employee flags FDA study, warns that Pfizer vaccine increases COVID by over 300%.

COVID vaccine injury reports jump by 27,000 in one week, FDA pulls bait and switch with Pfizer vaccine approval.

Whistleblower: Pfizer vaccine trial data was falsified, participants who experienced adverse effects were ignored.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Deseret.com
(Natural News) Author and former presidential campaign advisor Naomi Wolf asserted that Pfizer was fully aware of the dangers that came with its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

Wolf made the claim during an appearance on the War Room podcast, telling host Steve Bannon about the findings of Team Five, which she is in charge of.

She revealed that Pfizer was aware that 100 micrograms (?g) of its BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine suppresses lymphocytes, if not destroy them. What are lymphocytes? These are your helper cells, your white blood cells that protect your immune response, explained Wolf.

So this could explain why people who have been vaccinated  are the ones who are getting sick. Theyre the ones who are getting COVID, [and] the datas showing it. Im not laughing because its funny, Im laughing because its surreal.

Wolf continued that the 100 ?g dose of the vaccine was eventually abandoned due to its reactogenicity, based on internal documents. The same dangers were not limited to the Pfizer vaccine, as the same issues were found in those who were injected with the same dosage of the Moderna mRNA vaccine.

[To] every single person who got it, Im sorry that this happened to you. This is dangerous and harmful, [with] the suppression of your immune system  and other serious illnesses that I dont even want to describe. (Related: Pfizer, FDA knew their COVID vaccine causes immunosuppression, ADE, VAED.)

According to Pfizer internal documents obtained by Wolf, the New York-based drug manufacturer also compared the effects of getting 10 ?g, 30 ?g and 100 ?g of the vaccine. Getting the vaccine in either of the three different doses also came with risks  including joint pain, muscle pain, extensive fevers and cardiac problems.

This is not like 100 ?g of a tested product. Its 100 ?g of mRNA lipid nanoparticles, which we know to be so dangerous. These hard, little fatty particles that go through your bloodstream and [the SARS-CoV-2] spike protein  are being injected. The dangers and the lasting damage that they know about are clearly on display.

FDA pushing to vaccinate kids despite risks

Wolf also cited a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2021, in which experts called to vaccinate children against COVID-19 as soon as possible. Theyre saying things that now look unbelievably reckless. [These] are FDA experts saying Weve got to give kids vaccinations immediately because it would be unethical to give only half of them vaccinations and the other half [with] placebos to see how they do, she said.

What they knew in May 2021 about 35 kids having permanent heart damage, and saying We have to vaccinate every child  [even though] kids have almost no risk from COVID-19  that is a surreal thing to claim in public.

The FDA nevertheless approved the Pfizer vaccine for children aged five to 11 on Oct. 26 last year. It cited the alleged benefits of getting the vaccine that clearly outweigh the risks of myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation) and pericarditis as a basis for its decision.

Texas chiropractor Dr. Bryan Ardis voiced out his displeasure toward the decision on the Oct. 27, 2021 episode of his Brighteon.TV program The Dr. Ardis Show.

What are some of the risks associated with this shot? It actually lists side effects that have been reported with this vaccine, including myocarditis [and] pericarditis. This is the FDA document, so they know that these are side effects of the vaccines, said Ardis.

The Brighteon.TV host challenged his viewers: They are going to be injecting [your children] with a shot they know causes inflammation of your heart muscle, which actually is a cause for congestive heart failure. How many of you think your five- to 11-year-old children deserve to start off their teenage years or adolescent years with congestive heart failure caused by myocarditis?

VaccineDamage.news has more stories about the dangers of the Pfizer COVID-19 poison shot.

Watch the full conversation between Steve Bannon and Naomi Wolf below.

This video is from the Chinese taking down EVIL CCP channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Researcher tells Dr. Jane Ruby: FDA, EMA, MHRA approved COVID-19 vaccines without seeing trial data  Brighteon.TV.

Dr. Bryan Ardis: FDA approved COVID-19 vaccine for kids despite being aware of its risks  Brighteon.TV.

Karen Kingston: Pfizer vaccine approval part of a conspiracy to harm children  Brighteon.TV.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com 1

Brighteon.com 2
(Natural News) A middle school in Bellingham, Washington will be hosting a Drop-Dead Gorgeous Drag Show, put on by the students in the Gender Sexuality Alliance Club.

On March 29, Bellingham Public Schools held a Shark Tank-style competition where student groups from across the district presented their ideas for improving their schools and community.

(Article by Amber Crawford republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)

The community members in attendance were given the opportunity to vote to determine which student organizations BIG idea would receive a portion of the $10,000 in grant money. It seems that more than one idea won some of the prize money, but the distribution amounts were not made public.

The Drop-Dead Gorgeous Drag Show won a portion of the grant money and, while some parents seem okay with the event, per a Facebook discussion between members of the Whatcom Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association, others think it is entirely inappropriate for students to participate in and/or attend a drag show.

One father to a 2nd grader in the district, Christopher Morris, gave a statement to Young Americas Foundation.

As a Bellingham Public School parent, I am very concerned to see that one of our middle schools not only has a Gender Sexuality Alliance Club, but that it will be involved in a drag show. Our schools have become more interested in activism than education, pushing leftist gender ideology at every turn. What started out as a call for inclusion has become ceaseless promotion.

Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. Gusty winds during the evening. Low around 65F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Gusty winds during the evening. Low around 65F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Photo taken on April 24, 2022 shows a child rescued from kidnappers in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Afghan security forces have set free an 11-year-old child, Abdul Raof Jan, from kidnappers' clutch and facilitated him to reunite with his family in the northern Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday. (Photo by Kawa Bashart/Xinhua)

KABUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces have set free an 11-year-old child, Abdul Raof Jan, from kidnappers' clutch and facilitated him to reunite with his family in the northern Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday.

Announcing the child's release, Deputy Prime Minister Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi told an audience that "criminal elements were behind the child's abduction" before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last August.

The ill-fated child was abducted by unknown armed men from outside his school in Mazar-i-Sharif city about two years ago.

However, the official didn't say if anyone had been arrested.

According to local media reports, Raof Jan's kidnappers had demanded 1.5 million U.S. dollars in ransom for his release, but the boy's father was unable to meet the requirement.

Kidnappers have killed physician Nadir Alami after his family failed to pay 800,000 dollars in ransom for his release a few months ago. 

Photo taken on April 24, 2022 shows a child (C) rescued from kidnappers and his family members in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Afghan security forces have set free an 11-year-old child, Abdul Raof Jan, from kidnappers' clutch and facilitated him to reunite with his family in the northern Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday. (Photo by Kawa Bashart/Xinhua)

Photo taken on April 24, 2022 shows a child (2nd L, front) rescued from kidnappers and his family members in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Afghan security forces have set free an 11-year-old child, Abdul Raof Jan, from kidnappers' clutch and facilitated him to reunite with his family in the northern Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday. (Photo by Kawa Bashart/Xinhua)
(Newser)  In Texas and elsewhere, electronic signs give motorists a running death toll from traffic accidents as a way to push safety. But a new study suggests that one easy way to improve road safety is to get rid of those signs. The research published in Science concludes that the messages are so distracting they result in an uptick of accidents soon after drivers see them, reports the Wall Street Journal. The study focused on Texas, where researchers documented what Ars Technica describes as a small but "statistically significant" rise in accidents2.7% in the first 0.6 miles after such a sign, and 1.8% up to 6 miles down the road. But those numbers can add up.

"Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that this campaign causes an additional 2,600 crashes and 16 fatalities per year in Texas alone, with a social cost of $377 million per year," write the researchers in the study. Co-author Jonathan Hall of the University of Toronto tells the Journal that researchers went into the study thinking the signs helped. But under "conclusions" in their study, this is the initial one: "First, and most directly, fatality message campaigns increase the number of crashes, so ceasing these campaigns is a low-cost way to improve traffic safety."

Hall and his team theorize that such signsparticularly those with high death tolls increase the "cognitive load" on drivers, which can lead to errors such as coming up too closely on the car in front of them or drifting from their lane. A Texas official, however, does not sound sold on the conclusions. "In relation to this particular study, there are too many unknowns to draw any firm conclusions," says Veronica Beyer, director of media relations at the Texas Department of Transportation. "The real issues around traffic fatalities in Texas are speed, distracted driving, impaired driving, and people not wearing seat belts." (Read more road safety stories.)
(Newser)  Florida's governor and legislature have decided to eliminate the Reedy Creek District, Disney World's private government, in a political battle over the state's new law known as "Don't Say Gay." But the bill for the move will go to local officials. "The moment that it dissolves, that money's gone. Just gone," said Scott Randolph, Orange County's tax collector, WESH reports. "And instead, what happens is all the debts and obligations of Reedy Creek get transferred over to Orange County government." Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation Friday, per the AP.

That could leave Orange County in a $163 million hole, Randolph saidprobably more than it could make up even if it raised taxes as much as the law allows. And property taxes could rise 20%, per NPR. The law eliminates the district by June 2023. Randolph said the county needs to prepare for the district's dissolution, though it lacks the details to do much now. Osceola County is in a similar situation. The law allows the districts to be reestablished later.

President Biden criticized Florida Republicans for the "ugly" education legislation, which DeSantis signed into law last month, at Democratic fundraisers Thursday in Washington and Oregon. "I respect conservatives," Biden said in Seattle. "Theres nothing conservative about deciding you're going to throw Disney out of its present posture because, Mickey Mouse?" The president said the Republican Party has left behind its conservative values. "This is a different deal," he said, adding that it's not just former President Donald Trump behind it. "It's the MAGA crowd," Biden said. (Read more Florida stories.)
(Newser)  The body of a National Guard soldier who drowned while trying to rescue two struggling migrants from the Rio Grande was recovered Monday morning, authorities say. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Specialist Bishop E. Evans, a 22-year-old Texas Guardsman from Arlington, was a "hero who risked his life in service of Texas and America," CBS reports. Evans disappeared Friday after he jumped in a part of the river in Eagle Pass, Texas known for strong currents. Authorities, who initially said Evans went in to rescue a woman, said Saturday that he entered the water to save two migrants who appeared to be drowning, CNN reports. Authorities say both migrants survived and were taken into custody on suspicion of drug trafficking. Our story from Saturday follows:

As a female migrant struggled in the waters of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Friday morning, an Army National Guard soldier jumped into the river to helpand didn't come out. The servicemember was swept away and is feared to have drowned, the New York Times reports. The woman and four or five other migrants appeared to make it across to the US side of the river safely, the Maverick County sheriff tells NBC News.

The soldier, who was assigned to the Operation Lone Star border mission stationed along the river aimed at preventing border crossings, "has gone missing along the river during a mission related incident," the Texas Military Department says in a statement. "The soldier has not been found, it continues, but an active search is underway. "Its very dangerous, this river, the Rio Grandeits very tricky," the sheriff says. "When I was in the Border Patrol, we advised never to jump after anybody."

The sheriff says that while about two migrants per week drown crossing the river in his county, it's rare for border patrol officers to drown. The International Organization for Migration recorded more than 600 deaths of migrants attempting to cross into the US last year, a sharp increase from the year prior. (Read more Rio Grande stories.)
(Newser)  Felicia Marie Johnson traveled from California to Houston looking for employment at a nightclub, but disappeared after applying for a job at the club on April 15, KHOU reports. The 24-year-old called an Uber after leaving Cover Girls Night Club, but it was running late and a man at the club offered to give Johnson a ride, a community activist tells CNN. "Felicia has not been seen since. No cell phone activity, no credit card activity, no social media activity. She has absolutely just vanished off the face of the earth," says Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panther Nation in Houston, which is looking into Johnson's disappearance along with a private investigator.

That PI found Johnson's cell phone, bloodied and discarded, on the side of the road near a park in West Houston, Quanell X says. Johnson's personal belongings were in her hotel room. The Houston Police Department won't say whether foul play is suspected, but Quanell X says, "We believe that she is the victim of foul play. We believe that she's being held against her will." He also says HPD must search just as intensively for missing Black people as it does for missing white people. "Because it seems like when young Black females go missing in the cityit's not a priority," he says. (Read more missing woman stories.)
(Newser)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later. The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area, the AP reports. Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victimsa 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the armwere all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter. Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30pm near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school. The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood thats home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown. Police suspect some of the bullets fired from the high-powered rifle may have traveled several blocks. At least two businesses nearby reported bullet holes in their windows. Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

(Read more Washington DC stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Marjorie Taylor Greene can run for Congress again. After a judge in Atlanta rejected a lawsuit on Friday that would have prevented it, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger signed off on the ruling hours later, reports NBC News. Opponents had filed suit, arguing that the conservative Greene should be ineligible because, they say, she is guilty of "insurrection" with regard to the Capitol riot. State Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot said voters should be the ones to decide that. Taylor Green's one-word tweet in response: "ACQUITTED." Our original story from April 23 follows:

Marjorie Taylor Greene ended up testifying for three hours on Friday in an Atlanta courtroom as part of her fight to be able to run for reelection to Congress, reports CNN. In an unprecedented legal challenge, her critics say she should be kicked off the ballot because she engaged in "insurrection" with comments made before the Capitol riot. Greene testified that she never condoned violence and that her comments have been distorted by her critics and the media. A ruling from the judge in the case is expected in the next few weeks. Some highlights:

Recall: In her testimony, Greene repeatedly denied remembering tweets or statements made before the riot, reports the Washington Post. Asked whether she urged President Trump to impose martial law to remain in power, she answered that she didn't recall. So youre not denying you did it? asked attorney Andrew G. Celli Jr. You just dont remember? I dont remember, Greene said.

In her testimony, Greene repeatedly denied remembering tweets or statements made before the riot, reports the Washington Post. Asked whether she urged President Trump to impose martial law to remain in power, she answered that she didn't recall. So youre not denying you did it? asked attorney Andrew G. Celli Jr. You just dont remember? I dont remember, Greene said. Victim: Greene said she herself was a victim of the day's violence, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I was scared. I was very scared. I was concerned. I was shocked, shocked, shocked, absolutely shocked, Greene said of that day.

Video: Greene was asked about a since-deleted video in which she urged people to flood the Capitol building, flood all the government buildings. ... We can do it peacefully, Greene said. We can. I hope we dont have to do it the other way. I hope not. But we should feel like we will if we have to, because we are the American people. Greene said she didn't recall making the statements.

Greene was asked about a since-deleted video in which she urged people to flood the Capitol building, flood all the government buildings. ... We can do it peacefully, Greene said. We can. I hope we dont have to do it the other way. I hope not. But we should feel like we will if we have to, because we are the American people. Greene said she didn't recall making the statements. Testy: The exchanges grew heated at times, including during questioning over a Greene tweet that urged protesters to show up at the Capitol. Youre speculating on why Im tweeting that, she said. Ms. Greene, Im just asking questions, responded Celli. And Im just answering them, she responded.

The exchanges grew heated at times, including during questioning over a Greene tweet that urged protesters to show up at the Capitol. Youre speculating on why Im tweeting that, she said. Ms. Greene, Im just asking questions, responded Celli. And Im just answering them, she responded. Pelosi: Greene's Facebook account once liked a comment suggesting that Nancy Pelosi be shot in the head, but Greene said she didn't remember doing that and said anyone on her staff might have been responsible, per the AP.

Greene's Facebook account once liked a comment suggesting that Nancy Pelosi be shot in the head, but Greene said she didn't remember doing that and said anyone on her staff might have been responsible, per the AP. Disavowal: I never mean anything for violence, Greene said at one point over her statements. None of my words, never ever, mean anything for violence.

(Read more Marjorie Taylor Greene stories.)
(Newser)  The toll is much higher among chickens and turkeys, but the avian flu outbreak is killing bald eagles, as well. Since February, 41 dead bald eagles were found to have been infected with the virus, per the USDA. That doesn't include two others infected in New York late last month, or infections this month in Ohio, South Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Vermont, Maine, and North Dakota, the New York Times reports. Because it's nesting season, there's concern that the flu could endanger the potential offspring of bald eagles, as well.

While millions of chickens at commercial operations have become ill or died, raptors and birds of prey, including bald eagles, also have been affected. Bald eagles could be catching the virus because they hunt living prey and scavenge carcasses; waterfowl especially have been hit. "If the waterfowl are dying, then eagles can pick it up from eating those dead waterfowl," said Krysten Schuler of the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. Bald eagles were close to extinction in the 1960s before conservation efforts paid off and they were deemed to no longer need Endangered Species Act protection in 2007. But they face new threats.

"The resilience of these animals was very close to the edge," Schuler said. "If a few more breeding adults died, that could actually have a pretty big impact on the future growth of these populations." Some ill birds don't show symptoms, though bald eagles thought to be infected at a rehabilitation center in Ohio have been unable to fly or had seizures. Local governments in some places are asking people to take down their bird feeders to combat the flu's spread, per WITI. Officials elsewhere recommend just keeping the feeders clean and not letting large numbers of birds at risk gather. (Read more avian flu stories.)
(Newser)  The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol last year has asked a federal judge to compel the testimony of Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff at the time. The Jan. 6 panel already subpoenaed Meadows, and he turned over certain documents. But he's refused to do more, arguing in a lawsuit filed to block the subpoenas in December that the committee has gone beyond its authority. The filing Friday says the panel has new evidence in the case, the Hill reports. "Its essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadows's role in events before, on, and after January 6th," a statement by the panel's leaders said. "His attempt to use the courts to cover up that information must come to an end."

Meadows was a central figure in the effort to keep former President Donald Trump in office despite his election loss, the panel argues, adding that the new evidence shows he'd received intelligence that storming the Capitol that day could result in violence. Testimony by other Trump aides indicated that the White House counsel had told Meadows that trying to replace electors with pro-Trump lineups would be illegal, per the Wall Street Journal. The full House voted to hold Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress after he refused to sit for a deposition; the Justice Department hasn't acted on the case yet.

In his lawsuit, Meadows said Trump cited executive privilege in telling him not to meet the committee's requests. President Biden has waived the privilege claims. Meadows said that leaves him forced to choose "between conflicting privilege claims that are of constitutional origin and dimension." In the committee's filing Friday in federal district court, it laid out subject areas in which it said Meadows could supply information without compromising his claim of executive privilege. (Read more Capitol riot stories.)
(Newser)  For another person in another country at another time, the case might have been a minor matter: an American citizen detained at an airport for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative legal in much of the world. But the circumstances for Brittney Griner couldnt have been worse, per the AP. Griner, a WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested in Russia, where the offense can mean years in prison, and at a moment when tensions with the US were rising to their highest point in decades. She is a prominent gay, Black woman facing trial in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LGBTQ community and the countrys nationalist zeal has raised concerns about how she will be treated.

As extraordinary as her circumstances are, the details surrounding Griner's case remain a mystery as a crucial court date approaches next month. Russian prosecutors have offered little clarity and the US government has made only measured statements. Griners legal team has declined to speak out about the case as it works behind the scenes. Griner is easily the most prominent American citizen known to be jailed by a foreign government, but in many ways her case isnt unusual. Americans are frequently arrested overseas on drug and other charges, and US authorities are limited about what they can say or the help they can offer.

The State Department generally cant do much to help beyond consular visits and helping the American get an attorney. It also cant say much unless the person arrested waives privacy rights, which Griner hasnt fully done. In some cases, US officials do speak out loudly when theyre convinced an American has been wrongly detained. But Griners case is barely two months old and officials have yet to make that determination. A State Department office that works to free American hostages and unjust detainees is not known to be involved. (Read the AP's full assessment of the case.)
(Newser)  Pope Francis made major appointments in his newly overhauled Vatican bureaucracy Saturday, naming new deputies for the doctrine office and confirming the highest-ranked woman in the Holy See as the No. 2 in the development office. The appointments are some of the first since Francis last month issued his long-awaited overhaul of the Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy, which acts as the central government for the Catholic Church. Francis promoted Irish Monsignor John Kennedy to head the discipline section of the newly named Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles clergy sexual abuse cases, the AP reports. Kennedy said in 2019 that the office had seen a "tsunami" of cases from parts of the world that had previously not reported any.

Joining him as secretary in the parallel doctrine section of the dicastery is Italian Monsignor Armando Matteo, currently the undersecretary. The powerful department is headed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who at 78 could retire when his term expires in July. Francis also confirmed new leadership of the office for human development, which groups the Holy See's departments responsible for refugees, the environment, and charity as well as its COVID-19 response. Heading that office is Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny. His deputy is Italian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, an economist and the highest-ranked woman at the Vatican in her role as secretary of the dicastery. Smerilli has taken on increasing responsibilities in the past two years after helping steer the Holy See's response to the pandemic.

Both they and a third official confirmed Saturday, the Rev. Fabio Baggio, had been appointed on an interim basis after Francis removed key officials last year. After nine years of work, Francis issued his blueprint for the bureaucracy last month. For the first time it explicitly allows for laypeopleincluding womento head Vatican dicasteries, imposes once-renewable five-year term limits on some officials and gives institutional weight to his advisory panel on clergy sexual abuse by incorporating it into the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. An official in the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Emer McCarthy, welcomed Kennedys appointment, tweeting Saturday: "It's a good day for #Safeguarding."

(Read more Pope Francis stories.)
(Newser)  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that he didn't think it was a "big secret" that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are on their way to see him, but American officials acted like it was. Zelensky mentioned the visit during a press conference, saying the two Cabinet members are "coming to us tomorrow," but White House and Defense Department officials declined to discuss the matter. The meeting in Kyiv on Sunday would be the highest-level visit by a US delegation since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.

The topic will be military aid, Zelensky said, per the New York Times; US military assistance to help Ukraine fight off Russian forces so far totals about $3.4 billion. Zelensky also said he expects, "when the security will allow," a visit from President Biden, per CNN, though White House officials have called that unlikely. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is among the foreign leaders who have visited the capital recently in shows of support. The UN has announced that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to meet Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin separately next week, per Axios. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  A Colorado man has died of his injuries after setting himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court building on Friday. Police on Saturday identified the man as Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, WUSA reports. A helicopter took Bruce to a hospital after he set fire to himself just after 6pm Friday, a police report said, per the Hill. No one else was hurt, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said. Officials gave no indication about whether the suicide was intended as an act of protest. A 33-year-old Maryland man died in 2019 after setting himself on fire near the White House. (Read more self-immolation stories.)
Politics

5 Things to Know in Alaska Politics: Vape tax, cannabis convictions and cruising while vaccinated

Linda Hersey / Linda Hersey/News-Miner Protesters gathered outside the Alaska Republican Party convention Friday, April 22, 2022, to oppose a proposed 45% tax on e-juice and vaping systems that passed the Senate. Linda Hersey/News-Miner

A bill that adds a 45% excise tax on vaping systems and e-juice, or liquid tobacco, has passed the Senate.

Senate Bill 45 is expected to be heard in House committees next week but vape shop owners and some consumers say they would like to extinguish the bill before it becomes law.

A small group of protesters holding signs rallied against the bill outside the Westmark Hotel Friday, where the Alaska Republican Party was meeting for its annual convention.

David Parrott, owner of High Voltage Vapes on Sterling Highway in Soldotna, said he came to Fairbanks for the protest to raise awareness about the bill. Parrott said the bills 45% excise tax will drive up costs for consumers at the counter.

Many of my customers are low- and middle-income people, and they cannot afford this, Parrott said.

He described vaping as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes.

The state does not tax shot glasses and bar stools, but with this bill they tax all components of vaping, from the liquid nicotine products to the smoking systems, Parrott said.

Lawmakers are telling me they understand our point of view, but they are voting for the bill because it raises the tobacco use age to 21 from 19 in Alaska, he said.

Parrott said consumers are likely to head over to cannabis shops to buy their vaping systems, which will hurt his business.

A bust for old marijuana convictions

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has signaled his support for a bill that would keep many old marijuana possession records off of CourtView, the public online search engine that allows anyone to look up convictions and criminal charges in Alaska.

Dunleavy said on social media this week that he backs lawmakers work to clear criminal records of Alaskans with low-level marijuana offenses. Alaskans should not be met with barriers for conduct that is no longer a crime under state law.

Thousands of records may be impacted under the legislation.

At issue are the old records of Alaskans with marijuana-related infractions before cannabis was legalized in the state. Alaska was among the first states to decriminalize marijuana.

Many other states have addressed old marijuana convictions after legalizing cannabis. Alaska lawmakers seem ready to adopt similar legislation, and the governor has signaled he would sign a bill into law.

Records would stay confidential for most people who were over 21 when convicted for marijuana possession of less than one ounce.

Cruising and Covid vaccines

Several commercial cruise lines are taking steps to require passengers to show proof of vaccine before they can set sail for ports that include Alaska.

Aurora Expeditions now requires guests and crew to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Carnival Cruise Line passengers will need to show proof that they have received their final Covid-19 vaccine at least two weeks before cruising. But masking is now optional.

Likewise Celebrity Cruises guests and staff must show proof of vaccination under a new policy that took effect April 15. The rule applies to all guests 5 years and older for U.S. sailings.

Alaskas governor at the border

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined more than two dozen other governors who will coordinate efforts to stem illegal border crossings.

They say the effort will combat human smuggling and the flow of illegal drugs to their states.

Called the American Governors Border Strike Force, the initiative is to target criminal activities at U.S. borders.

Governors who signed on to the collaborative are from Alaska, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Georgia and Louisiana, among other states.

The Republican governors say their collaboration is a counterpoint to Democratic President Joe Bidens border policies. The Biden administration is expected to end Title 42, a policy that enabled immigration agents to rapidly turn away migrants at U.S. borders.

Alaska and the future of natural gas

Alaska is among a dozen states where the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that have yet to be built, because they do not have investors or long-term customers, according to OilPrice.com.

The approved projects are in Kenai, Alaska, as well as Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida.

Demand is growing for LNG, but whether the expensive projects get developed is uncertain. European countries in particular are trying to wean themselves off of Russias natural gas over its aggression in Ukraine.

Having European customers, especially if supported by public money, could easily create a huge tranche of LNG supply, wrote Nikos Tsafos, a James R. Schlesinger chair in Energy and Geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The 12 projects, including Alaskas, need to lock in long-term deals, and that is a challenge, even as Germany, France and other countries look to the U.S. for natural gas supplies.

While dependent on fossil fuels, European nations are trying to move away from oil and gas altogether, which is creating uncertainty about future viability.

All of the new projects are planned with a 20-year investment horizon, reports OilPrice.com.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy with rain and snow this evening. Snow showers overnight. Low near 30F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain and snow this evening. Snow showers overnight. Low near 30F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 80%.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday condemned in strongest terms the terrorist bombings in Afghanistan, which targeted a school and an educational centre in Kabul, a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif and another in Kunduz city, killing and injuring dozens.

Foreign Ministry, in a statement, strongly denounced the attacks as criminal acts and said such attacks are aimed at undermining the security and stability of Afghanistan. Bahrain also renewed its call for the necessity of concerted international efforts to combat violence, extremism and terrorism in all their forms.

Meanwhile, a new blast yesterday tore through a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers in the Afghan city of Kunduz, killing 33 people and wounding dozens more, officials said. Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, in a Tweet confirmed the death toll and said 43 people had also been wounded.

The perpetrators of these incidents are...evil elements and serious efforts are being made to arrest and punish them, he said. It was not clear who was behind the explosion that the local commander said hit the mosque during Friday prayers. Several blasts claimed by Islamic State hit the northern cities of Kunduz and Mazari-Sharif on Thursday.

One of them, at a mosque and another days earlier at a school in western Kabul, targeted the Shia minority. Afghanistans Taliban rulers say they have secured the country since taking power in August, but international officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A Bahraini court upheld the jail terms handed down to three men charged with planting explosives, obtained from Iran, at ATMs of a national bank in the kingdom with the help of a terrorist organisation.

The ruling of the Court of Cassation confirmed 15-year jail terms awarded to two of the defendants and a ten-year jail term for the third man.

Court files say the men, who are members of a terrorist cell affiliated with the Al Ashtar Brigades, made a failed attempt to detonate bombs planted in two ATMs in Al-Naim and Jidhafs.

The trio are also among 13 others slapped with jail terms ranging between 3 years and life terms. Among them is a fugitive terrorist in Iran, who, investigators found, was the brain of the terrorist organisation formed to organise terror attacks in the Kingdom.

Interior Ministry thwarted the bomb attacks inside the ATMs of two national banks in Al Naim and Jidhafs in the capital governorate earlier this year.

Investigators charged 14 members of the terrorist organisation in the case, including four fugitives. Reports said the terrorist cell was under the supervision of the leader of the Al Ashtar Brigades in Iran.

He recruited members both from Iraq and Iran in 2019, and they, in turn, found other operatives for targeting public and security installations in Bahrain. The members received training for handling explosive devices and financial support from abroad.

One of the defendants rented a stable to function as a storehouse for explosives, which doubled up as headquarters to meet and train members. One of them also bought a boat to expand the radius of their equipment and receive money by sea.

The defendants in Bahrain received instructions from leaders in Iran to target ATMs of a national bank for which they formed two teams. The first team, disguised in womens attires, placed a bag containing an explosive next to an ATM in the Al Naim area, while the second team placed another bag next to an ATM in Jidhafs.

The defendants, during interrogation, confessed to their crimes and admitted to receiving training in handling encrypted devices and phones, manufacturing and installing explosive devices and attaching them to detonators.

They also confessed to receiving money via dead mail and transferring it to the families of convicted and fugitive terrorist members. Furthermore, they also admitted to communicating with fugitive terrorist leaders outside Bahrain by travelling to both Iraq and Iran for assignments.
Japan is a slowly aging economy stuck in low rates of inflation and comparatively low GDP growth rates.

There is even a term called Japanification referring to how other developed economies are gradually facing similar demographic and economic quagmire that Japan finds itself in. But despite such development, does it really mean that Japan will have a few people left in 200 years and there is no point at even looking at Japanese equity market, including ETFs focusing on Japan

While Japans working age population has been on a gradual decline, this does not necessarily translate into corporate weakness. After peaking in 1997 at 86.8 million, the working age population in Japan declined to 74.2 million in 2021. However, Japans corporate profit surprisingly showed an upward trend for the past 40 years.

While there are many factors behind the increasing profits, among most notable are a likely expansion in foreign markets, growth in labor productivity and strengthening corporate governance that put profits in focus.

While down the road in 40-50-100 years Japan may indeed have fewer than 100 million people, what matters to me as an investor is what happens within the next 5-10 years. For instance, if you look at demographic projections for China, its working age population is projected to decrease by a double-digit percentage by 2100, yet this does not prevent investors from searching and investing in Chinese equities with strong profit potential. ...continue reading
Saudi Arabia will be hosting the 22nd edition of World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit, the worlds most influential travel and tourism event, in capital Riyadh on November 29.

This was announced at the closing session of its Global Summit in Manila, Philippines, today (April 23).

in the presence of more than a thousand delegates.

Some of the worlds top most business leaders, government ministers and key decision-makers from across the global travel and tourism sector had gathered for the event in Manila to discuss ways on how to build upon the continuing recovery.

The global summit of WTTC, which represents the global travel and tourism sector, is the worlds most influential industry event.

On the top honour, Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed bin Aqeel Al Khatib said: "In Saudi Arabia, we are proud to host the next summit of the WTTC later this year. Now, the kingdom represents a new and ambitious destination that aims to shape the tourism sector to become more flexible, inclusive and sustainable, taking advantage of our creative and innovative capabilities."

"We look forward to welcoming global travel and tourism leaders to the Kingdom to share and exchange experiences and knowledge," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
NEW MILFORD  A crack cocaine dealer from New York was arrested in New Milford Thursday and federally charged with killing one of his customers, according to federal prosecutors.

Dwayne Pulliam, a 59-year-old man also known as Doc, faces at least five years in prison for selling crack, and up to life in prison in the death of of Lori Campbell, 59, of Carmel, N.Y. He is accused of killing her after he suspected her of stealing drugs from him, according to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Pulliam was arrested Thursday afternoon in New Milford and seen in federal court in White Plains, N.Y. later that day. He is being held without bail, Williams office said.

Pulliam was released from prison in December 2020 after serving about 24 years for murder. From at least January 2022, Pulliam traveled between New York and Connecticut to sell crack cocaine and used multiple phones to do so. At one point, law enforcement saw him driving in the New Milford, Danbury and Brookfield areas, according to court documents.

On March 29, Pulliam contacted a man he worked with in the drug trade and asked him to help move Campbells car, a black Acura RSX, according to Williams office.

Pulliam told the man that he suspected Campbell of stealing drugs from him. Pulliam confronted Campbell, and when she tried to leave, he did not let her. She started screaming, and Pulliam told the man he stopped her from screaming and that this was not the first time he had done this, Williams office said.

The two men dropped Campbells car off at the Connecticut Welcome Center in Danbury and went to Pulliams apartment in Patterson, N.Y. There, the man saw Campbells body wrapped in a sheet, according to court documents.

Theres the culprit, Pulliam told the man. Pulliam directed him to help move the body, and threatened to kill his family if he did not comply, according to Williams office.

The man helped move Campbells body to Pulliams Honda Accord. They then drove to Pulliams mothers home in North Carolina. The two got shovels, a bag of lime and plastic wrap from a shed near her home. They drove Campbells body to a cul-de-sac where they covered Campbells body in lime and buried her in a shallow grave, Williams office said.

Campbells friends reported her missing April 2. They told police they hadnt seen nor heard from her since March 27, according to the Putnam County Sheriffs Department.

Pulliam interacted with police the day Campbell was reported missing. He told police that she was getting ready to go to a rehabilitation facility. Pulliam, who is a manager at a rehabilitation facility, told police that he knew that Campbell wasnt at his facility because he receives a list of new patients via email, according to court documents.

According to supervisors at the rehabilitation facility, Pulliam hadnt reported to work since March 26 even though he was scheduled, court documents state.

Law enforcement found Campbells body on Tuesday in the area where Pulliams co-conspirator said it was buried, Williams office said.

Pulliam was charged with traveling in interstate commerce, and using a facility in interstate commerce, with intent to engage in a business enterprise involving narcotics, and thereafter committing murder to further that unlawful activity, and participating in a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 28 grams and more of crack cocaine.

The first charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the narcotics conspiracy charge has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, according to Williams office.
Despite a recent rise in cases, local leaders say they do not foresee any changes to their towns management of COVID-19.

At this point, Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker says its up to people to take responsibility for their own actions.

Were going to keep our public information efforts alive, but were basically at a point where mandates  are essentially unenforceable, he said. If you put a mandate in place, some citizens will rightfully have an expectation that local authorities will send somebody to do something about a violation, and we dont have the resources to do that.

Danbury is taking a similar approach. The city has the lowest COVID rate in the region, although its rate has risen, too.

"We will continue to work with our health department and partners to provide the adequate response to COVID-19, Mayor Dean Esposito said in a statement. We monitor developments each and everyday and will continue to operate in that protocol. At this time, there will not be any changes in COVID management in Danbury.

While he encourages people to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Knickerbocker said the town is not in a position where we can force people to do things theyre not willing to do.

In New Fairfield, First Selectman Pat Del Monaco said officials are continuing to track local numbers, offer PCR testing and host vaccine clinics, but there are no plans to reinstate COVID-related mandates there either.

We will continue to stay on top of infection and test positivity rates and things like that to continue monitoring the situation and make any changes that we have to as we go forward  but at this point, I dont see any changes, she said Friday.

The two-week average COVID case rate in New Fairfield is 23.2 per 100,000 residents for April 13 through April 16, according to state Department of Health data released on Thursday. This is up from a rate of 21 the previous week.

While shes not aware of any specific COVID-related issues in New Fairfield schools, which were out on spring break this past week, Del Monaco said they had been seeing the same types of increase we are seeing townwide.

Every student was sent home with a test kit before spring break, so were certainly hoping everyone takes advantage and uses those before they come back, she said.

With a two-week average case rate of 10.8 per 100,000 residents, Danbury is the only municipality in the area currently designated orange on the states color-coded COVID map. Orange is the second best ranking, indicating a case rate between 10 and 14 per 100,000 people.

All other towns in the Danbury area are red because they have two-week average case rates of 15 or more.

New Milford saw a significant jump from the prior reporting period, going from a rate of 8.5 new daily cases per 100,000 people to 16.3 daily cases, according to the state data.

Of those red towns, according to the state health departments latest data, Ridgefield has the highest two-week average case rate at 29.8 per 100,000 residents.

Despite a recent increase in cases, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said there are no foreseeable changes to the towns management of COVID.

We did see a spike after the spring break, but the numbers are seeming to come down. Were a little bit under the county average, he said, citing the towns own COVID data, which shows Ridgefield having a new case rate of 27.5 per 100,000 residents, compared to a 28.9 Fairfield County average.

Even as mitigation measures wane, Marconi said he would still encourage people with comorbidities and other health concerns to continue wearing masks.
NEW MILFORD  Residents and officials remain concerned about a proposal to build a four-bedroom home with an in-ground pool adjacent to the Smyrski Farm Preserve.

They say they have more questions than answers following a second public hearing during the New Milford Inland Wetlands Commission regular meeting on April 14. Another hearing has been scheduled for 7 p.m. May 12 at Town Hall.

If an online petition started by concerned resident Keri Wheeler is any indication, residents opposition to the development has grown, with the number of signatures rising from 250 in March to 714 as of 4 p.m. Friday.

The Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy is worried about the project, as well.

NCLC is reviewing the proposed developments environmental impact to determine if it meets, or can ever meet, the requirements of state and federal law protecting wetlands, Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy Executive Director Catherine Rawson said. Our wetlands and watercourses are indispensable natural resources that control flooding and erosion, protect the quality of Connecticuts rivers, lakes, streams, and sources of drinking water, and support many forms of animal and plant life.

The owners of the 4-acre parcel of land, Arthur Klebanoff and Susan Hirschhor, have submitted an application to the New Milford Inland and Wetlands Commission laying out the plan for the development. Klebanoff and Hirschhor could not be reached for comment.

John Smyrski and his sister Sophie sold the development rights to their 205-acre farm on Merryall Road to the state, ensuring developers would never be able to build there, according to a 1988 News-Times article. John Smyrski died in 1999 and Sophie died in 2006. But before they died, they decided to take the next step to preserve their land  they gave it to the Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust, which has since become the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy.

Dainius Virbickas, who represented the Artel Engineering Group, which has put together the plans for the development, stated at the public hearing there are no plans to disturb the wetlands, according to the April 14 meeting minutes. Virbickas said a soil scientist did two soil tests and determined there was no impact on wetlands and watercourses.

Rawson said NCLCs review of the application found it lacked the information necessary for the Inland Wetlands Commission to issue a permit.

The missing information includes the recognition of a watercourse, correct stormwater calculations and a comprehensive stormwater management plan, Rawson said. Missing information also includes the accurate identification of wetlands on the site and immediately adjacent.

Environmental concerns

According to the minutes, the argument from the public speakers and NCLCs lawyer is based on the constant wetness on the property. The wetness of the land is due in part from two open outflow pipes that allow storm waters to run off the sloping hill on the other side of the road onto the couples property.

There are two main concerns. One is placing a swimming pool and house foundations into what is often wet, muddy and spongy soils. Another concern is the outflow of water, fertilizer, pesticide and insecticide residues onto the surrounding Smyrski Farm Preserve wetlands from the couples proposed four-acre plot onto Preserve acreage sloping down to the West Aspetuck River.

NCLC is concerned that the proposed development does not meet, and may never meet, the requirements of state and federal law protecting wetlands, Rawson said. The bottom line is that some properties are undevelopable because of their environmental limitations.

This lot with two watercourses, substantial areas of wetlands, stormwater management issues, apparently high groundwater levels, saturated soils, and important habitat may be undevelopable. In its natural state, it is of irreplaceable value to the community.

Rawson said her groups soil scientist reviewed the applicants soils report, observed the development site from NCLC lands, and identified wetlands on NCLC-owned land abutting the development site. Based on this review, the soil scientist found the possibility of unidentified wetlands and recommends re-examination of the site:

According to the NCLCs soil scientist report, three lowland areas on the Klebanoff and Hirschhor property were observed to be of particular concern. It was not possible to ascertain from the developers soil report whether these three areas were sampled intensively or not. There is a possibility that those three areas are wetland, subject to field confirmation. The soil scientists report recommended that these three areas be re-examined and any soil profile data shared.

To provide itself and the public with a full and fair review, NCLC has urged the Inland Wetlands Commission to engage its own soils scientist to identify the wetlands on the site and nearby, Rawson said.

Virbickas said the developers soil report focused on the rear and brushy area of the property, but wetlands werent noted in these areas, according to the minutes. He also noted discrepancies in the flow calculation that his team provided and the NCLC. He said hed check those discrepancies.

At the hearing, NCLC attorney Dwight Marriam suggested that the Inland Wetlands Commission public hearing option remain open until all the concerns were addressed. He also believes alternative proposals should be submitted.

Virbickas said he would discuss the concerns with the property owners.
OTTAWA, ON, April 22, 2022 /CNW/ - As stewards of the land, Canadian farmers are on the front lines of climate change and among the first to feel its effects. As we celebrate Earth Day, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Francis Drouin, are announcing an investment of over $6.4 million for six projects, under the AgriScience Program, to help tackle climate change and create sustainability in Canada's agriculture sector.

Funding for six recipient organizations will support pre-commercial science activities and cutting-edge research to help producers accelerate the pace of innovation to protect the environment without compromising production. The recipient organizations include AFA Systems Inc., Cascadia Seaweed Corporation, Enns Brothers Ltd., McCain Foods Limited, Naut'sa Mawt Tribal Council, and Nexus Robotics, Inc.

The projects being led by these organizations exemplify the innovation and expertise needed to ensure the sector is ready to meet the challenges presented by climate change. The advancements they make will benefit the sector as a whole and lead to the adoption of sustainable, effective practices that promote soil health, biodiversity, and increased crop yields, while also ensuring farm revenue.

Earth Day brings with it an urgent reminder that climate action cannot wait. By making critical investments to support producers in their efforts to tackle climate change, Canada's agricultural sector will be better positioned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and seize the economic opportunities that can be enabled by a transition to a low-carbon future.

The Government of Canada remains committed to working as a partner with farmers across the country as they help Canada to meet its national emissions reduction targets, protect the environment, and strengthen the competitiveness of our agricultural businesses and economy.

Quotes

"This Earth Day, I would like to thank agri-food producers and processors for their commitment to protecting the environment. They are preserving their land for future generations. Our Government continues to support their initiatives and is helping them go even further by supporting the research and development of innovative solutions. Our investments in AgriScience will ensure that Canada remains a world leader in sustainable agriculture."

The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

"Farmers across the country are stepping up to help mitigate the effects of climate change. Today, on Earth Day, our Government is investing in six organizations across the country to support their efforts to tackle climate change head-on and help the sector remain climate resilient for the future.

Francis Drouin , Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

Quick Facts

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a $3 billion , five-year (2018-2023) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen and grow Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector.

, five-year (2018-2023) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen and grow agriculture and agri-food sector. The AgriScience Program, an initiative under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, aims to accelerate the pace of innovation by providing funding and support for pre-commercial science activities and cutting-edge research that benefits the agriculture and agri-food sector and Canadians.

As part of the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Canada's Next Steps to Clean Air and a Strong Economy , launched in March 2022 , the Government of Canada has committed over $1 billion in new funding to accelerate the agriculture sector's progress in reducing emissions and remaining a global leader in sustainable agriculture.

, launched in , the Government of has committed over in new funding to accelerate the agriculture sector's progress in reducing emissions and remaining a global leader in sustainable agriculture. As part of the Emissions Reduction Plan the Government of Canada is investing an additional $470M in the existing On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) to broaden and extend the program past 2024 and support adoption of practices that contribute to the fertilizer emissions target and Global Methane Pledge.

the Government of is investing an additional in the existing On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) to broaden and extend the program past 2024 and support adoption of practices that contribute to the fertilizer emissions target and Global Methane Pledge. The Government of Canada is also investing an additional $330 million in the Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program to scale up the development and adoption of clean technology in the sector. Delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the ACT Program aims to create an enabling environment for the development and adoption of clean technology that will help drive the changes required to achieve a low-carbon economy and promote sustainable growth in Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector.

is also investing an additional in the Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program to scale up the development and adoption of clean technology in the sector. Delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the ACT Program aims to create an enabling environment for the development and adoption of clean technology that will help drive the changes required to achieve a low-carbon economy and promote sustainable growth in agriculture and agri-food sector. Canada has joined over 120 countries in committing to net-zero emissions by 2050, including all other G7 nations ( United Kingdom , United States , Germany , Italy , France , and Japan ).

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SOURCE Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

For further information: Marianne Dandurand, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, [email protected], 343-541-9229; Media Relations, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 1-866-345-7972, [email protected]
Anwar Ali, the key accused's maternal uncle in a media interaction stated that his nephew Ansar is a "very wonderful person."

Maternal uncle and other relatives of the key accused Ansar, who lives in West Bengals East Midnapore, were questioned by Delhi Police on Friday in the Jahangirpuri violence case.

However, Anwar Ali, the key accuseds maternal uncle in a media interaction stated that his nephew Ansar is a very wonderful person.

Suresh Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Delhi Crime Branch, stated that the probe is still ongoing while the accuseds family has been questioned by a three-member team from the Delhi Crime Branch.

The Delhi Police Crime Branch team departed East Midnapur on Friday and is currently investigating at the Diamond Harbor Police Station in the South 24 Parganas area.

According to the top government official, National Security Act (NSA) was enforced on five of the perpetrators including Ansar, Salim, Imam Sheikh alias Sonu, Dilshad, and Ahir who are accused of the clashes and roles in the Jahangirpuri riots. The NSA was enforced on Tuesday.

Earlier stone-pelting and riots broke out in Jahangirpuri, northwest Delhi, shortly after conflicts between members of two clans during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in the evening.
Dilbag Singh, the Director-General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir, stated on Friday that the terrorists slain could have been part of a "vast plan"

After the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, security officials conducted a search operation where they found two AK-47 rifles, guns and ammo, satellite phones, and some paperwork.

Dilbag Singh, the Director-General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir, stated on Friday that the terrorists slain could have been part of a vast plan to derail Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the union territory.

Meanwhile, Mukesh Singh, the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for the Jammu Zone, claimed on Friday that two terrorists killed by security personnel in Sunjwan, Jammu and Kashmir, were identified as the members of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)

According to Singh, The engagement of intelligence services and security personnel also helped avert serious damage. However, with the kind of vest (IED vest) they were wearing, it was apparent that they had come here to cause heavy harm.

He further stated that security officials were able to keep the terrorists contained within the roped area, following which a search operation was begun and both terrorists were dead.
Antonio Guterres will travel to Moscow first, then Kyiv, to discuss 'immediate steps that can be taken to cease the fighting.'

Next week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Moscow and Kyiv as part of his attempts to end Ukraines two-month-long conflict.

Since Russia invaded on February 24, more than five million people have fled the east European country, and many have been slain. There are also mounting concerns for the 100,000 inhabitants who remain in Mariupol, which is under siege.

On Tuesday, Guterres will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On Thursday, Guterres will go to Kyiv, Ukraine, to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

At a press conference in New York, UN Spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said Guterres wants to talk about measures that can be implemented right now to stop the fighting and help people get to safety.

The Russian incursion has been dubbed the worst moment of Guterres five years as UN Secretary-General. His request for a four-day humanitarian halt ahead of Orthodox Easter fell on deaf ears earlier this week.

In separate letters addressed to their countries permanent embassies to the United Nations, Guterres requested a meeting with the leaders of both countries in an attempt by the UN to reclaim diplomatic initiative.

Because Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with a veto, the UN Security Council has been handicapped by the war. In March, 141 countries adopted a resolution denouncing the war and demanding on Russia to immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw its forces from Ukraine during an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The UNs top humanitarian officer visited both capitals earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire, and fears about the fate of residents in Mariupol are growing.

The Russian army is encircling the strategically important port city, while Ukrainian soldiers and residents are holed up in a massive steel mill on the shore. According to the Institute for the Study of Wars most recent assessment, Russias objective appears to be to starve out the remaining military and civilians.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Rescue workers in southern Poland have reached four of the 10 miners who went missing early Saturday after a powerful underground tremor and methane gas discharge hit, mining authorities said. It was the second coal mine accident this week in Poland.

The condition of the four was not immediately released and officials said there was no verbal contact with any of the missing miners. The rescue team could not immediately bring the four to the surface and more teams will be sent to the area, said Edward Pazdziorko, deputy head of the Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa company (JSW) that operates the Borynia-Zofiowka mine.

The accident occurred at 3:40 a.m. Saturday some 900 meters (2,950 feet) underground, forcing dozens of workers to flee the mine and leaving authorities unable to contact 10 miners. It was the second colliery accident in just four days in the coal mining region around the town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, near the Czech border.

Repeated methane blasts since Wednesday at the nearby Pniowek mine have killed five miners, left seven miners and rescue workers missing and injured dozens of others. The search for those missing at Pniowek was suspended Friday after new explosions late Thursday injured 10 rescue workers, some seriously.

Both mines are operated by JSW.

The company said 52 workers were in the area of the tremor Saturday at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine and 42 of them were able to leave the shaft on their own without injury. A rescue operation involving 12 teams was launched for the missing miners but authorities said they had to work carefully due to the high levels of methane still in the mine.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Twitter that this was devastating news again from the mining region and said his prayers are with the missing and their relatives.

He said the accidents will be thoroughly investigated and procedures and equipment at the mines will be examined.

Poland relies on its own coal and coal imports for almost 70% of its energy needs, drawing criticism from the European Union and environmental groups who are concerned about CO2 emissions and meeting climate change goals. Most Polish coal mines are in the southern Silesia region.

The Polish government has been scaling down the use of coal and recently announced it would end coal imports from Russia by May, part of Polands drive to reduce its dependence on Russian energy in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

___

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TOKYO (AP)  Rescuers said that 10 people who were retrieved Sunday from the frigid sea and the rocky coast of a northern Japanese national park had died, a day after a tour boat with 26 aboard apparently sank in rough waters, triggering questions why it was allowed to sail.

The search for the others is still ongoing after the boat sent a distress call on Saturday afternoon saying it was sinking. The location, near the Kashuni Waterfall, is known as a difficult place to maneuver boats because of its rocky coastline and strong tide.

There were two crew and 24 passengers, including two children, on the the 19-ton Kazu 1 when it ran into troubles while traveling off the western coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula. The coast guard said the 10 victims  seven men and three women  were adults.

The Transport Ministry launched an investigation into the boats operator, which had two accidents last year. The ministry said it was looking into safety standards and the decision to conduct the tour despite rough weather on Saturday.

The operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, had been instructed to take steps to improve its safety following earlier accidents in which it ran aground in June without causing injuries, and another in May, when three passengers suffered minor injuries when the boat collided with an object.

We will thoroughly investigate what caused this situation and what kind of safety oversight was involved to allow the tour in order to prevent another accident," Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito, who visited the area Sunday, told reporters.

Following an intensive search involving six patrol boats, several aircraft and divers that went through the night, rescuers on early Sunday found four people near the tip of Shiretoko Peninsula and later six more in the same area, about 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) north from where the boat sent a distress call. Some of them were plucked from the sea, while others were washed onto the rocky coast.

An orange-colored, square-shaped lifesaving float with the boats name on it was also found near the rocks, the coast guard said.

Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed one of the victims arriving on a helicopter and being transferred to an ambulance on a stretcher. Rescuers held up blue plastic shields to protect the victim's privacy.

The sightseeing vessel made an emergency call early Saturday afternoon, saying its bow had flooded and that it was beginning to sink and tilt, the coast guard said. Contact with the boat had since been lost. The coast guard said the operator told them that everyone on the boat was wearing a life vest, but some of the victims found were without them.

Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing, which experts say would cause hypothermia.

Its a very severe condition especially when they are wet, Jun Abe, vice chairman of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research, told TBS TV.

Yoshihiko Yamada, a Tokai University marine science professor, said the boat was likely to have run aground after it was tossed around in high waves and damaged. A boat of that size usually does not carry a life boat, he said.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cut short his attendance at a two-day summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan and returned to Tokyo. He told reporters early Sunday that he instructed officials to do everything they can for the rescue.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but officials and experts suspect a safety negligence.

High waves and strong winds were forecast when the boat left and Japanese media reports said fishing boats had returned to port before noon Saturday because of the bad weather.

A tour boat crew belonging to another operator told NHK that he warned the Kazu 1 crew of rough seas and told them not to go. He also said the same boat ran aground last year and suffered a crack on its bow.

Saturdays tour was reportedly the first by the operator this season, and the accident just before Japans Golden Week holidays starting late April could dampen local tourism, which slumped during the pandemic. Japan is still largely closed to foreign visitors.

Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki told reporters Sunday that he planned to request safety checks by tour operators in the prefecture ahead of the holidays.

According to the operators website, the tour takes around three hours and offers scenic views of the western coast of the peninsula and a chance to see whales, dolphins and brown bears. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous as the southernmost region to see drifting sea ice.
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New Mexico faces a long and potentially devastating wildfire season, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Saturday, as Southwestern wildfires cause destruction and force people from their homes.

Hundreds of structures were lost in a growing number of wind-driven blazes across drought-stricken New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said Saturday.

Over 20 active wildfires were burning in at least 16 of the state's 33 counties, in the wake of winds that gusted up to 90 mph (145 kph) on Friday, Lujan said during a briefing streamed online. So half the state has a fire issue."

With so many fires burning in April, well before the normal May or June start of the wildfire season, our risk season is incredibly and dangerously early," Lujan Grisham said.

Wildfire has become a year-round threat in the West given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall, scientist have said. The problems have been exacerbated by decades of fire suppression and poor management along with a more than 20-year megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.

New Mexico as of Saturday had the most major wildfires burning of any state, though neighboring Arizona also had large fires that included one that burned 30 homes near Flagstaff on Tuesday.

Winds and temperatures in New Mexico diminished Saturday but remained strong enough to still fan fires, and dozens of evacuation orders remained in place.

Over 200 structures have burned, Lujan Grisham said, not providing specifics on locations or the numbers of homes included in that count.

With fires still burning and charred areas too dangerous to enter, it's not safe for you or us to have a complete assessment to date," she said, indicating that the number of lost structures would rise.

She appealed to residents to refrain from using fireworks or burning trash and to evacuate when fire warnings are issued. You need to leave. The risks are too great," she said.

The largest blazes were concentrated in northern New Mexico, where two major fires merged and numerous villages were threatened by advancing flames as residents heeded calls to leave.

Maggie Mulligan said Friday her dogs could sense the panic while she and her husband packed them up, agonized over having to leave horses behind and fled a fast-moving wildfire barreling toward their home.

We dont know whats next, she said. We dont know if we can go back to the horses.

Mulligan and her husband, Bill Gombas, 67, were among the anxious residents who hurriedly evacuated their homes Friday ahead of ominous wildfires fueled by tinder-dry conditions and ferocious winds.

The merged fires burned some structures but no figures were available, said fire information officer Mike Johnson. They were able to save some structures and we know we lost other structures that we werent able to defend.

Wind-blown clouds of dust and plumes of smoke obscured the skies near the fires, said Jesus Romero, assistant county manager for San Miguel County. All the ugliness that spring in New Mexico brings  that's what they're dealing in."

An estimated 500 homes in San Miguel were in rural areas of Mora and San Miguel counties covered by evacuation orders or warning notices, Romero said.

Elsewhere in the region, the fire danger in the Denver area on Friday was the highest it had been in over a decade, according to the National Weather Service, because of unseasonable temperatures in the 80s combined with strong winds and very dry conditions.

Lena Atencio and her husband, whose family has lived in the nearby Rociada area for five generations, got out Friday as winds kicked up. She said most people were taking the threat seriously.

As a community, as a whole, everybody is just pulling together to support each other and just take care of the things we need to now. And then at that point, its in Gods hands, she said as the wind howled miles away in the community of Las Vegas, New Mexico, where evacuees were gathering.

Areas ordered Saturday to evacuate because of another large fire still growing in northern New Mexico included Philmont Scout Ranch. Meanwhile, the nearby town of Cimarron remained on notice for possible evacuation, according to Colfax County officials.

The scout ranch, owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America, attracts thousands of summer visitors, but officials said no scouts were on the property and staff were previously evacuated because of poor air quality.

The Flagstaff-area fire also burned numerous other buildings when the flames blew through rural neighborhoods Tuesday.

A shift in wind had crews working Saturday to keep the fire from moving up mountain slopes or toward homes in rural neighborhoods near areas that burned Tuesday, fire information officer Dick Fleishman said. It has got us a little concerned."

____

Davenport reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report. Attanasio reported from Las Vegas, New Mexico, and is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
NEW LONDON  As the City Hall employee tasked with preparing for the arrival of the first cruise ship to dock in this historic whaling port in four years, Steven Fields said he has learned at least one thing: People get very excited about cruises.

I learned that people get happy, jumping up and down, when they hear these people are coming, Fields, a former state police lieutenant colonel and the citys chief administrative officer, said a few days before the first of two ships docked at New Londons City Pier.

As the cruise industry grows back after pandemic setbacks, the Nutmeg State may not occur to cruise directors as an obvious spot to add to their itineraries.

Connecticut has three deep water ports that can accommodate large ships: New London, New Haven and Bridgeport. But only New London has been even an occasional destination for nautical tourists, officials say.

Before this week, it had been four years since any cruise ship stopped in New London, and the last international cruise before that had come four years earlier.

But a cruise industry changed by COVID-19 could be choosing Connecticut more often if smaller, domestic trips with fewer pandemic restrictions stay popular with U.S. tourists, industry experts said.

New London officials had learned about a year earlier that American Queen Voyages  the result of a recent merger of the river cruise company American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines  had chosen the city as a stop on its new cruise of historic sights and lobster rolls along the east coast of New England and Canada.

The Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager would each bring about 90 passengers and 75 crew members to New London, the maiden voyages of a nine-stop cruise leaving from Savannah, Georgia, and stopping in nine cities including Plymouth and Boston, Mass., Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On Tuesday and Thursday in New London, the ships passengers stayed close to City Pier, defying locals expectations that they would be bused to buzzier Mystic or the regions two casinos.

Martha Shanahan/Hearst Connecticut Media

Signs with personalized welcome messages dotted local businesses. Some restaurants offered special deals for cruise passengers. Neff handed out handmade gift bags. Passero and the ships captain exchanged plaques.

A tour guide with New London Landmarks brought the passengers on a driving tour of the city, with stops at a downtown museum, the site of a former homestead and a historic mansion that doubled as the site of Connecticuts naval offices during the Revolutionary War.

Passengers on the Ocean Navigator stayed an extra night in New London Monday after bad weather delayed their plan to move on to Newport, R.I. In October and November, both ships will bring passengers to New London again on their way back south.

New London Mayor Michael Passero's announcement about last weeks cruises came with a reminder that as recently as 2008, nine cruise ships stopped in New London  a high point.

The Grande Mariner, a small domestic cruise ship run by a Rhode Island company, once stopped there on a near-annual basis, according to a 2019 Port Authority report. The nonprofit Connecticut Cruise Ship Task Force, which once worked to expand the cruise industry in Connecticut, was disbanded in 2014.

Passero said he sees American Queen Voyages decision to include the city in its newest cruise route as a vote of confidence after those numbers had dropped off.

Its encouraging that with the industry just really trying to make a comeback, they picked New London, he said.

The passengers on the Ocean Navigator came from all over the U.S., American Queen Voyages spokesperson Michael Hicks said.

Even a small city like New London, not often thought of as a tourist destination, has potential to thrill people who have not spent time on the East Coast, Neff said.

The planners who set up these cruises, their goal is to give the passengers an experience, she said. If theyre not accustomed to New England, thats an exciting stop.

The current stage of the pandemic  somewhere between lockdown and "back-to-normal"  has been a popular time for cruises that keep American tourists close to home, said Chris Gray Faust, the managing editor of the Trip Advisor-owned consumer review site Cruise Critic.

In previous years people may have thought, Oh, Im going to go to Europe for the summer,' Gray Faust said.

But testing requirements, concerns about COVID-19 risks and travel restrictions may still be scaring them off, she said.

Hicks said his company has grown thanks to customers following that trend to smaller trips up the East Coast, or perhaps up the Ohio River.

They may have been to Venice, but they've never been to Kentucky, he said.

Now that Canada has opened its ports to cruises for the first time in two years, Gray Faust said, North American cruises with stops in places like New London could see a resurgence.

There has been a pivot toward more domestic cruises, she said. [And] some of these ports are ones that you dont think of as cruise ports, necessarily.

Cruises like American Queen Voyages offerings tend to be on the small side, but longer and more expensive, and attract older customers interested in exploring unexpected places.

Thats a huge difference from a Carnival ship that has a couple thousand people, she said. They like these small ships because they bring them places they might not have thought of.

The industry is still in a state of flux, though, Gray Faust said.

We're still kind of in it, she said. It all depends on how this all plays out. When things relax, are they going to want to go out back to Europe and go further afield?

Connecticut is considering ways to keep the cruise ships coming back.

Andrew Lavigne, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Port Authority, said the quasi-public agency is working with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to study whether a pier at New Londons Fort Trumbull, closer to the mouth of the Thames River and the Long Island Sound, could be renovated to accommodate large vessels like cruise ships and take advantage of its potential as a port of call for cruises.

Its a longer-term initiative, but it would allow us to host larger vessels and those that wouldnt call at City Pier, he said. New London is clearly on the radar of the people who are booking these excursions.

In the meantime, cities like New London dont have much control over how often cruise ships stop there: Its up to the companies planning the cruises, Passero said.

We are trying to sell New London to the cruise companies, but Im not really sure how effective were being, he said. It seems, from my perspective, that mostly they reach out to us when it works with their itineraries.

Other cruise companies have done just that, he said.

Weve been getting feelers, he said. Were anticipating that were going to get more scheduled.
DANBURY  The approval earlier this month of a proton therapy center in Wallingford is proof this novel treatment should come to the west side of the state, argues the company looking to bring it to Danbury.

During a virtual appeal hearing Friday morning before the state Office of Health Strategy, Danbury Proton argued this treatment is badly needed in western Connecticut. The state rejected in late February the centers application to open an $80 million facility in the Hat City.

The need for a second treatment room in the southwest corner of our state is clear, said David Hardy, the attorney representing Danbury Proton, which was announced almost exactly two years ago. Theres no downside risk to our state in approving Danbury protons certificate of need application. Theres only upside.

The center aims to provide a noninvasive radiation technique used to treat cancer thats only available in about 40 facilities in the country, he said.

The hearing came about two weeks after the Office of Health Strategy approved the states first proton therapy center in Wallingford. Hartford HealthCare, Yale New Haven Health and Proton International partnered on that $72 million facility, called Connecticut Proton Therapy Center.

That facility isnt projected to open until 2025, and the nearest proton therapy facilities to Connecticut are in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

The decision about the Danbury center is before Victoria Veltri, executive director of the Office of Health Strategy, who chaired the hearing, where only Danbury Proton could speak.

We will be back to you with a final decision or any questions we might have shortly, hopefully, she said at the end of the half-hour hearing.

Need for proton therapy

Hardy focused heavily on the need for proton therapy because the Office of Health Strategy had ruled in its denial that the company didnt prove theres a clear public need for the treatment.

But Hardy said the office had agreed there was need for the Wallingford facility based on the same data on cancer statistics in Connecticut that Danbury Proton provided.

The answer to the question of whether there is need for Proton Therapy in Danbury can now be definitively answered in the affirmative by looking no further than the decision thats been made and the finding thats been made in the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center, he said.

About 1 million people live within 25 miles of the proposed Danbury Proton site, which is about the same as the number of people surrounding Wallingford, he said. However, 22 million people live within 75 miles of Danbury Proton.

Not only is Wallingford is too far for many Fairfield County residents to travel for therapy, but that facility couldnt meet the need for the estimated number of patients requiring proton therapy, Hardy said.

Data cited during the Wallingford facilitys approval estimated that 992 Connecticut patients a year would need proton therapy. That doesnt include patients that could travel from New York, Hardy said.

The Wallingford facility could serve 487 patients annually once its fully operational, while Danbury Proton would serve 338 patients yearly, Hardy said. Thats 825 patients a year combined.

We still will not be meeting the need for proton therapy in our state between the two centers, he said. When you combine the capacity of the two centers, we will be in a much better position to meet the needs of the state, both in terms of the total demand for proton therapy, but also in regard to the proportion of cancer types treated with proton therapy.

Last summer, the facility earned the Danbury Planning Commissions approval to construct a 16,000-square-foot building on Wooster Heights Road, despite concerns from neighbors about increasing traffic in the citys booming west side.

Hardy said the project is shovel ready and could open in 2024 with the state approval.

The Office of Health Strategy questioned the financial feasibility of the Danbury Proton proposal. But Hardy said, when approving the Wallingford facility, the same office had determined cost of proton therapy would be relatively the same as the full cost of other treatments and side effects.

Danbury Proton would agree to the same conditions, including those related to costs, that were imposed on the Wallingford center, Hardy said.

There would be no question that improving a second center for which there is clear indication of need will improve the cost effectiveness of proton therapy treatment for Connecticut patients, he said. Having a monopoly on proton therapy controlled by the states two largest health care networks without any competitive pressure is simply a prescription for high costs.
A grand jury in Hartford charged a New York man Thursday with sexually exploiting an 11-year-old Connecticut girl, according to federal prosecutors.

On two occasions in February 2021, Zachary Williams, now 35, crossed state lines with intent to engage in a sexual act with an 11-year-old girl, and engaged in sexual acts with the girl, according to Leonard Boyle, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Williams also allegedly produced at least three videos of the girl engaged in sexually explicit conduct, Boyles office said.

Williams, of Brooklyn, was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse with children, which each have a mandatory prison term of 30 years that could go up to life; production of child pornography, which carries a 15- to 30-year sentence; and enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, which has a sentence of 10 years to life, according to Boyles office.

He has been detained since March 2021 in New Jersey where he faces additional child exploitation charges.

In New Jersey, Williams met a minor through Snapchat in September 2020. He lied about his age, telling the victim he was 17 years old, and asked for nude photographs. After receiving them, he threatened to send the photographs to the victims family and friends, according to Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Rachael Honing.

Williams convinced the victim to meet him at a hotel in Atlantic County and said he would let the victim delete the photos from his phone. In October 2020, Williams traveled to a hotel in Atlantic County and, two days later, engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim in his hotel room, Honing said.

Williams continued to send messages to the victim threatening to expose the photographs. When the victim blocked him, he created new social media accounts to harass her, according to Honing.

Law enforcement took over the victims social media accounts last month and, posing as the victim, agreed to meet Williams at the same hotel for sex. Law enforcement arrested Williams as he arrived at the hotel, Honing said.

In New Jersey, Williams was charged with interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to Honing.

To report cases of child exploitation, visit www.CyberTipLine.com.
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Anthony Mijares is a small business owner in Richmond whos dabbled in a few businesses including restaurants such as Burger Bros., a marketing and signage store called Richmond Signscapes and most recently a 7,000-square-foot seed-to-sale dispensary called Old Manchester Hemp Co.

Mijares, like many others, sought to become a cannabis grower after Virginia lawmakers moved to introduce medicinal use of marijuana in March 2017, expanded it in 2018, decriminalized it in 2020 and then legalized it in 2021.

Although the medicinal industry has shown growth and the retail sale of marijuana is scheduled to begin in 2024, additional legislation is already coming forward that could drastically change the industry.

Today in Virginia, adults ages 21 and above are allowed to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. Virginians can also share up to one ounce with another adult who is at least 21 as long as the exchange is gifted and not sold, cultivate up to four plants per household and participate in the medical cannabis program, which allows purchasing from dispensaries.

Public consumption, possession, consumption in a motor vehicle, selling or purchasing cannabis or cannabis products outside of said dispensaries is still illegal. Legal retail sales are permitted only by dispensaries licensed by the state.

Those companies are Cannabist, Columbia Care, GLeaf, RISE and Jushi. While these large companies dominate medical sales, small growers like Mijares are trying to carve their own stake in the industry by growing hemp.

Growing hemp in Virginia requires only a license from the State Department of Agriculture. The license and regulations for hemp products differ from cannabis plants because they contain lower amounts of THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana that gets people high.

The next step for cannabis and civil rights activists is to push legislators to allow small growers such as Mijares to be able to sell products alongside the big medicinal distributors, but a majority of measures involving cannabis in the commonwealth were killed in the General Assemblys regular session this year, leaving Mijares and others on the bench while larger companies play ball.

Were not going to get everything at once, Mijares told The Times-Dispatch. I think of it as micro and macro steps. At least we have something now and Im hopeful adult-use products are around the corner.

Before becoming a hemp agriculturist, Mijares served eight years as a combat medic in the Army. Originally from Walton Beach, Florida, Mijares settled in Richmond after multiple tours and sought medical assistance from Veterans Affairs to treat the physical and mental ailments he received during his service.

When you go to the VA they give you a pill for every problem you had, Mijares said. Whether you had trouble sleeping, trouble eating, PTSD, whatever it was, they had a pill for it and they just didnt work for me.

It wasnt until Mijares tried a medicinal hemp product that he received the pain relief he needed. Since then, Mijares has been a vocal advocate for the medicinal cannabis industry which has seen exponential growth in the commonwealth as evidenced by the number of people who are registered to use and purchase medicinal marijuana.

Since medical marijuana was introduced to the commonwealth, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy has issued 47,015 personal medical cannabis licenses from July 2020 to March 2021  which excludes open applications according to the boards FOIA officer.

The number of applications have also steadily risen over that 21-month period with an average of 2,709 applications a month, according to data obtained by The Times-Dispatch.

However in April, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into a law a bill from the General Assembly that removes the requirement that Virginians register with the states Board of Pharmacy in order to be approved to buy cannabis products from approved sellers. The law goes into effect the first of July.

Patients are still required to register with the state and receive a written verification from a health care physician to purchase from medical dispensaries. Mijares sells products to registered medicinal users alongside products that follow state and federal guidelines. Some products such as grinders, rolling papers and smoking objects like vape cartridges can be sold to anyone over 18. Other products are still limited to users over 21.

To the naked eye, he and the large distributors appear to offer the same service, but theyre very different according to the states regulatory process.

We get clients that come in who have pain from cancers or other ailments and were able to blend and mix things more than those other companies can, Mijares said. We really take an open approach.

Mijares said he hopes to sell both medicinal products and recreational items once Virginia moves forward with legal sales and grants him a business license to do so.

The plants currently grown in his warehouse now are all lower in THC and classified as hemp products, but he hopes to transition to growing higher-grade cannabis as well.

Businesses interested in doing the same and applying for business license to sell cannabis can do so in 2023, according to the states Cannabis Control Authority.

However recently, the commonwealth has taken a turn on its stance on cannabis products and decriminalization.

Youngkin has outlined his framework for cracking down on materials that contain the substance known as Delta-8  a material found in cannabis plants that used commercial products and were sold in Virginia dispensaries and are currently unregulated.

As the General Assembly mulls over bills to plug this industry loophole thats grown in popularity among consumers, Youngkin has also proposed amendments to a piece of legislation that aims to restrict the potency of synthetic edibles made from hemp and sold in retail stores.

These amendments would create new criminal misdemeanor penalties for people with more than 2 ounces of marijuana, The Times-Dispatch reports.

Mijares said he supports regulation of these substances to a degree, but hopes Virginia lawmakers wont take any step backward when it comes to decriminalization legislation.

Cannabis policy experts and activists are equally hopeful, but differ to some degree on strategy. JM Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, said going into 2022 the organizations strategy was to submit multiple, small bills to pass through the legislature.

As a person who serves as a policy expert to the legislative body that governs us, I will tell you that, what we expected and then what happened this year is pretty close to our expectations, Pedini said. We advised having important portions of legislative objectives parceled out into separate bills. Thats not the decision that the caucus made.

Pedini said their organization is hopeful that leading voices will emerge in the House on cannabis rights as the special session commences and that in order for new cannabis legislation to pass, some compromises may have to take place in a divided caucus, as opposed to the united, Democratically controlled state that passed legislation in 2020 and 2021.

We need to read the room, Pedini said. Weve got to deal with the reality of the political arena of Virginia and understand that, you know, the time to do all these far reaching and progressive things, that was 2021. Now youve got a divided government.

As Pedini looks for compromises among lawmakers and legislation, the Marijuana Justice Teams Executive Director Chelsea Higgs Wise continues to push for the vision set forth in 2020 and 2021  to legalize marijuana under a social equity lens that includes small, Black and minority-owned small business, and criminal expungement at the forefront.

The champions of the 2021 legislation need to really stand firm on being champions for what they proposed versus changing their tune when we dont have the leadership, Higgs Wise said Were hoping that there are legislators who will answer the call to carry an equity bill next year, even if they know this will be a long haul.

Higgs Wises organization administration is also calling to prevent large cannabis companies from establishing an early market. Instead Higgs Wise is calling on legislators to focus on resentencing and reuniting families, according to a letterendorsed by 40 like-minded organizations.

Higgs Wise said if medicinal operators are able to sell exclusively before small operators then the opportunity for growth for small business owners will diminish as will the chance to develop an equitable market.

To create a legal market that is equitable and has opportunities for everyone on Day One, when those medical operators and big folks get to sell (marijuana legally), that means Virginia has to do the work to allow (the small operator) to also be ready to sell as well, Higgs Wise said.

As Pedini and Higgs Wise work toward completing their objectives, business owners such as Mijares are left to wonder what happens next.

At this point Im not worried yet. I think Virginia is still going to go through with making hemp and cannabis legal for adults, Mijares said. When I first started doing this, there was a lot of trial and error and it feels like thats whats happening now; trial and error.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  A Republican Nebraska governor candidate who is backed by former President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit Friday against a GOP state lawmaker who accused him of groping her at a local party event in 2019.

The campaign of Charles W. Herbster alleges in the lawsuit that state Sen. Julie Slama falsely accused him and hurt his reputation in an effort to derail his campaign ahead of the state GOP's hotly contested May 10 primary.

The suit in state district court describes Herbster as the victim of a politically motivated and groundless attack by a political opponent, who resorted to false and malicious lies accusing him of scandalous behavior.

Herbster is locked in a competitive race with University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen and state Sen. Brett Lindstrom, among other candidates. Pillen won the endorsement of prominent party officials, including Slama and multimillionaire Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has sharply criticized Herbster as unqualified for the job and has acknowledged that he has spent money on dark-money ads against him.

Slama has said Herbster, a wealthy business owner and loyal Trump ally, reached under her skirt and groped her at the Douglas County Republican Party's annual Elephant Remembers dinner in Omaha when she was 22 years old. The Nebraska Examiner, an online, nonprofit news outlet, first reported the accusations, along with similar charges from seven other women. None of the others have been publicly identified and The Associated Press hasn't been able to confirm their accounts.

Slama has publicly acknowledged her allegations against Herbster and previously alluded to the incident in a February floor speech, although she didn't name Herbster at the time. She later confirmed the Nebraska Examiner's reporting of the incident, saying she didn't want the attention but wasn't going to lie about it.

Slama did not return a message late Friday seeking comment about the lawsuit.

Her attorney, Dave Lopez, said Slama has not yet been served with the lawsuit. Lopez said Herbster's lawsuit will expose him to the full scope of civil discovery, in which he would be forced to answer questions about his behavior under oath.

To be sure, any claim that calls into question Sen. Slama's well-corroborated account of her sexual assault by Charles Herbster would be categorically without merit and frivolous, Lopez said. Sen. Slama will vigorously defend herself against any such lawsuit.

Lopez said Slama will stand strong against any attempt to weaponize the judicial process to scare victims from coming forward to share the truth.

In the lawsuit, Herbster said the accusations lack even a shred of credibility and have damaged his reputation.

Plaintiff has never and would never engage in this type of conduct of which he is accused," Herbster's attorney wrote.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Herbster is widely viewed as a top contender for governor and has flaunted the endorsement of Trump, who remains popular in Republican-dominated Nebraska. The accusations against him surfaced around the time Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Nebraska to campaign for Herbster. The former president is also expected to visit the state Friday at an event featuring Herbster.

___

Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  An alleged gang member with a life-time commitment to violence fired at least 28 bullets earlier this month during a mass shooting in California's capital city that left six people dead, prosecutors said.

Smiley Martin, 27, was one of 12 people injured in the gunfire and has been hospitalized with gunshot wounds since the bloodshed April 3.

Martin, with a bandage on his left arm, appeared in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday on charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a felon. He did not enter a plea during the brief appearance and only nodded when the judge asked to confirm his name.

Police say at least five people fired bullets in the shooting on a crowded intersection in downtown Sacramento. But so far police have only identified four of them: Smiley Martin; his brother, Dandrae Martin; 27-year-old Mtula Payton; and 29-year-old Devazia Turner.

Turner died in the shooting. The Martin brothers are both in jail. Police don't know where Payton is.

While authorities say both Martin brothers fired guns, they have not charged either with murder. Instead, both men face charges about having guns when they werent supposed to while Dandrae Martin is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Another court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday for both Smiley and Dandrae Martin. Smiley Martin's attorney, Meghan Cunningham, declined to comment after the hearing.

Smiley Martin is being held without bail. In a 13-page motion filed with the court, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert depicted Martin as a dangerous, unrepentant gang member. Prosecutors point to Martin's prior convictions, which include coercing a woman into prostitution and mercilessly beating her with a belt, leaving a welt on her face.

Martin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that crime, and while he was incarcerated prosecutors say he committed battery on another prisoner." Despite the severity of the case against him, state law considered Martin's offense a nonviolent crime and he was released from prison in February after serving less than half of his sentence because he had accumulated enough lockup time credits to go free sooner.

State law says Martin is not allowed to carry a gun. But just two months after his release from prison, prosecutors say Martin posted a video to Instagram where he and others posed with guns, boasted about shooting rival gang members and talked about going to downtown Sacramento to stand outside of nightclubs.

Authorities say he went downtown later that night with a Glock 19 handgun equipped with an extended 30-round magazine, a tactical laser sight and a full-automatic selector switch  a device that transformed the weapon into an illegal machine gun.

Investigators reviewed video from multiple cameras near the intersection in Sacramento, which showed about 80 people on the streets as bars and clubs closed. But just before 2 a.m., something happened that caused people to run away, including a vendor who was so panicked they abandoned their hot dog cart.

As the streets cleared, videos show two groups of men remained, slowly walking toward each other. On one side was Smiley Martin with his brother Dandrae Martin, as well as Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi and an unidentified man. On the other side was Payton, Turner and Sergio Harris. Most of them are affiliated with gangs, prosecutors said.

Minutes later, Johntaya Alexander pulled up and parked her car. Her sister was standing near Harris, and prosecutors say Alexander walked toward the men trying to get her out of there. But she was too late. Seconds later, prosecutors say Turner and Smiley Martin started exchanging gunfire. They say Martin fired at least 28 bullets.

Alexander, Harris, Turner and Hoye-Lucchesi were all killed in the shooting, as well as Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21, and Melinda Davis, a 57-year-old woman who had been living on the street.

Investigators found Davis' body a block away from the shooting.
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INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP)  Former President Donald Trumps late endorsements in hypercompetitive Republican Senate primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania have unlocked a flood of support for his chosen candidates, including millions in cash.

But the endorsements have also provoked backlash from some Republicans who believe Trump has betrayed his core supporters by backing Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in Ohio and TVs Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Both candidates have been criticized for time spent outside their states and being insufficiently committed to the former president and his America First agenda.

The blowback included calls by a major conservative group aligned with a Vance rival to boycott the rally Trump held in Delaware, Ohio, Saturday night, where he urged his supporters to get behind Vance, calling him the man with by far the best chance to defeat the radical Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate this November."

If you want to deliver a historic victory for America First here in Ohio and also a historic defeat for the people that are destroying our country, JD Vance is your guy," he told the crowd.

Its unclear whether Trumps support will be enough to pull Vance and Oz across the finish line in races that will serve as key early tests of the former presidents clout in this years midterm elections. But the endorsements pose a risk to Trump, who has staked his status as a GOP kingmaker on his ability to mobilize his supporters as he eyes another White House run in 2024.

In Ohio, Trump's support has already been a major boon to Vance, who had been trailing in the polls before Trumps intervention. While allies concede Trump's announcement at 5 p.m. on Good Friday, less than three weeks before the May 3 primary election, may not have been the most desirable timing, the campaign nonetheless reported a 300% increase in online donations  a majority from new donors.

Protect Ohio Values, the super PAC supporting Vance, said it had brought in $5 million since Trump's endorsement, including a $3.5 million check from venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

Both groups are using that money to air new ads trumpeting Trump's endorsement that they expect to run exclusively through the rest of the campaign.

We want to make sure 100% of people know about it. And were going to go all out on that," said Luke Thompson, who runs the super PAC, which has found that Vance's support rises when voters are made aware that he is Trump's pick.

Ohio strategists and rival campaigns had long conceded an endorsement from Trump, who remains deeply popular with Republican voters despite his 2020 election defeat and his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, was likely to push any candidate to the front of the pack. Vance aides see the endorsement as particularly useful for their candidate given that the chief line of attack lodged against him has been his past criticism of Trump.

Trump addressed those comments head-on Saturday night, joking that if he refused to support anyone who had criticized him, he wouldn't have anyone to endorse.

Ultimately, I put that aside, he said. I have to do what I have to do. We have to pick somebody that can win.

But the endorsement has sparked deep resentment from those backing Vance's rivals, who launched a furious, last-ditch effort last week to try to change Trumps mind. Trump has called on his supporters to rally around Vance, but Vance's chief rivals, including the Trump-aligned Club for Growth, which supports former state treasurer Josh Mandel, have so far refused to stand down. They have instead continued to run anti-Vance ads, drawing anger, in particular, from Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who has been campaigning for Vance and is set to return to the state Monday for a full day of events.

Ohio Value Voters, a conservative group that has also endorsed Mandel, had called for a boycott of Trumps Saturday rally, saying Trump had made a terrible decision and calling on those who did attend to boo Vance when he was introduced.

The states tea party movement, which overwhelmingly supports Trump, had also planned to protest outside.

For him to endorse JD Vance really seemed like President Trump was out of touch with whats going on in Ohio and what his supporters here want, said Tom Zawistowski, a leader of the group.

Zawistowski warned the endorsement could wind up splitting Trumps base of support in the state primary three ways among Vance, Mandel and Cleveland banker Mike Gibbons. He said that could open up a path to victory for former state GOP chair Jane Timken or even moderate state Sen. Matt Dolan, the one candidate in the race who has not promised to support Trump and his positions if elected.

So far, some voters are siding with Trump.

Linda Davidson, a retired financial consultant from Kirtland, said Trumps endorsement very much crystallized her vote for Vance.

I was actually waiting. I couldnt decide, she said after an event in the Cleveland suburb of Independence on Wednesday. I was kind of confused on who to vote for.

But at a Mandel event near Cleveland on Thursday, Jeanine Hammack, the campaign chair for the Strongsville Republican Party, said Trumps endorsement will not at all influence her vote.

We love Trump. Always will, she said, adding that she's sure the former president has his reasons for picking Vance, but that she knows Mandel better.

In Pennsylvania, Oz is seeing a similar bump since Trump's surprise April 9 endorsement in his close race against former hedge fund CEO David McCormick. The week following Trumps endorsement was the best digital fundraising week for Oz since his campaign launched late last year, with the campaign bringing in nearly three times as much money as it had the week before, said campaign manager Casey Contres.

Some supporters concede that Oz could still lose the May 17 primary with Trump's backing, but argue he likely wouldn't have been able to win without it. His team has shifted its ad strategy for television and digital pitches to focus on the former presidents announcement.

It is a game changer," said John Fredericks, a talk radio host who had urged Trump to back the celebrity doctor.

Trump's endorsement has given people a chance to stop and think and go, Wait a minute. Ive seen this guy on TV helping people for 30 years. Trump sees it, too. And now I'm going to take a second look,'" Fredericks said.

Oz acknowledged the impact during a virtual town hall Trump held Friday night to rally support for his candidate.

"Mr. President, there are a lot of voters who are passionate about you who have said that theyre coming out to see me because of your endorsement," Oz said, before asking Trump if he would mind easing peoples fears by vouching for Oz's conservative credentials.

It was an acknowledgement of the fact that Trump's endorsement of a man who has little history with the Republican Party  not to mention Pennsylvania, after living in New Jersey for the past two decades  has roiled party activists who aren't sold on Oz and believe that he is insufficiently conservative on issues like guns and abortion.

While some county party officials said the endorsement had no further divided Republicans than they had been already, given the seven-candidate primary field, some county party officials reported a tide of angry calls.

The conservative Trumpers are very upset over his endorsement, and they cannot understand it, said Arnold McClure, the Republican Party chair in rural Huntingdon County, where Trump won 75% of the vote in 2020. The Trump era is over in Pennsylvania because of his endorsement of Dr. Oz.

___

Colvin reported from New York and Levy from Harrisburg, Pa. AP video journalist Patrick Orsagos in Ohio contributed to this report.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 West Haven Police Department / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 2 of 5 West Haven Police Department / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 West Haven Police Department / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 5 of 5









WEST HAVEN  West Haven Police dog Ike is retiring this weekend.

Ike graduated from the Connecticut State Police Patrol and Narcotic K9 Program in 2013. During his service, Ike worked the midnight and evening shift. He helped in more than 1,700 investigations, many of which resulted in arrests, the police department said in a Facebook post.
A former Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dakuku Peterside, has accused the state governor, Nyes...

A former Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dakuku Peterside, has accused the state governor, Nyesom Wike, of failing to pay government retirees.

In a statement by his media team, Peterside alleged that the current administration is the worst the state has ever produced, saying he is deaf to the demands of his people.

He accused the governor of been turning himself to a god who demands to be worshipped by his followers and other Nigerians.

Peterside further alleged that Governor Wike is busy acquiring properties in the state while retirees are dying of hardship following his inability to pay them.

It it is hard to believe that a governor who has received over N1 trillion in the last seven years is unable to pay his own people their entitlement, some who even voted for him. Never have we had it this bad in the history of our state.

We have a governor who has turned himself to a god, demanding to be worshipped and obeyed without question. How else can one describe a leader who is deaf to genuine demands by his own people?

While our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who have retired are dying in their numbers, the governor is expanding his acquisition of properties all over the state in a mindless and obscene manner.
The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, has been laid to rest. Oba Adeyemi was buried in the ancient town of Oyo on Saturday. ...

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, has been laid to rest.

Oba Adeyemi was buried in the ancient town of Oyo on Saturday.

Adeyemi joined his ancestors on Friday, at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.

The remains of the Alaafin of Oyo has since been taken to his palace.

Earlier, Yusuf Ayoola, the Head of the Oyomesi, had earlier disclosed that the late Alaafin would be buried today.

He said the necessary rites of passage had been performed.
(The Center Square)  Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is suing UnitedHealth Group Inc., the states Medicaid administrator, over an alleged scheme to inflate prescription drug costs by billions of dollars.

Landry filed the lawsuit against United and its pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, last week in East Baton Rouge Parish "to recover billions of dollars in inflated prescription drug prices charged by the defendants to the Louisiana Medicaid program."

United Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, is one of several companies hired by the state to administer Medicaid, and its contract requires the company to spend a minimum share of premiums on medical care. The so-called medical-loss ratio (MLR) doesnt apply to Optum Rx, which Landry accuses of inflating drug costs to help UnitedHealth meet its MLR.

"Since only United is required to abide by the MLR requirement, inflating the drug costs paid to Optum actually helps United meet its MLR but does not create an actual loss to their parent company," according to the lawsuit. "Inflated payments to Optum are additional profits for United, yet one counted as costs for the purpose of meeting the MLR."

Landry alleges Optum overcharges the state for generic drugs, profits from charging the state more than it pays pharmacies to fill prescriptions, and recovers money from pharmacies it doesnt return to the state, Bloomberg reports.

The situation boils down to "unregulated middlemen, cloaked in secrecy, (who) drive up their own profits at the expense of Louisiana citizens," Landry wrote in an email to the news site.

Landry contends Optum leverages "an unclear web of contracts" with drug manufacturers, health plans and pharmacies, to skim "a share of profits from each entity," he wrote.

The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, violations of the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and other violations. Landry is seeking damages, restitution, and penalties, as well as thousands of pages of requested documents the company has refused to provide.

Landry contends in the lawsuit United has refused to provide a final, signed contract with Optum. The company provided records to the attorney general in February, five months after a request for information, and "of the 2,191 pages contained in those 10 documents, 1,816, or 83%, are fully redacted," the Ohio Capital Journal quoted from the lawsuit.

UnitedHealth denied any wrongdoing in a statement to Bloomberg.

"We believe this lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves against these unsupported allegations," the statement read.

Landrys lawsuit is among the latest attempts by state authorities to address alleged fraud by pharmacy benefits managers that run Medicaid drug programs.

Last year, Centene Corp. agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement to resolve similar claims of inflating pharmacy costs.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued OptumRx in 2019 to recover nearly $16 million the company allegedly overcharged the Bureau of Workers Compensation. Optum was also accused in 2017 of charging Ohios Medicaid program $26 million more for prescription drugs than it paid to pharmacies to dispense them, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
Former beauty Queen and Nollywood actress, Caroline Danjuma has given reason she married the younger brother of Nigerias former defence m...

Former beauty Queen and Nollywood actress, Caroline Danjuma has given reason she married the younger brother of Nigerias former defence minister, Gen. TY Danjuma.

Speaking in the latest episode of reality show Real housewives of Lagos, Danjuma said contrary to rumours, she married her ex-husband for love not money.

According to her, till date, she still loves her ex-husband and never wanted a divorce.

She went further to blame Linda Ikeji for her broken marriage.

Caroline said: Part of the reasons why my marriage broke was because of Linda Ikeji. I reached out to her when she wrote some things but she didnt care

I married my ex-husband for love not money and I still love him till date.

Im a perfectionist; I wanted and Ive always wanted a home. Nobody ever wants a divorce, not even me.

Recall that Carolines marriage to Danjuma crashed in 2016 amid allegations of infidelity.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), says shes worried that the world is not ready to handle anot...

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), says shes worried that the world is not ready to handle another pandemic.

The WTO DG said this on Friday during a panel discussion on Preserving Open Trade: Subsidies, Geopolitics, and International Cooperation at the ongoing spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/ World Bank in Washington DC, USA.

The other panellists include Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director; David Malpass, World Bank president and Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The world has faced several pandemics in recent times: SARS in 2003, swine flu in 2009, COVID-19 in 2019.





During the session, the moderator asked Okonjo-Iweala about the potential global shock shes worried about.

She mentioned two things  geopolitical tensions and the next pandemic.

There are two things Im worried about. One is a geopolitical miscalculation. That some powers miscalculate each others intentions, and the conflict spreads fast. Im really worried about that because the element of mistrust that exists in the world now is significant, Okonjo-Iweala said.





The second thing that worries me is another pandemic because I dont really feel we are prepared yet to deal with another one.

On her part, Georgieva said their institutions have a role to play to build supply chain resilience for better functioning economies.

She said the potential shock that worried her the most is the danger of multiple shocks hitting us simultaneously and our proven inability to deal with them.

We need to build that capacity to anticipate and build resilience and respond, the IMF boss added.
Bode Durojaiye, the Media and Publicity Director to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Atanda Olayiwola Adeyemi has confirmed the death of the...





Bode Durojaiye, the Media and Publicity Director to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Atanda Olayiwola Adeyemi has confirmed the death of the monarch.

Durojaiye made this confirmation Saturday morning.

Our correspondent gathered that the confirmation is coming few hours after Durojaiye had earlier denied the death of the monarch.

The monarch passed away at Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital in Ado Ekiti at the age of 83.

Durojaiye in a statement on Saturday had earlier said that the monarch was alive.

The palace spokesman has finally confirmed the death of the monarch.

The media aide, who spoke with journalists on Saturday, said that the monarch has passed away.

Durojaiye said, Yes. That is true. Quote me. Kabiesi has passed on.

Okay. My name is Bode Durojaiye. The Press Secretary to the Iku Baba Yeye, Alaafin Oyo.

It is true. Iku Baba Yeye has gone to the place where his forefathers are.

It is true. It is true he has passed away.
Popular blogger, Linda Ikeji, has denied claims that her platform is responsible for Caroline Hutchings divorce Hutchings, who star...

Popular blogger, Linda Ikeji, has denied claims that her platform is responsible for Caroline Hutchings divorce

Hutchings, who stars on the Real Housewives of Lagos show, stated in the third episode, which aired on Friday, that Ikejis blog was the cause of her divorce.

In a heated conversation with the bloggers sister, Laura Ikeji, who also stars in the show, Caroline claimed Linda published lies about her age, and also wrote that her daughter is not her ex-husbands.

Linda Ikejis platform, @lindaikejiblogofficial on Instagram, however, fired back at the actress asking her to provide proofs of such publications.

In the statement released on Saturday, the blog claimed that Hutchings statements were false as it never published stories that put the paternity of her daughter to question.

The statement read in part, In its 16 years of blogging, Linda Ikeji Blog never ever wrote that Caroline Danjumas daughter is not for her husband. Not only didnt Linda Ikeji Blog write this, no other blog in Nigeria or beyond wrote this.

This story was completely made up by Caroline Danjuma. Or she could have seen it as a comment made by anonymous commenters on LIB or any other blog.

The platform admitted that it wrote about controversies surrounding the actress age, but claimed the publication was without malice.

The release also stated that Carolines claims that the blogger resented her were false, as Linda just doesnt know her.

Hutchings got married to Nigerian businessman, Musa Danjuma, in 2007. They parted ways nine years later, with three children.
The United Nations, UN, Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres will meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Tuesday. Guterres meeting ...





The United Nations, UN, Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres will meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Tuesday.

Guterres meeting aims to appeal for peace and urge Russia to end the war with Ukraine.

The move was disclosed by Guterres Associate Spokesperson, Ms Eri Kaneko, at a news conference on Friday in New York.

The Secretary-General will visit Moscow on April 26th. He will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

The Secretary-General will be received by President Vladimir Putin, she said.

The UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Guterres had on Wednesday written to leaders of Russia and Ukraine to request meetings with them.

The UN chief requested a meeting with them face-to-face in their respective capitals in effort to end the war in Ukraine.

UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, said that Guterres had asked the Russian President, Putin, to receive him in Moscow and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive him in Kyiv.

Dujarric said the letters were handed over to the countries UN Missions in New York on Tuesday.

The secretary-general said he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the Charter of the UN and international law.

He noted that both Ukraine and the Russian Federation are founding members of the United Nations and have always been strong supporters of this Organisation, he said.
Only 5% to 6% of the 46 million tons of plastic waste generated annually in the U.S. gets recycled, a big dip from the last estimate of nearly 9% just a few years ago, according to a new study by Beyond Plastics and the Last Beach Cleanup, two environmental groups.

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Cedd Moses left a successful career in finance to get into the bar industry. One of his first ventures was to take over The Golden Gopher, a century old bar (originally named the Golden Sun Saloon), which had become part of the blight in a rough area of Los Angeles by the early 2000s. In his book, Pouring with Heart, Moses describes his first visit to the bar as entering a filthy, dangerous front for a crack-selling operation that had two bottles of gin and no ice. He bought the bar and turned it into a thriving part of the craft cocktail and bar scene, and did the same with other rough spots. He also opened Broadway Bar, Seven Grand, The Varnish and more.

Moses company 213 Nightlife continued to open bars at a rapid pace and now operates as Pouring with Heart. It currently runs almost 20 bars and microbreweries in Los Angeles and San Diego and has expanded to Denver and Austin, Texas. Moses has ambitious plans to keep growing, and the book details his approach to the bar business and what makes the industry unique.

Moses is visiting New Orleans this week for an event Thursday, April 28, at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Its a joint book event with Dale DeGroff, who wrote the introduction to Moses book. DeGroff is credited with leading the craft cocktail movement from positions including head bartender at New Yorks Rainbow Room in the 1980s. DeGroff recently released The New Craft of the Cocktail, an updated version of his cocktail bible. Find tickets to the event at southernfood.org.

Gambit: In the book, you paint a pretty bleak picture of what the Golden Gopher looked like before you took over. Why did you decide to try to make something of that space instead of starting from scratch elsewhere?

Cedd Moses: I had a vision for the rundown downtown area of Los Angeles thinking that if I built 10 bars, it would create a destination and really turn around the neighborhood. Golden Gopher was the oldest bar down there and had amazing bones and history. It had tremendous potential despite the rough neighborhood.

Gambit: You emphasize that people are the most important part of a bar. What are some of the better and worse reasons people enter the industry?

Moses: I think a lot of people get in the business for the wrong reasons. The main one is just to make money. If you're doing it just for the money and not for being of service to other people, then you're bound to get burnt out and you will never be truly successful. Getting in the business just because you like to drink is a recipe for disaster.

The best reason is that you love taking care of people; you love to make folks smile. Those are the people that really thrive in the business because their intention and passion is rooted in the most important characteristic of the business. When you're passionate about taking care of your customers, then you'll be passionate about making them great drinks as well.

We look for people that fit our values and are eager to be of service to others. We can train them to do everything else, so they don't need to have a ton of experience. We can't train people to be nice. That was up to their parents or therapist.

The bar business is all about people. Empathy is a uniquely human characteristic and key for a great bartender or leader. For most people this is counterintuitive since they assume bars are about booze, but we can drink at home. We go to bars for a deeper reason.

Gambit: You dedicate the book to people in the service industry who kept the business going during the pandemic. What do you think the pandemic exposed about the needs of service industry workers?

Moses: Service workers have been poorly taken care of for decades. If you want those people to be there for guests, then we need to be there for them. Our staff is our No. 1 priority and we are always trying to get better and take care of them. That's why the majority of our people couldn't wait to come back to work for us after the pandemic. And it's why they naturally want to take great care of our customers and each other.

For more information about Moses bars and his book, visit pouringwithheart.com.
The affable, energetic George Edward Hubbell, Algiers Points No. 1 booster, died Monday at age 96.

Just about everyone in the historic neighborhood across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans knew Hubbell. Friends describe him as one of those never met a stranger type of guys, wandering the sidewalks, chatting with passersby, stopping for coffee or a sip of wine and keeping an eye on the slice of town he helped popularize. Some called him "the mayor of Algiers."

Hubbell was born in Clay City, Indiana, and spent 23 years in the Navy, voyaging to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and waters near Korea and Vietnam.

During a port call in New Orleans, he met his future wife, Cita Dennis, who lived in Algiers. The young couples first date was at the Court of Two Sisters restaurant in the French Quarter, said Hubbell's daughter, Amy Hubbell.

After retiring from the service, Hubbell moved with his wife to the Point. In the early 1970s, the neighborhood wasnt the magnet it is now, Amy Hubbell said. Back then, the old architecture wasnt as revered, but Hubbell appreciated its charms. He began renovating houses and eventually went into the real estate business, promoting the neighborhood to people who wanted to live in the city while living apart as well.

The 1907 neoclassical Algiers library branch had closed in 1966 after Hurricane Betsy and stood unused for years, when Cita Hubbell made it her mission to get it reopened. She succeeded in 1975, and after she died in 2001 the branch was renamed in her honor and her husband devoted himself to its continued survival.

Im not sure anyone ever walked into Algiers Point and got out without Mr. Hubbell telling them about the library, said former library manager Seale Paterson, laughing.

Paterson said Hubbell was always funny, entertaining and generous. She said that when a woman hawking pralines entered the Old Point Bar one evening, he bought a round of the confections for the house. He was a real treasure, she said.

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Stacey Plaisance Jenkins, a former Associated Press reporter and around-the-corner neighbor of Hubbell in the early 2000s, couldnt agree more. She said he always had a camera around his neck to document the sights he encountered on his walks.

Id say, Youre like the Algiers Point reporter,' Jenkins recalled.

Socializing with Hubbell was a balm, she said: One of my favorite things to do was to sit with him and have a glass of wine at Tavolinos [restaurant] near the ferry landing.

A man with stamina

Hubbell was very sharp and kept up on current events. Wed solve the worlds problems, she said, laughing.

What amazed Jenkins was his stamina. He was more active than most people I know who are one quarter his age, she said. Even when he needed a walker to get around, hed be trekking along the levee, she said.

Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, Hubbell was always circulating, Jenkins said, attending porch concerts and whatever else there was to do. A couple of falls in the past few months and a broken pelvis finally sidelined him. He died in his home at the Suites of Algiers Point, but not before he saw Algiers become one of the most coveted parts of New Orleans in the 21st century.

He is survived by his daughter, Amy Hubbell of New Orleans, and three sons, Paul Hubbell of Corona, California, Daniel Hubbell of Sonoma County, California, and Philip Hubbell, of Seattle.

Hubbell's cremated remains will be interred at El Carmelo Cemetery in Pacific Grove, California, where his late wife was buried. Amy Hubbell said a public memorial service will take place in May in Algiers Point, although plans are not final.
Lusher Charter School, after almost two years of debating a name to replace that of a Confederate tax collector and White supremacist, on Saturday chose one: The Willow School.

All five members present at a meeting of the highly ranked New Orleans school's governing board agreed on the new moniker, saying it not only marks a clean break from the Lusher name but also evokes the school's history of an institution that opened in 1917 on Willow Street.

"I think we need a name that will heal after all that's gone on in the last couple of years," said former middle school Principal Brenda Bourne, a member of the charter board.

Long time coming

Lusher is a selective enrollment, A-rated school for students from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

For decades, some students, staff and outside activists have lobbied to sever its titular tie to Robert Mills Lusher, a Confederate tax collector and Louisiana education superintendent who said he believed in the "supremacy of the Caucasian race." In 2020, students and other activists took to the streets to protest the name. In 2021, a 12-page letter written by a former high school principal alleging a culture of racism at the school disclosed more tensions.

The Orleans Parish School Board last year changed the names of more than 20 of its properties, including Lusher Charter's Freret Street campus, Willow Street campus and Loyola Street campus. Charter school operators, however, are responsible for their own institutional names.

The recent efforts came amid a broader citywide movement targeting public buildings, streets, parks and schools that honored slave owners, Confederate officials or segregation supporters, after a summer of racial unrest sparked by the 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a White police officer in Minneapolis. On Thursday, the City Council chose Harmony Circle for the green space within the traffic roundabout known as Lee Circle, where a larger-than-life statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed in 2017.

Secret meetings

Lusher Charter's board decided in September to change the school's name, and created a group that met privately to discuss options. The group came up with 11 names, two of which contained "Lusher."

After community members threatened a lawsuit for violating Louisiana's Open Meetings Law, the school's governing board formed a new committee that included student, parent and faculty representatives, and hired a consulting firm that held focus groups in early April. The focus groups recommended Mosaic Charter School, the Center for Arts-based Education and the New Orleans School of Academic Excellence and the Arts. The board rejected the latter two names for sounding too similar to existing New Orleans schools.

Liv Newman, a parent representative on the renaming committee, told the charter board Saturday that some names the committee liked didnt appear on the finalists list and vice versa. Board member Rachel Wisdom said the process culled thousands of community comments.

Which will it be?

Only two names were discussed at length Saturday: Legacy and Willow.

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Legacy, a name offered by Bourne, was denounced by people in the audience for connoting wealth and exclusivity, rather celebrating the school's past, present and future. Board member Alysia Loshbaugh worried it would conjure "some White dude passing on his wealth to another White dude," and board member Kiki Huston said it sounded "pretentious."

"We have a lot of legacies at LCS that we're trying to overcome," said parent Erin Greenwald. "One of them is the perception of exclusivity, a perception that everyone isn't welcome."

Others in the audience, mindful of the drawn-out process, said they would settle for any name as long as it was chosen as soon as possible.

Bend not break

I can get behind any name that you choose, and I will, said Erika Hahne, an employee at the school and a parent. In an effort to right the wrongs of the past, we have doubled down on causing additional pain and division in this community.

Ultimately, the name Willow, which first surfaced in 2021, was chosen.

Willow is the mothership, Wisdom said.

Several in the audience spoke about the idea of willow branches bending but not breaking in the wind. Other suggested planting willow trees on the Freret and Loyola campuses to strengthen the bond.

It may be safe, but its also not controversial and it does harken back to our beginnings, Huston said.

Work still to come

Jerome White, a high school mathematics teacher at the school, said he doesn't feel the school has adequately addressed the cultural shift that was supposed to happen with the name change. He said the school touts diversity in its publications, but that only about 20% of its student body is Black, in a city that is about 60% Black.

Whatever name we choose, I can be at peace with the name, White said. Im genuinely grateful to anyone who helped make this happen, but until we address that diversity issue, I can't get excited about any of it.

Interim CEO Nicolette London said the school has hired a consulting firm to continue working on diversity, equity and inclusion.

I am confident as a school community we can bend and not break.
A motorist speeding from Westwego police crashed his car and was fatally injured early Saturday, Louisiana State Police said.

The agency said Frederick Eric Walter, 51, of Bridge City died in the wreck at about 1 a.m. on the West Bank Expressway near Circle West Drive.

The initial investigation showed Walter was driving a 2016 Honda Accord in Westwego when the local police stopped him. "Walter drove away, initiating a pursuit," Troop B spokesperson Kate Stegall said.

Speeding west on the highway, Walter lost control of his car, which left the right side of the road and flipped several times, ejecting the unrestrained driver, Stegall said. A front seat passenger, who was restrained, suffered minor injuries.

Investigators suspect Walter was driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Westwego Police Chief Dwayne "Poncho" Munch said he did not know the reason for the initial traffic stop or its location.




MANILA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Tom, a yacht worker on Boracay island in central Philippines, found his life full of hope after seeing more foreign tourist arrivals on the resort island famous for powdery white-sand beaches.

"The pandemic is very difficult for us, but now the (tourism of) Boracay is going into the recovery stage. We expect a lot of tourists coming from different countries to come here for vacations," Tom told Xinhua.

As a key economic driver, the tourism industry's contribution to the Philippines' gross domestic product stood at 12.7 percent in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The pandemic has badly hit the tourism sector in the Philippines, forcing hotels and airlines to lay off staff. Almost 1.1 million workers were affected in the tourism industry across the country.

From April 1, the Philippines reverted to pre-pandemic entry rules for fully vaccinated foreign nationals from visa-required countries. The relaxed rules opened the country to all travelers, including tourists, to enter the Southeast Asian country known for world-class white-sand beaches, crystal clear azure seawater, and diving resorts.

Boracay island remains the top tourist attraction in the country. According to the local tourism office, the island logged over 150,000 tourist arrivals in March, almost the pre-pandemic monthly level in 2019.

Resorts, restaurants, and yachts on the island are now fully operational, and beaches with sunshine await foreign visitors.

James, a beach-lover from Britain, is more than happy to choose Boracay island as his vacation destination. "To be on holiday again is a great feeling. It is my first time in the Philippines, and it will not be my last," he said.

According to the Philippines' Department of Tourism, 200,000 foreign tourist arrivals have reached the archipelago as of April 7 in nearly two months since the country began to ease travel restrictions for international travelers.

Philippine Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said the sustained influx of tourists in the country is a good sign of the sector's success in its preparation to welcome foreign tourists in the new normal. "This continued growth shall aid our stakeholders, as well as the economy, in recovering from the effects caused by the pandemic," she added.

Her words were echoed by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)'s latest Economic Impact Report, which is released on Thursday during the WTTC summit in the Philippine capital.

"The travel and tourism sector will be a driving force of the global economic recovery from the two-year pandemic," the report said.

However, as the Philippines' tourism enters recovery, the local authorities remind travelers to adhere to basic health protocols, such as wearing a face mask, keeping a safe distance, or avoiding crowds.

Felix Delos Santos, chief of the tourism office of Malay city on Boracay island, said almost all the island's residents and tourism workers have been fully vaccinated.

He said visitors need to submit health information declarations and vaccination cards online before entering the island to ensure safety. Moreover, resorts and restaurants on the island hired safety officers to remind visitors to observe basic health protocols.

"We followed the national (pandemic prevention) policies. The priority (of our work) is on the health and safety of our tourists," Delos Santos said.

El Nido in Palawan province, renowned for its diverse collection of coral reefs and unparalleled pristine waters, has also seen a slow but steady increase of foreign tourists since April.

Pio Sanchez, manager of El Nido Lagen island resort, said safety and sustainability would be key drivers for their business to move forward.

"We require all our guests to follow the minimum health protocols, including wearing face masks whenever they are in public areas. At the same time, we have offered hand sanitizers in specific areas of the resort, and we do regular testing for our staff to make sure everyone is in good condition," Sanchez added.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
New rumours allege that Samsung plans to drop the Galaxy Watch Classic brand after just one generation. In its place will arrive the Galaxy Watch5 Pro, details about which have leaked previously.

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Earlier this month, SamMobile alleged that Samsung could release Galaxy Watch variants this year, with the Galaxy Watch5 Pro joining the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Classic. Reportedly, the Galaxy Watch5 Pro would launch with a larger battery than other Galaxy Watch5 models, although its rumoured 572 mAh capacity would be eclipsed by the TicWatch Pro 3.

SamMobile has since changed its tune and now alleges that the Galaxy Watch5 series will not feature a Classic variant. Instead, the website expects Samsung only to sell the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro. Additionally, SamMobile asserts that the Galaxy Watch5 Pro 'could be limited to just one size', unlike the Galaxy Watch4 Classic. In comparison, the Galaxy Watch5 'might come in two sizes', presumably 40 mm and 44 mm sizes.

SamMobile has not ruled out one of these variants featuring the Classic's mechanical bezel, though. Hence, Samsung may release the Galaxy Watch5 Classic in all but name, mirroring its decision to make the Galaxy S22 Ultra more of a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra successor than a follow on from the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, April 23. Click here for updates from April 22.

Russia Destroys US and EU Weapons Delivered to Ukraine, Moscow Says

The Russian defense ministry said it used high-precision missiles on Saturday to destroy a logistics terminal in the Black Sea port city of Odesa where a large number of weapons supplied by the United States and European nations were being stored.

It also said Russian forces had killed up to 200 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 30 vehicles on Saturday.

In Odesa, at least eight people were killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings, and two more were destroyed on Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces said.

The death toll could not be independently verified. The last big strike on or near Odesa was in early April.

___

Blinken, Austin to Visit Kyiv and Hold Talks with Zelenskyy

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said Saturday.

The U.S. top diplomat and Pentagon chief will hold talks with Zelenskyy and discuss what kinds of weapons are to be provided to Ukraine to confront the Russian offensive, the Ukrainian leader said during a press conference.

The visit was announced after President Joe Biden add an extra $800 million in military aid to Ukraine.

Read the full article here

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Russia Investigates Media Report on Presence of British SAS Special Forces in Ukraine

Russias top state investigative body said on Saturday it was looking into a Russian media report alleging that sabotage experts from Britains Special Air Service (SAS) have been deployed to western Ukraine.

The SAS is an elite military force trained to conduct special operations, surveillance, and counter-terrorism. Russias RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday quoted a Russian security source as saying about 20 SAS members had been sent to the Lviv region.

In a statement, the Investigative Committee said it would follow up on the report that they had been sent in to assist the Ukrainian special services in organizing sabotage on the territory of Ukraine.

The British Ministry of Defense had no immediate comment on the Russian investigation in response to a Reuters request.

Britain said it sent military trainers to Ukraine earlier this year to instruct local forces in using anti-tank weapons but the British government said on Feb. 17a week before Russias invasionthat it had pulled out all troops except those needed to protect its ambassador.

It was not clear what steps the Investigative Committee planned to take in response to any SAS involvement in Ukraine. But the investigation into the possible presence of forces from a NATO country is significant, given that Russia has issued warnings to the West not to get in the way of its special military operation in Ukraine.

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Russian Space Chief Warns of Possible Trigger for World War III

An attack against a spacecraft could usher in the next global war, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russias national space agency Roscosmos, said on Saturday.

One must keep in mind that the destruction of a foreign spacecraft means World War III. Its a casus belli, and theres no doubt about that, Rogozin said, using a Latin term for a formal legal reason to start a war.

Rogozin was commenting on Washingtons decision to stop conducting anti-satellite missile tests. Announcing the move on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris called the destruction of satellites during such tests reckless and irresponsible because it leaves dangerous space debris.

The Roscosmos chief, however, argued that the United States is now pretending to be doves because it had already conducted all the necessary tests. This move should, therefore, be strictly viewed as propaganda, he said.

Rogozin argued that the Boeing X-37, an unmanned U.S. shuttle-like spacecraft currently orbiting the Earth, could potentially be used for spying and carrying weapons of mass destruction. He said that a proposal by Russia and China to sign a treaty banning the placement of weapons in outer space was met with dead silence in Washington.

The stationing of weapons of mass destruction in outer space has been internationally banned since 1967.

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General Accuses Boris Johnson of Disclosing Military Secrets

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is tempting evil with his statements about the training of Ukrainian troops abroad amid the conflict with Russia, Polish General Waldemar Skrzypczak, who advises the defense minister, said on Friday.

During a visit to India earlier this week, Johnson told journalists that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of anti-aircraft defense, and actually in the UK in the use of armored vehicles.

Skrzypczak, who headed one of the multinational divisions in Iraq in the mid-2000s, told Polish newspaper Fakt that when we were on missions abroad it was hard to imagine that one of the politicians would talk about our plans or training on television.

By making the comments, Johnson reveals military secrets to Russia, the general said. Training is a military matter and must be kept under wraps. The man should  think before saying such things.

The former commander of Polands land forces called the prime ministers behavior extremely irresponsible, warning that it could lead to disastrous consequences.

The prime minister may not be aware of this, but with such statements he endangers the success of the entire military operation, as well as the safety of soldiers, Skrzypczak said.

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Russia to Deploy Sarmat Missiles by Autumn in Historic Nuclear Upgrade

Russia said on Saturday it plans to deploy its newly tested Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles by autumn.

The target stated by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency, is an ambitious one as Russia reported its first test-launch only on Wednesday and Western military experts say more will be needed before the missile can be deployed.

The Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads and decoys, and of striking targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe.

This weeks test, after years of delays due to funding and technical issues, marks a show of strength by Russia at a time when the war in Ukraine has sent tensions with the United States and its allies soaring to their highest levels since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Rogozin said in an interview with Russian state TV that the missiles would be deployed with a unit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, about 3,000 km (1,860 miles) east of Moscow.

He said they would be placed at the same sites and in the same silos as the Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles they are replacing, something that would save colossal resources and time.

The launch of the super-weapon was a historic event that would guarantee the security of Russias children and grandchildren for the next 30 to 40 years, Rogozin added.

Western concern about the risk of nuclear war has increased since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 with a speech in which he pointedly referred to Moscows nuclear forces and warned that any attempt to get in Russias way will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.

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Japan, Russia Reach Agreement on Fishing Quotas Amid Ukraine-Related Sanctions

Japan and Russia have reached an agreement on Tokyos fishing quotas for salmon and trout spawned in Russian rivers, despite Moscows anger over the spate of economic sanctions that Tokyo imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Japans Fisheries Agency said Saturday that the two countries agreed on Tokyos fishing quota of 2,050 tons of salmon and trout within its exclusive economic zone, with the agreement expected to be signed next week, Kyodo News reported.

Under the agreement, Japan will pay an annual cooperation fee of between 200 million yen ($1.56 million) and 300 million yen ($2.34 million) to Russia, depending on the eventual tonnage of the catch. A cooperation fee is paid to the country where the fish were spawned.

Read the full article here

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Ukraine President Spoke With UKs Johnson About New Phase of Military Aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about a new phase of military aid, including the provision of heavy weapons, the presidents deputy chief of staff Andriy Sybiga said on Saturday.

Speaking on national television, Sybiga said the pair also talked about further financial support for Ukraine on the call.

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Zelenskyy: Allies Finally Delivering Weapons Kyiv Asked For

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said allies were finally delivering the weapons that Kyiv had asked for, adding the arms would help save the lives of thousands of people.

In a late-night video address, Zelenskyy also said comments earlier in the day by a Russian commander about the need to link up with Moldova showed Moscow wanted to invade other countries.

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Ukraine: Missile Attack Kills 5 in Odesa

An adviser to Ukraines president says five people were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

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US Warns Russia of Astronomical Nuclear Price

Russia would pay an astronomical price should its President Vladimir Putin order the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said on Friday amid the ongoing Russian offensive.

In an interview for the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, Nuland was asked to assess the possibility of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons. She responded that she could not rule out such a catastrophic scenario as Putin has already ordered what, she alleged, were brutal war crimes, and the world must be prepared for the worst. At the same time, Nuland stressed, the consequences of such steps would be catastrophic for Russia and for Putin personally.

She refused to provide any details about the potential response from the West, saying instead that use of nuclear weapons would take the situation to a fundamentally new level where the price will be simply astronomical.

Asked by a journalist if Kyiv can rely on its Western partners support in a worst-case scenario, Nuland reassured Ukraine that it would not be left alone. Meanwhile, the under secretary of state said, the United States would continue to provide Ukraine with military assistance. She revealed that Washington has begun supplying Kyiv with multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and would do its best to keep up with Ukraines needs.

Nulands strongly-worded warnings came just two days after the Pentagon said that at this point it does not see a need to change the countrys nuclear posture. The U.S. Department of Defense spokesmans statement followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys claims that Moscow could use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

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Pentagon Seeking Info From US Industry on Ukraine-Ready Systems

The Pentagon is looking for new avenues for U.S. industry to accelerate production and build more capacity for proven, effective weapons that require minimal training and can be rapidly exported to Ukraine, according to a government website posting on Friday.

The Department of Defense posted a request for information on SAM.gov that had an initial response deadline of May 6 and sought information on weapons or commercial capabilities related to air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense, counter battery, unmanned aerial systems, and communications like radios or satellite internet.

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Germany Should Stop Sending Weapons to Ukraine: Public Figures

Further military aid to Ukraine would only lead to an uncontrollable escalation of hostilities and prolong the suffering of the people caught up in the fighting, a group of German politicians and public figures have warned Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an open letter. By providing arms to Kyiv, Germany and other NATO nations have de facto made themselves a war party, the letter published by the Berliner Zeitung on Friday has said.

The co-authors of the letter, which include the ex-vice president of the Bundestag, Antje Vollmer, and a former U.N. assistant secretary general, Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck, have said that Ukraine has become the battlefield for the conflict between NATO and Russia over the security order in Europe, which is now waged at the expense of the Ukrainian people.

If the conflict is not stopped quickly, it will end up in another big war similar to Word War I, the letter warns, adding that this time nuclear weapons might be used, bringing widespread devastation and the end of human civilization. Avoiding further destruction and escalation should be an absolute priority, it adds.

The co-authors, who also include a former German MP, Norman Paech, as well as an ex-director of the Center for Conflict Research in Marburg, Johannes Becker, maintain that NATOs military support only delays a diplomatic solution, fueling the resistance of the Ukrainian army that has little chance of winning. Instead, steps to end the bloodshed must be taken, they argue.

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Russia Reveals Crew Losses From Sunken Warship

At least one person was killed and another 27 are missing after the Moskva, the flagship of Russias Black Sea fleet, sunk earlier this month, according to Russian state media.

Another 396 crew members were evacuated to nearby ships and sent on to Sevastopol, a city in Crimea, Russias TASS news agency reported. The Russian government, as of Tuesday, had not previously acknowledged any casualties.

The Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, sunk on April 14, though the cause remains disputed.

Ukraine says it hit the Moskva with anti-ship cruise missiles, which sparked a fire that detonated stored ammunition. The Moskva was armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as torpedoes, naval guns, and missile defense systems, meaning it would have had massive amounts of explosives aboard.

Russias Defense Ministry, however, says a fire of unknown origin detonated the ammunition and the resulting explosions left the Moskva with structural damage. It says the warship then sank amid rough seas as it was being towed to a nearby port.

Photos and a short video clip emerged early Monday on social media showing the Moskva badly damaged and on fire in the hours before it sank. The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and significant scarring just above the waterline on the port (left) side in the middle of the vessel. The Kremlin on Monday said it had seen the photos of the Moskva but that they could not verify them.

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Ukraine: Russians Trying to Storm Steel Mill

An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed airstrikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

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Lviv Announces Curfew Starting Easter Night

Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

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Civilian Evacuation Effort Set for Mariupol

Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children, and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

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US Convening Talks on Ukraines Defense Needs

The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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Russia Says Ukrainian Fighters Securely Blockaded at Mariupol Steel Plant

Russias defense ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries had been securely blockaded at the Azovstal steel plant where they have been holding out in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

President Vladimir Putin had ordered his defense minister on Thursday to block off the vast Azovstal complex so not even a fly can get through rather than try to storm it.

The defense ministry also said Russia had hit dozens of targets in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine on Friday.

All remnants of the Ukrainian Azov Nazis, together with foreign mercenaries from the United States and European countries, are securely blockaded on the territory of the Azovstal plant, the ministry said in a statement.

The Nazis are ignoring our demands to release the women and children allegedly with them to travel freely in any direction.

Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 with the stated aim of demilitarizing and denazifying the country.

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Ukraine Says Shelling of Eastern Luhansks Cities Intensifying

All the Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern region of Luhansk were being shelled by Russian forces on Saturday and the barrage was intensifying, the regions governor Serhiy Haidai said on television.

He claimed Ukrainian forces were leaving some settlements there in order to regroup, but that the move did not amount to a critical setback. Russia denies targeting civilian areas.

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UK Claims Russian Forces Made No Major Gains in the Last 24 Hours

Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours despite increased activity, as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts, British military intelligence claimed on Saturday.

Despite Russias claimed conquest of the port city of Mariupol, heavy fighting continues to frustrate Moscows attempts to capture the city, impeding their progress in the Donbas region, the Ministry of Defence claimed on Twitter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

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Kyiv Accuses Moscow of Imperialism After Russia Flags Interest in South Ukraine

Moscow wants to take full control over southern Ukraine, a Russian general said on Friday, a statement Ukraine said gave the lie to Russias previous assertions that it had no territorial ambitions.

Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Minnekayevs statement showed Russias invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning.

On Twitter, Ukraines defense ministry said Russias goal of the second phase of the war is simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined specific comment on Minnekayevs statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldovas sovereignty and was clear-eyed about events on the ground. No one should be fooled by the Kremlins announcements, Porter said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked if Russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how Moscow saw the political future of southern Ukraine.

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Russia Says It Shot Down Ukrainian Fighter Jet in Kharkiv Region

Russias defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet and destroyed three MI-8 helicopters at an airfield in Ukraines Kharkiv region.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine regarding the Russian claims.

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G20 Cannot Function With Russia at the Table, Canada Claims

The Group of 20 major economies cannot effectively function as long as Russia remains a member, Canadas finance minister claimed on Friday after a week of protests against Moscows war in Ukraine at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington.

Discord over Russias presence at the meetings has been on display all week, with officials from the United States, Canada, Britain, and other Western countries staging walkouts three days in a row whenever Russian officials spoke.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, who met in Washington on Wednesday, failed to agree on its traditional communique outlining economic policy goals as Russia blocked language condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

The IMF steering committee and the World Bank-IMF Development Committee also failed to issue joint statements.

The G20 cant function effectively with Russia at the table, Chrystia Freeland, Canadian minister of finance who is of Ukrainian descent, told a news conference with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko in Washington.

The tensions have called into question the effectiveness of the G20, which includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine, as well as China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, which have not joined Western-led sanctions against Russia over the conflict.

This years G20 host country Indonesia is still optimistic that progress can be made on a number of issues despite the tensions, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters in an interview.

Even with a walk out, we all agree on the substance of work that needs to be done, Indrawati said.

Indrawati said she is more focused on grassroots technical work underlying issues such as strengthening a G20 common debt framework for poor countries, and creating a new financing mechanism for future pandemic needs, than issuing a communique at the present stage.

With other G20 finance meetings scheduled for July and October and a leaders summit in November, Indrawati said there was ample time to continue progress.

If there is no forum at all, then the world is going to be in a much worse place, with each country setting policy without regard for others.

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Russia Says It Plans Full Control of Donbas and Southern Ukraine; Moldova Summons Russian Ambassador

Russia plans to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine during the second phase of what it calls its special military operation, the deputy commander of Russias central military district said on Friday, reported Russian news agencies.

The Interfax and TASS news agencies cited him as saying that full control of southern Ukraine would improve Russian access to Moldovas pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine.

Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to Transdniestria, where there is also evidence that the Russian-speaking population is being oppressed, TASS quoted Minnekayev as saying at a meeting in Russias central Sverdlovsk region.

Moldovas foreign ministry said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to express deep concern about the remarks.

These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic of Moldova, it said on its website.

During the meeting, it was reiterated that the republic of Moldova  is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation.

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Ukraine: Russian Offensive Continues in East

The Ukraine militarys general staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker, and three artillery systems, the general staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived in Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

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UN Chief to Meet Putin and Zelenskyy Next Week

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet Russias President Vladimir Putin and then head to Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Guterres will head to Moscow on Tuesday and meet Putin as well as having a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Eri Kaneko, Guterres associate spokesperson, told a news briefing in New York on Friday.

He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently, Kaneko said.

He will meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and staff at UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance efforts, the U.N. spokespersons office said in a statement.

Aldgra Fredly, Allen Zhong, CNN, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
BRUSSELS (AP)  Big tech companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta will have to police their platforms more strictly to better protect European users from hate speech, disinformation and other harmful online content under landmark EU legislation approved early Saturday.

European Union officials clinched the agreement in principle on the Digital Services Act after lengthy final negotiations that began Friday. The law will also force tech companies to make it easier for users to flag problems, ban online ads aimed at kids and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.

The Digital Services Act, one half of an overhaul for the 27-nation bloc's digital rulebook, helps cement Europes reputation as the global leader in reining in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.

With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care is coming to an end, said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager added that with todays agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.

The act is the EUs third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the U.S., where lobbyists representing Silicon Valleys interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay.

While the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

The EUs new rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their fundamental rights online, should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms algorithms.

The biggest online platforms and search engines, defined as having more than 45 million users, will face extra scrutiny.

Breton said they will have plenty of stick to back up their laws, including effective and dissuasive" fines of up to 6% of a company's annual global revenue, which for big tech companies would amount to billions of dollars. Repeat offenders could be banned from the EU, he said.

The tentative agreement was reached between the EU parliament and member states. It still needs to be officially rubber-stamped by those institutions, which is expected after summer but should pose no political problem. The rules then won't start applying until 15 months after that approval, or Jan. 1, 2024, whichever is later.

The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. Its the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets, said Ben Scott, a former tech policy advisor to Hillary Clinton whos now executive director of advocacy group Reset.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russia was found to have used social media platforms to try to influence the countrys vote. Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened. During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of allowing anti-vaccine falsehoods to thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to request companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an easy and effective way so that it can be swiftly removed. Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardized so that they will work the same way on any online platform.

Germanys justice minister said the rules would safeguard freedom of speech online by ensuring sites can be made to review decisions on deleting posts. At the same time, they'll be required to prevent their platforms being misused, said Marco Buschmann.

Death threats, aggressive insults and incitement to violence arent expressions of free speech but rather attacks on free and open discourse, he said.

Tech companies, which had furiously lobbied Brussels to water down the legislation, responded cautiously.

Twitter said it would review the rules in detail and that it supports smart, forward thinking regulation that balances the need to tackle online harm with protecting the Open Internet.

Google said it looks forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone. Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services. Facebook and TikTok didnt respond to requests for comment.

The Digital Services Act bans ads targeted at minors, as well as ads targeted at users based on their gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. It also bans deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they didnt intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show theyre making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services. But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts. This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the EU's executive Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a supervisory fee."

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EUs borders.

If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says By golly, why dont American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers, its going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules elsewhere, Scott said.

But they're unlikely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank. There is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU, Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EUs General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behavior of tech companies. Much of the problem centers on the fact that a companys lead privacy regulator is in the country where its European head office is located, which for most tech companies is Ireland.

Irish regulators have opened dozens of data-privacy investigations, but have only issued judgments for a handful. Critics say the problem is understaffing, but the Irish regulator says the cases are complex and time-consuming.

EU officials say they have learned from that experience and will make the Commission the enforcer for the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan reported from London. AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Starbucks on Friday for what the agency said was the unlawful firing of seven employees in Memphis in retaliation for seeking to unionize.

The labor board said the company fired the workers in February because they joined or assisted the union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities.

The employees are part of a wave of organizing at Starbucks in which workers have voted to unionize at more than 20 stores and filed petitions to hold votes at more than 200. The company has roughly 9,000 corporate-owned locations nationwide.

Complaints are issued after a labor board regional office concludes that there is merit to accusations against employers or unions and are litigated before an administrative law judge. The regional office is seeking to require that Starbucks make the fired employees whole  for example, by reimbursing them for lost wages. The company could appeal an adverse decision to the national labor board in Washington.
At present, Ukrainian media often features a special kind of mockery in quotations of Russians speaking Russian  a kind of humor that is only possible from inside a linguistic community. Ukrainians are perfectly capable of writing Russian correctly, but during the war some internet commentators have spelled the occasional Russian word using the Ukrainian writing system, leaving it looking unmoored and pitiable. Writing in Ukrainian, you might spell o as aae, the way it is pronounced  a bit of lexicographic alchemy that makes it (and, by extension, Russians) look silly, and mocks the political concepts being used to justify a war. In a larger sense, such efforts are a means of displacing Russia from its central position in regional culture.

Indeed, one relevant case of this o/a shift is the name of Russia itself. The Russian word for Russia is , but that o is pronounced as an a, something like Rahssiya. You can now see where this is going. The rah sound at the beginning of our new Ukrainian word, , doesnt just signal Russian  it suggests the word Russia as it is pronounced by people speaking Russian. It is the peculiar way Russian speakers name their own country that seals a link between Russia and fascism.

In Russian you need to know when an o becomes an a, but once you know, the sound is consistent. Ukrainians play with English as well, which in this respect is trickier. In English it is all but impossible to predict how a given vowel will be pronounced; the letter on the page has almost nothing to do with the sound you are supposed to make. (If you dont believe me, go back and sound out the vowels in any sentence of this essay.) English vowel sounds are also different  broader, lazier and more numerous  than those in Ukrainian and Russian. English speakers have about as many ways of pronouncing a as there are vowels in those entire languages.

When Americans say Russia, the first and second syllable rhyme. This is baffling, since the first vowel is a u and the second is an ia. Neither is pronounced in a way that corresponds to how speakers of Slavic languages  and indeed most other languages  would understand the pronunciation of ia or u, or for that matter any vowel. For both, Americans tend to make an uh sound, known as a schwa; we say Ruhshuh. This uh sound does not exist in Ukrainian or Russian, whose speakers sometimes have a difficult time knowing where it belongs and how to pronounce it.

It matters how we spell and say Russia in English because the Ukrainian word  strips the English for parts. Ukrainians hear us say Russia a good deal. Now, they tend not to take too seriously what we say about Russia, and generally they are right  and so when they take Russia and make it P, borrowing the way we might say it, they mean a Russia that is not to be taken so seriously, not to be accepted on its own terms, an object of contempt. This and the more dismissive Pk (the k makes it diminutive) are in the spoken language rather than written. And the way the word is spoken matters, too: the Ukrainians cant quite do the schwa uh sound, so their P, although it is meant to mimic English, actually sounds like Rahsha.

Here we begin to feel the density of the parts and references packed into . It is not just the r sound at the beginning that can stand for Russia. Nor is it even just the ra, as a reference to how Russian speakers pronounce the Russian word for Russia. The first three letters, , also make reference to how English speakers pronounce Russia. Although the reference to English is inexact, the rahsh sound that comes from it turns out to be very productive, because it makes the combination with fascism work smoothly. Three-quarters of the letters in a Ukrainian neologism from English (P) are brought together with five-sixths of the letters from an adopted Italian word (, fascism) to generate the new word   a dense and effective conglomerate.
A federal labor board ruled on Friday that a group of about 20 quality assurance workers trying to unionize at Activision Blizzard, the beleaguered video game company, met the requirements to hold a union election.

In a 27-page decision, Jennifer Hadsall, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board, disagreed with Activisions claim that the effort to unionize should be dismissed because the company recently spread its quality assurance testers across its Raven gaming studio, where they previously worked in a team.

There was no evidence that Q.A. testers are being eliminated or that their role would fundamentally change with the embed process, Ms. Hadsall wrote.

She also disagreed with the companys assertion that any union would need to include  and be voted on by  all the workers in the 230-person Raven studio.
Unlike most other companies of the era, he chose to run the software online and sell it as a subscription service, a business model that now dominates enterprise computing.

He was ahead of his time in thinking about where things are going and whats going to happen next, said Mohan Gyani, a longtime Keynote board member and friend.

Mr. Gupta took Keynote public in September 1999. In early 2000, he raised $350 million more in a secondary offering, which helped Keynote ride out the tech bust that soon followed.

In 2013, he sold Keynote for $395 million to the private equity firm Thoma Bravo and retired from business software. But he kept a high profile as a philanthropist and by working with a group that represented alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology (he had attended the campus in Kanpur), said Kanwal Rekhi, a veteran Silicon Valley tech executive and investor who served on the board of Gupta Technologies.

Members of the I.I.T. group included figures from industry, academia and the investment community who could often strongly disagree with one another on a range of topics, said Gunjan Bagla, the chief executive of the consultancy Amritt, who helped lead the group with Mr. Gupta.

Umang was an exceptional leader who could bring a group from chaos to calmness, he said.

Umang Gupta was born on Aug. 3, 1949, in Patiala, in the northern Indian state of Punjab, to Ved Prakash Gupta, who worked at Indias labor ministry, and Ramnika Gupta, a politician. Umangs parents were socialists from different castes who met at the funeral of Mohandas Gandhi, a departure from a traditional arranged marriage.

The couple later separated, and Umang was raised with the help of grandparents.

He spent four years at a military boarding school and was expected to join the National Defense Academy, a tradition in his mothers family. Instead, he chose I.I.T. Kanpur, where he earned a bachelors degree in chemical engineering in 1971. The campus had some of the first IBM computers in India, and Mr. Gupta gained programming skills there as well.
Admirers disagreed.

As a writer and podcaster, Laura Hales had the rare combination of being smart and personable, intellectual and approachable, Patrick Q. Mason, who holds the Leonard J. Arrington chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University and has written extensively on the church, said by email. She demonstrated how to do deep dives into fraught subjects while remaining personally loyal to the church.

Insatiably curious and a lifelong learner, she excelled at translating complicated issues for broad audiences.

Laura Elizabeth Harris was born into a Latter-day Saints family on Aug. 12, 1967, in Madison, Wis. Her father, Alfred, was an agricultural engineer, and her mother, Margaret (Lewis) Harris, was a teacher.

The family lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan while Laura was growing up. In 1988 she graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelors degree in international relations. That same year she married Brian Dursteler; the couple had five children before divorcing in 2005.

Ms. Hales earned two masters degrees, in professional writing at New England College in New Hampshire in 2013 and in North American history at Arizona State University 2020. She and Mr. Hales, who had already written several books on polygamy (a practice the mainstream church has not endorsed for more than a century), married in 2013.

Ms. Hales said that the idea for her podcast arose in 2016 when a church member in Sweden, where she and Mr. Hales were presenting at a conference, complained to her that books on the church were hard to get hold of in that country, and that the only podcasts available were either antagonistic or overly devotional. There is no middle ground, the man told her, so she set about trying to provide one.

Ms. Hales took up many topics in her writing and on her podcast, but she dealt with polygamy so often that in 2015 she wrote an essay for The Millennial Star, a blog maintained by church members, entitled Why I Write About Polygamy. In the essay, she mentioned that she and her husband had given a number of presentations on the subject.
When Gen. Rustam Minnekayev made a sweeping statement on Friday that Russias next military aim would be to seize Ukraines entire southern coast, many analysts were skeptical, based not only on the claim, but on its source.

Why would a relatively obscure military figure announce such a major shift in policy, rather than President Vladimir V. Putin, who usually makes such pronouncements, or Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu, or Gen. Aleksandr V. Dvornikov, the chief Russian commander for the war in Ukraine?

General Minnekayevs official job is the organization of political propaganda work in the armys central district, which comprises a vast territory from the Volga basin to eastern Siberia. His duties normally would not involve formulating military strategy.

Yet he told a gathering of arms industry representatives in Yekaterinburg  more than 1,000 miles away from the fighting  that Russia was seeking to capture a swath of Ukrainian territory from the Donbas region to Moldova. That would cut off Ukraines access to the Black Sea, General Minnekayev said, according to Russian news agencies, allowing Russia to influence critical elements of the Ukrainian economy and gain yet another point of access to the pro-Russian enclave of Moldova known as Transnistria.
VENICE  The artist Sonia Boyce won Britain the top prize at the Venice Art Biennale, the worlds longest-running and most high-profile international exhibition of contemporary art.

Feeling Her Way  a sound installation of five Black British female musicians singing a cappella  took the Golden Lion for best national participation. Boyce is the first Black woman to represent Britain at the Venice event.

Saturdays other big prize, the Golden Lion for best artist in the Biennales central exhibition, was won by the American artist Simone Leigh for her powerfully persuasive monumental sculptural opening to the Arsenale, one of the two main exhibition sites. The artist presented her work Brick House, a 16-foot-tall bronze of a Black woman with cornrows and a dome-shaped torso that combines the forms of a skirt and a clay house. It was first seen on the High Line in New York in 2019. Leigh is also representing the United States at this years event, so she has a show of her own in the American Pavilion.

I have been around the block a few times, but this is probably the biggest commission Ive ever done, Boyce said in a telephone interview after the ceremony. That was really a glorious challenge.
His performances were often halted by the police; after a London show was shut down, his first wife divorced him. He was arrested on numerous occasions and served three short prison terms in Vienna, after which Austria banned his work for a time. He was once expelled from Italy for dismembering a sheep. At a performance in 1970 at the State University of New York at Binghamton (now Binghamton University), most of the student audience walked out. Some threw up. And the janitors who had to clean up after the event filed a protest saying that if he performed there again, they would refuse to do so.

Art critics tended to be simultaneously repulsed and unimpressed.

You dont need to be especially religious or fond of animals to be offended by the carnage in Mr. Nitschs art, Roberta Smith wrote in The New York Times in a review of his first solo New York City show of paintings and photographs, in 1989. Whats more offensive, at least artistically speaking, is the way the violence thinly disguises the works basic tameness and laziness.

Despite his arts often powerful beauty, she continued, there is ultimately a sense of extreme waste  of animal lives as well as artistic talent  that calls Mr. Nitschs undertaking into question.

But history has been kinder to Mr. Nitsch. He has inspired generations of performance artists, who see him as a hero, the eminence grise (or rouge) of the discipline.

Young artists are eager to make pilgrimages to Prinzendorf Castle, his estate in Lower Austria, and his foundation in Vienna. Museums have courted him and acquired his work, which is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna and many other international institutions.
Hello, readers.

A few months ago one of my teeth fell out while I was eating a prune. (Look, I live a very glamorous life.) After cleaning the tooth and securing it in a Ziploc baggie, I recalled that only a year earlier Id asked the dentist about that exact tooth. Second molar. It had seemed wobbly.

At the time, the dentist waved away the issue. Just avoid toffee, he advised. Avoid toffee, I wrote in a note on my phone. Well, the prune accomplished what toffee could only dream of. I went back to the dentist, Ziploc in hand, and asked if he could reinsert the tooth. Thats not how it works, as you probably know. I was fitted with a crown. Later, it occurred to me that Id left the baggie in his office. A wicked part of me hoped the displaced tooth would haunt him  not for long, perhaps only a minute or two.

I mention this only because it is the type of semi-comic mundanity that appears in Barbara Pym novels. Or, in some cases, makes up the entirety of a Barbara Pym novel. One of my favorite Pyms is below.

Wishing you good dental fortune,

Molly
Then the university called off its partnership with the flight school, making it difficult for Ms. Percy to get the pilot training she needed in time to graduate, so she switched to a concentration in aviation management. It wasnt until she arrived at the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. Flight Academy, which was started by the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, in May 2020 that she began flight training in earnest. Now, Ms. Percy expects to receive her airline pilot certification within a year, with plans to pursue a Ph.D after that.

While flight school can be expensive, the payoff is improving. There were an estimated 164,000 certified active airline pilots in the U.S. last year, slightly fewer than there were in 2019, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Desperate airlines looking to staff up have started offering early-career pilots higher salaries, bigger bonuses and better schedules. A student can earn a six-figure salary within a decade of graduating, sometimes much sooner, and a senior pilot at a major airline can easily earn several hundred thousand dollars per year. But the price is still daunting, especially in an industry that seems to swing so easily between good times and bad.

Historically, the armed forces offered a less-expensive path into the field. But the military has long struggled with pilot diversity and shortages, too. Still, the Air Force has slowly improved diversity among active duty pilots: Today, about 8 percent of those pilots are women and about 13 percent are nonwhite. While nowhere near reflective of the American public, those figures are still better than the numbers for commercial airlines.

But the reason for racial inequality among pilots that is most commonly cited by experts and instructors is perhaps the most apparent: A lack of role models and exposure has played a central role in keeping many women and people of color out the field.

Historically, weve seen that a lot of our aviators come out of the military or have family members that were pilots or are somehow involved in the industry, said Allison McKay, the chief executive of Women in Aviation International. If you dont have either of those two things, you may not even have considered flying.

The group is working to change that. Every year, the nonprofit hosts an annual Girls in Aviation Day, with events around the world connecting pilots and other aviation professionals with children and students. The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals and groups representing other underrepresented groups, including Latinos or the L.G.B.T.Q. community, are making similar efforts to expose more people to the field.

That might have been helpful to Ricki Foster. Growing up in Jamaica, she had never seriously considered a career in aviation.
WASHINGTON  Environmental activists, distraught by the governments slow pace of action on climate change, amassed in front of the White House Saturday afternoon, calling on President Biden and Congress to swiftly pass a climate bill that has been stalled in the Senate since December.

The White House demonstration was one of dozens of Fight for Our Future rallies held across the country to press the government to cut the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet, capping a week of events timed to coincide with Earth Day.

Were here because in North Carolina we keep getting hit by hurricanes back to back, and we aint got nothing fixed, said Willett Simpkins, 68, a retired nursing home maintenance director from Wallace, N.C. And its getting worse every year. Its time for them to stop talking about it and do something about it.

The event, which drew several hundred people under the pale green trees in Lafayette Park, was emceed by Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, a nonpartisan group that tries to engage young voters.
Fewer than 17 percent of Africans have received a primary Covid immunization. Nearly half of the vaccine doses delivered to the continent thus far have gone unused. Last month, the number of doses injected on the continent fell by 35 percent compared to February. W.H.O. officials attributed the drop to mass vaccination pushes being replaced by smaller-scale campaigns in several countries.

Some global health experts say the world missed a prime opportunity last year to provide vaccines to lower-income countries, when the public was more fearful of Covid and motivated to get vaccinated.

There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didnt die, said Dr. Adewole, who wants to see countries continue to pursue the 70 percent target.

What momentum remains in the global vaccination campaign has been hindered by a shortfall in funding for the equipment, transportation and personnel needed to get shots into arms.

In the United States, a key funder of the vaccination effort, lawmakers stripped $5 billion meant for global pandemic aid from the coronavirus response package that is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks. Biden administration officials have said that without the funds, they will be unable to provide support for vaccine delivery to more than 20 under-vaccinated countries.

Some public health experts point to reasons for optimism that the global vaccination campaign still has steam. Despite the drop off from the February peak, the number of Covid vaccinations being administered each day in Africa is still near a pandemic high. And Gavi earlier this month drew a significant new round of funding pledges, securing $4.8 billion in commitments, although it fell short of its $5.2 billion goal.
Just over a week ago, Joe Biden acted like Joe Biden and called the Russian campaign in Ukraine a genocide  leaping ahead of our major allies, our State Department and the available facts.

The comment prompted head-shaking from people nervous about American escalation and praise from people seeking it (notably, the president of Ukraine). I am generally on the side of the nervous people: In a conflict with a nuclear power there is always an interest in reducing the existential stakes, and accusations of genocide should be made only with the clearest possible evidence, just as calls for regime change (Bidens previous Bidenism, which had to be walked back) should be made, well, practically never.

But unlike the talk of regime change, which the Kremlin takes seriously because it assumes the United States wants to plot a color revolution in Moscow itself, the accusation of genocide might seem to Vladimir Putins ears much more like a flourish than a threat. After all, theres nothing in recent history to suggest that the term is used by Western powers with real consistency or certainty, or in a way that engenders a consistent American response.

This is not for want of argument and effort. The experience of the 1990s, when America stood back from the massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda and then (eventually) intervened from the air to stop ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, seemed to yield templates for how the Pax Americana or the rules-based international order ought to work. When genocide was threatened, there was a responsibility to protect the endangered population. When genocide was determined to have taken place, there was a responsibility to place the responsible parties before an international court.
To the Editor:

Re Eight Conservative Men, Zero Apologies (America in Focus series, Sunday Review, April 17):

It meant a lot to me to hear what these men feel. Im closer to being progressive than conservative in my politics, but I feel a lot in common with these men, and it reinforces my belief that we all have more in common in our fundamental beliefs and values than you would imagine from the amount of disinformation and outrage that is peddled at us (largely for profit).

I believe that Americans should not see one another as the enemy, but come to recognize that we have numerous forces making life harder, and that if we dont start to bond around shared values, we stand to lose everything.

Lets start talking across the political, cultural and racial divides about the issues and how to deal with them, and not get absorbed in the culture wars that are mostly whipped up by manipulative politicians and opportunistic misinformation outlets.

Paul Hernday

Santa Rosa, Calif.

To the Editor:

Why did The New York Times think we needed yet another story about the grievances, insecurities, delusions and weaknesses of conservative men? That story got more than its share of ink during the Trump years with endless white men in Ohio diners stories, and has continued to this day.
Jim Garrett is the chair of the Davidson County Republican Party, which is holding primaries for its candidates running for the Metropolitan Nashville school board. Nashville is among Tennessees bluer regions, where Democrats have an electoral edge. Even so, with the new system, he says, more Republicans are running, and they are raising more money. It looks like the cost of a campaign is going to be about double what it used to be, he estimates.

The local G.O.P. is also investing more in these races. For the first time, Davidson Republicans are arranging training sessions for school board candidates. These races werent a focus in previous elections, says Mr. Garrett. They are a focus now.

There hasnt yet been special training on the Democratic side. But the county party is happy to connect candidates to campaign vendors and other resources, says its chairwoman, Tara Houston. The party has also tasked a special committee to come up with a platform outlining its basic values on public education, which Democratic school board hopefuls will be expected to support.

In Williamson County, where having a D next to ones name is a scarlet letter of sorts, most of the primary action has been on the Republican side. In multiple districts, more conventional conservatives are facing off against contenders from the partys Trumpier wing. Outside groups have lined up behind their champions, providing financial and other support. The most prominent of these is Williamson Families, a political action committee dedicated to protecting the countys conservative roots and Judeo-Christian values. The PAC is led by Robin Steenman, who also heads the local branch of Moms for Liberty, a nonprofit based in Florida that champions parental rights and liberty-minded leaders nationwide. Williamson Families has endorsed a slate of superconservatives  after weeding out the RINOs, of course.

Multiple parents and teachers in Williamson complain that, as predicted, some of the campaigns and contenders seem focused less on concrete education issues than on culture-war talking points. One middle-school teacher vents to me that some candidates are bragging about their love of Donald Trump and decrying the decline of traditional families and the godlessness of todays youth.

Meagan Gillis, whose two young daughters attend county schools, says the whole situation has turned to chaos. She points to a social media post by a conservative candidate promoting the child furries myth: the wacky online claim that teachers are being forced to cater to students who identify as cats, to the point of putting litter boxes in classrooms and meowing at the children. Im like, are you kidding me? Ms. Gillis marvels. Things are getting so absurd, she says, that her family is seriously considering moving out of the area.

Similar concerns and complaints can be heard from other corners of the state. Virginia Babb has loved her time on the Knox County school board and was planning to run for re-election  until the shift to partisan races. Now she will step down at the end of her term rather than get sucked into the slime. She initially ran for the board as a very involved parent without strong partisan leanings, she tells me, noting: I dont like either party. They are too much controlled by their extremes.
On Thursday, my newsroom colleagues Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin reported on the Republican leaders who in private condemned President Donald Trump for the attack on the Capitol and hoped to hold him accountable.

In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: Ive had it with this guy, he told a group of Republican leaders.

Of course, we know what happened next. However frightened and disoriented they may have been in the immediate aftermath of the attempted insurrection, McConnell, McCarthy and other Republican leaders regained their composure and their partisan resolve as most conservatives chose to do nothing or aligned themselves with the rioters and embraced the big lie that the election was stolen.

Roughly a week after the attack, Democrats in the House introduced and passed articles of impeachment against the outgoing President Trump, joined by 10 Republicans. The Senate trial began after Trump left office, and only seven Republican senators voted to convict him on Feb. 13. There had been only a month between the attack and the trial, but in that period, Republican opinion had hardened and most conservative media outlets were fully behind Trump.

I do not think that it was inevitable that so few Republicans would vote to remove Trump. I think there was a brief time  the immediate aftermath of the attack  in which decisive action from Democrats could have changed the calculus for enough Republicans to secure a conviction of Trump in the Senate and impose consequences on him for his role in the insurrection. If the next day, House Democrats had introduced articles of impeachment and pushed forward with an immediate trial, it might have forced Republicans to make a choice before conservative media and other outlets could create and disseminate a pro-Trump message. And in that environment, there may have been enough votes to punish the outgoing president.

Now, theres an argument that this is unfair to Democrats. That Republicans were indifferent to the attack, implacably committed to Trump, and that there was nothing that could be done to budge them from this position. In this world, it made sense for Democrats to wait before beginning a second impeachment trial, since they could hone their argument before they took their second swing at the president.
In August of 1774, eight intrepid Shakers landed in Manhattan from Manchester, England, in search of a home where they could practice their fledgling religion in peace. Nearly two and half centuries later, their presence has returned to the borough; specifically, to a storybook stretch of Commerce Street in the West Village.

The Commerce Inn, which opened in December, is a Shaker kitchen meets early American tavern with a dash of 19th-century oyster house. Its white-walled dining room is an exacting homage to the Protestant religious group, whose signature furniture and decor rejected adornment and insisted upon simplicity, utility and honesty in craft. The chef-owners Rita Sodi and Jody Williams spent years poring over old Shaker recipes and cookbooks as inspiration for its dishes, which include spoon bread, oxtail and ginger cake.

Our goal is to really honor what they were doing, Ms. Williams, 59, said. She and Ms. Sodi, 60, who are partners in life as well as in business, paid particular attention to the Shakers hospitality and how they welcomed outsiders into their communities.

When people near the Shakers would raid their fields or steal from them, what did they do in return? They just grew more to provide for everyone, Ms. Williams said. That gave me chills.
In an indelible scene from The Wizard of Oz, the vivid green Wicked Witch held a frightened Dorothy captive by threatening harm to her dog Toto if she did not give up her ruby-red slippers.

The scene was memorable not only for the bright red of Dorothys shoes, but also for her striking white-and-blue gingham pinafore dress  one of several that the teenage Judy Garland wore in one of the first major movies filmed in Technicolor, in 1939.

The dress was a legend, but no one had seen it since the late 1980s, Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the dean of the school of music, drama and art at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said on Friday. A priest who headed the drama department had been given the dress in 1973, but the university lost track of it.

Now the university hopes to auction it off for at least $1.2 million, with the money going to pay for a new film program. It goes on display on Saturday at Bonhams New York, 580 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, where the public can see it through April 29. Then, on May 24, it will be presented at the Bonhams Classic Hollywood: Film and Television auction in Los Angeles, Bonhams announced this week.
A Tennessee prosecutor dropped all criminal charges on Friday against Pamela Moses, a Memphis woman with a previous felony conviction who was sentenced to six years and one day in prison in January after she tried to restore her right to vote in 2019.

The voter fraud conviction from her trial was thrown out in February after a judge ruled that the Tennessee Department of Correction had improperly withheld evidence that was later uncovered by The Guardian. Ms. Moses had been set to appear in court on Monday to find out whether prosecutors would pursue a retrial.

But Ms. Moses will no longer face a second trial in the interest of judicial economy, Amy Weirich, the district attorney of Shelby County, said in a statement. Ms. Moses spent 82 days in custody on this case, which is sufficient, Ms. Weirich said. Ms. Moses is also permanently barred from registering to vote or voting in Tennessee. Ms. Weirich declined to comment further on the case.

The sentencing of Ms. Moses, who is Black, had spurred outrage among voting rights supporters who said that the case highlighted racial disparities in the criminal prosecution of voting fraud cases and opaque voting restoration rights laws that sow confusion and leave many people with felony convictions unsure of their rights.
Ms. Hutchinson told investigators that she heard lawyers from the White House Counsels Office say the plan for alternate electors was not legally sound, according to the filing.

The select committees filing today urges the court to reject Mark Meadowss baseless claims and put an end to his obstruction of our investigation, the leaders of the committee, Representatives Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, said in a statement. Mr. Meadows is hiding behind broad claims of executive privilege even though much of the information were seeking couldnt possibly be covered by privilege and courts have rejected similar claims because the committees interest in getting to the truth is so compelling.

A lawyer for Mr. Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The committee issued a subpoena in November to Ms. Hutchinson, who served as special assistant to the president for legislative affairs and was at the White House on Jan. 6 and with Mr. Trump when he spoke at the Stop the Steal rally that day. She also reached out directly to Georgia officials about Mr. Meadowss trip to that state.

She was present for key meetings and discussions in the White House in the buildup to Jan. 6.

Ms. Hutchinson also told the panel that top White House lawyers had threatened to resign over extreme plans to seize voting machines, and that had helped persuade Mr. Meadows to back off that plan. Once it became clear that there would be mass resignations, including lawyers in the White House Counsels Office, including some of the staff that Mr. Meadows worked closely with, you know, I know that did factor into his thinking, she said.

And she said members of Congress had urged a crowd to amass at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

One investigator asked her whether Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is now the head of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, supported the idea of sending people to the Capitol on January the 6th.

He did, Ms. Hutchinson replied.

The panel also emphasized how personally involved Mr. Meadows was in attempts to pressure Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, over Mr. Trumps loss there  so much so that Mr. Raffensperger ducked and ignored his phone calls, viewing them as improper.

Yeah, Mark Meadows called. The president wants to talk to you, Mr. Raffensperger recalled an aide telling him. I dont want to do that. And just tell him, you know, were just not interested in doing that.
Yet when the House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, was shown to have lied about his response to the deadliest assault on the Capitol in centuries and President Donald J. Trumps culpability for it, there was little expectation that the consequences would be swift or severe  or that there would be any at all.

Dissembling is not a crime, but doing so to conceal a wholesale reversal on a matter as serious as an attack on the citadel of democracy and the possible resignation of a president would once have been considered career-ending for a politician, particularly one who aspires to the highest position in the House.

Not so for a Republican in the age of Trump, when Mr. McCarthys brand of lie was nothing particularly new; maybe it was just a Thursday. On Friday, another House member, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said under oath at an administrative law hearing in Atlanta that she could not recall having advocated Mr. Trump imposing martial law to stop the transfer of power to Joseph R. Biden Jr., a position that would seem difficult to forget.

Its a tragic indictment of the political process these days  and the Republican Party of late  that truth doesnt matter, words dont matter, everybody can be elastic in areas that were once viewed as concrete, said Mark Sanford, a former Republican governor of South Carolina who lied to the public about his whereabouts when he was pursuing an extramarital affair in South America and was censured by the State House of Representatives. You cross lines now, and there are no longer consequences.

Mr. Sanfords political comeback as a Republican member of the House ended when he crossed the one line that does still matter in his party: He condemned Mr. Trump as intolerant and untrustworthy. Mr. Trump called him nothing but trouble, and Mr. Sanford was defeated in a primary in 2018.
Florida recently rejected 42 of 132 math textbooks for use in public schools because it said they incorporated elements of social-emotional learning and critical race theory. The state did not specifically share what lessons were considered problematic, but The New York Times has reviewed 21 of the rejected books.

What is taught in public schools has become a focus for some parents and politicians in Florida, where a new law banning conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity in some classrooms  critics called it the Dont Say Gay bill  goes into effect in June. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Stop W.O.K.E Act, legislation to curb the teaching of topics that could prompt students to feel discomfort about a historical event because of their race, sex or national origin.

Debates over how race should be taught in schools have accelerated since police officers murdered George Floyd and The New York Times Magazine published the 1619 Project. Republicans have sought to block critical race theory  often expanded beyond the original academic definition to mean diversity training or the acknowledgment of historical racism  from schools across the United States.
JOHANNESBURG  As a tax fraud investigator with the South African Revenue Service for 18 years, Ronel van Wyk led a squad that tracked down smugglers and other criminals, with a 90 percent conviction rate.

Then she got an email that left her mystified: A team from the American consulting firm Bain & Company had been hired to overhaul the revenue service, even though the agency had been regarded as effective by the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations. Consultants with Bain, empowered to make personnel decisions, soon told her that she and her entire team were being demoted  stripped of their ability to go after tax cheats.

Ms. van Wyk was one of dozens of revenue service employees who were sidelined in 2015 in what is now widely seen as an effort by Jacob Zuma, the countrys president at the time, to control the tax agency, according to a report that emerged in January from a far-reaching judicial inquiry into the nine graft-ridden years of his administration.

During Mr. Zumas tenure as president, corruption seeped into nearly every facet of South Africas government, the inquiry has found, and the corruption of the tax collection agency stymied the countrys ability to provide basic services, like housing and electricity.
TOKYO  All 26 people aboard a sightseeing boat were reported missing off the coast of Hokkaido, Japans northernmost island, on Saturday after the boat made a distress call to the Japan Coast Guard early in the afternoon saying it was sinking.

The Coast Guard dispatched rescue boats and aircraft after the crew of the tourist cruiser called to say that the vessel was tilting at 30 degrees near the Shiretoko Peninsula on Hokkaidos eastern coast.

According to NHK, the public broadcaster, the first rescue call came around 1:15 p.m. from the KAZU 1, a sightseeing vessel that was on a planned three-hour round trip tour to the tip of Cape Shiretoko. A regional unit of the Coast Guard in Hokkaido told NHK that the crew had reported the boat was taking on water. A final call came in to the company at 3 p.m.

Tetsuo Saito, Japans minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, told reporters late on Saturday that the Coast Guard boats arrived at the scene around 4:30 p.m. and had not yet found any survivors.
At least eight people were killed when two cruise missiles struck a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. Given the extent of the damage, officials said the number of victims was certain to climb.

There will be more, Sergei Nazarov, an aide to Odesas mayor, said in a text message.

He said the missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the Tairove district in the far west of the city. Photographs and video from the scene, including those posted to the city governments Telegram channel, appeared to show extensive damage to a large housing complex, which was partially obscured by plumes of thick, black smoke.

All of this is while peaceful Odesa was preparing for Easter Sunday, the mayor of Odesa, Gennady Trukhanov, said in a statement posted to the citys Telegram channel. Orthodox Christians, who make up the majority in Ukraine, celebrate Easter this Sunday, and some in the Ukrainian military had expected, or hoped, that there might be some letup in the shelling.

At least 18 were wounded in the strike, according to Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential administration. He said a three-month-old baby was among the dead.
At Lvivs central train station, volunteers handed out Easter chocolates to displaced children arriving from other cities. One family who received the treats had walked for five days with their four children from the devastated southern port of Mariupol on their way to the relative safety of western Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians said they were sticking to their traditions in the face of a pervasive sadness and fear the war had brought.

This year theres not so much happiness in peoples faces and eyes, said Myroslava Zakharkiv, a college English instructor. Many people are grieving, many men are gone to the front.

Ms. Zakharkiv, 48, said that she had done a traditional Easter cleaning of her home in a village near Lviv. She also had baked Easter bread and prepared foods to put in a basket to be blessed at the church.

We hope there will be no bombs and no alarms but no one knows what will happen so we are a bit afraid, she said.

For many of the displaced, the war has also meant separation from their families.

Anna Mukoida, 22, said this was the first Easter she would spend away from her family, who stayed in Bila Tserkva, a town 50 miles south of the capital, Kyiv, while she fled to the southwestern city of Chernivtsi.
The fighting in the eastern theater has increased the sense of urgency among Western allies to bolster Ukraines defenses with more powerful arms. The terrain there is mostly open farmland, which tends to favor tanks and other heavy weapons over the quick-hit, guerrilla-style tactics that the Ukrainians employed to such devastating effect in the countrys north.

Canada on Friday announced that it had delivered heavy artillery, including M777 howitzers and anti-armor ammunition, to Ukrainian forces in conjunction with the United States.

The shipment came after President Biden announced another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine on Thursday, saying he wanted to send the unmistakable message to Russias president, Vladimir V. Putin, that he would never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine.

At Saturdays news conference, Mr. Zelensky reiterated his willingness to meet directly with Mr. Putin, saying while I dont want to meet with him, I have to see the president in order to end the war. He also appealed to the Russian people, saying, Living in the Russian Federation is like virtual reality, like a video game. Come back to the world. Its more beautiful and more truthful.

While Russia has failed to make any significant territorial gains since launching its renewed assault in Donbas this week, the Ukrainian defense intelligence agency warned that Russian forces were trying to identify the Ukrainian militarys most vulnerable points in order to mount a larger offensive. It also said that some of the elite Russian troops who had been fighting in Mariupol had begun moving east to join the battle in Donbas.
The New York Times News Quiz, April 22, 2022

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An internationally renowned DJ, a pop hopeful and a comedian are just some of the guests lined up for Friday night's Late Late Show.

The hosts of their ground-breaking podcast, Cork men, Timmy Long and James Leonard, otherwise known as The Two Norries will join Ryan Tubridy to share their personal stories of addiction and recovery, and what inspired them to start a podcast together.

Internationally renowned DJ and former top BBC Radio host Annie Macmanus aka Annie Mac will talk about bringing clubbing back to life after two years of empty dancefloors, her new career as an author, and how the disappointment of not getting her first choice in the Leaving Cert was a blessing in disguise.

Ahead of her support slot with her mentor Ed Sheeran in Croke Park this weekend in front of tens of thousands of music fans, new pop hopeful Maisie Peters performs her single 'Psycho' live in studio.

Westmeath comedian Alison Spittle will be live in studio with Ryan to talk about the very unexpected inspiration behind her new show, why the English sausage is "a thing of horror", and her experience of hosting "the most 2022 hen party ever".

Queen of ventriloquism Nina Conti will be surprising members of The Late Late Show audience with her hilarious match-making skills.

Plus, Ryan will be joined by the cast of the musical Girl from the North Country, based on the music of Bob Dylan, who are also in studio for a live performance of a Dylan classic. The hit Broadway musical by Conor McPherson comes to Dublin's Olympia Theatre this June.

This plus more will feature on The Late Late Show, RTE One, Friday, April 22nd at 9:35 pm
In a rare move, the presidents of Frances neighbours have put their preference for Emmanuel Macron and a united Europe in writing in the face of Russias threats.
Service with a smile returned to Melbourne as hospitality and retail workers enjoy their first mask-free shift in almost two years.
The Russian military has said it wants "another way" to access Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region. Meanwhile, the UN chief is set to travel to Moscow next week to meet Vladimir Putin. Follow DW for the latest.
The Russian military has said it wants "another way" to access Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region. Ukraine has warned Russia seeks to establish new "republics" in occupied areas. Follow DW for the latest.
The ban from the world's largest exporter has rocked an already precarious edible oil market. The price of cooking oil has soared as war rages between sunflower oil producers Russia and Ukraine.
Secretary General Antonio Guterres will travel to both Moscow and Kyiv next week, the UN said. The UN chief had called in vain for a "humanitarian pause" in the lead up to Orthodox Easter. Follow DW for the latest.
At least two civilians were killed in Popasna in the Luhansk region, while more than 50 artillery attacks on the Kharkiv region kill another two, authorities claim.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled to Germany from the war. This weekend, they will celebrate Easter with other Orthodox Christians, where denominational boundaries lose their significance in desperate times.
Newsy 29 Apr 2022

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Coast guards are searching for the 26 people on board after the vessel sent out a distress signal.
Mid-Day 23 Apr 2022

The Ranas claimed that they had called off their plans to go and recite Hanuman Chalisa at the chief minister`s private residence..
Thousands jammed into Rio de Janeiro's iconic Sambadrome on Saturday for Carnival celebrations. Rio de Janeiro's top samba schools began strutting their stuff late Friday, which was the first evening of the two-night spectacle.
Wibbitz Top Stories 25 Apr 2022

US Wants Russia , To Remain Weakened, , Says Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

US Wants Russia , To Remain Weakened, , Says..
The American Ambassador to New Zealand, Tom Udall, along with fourteen other ambassadors and High Commissioners has signed a letter criticising Russia's "flagrant violation of international law" in Ukraine. The letter is believed...
Beijing (AFP) April 22, 2022



Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari has issued a recall plan with Chinese regulators over potential brake problems in its vehicles, an official notice said Friday. The recall affects 2,222 vehicles over a brake fluid issue, said a notice by China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). This figure is almost the total number of cars Ferrari sold in mainland China, Hong Kong and T
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Newsy 29 Apr 2022

Watch VideoJust staying alive has become a battle for Ukrainian civilians and fighters holed up in a steel plant in the besieged..
Former President Donald Trump told the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a recently surfaced video that he should make up with Russia to make things better.
The US will supply Ukraine with deadly so-called "ghost drones" developed specifically for Ukrainian forces to use against Russian troops.The 120 "Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems" that Washington is sending to Kyiv...
The assault was reported by an adviser to Ukraine's presidential office as an estimated 1,000 civilians sheltered in the plant alongside the remaining Ukrainian fighters in the strategic port city.
If older Midlanders, or Michiganders in general, have wondered if it has recently been raining harder than it used to, Midland's Peter Sinclair said it is not your memory being faulty.

Cycles of dry heat and mega dumps of rain await Midland in the future if current climate trends continue, Sinclair explained. As the climate changes, he believes Midland should continue adapting and talk more about ways to mitigate its harms.

A videographer who studies energy and the environment, Sinclair has gained notoriety from the scientific world with his YouTube series, Climate Denial Crock of the Week. He also produces video for Yale University and has tagged along on field work with scientists to places around the globe severely affected by climate change like Florida and Greenland.

When talking about climate change, Sinclair said certain gases in the atmosphere trap heat, causing weather and temperature changes. Scientists have known about this warming since at least the 1950s when the U.S. military wanted to know about the radiative profiles of gases in the atmosphere to see how it affected its heat seeking missiles.

The inescapable conclusion was there are gases that trap heat," Sinclair said. "We are adding more of them, it is going to get warmer and predictions that were made 40 years ago have worn out to an amazing degree of accuracy."

However, it is a little more complicated than just temperatures getting warmer.

As more heat and moisture collects in the atmosphere, Sinclair explained that more fuel is given to extreme weather events like thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, heatwaves and droughts.

What does that mean to you? In general, a dry space is probably going to get drier. A wet place is going to get wetter.

The Midwest, in particular, can expect to experience more weather whiplash. That means the region will see extreme swings between hot and cold temperatures, and wet and dry weather, Sinclair said.

Nationwide, weather systems will also become more dramatic. That means weather patterns that will adversely effect Michigan. For instance, when the western parts of the United States and Canada were experiencing record-breaking waves in the summer of 2021, the Metro-Detroit area saw destructive flooding. These patterns were part of the same weather system," Sinclair said.

Over the course of a week, these folks are getting baked and we were getting drown, Sinclair said. That is a perfect example of (what) we are seeing more often: these stuck, jet stream configurations. So, instead of just a hot day, you have a record-breaking, oppressive week of broken records. At the same time on the other part of the country, you have a week of record setting floods.

This whiplash effect will be seen in Midland as well, with week-long periods of dry, hot weather followed by huge rain events.

Winter weather will likely become more inconsistent in the Midland area. Sinclair, who grew up in Midland, said it used to start snowing sometime around Christmas and would reliably stay on the ground into mid-March or so. Recently, winters go through periods of snowing and thawing.

Flooding however, will continue to be the most destructive effect of climate change to the region, Sinclair said.

Similar to how development has impacted Detroit, the infrastructure that was built and the floodplains established in Midland were based of weather conditions from decades prior to today. As these storms become more frequent and intense, infrastructure in the Midland area might not be able to handle the stress of these weather events, such as the dam failures in May 2020.

If Midland continues to add more concrete, create more runoff and degrade buffering wetlands, Sinclair said more flood events will take place.

While he was pleased to learn that the City of Midland is putting money towards upgrading sewer lines and storm drainage with its Concept Five sewer and wastewater improvement plan, he worries about the future of less wealthy and smaller communities that cannot afford to brace for these flood events.

When it comes to the region responding to climate change, Sinclair said the city is currently adapting to the climate changes already here with its sewer plans. He said adaptation at the community level will be a big part of the work needed going forward.

The big local response needed is mitigation of weather effects in the future.

One group that is working to address infrastructure and flood resiliency is the Midland Business Alliance's Advisory Committee on Infrastructure. This committee formed after the 2020 flood when the MBA board felt it was important to address long-standing flood issues in the region, addressing infrastructure challenges and improve flood resiliency, said MBA CEO Tony Stamas.

The committee is partnering with Midland County to work with the Corps of Engineers to conduct a study to define different local solutions to these issues, he said.

In terms of climate change, Stamas said that part of building flood resiliency is bracing for more frequent large storms, such as the ones that caused the floods in 2017 and 2020. Stamas added that there would have been a flood event, even if the dam had not breached.

While the city of Midland will experience directs effects of climate change, it might also become a place for people to escape it. Sinclair said cities like this one in the upper Midwest are becoming climate refuges for people in other parts of the country exposed to sea level rise, increased storms, and wildfires.

Cities like Midland in the upper Midwest offer many advantages for possible transplants: relatively low housing costs, good employment options, good schools and a rapidly decarbonizing infrastructure. However, he added that these cities should guard against pitfalls, such as urban sprawl.

Farming also will become more challenging with erosion, putting more pressure on farmers during growing season, Sinclair said. Warmer winters, runoff from farm and lawn fertilizers and other chemicals could continue to increase algae blooms in the Great lakes. He said the Saginaw Bay would be a hot spot for these blooms.

At the local and individual levels, Sinclair said the most important thing to do is talk about climate change and its solutions.

I hope that our communities and our local leaders can focus on these problems, Sinclair said. Maybe more frankly, talk about the climate change specifically being a component here. I (have been to) to city council meetings and I went to the Midland (Citizens) Academy and people would talk about some of the problems, but nobody would say the 'C word.
CARLYLE, Ill. (AP)  A Kentucky man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the December shooting death of an Illinois sheriff's deputy was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

Ray Tate, who was originally charged with 36 counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated vehicle hijacking and felony possession of a firearm, pleaded guilty to the one count of first-degree murder last month in the slaying of Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Riley. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped the other charges.
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ISLAMABAD (AP)  Militants in Afghanistan fired heavy weapons across the border into a Pakistani military outpost overnight, killing three personnel, the army said Saturday, in the latest violence to rattle the volatile region.

A firefight ensued with the militants firing toward the army post in Pakistan's rugged North Waziristan region, and several were killed, the statement said. There was no immediate way to independently confirm details of the attack.

It comes as Afghanistan is reeling from a series of explosions in recent days, including the bombing of a mosque in northern Kunduz province on Friday that killed 33 people, including several students of an adjacent religious school or madrassa.

That includes an attack Thursday on the Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Kabul that killed seven children. It re-opened on Saturday, with children remembering their fallen classmates with roses.

The striking increase in attacks in Afghanistan  as well as in neighboring Pakistan  highlights the growing security challenge facing Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who swept to power last August in the closing days of the chaotic withdrawal of American and NATO troops ending their 20-year war.

Even as their harsh religiously motivated edicts, which seemed reminiscent of their late 1990s rule, drew harsh criticism, their seemingly heavy-handed approach to security brought early expectations of improved safety.

However a vicious Islamic State affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasn Province, or IS-K  which claimed the recent spate of attacks in Afghanistan as well as a growing number in neighboring Pakistan  is proving an intractable challenge.

IS-K took responsibility for a series of attacks across Afghanistan on Thursday, most of which targeted the country's minority Shiites who the radical Sunni Muslim group revile as heretics.

Still, the IS-K, which is an enemy of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, is not the only militant organization in Afghanistan contributing to the security dilemma facing Kabul's religiously driven government.

The violent Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or (TTP)  which the United Nations says numbers around 10,000 in Afghanistan  has stepped up its assault on Pakistan's military outposts from its Afghan hideouts. Even the upstart IS-K has taken responsibility for some of the attacks targeting Pakistani military personnel, damaging relations between the two countries.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have promised no militant group would use its soil as a base to attack another country, but Kabul has yet to arrest or hand over any TTP leaders in Afghanistan to Pakistan. Other militant groups also operating in Afghanistan include China's militant Uighurs of East Turkistan Movement, which seeks independence for northwest China, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Some of the groups are loosely allied to the IS-K , while others act more independently, but on Saturday Pakistan's military statement warned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to do more.

Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that the Afghan Government will not allow conduct of such activities, in future, said the Pakistan military statement.

After seven of its troops were killed in an ambush earlier this month, Pakistan on April 16 retaliated with bombing raids inside Afghanistan that locals in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province said killed dozens of refugees. The United Nations Education Fund (UNICEF) confirmed 20 children were killed in the strikes in Afghanistan's border provinces of Khost and Kunar.

At the Abdul Rahim Shaheed School, which was among the IS-K targets in the Thursday attacks, school principal Ghulam Haider Husseini handed roses to each student as they arrived.

He also gave students a pen saying it is our pen who will bring about a change in this situation.

Separately, the Taliban on Saturday closed the lucrative Islam Qala border crossing with Iran after the two countries squabbled over a road Afghanistan's Taliban rulers planned to build in the area, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran media said the dispute was handed over to the Iranian and Afghan interior ministries to sort out.

Iran and Afghanistan share three border crossings along their more than 900 -kilometer (560-mile) border.

____

Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Islamabad, Mohammad Shoaib Amin in Kabul, Afghanistan and Nasser Karimi in Tehran Iran contributed to this report.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)  A bomb blast by Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels hit a popular seaside restaurant in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killing at least six people, ambulance service officials say.

The explosion was detonated by a suicide bomber who had been denied access inside the restaurant where the Somali Police Commissioner and several lawmakers were having dinner, Somali Police Spokesman Maj. Abdifatah Aden Hassan announced at a press conference Saturday.
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BERLIN (AP)  Thousands of people protested Saturday against plans to bulldoze a village in western Germany to expand a coal mine that environmental activists say should be shut down, not enlarged.

The German news agency dpa quoted police in the afternoon as saying that the demonstration in Luetzerath, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Cologne, passed by peacefully. About 2,000 people took part, dpa reported.

It came weeks after the village's last farmer sold his property to the utility company RWE after losing a court case against his eviction. The village is still inhabited by activists, some of whom have built tree houses in a bid to stop the nearby Garzweiler mine from being expanded.

Climate activists argue that the village and others nearby should not be demolished because burning the coal that's still in the ground undermines Germany's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Among those taking part in the protest was Ilyess El Kortbi, a climate activist from Ukraine, who criticized Germany for continuing to purchase coal, oil and gas from Russia, arguing that this helps fund Russia's destructive war against his country.

Some German officials have countered that in order to reduce the country's imports of Russian fossil fuels in the short term, Germany needs to rely on other sources of energy, including the lignite coal mined at Garzweiler.

Coal-fired power stations near the mine are among the European Union's biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Recent opinion polls show a significant increase in voter support for the environmentalist Greens party ahead of next month's regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the mine is located.

___

Follow AP's climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
LANSING  Former President Donald Trump's extraordinary effort to mold Republicans' 2022 tickets will be put to the test this weekend in Michigan, where thousands of party activists will endorse candidates, including in a contentious attorney general's race.

Trump, who continues to levy false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state, is clear about his intentions. Come November, he wants to oust Democratic officials who ensured the results stayed intact and replace them with allies Matthew DePerno and Kristina Karamo, political newcomers who are running for attorney general and secretary of state, respectively.

This choice is not just about 2022. This is about ensuring the state of Michigan cannot be stolen from Republicans in 2024 or ever again, Trump said Wednesday in a call with DePerno backers.

His preferred slate for the state's top law enforcement and election jobs is drawing criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and is frustrated that state party leaders have openly backed them rather than be neutral.

We're going to find out if we're going to be held hostage to second-tier candidates who can't win general elections in pursuit of genuflecting to the dear leader, or if we're going to focus on winning elections and making sure that conservatives control state government and make the policies that we all have to live under, said Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party.

In Michigan, nominees for state offices are chosen at party conventions except in gubernatorial and legislative primaries.

DePerno helped a voter sue unsuccessfully after human error led Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Joe Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno's main rival for the nomination is Tom Leonard, a former legislative leader and the party's 2018 nominee. State Rep. Ryan Berman also is running.

Leonard lost to Dana Nessel by under 3 percentage points in a big year for Democrats but fared better than Republicans who lost the governor and secretary of state's races by larger margins.

Trump, who nominated Leonard to be the U.S. attorney for western Michigan, now labels him as an establishment RINO"  or Republican in name only  lobbyist. Trump has accused him of not doing enough to fight the 2020 election outcome.

Leonard said he has built a bigger coalition than DePerno, outraised him, undergone more extensive vetting and can unify rather than divide the party. He said he is not surprised Trump is all in for his candidate.

What this has done is it's forced me and my team to work harder and it's forced us to hone our skills, Leonard said in an interview. I believe I'm going to be a much stronger candidate because of that when we head into November.

DePerno said his opponents do not care about the 2020 election and that he can draw the biggest contrast with Nessel on COVID-19 mandates and other issues. Having Trump's support, he said Wednesday in Trump's virtual town hall event, is a huge and great achievement" that will result in both a resounding victory" and party unity.

Roughly 2,500 delegates will vote at Saturday's "endorsement" convention in Grand Rapids. The candidates have pledged to honor the results, clearing the way for the winners to turn toward the general election while waiting to be officially nominated at another convention in August. Democrats pioneered the maneuver a decade ago, but it is new for the GOP.

The secretary of states race, which is not expected to be as close as the attorney general's contest, has been less heated. Karamo, a community college instructor, is favored to advance to face Democrat Jocelyn Benson. Other Republicans running are state Rep. Beau LaFave and Cindy Berry, a township clerk. In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party will use machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-count the ballots in a compromise with grassroots activists.

Richard Czuba, a pollster who worked at the state GOP decades ago, said the attorney general's race is the most pivotal Republican contest in the country. Trump has signed a letter to delegates supporting DePerno and rallied for him in Macomb County.

Trump has staked so much on it. He is trying to send the establishment a message, If you cross me, I will take control and I will purge you," he said. This is a must-win race now for Trump. ... It's going to tell us so much about where the Republican Party is just in general. Does Donald Trump have complete control of it or not?"
A staff member hangs a U.S. national flag before U.S. President Joe Biden arrives for the European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

"Sanctions never work," said Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.

"To solve this issue, we have to use diplomacy with Russia. We don't just need to go to Kiev. We need to go to Moscow."



ROME, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The eastward expansion of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) toward Russia is a major root cause of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which could take a heavy toll on the European economy, an Italian economist has said.





Staff members work at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

NATO EXPANSION RED LINE FOR RUSSIA

Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that the military alliance's moves have created two main problems for Russia.

"From the Russian point of view, NATO's expansion into eastern Europe is a breach of a promise" made in the 1990s, Geraci said.

"Second, Russia considers this expansion a threat to its territorial integrity and national security, so President (Vladimir) Putin for the last ten years has been saying that this is not acceptable, and that NATO has crossed a red line."

"Every country has its own red lines. For Russia, the red line was having NATO at its borders," he said.

NATO has gone through five rounds of enlargement to the east since 1999, increasing the number of its members from 16 to 30 and reaching the Russian border.





Photo taken on April 20, 2022 shows a view of the Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

EUROPEANS PAYING HIGH PRICE INSTEAD OF U.S.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is in a way "a proxy war between Russia and the United States ... which is fought in Europe," he said.

"Now the cost for the United States is minimal. The sanctions are hurting the Europeans ... The incentive for the United States to finish (the conflict) quickly is not really there, because they (the Europeans) are paying the highest price," Geraci noted.

Amid the escalating conflict, the United States has been stoking tensions in the region, shipping weapons into Ukraine and pushing its allies to impose sweeping sanctions against Russia.

"The European Union (EU) has not a red line and a foreign policy -- this puts us in a very weak position," he said.

"Our concerns and interests are in conflict, because we are allies of the U.S., but the economic interests and even the foreign policy of the EU are not always those of the U.S."





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

EUROPE TO BE WEAKER CUTTING OFF TRADE WITH RUSSIA

The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to "a weaker Europe because the economy there could take a serious hit."

In the medium and long term, if Europe loses Russia as a trading partner, and they reconcile after the conflict ends, Europe will suffer, he said.

"We are imposing sanctions on energy products thinking that these would hurt the Russian economy. However, they would hurt the EU's economy more," he said, noting that Italy, Germany and a number of smaller countries in eastern Europe will be stranded.

By way of example, he cited EU's ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia, which would "hurt brands like Gucci and Prada."

"We are doing everything wrong," he warned. "We are imposing export bans, which would only hurt us."

In 2021, Russia was the EU's fifth-largest export and third largest import destination, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.

Trade in goods between the EU and Russia totaled 257.5 billion euros (279.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021.

"Sanctions never work," Geraci said. "To solve this issue, we have to use diplomacy with Russia. We don't just need to go to Kiev. We need to go to Moscow." 
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UK doctors believe they have documented the longest Covid infection on record - a patient they treated who had detectable levels of the virus for more than 16 months, or 505 days, in total.



The unnamed individual had other underlying medical conditions and died in hospital in 2021.



Persistent infections such as this are still rare, say the London medics.



Most people naturally clear the virus, but the patient in question had a severely weakened immune system.



Chronic infections like these need studying to improve our understanding of Covid and the risks it can pose, say experts.



The patient first caught Covid in early 2020. They had symptoms and the infection was confirmed with a PCR test.



They were in and out of hospital many times over the next 72 weeks, for both routine checks and care.



On each occasion - about 50 in all - they tested positive, meaning they still had Covid.



The doctors, from King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, say detailed lab analysis revealed it was the same, persistent infection, rather than repeated bouts.



The patient could not shake the infection, even after being given antiviral drugs.



This is different to "long Covid", where symptoms persist after the infection has gone.



One of the medics who will be presenting the findings at a medical conference - the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - is Dr Luke Blagdon Snell.



He told the BBC: "These were throat swab tests that were positive each time. The patient never had a negative test. And we can tell it was one continuous infection because the genetic signature of it - the information we got from sequencing the viral genome - was unique and constant in that patient."



Prolonged infections are rare but important, say the researchers, because they might give rise to new variants of Covid - although that did not happen in this case, or other ones that they studied.



Dr Snell said: "The virus is still adapting to the human host when people are infected for a long time. It might provide an opportunity for Covid to accrue new mutations.



"Some of these patients that we have studied have mutations that have been seen in some of the variants of concern."

He stressed that none of the nine patients they checked had spawned a new dangerous variant.



Someone with a chronic infection might not be contagious to others, he added.



Dr David Strain from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We know that every time the virus replicates, it must reproduce its RNA - equivalent to manually copying a text book. We know if we were to transcribe an entire book we would make mistakes, so too does the virus. Every copy will produce mutations.



"Although Omicron did not arise in these particular individuals, this demonstrates a very clear pathway by which vaccine-resistant variants may arise. Whereas with BA.2 we have got lucky, that the mutation is associated with a less severe illness, there is no guarantee that the next iteration will be the same."

Source: BBC









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Godfred Yeboah Dame, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, is advocating for lawyers who attack the courts and judges on social media when judgments do not go in their favour, especially with the high profile political cases to be punished.



According to him, such conduct by members of the Bar and their vicious comments are plainly wrong.



He said, the perpetrators of such acts do not relent in seeking to push a certain narrative down the throat of the unsuspecting public.



Speaking at the bench, bar and faculty conference in Accra on Thursday April 21, the AG stated, My Lord Chief Justice, one would have thought that lawyers would have taken advantage of the digital revolution, which I have spoken about this morning, to consolidate the importance of this legal profession and its role in the affairs of the state.



On the contrary, recent developments disclose systematic attempts by certain lawyers, often belonging to a side of the political divide to deploy social media to denigrate the administration of justice through poisoning and caustic attacks on judgements of the courts, all be it unjustified. This is often worsened in commentary on so-called political cases where some lawyers perceive the outcome to have far-reaching consequences for the objectives of political parties they sympathize with.



He added, faced with adverse rulings, some lawyers go to the rather farcical extent of actually advocating for the abolishing or scrapping our courts.



The most deplorable thing about such endeavour is that many times their vicious comments are plainly wrong yet the propagators of these wrong and dangerous ideas do not relent in their efforts to push them down the throat of unsuspecting public.



Such disreputable practice on the part of some lawyers further becomes an inducement to persons who are not members of the legal profession to launch even more savage and illogical attacks on the judiciary.



This conduct is clearly despicable as it has the ultimate tendency to destroy the integrity of institutions of justice delivery in Ghana. Such conducts should result in sanctions inflicted on the lawyers in question.













Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Charles Owusu, the former Head of Monitoring Unit at the Forestry Commission, has lashed out at the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto over the lack of fertilizers for farmers in the country.



The shortage of fertilizers is as a result of the Ministry owing the suppliers some outsanding debts since the last three years, according to reports.



It has become a serious matter of concern to farmers as the agriculture business is gradually dying due to the lack of fertilizers to aid their farming activities.



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' Friday morning, Chales Owusu called out the Agric Minister for failing to address the problem and cautioned him not to blame it on the Russia/Ukraine war which has become the mantra of the government regarding Ghana's economic decline.



Mr. Owusu empathized with the farmers and challenged the Minister to settle the debts to the fertilizer suppliers so as to encourage them to supply fertilizers to the farmers.



He told the Minister to let his action speak louder than his words, stating ''the Minister of Food and Agriculture is talking too much but we haven't seen any action. This has clearly shown us this is not about Ukraine/Russia war because the government owes the suppliers. It has nothing to do with Ukraine/Russia war''.



To him, Dr. Akoto Afriyie is not executing his duties effectively.



''Mr. Akoto Afriyie, Minister of Agric, you have made people supply fertilizers for three good years now. Some are 1 year, two years, even if it's one month; pay them!'', Mr. Owusu charged the Minister.



He also implored the government to do the needful for the farmers saying ''the government, through the Ministry, should step up. This is not a matter of talking but payment of debt. They should pay them. It's very painful that for three years'', they haven't been paid.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has charged Christians and Muslims to continue to live in harmony to entrench the enviable peace and security that the country is enjoying in a tumultuous region.



He said the secret to Ghanas enviable position as the most peaceful nation in West Africa and the second most peaceful in Africa was as a result of religious harmony exhibited from the family level to all spheres of national life.



The Vice-President made the call when he addressed a gathering of Muslim clergy and followers at the Jubilee House in Accra last Thursday during the Iftar, the breaking of the Muslim fast.



This is the 19th day of the Ramadan fasting. Iftar is the time when Muslims are allowed to eat and drink after a long day of fasting from dawn until sunset.



Ten minutes after 6p.m, the gathering broke their fast with prayers and commenced with the drinking of water and fruits and later treated themselves to various sumptuous Ghanaian meals.



The ceremony, which commenced with Koranic recitals, attracted the leadership of both Christian and Muslim leaders which included the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, Father Andrew Campbell, Rev. Dr Paul Frimpong Manso, the General Superintendent of Assemblies of God and some members of the Christian Council.



The Vice- President described Ghana as a nation where all the different religions, particularly Muslims and Christians, were getting along so well and noted that we take it for granted but other countries when they come here and see how we interact, how Muslims go to churches and celebrate they marvel at us.



Significant



The Vice-President said this years Ramadan month was exceptional because it coincided with Easter and the Passover.



He indicated that the Ramadan month was the same month that the Holy Quran, the Torra, the scrolls of Abraham as well as the Psalms and the Bible were revealed and described it as a unifying month.



He announced that in view of the reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases, this years Ramadan Celebration would be held at the Independence Square and not in enclosures as had been the case in the last two years.



Chief Imam



The National Chief Imam commended Ghanaians for living in harmony irrespective of their religious affinity which had become the envy of other nations and had also earned it the grace of the Almighty God.



Ghanaians must be grateful to God, irrespective of their political affiliation, they must unite and fight and stand for what would be in the interest of the nation, he added.



He prayed for Gods continuous peace and blessings on the country and interceded for the rest of the world to experience peace and humanity.

Source: graphic.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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After five years of sustained and spirited measures implemented by the government since 2017 to stop illegal mining in the country, the fight against the menace is far from over.



Illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, continues to wreak havoc to land, forest reserves and water bodies in mining communities, especially in the Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Western North regions.



The illegal miners have destroyed vast swathes of farmlands and left behind gullies that serve as death traps to the residents.



The Daily Graphics visit to a number of the mining areas in the Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Western North regions revealed the resurgence of the illegal mining in such enormity that the local authorities were almost helpless about the situation.



The communities include the Amansie West, Amansie Central, Amansie South, Akrofuom, Adansi North districts as well as the Obuasi municipality, all in the Ashanti Region.



In the Ellembelle, Mpohor District, Tarkwa and Prestea Huni-Valley in the Western Region as well as the Aowin and the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai municipalities in the Western North Region, the illegal small- scale mining was pervasive.



The story was not any different at Nkatieso in the Bibiani-Anwhiaso-Bekwai municipality.



Areas such as Teleku-Bokazo, Nkroful and Esiama in the Ellembelle District are safe havens for the galamsey activities.



Destruction



In the Mpohor District in the Western Region, illegal mining activities had claimed many farmlands and left the Subri River heavily polluted.



In many of the areas, the galamsey activities had created insecurity challenges because of the influx of migrants to the mining communities.



At Manso Adubia and Manso Nkwanta in the Amansie South and Amansie West districts, for instance, the paper observed that the galamsey operators were virtually on a field day.



The roads linking the towns in these districts were dotted with excavators, abandoned pits, some of which have turned into mini-dams.

Sounds of excavators being used by the illegal miners could be heard from a distance.



Some of the illegal miners were also seen working briskly in some pits along the trunk roads.



The activities of the galamsey operators had also badly damaged portions of rail lines in the area.





The Oda, Offin and Subriso rivers had turned milky-brown, giving the indication that they were at the receiving end of galamsey activities.



Oda River is at Amansie Central; the Offin flows from Ashanti Region to the Central Region, while Subri is in the Adansi North District.



The story at Amansie Central and Akrofuom districts was not different as the galamsey operators had left behind gullies and abandoned pits that bred mosquitoes.



In the Eastern Region, the hotspots include Akyem Akokoaso, parts of Akyem Abuakwa South and Atewa.



Residents raise concern



Some residents of Wamase and Akrofuom in the Akrofuom District shared harrowing stories about the social impact of the galamsey menace on their communities.



Emmanuel Owusu expressed worry about the uncovered pits dotted across Wamase and said they had turned into breeding grounds for mosquitoes.



For 57-year-old Alex Awuah, galamsey activities had caused many untimely deaths in the area and needed to be tackled head-on to prevent further deaths.



"I can tell you that the number of people who died in uncovered galamsey pits in this area in less than 10 years are 32. Recently, a boy who completed senior high school (SHS) was running away from the police who had come to stop galamsey activities; but he fell into a pit and died," Ishmael Awuah, another resident, said.



Local authorities helpless



While the galamsey activities go on with impunity, the local authorities, who are supposed to stop the illegal activities, appear helpless.



The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Amansie South, Clement Opoku Gyamfi, described the destruction of land and forest reserves in the area by galamsey operators as disheartening.



"Galamsey is a serious menace, a canker and an albatross around our necks. We have not had it easy dealing with the menace at all because these people have their mode of operation. If you try to strategise to curb their activities, they keep changing their approach," he said.



Mr Gyamfi said the galamsey activities had caused many people to migrate from places to Amansie South, and that development had brought about insecurity in the area.



He called for the introduction of the community mining scheme (CMS) in the district as that would help reduce the illegal mining activities in the area.



"The fact is that people want to mine; and they know that there is gold in their land. However, large-scale companies have taken over; so they will definitely encroach on concessions and mine illegally. Once we want to curb it, there should be an alternative, and that is why CMS has to be introduced here," he said.



Uphill task



For his part, the DCE for Amansie West, Nii Lartey Ollenu, said the galamsey menace was a herculean task, if not a lost battle.



When the Daily Graphic spoke to him on March 25, this year about measures being taken to curb the illegal mining menace, he said all attempts by the District Security Council (DISEC) to clamp down on their activities had proven to be non-productive.



"Just yesterday, I deployed a taskforce to the field and they seized three excavators and took out their control boards. We are doing our best but the fact is that the people are difficult to tackle.



"They operate like armed robbers. You can go after them with all force, and even kill them; but they keep changing their strategy because it is a livelihood for them," Mr Ollenu said.



The Amansie West DCE stressed, however, that since the gold deposit remained the property of the state, the Amansie West DISEC would continue to do its best to protect it from criminal elements.



Galamsey affects education



Apart from the destruction of land and water resources, the DCE for Amansie Central, Michael Donkor, said the galamsey menace had negatively impacted on education in the area.



He said it was worrying that children in their teens, who should be in school, were actively engaged in galamsey at the expense of their education.



Mr Donkor said the level of truancy in schools in the area had reached alarming proportions and gave stakeholders in the education sector sleepless nights.



"Many children of school age spend their day in galamsey sites. What they say is that the purpose of going to school is to make money and they get that money from galamsey," he said.



Mr Donkor said a task force had been formed by the district assembly to monitor mining sites to ensure that all children were withdrawn and taken to school.



Aowin



In Aowin, some of the residents complained that many acres of cocoa farms had been destroyed by the illegal miners, while rivers such as Tano, Boin, Dusoe, had all turned brown as a result of the indiscriminate mining activities.



The leader of the Aowin South Concern Youth Association, Patrick Afful, alleged there was a cartel behind the illegal mining menace in the municipality.



"The galamsey situation here is getting worst by the day. As I speak now, food and water supply has been a major issue here," Mr Afful told the Daily Graphic in a telephone conversation.



They will face law



The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Mines, George Mireku Duker, warned that all persons who were still adamant to stop the illegality would be flushed out and fully made to face the law.



"It is unfortunate that people are still recalcitrant and not listening to calls to stop galamsey. We will go after them, and not rest until the small-scale mining space is sanitised," he said.



Mr Duker indicated that the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry would continue to work with other state institutions, local authorities and security agencies to deal with the menace.



The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Member of Parliament (MP) urged the municipal and district security councils in mining areas to up their game to close in on the activities of the illegal miners.



The deputy minister urged local stakeholders and residents of mining communities to see the fight against galamsey as a collective responsibility to save the environment and protect livelihoods.



Foreign participation



To that end, he called on local people to help put an end to foreigners participation in small-scale mining as it was against the country's mining laws.



"People from Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Benin are involved in small-scale mining in some communities, and it is disheartening that Ghanaians are allowing this to happen.



Animals are dying because they drink from diverted water that has been polluted by mercury," Mr Duker said.



Initiatives



Touching on initiatives that will be rolled out to tackle the menace, he said the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry had acquired five patrol boats that would be strategically positioned on water bodies, while river wardens would be deployed to monitor illegal mining activities in water bodies.



"We need to permanently deal with mining in water bodies so these river wardens will be positioned there to monitor and report any illegal activities on the water bodies to the security agencies for them to act on it swiftly," he said.



Mr Duker also said processes were underway to deploy tracking devices on movable mining equipment to help monitor their movement.



"We have reached advanced stages with this tracking system and it will be launched very soon. We believe that the tracking system will help to reduce irresponsible mining activities," he said.



CMS way to go



Again, the deputy minister said the ministry and the Minerals Commission were focusing more on promoting the CMS to help reduce illegal mining activities.



Mr Duker observed that if more licences were given to local people to mine under the CMS, it would largely address galamsey.



He underscored the need for the fight against illegal mining to be depoliticised since such a tendency emboldened galamsey operators to perpetrate the illegal act.



Galamsey resurgence



When he took over the reins of power, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo vowed to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the country.



He put his Presidency on the line by pledging to fight the menace head-on, even if it meant losing the next election.



Subsequently, the government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, declared a relentless war on galamsey.



From 2017, the government took the fight against illegal mining to a higher level by banning all forms of small-scale mining in the country for almost two years until it was lifted on December 14, 2018.



With an overwhelming support of the media, key stakeholders were rallied to take the war to the galamsey operators on all fronts.



An Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining (IMCIM) was also set up, comprising relevant ministries such as Lands and Natural Resources; Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI); Local Government and Rural Development; Defence; and the Interior, to help bring sanity to the small-scale mining sector.



This was followed by the deployment of Operation Vanguard, a joint police-military taskforce, into mining communities to halt illegal mining activities.



Hundreds of excavators, boats for dredging and washing the ore, known as changfan machines, and other equipment were seized by Operation Vanguard at mining sites.



After the lifting of the ban, there was resurgence in galamsey activities in many parts of the country.



The galamstop drones and mining guards were also deployed to support the crackdown of the menace.



Fight not over



When he delivered a message on the state of the nation on January 6, 2021, prior to the dissolution of the Seventh Parliament, President Akufo-Addo called for an "open and dispassionate conversation" about galamsey and its future.



He observed that the devastating nature of illegal mining required a non-partisan conversation and broader stakeholder engagement on how to come out of the woods.



"Should we allow or should we not allow galamsey, the illegal mining that leads to the pollution of our water bodies and the devastation of our landscape? As I have said often, the Almighty having blessed us with considerable deposits of precious minerals, there would always be mining in Ghana, he observed.



National dialogue



Following that call, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, convened a two-day national dialogue on small-scale mining in Accra on April 14, last year, bringing together all stakeholders to find the way forward to winning the galamsey war.



President Akufo-Addo, who opened the dialogue, reiterated the need for "an impartial and non-partisan dialogue" for the country to reach a consensus on a sustainable method of mining minerals.



The conference, which was on the theme: Sustainable small-scale mining for national development, brought together all ministers of Lands and Natural Resources in the Fourth Republic, all political parties, parliamentary select committees, mining industry players, faith-based organisations and civil society organisations.



At the end of the dialogue, the participants called on the government to take steps to put in place systems for the rigid application of the laws against illegal small-scale mining.



A 15-point communique read on April 15, this year by Mr Jinapor at the end of the dialogue stressed that sanctions and penalties imposed by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995) should be applied to all those who infringed the law, irrespective of political colour or socio-economic status.



It described galamsey as a national emergency that required urgent and concerted effort to tackle.



It also called for similar consultations to be held in all mining regions and districts of the country.

Source: graphic.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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With a population of only about 3,000, the Digueois pride themselves on using the bicycle as their main form of transport, unlike the bigger neighbouring islands of Mahe and Praslin, which have seen more urban growth. For locals, a car is unnecessary and moving with bicycles has always been a way of life.



"From a small age, my brother used to try and teach us how to ride the bike. They hold the seat and you're thinking they are holding, then let you go and then you fall, and you lose your knees. And that's how you learn to ride a bike," said Florie Marie, a La Digue resident." Still, my sister, she lives in Mahe, and she still doesn't know how to ride a bike."



Tourists also partake in the local tradition, renting bikes to explore the island. "La Digue is known to be a bicycle island. So, you will get clients wanting to travel by car to the beach, but the majority, they want bicycles," said Travis Mills, who owns a bicycle-rental company on La Digue.



The island's current vehicle count is 60, a sizable increase from the 10 it had in the '80s when only wealthy families could afford to own cars. But it's still a small number, one that is partly tied to the difficulties of individual vehicle ownership here: no cars are allowed unless they provide a public service. However, the rise in tourism construction and the necessary vehicles that come with that work has set alarm bells ringing, especially with locals.



"With more vehicles on La Digue, that aspect of tranquillity, quietness, relaxedness will no longer be there. And that will definitely have a great impact on La Digue itself, its tourism, its environment, and its ecosystem," said Patrick Andre, the Seychelles' Principal Secretary of Transport.



Conservationists caution that further development could impact the natural habitat of endangered species on the island, such as the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher, known as the Vev in local Creole. The Veuve Reserve, a national park and conservation area set up to protect the endemic Vev, is a crowning jewel of natural beauty for the Digueois.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).



A letter sighted by Peacefmonline.com confirm that President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appointed the former Deputy Minister, who was also a former Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku constituency, pursuant to ''Section 14(1) of the National Health Insurance Act, 2021 (Act 852)''.



The letter issued and signed by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare read; ''I am pleased to inform you that President has appointed you to act as the Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (the ''Authority''), pending receipt of the constitutionally required advice of the governing board of the Authority, given in consultation with the Public Services Commission."



The appointment takes effect Tuesday, 3rd May, 2022.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability(ASEPA) has filed a fresh petition against the President of Ghana at the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) asking for the allegations against President Akufo-Addo by Serwaa Broni to be looked into.



The petition on allegations of Abuse of Office, Human Rights Abuse and Criminal Misconduct leveled by Miss Evelyn Aidoo also known as Serwaa Broni, filed today (Friday) became necessary after an earlier one submitted in October 2021 got missing with CHRAJ.



Who Is She?



The Canadian-based Ghanaian lady has in the last few months been trending on social media for perhaps all the wrong reasons.



Besides claiming to have had an amorous relationship with the President, Serwaa Broni has among other things, posted images with the President and screenshots of chats she claims to be between her and President Akufo-Addo; to buttress her assertions.



Over the weekend, she alleged during a media engagement with one Kevin Taylor that there was an orchestrated robbery attack on her to retrieve some private information she had on the president which she pinned on the President and some of his assigns.



Private Petition



Similarly, three private Ghanaians have petitioned Parliament to impeach the President over the saga.



Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese, Elikem Kotoko and Stephen Kwabena Attuh, hold the view that the allegations, if proven to be true, would amount to human rights abuse, abuse of office, exposing the security of Ghana to external threat as well as dragging the name of the high office of President into disrepute.



According to them, the president may have abused his office if those allegations levelled against him are true and will demand that necessary action must be taken against him.



Re-Petition



Speaking of Okay Fm's Ade Akye Abia Programme, the Executive Director Mr. Mensah Thompson explained that they also wants CHRAJ to investigate the involvement of the General Secretary of the NPP John Boadu, Former CID Boss Tiwaa Addo Danquah, Col.Michael Opoku Head of Operations at National Security, Dr. Gordon Ofei-Larbi personal physician of the President, Kennedy Agyapong MP Assin Central and Management of Golden Tulip Hotels Accra over their involvement in the allegations.



"ASEPA also wants a former National Security Operative at the Kotoka International Airport one Hopeson Adorye to be investigated and appropriate action taken in respect of his involvement in the scandal".



Watch Video Below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Kumah, has urged Ghanaians to ignore assertions that the government has contracted a third party, ExpressPay, to ensure revenue monitoring and assurance for the implementation of the E-Levy.



According to the deputy minister, the claims by the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, are false.



He added that the government has not paid ExpressPay US$40 million to build a system for the implementation of the E-Levy (Electronic Transfer Levy).



Ignore Sam George's ill-informed assertion on the rollout of E-levy  alleging that GRA and MoF have engaged the services of Express Pay to build a cloud-based system at the cost of $40m for the E-levy.



I wish to categorically state that Sam George's allegations are FALSE and must be discarded. There has not been any meeting at the Ministry of Finance that discussed the award of any contract to Express Pay, a series of tweets shared by Dr. Kumah on April 22, read.



The deputy minister, who is also the MP for Ejisu, added that the behaviour of Sam George is consistent with the conduct of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to misinform Ghanaians about the levy.



As Ghanaians are aware, the NDC has demonstrated that it will only win the E-levy discussion on FALSEHOOD and I'm not surprised Sam George has taken a leaf from their playbook to once again create public disaffection for Government and the E- levy, he said.



He added that  (the) government's determination to ensure that there is total transparency in all matters relating to the E-levy has not changed.



Samuel Nartey George questioned the rationale behind the alleged plans of the government to purchase a system worth US$ 40 million for the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).



In a tweet shared on April 21, 2022, Sam George said that there is no need to purchase the system because the government has a system at the National Communication Authority (NCA) which can perform the same function.



According to the MP, the system will be bought from ExpressPay and will be to the benefit of some officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the finance ministry.







Source: Ghanaweb









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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She grew up in New Ellenton, as a member of one of the community's most prominent families, and Rysheeka Bush's influence is now spread throughout the county and beyond.

Hundreds of local residents know "Sheeka" as the clinical program manager at Helping Hands, a local organization dedicated to providing "an emergency home for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, abandonment and/or neglect," as described on its website.

She's also on board as a member of Rotary Club of Aiken Sunrise, serving the organization in a variety of leadership roles and on track to be one of the state's top Rotary leaders, and on the local scene, she is on the Aiken Downtown Development Association's board of directors and serves as secretary of the Coalition for Suicide Prevention serving Aiken and Barnwell counties.

Education is high on her list of priorities, helping lead to her involvement with Public Education Partners of Aiken County, an organization dedicated to helping public schools via "innovative programs and positive initiatives." She is PEP's secretary  "incredibly dedicated to the betterment of children" and "selfless of her time for others," in the words of Gayle Gulick, chairman of PEP's board of directors.

"Rysheeka loves her community and works for its betterment. She attends every school board meeting and reports out the minutes to the PEP board the next day," Gulick wrote.

"Children in crisis" represent familiar territory for Bush, in her role at Helping Hands. "I'm the therapeutic person on campus, so when a kid's having a really hard day, that's when I step in. I also step in to help train staff and employees on how to respond therapeutically to children in crisis, and then if there's a kid who doesn't already have a counselor but needs one, that's my other role here."

She noted that her involvement with PEP, ADDA and the suicide-prevention group is all in connection with her role representing Helping Hands.

The Silver Bluff High School graduate started at Helping Hands in 1999, as an intern (while attending Aiken Technical College), and then took about a year to work with a case management program for juvenile offenders. Her next step was back to Helping Hands, and she's been on duty at 100 John Elliott Lane ever since.

A major highlight of her work is "being able to watch the change in the evolution in a youth, because we service children who've been abused, abandoned or neglected," she said. "Just to watch them evolve and change and open and grow, that's the part that's fulfilling for me about this job."

Helping Hands' service range is "birth to age 21," she said, with kids on the campus divided by age and gender. The population on one day in early April, she said, was eight, and the normal count is 15 to 20.

Her Rotary experience dates back 11 years and has its origins in a suggestion from Carmen Landy, Helping Hands' chief executive officer. Landy recommended that Bush apply to take part in an international exchange program, "so I went to Australia for a month, and learned about Rotary, and as soon as I got there, I was like, 'You know, when I come back, I'm joining Rotary,' and I did."

Summerville resident Ellen Priest, one of the Aiken Standard's former publishers, described Bush as "one of the kindest, most giving people Ive ever met," and recalled them working together last year, when Priest was president of the Aiken Rotary Club and Bush was an assistant district governor in Rotary.

Bush, in Priest's estimation, is faithful to the key Rotary concept of "service above self" and I am thrilled that she has been chosen to fill the position of District Governor for our areas district. Its a huge role that covers half of the State of SC but I know she will exceed all expectations in that role, as she does at everything she does.

Greenery, in terms of relaxation time, is an important concept for Bush, with help from Cold Creek Nurseries. "When I'm having a hard day, I go to Cold Creek, and I get some plants that I don't need, because I have a whole lot of them, and plant them. Sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes I'm not, but it's OK. It's my relaxer."

Another of her favorite pursuits, she said, is on hold due to COVID-19 concerns. "I used to love to get off work, find a movie I wanted to watch, get my popcorn and my nachos  I would take about two seats  and just me and a movie. I love them ... I miss it a lot."

Her home, in the Shiloh Heights neighborhood, is greener  with floral accents  than it was a couple of years ago, she noted. "Some people gained way during COVID. I gained plants during COVID. That's what happened to me."

She grew up several miles farther south, well on the other side of Aiken, as a child of Dolphus and Sharon Bush. "I'm a Bush. I'm from the New Ellenton area, so just about everybody in Aiken County will understand what that means ... I got my good work ethic and volunteerism from them, so that's my family."

She knows the local school system extremely well, having come up by way of Greendale Elementary, New Ellenton Middle and Silver Bluff High, followed by a pair of associate degrees from Aiken Technical College  one in human services and one in arts, along with a drug and alcohol certificate.

Her early college months included an epiphany. "Starting in the fifth grade, and up until I attended Aiken Technical College, I ... just knew I was going to be a computer programmer, and then my brain told me, 'No, that career isn't really for us,'" she recalled, noting that she shifted gears and focused on human services.

Next was USC Aiken, where she successfully pursued a double major, bagging a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology and then a master's degree in applied clinical psychology.

She continues to move upward in her Rotary Club roles, as Greenville resident Beth Padgett can confirm. Padgett was the governor of Rotary District 7750 (the western half of South Carolina) in 2020-21, and Bush is on course to fill that same role in 2024-25, leading a variety of initiatives in an area that includes 48 clubs and about 2,500 club members.

"She has excelled in the jobs she has had," Padgett said, noting that Bush has led her Aiken club as president and then moved into higher leadership roles, helping administratively with clubs in Aiken, North Augusta and Batesburg-Leesville.

"It's all volunteer work, but she has excelled in everything she's been asked to do for Rotary," Padgett said. "Rasheeka is just an excellent volunteer. Her heart is in helping people, and especially helping children."

Bush's admirers also include Maryann Burgess, largely known through her history as an Aiken Department of Public Safety officer and, more recently, as executive director of the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken County.

"Rysheeka is one of the biggest child advocates I know," said Burgess. "If you are an abused or neglected child, you want this woman in your corner."

Bush asks "questions that need to be asked" (and answered) with utmost professionalism, to help meet kids' needs, in Burgess' assessment. She also acknowledged deep appreciation for Bush's "drive to be the best and to do the best, and to do the right thing for the right reason."

Burgess added, "She doesn't ask questions to point out a fault. She asks them to see how we can make things better ... The way she digs into these cases, it's because she ... truly cares about what she does, and so I think that's what sets her apart from so many people  her professionalism and ... she's just a very thoughtful person when it comes to children and their needs."
At a signing ceremony held today, the FBI repatriated 16 cultural items to the Consul General with the #Peruvian Consulate in LA. Kristi Johnson, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office, was also joined by @StateDept @USAO_LosAngeles @UCLA. pic.twitter.com/wRBOMRCUxO
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Charleston ranks 19th among 26 most unaffordable US counties to own a home

The escalating price of housing has catapulted Charleston County to a list of the most expensive places in the nation to own a home.

A new study by a San Francisco-based online financial firm puts Charleston County at No. 19 among the 26 counties in the U.S. where homeownership is no longer affordable.

The study by MoneyGeek says the median income in the Lowcountry's most populous county is $41,782 while the median home price is $396,168, putting monthly homeownership cost at $1,988. That comes out to 57 percent of home costs as a percentage of income.

The report also said home price appreciation during the past three years is 52.5 percent, and the own-to-rent ratio is one to four.

Charleston County is the only county in South Carolina on the list, but in neighboring North Carolina, Buncombe County, the home of Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, came in at No. 25.

All but five counties in the study are west of the Mississippi River. Washington State has the most with six on the list. Florida has three.

The most unaffordable county for homeownership in the U.S., according to the study, is Ada County, Idaho, home to the state capital of Boise. The county's median income is $35,086 and the median home price is $452,219. Monthly homeownership cost comes out to $2,368, meaning home costs are 81 percent of income.

The general rule is that no more than 30 percent of income should go toward housing costs.

To arrive at its conclusions, MoneyGeek analyzed changes in homeownership costs, home price appreciation and median incomes from 2019 to 2022.

The firm narrowed down counties with populations larger than 250,000 that had population growth above the national average. The analysis used three factors: home price appreciation since 2019, the ratio of homeownership costs to rent and homeownership costs as a percentage of median income.

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The owner of Mount Pleasant Towne Centre now owns the neighboring Sweetgrass Corner retail site that was once anchored by Bi-Lo supermarket.

By the numbers

8.1: Millions of dollars paid by a Mount Pleasant real estate investment firm for three industrial properties in Summerville.

48.5: Millions of dollars paid to a Charleston-based real estate investment firm after it sold three self-storage facilities.

2: Number of RV One Superstores in South Carolina after the Florida-based company opened a new dealership in Ladson.

This week in real estate

+ Filling a niche: From socks to sunglasses, a North Charleston fulfillment center sends orders to your front door from a 40,000-square-foot facility.

+ New top dog: Jack's Cosmic Dogs lands a new owner after 22 years in Mount Pleasant.

+ From concrete to concept: Plans have been unveiled for a new community gathering place at the former Piggly Wiggly site in West Ashley, where a slab of concrete remains after the supermarket was demolished four years ago.

Poco Sabo Plantation on the Ashepoo River in Colleton County recently changed hands after a Mount Pleasant software firm CEO paid $16.5 million for the Lowcountry property.

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A new marina is in the works on Clouter Creek near Daniel Island in southern Berkeley County.

Thomas Island Marina will consist of 110 slips along with parking near the southern terminus of Clements Ferry Road, according to site plans.

The proposed development will include a 74-space parking area, restroom facility and picnic pavilion as well as a boardwalk across the marsh to the marina.

The 1.5-acre parcel is a highland tract on the southern edge of a 16.5-acre parcel owned by a firm called Clouter Creek Reserve LLC of Charleston.

The city of Charleston must approve the proposal for the site, south of Interstate 526.

Changing hands

A Mount Pleasant real estate investment firm that recently bought a set of office buildings on Shem Creek for nearly $7 million is now the owner of three industrial properties in Summerville after paying $8.1 million.

WRS Inc. Real Estate Investments bought the three sites totaling nearly 56,000 square feet off Varnfield Drive on April 18. The seller was Summerville Industrial Partners LLC.

The deal gives WRS a 25,000-square-foot facility at 215-A&B Varnfield Drive, a 20,803-square-foot building at 114-A&B Trigard Lane and the 9,840-square-foot property at 220 Varnfield Drive.

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Pat Marr, development principal with WRS, represented his firm in the purchases off North Main Street, west of Azalea Square Shopping Center.

It's the company's latest industrial real estate investment in the Summerville market. In January, WRS paid $13.3 million in two separate transaction to acquire seven industrial and flex-space buildings with a combined 91,000 square feet off U.S. Highway 78 south of Flowertown. One of the sellers was Summerville Industrial Partners.

Earlier this month, WRS paid $6.825 million for twin office buildings at 410 Mill St. beside Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, four years after the property changed hands for $3.5 million, according to Charleston County land records.

Storage sale

A Charleston-based real estate investment firm recently sold three storage facilities across the Southeast for $48.5 million.

Adams Property Group announced April 21 it sold Monster Self Storage sites on Grand Oaks Boulevard in Charleston as well as sites in Savannah, Ga., and Winston-Salem, N.C., to New York-based Life Storage.

The seller said in a prepared statement the self-storage industry has been rapidly growing in recent years and it wanted to take advantage of "the heated market" for the best return to its investors.

All three properties will be rebranded as Life Storage.

Adams Property Group manages a portfolio of more than 1.9 million square feet of self-storage in 22 properties, including Monster and Your Storage Units, across South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

The company also owns nearly 1 million square feet of retail and flex space in the Carolinas and Georgia. Those properties include grocery-anchored retail, non-anchored retail and flex industrial facilities in business parks.
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
The burly schnauzer strains at its leash, front paws in the air and bearded mouth agape. Its shotgun-wielding handler holds on tight as the ebony-colored beast jerks forward and locks its gaze on an unseen foe in the distance.

The scene, captured in a crisp photo, is one of the few remaining traces of a shadowy plan to bring giant schnauzers into one of South Carolinas largest jails to keep order. Its discovery has sparked fresh questions about a former jail directors possible ties to the breeding and sale of these dogs, an Uncovered investigation has found.

The planned purchase of two trained schnauzers  for a whopping $25,000 each  recently came to light after Charleston County jail officials found invoices and a dossier on the dogs in the public email account of former Detention Chief Deputy Willis Beatty. Beatty ran the jail from 2013 until his ouster last year.

The 2015 sale never went through, and there is nothing in the agencys records to explain why.

But Sheriff Kristin Graziano and the jails new administrator, Abigail Duffy, said the deal was reportedly scuttled after a ranking dog handler at the Al Cannon Detention Center objected to the purchase on ethical grounds. The handler raised concerns that Beatty was trying to get the county to buy schnauzers that Beatty and his wife had bred through a private side business, they said.

Beatty had arranged to purchase the dogs from a company owned by Joseph Garcia, a controversial training consultant who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars through no-bid contracts at the jail on Beattys watch, Sheriffs Office records show.

Duffy said emails and information from jail staff indicate that Beatty and his wife Janene had privately enlisted Garcias help in buying a giant schnauzer they planned to breed with one of the consultants top dogs for future sales. The schnauzers reportedly mated in a secluded area on the fourth floor of the jail, Duffy said.

Graziano and Duffy said they suspect the two giant schnauzers Beatty planned to buy for the jail in 2015 came from these breeding efforts. Funding for the purchase was to come from a little-known pot of money controlled by top sheriffs officials outside of the county finance department's scrutiny, they said.

Al Cannon, who was sheriff at the time, told The Post and Courier that he knew nothing about the schnauzer sale. Nor was Cannon aware that Beatty and his wife had been coordinating with Garcia on the extracurricular breeding business.

Those dealings are contained in a number of internal jail emails the newspaper obtained as part of its Uncovered investigation, a statewide push to expose questionable conduct by government officials in South Carolina.

South Carolinas ethics law bars public officials from using their positions for personal financial gain, or to benefit their families or businesses they are associated with. Beattys emails indicate that he used his work email account and professional connections to further the interests of the dog breeding business run by his wife, and that he did so on county time.

Its just not appropriate, Duffy said.

Graziano agreed, saying this seems to be a clear conflict of interest. Its a little too incestuous for it not to be, she said.

The episode illustrates what can happen when professional and personal lines blur, particularly in tight-knit law enforcement communities that are often averse to outside scrutiny. It also calls attention to loopholes in county purchasing rules that can allow tens of thousands of dollars in expenses to slide through with little vetting.

Beatty did not respond to messages left with his family and current employer. He also didnt acknowledge letters sent to his home and workplace with a detailed list of questions about the breeding operation and the proposed schnauzer sale.

Garcia declined to answer questions when reached by email.

Beattys wife told The Post and Courier in 2020 that she never had a business relationship with Garcia or his companies. When contacted by the newspaper last month, Janene Prock-Beatty repeatedly questioned the relevance of this story and refused to answer questions.

Until you can explain it to me and why you need this information, we dont have anything to discuss, she said. She did not return subsequent phone calls.

Graziano booted Willis Beatty from his $123,718-a-year job at the jail when she took office in January 2021. He now works as a captain at the Dorchester County jail.

Garcia, meanwhile, has been under increasing scrutiny across the country for teaching tactics that critics decry as heavy-handed toward inmates. A use-of-force expert singled out Garcias company for criticism last year after examining training at the Charleston County jail. That followed the death of Jamal Sutherland, a 31-year-old mentally ill Black man who was pepper-sprayed, repeatedly shocked with a Taser and wrestled into submission by detention officers.

Reports issued by the 9th Circuit Solicitors Office stated that tactical officers were trained to use aggression and intimidation to control inmates, employing methods that violated the jails own use-of-force policies.

Graziano said she blames Garcias training for setting the stage for Sutherlands death, which led to the firing of two detention officers and a $10 million settlement for Sutherlands family. She blames Beatty for allowing Garcia to perpetuate problematic tactics at the jail, she said.

He permitted these violations of policy that allowed people to continue to be trained in a way that was not consistent with law, Graziano said.

Still, Garcia and his companies pulled in at least $647,807 between 2011 and 2018 while working under Beatty at the detention center, according to jail officials. A full tally of his earnings is unknown, Duffy said, due to incomplete and missing records.

A bold and valiant dog

Giant schnauzers surfaced in the Bavarian Alps in the mid-1800s as rugged working dogs adept at driving cattle from farms to market. People found them to be highly intelligent, obedient and fiercely protective of their homes and families, according to the American Kennel Club.

Over time, the muscular schnauzers  described by fanciers as a "bold and valiant figure of a dog  became favorites for police, military and search-and-rescue work, the AKC stated.

Joseph Garcia has prominently featured the dogs in his promotional materials and on social media, at times showing them inside jails sporting specially fitted helmets and goggles. They are part of the military-style tactical training he and his companies have provided over the years to help jail and prison officers prepare for riots and other inmate violence.

Garcias approach seemed cutting edge when he arrived in Charleston County in 2008 with his company, U.S. Corrections Special Operations Group (U.S. C-SOG). A wiry man with close-cropped hair, Garcia cut a strapping figure in promotional photos, decked out in combat-style gear and wielding big guns and snarling schnauzers.

Jail officials saw promise in his use of dogs, weapons and technology to keep unruly inmates in check. Assaults on inmates and officers declined after the jail employed his methods, former Assistant Sheriff Mitch Lucas told The Post and Courier.

Particularly impressive was his command over his raven-haired giant schnauzer Max, who seemed laser-focused on Garcias movements and orders, officials said.

Beatty, who began working at the jail in 1990, had been promoted to major by the time Garcia arrived. In that role, he oversaw the jail's dealings with Garcia, Lucas said. Emails indicate the two men also developed a friendship. They dined together with their wives on at least one occasion in which Beattys wife brought dog treats for Max, emails show.

Janene Prock-Beatty also had ties to the detention center, working as an account manager for Georgia-based McDaniel Supply Co., which runs commissary sales for the jail, sheriff's officials said.

Word soon got around that Beatty and his wife, who previously bred pugs, had opted to start breeding giant schnauzers on the side, several present and former jail officials said.

Lucas and Cannon, the former sheriff, said they were aware of the Beattys breeding effort but didnt see any obvious problem with it. Beatty and his wife had always been enterprising individuals, they said.

They were always looking for something to do to make money, Cannon said.

Both men said they were not aware of any direct business dealings between the Beattys and Garcia. If they had, Cannon said, he likely would have consulted with an attorney on the ethical implications of such an arrangement.

Clues to those dealings were buried in Beattys emails  emails that suggest relationships that extended far beyond the jailhouse walls.

Breeding behind bars?

The first hints came in a July 2013 message Garcia sent to Beattys work email account, titled K9 info for wife. Garcia passed along the name of a German man known as a breeder and supplier of giant schnauzers.

A month later, in August 2013, Janene Prock-Beatty wrote to Garcia asking for details about the purchase of a 9-week-old female giant schnauzer that Garcia was arranging through a Kentucky source. Garcia sent her a video of the dog and said the source had set a firm price of $3,000.

They will give us this opportunity to buy her, Garcia wrote. She is a great deal!

Prock-Beatty asked for more time to discuss the price with her husband. But she agreed that the dog appeared to be a great investment and that it was just the type of animal they were looking for.

I need to ask you to make sure, she asked Garcia, you still want to go forward w/this venture w/me?

Garcias reply does not appear in the email string, which Prock-Beatty forwarded to her husbands work account at the jail. The email also does not specify exactly what the venture entailed.

The dog video that Garcia sent to Prock-Beatty came from a master dog trainer named David Harris in Frankfort, Ky. Harris told The Post and Courier he didnt recall many details of the 2013 sale. But he clearly remembered Garcia coming to him for guidance on raising and training giant schnauzers. Garcia explained that it was a lifelong dream of his to get into the field, Harris said.

I know he was desperately trying to breed giant schnauzers, Harris said. I don't know whether he ever had any success at that.

Duffy, the current jail administrator, said jail staffers have indicated that Beatty and his wife ultimately bought a female schnauzer. The schnauzer reportedly mated with one of Garcias dogs at the jail, but she has yet to find someone who actually witnessed the coupling, she said.

The following year, between May and July 2014, Beatty and his wife traded emails about people looking to buy puppies from a litter of a dozen giant schnauzers they had on hand.

Beatty also used his work email account to send Garcia a link to a new website for JPB Giant Schnauzer, a business that incorporated Janene Prock-Beattys initials in its logo. The website, which advertised dogs for corrections and private security, featured several photos and a video of Garcia, his schnauzers and training sessions. Several of the photos bear the logo of Garcias U.S. C-SOG company.

The man who built the website shares the same last name as Garcias former wife, and his LinkedIn account indicates he was working for Garcias company at the time. He did not return a call from The Post and Courier.

It was clear on that website that she was the breeder for Joseph Garcia, Duffy said. So I don't think there's any way for them to deny that they had a relationship. I mean, she had access to his photographs and his logo and all of his icons.

Schnauzers for sale

In August and September 2014, Beatty and Garcia traded emails again, this time about the proposed sale of a giant schnauzer named Koah to the jail. Beatty indicated in an email from his work account that he was finishing up with Mitch and sheriff about Koa and asked Garcia to send him more information about K-9s in jails.

U.S. C-SOGs paperwork stated that Koah was born in South Carolina in June 2013 but no information was given on the breeder. The dogs American Kennel Club registration offered no additional clues.

In December 2014, Beatty received an eight-page guide from Garcias company detailing the planned purchase of Koah and a second giant schnauzer, along with the dogs price, tributes and training. The guide listed Chief Beatty as the authorizing official and congratulated the jail on its dog purchase.

An accompanying invoice listed the price at $53,540, once equipment was factored in. The schnauzers were said to be able to handle everything from cell extractions and inmate escorts to riot control and drug searches.

Both dogs were said to be undergoing training in Kentucky and would arrive in the early fall of 2015, but the deal never went through. What happened to the dogs remains unclear.

Lucas, the former assistant sheriff, told The Post and Courier he never saw the paperwork and knew of no plans to buy dogs from Garcia or his companies. He speculated that Beatty may have been preparing to pitch the idea to the sheriff, only to have later discarded the plan.

Graziano and Duffy said they have learned that the purchase was abandoned after an officer tasked with retrieving the dogs refused to do so because he believed they had been bred by the Beattys. The sheriff and Duffy declined to publicly name the officer in question, and he would not agree to speak with The Post and Courier.

His response was literally You bred those dogs. Its not ethical for you to buy them and Im not going to go get them,  Duffy said.

Graziano and Duffy said they do not believe then-Sheriff Al Cannon had any inkling of the deal. Cannon confirmed that in an interview with The Post and Courier.

Cannon said he would have shot down the proposed purchase because he considers schnauzers to be too aggressive and intimidating for the jail.

That would have never flown, he said.

Cannon preferred Labradors, and thats what the Sheriffs Office ultimately settled on when they finally purchased two contraband-sniffing canines for the jail in 2016. They also bought a hound to serve as an explosive detection dog.

The cost for the three dogs: $23,327  less than half the cost of Garcias two schnauzers.

Ties deepen

In April 2016, Beatty used his jail email to reach out during the workday to a veteran Kentucky lawman and dog trainer named Dennis Clark. He told Clark that he was trying to determine if a giant schnauzer the trainer had featured on Facebook had come from a litter born to the Beattys dog Chai. Clarks dog Dash had earned much acclaim for its work as a police dog.

Clark told Beatty he got the dog from a man named Joe, but they had a falling out and Joe refused to give him paperwork on the dogs birth. Clark confirmed to The Post and Courier that he was referring to Joseph Garcia.

He was with a litter that joe had taken to a kennel in Frankfort ky to be trained, Clark wrote to Beatty. Frankfort was the city where Garcia had worked to arrange the 2013 schnauzer purchase for the Beattys.

Beatty shared the exchange with his wife, who agreed Dash had likely been part of a 12-puppy litter Chai gave birth to in April 2014. Beatty asked Clark for photos of Dash to feature on Janene Prock-Beattys website.

Clark told The Post and Courier that he later learned that the Beattys had turned over at least six puppies to Garcia to be trained for sale. Beatty could not determine where the dogs ended up, Clark said. He told Beatty that Garcia had sold at least one of the dogs for around $40,000, he said.

Its unclear how Beatty reacted to that information. But later that same year, Garcia approached Beatty about further solidifying his presence in Charleston.

Garcia sent Beatty a copy of a contract his company had with the Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office. He asked in an email if it could be transferred to Charleston, adding: This is strictly confidential.

The contract in Spartanburg called for the agency to pay Garcia $72,000 a year for a wide variety of corrections training, from cell extractions to dealing with mentally ill inmates. The contract, signed by the county administrator, also called for Garcia to be considered an honorary deputy with the rank of captain.

Records from the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy confirm that Garcia underwent training and was certified as a detention officer in Spartanburg County between September and December 2016. His certification was later revoked at the request of Sheriff Chuck Wright, who told the academy Garcia had been found ineligible to have received the training. He did not specify why.

Lucas, the former assistant sheriff, said Garcia never held a rank or a sworn position within the Charleston County Sheriffs Office.

Questions swirl

Graziano began raising concerns about Beatty's involvement with Garcia while she was running for sheriff in 2020. Questions swirled around the Sheriffs Office's use of the jails inmate welfare fund to buy ammunition, gear and training for its special operations team at the detention center. That was the team that Garcia had helped outfit and train.

By that time, Garcia had moved on from the jail. Lucas said the relationship had run its course and Beatty decided to bring it to a close. Cannon added that officials had always intended for the training to eventually move in-house once staff became sufficiently skilled in the practices.

The 9th Circuit Solicitors Office had difficulty obtaining U.S. C-SOGs training materials while investigating the events that led up to inmate Jamal Sutherlands death in January 2021. The Sheriffs Office did not retain any of the training objectives or lesson plans. And Garcia claimed his training materials were classified, a report from the Solicitors Office states.

The report found that Garcias contract with the jail ended in late 2018 after four of the jails Special Operations Group deputies wrote complaints about his training methods. The deputies said Garcia was biased, did a poor job training new recruits, was inconsistent and used the deputies to make personal marketing materials. One senior tactical officer claimed Garcias dog had attacked jail personnel. His schnauzer Max also attacked another officers dog, according to an internal Sheriffs Office report.

Investigators also located a training video, likely from around 2011, in which two deputies were filmed being sprayed in the face repeatedly with full canisters of pepper spray while Garcia yelled questions at them.

Gary Raney, a correctional use-of-force expert hired by 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, called the exercise ridiculous and said it served no legitimate purpose. He likened it to a hazing exercise.

Garcia has since run into problems elsewhere, as well. Dozens of inmates in York County, Penn., filed a class-action lawsuit against the county last year over its hiring of one of Garcias companies, Corrections Special Applications Unit. They alleged the move created a toxic culture of excessive and unjustified terror and violence at the county prison, according to the York Daily Record.

The paper also reported that a Colorado county paid $325,000 last year to settle a jail civil rights lawsuit and agreed to never again use Garcia or his company. And detention officers at New Yorks Rikers Island jail complained in 2016 about his companys unorthodox and combative methods, The New York Post reported.

The Charleston County detention center was among the first large jails in the county to hire Garcia for training. But Duffy said her staff has been unable to find any signed contracts between the Sheriffs Office and Garcias companies since taking over administration of the jail last year.

Duffy said she did find a letter from Garcia indicating that he had hired Beattys daughter, Danielle Prock-Beatty, to work part time for Corrections Special Applications Unit while she was also on the Sheriffs Office payroll in the warrants division. Duffy provided a copy of that letter to The Post and Courier in response to a records request.

In a brief conversation with The Post and Courier, Danielle Prock-Beatty repeatedly cursed at a reporter and denied working for Garcia, saying that is a straight (expletive) bold-faced lie.

I never worked for Garcia, she said. Get your facts straight.

Duffy said she was left to piece together a financial trail documenting payments to Garcia and his organizations. Funding came from the jails inmate welfare fund and another little-known pool of money the detention center receives each year from the telecommunications company that provides phone and video visitation services to inmates, she said.

Normally, Charleston County agencies need to get three competitive bids for any purchase over $10,000 or provide justification that only one source is available or suitable. But the countys procurement policies specifically exempt professional training from those bidding requirements.

Whats more, the money from the telecommunications company was paid directly from purchase orders submitted by the jails leaders, Duffy said. The money, which ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 annually, was supposed to go toward security upgrades and other improvements, but records show it also went to things like refreshments for administrative gatherings, iPads and Garcias training, she said.

Finance officials from the county procurement office and the Sheriffs Office werent even aware that pot of money existed until last year, Graziano and Duffy said. Changes have since been made to ensure greater transparency and accountability with this and other jail accounts, they said.

Lynn Teague, an open government advocate with the S.C. League of Women Voters, said she was troubled by the lack of financial oversight for these pots of money, the no-bid arrangements for training, and the blurring of professional and personal interests in this episode.

At the very least, (this episode) was handled very badly and it certainly lacks transparency and accountability, she said. It doesnt sound right and it doesnt smell good.

Lucas, the former assistant sheriff, sees it differently. The no-bid arrangement made sense because Garcia was the only one offering this training, and he gave the jail a break on his rates in exchange for hosting sessions for other agencies at the detention center, Lucas said. Even if Beatty did collaborate with Garcia on breeding dogs, Lucas said, Beatty still wasnt profiting directly from his work at the jail.

"It doesn't affect the jail in any way I see," Lucas said.

Cannon was less sure, saying he has always been sensitive to even the appearance of impropriety and would probably have sought a legal opinion on the arrangement.

What is for certain is that the jail no longer uses many of the tactics it paid Garcia to teach its officers. Nearly $648,000 later, the jail has little to show for its investment except for controversy, unused equipment and some snarling schnauzer photos in a bunch of old emails.

Stephen Hobbs contributed to this article from Charleston.
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
Ilham Aliyev made new falsifications of historical facts, for this time  on the demography of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, Artsakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan wrote on his Facebook page.

April 23, 2022, 09:07 For 3 thousand years Artsakh has had only Armenian overwhelming majority. State Minister of Artsakh responds to Aliyev

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 23, ARTSAKHPRESS: The President of Azerbaijan at an event in occupied Shushi, in addition to other false statements, said that during the soviet era the Azerbaijani population was majority in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, while the reality is the contrary.

1. In 1921, at the moment of Karabakh annexation, the Azerbaijani population was 4%, and in the following decades the USSR censuses show the following:

 1926 - 10.06%,

 1939 - 9.32%,

 1959 - 13.80%,

 1970 - 18.08%,

 1979 - 22.98%,

 1989 - 21.52%.

2. Definitely, the rest of the population was Armenian and a tiny percentage  minorities.

3. And those are numbers which had been collected by the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities, including the father of Ilham Aliyev. Therefore, they are inflated.

4. The stable growth of the Azerbaijani population in Nagorno-Karabakh during the soviet era is explained by the white genocide committed against the Armenian indigenous people.

5. The Azerbaijani authorities must keep in mind forever that for 3 thousand years Artsakh has had only Armenian overwhelming majority.
In recent years, the attitude of liberals toward Critical Race Theory has been summed up as: It doesnt exist. And its awesome! But as the infiltration of CRT into curricula across the country has become impossible to deny, promotion of racism and anti-Americanism has come out of the closet. Thus we see the public schools in St. Paul announcing a new Critical Ethnic Studies curriculum:

So Critical Ethnic Studies is now required to graduate from the St. Paul public schools. Its precepts are no secret:

[Course concepts will include] identity, intersectionality, race, dominant/counter narratives, racism, white supremacy, racial equity, oppression, systemic oppression, resistance and resilience, social/youth-led movements, civic engagement, hope and healing, and transformation and change.

The ultimate purpose is to turn young people into racist, America-hating social justice activists. Important context for this effort is the fact that the St. Paul public schools are absolutely terrible. Catrin Wigfall explains:

According to 2021 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) test results, 16.6 percent of 8th graders in the [St. Paul] district are proficient in math. Less than 32 percent are reading at grade level. This class of students will be the first required to take CES in order to graduate.

So the teachers union intends to turn out graduates who are largely unemployable because they cant read or do arithmetic, and who are primed to blame their failures on systemic oppression. It is a great formula for social unrest, which the union explicitly desires to promote. Indeed, St. Paul students will be taught that blacks cant possibly succeed:

The district also links to Courageous Conversation as part of the courses pedagogy. Courageous Conversation is part of Glenn Singletons Pacific Educational Group (PEG), a California-based diversity consulting group under which Singleton has turned the idea that blacks cannot succeed into a multimillion-dollar empire, as Luke Rosiak details in Race to the Bottom. Singletons ideas have guided school districts to deem traits such as the ability to plan ahead and emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology as attributes of whiteness.

The people who run St. Pauls public schools (i.e., the teachers union, Education Minnesota) dont want students to succeed, and are happy to sacrifice their futures to advance a perverse political ideology.

Such is the state of public education in the United States today.
President Biden traveled to Seattle yesterday to observe Earth Day, Biden style. The White House has posted the transcript of his remarks here.

The speech went on at what must have felt like Castroite length to those in attendance. The text is far beyond my poor power to add or detract, but it warrants attention. The transcript reflects Biden mangling names, slurring words, misreading numbers, and so on. That is the least of it, but its not nothing.

One can observe the madness that lies at the heart of what has become Democrat dogma as he yuks it up:

One of the things I found out as the President of the United States: I get to spend a lot of that money. (Laughter.) I get to decide where  no, Im not joking. And were going to completely  but before  were  Im going to start the process where every vehicle in the United States military  every vehicle is going to be climate friendly. Every vehicle. Were going to have  (applause)  no, I mean it. (Applause.) Were spending billions of dollars to do it.

He all but claims Earth Day as his creation as he walks down memory lane. Some translation is required here: [I]n 1986, in the United States Senate, I introduced and we passed the first Global Climate Protection Act  the first time  and it was a warming legislation in the Senate. The act, as you might guess, was pure Washington gasbaggery, but I dont think thats what he meant by warming legislation.

As he walked down memory lane, Biden recalled his late Senate colleague Gaylord Nelson. This line made me think of Nelsons fellow Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire and his Golden Fleece Award: [W]e have a $1 billion program that no one knows about except the Department of Agriculture  the grants and loans for farmers and rural co-ops to deploy solar and storage and powerlines to carry clean energy across the country.

Despite the depredations of the president who must not be named, but who must be trashed, we appear to have achieved control of the climate (again, some translation required):

And the commitments galvanized that meet-  at that meeting, including our own goal of cutting emissions from 50 to 52 percent below 25[05] levels by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, taking the steps the United States needs to limit the planets warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. And the rest of the world started to come along. We did more than set bold goals; we acted to achieve them.

More surprises await those whom he has not put to sleep:

But guess what? In the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the law is going to help us cap and seal abandoned mines  thou-  theres thousands of abandoned mines  cap and seal them. Theyre no longer going to see pollution in the air or the water. The laws putting abandoned mine workers to work at the same salary they were working digging the mines in the first place. There are several thousand of these wells that have to be capped. And they have to harvest the energy. And theyre going to get paid. So, weve provided alternatives. They are manufacturing and installing solar panels where they once dug for coal.

The transcript probably requires interpretation or revision here: I have asthma, and 80 percent of the people who, in fact, we grew up with have asthma. Thats what you call a fenceline community. I understand what its like. I  we only lived there  I went to school there for 12 years. But I didnt live there that whole time.

Biden confers the honor of the Trump treatment  condemned but unnamed  on Senator Cruz in this passage:

You know, but all kid-  kidding aside, this is the MAGA party now. Its  you know, you got the senator from Texas and others. These guys are a different breed of cat. Theyre not like what I served with for so many years. And the people who know better are afraid to act correctly, because they know theyll be primaried. Ive had  I wont mention any of them; I promised I never would, and I wont  but up to six come to me and say, Joe, I want to be with you on such and such but I cant. Ill be primaried. Ill lose my race. Ill lose my race. So, folks, we got to  this is going to start to change.

The change cant come soon enough.

Quotable quote: But youre going to save a typical driver about 80,000  8  $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump. Tax credits for folks to buy solar panels and heat pumps and more efficient windows, saving each an average of $500 a year to do this  just making your home tighter so you dont leak the heat and leak the air conditioning going out.
Today Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that revokes Disneys virtually self-governing status in that state. The cause, of course, was Disneys aggressive pro-groomer, anti-parent political stance. Not long ago it would have been unthinkable for a major corporation to stick its neck out in support of an unpopular, even radical political position that doesnt even relate to the companys business. Now perhaps we understand why.

The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of todays action:

The bill will eliminate independent special districts in Florida established before 1968, and not since renewed, on June 1, 2023. It affects six such districts, most prominent among them the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created in 1967 and encompasses some 27,000 acres that includes Walt Disney Worlds theme parks, hotels, resorts and other attractions.

***

For the past half-century, the district has allowed Disney to govern itself in Florida. The company pays taxes and fees to the district, and in return the district manages a wide variety of services for Walt Disney World, including fire and emergency medical services, road maintenance, wastewater management and power generation. The district also allows Disney to expand its real estate holdings without having to follow local building, planning or environmental codes. Disney pays property taxes to Orange and Osceola counties in Florida, and contracts with the Orange County sheriffs office for law enforcement at the resort.

It strikes me that Floridas willingness to defend itself against political aggression by Disney is a sign of the times. Republicans, and conservatives generally, are no longer reflexively pro-business. The days of deference to corporate bottom lines are over. The GOP is the party of small business; big business, for the most part, went left some time ago. Todays action can be seen as one sign among many of the ongoing realignment of American politics.
If you live within driving distance of the Twin Cities, tomorrow is the day to descend on the state Capitol in St. Paul to demand that the legislature return Minnesotas projected $9.3 billion surplus to the taxpayers, in the form of permanent tax cuts.

The rally will start at 11 a.m.; because of the threat of thunderstorms, we will be inside, in the Capitol rotunda. I will emcee the event, and we have an excellent lineup of speakers including Minnesotas top talk radio hosts and Jason Lewis, long-time radio personality and former Congressman and Senate candidate.

Our polling shows that by better than two to one, Minnesotans want the surplus returned to the taxpayers, not spent. But polling doesnt put pressure on legislators. Activism does. So if you can make it, we would love to see you tomorrow: 11 a.m., in the Capitol rotunda in St. Paul.
The Federal Executive Council of Nigeria has approved the ratification of the Port State Measures (PSMA). This is the first binding and most important international agreement/treaty to specifically target Illegal, Unreported And Unregulated (IUU) fishing across the globe.

According to the Nigerian Trawler Operators Association (NITOA), Nigeria loses more than $70 million annually to illegal fishing. The country is not only battling with the great economic loss from illegal fishing but also, from issues regarding maritime insecurity and sea piracy. According to the Director-General of NIMASA, Bashir Jimoh, about $783 million has been lost to piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

Beyond the stark figures, there also lies the story of numerous people whose livelihoods have been all but destroyed by the rapid dwindling of ocean resources. Illegal fishing has posed a significant threat to the operations of many small-scale fishers thus undermining the countrys blue economy development.

The main objective of the Port States Measures Agreement (PSMA) is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by preventing vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using legal ports to land their catches. Additionally, the provisions of this agreement apply to fishing vessels seeking entry into a designated port of a state which is different from their flag state. This makes the system similar to international travel border control.

The PSMA was adopted by the UN FAO Conference in 2009 and entered into force on June 5, 2016. It was instantly signed by over 25 governments to ensure that the treaty surpasses the threshold needed to bring it into force; currently, 55 parties have agreed to this treaty.

As governments sign on to the agreement and show commitment to the fight against IUU fishing, the gaps allowing illegal fishers to slip through are expected to diminish. But can a single treaty create a mechanism strong enough to combat widespread disregard for fisheries laws and policies?

Why is it important for Nigeria to be part of this?

In the 2018 World Fisheries Report, it was noted that over 10 million people in Nigeria rely on fisheries directly or indirectly for livelihood. That is a huge number. To this end, operators in the industry have advocated the establishment of a separate ministry for fisheries and the ocean economy.

A former director of the Federal Department of Fisheries, Foluke Areola, stated the importance of the agreement.

This treaty is very important in helping us to identify the limitations and what we can do differently in trying to curb illegal fishing, she said.

The department does not have enough funds to monitor vessels, so they are heavily reliant on the Navy to do all the patrolling and surveillance. But beyond the PSMA, theres also a need for us to improve on the intersectoral and interagency corporation and collaboration.

The realities of what constitutes illegal fishing have changed and the Sea Fisheries Act does not reflect that. For instance, fines that are to be paid in the cases of breaking those laws have become insignificant amounts.

In a recent interview with Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, a maritime expert and researcher, she mentioned the need for the Sea Fisheries Act to be improved.

The current legal provision governing fisheries exploitation in Nigeria is the 1992 Sea Fisheries Decree. This law is outdated and does ring true for the changes that were experiencing now, she said.

I remember in 2016, the Fisheries Department had the support of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), to review and improve on the existing Sea Fisheries Act but it still hasnt been improved and nothing has been done.

How will Nigeria benefit from implementing the Port State Measures Agreement?

Countries are finding that the agreement is a cost-effective tool for fighting illegal fishing. Sending patrol vessels to track and potentially arrest illegal operators on the open ocean is expensive and dangerous. By comparison, monitoring at the port is safer and less costly.

The treatys main objective is to support sustainable fisheries management, improve the gathering, verification and exchange of information leading to more accurate assessments of fish stocks and strengthen the monitoring of both national and international waters. Port controls become safer, less costly and demonstrate a more active approach than conventional Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (MCS) methods, reducing the time, effort, and resources required for this critical task.

Ratifying the PSMA is a positive thing in itself for Nigeria. It allows Nigeria to be part of a larger, international, conversation that is aimed at tackling the problem. And as part of its implementation, there would be benefits like access to certain databases. So, for instance, this database could identify vessels that are potentially troublesome. And when such repeated offenders, come into the Nigerian waters, it raises alarm as to whether we want to license them or not, Ms Okafor-Yarwood said.

It also allows Nigeria to gain advice, and for relevant agencies to get into training they need from other international parties that have more experience with these things.

Being part of PSMA is not a magic wand, it doesnt make everything better automatically, but is a step in the right direction because it shows that, at least for once, we are actually interested and we want to do things better But there are more advantages to it, the PSMA will encourage government agencies to coordinate their procedures, which will save time and money, she said.

The PSMA also creates a framework for information-sharing and collaboration. A database is made available to policy-makers, national administrations, legal practitioners, and civil society members worldwide. By making best practices available, the database will contribute to national capacity-building toward adoption.

The agreement facilitates technical and financial assistance to developing nations that ratify or accede to it.

What are the gaps in this new treaty?

Some experts have pointed out certain weaknesses in this agreement. An important one is the fact that China, one of the foremost offenders of illegal fishing, is yet to ratify the agreement. Other countries like Russia and Japan have also not started the process. In addition, there seems to be no penalty for failing to comply with the provisions of the agreement. There are also concerns that many small countries will still find it difficult to take action and fulfil those policies.

The fact that China and other big distant water fishing nations are not part of it, shouldnt be our problem. Rather, the argument should be on those disadvantages posed by the PSMA that are not favourable for Nigeria. This could relate to issues that might undermine the sovereignty of Nigeria. There are so many benefits to being part of it if we can implement the provisions, Ms Okafor-Yarwood said.

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Led by fishery authorities with enhanced liaison with allied authorities, the implementation of the PSMA will bring with it institutional, organisational and operational benefits that will lead to more stringent and more effective port procedures for dealing with fishing vessels to improve control of the fisheries sector.

Successful implementation will provide the necessary foundation for growth in the fisheries and maritime sectors. It is certain that the industry will become better, not only with the support of this international agreement but also with the support of other local agencies like the Fisheries Committee for West and Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), who are already encouraging Nigeria and other countries that are part of the committee to do better.
The press and movie critics got a foretaste of the awarding-winning movie, Strangers, on Thursday at the Genesis Cinemas, Maryland Mall, Lagos.

The screening was attended by the executive producer, Banji Adesanmi, also known as Evangelist Bee; director, Biodun Stephen, alongside some of the movie cast like; Lateef Adedimeji, Chris Iheuwa, and Taiwo Ibikunle, media critics.

Students of Doregos Private Academy were also in attendance.

The movie featured some A-list actors, like Lateef Adedimeji, Bimbo Oshin, Bolaji Ogunmola, Debbie Felix, Femi Adebayo, Ndamo Damaris, Chris Iheuwa, Jide Kosoko, Bimbo Akintola, Mide Glover and Nonso Odogwu, among others.

While the movie is yet to be released, Strangers has already won the Gold award for Directing at the International Independent Film Awards held in Los Angeles.

Plot

Inspired by a true-life story, the movie follows the life of a remote village boy, untamed by civilization, but hit by calamitous events that change the course of his existence.

With a first-person narrative, Strangers is an emotional and inspirational story of grass-to-grace.

The comic synergy from the characters sent waves of intermittent laughter across the cinema hall.

Strangers is another classical example of telling a story in its raw form as evident in several Nollywood films of recent. From a rich blend of indigenous culture, colourful transition from one decade to another, and character morphology, the director was very apt in creating a narrative that evokes nostalgia.

Inspiration

Banji Adesanmi, the executive producer of the movie said he was inspired to produce the film because of the resilience of the characters who inspired the film.

Mr Adesanmi said the movie project started in 2018 while shooting commenced in 2021.

He said, Strangers chronicles a series of despairing events with miraculous outcomes.

It is a story that is sweet to hear. I decided to adapt it into a screenplay and joined forces with notable figures that can translate it into a captivating motion picture. The international recognition for the movie is a testament to this.

The movie, directed by filmmaker Biodun Stephen, will hit cinemas nationwide on April 29.
Ibrahim Omotosho, 39, drove into a bank in Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria, in July 2020 to pick up his debit card. An otherwise straightforward transaction, but it would play out as one of his most frustrating experiences.

It was 15 years after he first opened a bank account but very little had changed in how financial institutions opened up to him. The building, like most banks in the country, was designed in a way that prevented wheelchair users from gaining access. He had to wait to be attended to at the parking area. After over two hours of sitting tight in the unbearably hot weather, he did what any digital citizen would: pick up his phone and tweet.

Then he drove his car behind the bullion van to cause a scene, drawing the staffs attention. A senior security officer promised he would be attended to, but it took another 40 minutes.

The tweet would later go viral, attracting over 11,000 likes and retweets, and Mr Omotosho would receive a call from the banks head office apologising for the treatment and assigning employees to meet his needs  measures which he considers to fall short of genuine solutions.

Narrating the incident about two years later, Mr Omotosho, a programme analyst, mentions one detail he had left out on Twitter.

One of the staff they gave to me was like they were actually doing me a favour, he said, unable to hold in his laughter at the thought. Its actually embarrassing. He said he was doing me a favour and I had to be patient, that he had to leave what he was doing inside to come and attend to me outside under the sun and I still was not appreciative. I was shocked.

Nigerias banking sector has undergone sweeping reforms in recent decades with several commercial banks now gaining international prominence and spreading their reach across Africa. Despite this growth, however, the industry continues to turn a blind eye to a key section of the population: People with Disabilities (PwDs).

Disabilities are conditions that affect a persons ability to perform certain activities, impairing such things as vision, hearing, thinking, learning, movement, mental health, communication, memory, or social interactions.

According to the World Health Organisation, of the estimated 1 billion people living with a disability globally, 80 per cent are in developing countries. Nigeria and Ghana respectively have about 29 million and 5 million people with disabilities.

In spite of their huge population, PwDs are often not prioritised during conversations about financial inclusion. They continue to face hurdles that prevent them from making transactions and accessing crucial bank services such as loans or even opening accounts.

Security doors and staircases

For Mr Omotosho, entering the banking hall at all is a Herculean task. Most banks make use of mantrap door systems with the aim of preventing unauthorised access or people bringing in arms. But this often means people in wheelchairs are automatically denied entry.

When Mr Omotosho first opened an account in 2005 with a Lagos branch of Polaris (formerly Skye) Bank, he had to fill all forms outside under the sun. A bank official would step out, collect necessary information, and return several times for clarification.

Its like I was banned from the party, he recalled with a hearty laugh.

On the rare occasions that he entered the buildings, it was through the backdoors usually reserved for staffers. But the main entrance is not the only obstacle. Inside, the counter is also too tall for him to conduct business like other customers. He has to go to the customer service unit where officials use regular-size desks.

Fatimah Aderohunmu, 23, had a similarly unsettling experience when she opened her first account. She had been battling muscular dystrophy since she was 11. In 2018, months before she started using a wheelchair, someone had offered to send her cash to buy medications, which she hoped would cure her disease. So she rushed to the bank and entered through the backdoor clinging to her sisters back.

She said she must have spent close to an hour trying to thumbprint alone because the counter was too tall and her hand too weak to reach the device. Ms Aderohunmus sister had to lift her while someone else supported her to stretch her arm.

In the case of Abdulrahman Violet Joy, a resident of Nigerias capital Abuja, accessing financial services was relatively easy following her accident in April 2012, which had left her legs paralysed. This was because her husband was one of the banks managers, and so she got accustomed to the iyawo oga (wife of the boss) treatment as the officials were eager to please her. Sometimes, all it took to withdraw from her account and have the money at her doorstep was a phone call. Anytime she went to the bank, she would be quickly attended to from the comfort of her car. But even this status could not insulate her for long.

Between 2013 and 2014 when she had to register for the Bank Verification Number (BVN), the officials insisted she had to be inside the building to get it done.

It was horrible, it was , she contorted her face to express disgust.

Mrs Abdulrahman remembered the branch had no backdoor at the time, so she had to be separated from her wheelchair and carried through the mantrap.

There is nothing I didnt do for them to do it for me without me being there but they said I had to come, she said. That day was disastrous; I didnt like myself at all. I cried. You know, they carried my wheelchair. It was really annoying. I was very sad. But there was nothing I could do.

Mrs Abdulrahman made sure it was the first and last time she would go through the main entrance as someone with a disability. Even after relocating multiple times from the neighbourhood, she would always ask whenever she had to visit a bank if they had a backdoor and a ramp, so she could wheel herself in. In Abujas downtown area, she estimated that about one in three banks often did.

Through the eyes of the blind

Scholastica Kalama lost her father at the age of six, and then her sight. But with support from relatives and scholarships from kind philanthropists, she pulled herself through primary, secondary schools and university. She now works as an Assistant Director at the National Centre for Women Developments ICT centre in Abuja. With her impaired vision, however, comes many impediments in accessing financial services  a lot of them avoidable.

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When she opened her first account as an undergraduate, her body vibrated with joy knowing she could keep her money safe and take it out whenever she wanted. The bank folded up, so the second time she opened one was during the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. She recalled that at this period, operating an account was much easier. She could go inside the bank without a guide and still have people eager to assist.

Now if she needs to visit branches where she does not know anybody, she has to wait until theres someone to accompany her. The person then helps with filling out forms and other activities that require sight.

Oluwakemi Odusanya, 28, an administrative officer at the Nigeria Association of the Blind, mentioned another service gap. Local banks do not have accessible monthly statements of account, unlike those in other countries that provide braille copies.

As many hurdles as there are disabilities

Data from the World Bank indicates that there are about four commercial bank branches for every 100,000 adults in Nigeria, compared to the global average of 14. One implication is that Nigerians have come to associate banks with inconveniently long queues. This is even a greater problem for persons with disabilities for different reasons. While some cannot bear to stand for long periods, others, such as people who are visually impaired, would not be able to tell if they were being cheated.

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) come with their own headache too.

Mr Omotosho, who was diagnosed with polio at the young age of 18 months, for example, has never directly used one. The sheer height of the machines means his hands cannot reach the buttons. Then a lot of ATM galleries are sited in elevated places without ramps. So, Mr Omotosho always gave his debit card to others whenever he needed to withdraw, sometimes totally random people. It is quite risky, he sighs, but that is what the country has subjected me to.

To minimise risks, he would make sure he was always with his phone. So if he received strange debit alerts, he would consider immediately moving his money into a different account. Asked if he has ever seen any disability-friendly ATM, he replies that only on social media  and maybe in some movies.

Ms Kalama also relies on others to use the machine because there is no voice guide. Everything comes out on the screen, she explained. The only thing she can operate is the keyboard, and this is not because they come with braille, a tactile writing system used by the blind, but because she is familiar with similar button patterns on computers. But even this is impossible if she is faced with touchscreen monitors.

Most modern ATMs have headphone jacks, which if used, allow blind people to hear audible instructions guiding them to use the keypad.

Those manning the machines ought to provide the headphones whenever a blind person approaches but this hardly happens.

There is also the problem of identifying currency. Naira notes used in Nigeria, for example, have no tactile feature that makes them distinguishable from one another for blind people. They can only tell if the note is 50 downwards based on whether the material is polymer or paper. What Ms Kalama tries to do is fold them into different shapes inside her bag after confirming the amount.

When the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced new polymer notes for smaller denominations between 5 and 50 in 2009, it claimed that certain shapes on the top left corner were placed there as symbols for visually impaired persons. Those meant to benefit from the initiative, however, say they dont find them useful.

There was a time someone from the Central Bank came to see me after the polymer notes were launched. He was putting my hand to see if I could feel, but since it is not braille I could not feel anything, Ms Kalama recalled.

The cost of discrimination

Idris Agboluaje, senior programme officer at the Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) in Nigeria, believes most of the problems PwDs face stem from discrimination. A lot of people still see persons with disabilities as people who are undeserving of financial services, he explained.

Inefficiencies and discrimination in the banking system cost people like Ms Aderohunmu and Ms Kalama more compared to the average account holder. Ms Aderohunmu, unable to use public transport, charters taxis each time she is required to visit the bank. She has noticed that cab drivers tend to take advantage of her desperation when fixing prices.

Ms Kalama faces another problem. Anytime she senses hostility from employees of one branch, she avoids returning to the same place. This means she will have to conduct transactions further away from her house and office, which costs money.

When you go there and need help and someone will tell you, Why did you come alone? You know, it can be very painful, she said. For me to come out to the bank alone, do you think Im happy about it? If all things were put in place to help with disability, it wont go to the extent of someone embarrassing you.

People who are visually impaired are also often discriminated against when trying to access loans or ask for debit cards. When she wanted to get a card for one of her accounts in 2008, Ms Kalama was not considered worthy.

Getting to the bank, the woman refused. She said no o, Ms Kalama recalled, raising the tone of her voice and slapping her hands to mimic the bank employee. I cannot give you the ATM [card]. Ah, who will be operating it for you? You know, all sorts of excuses. There is a lot of fraud going on; we cant give you; even we that we see [fall victim].

After that episode, she stopped trying to get the card. But in 2020, shortly before the lockdown, officials of Ecobank persuaded her otherwise.

Discrimination is not always loud. In fact, asked if she has had any personal experiences, Ms Odusanya said no at first. Then she remembered something. The only part that can be very silly at times is when you go to the bank with an aide and the customer care or whoever is attending to you talks to your aide, and you will be like, Really? Okay, its fine, be asking the person.

The problem with mobile apps

The introduction of internet banking services and mobile applications has reduced the need for physical visits to banks and made life easier for many disabled people. But even this example of modern technological advances does not come without shortcomings. While some of the banks have apps that are disability-friendly, others are full of glitches.

Ms Odusanyas assessment is that the GTBank app is only a bit accessible for iPhone users.

When you get to the section where you are to select a bank, you will need a sighted person to help you. GT to GT is quite easy but selecting the other banks is kind of challenging, she said.

She said using the Stanbic and FCMB apps to make transfers is much easier. The First Bank mobile app was inaccessible for blind users too until the company introduced LIT by FirstBank in June 2021.

Another problem with GTBanks mobile banking feature, according to Ms Odusanya, is that USSD transactions are only easy for self-recharge.

My sim card is the default stuff so it goes seamlessly. But if I want to recharge or transfer to other lines, I would have to switch off my voice-over for it to process. It just started off maybe six months or so ago, I dont know whats happening, she said.

As it is in Nigeria, so also Ghana

The experiences of people living with disabilities in Ghana are very much like the struggle in Nigeria, from lack of professionalism and access to discrimination.

Alexander Williams, Coordinator of the University of Ghanas Assistive Technology Unit and a visually impaired person, has had instances where his presence was awkwardly ignored  just like Ms Odusanya.

So I get in there with Jonas, who is an Uber driver, and instead of the bankers actually communicating with me, they are communicating with Jonas, to say oh, what does he want? he narrates.

Just recently, I had a situation where I got into the banking space with my assistant and then they wanted my name to be written and the banker was asking me, the blind person, to write my name with a pen and paper  Another financial service provider, I give them my details, my cash is ready and they are giving my cash to my assistant. What if it is someone I dont know from Adam?

He complained that documentation for loans and other services is not provided in formats accessible to people who are blind. Also, digital financial services arent always reliable. He could use his bank app without relying on third parties until an update was made, rendering him totally dependent.

There are no longer alternative texts in a way that the screen reader is able to pick up, so you are unable to navigate. You are compelled to hand your device to someone to help you or you use the USSD shortcode, he said. This is because the banks IT staff does not even appreciate what accessibility is.

For Andrews Kwame Daklo, who is the Albinism Programme Coordinator at Engage Now Africa, a non-profit, financial exclusion often comes in the form of papers.

Especially for people with albinism, we have low vision so when the fonts on the forms are very small, you have to strain your eyes, or sometimes you ask somebody to read out the instructions before you can complete it, he explained.

To use the mobile apps too, he oftentimes has to bring the phone closer to his face to see the instructions. This is why he is grateful for Mobile Money services which are easier to access and have zero paperwork because he only needs his phone to transact.

Another disability subgroup that is disregarded a lot is deafness, especially because the impairment is not apparent. Richard Doku, a sign language officer at the Ghana National Association, said the challenge is not often the bank itself but the inconsiderate workers. For example, he had gone to a bank in 2018 to obtain a loan and had filled out the forms. Then the bank manager tried asking how much salary he made.

It would have been easy for him to just write for me to know, but he was talking and I told him that I dont understand what he was saying. He got angry and he was like I should go and come back tomorrow, said Mr Doku who was interviewed through a sign language interpreter. I really felt bad. I think maybe he didnt understand me. Since then I was not able to take the loan.

Additionally, people with hearing loss are usually in the dark about new financial policies and opportunities because advertisements come in the form of speech. We always hear that there are banks doing a promotion for a new product but deaf people are left out all the time. We have no idea of what is happening, Richard told us.

It is like we have been forgotten.

Idle laws and hasty policies

Many Nigerians cheered when in Jan. 2019 President Muhammadu Buhari finally signed the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Bill into law after nine years of tireless advocacy and 13 years after Ghana had passed a similar law.

The Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and demands that buildings open for public use have accessibility aids such as ramps, handrails, and elevators. All existing buildings are expected to be modified accordingly within five years of the bills enactment, after which defaulters may be fined or imprisoned.

It also mentions that PwDs shall be considered first in queues, but there is no specific mention of financial inclusion. However, the Governing Council of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) is to have a representative from the finance ministry.

Just as the Act makes no direct mention of financial exclusion, the CBNs National Financial Inclusion Strategy hardly talks about people with disabilities. First adopted in 2012 and then revised in 2018, the strategy mentions the word disabilities only twice, the second time in passing. The first time, it does so to acknowledge that while data is not readily available on access to financial services for persons with disabilities, available information suggested that they were also highly excluded.

When he was called for a comment, CBNs Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi asked instead for a text, but has since not responded.

It has been over three years since the disability rights law was passed, but those concerned say they have yet to see any significant changes, especially when it comes to accessing public structures.

I am not seeing any ray of light. No improvement, nothing, said Mr Omotosho.

About Ghanaian laws, which have similarly had an implementation problem, Mr Daklo urged the authorities to enforce them to make sure that those that the laws were made for derive the necessary benefits. There is still stigma, discrimination, and prejudice against persons with disabilities, he noted.

Again, one thing people with disabilities have noticed is the inconsistency with which their needs are attended to, pointing to a gap in policy. Different employees of the same bank may respond differently to the same request, much less different banks.

Ms Aderohunmu has accounts with three financial institutions: Access, Guaranty Trust, and the United Bank of Africa (UBA). She observed that while the first two insisted that she had to pick up her debit cards herself, UBA was more flexible.

I never even stepped my foot inside the bank since I started using them, said the Lagos-based open university student. After I called them to explain, they sent me some forms. When it was time to collect the ATM [card], they said a third party could come because I had already filled a third party form putting my sisters name.

But when she needed to open a domiciliary account after signing up on a freelancing website, GTBank employees told her during several phone conversations that she could not do it by proxy.

[Then] I called another time and, luckily for me, the person was very calm and attended to me well. She said I should get people to sign two reference forms, so I sent them to her and she did it without me having to go to the bank, she said.

Ms Odusanya had a similar experience in 2013 when she objected to using a screen signature at GTBank and informed them that she would rather just thumbprint. The bank does not allow thumbprints, they told her, unless she swore affidavits. On the other hand, at Stanbic, Union, and Zenith banks, she did not face this hurdle.

Policies are not coordinated to a level where everyone is aware, observed Mr Agboluaje.

Reacting to Ms Aderohunmus experience, Access Banks head of media relations, Abdul Imoyo, said the institution gives priority to people with disabilities and that most of the banks branches have ramps for wheelchair users. He added that cases where people require third parties are peculiar because they may not only be disabled but also incapacitated.

In that kind of situation, the branch would have to get internal approval for this to happen, he explained. If you say give my card to Mr A, we have to go through a process to ensure that we are dealing with the right people, so in case there is an issue you are covered You dont even need a third party; the branch manager is empowered enough to go to the customer directly. You dont have to come to us, we will come to you.

The head of corporate communications at Polaris Bank, Rasheed Bolarinwa, said the bank has remodelled a number of its branches to include ramps and that its customer service officers and security personnel are available to assist customers.

To further bring the bank closer to customers and the general public, we developed a digital banking App called VULTe to enable seamless banking transactions including account opening for both the unbanked and underbanked populace so that customers would not need to come to a physical location to carry out banking transactions, he added.

GT Banks head of communications and external affairs, Oyinade Adegbite, promised to get one of her colleagues to reply but did not do so.

Turning a new leaf

For many bank users with a disability, the first step to improving access is collecting information about their conditions and needs through bank application forms. This will not only give them a sense of belonging but will inform systemic changes in how services are provided by the institution.

Banks should set up well-equipped disability desks in all of their branches, staffed by professionals including sign language interpreters  or, as Mr Daklo recommends, at least train the staff so they are willing to write questions and instructions for people who are hard of hearing.

Financial institutions should generally employ more persons living with disabilities. They should also look more receptive, he added. We, the deaf people, we are visual human beings; we communicate visually. So when I come and you have frowned your face or your face looks like you dont even want me to be there, I wouldnt feel comfortable.

Mr Agboluaje said that addressing the financial exclusion of persons with disabilities has to be multidimensional just as the problem itself is complex. But the first step is changing mindsets. We need to realise that persons with disabilities are also human beings. They have rights, he stressed. Then there is a need to remove barriers to accessibility and collect data to even know how many people live with particular disabilities so they can be planned for  all along ensuring to listen to the affected persons and not just assume their needs.

I feel the banks should awaken to their responsibilities. They should ask people with disabilities about their financial needs in terms of banking and what they think they can improve  how they can make their services more accessible, recommends Ms Odusanya.

For Mr Omotosho too, the solution may not be simple but it is obvious.

Make the banking hall accessible, he said. The fact that I can do everything or almost everything online [is not enough], I should be able to do almost everything, as well, physically.
The defection of a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has elevated the little-known party into the limelight as a potential third force in the 2023 elections, especially in the presidential poll. Many followers of the former governor have been trooping into the party across Northern Nigeria, according to reports.

Mr Kwankwaso said his latest change of parties was due to leadership crises in the PDP in Kano State and the North-west chapters.

His defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ended months of speculation. Since he returned to the party in 2018, he had been entangled in a supremacy battle with other leaders of the party in his home Kano State and in the North-west. His foes included a former minister of foreign affairs, Aminu Wali, and a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Port Authority, Aminu Dabo, against whom he fought for the control of the party in Kano. He also challenged Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State for the North-west leadership of the party.

On Tuesday, Mr Kwankwaso picked the nomination form of the NNPP for the presidential election. Nobody is expected to challenge him for the ticket, the reason many believe he chose the party. The former governor had lost two presidential primaries, to President Muhammadu Buhari in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, and four years later to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the PDP.

He had been uncomfortable when BBC Hausa in early March asked him whether he joined the NNPP to run on its ticket in the 2023 presidential election.

I have just joined this party and youre already asking whether I am going to be its presidential candidate. Lets wait for the excos to settle and we will strategise on the way forward for this party, he said in the BBC interview monitored by PREMIUM TIMES.

While some see Mr Kwankwaso as a political heavyweight searching for a platform to pursue a national political mission, others see his itinerary across parties in the last eight years as an ego trip. Immediately after obtaining the membership card of the NNPP, he was declared the national leader of the party, a position that offers him total control of the party. He had not been accorded the same privilege in the PDP and in the APC. In the latter, his main foe was his successor and former ally, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

The Third Force

Earlier last year, Mr Kwankwaso and some politicians had started the National Movement, which calls itself the Third Force. The group said it is on a mission to save the country from the PDP and APC, the two parties that have run the country in turn since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in Nigeria.

We are all aware that the people are tired of the APC and PDP and that was why previous elections recorded low voter turnout.

We thank God that we have fresh air for a better new Nigeria. People are tired and want change and the NNPP is the fresh air that can do it, Mr Kwankwaso also said.

The NNPP is considered the political wing of the National Movement. Prominent members of the movement who have registered with the NNPP include a former minister of youth and sports, Solomon Dalung, and President Buharis estranged right-hand man, Buba Galadima.

NNPP making waves in the North

After receiving the high profile joiners, the NNPP held its national convention in Abuja and elected new leaders. Rufai Alkali, a professor of Political Science and former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP was elected the new national chairman. Mr Alkali is from Gombe State.

The party also said it had conducted its congresses at local and state levels across the North-west and states like Gombe and Nasarawa.

Kano is the heartbeat of the party. There, the PDP governorship candidate for the 2019 election in the state, Abba Yusuf (Abba Gida Gida), had led many other stalwarts of the party to the NNPP before Mr Kwankwasos defection. Those who made the journey with him include a former commissioner, Aminu Abdulsalam, and former House of Representatives members, Aliyu Gini, Ibrahim Bullet and Sanusi Bature.

A former chief of staff to Jigawa State governor and governorship aspirant in PDP, Aminu Ringim, and former media aide to Governor Badaru Abubakar, Bello Zaki, joined the party in Jigawa. Suleiman Hunkuyi, a former senator, and Ben Kure, a former political adviser to Governor Nasir El Rufai, led the defectors in Kaduna.

In Katsina, a senior special assistant to Governor Aminu Masari on political affairs, Sani Yankwani, resigned his appointment and joined the party while a former publicity secretary of the PDP, Dauda Kurfi, and Sani Kankia also joined the party. Though he has not officially decamped, a former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Development Trust Fund, Muttaqa Rabe, was rumoured to have directed his political allies to decamp to the party. He, however, officially remains in the PDP. Another gubernatorial aspirant, Aliyu Jibia, a senior university lecturer, has also moved to the NNPP in Katsina.

The partys chairman in Katsina State, Gambo Salisu, said: We have offices in the 34 local government areas of the state and we just elected our excos. Our structure is well formed and we are ready to give APC and PDP a run for their money.

In Zamfara, most of those who have joined the party were members of the Kwankwasiya Movement. A senior special assistant to Governor Matawalle on public-private partnership, Nuhu Khalil, is leading the exodus from APC and PDP to NNPP in the state. He has since resigned from his appointment. Samaila Baiwa is also another bigwig who has joined the party in the state.

Can NNPP be the new APC?

However, many political analysts doubt that the party has enough to pull a surprise in the 2023 general elections.

Of course, the fact that the party can be so popular in just three weeks tells you that Kwankwaso is a popular giant but thats all. With the people that have joined the party so far, I will not be surprised if they win House of Assembly seats and House of Representatives seats in Kano, Kaduna and even Katsina. But I dont see them winning a governorship or the presidential seat, a political pundit in Katsina, Saifullahi Kuraye, said.

He said the party may win a few seats in Kano due to the Kwankwaso factor.

NNPP is still not popular in Kwara and Niger states, even in the northern part of the country and the South West. We all know what happened to Buhari before he finally won the presidency.

Kwankwaso needs Yoruba votes to be the president of this country and unless they can do magic to reach out to the Yoruba in the next few months, I dont see them winning the presidency or even a governorship seat, Mr Kuraye said.

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Its too late

A university don and Kano-based political analyst, Muhsin Ibrahim, believes the NNPP can have a good showing in Kano.

I hope he (yes, he) fields good candidates for the 2023 elections in Kano. But, unfortunately, he cannot win the presidential election under the NNPP. Honestly, only APC and PDP have that clout. Many of us can recall Buharis defunct CPC, he said.

The Head of Department, Political Science at the Umaru Musa YarAdua University in Katsina, Kabir Yandaki, also said PDP and APC remain the parties to beat, especially at the national level.

Yes, people are tired of them (PDP and APC) but the NNPP needs a vibrant structure in the 36 states and financial muscles for the campaign.

Ideology is missing in the political parties. The absence of ideology can make a new political party have an impact in the current setting because what we have now are ideologically deficient. 

Mr Yandaki also thinks the NNPP will win some legislative seats due to the calibre of the people in the party.

The man Kwankwaso

Mr Kwankwaso is not known to be afraid of taking wild political decisions. From the PDP, he switched to the APC in 2014 and returned to the PDP four years later. The fact that he left the parties while each was in government says a lot about his readiness to take bold decisions even at the risk of losing it all.

Political pundits spoken to by PREMIUM TIMES said Mr Kwankwaso is a better politician than many of his peers despite his hopping from one political party to another.

The real problem is with the political parties in Nigeria. None of them has a clearly defined ideology or can influence their members decisions as in the West or other established democracies. In other words, political parties dont have supremacy over their elected members in Nigeria, Mr Ibrahim said.

Born 65 years ago, Mr Kwankwaso first came to the national political stage in 1992 when he was elected into the House of Representatives under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the short-lived Third Republic and was elected the deputy speaker of the House. He was 36 years old then. After the House was dissolved by the military regime of Sani Abacha, he was elected as a member of the Constitutional Conference in 1994.

In 1999, he was elected the governor of Kano State under the PDP. After losing reelection in 2003, then President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as Minister of Defence. The appointment allowed him to retain his status as the leader of the PDP in Kano and made his renomination as the partys governorship candidate much easier for the 2007 election, which he won. After his second term, Mr Kwankwaso was, in 2015, elected into the Senate from Kano central district. He did not seek reelection to the Senate in 2019.

In the build up to the 2015 elections, Mr Kwankwaso was among the governors that rebelled against President Good luck Jonathan and formed the new-PDP before most of them joined the newly formed APC.

Despite the efforts of President Buhari to dissuade him, Mr Kwankwaso left APC for the PDP in 2018 due to differences between him and Governor Ganduje. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidential ticket of the PDP, losing to Atiku Abubakar in the primaries.

If he runs on the NNPP ticket, he may be among a few candidates from the North in that election, given the clamour for power shift to the South after eight years of the Buhari presidency.
As we transition into summer, the beers we got to enjoy in spring proliferate. We will see the now ubiquitous seltzers find new identities, an
The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Matthew Kukah, has responded to a taunt by the presidency that he should join partisan politics.

The presidency had spoken in reaction to Mr Kukahs Easter message, titled To mend a broken nation: The Easter metaphor, in which he said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has enthroned corruption and destroyed every aspect of life in Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the presidency accused Mr Kukah of hatred of Mr Buhari and of playing politics in the most un-Christian way while millions of Christians commemorated Jesus Christs crucifixion.

But in an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, which was monitored by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Kukah doubled down on his criticism, stressing the dangers of nepotism and accusing the administration of inability to handle the nations diversity. He also challenged the presidents spokesperson to a debate on the situation of Nigeria.

Read excerpts from the interview.

ARISE NEWS: Well, Bishop Kukah, I am looking at ThisDay newspaper, Page 5 story. It says, quoting the Bible, Presidency tells Kukah to avoid foolish controversy, dissensions. And somewhere down the line, you were referred, by Garba Shehu in this instance, to James 1 verse 27, that what you should be doing; you should be visiting orphans and widows, instead of generating controversies and dissensions. And if you want to join politics, both Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina claim, saying you should just dump the scapular and join partisan politics; because in their reckoning, your Eastern homely was not about Christ, it was about partisan politics. Are you guilty as charged?

Bishop Kukah: Well, I do not know whether any of them (Adesina, Shehu) has the ability or capacity to think about guilt or no guilt. But let me, first of all, set the record straight. I delivered my sermon to my congregation in our cathedral, so the hearers or the bearers of the message were primarily the good people of the Diocese of Sokoto. And of course, I am not unaware of the state of mind of my two friends, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, when it comes to talking about Bishop Kukah. They seem to suspend reason unless, of course, Garba Shehu has plans to convert to Christianity, is a closest Christian or an anonymous Christian.

I appreciate the fact that when it comes to talking, he has not quoted the holy Quran and all he does is end up with some convoluted interpretations of the Bible that are embarrassing in their contexts. And I am surprised that Femi Adesina, who I believe is a regular Christian in the FourSquare Gospel Church, I am surprised that he is unable to help his friend put the facts together.

But let me simply say I have made an offer to them and I still make the offer that they choose the venue and choose the time and just let me know. I will like to sit down with the three of them, beginning with their honourable minister and both of them; let us sit down and talk about Nigeria.

I am ready to pay my way. And I still repeat that offer to them. Dr Abati, you have been a spokesperson for the president and I am sure you know better than anybody else. In your time, as a spokesperson, I do not remember that I read messages written by you because the job of a spokesperson, which you did extremely well, was to highlight and elaborate, debate and put to the public government policies and what government intends to do, and use it as an opportunity to clarify government policies as it affects governance and the people.

These are the only spokesmen that have spent a lot of time buying photocopy papers and simply typing away texts. They have been involved in all kinds of writing of the poorest quality; (they) never talk about the issues. The first thing is to show you their inefficiency, because they are used to writing statements as opposed to talking to Nigerians about policy. And all that this tells you is that 99.9 per cent of the things they write are simply second-guessing whats in the presidents mind.

They have no contact with the president, they have no contact with the government policy and all they are doing is writing on behalf of the president. There is nowhere in the world where the job of this nature is being done and has been done so poorly.

If you may please indulge me, because I need to explain to you and to Nigerians where I am coming from. Let me cut it short by talking about the last 20 years.

Dr Abati, we are no strangers to one another. We knew where we were in 1999 before democracy. I need to state where I am coming from so people can understand by context why I feel the way I feel. The first thing to say is that I have served three successive or even four presidents since 1999.

I served in the Oputa panel, I served as a member of the electoral reform committee, and I was appointed secretary of the political reform conference. I spent about seven years, beginning from the former President Olusegun Obasanjos administration right through to this government, going in between Abuja, Kaduna and Ogoni land to reconcile the people of Ogoni land with Shell. My book will be out before the year runs out.

So I am saying, therefore, I was also crucial to the signing of the second peace accord between General Buhari and former Goodluck Jonathan. And if you excuse me, Dr Abati, I have never told you this and we have never spoken about this, but you played a very critical role that Nigerians do not know and you probably do not even remember. Because when you came to the signing of that accord, you were the one person at the time that ex-President Johnathan then, as we had planned a meeting with former President Jonathan and the meeting didnt happen because General Buhari and John Oyegun and all their team had all moved to Lagos because Asiwaju Tinubu was celebrating his birthday, and given his status at the APC, his birthday was more or less like a public holiday for the APC.

So General Buhari could not be at the meeting because the peace committee had decided that they wanted the two of them (Messrs Buhari and Jonathan) to sit down, based on the things we had heard and we were hearing, as you can remember, the General Buhari famous statement about the elections and the outcome, that if the election did not succeed it will be blood for the monkey and blood for the dog.

All of us were aware of the tension that existed in the country at that time. I am responsible, led by General Abdulalami, in getting both men to sign the Peace Accord. As you know, the point I want to make is that on the morning of that day, just two days before the election when General Buhari had agreed, finally we were able to track him down and he agreed he was going to meet with us at 8 a.m.

But we did not know how to meet with former President Jonathan who had told us he was flying to Asaba, Delta State at 9 a.m. If you remember (Dr Abati), I called you and I was able to reach you on the phone and I told you that we have a text of the Peace Accord that we wanted President Jonathan to please sign, can you help take the text to him. And I asked you if you have your Ipad with you and you responded yes. Then I sent you the mail. And you took it to former President Jonathan and he signed it

And I was able to persuade former President Jonathan to shift his journey to Asaba and come sign the Peace Accord. And the rest is history. I am saying so because I am not a stranger to the process we are in. While we were sweating and doing all these things, Femi Adeshina was being paid a salary by Orji Kalu and he did a good job in The Sun newspapers as a journalist. Garba Shehu was working for former vice president Abubakar Atiku.

And Lai Muhammed was working for Tinubu so I think everybody should be able to answer his fathers name. And I can say that the reason why I am emotional and passionate about the things of this country and where we are today is because I have paid my dues.

Let each and every one of my critics tell me where they were at the most critical moments in Nigerias history. It is not that now that peoples bank accounts have swollen that they can probably try to preach the gospel to others that they themselves do not believe in.

ARISE NEWS: In recent months, you have been quoted as saying amongst other things that you are opposed to nepotism and insecurity, not President Buhari, that President Buhari still takes your calls even though you are highly critical of him. And you recently supported his position even though he was criticised for declining his assent to the electoral bill because of that clause making direct primaries compulsory. You said that you agreed with that position. So my question here is what is your response to the fact that you have been accused of hatred of President Buhari and his government and there is some kind of personal vendetta against the president?

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Bishop Kukah: As I said, you know my two friends are desperate to be seen as doing their jobs. Nigerians, including those who can barely read, know that they have done a terrible job in their assignment because, as I said in the beginning, as spokespersons to the President, all you have to see is to see what the spokespersons of the President of the United States of America are doing and to see what the spokesperson of the rime Minister of the United Kingdom is doing.

As I have said, when was the last time you saw either Mr Adesina or Mr Garba sitting and addressing the Nigerian media by taking questions from them? I am saying President Buhari knows that I have the greatest respect for him. And I believe he is a gentleman. But for me, as the president of Nigeria, he has done a terribly bad job, as the president of this country. Nothing I am saying is new. Tell me all the messages that I delivered that I was wrong and we can talk about that.

But for me, a Muslim would be the last one to tell me what an Easter message should contain. You see, I understand all these things and President Buhari knows himself that it is nothing personal.

And, one thing the president said to me and I was humbled, because when I heard rumours that people were telling me the president was angry with me because I have said things I had said at the beginning of the life of this administration, is that please get on with the job of governance and the fighting of corruption can go on pari pasu, as one should not cancel out the other.

The Buhari apparatchik all descended on me. Today 99 per cent of all are now the ones asking me what I see that the rest of the Nigerians did not see? But one thing the president said to me, and I asked him whether he had heard and how he felt, the president said in quote, you can quote me verbally, he said, Bishop Kukah, I know where you stand on any issue in Nigeria.

What has connected me with President Buhari and what has connected me with 99 per cent of Nigerian Muslims is not the Catholic Church. It is my public position in a lot of things. And I am not saying this because I expect people to agree with me. And I have said this several times, Nigerians have been extraordinarily magnanimous, because I have not heard many people saying to me we disagree with you. And I have never spoken because I know the issues. The primary beneficiary of the things I am saying is myself. And I speak my mind. If you agree with me or you do not agree with me, let us clarify the issues.

So for me, all these people saying I am attacking the president, where did I attack the president? Because I did not attack his person. Is it about nepotism, is it an issue that is a stranger to us? And the two critical things that I have fundamental disagreement with this president on, is his inability to manage diversity effectively and efficiently.

I have studied diversity as a subject and I understand what I am talking about. The second thing is that those who think that these things are about President Buhari, I have never dealt with the issue of his character because I believe he is a gentleman.

But as far as being the President of Nigeria is concerned, because we are talking about two different things. And please just indulge me: there was an interview that former First Lady, late Stella Obasanjo of blessed memory, granted to a State House magazine. She was asked many questions about her husband.

They asked her to rank her husband, as a husband, as a president and as a father. It was very interesting because I remember that interview. Mrs Obasanjo said as a president of Nigeria, I rank my husband between 80 and 90 per cent because I live with him and I know he is doing very well.

But as a father, I think she ranked him maybe 30-40 per cent, then as a husband she scored him 30 per cent or something of that nature. What am I saying? I am not the first person to disagree with President Buharis policies. His own wife (Aisha) has done so.

I live in northern Nigeria and I can tell you the things one is hearing every blessed day. And you do not need to hear them, all you need to do is to be alert. So these guys should not be sitting in their air-conditioned offices drinking coffee and thinking that somehow everything is just hunky-dory, it is just that we do not seem to appreciate.

Let them disagree with the text of my sermon or any of the things I have written.

ARISE NEWS: Father, I think it was a couple of months ago you made a Christmas message that a lot of people reacted to it. In fact, some were even calling for attacks on you and your life. I will like to know how you live to know all of these calls for attacks by these various groups. And also, you had the chance to speak with the international body in America and you made some vital recommendations about the things going on in Nigeria. For the goodwill of elucidation during the Easter period, we will like to get those copious notes on how we can fix a lot of our problems, needling problems I should say, father

Bishop Kukah: First, I should say in another month or so, my new book titled: Broken tongues for elucisive quest for coercion in Nigeria, which is a collection of some of my convocation lectures, would be out and it would illustrate to you some of my agonies and some of my struggles. Look, I am a Christian and I think anybody who has a good level of faith must also be convinced that you do not measure what you are saying by his many hands in support of you..It is only truth that validates itself.

I have never tried to speak because I want people to agree with me. I have only spoken my mind and I have always constantly thanked all the media that have made this opportunity available to me. What I will tell you on Monday I will tell you on a Tuesday. And what I will tell you in the morning I will as well tell you at night.

I am sorry I have got my own faults but even my worst enemies would tell you that what I would not do is prevaricate, especially when we are dealing with a very clear issue of moral choices.

And during my time in America, I tell you that 90 per cent of the many things that were said were actually based on ignorance because people did not understand the context of what happened. Generally, including my friends from the presidency, I went to address the American congress and I told the American congress bad things about Nigeria.

And unfortunately for many of us, the Americans know far more about what is happening in our country than anybody.

And secondly, I did not go to address the American congress. I went to a conference and I had three platforms. (At) the conference, I spoke about the theme of the conference which was on religious persecution of Christians specifically. I spoke on the prosecution of Christians.

My Muslim critics say why did I not speak about the killings of Muslims. I said another speaker was asked to speak on the killing of Muslims and I said sorry I wasnt in the position to amend what I said. And again, can you name one single thing that I said that you can disagree with?

Contextually, that was why I took the time to tell you where I have come from in the discussion about Nigeria and I feel that I have just little to prove to Nigerians about where my heart is regarding this country.

A lot of the guys are saying what they are saying was not where we were with Lai Muhammed and Asiwaju Tinubu and all the members of NADECO and all the difficult things we had to deal with.

Yesterday (Sunday), my good friend, Dr Fayemi Kayode, we were just joking and laughing over the phone about the message. But because of the kind of background he has come from the struggle, I used to joke with him that he was the first person to start up a pirate radio and this is where you have ended up.

So the problem with our situation in Nigeria is that there is no consistency in the system. There are very few people that can tell you these are the things that have qualified us to be here. Now if the elections hold, many of these people who are presidential spokespersons today may have to find another job somewhere.

So for me, if it is talking about Nigeria. Just ask me the questions or where you think my analysis is wrong and, of course, I am not saying because I am right but this is how I feel. So when people react, I am actually very happy because they do not have to agree with me. I am a public intellectual. My responsibility and duty is to provoke conversation. But we are living in a semi-feudal environment where people would think the man is talking and the woman too is talking. and big men are talking and small men are talking.

We are in a democracy and a good number of the operators of this system do not understand the ingredients of democracy. They think democracy is about building roads and seeing the infrastructure we are working on. No! I think the thing that makes democracy what it is is intangible and they are about freedom of expression. They are about expanding the frontiers of freedom of human imagination and thinking.

So any attempt to limit those ideas, democracy collapses and it is about managing diversity. So if I tell you the way I feel about what this government has done, I know what I am talking about, the facts bear me out and the records are there about how we are fighting insecurity. Have we ever had a time in Nigeria when we say all the people holding security positions in Nigeria are all Christians and all Muslims and are from one tribe?

How do you run a country like that? On issues as sensitive (as this), you go to the FBI and CIA, they are all learning Igbo and some speak Igbo and speak Yoruba. You have to have listening devices across the board.

Nepotism is horrible, it is evil, precisely because it denies you as a leader an opportunity to hear other voices and what you have. All of you end up in an echo chamber where all of you are speaking the same language and thinking the same.

For me, when I speak like this, if my mother or father happens to be President of Nigeria, and they are not because all of them are no more, but I will take the same position if there is any evidence that everybody is not being carried along.

You cannot satisfy everybody, but at least give people the impression that they matter. You were not invited by people from one religion or region. For me, what we are doing is killing democracy. And by allowing banditry to gain the kind of scope it has gained, we are actually trying to use democracy to kill democracy. Those are the things that I am passionate about.

And that is why I am resistant to anything that tries to close those doors of opportunity.

ARISE NEWS: You talked about Caesar and God as part of the problems we have in Nigeria, Can we resolve that conflict between Caesar and God as we move towards a new transition in Nigerian politics? And you said the system has broken down and you provided more than enough illustration of how we fix this broken system called Nigeria.

Bishop Kukah: Well, Dr Abati, remember that every Nigerian who raised his hands to say he wanted to be president or governor told us what they were going to do. And I have never taken President Buhari out of the promises he made to Nigerians.

And I am saying to his so-called spokesperson, let them tell me and give us chapter and verse and tell me all the promises that were made. There is a box we can tick. For me, those are the issues we should be talking about. The people who are now telling you they want to be your president is because they believe that they will solve the problems of Nigeria. And your responsibility and duty, and I put it in my statement, we must now look at a gift horse in the mouth. We are no longer interested in the promise you are making because politics in Nigeria has always been surrounded where all these parties, the PDP, APC, they just carry their people, pay a few women and poor people to gather in the stadium for few minutes and clap for themselves and everybody goes home.

We must now insist, because we are better educated than the people asking for these positions on the other side. This is where the professors are, and this is why we have this great tragedy that the universities of Nigeria have not been given the respect that they deserve.

And the fact that our universities are closed suggests that we have opted and opened the doors for the bandits. So most of these things that we are talking about are a result of politics without the refiining ingredients of intellectualism and diagnoses.

It is our duty and it is the business of the media, and I thank This Day for now opening up this opportunity, but it should not be a monologue. Nigerians, we must create the opportunity to be able to interrogate all these people and design the mechanisms because the reasons why people like us are talking, my opponents like the spokespersons of the president, think that we have cast our votes, let us all go to sleep. And the obligation we have is to pray for our leaders.

And that takes me to answer your question about Caesar and God. Dr Abati, I am a priest and I have studied a bit of theology, so I understand this issue. So I am not going to take lectures from illiterates who do not understand scripture. The idea of the debates between Caesar and God, if you remember the text in the Bible, what was the issue? They approached Jesus and they said, are we to pay a tax to Caesar or what are we supposed to do? Jesus responded and said give me the coin, whose Image was on the coin? And they responded, it was that of Caesar. Then Jesus said to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give to God what belongs to God.

Nigerians in their naivety, let me say secular analysts across the world, have taken this to mean that Jesus was talking about the separation of religion and politics only superficially.

The real context of what Jesus was saying, which you could only insinuate by extrapolation Jesus said okay the coin belongs to Caesar, so Caesar has dominion over the coin. But who is Cesar answerable to?. Cesar is answerable to God. Therefore, the coin and Caesar belong to God.

And that is why you say politics should be an art, it is a call from God and it should be an art of serving God. So those who think that what Jesus was saying is that politics is here and religion is here, and all these journalists who are talking to me, bishop please go back if you want to be a politician; you are journalists, were you trained to go and work for any president?

I understand that I am political but I am not a politician.
Top Yoruba monarch, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has passed on, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

Alaafin Adeyemi, the third from the Alowolodu Ruling House, died in the late hours of Friday at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State in South-West Nigeria.

The remains of the top Yoruba traditional ruler were brought to Oyo town, 62 kilometres from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in the early hours of Saturday and traditional rites began, palace sources told this newspaper.

He was 83 years old and the longest reigning Alaafin ever, having ruled for more than 51 years.

The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is expected to make an official announcement upon receiving the report of the monarchs passing from the Bashorun of Oyo, Yusuf Akinade, the head of the Oyo Mesi, who will now lead Oyo town before a new Alaafin is installed.

The monarch had been sick and a plan had been made to fly him abroad before he passed on late Friday night.

A source familiar with the medical travel plan said his tickets and those of a few wives were already procured.

His death came months after the two other senior Oyo State monarchs  the Olubadan of Ibadan, Saliu Adetunji, and the Soun of Ogbomoso, Jimoh Oyewumi  died. All happened in less than five months.

A new Olubadan has been installed but the Soun throne remains vacant.

Alaafin Adeyemi was born Lamidi Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi on October 15, 1938 into the Alowolodu Royal House of the famous Oyo town.

He was crowned on November 18, 1970, succeeding Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu I. He was known popularly as Iku Baba Yeye.

While he reigned, he was the permanent chairperson of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs.

With the demise of Alaafin Adeyemi, it is now the turn of the Agunloye Ruling House to produce the next Oyo monarch. Mr Adeyemis predecessor, Alaafin Ladigbolu, was from the Agunloye House.
Some gunmen, Saturday, reportedly abducted 10 members of the Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in Obene Community, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The Nation reported that the incident happened at the herders settlement in the council area around 1:30 a.m.

The gunmen, who reportedly stole over 300 cows, then demanded N4 million ransom from families of the victims.

The South-east Chairman of MACBAN, Gidado Siddiki made this known on Saturday, according to the paper.

Mr Siddiki said that the herders were attacked at their settlement while asleep and their animals forcefully taken away by the gunmen numbering about 40.

The attackers reportedly invaded the area with weapons such as guns, cutlasses, sticks and charms.

As I speak to you now, I have reported the incident to the Police and DSS for prompt action, the newspaper quoted Mr Siddiki as saying.

The MACBAN leader appealed to the kidnappers to release his members and cows.

He condemned the politicisation of the herdsmen and host communities conflict across the country.

He said the herdsmen were always accused of crimes, even in situations where they were the victims of attack.

Mr Siddiki blamed the face-off between herdsmen, farmers and host communities on lack of accurate communication.

He commended Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State for initiating a peace and reconciliation committee to address the security challenges in the state and the South-east region at large.

The police spokesperson in the state, Tochukwu Ikenga, has confirmed the incident.

He asked the leadership of Miyetti Allah in the state to come up with more information that would enable the police to commence aggressive investigation into the matter.

Yes, we are aware of the incident, but we want the Miyetti Allah leadership to supply us with more information, since the kidnappers have established ransom contact with the victims families, he said.

Mr Ikenga, a deputy superintendent of police, urged the Miyetti Allah leadership not to resort to self-help in trying to rescue the victims.

The police spokesperson assured that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Echeng Echeng, and other security agencies would do everything possible to rescue the victims from their abductors.

Attacks by armed men have increased in the South-east in recent times.

The attacks often target security agencies and government facilities. The recent attack on the cattle breeders appears to be a novelty.

The Nigerian government has accused the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the South-east. But the group has repeatedly denied their involvement in the attacks.

The separatist group is leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria.

Leader of the group, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently detained in Abuja where he is facing trial for alleged treason.
Many people were, Friday night, feared killed when an explosion rocked an illegal crude oil refinery in Abaezi forest, Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that several persons were also seriously injured and six vehicles razed in the incident.

The Commissioner for Petroleum Resources in the state, Goodluck Opiah, who visited the area on Saturday, said the incident was unfortunate.

Mr Opiah decribed illegal oil bunkering as a suicidal business.

During his on-the-spot assessment visit, the commissioner said he could not confirm the actual casualty figure.

At the moment, I cant really confirm the number of the deceased because many family members have removed the corpses of so many others, the commissioner was quoted in the local media as saying.

Multiple witnesses in the local media, however, put the casualty figure between 100 and 200, as of Saturday.

The commissioner said the state government has declared the owner of the illegal refinery, Okenze Onyenwaoke, wanted.

He advised Mr Onyenwaoke to make himself available to the police immediately.

Most of the people who are engaging in this act are from Rivers, Bayelsa and other neigbouring states and it is sabotage for our people to allow this illegal act to continue.

Apart from this calamity, the act has destroyed the aquatic life in the community. Our people before now were predominantly farmers and fishermen.

Look around, you will find smoke coming from this illegal act. If this is not enough for any person to stop, I think the community is heading for what I cant describe, said Mr Opiah, who hails from the area.

A resident of the area, Daniel Opara, told PREMIUM TIMES that majority of the victims in the incident were youth. He said the people were unable to escape because fire covered the whole forest.

I rarely see old people involved in this illegal act. They are mainly youths, he said.

Mr Opara, however, could not say if the people were all from the state or the neigbouring states.

It is a popular business here. I think they make it there, thats why they take such risks, he added.

A video clip shot at the scene of the incident and shared in various social media platforms shows horrible images of the victims burnt beyond recognition littering the environment.

Oil theft, known as bunkering in local parlance, has been a source of concern to many stakeholders across the country.

The Nigerian government was reported to be losing an estimated $4 billion yearly due to oil theft activities.

In Rivers State, air pollution, especially the soot in Port Harcourt, the state capital, and its environs, has been attributed to the operation of illegal oil refineries.
Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, says he has garnered enough experience to lead Nigeria as the president come 2023.

He made the disclosure on Friday in Ibadan during a parley with Oyo State All Progressives Congress (APC) delegates.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Osinbajo had visited Ibadan to pay homage to the Olubadan of Ibadanland and meet with the delegates.

The vice president had on April 11 declared his intention to seek his partys ticket to run for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Mr Osinbajo said that everything he learnt as vice president and acting president had prepared him for the office.

I have served in the Federal Government of Nigeria for the past seven years. And I have been involved because the president considered it the right thing to do.

In his own generosity and his openness, he gave me every opportunity to serve, including very sensitive international assignments.

As you know, I also acted as president during certain periods when the president was away on medical vacation, he said.

He declared his readiness to serve the country faithfully, honestly and transparently,

The vice president said that one advantage he had was that he could hit the ground running on day one because he knew what it took to do so.

I believe that time has come and I have the responsibility to my country. I have the responsibility to you, to all our children, and the coming generations, to give all of what I have learnt, everything I have learnt, all of the service I have given, to be able to give it to our country, he said

Mr Osinbajo also promised that important decisions on security, economy and others would be based on consultations at every levels.

Isaac Omodewu, the Oyo State APC chairman, said that Mr Osinbajo was the type of president Nigeria needed.

You are the type we need in Nigeria as our President. Delegates in Oyo state are here listening to you. I believe they will work for you and do your bidding, he said.

(NAN)
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) says they will embark on a one-day warning strike on April 25, over the introduction of 15 per cent National Automotive Council (NAC) levy.

Rilwan Amuni, Taskforce Chairman of ANLCA, said this in a circular obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

The levy was recently introduced by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on used imported vehicles, a decision which didnt go down well with clearing agents in the countrys maritime sector.

The agents argued that the NAC levy is mostly meant for new vehicles, questioning the rationale behind the introduction of the duty on used vehicles.

The circular said that the warning strike was a fall out of consultations among critical stakeholders.

We have consulted widely among critical stakeholders as par the 15 per cent NAC and illegal benchmarks on Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).

It has been concluded that the 15 per cent NAC is a fraud and an obnoxious policy.

In view of this, in conjunction with other stakeholders their will be a one-day warning strike on April 25 by 10:00 a.m. prompt, starting from our Holy Ground in front of Grimaldi.

And we will move down to Customs Area Controller (CACS) of Port and Terminal Multi-services Ltd. (PTML) and Tincan enroute all other terminals in Tincan and Apapa, it said.

The circular, however, expressed optimism that the authorities concerned would reverse the Illegal 15 per cent NAC and also review the benchmarks on PAAR within the next 48 hours.

It said that all members should be ready to down tools and ensure total shut down at the ports after the warning strike, if the policy was not reversed.

Please note that April 25 and 26 is just a warning strike, agents are allowed to do their jobs and tidy up against Wednesday in lieu of whether their will be a reverse or not, it said.

(NAN)
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Taraba State, on Saturday, expressed dismay over the explosion that rocked Jalingo, the Taraba State capital on Friday.

The CAN chairperson, Isaiah Jirapye, in a statement, said the explosion in Jalingo came four days after an explosion at the Iware area of the state.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for both bombings.

To the Federal Government, CAN Taraba State, however, lamented over the way it is handling terrorism fight as there is no seriousness on the side of the Federal government but rather lip service, Mr Jirapye said.

The Jalingo explosion which left some people injured is evidence of the presence of bad elements and terrorists in the state. It is satanic for anyone to carry a bomb or explosive device and detonate it among people to kill, it lamented, he said.

Mr Jirapye said Life is sacred and belongs to God and therefore CAN condemns the Nukkai explosion.

Tarabans must arise to see that the peace the state is enjoying is sustained and say no to blood thirsting terrorists who are bent on distabilising the peace and unity of our dear state, he added.

The association also urged the Taraba State Government to initiate measures aimed at identifying and flushing out these elements and their cohorts, which have set up their camps across the state.

The cleric added that residents must know that winning the fight is a collective responsibility hence the need for everyone to act as a stakeholder in peacebuilding and stability.

If you see something say something, security is everybodys business.

Tarabans should never be afraid but be strong as God will definitely grant us victory on these challenges. It is a time for collective prayers for our land.

The Traditional institution is a fundamental organ in this fight. Government must synergies effectively with them to identify the hub of these terrorists among the people to immediately stop this trend of planting explosive devices in the state.

Its high time that people should accord eminence to the security of their environment. They should stay away from unnecessary gatherings and step up serious security checks in official gatherings, the official said.
Nigerias watchdogs are failing the credibility test, and no recent case makes this clearer than the appointment months ago of the former Fidelity Banks chief, Nnamdi Okonkwo, as the new group managing director of FBN Holdings.

Mr Okonkwo, who got the First Bank job in October 2021, scaled the Central Bank of Nigerias approval hurdle despite being the subject of a major money laundering investigation.

The Board approved the appointment of Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo as the new Group Managing Director of FBN Holdings Plc, with effect from January 1, 2022, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the shareholders at the next Annual General Meeting of the Company, FBN Holdings board of directors said in a note to the Nigerian Exchange dated October 28, 2021.

Mr Okonkwo has since 2016 faced 14 charges of alleged corruption at a Lagos Federal High Court, a record not lost on the CBN. In November 2021, a month after his latest appointment, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) again quizzed Mr Okonkwo.

The EFCC said in 2017 that during his Fidelity Bank days, Mr Okonkwo helped illegally move $153.3 million belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The anti-graft body said Mr Okonkwo contrived a plot with Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigerias petroleum minister at the time, to help her convey the money in cash from Abuja to the banks Lagos headquarters.

An EFCC investigator, Moses Awolusi, who worked on the case, testified that Mr Okonkwo had an order from the minister neither to lodge it in any account nor transfer electronically via banking channels.

A portion of the money ($108.3 million) would later go into an investment that was conducted off balance sheet at Sterling Asset Management Trustees Limited, the fund management division of Sterling Bank, the anti-graft agency said.

Another portion ($40 million) was received by an executive director at First Bank, whose parent company Mr Okonkwo would later head.

At a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in February 2017, Justice Muslim Hassan declared the final forfeiture of the loot, N34 billion terms after establishing the fund to be proceeds of illegal acts.

Fresh Controversy

Much as the CBN failed to note the case while reviewing Mr Okonkwos profile for confirmation, news of his alleged involvement in a fresh corruption case broke in December in the warm-up stage to his resumption at FBN Holdings, again disregarded by the apex bank.

The EFCC, through its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed in Abuja the commission unearthed a new $72.9 million as part of the $115 million linked to bribing officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2015 election.

Okonkwo, who is currently the Chairman of First Bank Holding, alongside others, had earlier been grilled over a sum of $153 million and $115 million by the Commission, Mr Uwujaren said in December.

While all the $153 million were recovered by the EFCC, the cases involving $115 million, as it relates with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, bribery matter, are in various courts, the statement added.

Okonkwo and Charles Onyedibe (a Fidelity Bank branch manager) are currently being detained by the EFCC over the whereabouts of the new $72.8 million.

In April 2019, Auwal Jibrin, a deputy director at INEC and an accomplice, Garba Ismaila, got jail terms of six years and seven years respectively for being complicit in the crime.

The spokesperson for the CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, refused to comment on the case. He requested the question be sent as a message but still did not respond.

The resolution confirming Mr Okonkwos appointment by the apex bank authorities does not conform with one of the provisions of CBNs own Code of Corporate Governance for Banks and Discount Houses in Nigeria 2014, which took effect last year.

Track record of appointees shall be an additional eligibility requirement. Such records shall cover both integrity and past performance, in accordance with the extant CBN Guidelines on Fit and Proper Persons Regime, its Section 2.4.4 stipulates.

The referenced guidelines are a part of Revised Assessment Criteria for Approved Persons Regime for Financial Institutions 2015, another regulatory document of the CBN, which spells out the criteria for assessing the propriety of persons for board, top management and critical operational positions in commercial bank.

The document notes in its second section that in assessing a candidates integrity and suitability for those roles, elements to be considered must include whether the candidate is or has been the subject of any proceedings of a disciplinary or criminal nature, or has been notified of any impending proceedings or any investigation, which might lead to such proceedings.

Section 2, Subsection 4 also adds that the integrity test must consider whether the candidate, has been investigated, disciplined, suspended or criticized by a regulatory or professional body, a court or tribunal, whether publicly or privately.

Operational and corporate governance upheavals

Between 2016 and when the FBN Holdings hierarchy announced Mr Okonkwo as the groups new head, the holdco has been bogged down by a number of operational and corporate governance upheavals, most of them dire.

From a far-reaching bad loan crisis that put FirstBank in danger of being swept under in 2016 to a regulator-led reshuffle last year down to a contentious top ownership tussle in 2021, the 128-year old financial institution seems to be right at phase where it needs a coordinated makeover to redeem its name among investors and the public.

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FirstBank is seeing a healing process following the disaster wrought some six years ago when its bad loan charges rocketed by 90 per cent to N226 billion, forcing the CBN to appoint Adesola Adeduntan as its chief.

According to its financial reports, the group had set aside more than N116.8 billion to cover doubtful credit in the six years to that time.

That month, a power block comprising Oba Otudeko, FBN Holdings chair at that point, and Ibukun Awosika, FirstBanks immediate chairperson, contrived to replace Mr Adeduntan, whose loyalty was said to lie in another block.

The decision irked the CBN, which never green-lighted the decision before news of the appointment broke into the open.

The regulator later dismissed the duo and appointed Remi Babalola, Nigerias former minister of state for finance, to chair the group.

In 2021, a cut-throat scramble for the biggest shareholder title pitted Tunde Hassan-Odukale, the chairman of FirstBank, against Femi Otedola, an energy mogul, who until that time was not numbered among the banks chief stockholders. Piecemeal purchases of the groups shares under stealthy circumstances raised Mr Otedolas stake to 7.6 per cent, catapulting him to the peak of its shareholding structure.

The quest to resist a rank outsider from becoming the top shareholder, which could bestow considerable power to take certain key board decisions, would later have reverberations.

Before Mr Otedolas status as the new top shareholder could be officially confirmed in October, the FBN Holdings board created no little scare in hastily declaring Mr Okonkwo as the incoming GMD to take over from U.K. Eke, whose tenure ended by the end of December.

At his exit point, Mr Babalola spoke of the multi-layered rot in FBN Holdings, with an intimation that the group might require an elaborate cleansing act to find redemption.

With the rot, stench and corruption in the system, it has been well-nigh impossible for me to break; and upon deep reflection and partial to my personal values, I write to formally resign my appointment as a non-executive director and chairman of the board of directors of FBN Holdings PLC, effective immediately, Mr Babalola said.

Editors Note: This report has been updated to amend an earlier reference to the ownership of First Registrars.
A blast suspected to be a bomb explosion occurred in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on Friday night, residents said.

Witnesses said the incident occurred at a bar in Nukkai area of the town.

A witness, Danzumi Ishaku, told Nigerian Tribune Newspaper that the incident happened few minutes after the bar had closed for the day.

Mr Ishaku said the incident happened close to the old Catholic Church in Nukkai.

The witness said no human casualties was reported but a motorcycle that was packed close to the bar was destroyed in the explosive.

The latest incident happened on the heels of of a bomb attack at another bar at Ardo Kola Local Government Area on Tuesday.

The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) armed group claimed responsibility for Tuesdays explosion.

Six people were killed in the attack and several others were injured.

In January, what is believed to be a bomb went off at a Catholic school in Gassol Local Government Area.

The police spokesperson in the state, Usman Abbdullahi, did not immediately respond to our reporters enquiry over the latest incident.

Taraba, which had been largely insulated from terrorist attacks, has seen an uptick of attacks believed to be carried out by terror groups in the past year.
The Lagos State Government has announced the reopening of Chrisland school one week after its abrupt closure over an alleged sexual misconduct by five pupils of the school during an international trip.

The government had on Monday announced the closure of all the branches of the school in the state.

It said the development became necessary towards ensuring safety of the students and staff, and to ensure unhindered investigation of the incident.

But ahead of the resumption of third term in the ongoing 2021/2022 academic session, the state government, via a statement signed by the commissioner for education, Folasade Adefisayo, directed the schools to reopen on Monday.

The statement reads in part:

The Lagos State Ministry of Education has directed that all Chrisland Schools shut for alleged misconduct of some students in Dubai be reopened from Monday April 25th, 2022.

The directive follows a review of the ongoing administrative investigation into the incident. Besides, it is to ensure that students are not denied access to learning when the new term begins on Monday 25th April, 2022.

New protocols

Meanwhile, without stating the status of the investigation reportedly launched into the alleged scandal, the government said the education ministry and other agencies in the state would collaborate with the schools parent teachers association (PTA) to provide psychosocial support for the affected students.

The statement added that an extensive assessment of the schools procedure, especially on external trips and excursions, is being made to identify safety gaps and prevent such incidents.

Besides, the ministry will launch the reviewed guidelines/protocols governing private and public schools across the state within the next one month.

Background

A video had on Monday gone viral on social media of alleged sexual violation by five pupils of the school, attracting wide criticism from the public.

The alleged scandal had 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 development came less than four years after a teacher in the school, Adegboyega Adenekan, was convicted and sentenced to 60 years jail term for raping a two-year-old female pupil.

The government, while announcing the closure of the school, had also warned against circulation of the sex tape via any medium by anyone. It threatened to invoke the law against anyone found guilty of doing such.

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 statement had read in part.

The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) had during the week appealed to the government to reconsider its position on the continued closure of the school.

It said the decision would negatively affect other learners in the school, and especially those sitting external examinations.

The associations national president, Yomi Otubela, who signed the statement, condemned the conduct and pledged collaboration with the government and all other concerned parties to prevent recurrence of such conducts in any of its member-schools and elsewhere.
A woman receives a dose of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre at Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, on July 7, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images)

When Russias Sputnik V Covid-19 jab was unveiled early in the pandemic, the first to be approved by any country, it was billed by its makers as a vaccine for all mankind. But supply of the jab has faltered from the start, and now Russias invasion of Ukraine looks to have put the nail in the coffin of Sputniks international ambitions.

Sputnik V started strongly. It became the worlds first registered vaccine in August 2020, and more than 70 countries have since signed deals to import or manufacture it. It is innovative, using two shots with different strains of adenovirus for strong immunity, and easier to store than more temperature-dependent alternatives. Its backer, the sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) claimed Sputnik could reach 700 million people beyond Russias borders in 2021.

However, troubles soon began to surface. By rushing through early tests, Russia created mistrust both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, supply was overpromised. According to UNICEF, fewer than 80 million doses of Sputnik were exported in 2021, 10 per cent of what was initially hoped. There were also delays in the supply of raw materials to those countries manufacturing the vaccine abroad, and the second dose was hard to make. This later led to an innovation of only using a single first dose, known as Sputnik Light.

By the end of last year, supply issues were coming to a head. Foreign governments got pretty irritated at non-delivery of promised vaccine says Professor Judy Twigg of the Virginia Commonwealth University, who is an expert on Russian politics and health. At the start of the pandemic when everyone was panicking, many had invested in Sputnik V, but since then, theres been a pretty clear pattern of most of those countries preferring the Western alternatives, she explains, in part because of the greater reliability of supply.

Guatemala, one of many Central and South American states which had orders of Sputnik, halved an order of 16 million jabs due to slow supply. When consumers are given a choice, such as in India, they often opt for Western vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the recently approved Novavax, according to Professor Twigg.

Story continues

So the Russian vaccine was already in trouble before the invasion of Ukraine in late February. But the war and its fallout will cause a host of other problems for Sputnik. First, some countries, particularly in Europe, have cancelled Sputnik deals in protest at Russian aggression. Germany and Italy announced they would stop deals even before the war broke out. A Bavarian deal with Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm also fell apart. Kenya and Gabon, which made large purchases of the vaccine early in the pandemic, have recently voted with the United Nations motion condemning the invasion , likely marking an end to their already faltering deals.

Secondly, even for countries that have not taken a strong stance on the Ukraine war, supply of Sputnik V is likely to be affected by sanctions. The RDIF itself is under US sanctions for being an alleged slush fund for the Russian state - which RDIF denies. Similarly, Russian banks are now almost impossible to pay from the West, since they were cut off from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). It is also harder for Russia to import and export raw materials needed for the vaccine, causing problems for nations such as Algeria, Brazil, Egypt, and Mexico, which had deals to make the vaccine and do not have the recipe. Last month, a factory in South Korea suspended production, citing concerns about the impact of sanctions.

The sanctions are going to make it harder for Russians to produce Sputnik V in quantities sufficient for export, and any customers who want it are going to have a hard time paying for it, says Professor Twigg.

A healthcare worker administers a dose of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at a vaccination centre in the GUM State Department store in Moscow on October 21, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images)

Thirdly, Sputnik V is now almost certain not to be approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO were set to visit Russia for final tests in March, but their visit was postponed indefinitely due to the war. "We were supposed to go do inspections in Russia on March 7, and these inspections were postponed for a later date," Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant-director general for Access to Medicines and Health Products, said. Professor Twigg thinks WHO approval is now dead in the water.

Its unimaginable that in the midst of Russian atrocities that WHO would go to Russia and approve this vaccine, she says. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is also unlikely to approve the vaccine.

Many of the deals around the world were contingent on such approval. Unicef had hoped to vaccinate 110 million people in Nigeria, Paraguay, Somalia, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia with Sputnik, but this is implausible without a WHO listing.

"Unicef procures Covid-19 vaccines that have received WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) status the UN agency said in a statement. The Sputnik V vaccine has not yet received a WHO EUL. As such, the Sputnik V vaccine has not been offered for procurement and/or delivery to any specific countries through Unicef."

Lack of regulatory approval may be more a reflection of politics than the vaccines effectiveness: a paper in the medical journal The Lancet found high efficacy of the Sputnik vaccine. They probably would have been better off in their PR if they had just waited until they had the data to make the claims they were making, Professor Twigg says. They ended up perversely harming the public relations value of their own product.

Named after the Soviet satellite which beat the United States in the space race, Sputnik V has always been political. Russian state TV has spread conspiracy theories about adverse side effects of Western vaccines. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed to have received Sputnik V, but is one of the few world leaders not to get jabbed on camera, and at first only confirmed that he was vaccinated without identifying the brand. Vaccine hesitancy is strong in Russia with a Covid vaccination rate of under 60 per cent.

There is still space for Russian vaccine diplomacy, particularly after a recent US budget decision to cut $5 billion from the global pandemic response, says Professor Twigg. If Russia is willing to donate jabs to poorer countries, it is possible it may be able to increase international supply in some circumstances in the future.

But for now, it seems unlikely that Sputnik V will be anything close to the vaccine for all mankind.
Suspected hoodlums have killed an unidentified woman in a hotel in Aba, Abia State, Nigerias South-east.

The incident happened on April 15 in the hotel which is at Ubani Street, Ogbor Hill, according to the police in the state.

The police spokesperson in Abia, Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.

Mr Ogbonna, a superintendent of police, said the womans corpse had been deposited at a morgue, while the police have launched an investigation to unravel those behind the killing and the abduction of the womans two-year-old daughter.

The state Criminal Investigation Department is handling the investigation, he said.

Mr Ogbonna appealed to the members of the public to volunteer to the police useful information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the crime.

He said such information could be given directly to the commissioner of police in Abia or at any police facility in the state.

NAN learnt from sources in the area that the assailants fled with the womans child after killing her.

A resident of the area, Chimuanya Ezenna, said the hotel has been known for unresolved killings and missing customers. He did not provide any evidence.

Mr Ezenna regretted the police had made no arrest in connection with the latest incident.

Residents are now afraid to report cases of deaths and missing persons in the hotel to the Ogbor Hill Police Divisional Station so that they would not be victimised.

We reliably learnt that at least seven murder cases have been recorded at the hotel since January, he said.

Mr Ezenna said the youths of the area were threatening to resort to self-help, if the culprits were not arrested and brought to book.

The incessant killings going on in the hotel and why no member of the management and staff had been prosecuted for conspiracy and murder is provoking.

I expect that the state government should intervene in order to put an end to the ugly development, Mr Ezenna said.

(NAN)
Gunmen killed three police officers on Saturday in Kogi as they launched an attack on Adavi Police Divisional headquarters in the early hours.

Commissioner of Police Edward Egbuka confirmed the attack in a statement issued in Lokoja by police spokesperson in Kogi, William Ovye-Aya.

He described the attack as callous and painful.

Mr Egbuka said the three died during a gun duel with the gunmen, who took the officers on duty at the Adavi Division by surprise.

This early morning of Saturday, the Command received report of an unfortunate incident at Adavi Police Division, where some hoodlums attacked the station.

They shot sporadically, but were repelled by our men and operatives of the Quick Response Unit who were on special operations at Adavi Local Government Area.

Unfortunately, the Command lost three of its officers to the gun duel, while the hoodlums fled with gunshot wounds as they could not get access into the station.

Consequently, a team of tactical operatives was deployed and it swiftly restored normalcy to the area.

Operatives are trailing the hoodlums with a view to apprehending and bringing them to book, Mr Ovye-Aya quoted Egbuka as saying.

Mr Egbuka called on the people of Adavi and adjoining communities to be on the lookout and report anybody seen with bullet wounds to the police or to any security outpost nearest to them.

The police commissioner sent his condolences to the families of the three fallen police officers, whom he said had done the police force proud.

(NAN)
For Nigeria to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it must address issues of childs rights in the country, says the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF communication specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, while speaking at a two-day media dialogue in Enugu State on Friday, said all SDGs are linked with childrens rights and that these rights must be integrated and implemented.

Mr Njoku said children are often denied their rights to education, good health, nutrition, and safety because of their sensitivity and stages of development.

Without focusing on child rights while implementing the SDGs, then Nigeria will not achieve the United Nations 2030 target, he said.

He said the government must ensure they leave behind no child in implementing plans, programmes, strategies, and policies toward the SDGs.

UNICEF organised the dialogue in collaboration with the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

SDGs 2030

The UN adopted the SDGs in 2015 to serve as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

They address the global challenges facing the world, including poverty, inequality, climate change, hunger, AIDS and discrimination against women and girls, environmental degradation, peace, and justice.

The 17 SDGs are integratedthey recognise that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Integrating childs rights

In his presentation, Chidi Ezinwa, a professor in the department of mass communication, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, said SDGs cannot be achieved until the rights of children are fulfilled.

Mr Ezinwa said the government must take action that will not endanger the future, health, and education of children in the country.

No one must be left behind, including children. The child is a right holder, he said.

He said Nigeria domesticated the Child Rights in 1993 but has still not gotten it right in observing and giving full attention to the rights of a child.

He said some children are turned into adults overnight when they are forced to leave school, do hazardous work, get married, or be locked up in adult prisons.

Understanding that a sustainable future depends on how we meet the needs of children and young people today is important. The quality of our children now determines the future of Nigeria, he said.

Off-track?

UNICEF Nutrition Officer, Nkeiru Enwelum, noted that Nigeria is off track in achieving SDG 2. Goal 2 seeks to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Ms Enwelum said Nigeria is number one in Africa and number two in the world in terms of malnourished children.

She said of the 35 million children under the ages of five, 14 million are stunted, three million are wasted, and 24 million are anaemic.

She noted that 40 per cent of child deaths in the country is because of poor nutrition. She also said 14.5 million people are suffering from acute food insecurity.

Ms Enwelum explained that Nigeria must end the plague of malnutrition to achieve goal 2 by 2030.

She said the convention on the right of a child stipulates that children have the right to food and the SDGs recognise the importance of nutrition as critical to the economic development and wellbeing of countries.
Sango devotees have taken custody of the remains of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, for apparent continuation of traditional rites after Islamic prayers were performed on the body.

The Chief Imam of Oyo, Masud Adebayo, had earlier this afternoon led Muslims to perform Janazah (funeral prayers before internment) on the body of the Alaafin inside the palace.

But Sango devotees were later seen carrying the remains from Ode Aro part of the palace into the Oba Adeyemi III Hall, where they initially covered the sleeping monarch with a mat before forming a circle around the remains.

But they later asked mourners and journalists, to leave the hall.

As the remains were carried, the devotees chanted dirges and eulogies of Sango, whom an Alaafin embodies, according to Yoruba mythology.

The Alaafin passed late last night in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, where he sought treatment for a yet undisclosed ailment.

His remains were brought to Oyo town in the early hours of Saturday with traditional burial rites commencing immediately before the remains were handed over to Muslims for prayers.
The leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has inaugurated a nine-man caretaker committee to oversee and coordinate operations of the union across Lagos State.

Tajudeen Baruwa, the NURTW national president, said in a statement Friday that the committee was constituted following the dissolution of the State Administrative Council (SAC).

Mr Baruwa appealed to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to sustain the peaceful coexistence between the union and the state government.

The bodys national leadership appealed to governor Sanwo-Olu, to allow the existing harmonious relationship between NURTW and Lagos State Government to continue and that it will be extended to the newly appointed officers of the union, he said.

Background

The move by the NURTW leadership came weeks after the Lagos State government suspended the unions activities in the state.

The government said it took the decision to avert a breakdown of law and order in the state.

The suspension followed the decision of the NURTW national body to suspend Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, the chairman of its Lagos State chapter from the association for acts of insubordination and gross misconduct.

The NURTW thereafter announced the dissolution of the Lagos State council after Mr Akinsanyas alleged insubordination and refusal to apologise.

Mr Akinsanya had responded by pulling out the Lagos State chapter from the association.

Two weeks ago, the Lagos State government announced it had set up a Parks Management Committee to oversee the affairs of all parks and garages across the state.

The government appointed Mr Akinsanya as the head of the committee.

NURTWs committee

The NURTW president said the unions caretaker committee was constituted following the dissolution of the State Administrative Council (SAC).

Mr Baruwa said the caretaker committee was set up to allow for continuity in the administration of the transport activities.

The president added that the move was to ensure that members of the union continued to support the governments master plan for transport development.

The nine-man caretaker committee will be led by Mr Fatai Adeshina, a stakeholder in the transportation sector, and the committee will operate for next three months as stipulated in the unions constitution.

Other members of the committee are Mr Sunday Yusuf, Abraham Onifade, Jamiu Erinfolami, Ismaila Ojora, Lekan Ariyibi, Murtala Lawal, Taiwo Azeez while Kayode Agbeyangi would serve as the secretary, he said.

Mr Baruwa said that members of the committee were carefully selected to ensure sanity in the transportation sector.

The union knows that they will effectively manage affairs of Lagos chapter after SAC dissolution, which was done to bring sanity to the unions operation across the metropolis, he said.
The Oyo State Government has officially announced the passing of the Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi III.

The government made the announcement through a press statement signed by Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde.

After the announcement, the palaces town crier went around the town to inform the people about the imposition of a curfew in Oyo town from 7:00 p.m.

The town crier, who spoke in Yoruba said Ti oba leti, ma kuro ni ile re lati ago meje oni di owuro ola, meaning, If you have ears please stay in your house from 7:00 p.m. tonight till tomorrow morning.

In accordance with the rites, earlier, the Chief Imam of Oyo, Masud Adebayo, led Muslims to perform Janazah (funeral prayers before interment) on the body of the Alaafin inside the palace.

The governor, according to the statement by Mr Adisa, described the monarchs death as a personal loss to him.

He also said the Alaafins words of advice and guidance were always golden and helpful to him.

Oba Adeyemi was our last man standing in the rank of most eminent royal fathers with long years of leadership.

He became a golden king, an institution and an authority rolled into one by virtue of his immense experience, wisdom, and understanding of Yoruba history, royalty, and politics.

Oba Adeyemi not only elevated the Alaafin throne with his knowledge and wisdom, but he also became a worthy exemplar for royal leadership in Africa and brought glory to Oyo State and Nigeria.

Kabiyesi never spared anything in his strive to make Oyo State greater and to bring about the Nigeria of everyones collective dream.

It is my prayer that God accepts Kabiyesis soul into Aljanah Firdaus and upholds everyone and everything he left behind.

Good night, Iku Baba Yeye!

Earlier, after Islamic prayers were performed on his remains, Sango devotees took custody of the body of the Alaafin for the continuation of traditional rites.
most cases of presidential pardon in many countries are often extended to individuals whose sins border on breaches in policies and principles, many of which fall under the crime of perjury. Presidential pardon is not meant for criminals who loot the treasury and embezzle public funds. Also, citing legal precedents, some have argued that corruption cases involving state governors are state offences, which are outside the jurisdiction of the National Council of State (NCS).

Last week, Nigerians received, with mixed feelings, the news of President Buharis granting of pardon to 159 persons serving jail terms for various offences in Nigerian prisons. The pardon, we were told, came on the heels of an approval by the National Council of State (NCS) on Thursday, April 14. In a follow up statement, presidential spokesperson and former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr Garba Shehu, explained that the exercise was a culmination of a rigorous process, regulated and guided by the law, which was not, in any way, designed to achieve a political purpose. Oh well!

A good number of people were happy that many of those released were junior military officers, some of who had spent more than three decades in incarceration for their alleged involvement in the infamous Gideon Orkar-led military coup detat of April 22, 1990. The truth remains that most of the officers in question were just following orders from their bosses and they played no active role in staging the coup. Even if they did, many would argue that thirty years is long enough time to have paid for the sin committed. A sizable number of Nigerians, however, were disgusted by the prospect of criminal ex-Governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, who robbed their states blind, walking home free to enjoy their loots.

Dariye was convicted and sentenced for stealing N1.16 billion and Nyame for N1.6 billion in a forty-one-count charge of fraud. Whereas there is no iota of doubt that they committed the offences for which they were charged, many saw the two Middle Belt Christians as victims whose fate would have been totally different, were they Muslims from the core North. Its impossible to dismiss such thought as irrelevant in a deeply religious and culturally sensitive country as Nigeria. That said, the fact still remains that some of us are happy at the prospect of a criminal facing justice, even as disgusting as it is that a bigger number is being left to roam the streets freely and enjoy the proceeds of their crimes. The issue of pardon granted to the criminal ex-governors is problematic on so many fronts.

For starters, most cases of presidential pardon in many countries are often extended to individuals whose sins border on breaches in policies and principles, many of which fall under the crime of perjury. Presidential pardon is not meant for criminals who loot the treasury and embezzle public funds. Also, citing legal precedents, some have argued that corruption cases involving state governors are state offences, which are outside the jurisdiction of the National Council of State (NCS). The prerogative of mercy bestowed on the NCS, they believe, can only be applied to federal offences. But I will leave it to legal experts to trash that one out.

For an administration that came to power on the strength of fighting corruption, this is the height of the betrayal of a peoples trust. The act was more than business as usual. Aside from the opportunity cost of what the stolen money could have been used for, millions more of taxpayers money was spent in prosecuting these people, the duration of which lasted for years. And what is the point of having the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as anti-graft agencies when their years of hard work could easily be rubbished with the stroke of a pen.

The authority to commute sentences or grant pardons given to presidents and heads of government of many nations, is a solemn responsibility not to be taken lightly. This authority is given to the executive branch to rectify situations where there is a clear miscarriage of justice, whether inadvertent or malicious, and not a privilege to be exercised in dispensing political favours.

Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, an influential donor to the Democratic Party, who fled the United States after his indictment for widespread tax evasion, illegal dealings with Iran and other crimes. It was later discovered that Mr Richs former wife, Denise Rich, made a large donation to the Clinton library.

In the United States, from where we modelled our presidential system of government, career professionals in the Justice Departments Office of the Pardon Attorney, carefully scrutinise pardon applications, from where recommendations are made for clemency to the president. The idea is to guard it against becoming another tool in the hands of the executive branch to reward friends and families, and to settle party loyalists who get in trouble.

During Obamas two terms in office, from 2009 through 2017, the 44th president of the United States pardoned 212 people and commuted the sentence of another 1,715. Most fell within the category of those convicted of non-violent crimes under tough drug laws, which had been known to disproportionately target Latinos and Blacks in America. Many, especially in those affected communities, applauded the move. But its not in all cases that Americans have been super excited about the types of men granted pardon by their presidents.

Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, an influential donor to the Democratic Party, who fled the United States after his indictment for widespread tax evasion, illegal dealings with Iran and other crimes. It was later discovered that Mr Richs former wife, Denise Rich, made a large donation to the Clinton library.

In July 2007, President Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby. Mr Libby, a onetime chief of staff to the then Vice President Dick Cheney, had been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was required to pay a $250,000 fine.

Both actions by these presidents elicited widespread condemnation and sparked a firestorm of criticisms. But none compared to the pattern and scope of abuse under President Donald Trump, who took it to a whole new level. Trump was known to dangle the presidential pardon as a get free card to anyone who would refuse to testify in any issue that might potentially incriminate him. In fact, he was said to have even entertained the idea of a blanket pardon for himself and his family, should they ever be convicted. That was the extent to which he abused his office and the power of pardon.

Todays long-overdue hearing examines the constitutional role and the limits of the presidential pardon power. That was the opening statement of the U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler on March 27, 2019, before a subcommittee set up for that purpose.

Nigeria is a pathetic case because what obtains in our clime is a rubber stamp legislature that kowtows to the whims of the executive branch. In our brand of democracy, the idea of the independence of the judiciary is an alien concept. The executive at all tiers of government handpicks who would lead the legislative branch and the president of Nigeria operates like an emperor of sorts.

The United States had elected a rogue president who saw everything as an opportunity for pay-to-play, in total disregard of the centuries old democratic norms that had served America so well. The House judiciary committee was not going to sign a blank check for him do whatever he wanted.

But then, even in American democracy with all its famed checks and balances, the president still wields an enormous amount of power that could be deployed for good or evil. What is gratifying, however, is the fact that the legislative branch is willing and able to use the power vested in them to rein in on the excesses of a criminal like Donald Trump.

Nigeria is a pathetic case because what obtains in our clime is a rubber stamp legislature that kowtows to the whims of the executive branch. In our brand of democracy, the idea of the independence of the judiciary is an alien concept. The executive at all tiers of government handpicks who would lead the legislative branch and the president of Nigeria operates like an emperor of sorts.

If you run a criminal enterprise in Nigeria and plan to excel, you only have to abide by one creed; go big or go home. The motorcycle parts company in Southern California that originated the now popular phrase in the 1990s as a sales slogan in its packaging of some oversized Harley Davidson pipes, wanted to make the point that there is really no passion to be found in playing small. Its an exhortation to go all out and be extravagant, pulling all the stops and taking no prisoners.

If you are an Omoleye Sowore, running your mouth each time and talking about a revolution, rest assured that your rank would be arrested, tortured and count yourself lucky to be alive. You are better off becoming a home-grown terrorist called a bandit or better still, join an international terrorist group whose stock-in-trade is the mass murder of innocent people in the most depraved condition. At any point that you run out of ammunition, become hungry for any reason or simply plan on taking a break in order to strategise, or just pretend that you have become a repentant Jihadi. You surely would receive a national pardon with a heros welcome. It doesnt even matter that your victims would still be languishing in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and surviving daily on bread and Zobo.

Nigeria is a vast crime scene.  Pa Ikhide Ikheloa

Osmund Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: Eagleosmund@yahoo.com
The Police Command in Yobe has confirmed 10 persons killed and several others wounded in an attack orchestrated by Boko Haram insurgents in Geidam town on Wednesday.

The Spokesman of the Command, Dungus Abdulkarim, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Damaturu.

Mr Abdulkarim, an assistant superintendent of police, said the insurgents moving on motorcycles also torched the staff quarters of a public school in the area.

Currently; normalcy has returned and people are going about their normal businesses as security operatives were deployed for patrols and visibility policing to avert future occurrence of the attack, he said.

Mr Abdulkarim said the command sympathised with the Geidam community over the attack and urged the people to report suspicious movements and persons in their communities to security agencies.

PREMIUM TIMES had on Thursday reported the attack by Boko Haram gunmen on Geidam, a town in Damaturu, the capital city of Yobe State.

Our report had indicated that 12 people were killed in the attack.

Residents had told our reporter that the Boko Haram terrorists attacked a popular bar in the town while also razing the staff quarter of the nearby Government Science and Technical College Geidam.

Other victims of the attack were hospitalised at the Geidam General Hospitals for various injuries.

A security source who asked not to be named because he has no authorization to speak with the press on the matter, said the Boko Haram gunmen arrived on motorcycles at the outskirts of the town and entered the town on foot and went straight to the bar to unleash mayhem on its occupants.

The governor of the state, Mai Mala Buni, recently lifted a ban on the use of motorcycles in some parts of the state. Motorcycles are the preferred means of transportation by Boko Haram terrorists and other insurgents in the state.
The deputy director, parks and recreation, Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA), Okpe Charles, has said Nigeria must cultivate the habit of planting trees as part of efforts to mitigate climate change and address global warming.

Mr Charles said this Friday during a tree planting exercise organised by eHealth Africa, a non-governmental organisation.

The event was part of activities by the organisation to commemorate the 2022 World Earth Day.

He said places with no trees attract erosion and other factors that work against the environment.

One special way of mitigating climate change is through planting trees. We know trees produce oxygen which we take in and when you take away oxygen, there will be no life, he said.

Mr Charles said the environment is very important and if one fails to protect it today, it will later haunt the society tomorrow.

He noted that it is the responsibility of the public to sustain the environment.

We are planting trees because we know the importance of trees to the environment, he said.

World Earth Day

World Earth Day, marked on April 22 every year, recognises that the earth and its ecosystems are human habitats requiring harmony with nature and the earth.

It also marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Several agencies and organisations celebrate the day by holding special events to spread awareness about climate change and global warming.

The theme for this years celebration is Invest in our planet. The idea behind this years theme is to encourage governments and citizens to take concrete steps toward following more sustainable practices and taking more of an active role in the earths wellbeing.

Planting trees

The executive director of eHealth Africa, Juliet Odogwu, said the organisation is planting 200 trees in Abuja and 300 in Kano State to commemorate the day.

Ms Odogwu said this is the organisations contribution to the theme of the 2022 Earth Day.

Tree planting is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to contribute to making a cleaner planet, removing carbon dioxide from the environment and also beautifying our planet, she said.

She said the campaign is important to create public awareness about rising temperatures, global warming, and climate change.

She noted that Nigeria has a long way to go to enhance its environment and reduce behaviours that contribute to climate change and global warming.

We have individual and collective responsibilities to do our part in making sure we have a clean environment and planet, she said.

She said other things like the use of energy-efficient sources, renewable energy, and solar power contribute to a healthy environment.

She said the organisation has worked towards reducing its carbon footprint through the use of solar systems for electricity.

eHealth Africa continues to be a champion for renewable energy in public health and we ensure that in all our physical infrastructure projects, we incorporate efficient energy solutions and encourage all of our partners and stakeholders to do so as well, she said.
By Boureima Balima and Moussa Aksar

NIAMEY (Reuters) -Niger lawmakers on Friday approved a bill allowing the deployment of more European special forces to help stem a jihadist insurgency across the Sahel, a move rejected by some parties that oppose Western military influence.

President Mohamed Bazoum agreed in February for the former French colony to host special forces from neighbouring Mali as France withdraws troops deployed since 2013 to help fight Islamist militants, who have since spread from Mali's arid north.

Niger's parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill, which clears the way for more European troops to be deployed but did not specify how many.

About 2,400 French troops and 900 special forces in the French-led Takuba force are expected to leave Mali in coming months due to deteriorating relations with its ruling military junta.

There are concerns France's withdrawal could sap a lengthy battle against insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that have killed hundreds, displaced millions and made swathes of territory ungovernable in the Sahel, south of the Sahara.

Discussions continue on re-deployment of troops leaving Mali, with a view to using them to protect affected countries in the Sahel and the coastal Gulf of Guinea nations.

The coastal states, such as Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast, which have been hit by spillover attacks in recent months, could also host troops if needed.

The deployments will add to French and other European special forces already stationed along Niger's border with Mali in February, boosting military bases nationwide, the bill said.

"We need foreign forces for intelligence and aerial support to Nigerien armed forces fighting on the ground," said leading ruling party member Daouda Mamadou Marte before the debate.

The ruling party holds a majority in parliament, with 135 out of 166 seats. But it has faced staunch resistance by opposition lawmakers and civil society groups weary of a foreign army presence amid growing public anger about France's military involvement in its former colonies.

Story continues

Protesters in both Burkina Faso and Niger blocked a French convoy travelling from Ivory Coast to Mali in November. Ensuing clashes in western Niger killed at least two people and injured over a dozen. [L1N2SI06D]

Nigerien civil society leader Abdoulaye Seydou said passing the bill would be a breach of sovereignty.

"Sahelian states are able to set up their own protection mechanisms," he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Boureima Balima and Moussa AksarWriting by Sofia Christensen and Nellie PeytonEditing by William Maclean and Mark Potter)
Gunmen have freed a popular Akwa Ibom cleric after holding him for about three days.

The cleric, John Okoriko, is the founder of the Solid Rock Kingdom Church in Mkpat Enin, Akwa Ibom State.

The gunmen abducted him on Tuesday at his church premises.

The police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom, Odiko Macdon, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Saturday, that Mr Okoriko was released on Friday.

He said the police were still on the trail of the abductors.

We are following up the matter professionally to ensure that the abductors are brought to book, said Mr Macdon, a superintendent of police.

A member of Mr Okorikos family expressed joy at the clerics release.

He said Mr Okoriko worshipped with the congregation at the Uyo branch of the church on Friday, soon after his release.

His abductors had initially demanded N100 million ransom and later reduced it to N30 million.

It is unclear how much they eventually paid.

We are not aware of any ransom paid to secure his release, the police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom said.

Abduction-for-ransom has become one of the prevalent crimes in many Nigerian cities.

Apart from clerics and rich Nigerians, students have become easy targets of mass abduction, especially in northern Nigeria.

Nigerians travelling through interstate highways have also become regular targets.

(NAN)
The remains of the Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi, who passed on last night, are being prepared for Islamic prayers, palace sources have said.

The prayers will be offered at 4 p.m. inside the palace today.

A cultural icon and committed traditionalist though, Alaafin Adeyemi III often identified as a Muslim.

His remains were brought to Oyo in the early hours of Saturday from Ado Ekiti, where he passed on at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital. Traditional rites then followed upon arrival in Oyo.

Following the traditional rites, a janazah (Islamic funeral prayers before internment) will be performed on the remains.

A child of the passing Alaafin, who confirmed the Islamic prayers arrangement, said he did not know what would follow the prayers  whether the remains are to be buried according to Islamic rites or returned to the traditionalists.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that the late monarchs children are trying to negotiate a way that their father will be buried in full compliance with Islamic rites, though after the initial traditional rites.

Another young royal said it would not be difficult for the children to have their way after the earlier traditional rites because many of the traditionalists, who are to perform the rites, have never done such before.

The Alaafin reigned for 51 years, the longest for any Oyo monarch. He was announced and installed Alaafin in late 1970, but the coronation ceremony held in January 1971.

The Alaafins spokesperson, Bode Durojaiye, has confirmed that the monarch passed on last night, but the Government of Oyo State has not issued an official statement.

Alaafin Adeyemi was the Permanent Chairman of Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs.

He was 83.

One of the core rites, according to Oyo tradition, is some ritual at Bara in Oyo East LGA, regarded as the abode of the sleeping Alaafin. But a senior traditionalist said, some rites will only be performed there without actually burying a monarch there.

The remains would be taken there but be returned to palace where Kabiyesis have always actually slept, the traditionalist said, asking not to be identified by name.

With the ongoing efforts by the monarchs children to have their father buried according to Islamic rites, the traditionalist said no preparation has been made at Bara.
Some aides and associates of the late Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo, have described the traditional ruler as a great mentor, who would be sorely missed.

PREMIUM TIMES broke the news of the death of the first class traditional ruler who died on Friday night at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital in Ado-Ekiti.

NAN reports that hundreds of residents of Oyo Town have continued to throng the ancient palace to mourn the demise of Adeyemi III.

Commenting, Bode Durojaiye, the Alaafins media aide, expressed shock over the demise of the highly reverred traditional ruler.

Mr Durojaiye described Oba Adeyemi as a great traditional ruler, who had contributed immensely to the development of Oyo Town, Oyo State and Nigeria.

He said that the late Alaafin of Oyo was a custodian of Yoruba culture and history, and he is loved by his people.

Mr Durojaiye said that before the late Oba Adeyemi ascended the throne, Oyo Town was not as developed as it is today.

According to him, the Alaafin was a great traditional ruler, who all other traditional rulers were very proud of.

He was a great custodian of Yoruba culture and history.

He was a philanthropist. He has transformed Oyo Town and the palace from what he met on ascending the throne. We have lost a great promoter of Yoruba culture, Durojaiye said.

Also, Paula Gomez, the Alaafins cultural ambassador, described the late traditional ruler as a great man and mentor , adding he was a father to everybody.

I dont know what happened. I spoke to Baba last week and he was fine. Maybe his death is natural.

I worked with Alaafin on preservation of heritage and culture. He was a father to everybody. He was a great man and mentor, she said.

Some palace workers in separate interviews with NAN, said that the late Alaafin already had premonition of his death few weeks back.

Two weeks ago, he called and told us that his late father was calling him to come. We were afraid and asked if truly he saw his father.

We are happy to have him as the Alaafin. He ascended the throne at a young age, preserved the stool, promoted the Yoruba culture and was an epitome of royalty, one person told NAN.

There are reports that the remains of the traditional ruler would be buried by 4.00 p.m on Saturday.

According to a reliable source, the Alaafin will be buried today according to Islamic rites. He is going to be buried in Baara.

Baara is not just the final resting place of all the Alaafins, it is also a place where the Alaafin goes to whenever there is need to commune with his ancestors to seek for guidance and or directions, the source told NAN.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar have condoled the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, and the family of the late Alaafin of Oyo, Lamidi Adeyemi.

Mr Obasanjo described the late monarch as a symbol of a nations epic struggle for self-discovery and self-actualisation.

While Mr Obasanjo spoke through a letter sent to the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, Mr Atiku condoled the family through a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.

Mr Obasanjo said the late Alaafin stood out as a voice of forthrightness in national affairs. He also described him as a promoter of mutual tolerance and understanding not only among the diverse people who live in his domain but also across the country.

The former president said it was during the deceaseds reign that Oyo town became transformed into the modern city that it has become today. He added that it was his contribution to nation-building that led to the conferment of the esteemed national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic on him.

Like most great leaders, Alaafin was all things to all people, Mr Obasanjo said.

To his family, he was a tower of strength and a committed provider; to his community of Oyo land, he was an early model in national leadership; to his Yoruba kinsmen, he was a worthy Ambassador; and to the rest of Nigeria, he was a symbol of a nations epic struggle in self-discovery and self-actualisation.

Although Oba Adeyemis passage is like a dream, especially as he left us at a crucial stage in our nations history when his wise counsel and rich experience are greatly needed, I would urge you and all the members of his immediate and extended family to take solace in the worthy legacy and his mark on the history of this country he left behind.

In fact, we ought to give gratitude to God for his worthy life.

Atiku mourns

Mr Atiku said he was an admirer of the deceased and the fact that he remains the longest-serving Alaafin means that the Oyo people and Nigerians will not forget his reign.

The former vice president said the news of the monarchs demise deeply touched him.

The Alaafin died aged 83.

He was on the throne for 52 years.
NEW ORLEANS, April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until May 3, 2022 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against C3.ai, Inc. ("C3" or the "Company") (NYSE:AI), if they purchased the Company's securities between December 9, 2020 and February 15, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period") and/or purchased or otherwise acquired the Company's shares pursuant to the Company's December 2020 initial public offering (the "IPO"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Get Help

C3 investors should visit us at https://claimsfiler.com/cases/nyse-ai/ or call toll-free (844) 367-9658. Lawyers at Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC are available to discuss your legal options.

About the Lawsuit

C3 and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period and/or in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in conjunction with the initial public offering, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the Company's partnership with Baker Hughes was deteriorating; (ii) the Company was employing a flawed accounting methodology to conceal the deterioration of its Baker Hughes partnership; (iii) the Company faced challenges in product adoption and significant salesforce turnover; (iv) the Company overstated, inter alia, the extent of its investment in technology, description of its customers, its total addressable market, the pace of its market growth, and the scale of alliances with its major business partners; and (v) as a result of the foregoing, the Company's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

The case is The Reckstin Family Trust v. C3.Ai, Inc., et al., No. 22-cv-01413.

About ClaimsFiler

ClaimsFiler has a single mission: to serve as the information source to help retail investors recover their share of billions of dollars from securities class action settlements. At ClaimsFiler.com, investors can: (1) register for free to gain access to information and settlement websites for various securities class action cases so they can timely submit their own claims; (2) upload their portfolio transactional data to be notified about relevant securities cases in which they may have a financial interest; and (3) submit inquiries to the Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC law firm for free case evaluations.

To learn more about ClaimsFiler, visit www.claimsfiler.com.

SOURCE ClaimsFiler
AUGUSTA, Ga., April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation earlier today presented 26 awards recognizing the best of preservation in Georgia during its 45th annual Preservation Awards ceremony in Augusta.

Academy Lofts in Atlanta's Adair Park neighborhood received the Marguerite Williams Award, presented annually to the project that has had the greatest impact on preservation in the state.

Academy Lofts was recognized for its outstanding and impactful transformation from a vacant, deteriorated school building into a rehabilitated apartment building that provides the community with much-needed housing at below market rates. Constructed in 1912 as the George W. Adair Elementary School, the building now features a mix of affordable housing and market-rate apartment units, a coffee shop/restaurant and event venue, and nonprofit office space. A creative combination of tax credits and grants were used to make the project a reality, and the building is now poised to resume its role as a thriving center of community activity.

The Grantville Passenger Depot in Grantville, Ga. received the Chairman's Award, presented by the chairman of the Georgia Trust to a person or project of great preservation significance.

The Braselton Cotton Gin in Braselton, Ga. received the Michael L. Starr Award, presented to a project that best exemplifies the highest standards of historic rehabilitation and has a significant impact on the downtown of the city in which it is located.

The Camille W. Yow Volunteer of the Year Award was given to Paula and Larry Knox of Augusta.

The Trust also presented two awards for Excellence in Restoration, ten awards for Excellence in Rehabilitation, two awards for Excellence in Preservation, one award for Excellence in Preservation Service and seven awards for Excellence in Stewardship.

Excellence in Restoration winners were the Overton house in Augusta and the Pope's Museum in Ochlocknee, Ga.

Excellence in Rehabilitation winners were: ACE Skills Center at Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus; Kimpton Sylvan Hotel, Atlanta; Poplar Street Offices, Atlanta; Amoco Service Station, Brunswick; Leotis Building, Brunswick; Fort Valley High School, Fort Valley; Butts County Courthouse, Jackson; Dixie Cotton Mills, LaGrange; Lemon Street School, Marietta; and Powell Hall at Valdosta State University, Valdosta.

Excellence in Preservation winners were the Fox Theatre's Moller organ in Atlanta and the Washington Street Buildings in Clarkesville.

The Excellence in Preservation Service award went to the Whitfield County Historic Preservation Commission.

Excellence in Stewardship winners were Midtown High School, Atlanta; Cochran-Davenport Farmstead owned by Mrs. Elma Ettman, Dial; Richland Restoration League, Jeffersonville; Humanities Hall at Oxford College at Emory, Oxford; Clark Hall at SCAD, Savannah; Georgia Historical Society Research Center, Savannah; and Historic Train Depot and Platform, Toccoa.

"This year's winners represent a tremendous dedication to restoring and revitalizing Georgia's historic buildings and communities," said Mark C. McDonald, president of the Georgia Trust. "We are proud to honor such deserving projects and individuals."

For more than 40 years, the Trust has recognized preservation projects and individuals throughout Georgia who have made significant contributions to the field of historic preservation. Awards are presented on the basis of the contributions of the person or project to the community and/or state and on compliance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

Founded in 1973, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is one of the country's leading statewide, nonprofit preservation organizations. The Trust works for the preservation and revitalization of Georgia's diverse historic resources and advocates their appreciation, protection and use.

The Georgia Trust generates community revitalization by finding buyers for endangered properties acquired by its Revolving Fund and raises awareness of other endangered historic resources through an annual listing of Georgia's "Places in Peril." The Trust recognizes preservation projects and individuals with its annual Preservation Awards and awards students and young professionals with academic scholarships, the Neel Reid Prize and Liz Lyon Fellowship. The Trust offers a variety of educational programs for adults and children, provides technical assistance to property owners and historic communities, advocates for funding, tax incentives and other laws aiding preservation efforts, and manages two house museums in Atlanta (Rhodes Hall) and Macon (Hay House).

To learn more about the Georgia Trust and the Preservation Awards, visit www.georgiatrust.org.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Details and hi-res images of each award winner can be found at https://www.georgiatrust.org/our-programs/preservation-awards/#awards. Photos of the recipients at the awards ceremony will be available April 25. Contact Traci Clark Rothwell at [email protected] or 404-885-7802.

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation

1516 Peachtree Street, NW

Atlanta, GA 30309-2908

Tel 404 881-9980

Fax 404 875-2205

www.georgiatrust.org

SOURCE The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
One of the first panels of the day included survivor leaders Kara Robinson Chamberlain, activist and author; Tanya Gould, director at the Virginia Office of Attorney General; and Suzie Skirvin, Malouf Foundation advisory board member. Each panelist shared their lived experiences and pathways to healing.

"A big part of my healing is learning about myselfwho I am and where I'm going," Gould shared in the panel discussion. "What empowers me on my healing journey will look different for someone else because we're all different. Every survivor has their own story and I value their experiences."

The survivor panel was moderated by Ashley Flowers, founder of Audiochuck and host of Crime Junkie podcast. Flowers is an advocate for survivors and is passionate about spreading awareness of abuse and trauma.

"As someone who works in the true crime space, I've seen firsthand how prevalent and heartbreaking sexual exploitation can be and the need for survivor resources," Flowers shared. "I'm thrilled to have participated in this year's Malouf Summit in order to bring attention, education and resources to a community of survivors and those looking to better support them."

Malouf Foundation advisory board member and survivor leader Julie Whitehead also shared her story at the Summit. She introduced the event's business panel and shared how business has intersected her experience as a trafficking survivor. Whitehead participated on a survivor panel at last year's Summit at Malouf headquarters in Logan, Utah.

"Business leaders have a tremendous impact on their communities and have an opportunity to make a difference in the anti-trafficking and anti-exploitation space," Whitehead shared. "The man who helped me escape my trafficker is a business owner and is committed to bringing awareness to this cause. He says getting involved has unified their employees and has helped them create a stronger work culture."

Members of the business panel were Scott Anderson, chief executive officer at Zions Bank of Salt Lake City; Kelly Gage, director of advancement at Nomi Network based out of New York; and Erika George, director of Tanner Humanities Center at University of Utah. Each leader highlighted their organization's philanthropic efforts and how others can influence the causes they care about. Salt Lake City Chamber President Derek Miller moderated the panel. Miller also serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Task Force to Eradicate Human Trafficking.

"At Zions Bank, we endeavor to be actively engaged in making our communities better and helping provide creative solutions to community needs," Anderson said. "Philanthropic engagement goes beyond merely the giving of dollars, it also includes deploying all available resourcesinfluence, voice, reach, time and moreto enable meaningful change."

The afternoon session of the Summit started with leaders of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC is the nation's comprehensive reporting center for all issues related to the prevention and recovery from child victimization. For nearly 40 years, NCMEC has been working with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement and the public to make a difference.

At the Summit, Michelle DeLaune, NCMEC president and chief executive officer, and Lauren Coffren, NCMEC director of the Exploited Children Division, spoke to the realities, revictimization and response in child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or child pornography.

"The COVID-19 pandemic deeply affected every aspect of life across the globe including how much time everyone spent online. Last year, in 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saw a 35 percent increase in the number of CyberTipline reports related to suspected child sexual exploitationthat amounts to around 80,000 reports every day," DeLaune said. "The number is staggering and almost too big to comprehend, but it's important to talk about. Online enticement and online grooming are on the rise and we at NCMEC believe that action and education are vital components to combating this horrific crime."

DeLaune and Coffren were joined by Team HOPE consultant Nicole (last name omitted for privacy reasons). Team HOPE is a group of peer-support volunteers who have lived experience with missing and exploited children's issues. Nicole is the mother of a survivor of CSAM and spoke to the realities of that experience, sharing her unique perspective as a caregiver and as a support to others with similar lived experiences.

The final panel focused on connecting with elected officials. Panelists Blake Moore, United States congressman of Utah's First District; Angela Romero, Utah House representative for the 26th District; and Ron Welch, Muskingum County, Ohio prosecuting attorney discussed how individuals can get involved with elected officials at every level to support survivors of abuse through policy and legislation. Former National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien introduced the panel.

"We all have unique areas of influence, which means we have the power to make a difference in our communities," said Kacie Malouf, co-founder and board chair of the Malouf Foundation. "We hope attendees take what they learned today and take actionthat they find a cause they're passionate about and fight for it."

To watch this year's Summit, or for more information about the Malouf Foundation, visit malouffoundation.org .

About Malouf Foundation

Formalized in 2016 and operating out of Logan, Utah, the Malouf Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to confronting child sexual exploitation, specifically sex trafficking and online abuse. The Foundation fulfills their mission by providing education through OnWatch and Smart Defense; promoting healing through the Juniper Scholarship, Rooms Restored, and restorative care centers; and advocating for survivors through Heroes Landing and the "We Believe You" campaign. In January 2022, the Elizabeth Smart Foundation officially became a part of the Malouf Foundation to broaden the impact of both organizations. Supported by the network of Malouf Companies, the Malouf Foundation gives 100 percent of its resources on behalf of the people it serves. For more information or to make a donation, visit malouffoundation.org .

PR Contact

Alicia Richmond

801-599-1794

[email protected]

SOURCE Malouf Foundation
As Josh Riley gained a financial advantage over his Democratic competitors in the 22nd Congressional District, much of that money came from outside of the area.

But Riley, D-Ithaca, was not alone. The Citizen reviewed Federal Election Commission records and found the three candidates who raised the most money in the first quarter  Francis Conole and Vanessa Fajans-Turner were the others  received at least a majority of their donations from outside of the 22nd district.

Among those three, Conole, D-Syracuse, had the highest percentage of donations (49.6%) from residents of the eight-county district. According to his FEC filing, he received 210 of 423 of his contributions from individuals living within the district. The $78,871 in donations he received accounted for 36.2% of his total individual contributions ($217,367) and 35.2% of his total receipts ($223,595).

Fajans-Turner, an Ithaca Democrat, reported that 26 of her 207 donations were from residents of the 22nd district. She received $25,450 from these donors, which is one-tenth of the amount ($250,431) she raised in her debut quarter. She launched her campaign in February in the midst of the fundraising quarter.

Riley, who raised $360,970 in the first quarter, received 7.8% of his donations (41 of 525) from 22nd district residents. These donors gave $13,500, less than 4% of his total receipts and total individual contributions ($345,700).

Three other Democrats  Sarah Klee Hood, Chol Majok and Sam Roberts  each had larger shares of donations from within the district.

Nearly all of the individual contributors to Majok's campaign live in the district. He had 15 donations, 13 of which were from 22nd district residents who gave $6,175.

Klee Hood, D-DeWitt, had two-thirds of her donations come from within the district. She raised $7,157 from 36 donors in NY-22.

A majority of Roberts' donors (29 of 55) also live in the district. He received $22,735 from his supporters in the region.

There is no requirement that candidates raise money from in the district, but it can be a gauge of how much support a candidate has in the area they hope to represent.

However, it is not a perfect metric. When starting their campaigns, candidates are advised to seek contributions from family members and friends. That can often lead to donations from across the country. As an example, Fajans-Turner told The Citizen early in her campaign that she planned to tap into a network of people to support her candidacy.

In Riley's case, the numbers reflect his nomadic campaign. He initially planned to run against U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney in the current 22nd district. There are some donors who have given to Riley who live in that district but not within the new 22nd district's boundaries. He also has connections from his time as a Senate aide and an attorney in private practice. Those donors typically live outside of the district and, in some cases, the state.

Conole is the candidate who has regularly touted his central New York roots growing up in the district's largest county, Onondaga. But he also has donors from outside of the area, some of whom know him from his naval service.

For Klee Hood, Majok and Roberts, their levels of local support could help them overcome the other candidates' campaign war chests. Klee Hood has said she wants to run a grassroots campaign with an emphasis on digital ads, which cost significantly less than TV commercials. Majok told The Citizen he is planning an aggressive door-to-door campaign, which is how he won his campaigns for Syracuse Common Council.

The primary election is Tuesday, June 28.

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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To understand more about Market Dynamics. Download our sample report

The Online Lingerie Market size in India is expected to increase by USD 859.41 million from 2021 to 2026, at an accelerated CAGR of 18.07% as per the latest market report by Technavio. The online lingerie market share growth in India by the bra segment is significant for revenue generation. Bras are amongst the essential lingerie segments. It not only gives appropriate fitting to a dress but provides support and comfort and boosts the confidence of the woman wearing it. Scientific research proves push-up bras make women 75% more confident. Furthermore, rapid urbanization has created a segment pool of young customers that look forward to new bra products to match western fashion. These younger customers are aware and well-traveled, brand conscious, and stay connected with trends. They have higher spending power and are open to experimenting and exploring. Such factors will drive market growth during the forecast period. The report provides a detailed analysis of drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, competitive scenarios, future market trends, market size & estimations, and major investment pockets.

Download Sample: for additional information about the contribution of each segment

Vendor Insights-

The Online Lingerie Market in India is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as focusing on product delivery through multiple distribution channels to compete in the market.

Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. - The company is involved in offering a wide range of lingerie such as women's wireless bra active square neck, and women's wireless bra among others which have ventilation holes placed in areas prone to sweating and is useful for activities such as yoga and walking.

Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download Sample Report

Latest Drivers & Trends Driving the Market-

Online Lingerie Market in India Driver:

Increased penetration of organized retail:



The increased penetration of organized retail driving lingerie demand is one of the key drivers supporting the online lingerie market growth in India. The online stores have a never-ending range of bras, panties, nightwear, and leisurewear . It is a vast platform with an array of collections and products that cater to different user segments. It is highly equipped with great fashion designers from runway trends and brings the latest and best lingerie collection of all times at affordable prices. Several organized online retail stores such as Zivame , Amazon, Flipkart , and Myntra stock various brands and a variety of lingerie wear, including bras, briefs, etc., under one roof, thus providing more options to consumers. With the increase in preference for branded products among consumers, the importance of organized retailers carrying branded lingerie wear has also significantly increased. Therefore, increased penetration of organized retail can drive the growth of the online lingerie market in India during the forecast year.

Online Lingerie Market in India Trend:

The influx of luxury brands:



The influx of luxury brands is another factor supporting the online lingerie market growth in India . For instance, in 2019, Parfait is a US-based size-inclusive lingerie brand partnered with leading e-commerce platforms and company websites . The brand promised to fulfill its mission of offering high-quality, stylish, and affordable lingerie to Indian women. However, the modern customer is well-informed and knowledgeable, and the taboo that once surrounded the topic of lingerie is gradually dissipating. Women in India now have more purchasing power, with increasing per capita sending having doubled in the past seven years. The customer is spending on luxury brands to get high-quality products. These are the factors contributing to driving growth in the online lingerie market in India during the forecast period.

Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends - Download a sample report .

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Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

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The women's apparel market share should rise by USD 160.03 billion from 2021 to 2025 at a CAGR of 4.42% . Download a free sample now!

share should rise by USD 160.03 billion from 2021 to 2025 at a CAGR of 4.42% The lingerie market share is expected to increase by USD 20.90 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.77%. Download a free sample now!

Online Lingerie Market In India Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 18.07% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 859.41 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 15.23 Regional analysis India Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Fast Retailing Co. Ltd., Hennes and Mauritz AB, Hunkemoller B.V., Jockey International Inc., Marks and Spencer Plc, Reliance Retail Ltd., Sockkobe Co. Ltd., Triumph International Pvt. Ltd., Victorias Secret Stores and Co., and Wacoal Holdings Corp. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents:

***1. Executive Summary

**1.1 Market Overview

*Exhibit 01: Key Finding 1

*Exhibit 02: Key Finding 2

*Exhibit 04: Key Finding 6

*Exhibit 05: Key Finding 7

***2. Market Landscape

**2.1 Market ecosystem

*Exhibit 06 Parent market

*Exhibit 07: Market characteristics

**2.2 Value Chain Analysis

*Exhibit 08: Value Chain Analysis: Apparel, accessories, and luxury goods

*2.2.1 Inputs

*2.2.2 Inbound logistics

*2.2.3 Operations

*2.2.4 Outbound logistics

*2.2.5 Marketing and sales

*2.2.6 Service

*2.2.7 Support activities

*2.2.8 Innovation

***3. Market Sizing

**3.1 Market definition

*Exhibit 09: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

**3.2 Market segment analysis

*Exhibit 10: Market segments

**3.3 Market size 2021

**3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

*Exhibit 11: Global - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 12: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%)

***4. Five Forces Analysis

**4.1 Five Forces Summary

*Exhibit 13: Five forces analysis 2021 - 2026

**4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

*Exhibit 14: Bargaining power of the buyer

**4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

*Exhibit 15: Bargaining power of the supplier

**4.4 Threat of new entrants

*Exhibit 16: Threat of new entrants

**4.5 Threat of substitutes

*Exhibit 17: Threat of substitutes

**4.6 Threat of rivalry

*Exhibit 18: Threat of rivalry

**4.7 Market condition

*Exhibit 19: Market condition - Five forces 2021

***5. Market Segmentation by Product

**5.1 Market segments

*Exhibit 20: Product- Market share 2021 - 2026 (%)

**5.2 Comparison by Product

*Exhibit 21: Comparison by Product

**5.3 Bras - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

*Exhibit 22: Bras - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 23: Bras - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

**5.4 Knickers and panties - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

*Exhibit 24: Knickers and panties - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 25: Knickers and panties - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

**5.5 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

*Exhibit 26: Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 27: Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

**5.6 Market opportunity by Product

*Exhibit 28: Market opportunity by Product

***6 Market Segmentation by Type

**6.1 Market segments

*Exhibit 29: Type- Market share 2021-2026 (%)

**6.2 Comparison by Type

*Exhibit 30: Comparison by Type

**6.3 Natural - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

*Exhibit 31: Natural - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 32: Natural - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

**6.4 Synthetic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

*Exhibit 33: Synthetic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

*Exhibit 34: Synthetic - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

**6.5 Market opportunity by Type

*Exhibit 35: Market opportunity by Type

***7. Customer landscape

*Technavio's customer landscape matrix comparing Drivers or price sensitivity, Adoption lifecycle, importance in customer price basket, Adoption rate and Key purchase criteria

**7.1 Overview

*Exhibit 36: Customer landscape

***8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

**8.1 Market drivers

*8.1.1 Increased penetration of organized retail driving lingerie demand

*8.1.2 Growing consumer awareness regarding online lingerie shopping

*8.1.3 Demand from smaller cities pushes lingerie sales

**8.2 Market challenges

*8.2.1 Direct customer selling approach

*8.2.2 Shifting trends in lingerie industry

*8.2.3 Prevalence of the unorganized sector

*Exhibit 37: Impact of drivers and challenges

**8.3 Market trends

*8.3.1 Influx of luxury brands

*8.3.2 Men emerging as significant online buyers

*8.3.3 Omnichannel strategy by brands

***9. Vendor Landscape

**9.1 Overview

*Exhibit 38: Vendor landscape

**9.2 Landscape disruption

*Exhibit 39: Landscape disruption

*Exhibit 40: Industry Risk

***10. Vendor Analysis

**10.1 Vendors covered

*Exhibit 41: Vendors covered

**10.2 Market positioning of vendors

*Exhibit 42: ?Market positioning of vendors?

**10.3 Fast Retailing Co. Ltd.

*Exhibit 43: Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. - Overview

*Exhibit 44: Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. - Business segments

*Exhibit 45: Fast Retailing Co.Ltd. - Key news

*Exhibit 46: Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

*Exhibit 47: Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

**10.4 Hennes and Mauritz AB

*Exhibit 48: Hennes and Mauritz AB - Overview

*Exhibit 49: Hennes and Mauritz AB - Business segments

*Exhibit 50: Hennes and Mauritz AB -Key news

*Exhibit 51: Hennes and Mauritz AB - Key offerings

*Exhibit 52: Hennes and Mauritz AB - Segment focus

**10.5 Hunkemoller B.V.

*Exhibit 53: Hunkemoller B.V. - Overview

*Exhibit 54: Hunkemoller B.V. - Product and service

*Exhibit 55: Hunkemoller B.V. - Key offerings

**10.6 Jockey International Inc.

*Exhibit 56: Jockey International Inc. - Overview

*Exhibit 57: Jockey International Inc. - Product and service

*Exhibit 58: Jockey International Inc. - Key offerings

**10.7 Marks and Spencer Plc

*Exhibit 59: Marks and Spencer Plc - Overview

*Exhibit 60: Marks and Spencer Plc - Business segments

*Exhibit 61: Marks and Spencer Plc - Key offerings

*Exhibit 62: Marks and Spencer Plc - Segment focus

**10.8 Reliance Retail Ltd.

*Exhibit 63: Reliance Retail Ltd. - Overview

*Exhibit 64: Reliance Retail Ltd. - Product and service

*Exhibit 65: Reliance Retail Ltd. - Key offerings

**10.9 Sockkobe Co. Ltd.

*Exhibit 66: Sockkobe Co. Ltd. - Overview

*Exhibit 67: Sockkobe Co. Ltd. - Product and service

*Exhibit 68: Sockkobe Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

**10.10 Triumph International Pvt. Ltd.

*Exhibit 69: Triumph International Pvt. Ltd. - Overview

*Exhibit 70: Triumph International Pvt. Ltd. - Product and service

*Exhibit 71: Triumph International Pvt. Ltd. - Key offerings

**10.11 Victorias Secret Stores and Co.

*Exhibit 72: Victorias Secret Stores and Co. - Overview

*Exhibit 73: Victorias Secret Stores and Co. - Business segments

*Exhibit 74: Victorias Secret Stores and Co. - Key offerings

*Exhibit 75: Victorias Secret Stores and Co. - Segment focus

**10.12 Wacoal Holdings Corp.

*Exhibit 76: Wacoal Holdings Corp. - Overview

*Exhibit 77: Wacoal Holdings Corp. - Business segments

*Exhibit 78: Wacoal Holdings Corp. - Key offerings

*Exhibit 79: Wacoal Holdings Corp. - Segment focus

***11. Appendix

**11.1 Scope of the report

*11.1.1 Market definition

*11.1.2 Objectives

*11.1.3 Notes and caveats

**11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

*Exhibit 80: Currency conversion rates for US$?

**11.3 Research Methodology

*Exhibit 81: Research Methodology

*Exhibit 82: Validation techniques employed for market sizing?

*Exhibit 83: Information sources

**11.4 List of abbreviations

*Exhibit 84: 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 consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
GUANGZHOU, China, April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "Since the opening of this session of the Canton Fair, we have connected with multiple Thai customers and exchanged contact information using the 'instant messaging' function. It is very effective," said Liu Yufeng, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of Jiaxin Modern Travel Goods, who just ended a livestream. Liu told reporters that the Canton Fair played an effective role in expanding their overseas markets along the Belt and Road, where buyers were eager to do business with them. He was expected to make full use of the Canton Fair platform to facilitate the company's entry into the emerging markets.

Since the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward in 2013, China and countries along the Belt and Road have experienced growing people-to-people exchanges and business partnerships year on year. The Canton Fair, as China's largest trade promotion platform, has distinct advantages in fostering economic and trade cooperation between China and other Belt and Road countries, with buyers from these countries accounting for 45% of the total each session.

Lin Xiaofeng, Deputy General Manager of International Marketing of Shen zhen Topray Solar, is a big fan of the Canton Fair. He appreciated the positive role played by the Fair in supporting the joint market development along the Belt and Road. He told reporters that they had successfully developed a partnership with a Moroccan customer in the previous session, which had benefited them significantly. At the 131st Canton Fair, they have brought 40 more products with pictures on the company page, mainly commodities and consumer goods aimed at the Belt and Road markets, expecting new friends and customers who are like-minded.

According to Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, the event has actively implemented the Belt and Road Initiative and has served as an essential platform for smooth trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road. He stated that, like previous sessions, this session would enable companies along the Belt and Road to discover more opportunities for collaboration, as a way of contributing to the acceleration of the new development pattern of domestic and international circulations.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email for more opportunities.

SOURCE Canton Fair
GUANGZHOU, China, April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 131st Canton Fair, which takes place online from 15 to 24 April, attracts over 25,000 exhibitors from home and abroad. Given the virtual form of the event, making better use of the cloud platform to boost cooperation and identify business opportunities comes as an important matter for exhibitors and buyers.

Connecting with buyers anytime, anywhere

Right after the opening ceremony of the Canton Fair, Wang Jin, representative of Orans Sanitary Ware, immediately started a live promotion broadcast. In one hour, he showed viewers around their display hall while introducing their newest items and then took them to the workshop to watch the manufacturing process. When he learned a Bangladeshi buyer was interested in making a purchase, he asked one of their product engineers to design and make a drawing on the spot. As the entire process was livestreamed in real time, the buyer could engage in product design simultaneously. After some negotiations, the company made its first intended international order worth 300,000 US dollars with the buyer.

Boosting Business with Distinctive, Well-designed Showrooms

Walking around the showroom of Guangzhou Textiles Holdings Limited, apart from the spreading moss and cloud-shaped lights that echoed the virtual form of this Canton Fair, the reporter was most attracted to an eye-catching giant landscape painting made of cloth. This was the company's fifth participation in the online Canton Fair, told Huang Yutong, an engineer at the company's R&D Center. Drawn upon the experience of the previous four online sessions, the company turned its R&D center into an exhibition hall this year, creating a natural-looking outdoor space using textile materials. The giant landscape painting, which was actually a large curtain, was made of fragments of fabric acquired from daily textile production. Other employees added that this year's showroom featured environment-friendly design, which impressed foreign buyers.

Maggie Pu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, said that holding an online event was an innovation answering to the call of digital economy, as well as a pragmatic choice in response to Covid-19. The Canton Fair will keep upgrading and optimizing its online platform with improved functions to help exhibitors expand their business and conduct win-win cooperation via online events.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/register/index#/foreign-email.

SOURCE Canton Fair
HONG KONG, April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CNOOC Limited (the "Company", SEHK: 00883, SSE:600938) announced today that Luda 5-2 oilfield north phase I project and Kenli 6-1 oilfield 4-1 block development project have commenced production.

Luda 5-2 oilfield north phase I project is located in Liaodong Bay of Bohai Sea, with average water depth of about 32 meters. In addition to fully utilizing the existing processing facilities of Suizhong 36-1 oilfield, the project has built 1 thermal recovery wellhead platform and 1 production adjective platform. A total of 28 development wells are planned, including 26 production wells and 2 water source wells. The project is expected to reach its peak production of approximately 8,200 barrels of crude oil per day in 2024.

Kenli 6-1 oilfield 4-1 block development project is located in the south of Bohai Sea, with average water depth of about 17 meters. In addition to fully utilizing the existing processing facilities of Bozhong 34-9 oilfield, the production facility is a wellhead platform. A total of 12 development wells are planned, including 7 production wells and 5 water injection wells. The oilfield is expected to reach its peak production of approximately 4,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 2022.

CNOOC Limited holds 100% interest in Luda 5-2 oilfield north and Kenli 6-1 oilfield 4-1 block and acts as the operator.

-End-

Notes to Editors:

More information about the Company is available at http://www.cnoocltd.com .

*** *** *** ***

This press release includes forward looking information, including statements regarding the likely future developments in the business of the Company and its subsidiaries, such as expected future events, business prospects or financial results. The words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by the Company as of this date in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company currently believes are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will meet the current expectations and predictions of the Company is uncertain. Actual results, performance and financial condition may differ materially from the Company's expectations, including but not limited to those associated with fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas prices, macro-political and economic factors, changes in the tax and fiscal regimes of the host countries in which we operate, the highly competitive nature of the oil and natural gas industry, environmental responsibility and compliance requirements, the Company's price forecast, the exploration and development activities, mergers, acquisitions and divestments activities, HSSE and insurance policies and changes in anti-corruption, anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and corporate governance laws.

Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company cannot assure that the results or developments anticipated will be realised or, even if substantially realised, that they will have the expected effect on the Company, its business or operations.

*** *** *** ***

For further enquiries, please contact:

Mr. Su Yuchi

Media & Public Relations

CNOOC Limited

Tel: +86-10-8452-5897

Fax: +86-10-8452-1441

E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Bunny Lee

Porda Havas International Finance Communications Group

Tel: +852 3150 6707

Fax: +852 3150 6728

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE CNOOC Limited
Ljubljana, April 23 : Early voting numbers in Slovenia's April 24 parliamentary election shattered records, the State Election Commission said.

A total of 130,151 people, or 7.67 per cent of all eligible voters, cast their ballots in the three-day early voting, the Commission added on its website on Friday. In 2018, turnout in early voting was only 3.1 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

Early voting was possible between Tuesday and Thursday this week for people who cannot cast their ballot at a voting station on election day. Analysts said the high number of early voters suggested that voter turnout on election day would be significantly higher than the 52.64 per cent registered in 2018.

Polls suggest a tight race between Prime Minister Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and the Freedom Movement (FM), a new party headed by Manager Robert Golob.

Each of the two parties could win about 25 per cent of the vote with several other parties passing the four per cent threshold for parliamentary representation.

The new government is likely to be a coalition that would have to hold majority in the country's 90-seat Parliament.

Preliminary election results will be released late on Sunday.
Kunduz : , April 23 (IANS) At least 33 people were killed and 43 others wounded after a blast rocked a mosque in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz, Chief spokesman of the Taliban-led caretaker government Zabihullah Mujahid said.

"We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz province this afternoon. As a result 33 villagers, including several children, were killed and 43 were wounded," the spokesman wrote on social media.

He condemned the crime, saying the culprits behind the attack will be brought to justice, Xinhua news agency reported.

The explosion occurred nearly at 2:30 p.m. in Mullah Sikandar mosque in Imam Sahib, a witness told Xinhua anonymously.

The incident came shortly after Friday prayers when a group of worshippers were ritualizing Zikr, a special religious practice, to celebrate holy month of Ramadan.

The nature of the blast that severely damaged the building was not immediately known.

Besides, at least one person was wounded in the country's national capital Kabul in a roadside bomb blast which came hours after Kunduz explosion in Police District 7 of the city, according to a security source.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On Thursday, 34 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in multiple explosions, including a blast targeting a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif city, capital of northern Balkh province.
Baghdad, April 23 : Two people were killed and seven others injured in two attacks in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial security source said.

The attacks took place on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

A roadside bomb went off near a civilian car in a village near the city of Khanaqin, nearly 165 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving two people killed and three wounded, officer Alaa al-Saadi from Diyala's provincial police told Xinhua.

The Iraqi security forces cordoned off the explosion site and searched for attackers in the region, al-Saadi said.

Militants of the Islamic State (IS) group launched an attack at dawn on Iraqi army outposts outside another village near Khanaqin, with four Iraqi soldiers wounded during the clash, he added.

Over the past few months, Iraqi security forces have carried out deadly attacks against the extremist militants to crackdown on their intensified activities.

The security situation in Iraq has improved after Iraqi forces defeated the IS in 2017. Yet IS remnants have since spread into urban centres, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
Nairobi, April 23 : The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF has said it has revised its emergency appeal from $119 million to nearly $250 million to help millions of children facing severe drought in the Horn of Africa.

UNICEF on Friday warned that the number of children facing severe drought conditions across the Horn of Africa has increased by more than 40 per cent in the space of two months, Xinhua news agency reported.

"If we don't act now we will see an avalanche of child deaths in a matter of weeks. Famine is just around the corner," Mohamed M. Fall, the UNICEF Regional Director for eastern and southern Africa, said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The UN children's fund said between February and April, the number of children facing the impact of drought, including acute hunger, malnutrition and thirst increased from 7.25 million to at least 10 million.

According to the UNICEF, within the past two months across the Horn of Africa, the number of households without reliable access to clean and safe water has almost doubled -- from 5.6 to 10.5 million while the number of people classified as food insecure has risen from 9 to 16 million.

It said the number of children out of school has remained disturbingly high at 15 million with an additional 1.1 million children being at risk of dropping out and thousands of schools already lacking access to water.

UNICEF said the climate-induced emergency across the Horn of Africa is the worst drought the region has seen in 40 years.

"Three consecutive dry seasons have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, killed vast swathes of livestock and crops, fuelled malnutrition and increased the risk of disease," it added.

UNICEF said more than 81,000 children in Somalia are at risk of famine by the end of June if the fourth consecutive rainy season fails, food prices continue to rise sharply, and humanitarian assistance is not stepped up.

It said more than 1.7 million children across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia require urgent treatment for severe acute malnutrition and warned that if rains fail in the coming weeks, this figure will rise to 2 million.

"We need to act now to save children's lives -- but also to protect childhoods. Children are losing their homes, their education and their right to grow up safe from harm. They deserve the world's attention now," Fall said.
Kiev, April 23 : Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak has said Kiev will complete the talks on security guarantees with partner countries within a week, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

"Weapons supplies, closure of the sky, military consultations and means for the rapid purchase of additional weapons are important for us. I think that these issues can be completed within a week," Podolyak added on Friday.

On April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the UK, the US, Italy and Turkey showed their willingness to join the creation of a system of security guarantees for Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Advisors to the leaders of Poland, Germany, France and Israel reportedly have expressed readiness to discuss a list of security guarantees for Ukraine, the report said.

At the peace talks with Russia in Istanbul, Turkey in March, Kiev proposed to sign a new international treaty on security guarantees, which enshrines obligations for the guarantor countries to provide Ukraine with military assistance in the event of an attack.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, on April 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- On the morning of April 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered via video link a keynote speech titled "Rising to Challenges and Building a Bright Future Through Cooperation" at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2022 held in Boao, Hainan Province.

The Global Security Initiative, proposed by Xi in his speech, provides important conceptual guidance for boosting reforms of the world's security governance system, resolving human security plights and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, said experts worldwide.

In their eyes, Xi's propositions will shore up confidence and facilitate synergy for the international community to jointly open up a better future.

Surakiart Sathirathai, former deputy prime minister of Thailand and member of the BFA board of directors, said that the Global Security Initiative put forward by Xi reflects his global view and governance philosophy.

Photo taken on April 19, 2022 shows the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) International Conference Center in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

By shaping a fair and rational global security governance system, the world will be more stable, which is conducive to greater development and cooperation, he said.

Bambang Suryono, chairman of Indonesian think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, pointed out that the initiative embodies a vision of common and sustainable security.

Unlike some Western countries' unilateral pursuits of their own safety, China's Global Security Initiative seeks common security, which underlines peace and cooperation, said Suryono.

That will significantly help to create an international order based on mutual respect, equality and mutual trust, and achieve lasting peace and development of mankind, he noted.

Ky Sereyvath, director general of the Institute of China Studies at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, voiced his support for the Global Security Initiative, saying that the initiative highlights the significance of safeguarding regional and global peace and security, which is a prerequisite for global development and prosperity.

"The Cold War mentality, hegemonism and power politics, unilateralism, and protectionism would only harm global peace, security and development," he said.

Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2022 shows the venue of the Boao Forum for Asia in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

"It(the Global Security Initiative) depicts that the Chinese care about the world as much as they care about China," Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, chief executive officer of the Islamabad-based think-tank Asian Institute of Eco-civilization Research and Development, told Xinhua. The expert believed that a new security framework should concentrate on cooperation and how to make better life for all.

"If we want to move for a sustainable future, if we want to move for a prosperous future, if we want to move to achieve the goal of a community with a shared future, we need a new security apparatus that has been exactly proposed by President Xi Jinping," said Ramay.

For Alexey Mukhin, director general of the Center for Political Information in Russia, global security is shared and inseparable, with all countries' legitimate security concerns taken into consideration.

It cannot hinge on confrontations, military blocs, double standards or the Cold War mentality, said Mukhin.

Sengthong Phasavath, Chief Editor for the English News Division at Lao News Agency, said that the COVID-19 pandemic and turbulent international situation have profoundly affected economic and social development across the world.

Sharing weal and woe, the international community should join hands to deal with the pandemic, promote peaceful cooperation and create a future together, Phasavath added. 
The overall pricing of the Tata cars in India have been increased by around 1.1% depending upon the variant and model.

Tata Motors on Saturday announced a price hike across its passengers cars in the Indian market. The company has blamed the rise in input cost for the latest price increment. The overall prices have been increased by around 1.1% depending upon the variant and model selected. The rejigged prices have come into effect starting today (April 23rd).

While the company informed of the marginal price hike across the models, it refrained from providing a detailed price list of its cars.

This isn't the first price hike on Tata cars for 2022 as earlier in January the company increased the overall prices of its cars by an average of 0.9%. Back then it rolled out a similar statement quoting the steep rise in overall input costs.

(Also Read: Tata Motors sells highest number of EVs in a month, clocks 30% increase in sales)

Meanwhile, the company has been recording a rise in demand of its EVs. Its Nexon EV is also the largest selling passenger electric car in the Indian market. Tata Motors has recently registered a record delivery of 101 EVs to customers in a single day. The Safari-maker said that it was able to manage this feat during an event held in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu.

(Also Read: Tata Tiago hits four lakh production mark in six years since launch)

The company has shared the information through its social media handles. The carmaker wrote, Tata Motors has successfully delivered 101 EVs (70 Nexon EVs and 31 Tigor EVs) in a handover ceremony for customers in Chennai, marking the highest electric vehicles delivered in a single day in Tamil Nadu." (More details here).

First Published Date:
Yaounde, April 23 : The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has signed a Country Programming Framework (CPF) with Cameroon, which will help improve agriculture, food security, nutrition and natural resources management in the central African nation over the next five years.

The signing event was held in the capital Yaounde on Friday between the FAO Country Representative, Athman Mravili and Cameroon's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe.

"This document has four main axis. The first is to ameliorate condition of production in order to create wealth in our country, the second action is to fight against climate change, the third action is to strengthen the policy of governance of public affairs in our country and the last action is to strengthen the Sustainable Development Goals that aim to eradicate poverty and fight against hunger in our country," Mbairobe told reporters after the CPF which will run from 2022 to 2026 was signed.

CPF will be implemented by the government of Cameroon and FAO with support from the wider spectrum of stakeholders within the private sector, semi government institutions and civil society, Xinhua news agency reported.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Cameroon's economy and a major source of employment for more than 70 per cent of the population.

However, the sector has been impacted by the incidence of weather-induced crop failures, pests and diseases and limited access by especially small-holder farmers to financing instruments and technology, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Srinagar, April 23 : A Railway police officer injured in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's (J&K) Pulwama district, succumbed to critical injuries in a city hospital on Saturday.

J&K Police sources said, "Sub-Inspector Dev Raj, who was injured in Kakapora area of Pulwama district in militant attack on Monday, succumbed in the hospital on Saturday morning." Sub-Inspector Dev Raj and Head Constable Surinder Kumar were injured in firing by terrorists in Kakapora area on Monday.

The Head Constable had died on the spot while the Sub-Inspector was shifted to Srinagar's SMHS hospital for treatment where he survived till Saturday morning.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
New Delhi, April 23 : Amid rising power demand in the country due to a continued heat wave, India is staring at an electricity crisis accentuated due to a coal shortage at over 150 power plants.

The coal stock position at the Central Election Authority (CEA) supervised 173 power plants stood at 21.93 million tonnes (MT), which, according to a Nomura report, is less than the regulatory requirement of 66.32 MT as on April 21.

Media reports have suggested that coal inventories had dipped to the lowest since 2014 at the beginning of the financial year to nine days as against the Centre's mandated 24 days' worth of stocks.

While on one hand, the CEA daily coal report said that coal stock at 81 out of the 150 government owned power plants is critical, on the other is the increased power demand -- from 106.6 billion units (BU) in 2019, it increased to 124.2 BU in 2021 to 132 BU in 2022.

"There is a coal shortage and the situation still could have been salvaged, but the early heat has exponentially increased the power demand, widening the demand-supply gap," said an official from the power sector.

States such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh are witnessing powercuts amid low coal stocks.

Earlier on Friday, the Maharashtra government had declared that it is planning to import coal and acquire a coal mine from Chhattisgarh for power generation.

"Coal is not being supplied in the country as per demand, forcing us to consider alternatives to bridge the gap of around 3,500 MW-4,000 MW shortfall between the demand and supply," Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had told mediapersons in Mumbai.

Last week, the state Cabinet authorised the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd to purchase power from elsewhere to tide over the current crisis.

Pawar reiterated that insufficient coal is being supplied to various states by the Centre, and even Maharashtra is not getting the required quantities, though all efforts are being made to ensure smooth power supply and end the ongoing powercuts.

The coal shortage has further been accentuated due to shortage of railway rakes for coal supply of the power plants.
Jammu, April 23 : A multi-layered security set-up is in place on Saturday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu's Samba district on Sunday.

The security set-up was beefed up with traffic restrictions after Friday's terror attack in Jammu city in which two terrorists and a CISF officer were killed.

Despite the attack, residents of Palli village remain unfazed and jubilant about Modi's visit.

The otherwise sleepy village has come to life in a big way as the locals are enthusiastically waiting for the VVIP visit.

Village elders are unable to recall the last time they witnessed such an outburst of joy and activity.

More than 100 hotels, including the luxury ones, have been booked in Jammu, Bari Brahmana and Samba for the lodging of delegates, who will attend the two-day Panchayat Raj Diwas on Sunday.

The delegates include officials from the government, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), Block Development Councils, District Development Councils, as well as senior politicians.

To make the area under the Palli panchayat as "the country's first carbon-free area", a solar power project of 500 KVA capacity has been installed to provide electricity to 340 households.

It is estimated that the function will be attended by more than one lakh people.

A high alert has been sounded all along the International Border, while strict security arrangements have been made in the cities of Srinagar and Jammu as well.

The venue of Modi's function in Palli panchayat has been declared out of bound for the people after a three-tier anti-sabotage exercise was carried out at the venue.

Security around vital installations across Jammu and Kashmir has been further beefed up while security drills like landing of helicopters and high speed movement of vehicles were carried out at the venue.

Traffic advisory in this regard said: "In view of the VVIP visit at Palli Bari Brahmana (venue of function) Samba district on April 24, 2022, the public, PRIs attending the function are advised to adopt the designated routes." The security checkpoints connecting Jammu and Kashmir with Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have been strengthened with the additional deployment of security forces and no one is allowed to enter without checking.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
United Nations, April 23 : As peace efforts to end the intensifying Ukraine war have stalled, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will ramp up his mediation efforts through direct meetings with the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, respectively, next week, according to the world body.

Guterres's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced on Friday that the UN chief will "be received by" Putin and Zelensky in their countries and will have working meetings with their Foreign Ministers.

Image Source: IANS News

Guterres will first go to Moscow on April 25 and then to Ukraine on April 28.

The announcement of the meetings with Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba did not say where the meetings will take place.

Powerless to act against the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of Moscow's veto powers in the Security Council, the UN as an institution is facing one of its gravest crises.

The invasion ordered by Putin is also a personal betrayal of Guterres who had said till the conflict began on February 24 that a war was unlikely.

After the Moscow trip was announced on Friday morning, Guterres's associate spokesperson Eri Kaneko told reporters: "He wants to discuss with the leadership, what steps can be taken right now in order to silence the guns in order to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out to get out and have safe passage." Guterres had written to both Russia and Ukraine asking to visit their countries in an effort to end the conflict after various diplomatic initiatives by international leaders proved unsuccessful.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed during phone calls with Putin and Zelensky to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Representatives of Russia and Ukraine have been holding talks in Belarus and Turkey and online but have failed to make headway.

Russian news service TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Friday that there was "slow progress in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations".

Guterres cancelled a planned trip to Nigeria next week to visit Russia and Ukraine.

His visits to the two adversaries come as Russia has intensified its assault in the face of stiff resistance by Ukraine.

The UN chief's call for an Easter ceasefire this weekend has been rejected by Moscow.

Some of the Orthodox Christian churches celebrate Easter on Sunday as they follow a separate calendar from the Western churches which observed the feast last Sunday.

In this regard, Kaneko said: "The Secretary-General is not so much disappointed that his own personal call was unheeded, but more that there has been no truce, that civilians cannot leave besieged areas and that the aid that the UN and our partners are ready to deliver to these besieged areas cannot go in." But she left open a window of optimism with two days to go: "We operate with the currency of hope." Guterres had appointed as his mediator Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths who has visited both Moscow and Kiev.

However, Griffiths tested positive for Covid-19 this week ahead of a scheduled trip to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is hosting talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Kaneko said that Guterres hoped to further the discussions Griffiths and others have had.

The General Assembly has condemned the invasion and demanded that Moscow end the conflict.

But unlike the Council, the Assembly is powerless to implement its decisions.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- Syndicated from IANS
Washington, April 23 : The police were responding to a shooting incident involving at least three victims in Washington, D.C., authorities have confirmed.

The Metropolitan Police Department tweeted on Friday night that "the location of this incident is 2900 block of Van Ness Street, NW" and that they "are in the area conducting active sweeps", reports Xinhua news agency "There have been at least three victims located of two adult males and one juvenile female," the Department added.

Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted the police are "responding to an active threat", while urging residents nearby to shelter in place.

No information on the condition of the victims or any arrests was immediately available.

The University of the District of Columbia's Van Ness campus is on lockdown.

Students and other members of the university community are also advised to shelter in place.
Vienna, April 23 : Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will head an assistance mission to the now-defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine aimed at stepping up efforts to help prevent the danger of a nuclear accident in the wake of the ongoing Moscow-Kiev war, the Vienna-based UN watchdog announced.

"The team of IAEA nuclear safety, security and safeguards staff will be in Chernobyl from April 26 to deliver vital equipment and conduct radiological and other assessments at the site, which was held by Russian forces for five weeks before they withdrew on March 31," the Agency said in a statement published on its website on Friday.

According to Grossi, the IAEA team's visit to the plant "will be of paramount importance for our activities to support Ukraine as it seeks to restore regulatory control of the plant and ensure its safe and secure operation".

"It will be followed by more IAEA missions to this and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming weeks." During its visit, the team will provide the operator with different types of radiation monitoring equipment, including radionuclide identification devices and gamma dose rate meters, the statement said, adding personal protective equipment will also be delivered to the plant.

"Based on our scientific measurements and technical evaluations, we will be able to better understand the radiological situation there," Grossi said.

Since the withdrawal of the Russian military from the Chernobyl plant, Ukraine has taken significant steps for the safe and secure operation of the site of world's worst nuclear accident, where various radioactive waste management facilities are now located.

It has carried out the first rotation of staff in three weeks, and earlier this week it re-established direct communications between the plant and the nuclear regulator that had been down for more than a month.

But the general situation in the area around the site known as the Exclusion Zone remains difficult, in part due to damaged bridges and de-mining activities.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Chennai, April 23 : With 25 more testing positive, the total number of persons infected with Coronavirus in the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) has gone up to 55, said Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J.Radhakrishnan.

According to him, the tests are being conducted in the 19 hostels in IITM complex. The infection rate is higher in a hostel that has students from other states.

Out of 1,420 persons, 55 have tested positive.

He also said the government will be increasing the number of Covid-19 tests from the current 18,000 to 25,000 per day.

According to the state government, on Friday, 57 persons tested positive for Coronavirus in Tamil Nadu and the total number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 286.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Jammu, April 23 : Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh on Saturday ordered suspension of three policemen and removal of a senior officer for alleged delay in registration of a rape complaint in Samba district.

Station house officer (SHO) Ali Imran, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Rattan Lal and head constable Satwinder Singh have been placed under suspension and sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Vishal Manhas of Vijaypur in Samba has been removed from his post and attached with the zonal police headquarters for poor supervision and control.

The Director General of Police (DGP) has also ordered a departmental inquiry into the dereliction of duty by these policemen.

The matter pertains to a complaint by a woman who accused one Shammi of raping her 11-year-old daughter after entering her house in Bazigar Basti in Vijaypur tehsil on intervening night of April 16 and 17.

Exercising undue influence, the SHO and other officials allegedly delayed the registration of case, changed the nature of the complaint and forced the complainant to enter into compromise with the accused.

Also, the minor girl and her mother were not treated as per the laid down procedure of POSCO, it is alleged.

After the DGP learnt about the role of the officials through a CID report, he ordered a probe by the crime branch, and the special crime branch team confirmed the offence against the minor girl.

"The conduct of some of these officials is unbecoming and warrants action as duties were not performed in the given manner, which amounts to grave dereliction of duty", the DGP's order read.
Bengaluru, April 23 : Hindu organisations in Karnataka are all set to carry out door-to-door campaigns against 'Azan' from Saturday across the state.

The campaign will be kick-started from Shivanahalli Circle in Rajajinagar locality of Bengaluru.

Sri Rama Sena has given out a call for the campaign and Rishi Kumara Swamiji of Kali Mutt would inaugurate the campaign. The Hindu activists are planning to reach out to every household to create awareness among people about how mosques are using loudspeakers for 'Azan' violating court guidelines and how they should raise their voice against it.

The Hindu organisations have given a deadline till May 9 to vacate loudspeakers from mosques. If they fail, the Hindu organisations have planned to play out 'Hanuman Chalisa', 'Shri Rama Jaya Rama mantra' and 'Omkar' prayers from Monday 5 a.m. onwards in all temples across the state through loudspeakers.

Sri Rama Sena Founder Pramod Muthalik has met prominent religious heads and Hindu seers and mobilised their support for the cause. He had given out a call for all Hindu temples to fix mikes. Through the organisation, memorandums have been submitted to all district commissioner offices in the state to remove mikes from mosques. He had stated that the authorities have issued notices and kept sleeping over the issue.

The Sena has stated that they would not care if there is a crisis situation because of the May 9 loudspeaker campaign in the state. A submission has already been made to the Muzrai department to provide loud speakers for the temples which come under its jurisdiction. Taking no chance, the police department has beefed up the security.
DEAR ABBY: I've been married for 14 years and have two kids. Our youngest is 11. For the last nine years, it has been a loveless marriage. Luckily, he works a lot, but when he's home, I stay in my bedroom. The only thing we do together is eat dinner. Our kids are thriving in school, and I worry that leaving will hurt them terribly. Should I wait until our youngest graduates?

I am 47 and have multiple sclerosis that is slowly progressing. I do not have family and friends for support. Could I be even more lonely if I leave? The thought of divorce feels overwhelming, but I feel like life is passing me by. Hoping you can point me in the right direction. -- LIVING IN LIMBO IN MISSOURI

DEAR LIVING: I wish you had mentioned what it was nine years ago that created a rift between you and your husband. If it was your diagnosis, it is truly regrettable. In the interim, have you tried talking about this with a marriage and family therapist? If the answer is no, you should.

I am concerned about the degree of isolation you are feeling. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (nationalmssociety.org) offers virtual and in-person support groups that might benefit you greatly.

Divorcing one's spouse is not a guarantee that one's loneliness will end, as many divorced women and men can attest. The National MS Society may be able to provide what you need right now.

DEAR ABBY: My brother divorced his first wife 10 years ago. Since then, he has married a wonderful woman my family adores. The problem is, my ex-sister-in-law insists on showing up for family events, which makes these celebrations extremely awkward. Even her children recognize how uncomfortable her presence makes everyone.

I don't mind being the "bad guy" and telling her that she's no longer welcome at family events, but I don't want to cause an ugly scene. How can I diplomatically (but firmly) tell her to stay away? Any suggestions would be appreciated. -- FLUMMOXED IN PHILADELPHIA

DEAR FLUMMOXED: What a sad situation. Your BROTHER, not you, should deliver the message to his ex, well before she shows up at your next family event. He should inform her that when she shows up uninvited, her presence makes everyone uncomfortable, and it would be best that she not impose again. You could lessen the hurt by occasionally seeing her separately, depending upon the circumstances of the divorce.

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April 23 : It seems that Shah Rukh Khan is juggling between Atlees untitled film and Raju Hiranis Dunki. The actor, who was on a hiatus for almost four years, is now shooting back to back. The actor has not yet wrapped the Yash Raj Films Pathan, has recently shared the title of Rajus film in his own hilarious manner.

It is now reported that Shah Rukh and his leading lady for Atlees film, Sanya Malhotra have recently filmed

an intense action sequence for the film. The film or its cast have not been so far announced officially.

A Mid-Day report has suggested that Shah Rukh and Sanya have shot for a high-octane stunt sequence.

Sanya also has a very busy schedule. She has apparently returned to Mumbai after wrapping up a schedule of Guneet Mongas film in Madhya Pradesh and started shooting for Atlees film the next day. To keep with the mood of the actioner, director Atlee had lined up high-octane stunts for a full week. The report suggested that while Sanya is new to this genre, she reportedly picked up the basics of handling a gun quickly. Before facing the camera, Sanya reportedly underwent an intense prep of a few hours to handle and work with guns.

The entertainer is being mounted on a humongous budget of Rs. 200 crore. The film also stars South actress Nayanthara, and Sunil Grover. It is also reported that Shah Rukh Khan has been featured in a double role.
Washington, April 23 : US civil right activist Al Sharpton has demanded a federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old black man in the state of Michigan.

Lyoya was killed by a police officer on April 4 during a traffic stop, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to videos released by Grand Rapids police, the officer asked for Lyoya's driver's license, and Lyoya eventually fled the car and a chase on foot ensued.

The two men ended up struggling over the officer's stun gun before the officer shot Lyoya in the back of the head.

During the Lyoya's funeral on Friday, Sharpton addressed the officer and questioned his decisions: "You turned a traffic stop into what appears on tape to be an execution." He pointed out that Lyoya was killed on the 54th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination.

The activist also criticized Grand Rapids police's decision to withhold the name of the officer who fatally shot Lyoya unless he is charged with a crime, local media reported.

An autopsy found that the cause of Lyoya's death was a bullet shot to the back of the head.

The Michigan State Police is investigating the shooting death.

Hundreds of mourners attended Lyoya's funeral, according to media reports.
Kiev, April 23 : Ukrainian law enforcement officers have discovered 1,084 bodies in the Kiev region, with a majority of them shot dead, a top police official said.

"The bodies have been examined by investigators and transported to forensic medical facilities. The victims are civilians who had no connection to territorial defence (forces) or to other military formations," Ukrayinska Pravda quoted Andrii Nabytov, head of the regional police, as saying in a televised broadcast on Friday night.

"The overwhelming majority, between 50 and 75 per cent, of the victims were killed by firearms: machine guns, sniper rifles, submachine guns, depending on the settlement. At present, more than 300 bodies of the victims have not been identified," he added.

Instead of waiting for information, Nabytov urged Ukrainians to provide details about friends and relatives who have disappeared or who have not been in touch with them since the war broke out on February 24.

When providing information, they should, in the first instance, use the special phone line 102, he added.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Kiev until April 21, the UN Human Rights Office has recorded 2,435 civilian deaths and 2,946 injuries.

The dead included 631 men, 383 women, 42 girls, 61 boys, and 70 children.

However, the Office specified that the real numbers could be higher, as information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.

The Ukrainian government has put the death toll at above 10,000.
April 23 : Deepika Padukone will reportedly attend the Met Gala 2022 on May 2 in New York City. Reportedly, the Gehraiyaan actress will attend the Met Gala with Louis Vuitton. Prior to the global event, Deepika is in Venice, Italy, to attend the 59th Venice Biennale, where she was dressed in Louis Vuitton.

Deepikas husband, Ranveer Singh, the biggest cheerleader of his wife, is quite excited about Deepika's latest post from Venice. The actress shared pictures from an event she attended. Ranveer was among the first to react to the post as he wrote, Wow. Venice Biennale is the worlds most prominent international art event, delayed by a year by the Covid pandemic.

At the Venice Biennale, Deepika was also a part of a dinner hosted by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton. The dinner was hosted to celebrate the future renovation of the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oroevent, and she attended the dinner, dressed head-to-toe in Louis Vuitton. She tagged her post to the luxury brand and Nicolas Ghesquiere, the creative director of the house of Louis Vuitton since 2013.

Nicolas Ghesquiere too reacted to the post with heart and fire emojis.

Deepika was seen in a cropped vest jacket and a shirt that had a ruffled collar. She paired it with olive culottes and thigh-high boots. The actress accessorised with the iconic Dauphine handbag and opted for sleek hair pulled into an updo. She went for dewy makeup and burgundy lips.

Recently, Deepika Padukone received the TIME100 Impact Award for the second time. The Chhapaak actress attended the prestigious ceremony held at the Museum of the Future in Dubai with her husband Ranveer Singh. The actor has received the TIME100 Impact Award for her work on mental health.

For the TIME100 Impact Awards, the Piku actress stole the show in a gorgeous sheer saree. She wore a classic Sabyasachi creation with matching jewellery. The slightly embellished drape featured floral designs with intricate thread work.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Deepika Padukone was last seen in Shakun Batra's Gehraiyaan, and her performance in the film was praised by critics. The actress was currently in Spain shooting for her upcoming film Pathaan with Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham. Deepika will also be seen in Project K with Prabhas, and in The Intern remake with Amitabh Bachchan. The actress will also be seen in Fighter opposite Hrithik Roshan. The film will hit theatres in September next year.
Bengaluru, April 23 : In a major development, the hoax bomb threats given to more than 14 international schools in Bengaluru have been tracked to Syria and Pakistan.

Police sources investigating the issue confirmed on Saturday that the emails sent to the schools originated from Syria and Pakistan.

The police authorities have taken the development as an act of terrorism and cyber warfare against the nation.

The case in this regard has been registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act 66 (F). The act is clamped on an individual whoever with an intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of people.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that he will speak to the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru in this regard.

"I don't have any input regarding the development. But, serious action will be initiated against the culprits," he said.

"These incidents are taking place to disturb the peace in the society. Such a development had taken place last year and before that year as well. We will investigate the matter. If there is an email, its origin could be tracked to find out from which country it has originated," CM Bommai stated.

"There are few instances where our officers have taken action in such cases and arrested the accused after consulting authorities of respective countries," he said.

The state police are investigating the case in coordination with Central agencies. They have written about the incident to central investigating agencies and authorities. The vital information regarding the case is being collected on technical analysis, police said.

The officers suspect that the emails had been sent by radical elements against the backdrop of series of developments such as hijab row, halal row and ban on Muslim merchants in the state temple.

Miscreants had sent bomb threat for more than 14 international schools situated on the outskirts of Bengaluru on April 8 triggering panic and concern among parents, children and people of the state.

The bomb threats were sent to the official email ids of the schools.

Initially, Ebenezer International School, located in Hebbagodi police station limits and Vincent Pallotti International School, located in Hennur police station limits, had received the threats.

Later, it came to light that the threat has also been given to Gopalan Public School in Mahadevapura, Delhi Public School of Varthur and New Academy School of Marathahalli and The Indian Public School of Govindapura and other schools.

One of the threat messages read, "A powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention it is not a joke, this is not joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer, including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands! The email has been forwarded from abarons.masarfm@gmail.com'.

Further investigation is on.
Hyderabad, April 23 : Missing case of a woman devotee who had gone to a temple turned out to be a murder for gain committed by none other than the temple's priest.

Police late on Friday arrested priest of Siddi Vinayaka Temple at Vishnupur Colony in Malkajgiri for murdering the woman with an iron rod and robbing her gold ornaments.

With the arrest of Anumula Murali Krishna, Rachakonda police solved the mysterious case of death of a 56-year-old woman Gorthi Uma Devi.

Uma Devi, a regular visitor to the temple, did not return home after visiting the temple on the evening of April 18.

As she did not return home, her husband GVN Murthy, a retired employee went to the temple and enquired with the priest who informed him that she had come to the temple but already left the place.

Murthy, however, found the footwear of his wife at the temple and waited there for sometime thinking that she might have gone to some nearby place. After waiting in vain, he approached the police.

A missing case was registered at Malkajgiri police station under Rachakonda police commissionerate.

The police found the body of the woman on the rear side of the temple on April 21 and launched a probe, which finally led to the arrest of the 42-year-old priest.

A native of Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh, he has been working as the priest at the temple for the last few years.

As Uma Devi used to come regularly to the temple, the priest had his eyes on the gold ornaments she used to wear. He hatched a plan to kill her and rob her ornaments.

Accordingly, when Uma Devi came to the temple around 7 p.m. on April 18, the priest took advantage of the situation as no one else was there in the temple.

Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwath said the priest brutally murdered the woman by repeatedly hitting her on her head with an iron rod.

Once he was sure of the victim's death, he dumped her body in a plastic drum, closed it with a cap and cleaned the floor. Later, he robbed the gold ornaments the woman was wearing.

He sold the gold ornaments weighing about 10 tolas at a jewelry shop in the same area.

Later, the accused tried to dispose of the body by taking it to an isolated place in a trolley but could not meet with success as the locals and police officials were in search of the deceased.

As a foul smell started emanating from the drum after two days, he went to the temple in the wee hours of April 21, rolled the drum containing the body and dumped the body in the thorny bushes existing in between the railway track and rear side of the temple.

"The priest brought the empty drum into the temple, cleaned it and kept it in its place. As the foul smell was still emanating, he again cleaned it and lit the incense sticks," a police officer said.

By Friday evening, the police cracked the case with the arrest of the accused, who confessed to the crime. Police also recovered the ornaments the priest had sold to Maa Bhavani Jewelers and arrested the shop owner Joshi Nanda Kishore.

The police also reconstructed the crime scene and recovered the iron rod used by the priest to attack and kill the devotee.
New Delhi, April 23 : The national capital has witnessed several fake housing scams and sooner or later the accused scamsters have always landed in the police net.

The Unitech scam done by Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra, former promoters of the group, was also unearthed and the brothers have been in jail since August 2017 for allegedly siphoning off homebuyers' money. Many more housing project scams were unearthed and the perpetrators were brought to the book.

But in 2011, a man in his early 30s allegedly cheated people to such an extent that later he was even able to buy a 4,050 sq.ft five-bedroom $19 million apartment in New York City.

The accused builder Kabul Chawla, MD of Business Park Town Planners (BPTP), was accused of duping over a thousand homebuyers in a fake housing project in Faridabad, Haryana. The cheated amount was to the tune of Rs 400 crore then.

The first FIR was registered against the alleged company in January 2011 for not fulfilling their promise of delivering plots and flats to the homebuyers by 2012. Later in that year, a Delhi Court issued a non-bailable warrant against Chawla.

However, even after 11 years of the registration of the case, the accused is absconding, with some saying that he fled the country then and settled abroad.

His company BPTP is still functional and headquartered at Gurugram, while Chawla is said to be in the US.

When the pressure was mounted by the buyers over the company, it constructed 5 towers in 2018 but it had no facilities as they were promised by the alleged real estate company. The buyers then refused to take possession of the said flats.

In 2019, the buyers and BPTP reached a settlement that by September 2020, it will complete the project and deliver the flats. But unfortunately, construction work was yet again stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic which broke out globally in early 2020.

It is not the only project of BPTP, rather the company claims to have presence in Faridabad, Delhi, Gurugram and Noida with several projects completed and delivered, while many are still under construction.

In the past several years, the BPTP has grown faster than seasoned real estate giants of the country. The sprawling headquarter of the company in Gurugram is testimony to the success of BPTP which was initially started with only 20 people.

A few years ago, Chawla's name also came in New York Times investigation report into foreign fund flows into top-end New York real estate that revealed names of two Indian businessmen who have condominiums in a super luxury residential building in the US city.

The investigative report says that the construction of the building for which the home buyers were duped in India is still not yet over and the victims of the fraud, mostly retired military officers, have been even now after 10 years protesting against the accused builder.

Meanwhile, it was also learnt that Chawla has reportedly denied owning any house at the Time Warner Center apartment in New York City.

Notably, Chawla, 42, who was born in Karnal, Haryana is said to be having strong political connections in the state. Apart from a house in Manhattan, he also owns a home in Lutyen Delhi's posh Amrita Shergil Marg.
New Delhi, April 23 : A couple of years ago, real estate firm Supertech Ltd was gaining steam with several thousand apartments in Delhi-NCR.

It advertised extensively and the firm was among the top in the real estate sector. Then in 2020 came the Covid pandemic, which turned everything upside down and created an unprecedented crisis for the real estate industry.

As things begin to normalise, it seems normalcy has reached beyond the reach of Supertech with the company receiving a twofold blow.

First, in August last year, the Supreme Court ordered demolition of its two 40-storey towers in Noida, and in March this year, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) declared Supertech as insolvent while admitting a plea filed by the Union Bank of India (UBI) over non-payment of its dues.

In August 2021, the apex court ordered demolition of the twin towers in Sector 93, Noida, within three months, and also directed that the entire amount of homebuyers should be refunded with 12 per cent interest from the time of booking.

Supertech fought a long and draining legal battle to protect its twin towers -- having over 900 flats and 21 shops -- against demolition, which had been ordered for violation of building bylaws.

It filed a plea in the apex court seeking to save one tower and partially demolish 224 units in the other to conform with building bylaws. However, in October last year, the top court junked the plea by Supertech seeking extension of time for payment of compensation to homebuyers and demolition of twin towers.

Finally, the fate of its twin towers was sealed on February 7, when the apex court directed the authorities to commence the process for demolition of towers within two weeks.

The Noida authority informed the apex court that the demolition will be completed by May 22, and the debris will be removed by August 22.

The past few of months have been dramatic for the real estate company. In January, the Supreme Court pulled up the realty major for not complying with its orders to demolish the twin towers. The top court warned "its directors will be sent to jail for playing truant with the court", and also took serious note of the deductions in refund made to the homebuyers.

Another jolt hit Supertech when the NCLT in March approved UBI's application to begin corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against the realty major for non-payment of around Rs 432 crore worth dues.

Supertech is supposed to deliver nearly 25,000 units to homebuyers in 50 projects, which are spread across Noida, Greater Noida, Yamuna Expressway, Ghaziabad and Gurugram, among other cities.

The NCLT appointed Hitesh Goyal as the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP), superseding the board of Supertech. One of the promoters of Supertech moved the NCLAT, challenging the NCLT order.

Earlier this week, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) gave the real estate firm one more opportunity to settle its dispute with the Union Bank of India. The bank took the real estate firm to the insolvency court after it failed to pay its debt since July 2019.

The NCLAT extended its stay over formation of a committee of creditors (COC) to overtake Supertech till May 2, after a counsel for a director of the suspended board of Supertech sought one more chance to present a better proposal before the lender bank.

The Union Bank of India counsel had contended that it has received an offer, but it has been rejected on various grounds. The bank's counsel said it did not mention paying any upfront amount and the tenure of repayment was 24 months, and insisted that Supertech should come up with a definite upfront payment plan for the dues.

On April 4, the Supreme Court said it will protect the interest of Supertech's twin-tower homebuyers in the backdrop of the appointment of an IRP in the insolvency proceedings against the real estate firm.

According to a note filed by advocate Gaurav Agarwal, amicus curiae in the matter, NCLT passed an order on March 25, 2022, by which corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) has been initiated against Supertech and moratorium under Section 14 of IB Code, 2016, has been declared.

Agarwal urged the top court to consider whether payments to be made to the remaining homebuyers of the twin towers should form part of the resolution process or whether the payments should be made by the company from the funds available (or which may become available in future), i.e., the said payments be kept out of the CIRP process? Also, in case the payments are part of the CIRP process, will the amounts due to the homebuyers be included as a separate category in the proposed resolution plans so that homebuyers get the refund with interest from the successful resolution applicant?

The top court said it will protect the interest of homebuyers in the Supertech's twin towers in Noida. It said that homebuyers should file their claims with the IRP and seek response from the IRP on the disbursal of their claims.

A note submitted in the top court by Agarwal said: "As per the information given by Supertech Ltd, out of 711 customers/units, the claims of 652 customers/units are settled/paid. Fifty-nine homebuyers still have to be refunded the amounts. The principal outstanding would be Rs 14.96 crore." The apex court is likely to next hear the matter in the first week of May.
San Francisco, April 23 : Elon Musk-led SpaceX has secured its first deal to provide in-flight internet service on airplanes using its Starlink constellation of broadband satellites.

According to Space.com, the service will be available later this year to customers of JSX, a charter airline company that plans to equip 100 planes with Starlink-provided inflight Wi-Fi.

"The service will be offered to all JSX customers at no charge, and will not require logging in or other complexities associated with legacy systems," JSX representative was quoted as saying in an emailed statement.

Delta Airlines told the Wall Street Journal, however, that it recently conducted "exploratory tests" of Starlink's internet technology in a bid to potentially reach business users.

Neither SpaceX nor its founder and CEO has commented on the JSX deal on Twitter to date, although Musk said in 2021 that SpaceX was targeting different airplane types for Starlink.

"Schedule driver there is regulatory approval," Musk tweeted earlier, alluding to the Federal Aviation Administration that oversees the airline industry.

"Has to be certified for each aircraft type. Focusing on 737 & A320, as those serve most number of people, with development testing on Gulfstream," he added.

JSX's Embraer ERJa-aircraft were not on Musk's list from that time, the report said.

The regional jets, however, cater to business users as they are low-volume (30 seats each) and fly point-to-point between several high-population cities, mainly in the western US and Texas.
Chennai, April 23 : The Selaiyur police in Chennai have commenced a probe following a complaint by a person that his wife was asked to remove her hijab when they had gone to a school to seek a seat for their four-year-old son.

Ashiq Meeran of Tambaram, in his complaint, said that he and his wife had gone to a private school in East Tambaram for getting their son admitted to the LKG class. He said that an employee of the school asked his wife to remove her hijab stating that the school does not allow wearing hijab on its premises.

The couple then went to the principal and complained about the incident.

Station House officer of Selayiur police station told IANS that according to the complainant and his wife, the principal was supportive of the stand taken by the employee and told the couple that the school does not permit women wearing hijab within its premises.

Meeran and his wife came out of the school and along with other family members and relatives lodged a complaint with the Selayiur police.

A police officer said that they will be meeting the school principal and elicit a response regarding the complaint and also will speak to other teachers and staff members of the school.

Tamil Nadu was free of hijab row even as neighbouring Karnataka was reeling under the issue and the action of the school authorities has upset the state government and political parties.

Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi while speaking to IANS said: "This is unfortunate and I will have to check on what transpired in the school on Thursday. Strong action will be taken against the school authorities if they are found guilty and we are waiting for the report of the police who have already commenced a probe." It may be noted that during the Urban local body elections in February, a BJP worker who was a polling agent in a booth at Madurai was arrested after he asked a woman voter to remove her hijab.
At its April 3 celebration of its fundraising drive finale, the Coconino Democratic Party revealed the name of its annual Eleanor Roosevelt Award winner: Lina Wallen.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Award is presented annually to members of our community whose work and service to the people of Coconino County embody the ideals of Eleanor Roosevelt. In her day, Mrs. Roosevelt was told to attend to her own knitting, but she refused. For decades, she wrote a daily newspaper column, traveled to spread her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelts message, and pushed his administration toward more progressive policies. After FDRs death, President Truman appointed her to represent the United States at the first United Nations meeting. She said, I see it as our duty to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable.

Five deserving community members were nominated for this years award, and each merits recognition.

Nancy Branham has a 30-year career of service to the Flagstaff Community. Among other things, she has been a member of the North County Healthcare Foundation Board, served in various capacities with the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors, mentored new Realtors, and read to grade school children weekly for many years, as she does through today. Nancy is a tireless advocate for public education, appearing at Save Our School rallies and gathering petition signatures.

Sharon Edgar was nominated this year for her work (a full-time job) following and interpreting the work of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. Edgar was the Eleanor Roosevelt Award winner last year for work on past campaigns.

Donna Hanley is a strong ally of the Indigenous community. Through her work as a Census Trainer, Hanley became familiar with the Navajo and Hopi communities. She has helped bring solar-generated power to homes and arranged assistance for individuals in remote areas.

Marilyn Weissman arrived in Flagstaff in the early 1990s, and offered her expertise on zoning, land use, and urban planning to the cause of social justice in our community. She never loses sight of the meaning of a policy to the everyday citizen, to the immigrant, to minorities, to the less fortunate and less connected. Weissman played important roles in two 2016 initiatives  one to preserve 300 acres of city-owned land as parkland on McMillan Mesa and, second, to raise Flagstaffs minimum wage. She has served for many years on the board of Friends of Flagstaffs Future  a non-political organization committed to promoting a just and sustainable Flagstaff. When no one stepped up to organize a Womens March last summer, Marilyn made it happen.

Ultimately, this years award went to Lina Wallen, also the Daily Suns 2018 Female Citizen of the Year. Wallen has served on boards and commissions for the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County, too many to mention, but the heart of her volunteer work has always been service to children, especially those who have no one else to advocate for them. She works to make vulnerable children safe, to make sure they are cared for, and to ensure they learn to be good citizens.

Since 1993 she has worked as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in the Coconino County Juvenile Courts. In this role, she represents children who are under the jurisdiction of Arizona Child Protective Services. Her work involves attending all related court hearings and visiting each child at least once a month in their various environments including foster placement and school. When necessary, she accompanies them to medical appointments, counseling and school and other activities.

Wallen also serves as Chair of the Coconino County Foster Care Review Board (FCRB), annually reviewing the cases of more than 100 children in foster care.

Congratulations and thanks to all five nominees.

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Patna, April 23 : A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attended an Iftar party at RJD leader Rabri Devi's residence, all eyes are on Union Home Minister Amit Shah who is slated to arrive in the state shortly, as his moves will decide the future of the BJP-JD(U) relations, the key constituents of the ruling NDA in Bihar.

Shah is visiting the Bihat to participate in a prgramme organised to remember freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh in Bhojpur's Jagdishpur.

According to sources in the JD(U), if Amit Shah talks about any controversial issues like "Uniform Civil Code" during the rally in Bhojpur's Jagdishpur or in Sasaram, it might irk Nitish Kumar.

Kumar, the JD(U) chief, has already clarified his stand on Azan, Hanuman, loud speaker and bulldozer politics. Under his governance in Bihar, not a single incident of communal aggression has appeared despite such incidents being reported from Jahangirpuri in Delhi and in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. Kumar is not pleased with the "bulldozer politics" of the BJP.

Amit Shah, on the other hand, reportedly hinted in Bhopal on Friday that the Narendra Modi government may press for the implementation of uniform civil code in the country.

BJP has already addressed controversial issues like Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Triple Talaq, Article 370, CAA etc. The uniform civil code was in the manifesto of BJP in 2019 parliamentary election and Shah is likely to be brought out in the public domain in Bihar.

The uniform civil code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply on all citizens equally regardless of their religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation.

Currently, personal law of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. For example, Muslim community follows the laws of Sharia. Implementation of a uniform civil code across the nation is one of the contentious promises of BJP.

Amit Shah has a scheduled visit to celebrate freedom fighter (1857) Babu Veer Kunwar Singh in Jagdishpur which is just 70 km away from Patna in Bhojpur district.

He will also address a rally. After Jagdishpur, his convoy will move to Saaram where he has a meeting with BJP leaders and supporters and then will visit Gaya before returning to Delhi.
Bengaluru, April 23 : Karnataka police said on Saturday that they have arrested a thief who committed burglaries to make money in order to settle in a European country with his Bangladeshi wife.

The arrested person is identified as Vinodkumar a.k.a Shareef from Hyderabad in Telangana. The cops have also nabbed his associate Rohith Mandal from West Bengal.

Sanjaynagar police who arrested the accused in Bengaluru explained that they have recovered Rs 79.64 lakh worth of 792 grams of gold, Rs 2 lakh cash, 30 costly watches, six iPads.

The police worked meticulously to nab the thief in the wake of a sudden spurt in burglaries.

Kumar is a habitual offender thrown out by parents when he was involved in six cases of house burglaries.

Hyderabad police had also arrested him previously.

After coming out of prison, he shifted to Kolkata and worked as a cab driver. There he met Mandal, and his wife from Bangladesh.

He married her and went to Bangladesh and lived there for a year. Unable to live in Dhaka, Kumar returned to India with his wife. He decided to settle down in a European country with his wife.

He chose Bengaluru to commit burglaries and gather money.

The accused did his research on YouTube and gathered tools for committing house burglaries.

Kumar committed 22 thefts across the city.

At the time of committing burglary, the accused wore a mask and cap to hide his identity.

The police spotted him and arrested him after a big chase. He kept the stolen gold ornaments for his wife and also led a lavish life.
Sanaa, April 23 : A delegation from Oman arrived in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Friday to convince the Houthi militia to engage in a peace process with the government of the war-torn nation.

"The Omani delegation would meet with the top leaders of the (Houthi) group amid efforts to lift the blockade and end the war," the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported without providing further details.

Yemen's warring sides agreed to implement from April 2 a UN-brokered ceasefire that was meant to last two months, reports Xinhua news agency.

The truce includes the halt of all ground, aerial and naval military offensive operations across Yemen and its borders.

Oman, which borders both Yemen and Saudi Arabia, has been actively engaged in brokering the ceasefire.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg also hailed Oman's "crucial role in supporting the negotiations".

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed government out of Sanaa.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million, and pushed the country to the brink of starvation, according to the UN.
Panaji, April 23 : The Crime Branch of the Goa Police has started a probe after a person claiming to be the state's Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai sent WhatsApp messages to several journalists, requesting urgent payment via Google or Amazon Pay.

"The unknown person appears to have impersonated as the honourable Governor on WhatsApp. Several messages have been sent to journalists since Friday evening seeking money. We are carrying out technical analysis based on the messages we have received to track down the accused," a Crime Branch official said on Saturday.

On Friday evening, mobile phones of several journalists pinged, with the Governor's display picture popping up on their screens, with a discreet "Hello".

"Initially when I saw the DP, I thought it was the Governor himself, because we have been in touch with the Raj Bhavan over the past few days for official purposes," Joel Afonso, Editor of The Goan, a local English daily, told IANS.

"Later when the person spoke about sending him money via Amazon pay, I thought a Governor will not stoop to this level. I communicated the potential fraud to the officials at Raj Bhavan," Afondo said.

Gerard D'Souza, who writes for The Hindustan Times from Goa, was also contacted by the same profile.

"I was taken aback to receive a message from a WhatsApp profile with the Governor's picture inquiring about me... At first I thought it was a genuine message given that the Governor is known to love an interaction with journalists.

"However, scepticism took over and on scrutiny, errors in how he spelt his name in the profile led me to believe it was a fake account. One hopes that the police will get to the bottom of this," he added.

In July last year, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's Facebook account too was cloned and requests for money via UPI were sent to several persons across Goa.

In November, unknown persons also tried to phish Sawant's bank details when the Chief Minister was on an official visit to Delhi.

"I was also surprised by this. I was wondering why? I flipped open my purse and even pulled out my Aadhar card, then it suddenly occurred to me, why should I share my Aadhar card number, let my account be frozen. No issues. So I did not share my Aadhar card number," the Chief Minister had said then.
Bengaluru, April 23 : In a huge setback to the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress in Karnataka, the Criminal Investigation Department(CID) probe has unearthered the involvement of leaders of both the parties in the Police Sub-Inspector(PSI) exam scam.

BJP leader Divya Hagaragi's role in the scam has come to the surface. In a major embarrassment to BJP, pictures of Home Minister Araga Jnanendra visiting her house have gone viral on social media. A hunt has been launched for Divya Hagaragi who served as the party's District President in Kalaburagi.

Before the opposition Congress could rake up the issue attacking ruling BJP, CID sleuths arrested Congress Block President of Afzalpur town in Kalaburagi city, Mahantesh Patil, a close associate of Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

Along with Patil, police have also arrested two more individuals -- Vishal and Sharanabasappa. As per police sources, Vishal had taken his PSI exams at Jnana Jyothi College owned by BJP leader Divya Hagaragi and was selected to the police service. Sharanabasappa is alleged of helping the candidates while writing exams through a Bluetooth device.

Thirteen persons have been arrested in connection with the case including the gunman of Congress MLA M.Y. Patil.

Shocked by the development, the Congress had urged the ruling BJP government to initiate action against all guilty.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has stated that no one, including Divya Hagaragi, will be given any kind of protection in connection with the scandal. He has also explained that the investigation agencies will arrest her soon.

The CID sleuths have arrested Divya Hagaragi's husband Rajesh Hagaragi. The examinations for the 545 posts of PSIs were held in October last year. As many as 54,041 candidates appeared for it. The results were announced this January.

Later, the allegations surfaced that candidates who gave a very poor performance in descriptive writing got maximum marks in Paper 2. However, the police department and the Home Minister denied any irregularities in PSI exams.

One of the candidates filed an RTI application seeking information on OMR sheets of one of the candidates. Though the application was rejected, the OMR sheet of the candidate appeared in public domain. Police sources say that Veeresh, the candidate, had attempted only 21 questions in paper 2 but got 100 marks. He was given seventh rank.

Congress MLA Priyank Kharge had alleged that more than 300 of the 545 candidates had paid Rs 70 to 80 lakh bribe to officials and ministers to become PSI.
Panaji, April 23 : Stating that the order by a trial court acquitting former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal needed "deeper scrutiny and reappreciation", the Bombay High Court in Goa on Saturday granted the state government leave to appeal against the former journalist's acquittal in a 2013 rape case.

"We believe that deeper scrutiny and reappreciation may be necessary of the evidence of the respondent's SMS, WhatsApp, and email messages sent to the victim. This evidence has to be evaluated from the context of corroboration of the victim's testimony in the matter," Justices M.S. Sonak and R.N. Laddha said in their order.

The order also said that there was need to revisit the inferences made by the Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi in the order, passed last year, about the conduct of the victim.

"The inference from the victim's conduct of consulting some lawyers before lodging her complaint may also require a revisit. Finally, the contention about the alleged admissions in the messages or the proper scope of such statements also requires consideration at this stage, we might have only preferred to record that a prima facie case has been made out and arguable issues arise in the matter," the court said.

Tejpal, who had challenged the state government's decision to appeal against his acquittal, claimed procedural lapses on part of the prosecution in their appeal application.

"Based on the material on record, we do not think any case is made out to infer non-application of mind rendering such a decision a nullity. Though valid in some circumstances, the contention about haste and the inference of non-application of mind cannot be mechanically drawn in all events and purposes," the High Court maintained, rejecting Tejpal's counsel Amit Desai's contention.

Tejpal was charged against under sections 376 (rape), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement) 354A (sexual harassment) and 354B (criminal assault), of the Indian Penal Code, after a junior colleague accused him of rape at a five star resort in Goa in 2013.

On May 21, he was acquitted by the trial court in Goa citing "benefit of doubt", following which an appeal was filed by the state government.
Vijayawada, April 23 : A notice served to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by the state women's commission following Friday's incident when he had gone to meet a gang-rape victim at a government hospital here has sparked a row.

Women's Commission Chairperson Vasireddy Padma issued notices to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Naidu and another TDP leader Bonda Uma for outraging and insulting her modesty while the main opposition party has slammed her for misusing her office to issue notices when they had gone to the hospital to demand justice for the victim.

Uproarious scenes were witnessed at Government Hospital Vijayawada when Naidu, who is leader of opposition in State Assembly, visited the hospital to meet a mentally challenged woman, who was gang-raped by three employees of the hospital.

Vasireddy Padma, who was already at the hospital to meet the victim, had to face an angry protest by TDP supporters, who raised slogans asking her to go back. There was reportedly an argument between Naidu and Padma.

By evening, both Naidu and Bonda Uma were issued notices by Padma under Section 14(1) of A.P. Women's Commission Act 1998. Both have been directed to appear before the Commission on April 27 to give explanation.

According to the notice issued to TDP chief, when the chairperson was visiting the hospital, Naidu came to the place at the same time along with "your henchmen and wanted only created galata and tense atmosphere, made patients panic and also used abusive language with tyranny by outraging and insulting modesty of the Hon'ble Chairperson, A.P. Women's Commission and misbehaved being a responsible person", the notice read.

A similar notice was issued to Bonda Uma, a former MLA.

Meanwhile, TDP has reacted strongly to the notices. "Will you issue notices demanding justice to the victim," asked Uma. He said the TDP would approach the High Court and other Constitutional institutions against what he called misuse of powers by the chairperson of the commission at the behest of the ruling party. He said they would demand removal of Padma from the post.

Meanwhile, Padma also addressed a news conference on Saturday to defend her action. She alleged that the TDP leaders behaved with the victim in an inhuman manner. She maintained that the Commission has the powers to issue notices.

"Notices are not new. Every week, the Commission issues such notices to 50-60 persons," she said, adding that they can't keep quiet if TDP politicises an issue relating to a serious crime.

A 23-year-old mentally challenged woman was gang-raped by three contract employees of Government General Hospital by confining her to a room in the hospital for 30 hours.

The victim's family alleged that lack of action by the police on her complaint about her disappearance led to the shocking incident.

After Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered stringent action in the case, Director General of Police suspended two police officers of Nunna Police Station for dereliction of duty.

The chief minister announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the victim and directed the health department to take strong action against the hospital officials found negligent in discharge of their duties.

Police have arrested all the three accused, who have also been dismissed from their jobs at the hospital.
Mumbai, April 23 : In an expected volte-face, the agitating independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana on Saturday abruptly called off their agitation to march to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private home in Bandra.

MLA Rana claimed that the agitation was being withdrawn in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Mumbai tomorrow (Sunday, April 24) to avoid any law-and-order situation from cropping up.

The duo claimed that they were not under any kind of pressure or scared by the Maha Vikas Aghadi or the Shiv Sena, but were dropping their plans in honour of the PM's trip to Mumbai.

"This was not an agitation. We just wanted to go to the CM's home and recite Hanuman Chalisa with full faith to remind him of the forgotten ideals of the late Shiv Sena founder the late Balasaheb Thackeray. We were stopped from going there, we were gheraoed, our Amravati home was attacked. But now we have withdrawn our plans," Rana added.

He darkly warned that for 'insulting' Hanuman Chalisa, the people of the state and the divine forces will teach the 'egoistic' Thackeray an appropriate lesson at the appropriate time.
New Delhi, April 23 : The Delhi Police said on Saturday that it has arrested two people for murdering a man by smashing his face with bricks and later dumping his body on a vacant plot in the national capital.

The accused have been identified as Raj Kumar alias Raman, a resident of Delhi's Karala and Kartik, a resident of the capital's Begumpur area.

According to the official, a call was received regarding a naked body found in a water-logged vacant plot in Karala's Vardhman Enclave of Shiv Nihar. On enquiry, the deceased was identified as Joginder, who was also a resident of Karala.

The police registered a case under Section 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at the Kanjhawala police station.

During investigation, the CCTV footage was examined and the two suspects were identified and later apprehended. On interrogation, Kartik revealed that he had some personal issues with the deceased and to settle scores, he along with Rajkumar, first smashed the victim's face with bricks and thereafter dumped the body on the vacant plot.

The official said that they have recovered the blood stained clothes of the accused and the deceased. A further probe is on.
New Delhi, April 23 : In his presentation to the Congress top brass, electoral strategist Prashant Kishor flagged that the biggest worry is that members of decision-making bodies in the party are all nominated, not necessarily connected at the grassroots and barely fight elections.

For the 2024 general elections, Kishor has suggested a "a pan-India avant-garde campaign to reach, connect and mobilise all of India for a mega movement leading to reincarnation of Congress and election of a transformational government".

To win, 45 per cent of votes are required which means a target of 30 crore, Kishor has said.

Within the country's digital consciousness, the BJP and its leaders currently score vastly above the Congress, he pointed out.

With a theme of "India Deserves Better", Kishor has suggested to the Congress to build a unified platform to provide strategic support and resources to non-political influencers and mount a sustained campaign against the ruling dispensation.

In his presentation, Kishor said his "Reincarnation of Congress" is about "preserving the soul, creating a new body".

The inspiration of the campaign is the symbols of Nataraja namely Creation, Protection, Liberation, Destruction, Concealment and Connect.

The resolves include the creation of a new Congress which will be a political platform of choice for the masses.

Destroy a sense of entitlement, lack of accountability and sycophancy, Kishor said in the presentation.

It notes that perhaps for the first time, Congress leadership does not appear fully aligned in terms of goals, strategy, method, approach, tactics and the way forward; leading to a complete lack of cohesion, at times confusion and stalemate.

There is a need for a non-Gandhi Working President/Vice President who can effectively work on the ground as per direction of Congress leadership, it suggests.

It advocates a Congress Plus alliance structure with a national character but having 5-6 partners.

The Congress should contest 75-80 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats with a few regional alliances like NCP, DMK, JMM, YSR Congress and TMC.

On beefing up the organisational structure, Kishor has called to Identify and meaningfully engage 15,000 grassroots leaders and activate 1 crore foot soldiers across India.

"India Deserves Better" is the theme to build a unified platform to provide strategic support and resources to non-political influencers and mount a sustained campaign against the ruling dispensation.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, April 23 : The Indian justice delivery system should be Indianised for the benefit of the country's population, said Chief Justice of India N.V.Ramana on Saturday.

He also said people should relate and understand the practices, procedures of the courts, the development of the case and efforts should be made towards that.

"It should not be like chanting of mantras in a wedding which most of us do not understand," Ramana said.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying function at the Madras High Court here, Ramana stated that Indian people look up to the judiciary in times of distress with a firm belief that their rights will be protected by the courts.

Ramana said it is necessary to contemplate on how to improve the functioning of the judiciary and reach out to the people to fulfill their judicial needs.

"This is precisely why I have been a strong proponent of Indianisation of the justice delivery system," he said.

According to him, Indianisation of the justice delivery system is a moulding of the judicial system for the benefit of Indian people and is a multi-dimensional concept.

"It calls for inclusivity, providing access to people to participate in the proceedings, removal of language barriers, reforms in practice and procedure, development of infrastructure, filling up of vacancies, augmenting the strength of judiciary and so on," he said.

He said a Judicial Infrastructure Authority both at the national and state level should be set up to implement a National Court Development Project.

"I have sent a comprehensive proposal to the Government of India. It is pending with the Government," Ramana said.

On the judicial vacancies, he said a proposal has been sent to the central government - to increase the sanctioned strength of judges and fill up the vacancies.

Another issue of Indianisation of the judicial system is the language used in the court.

The common citizen cannot relate to the practices, procedures of our courts. Efforts should be to make the general population an active part of the justice delivery process. The people should understand the ongoing process and development of the case.

"It should not be like chanting of mantras in a wedding which most of us do not understand," Ramana said.

On the demand for use of regional language in the High Courts as provided in the Constitution, Ramana said it has been debated several times.

There were certain processes that prevented local languages from being adopted in the High Court proceedings. I am sure with the innovation in science and technology and the advancement such as artificial intelligence, some of the issues associated with the introduction of languages in the High Court may be solved in near future, he said.

The practice of law before constitutional courts should be based on one's intelligence and understanding of law and not mere proficiency in language.

It is time some decisions are taken on these issues after assessment of pros and cons.

Inclusivity is one of the dimensions of Indianisation. Any profession having representation from all classes and sections will be beneficial to all, he remarked.

A strong proponent of higher representation of women from all classes and at the levels in the judicial system Ramana also said inclusivity does not stop with that.

"The social and geographical diversity of a nation must find reflection at all levels of judiciary. Then people will feel it is their own judiciary. A judge with a rural background is better placed to appreciate issues concerning the rural population. A judge from the marginalised section can understand issues of marginalised section," he added.

On the demand for setting up of regional benches of the Supreme Court Ramana said he was not aware of the central government's views on the private member bill on the subject introduced by DMK MP P. Wilson.

He said in the same spirit of accessibility, in consultation with other judges in the Supreme Court, a decision has been taken to continue online hearing of miscellaneous cases. On non-miscellaneous cases an advocate can seek permission of the court to appear online.

"This will enable advocates from all over the country to continue their practice before the Supreme Court. I hope this practice continues," Ramana said.
New Delhi, April 23 : Thirty-year-old Sheikh Hasan alias Chora, an accused in the Jahangirpuri communal violence case, was previously arrested seven times by the Delhi Police in the past eight years.

According to a dossier, exclusively obtained by IANS, Hasan is an illiterate who initially worked as a labourer. However, he fell into a bad company and started committing crime to earn more money.

His first crime was to snatch a mobile phone in March 2011 for which he was arrested from the spot of the crime. Despite getting arrested once, the accused continued with his criminal activities. In the past eight years, he has been arrested seven times for various crimes like theft, robbery, forgery, assault and Arms Act.

Before the communal violence, accused Hasan was last time arrested in August 2021 under section 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. Investigation in that case is still pending.

Notably, the accused has eight brothers and three sisters. Hasan, a bad character of the area, was under constant police surveillance.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Friday afternoon grilled all the accused who have been arrested for taking part in the severe communal clashes that erupted in the Jahangirpuri area of Delhi on April 16. In the clashes, eight police personnel and a local resident were injured.

It was officially learnt that accused Hasan alias Chora is brother of another arrested rioter Salim alias Chikna.
Mumbai, April 23 : Popular television actor Sudhanshu Pandey has bagged the 'Best Actor - Drama TV' award at the 'Indian Television Academy Awards 2022' for his performance as Vanraj Shah in the show 'Anupamaa'.

'Anupamaa' features Rupali Ganguly, Gaurav Khanna and Sudhanshu Pandey.

Sudhanshu Pandey while talking about his successful win said: "I feel absolutely elated to have won the ITA award for the Best Actor - Drama. Winning an award for any actor is a recognition of all the hard work that the actor puts in to bring the character alive." He shared further how he feels when the audience hates his character in the show.

"I feel absolutely rewarded by receiving the award. The character of Vanraj has received mixed reactions from the viewers, as the audience tends to sometimes love Vanraj and sometimes love to hate it." "The viewers sometimes tend to get angry as well, due to the character being such a complicated and complex one. For me it's been a win-win situation, playing and executing this character." The actor expressed his gratitude towards his fans for their love and support.

I would like to thank the audience though, as it is because of their love, blessings and appreciation that I have been able to achieve this place and win the ITA award for the Best Actor, two years consecutively," he added.
New Delhi, April 23 : Justice Vineet Saran, judge of the Supreme Court, has been appointed as the Ravi Beas Water Tribunal chairman, a post that had been vacant since Justice Ashok Bhushan had joined the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal as its chairperson in November 2021.

Justice Ponugoti Naveen Rao, judge of the Telangana High Court, was appointed as a member of the Tribunal, a post that was laying vacant since the death of Justice M.Y. Eqbal in May 2021.

The appointments were made under section 5A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (33 of 1956) by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, according to a notification issued late Friday night.

The Ravi Beas Water Tribunal is important in view of the issue of water availability and allocation discussed at various levels as part of concerted efforts to reach an amicable resolution for the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue between Punjab and Haryana. The term of the Tribunal is being extended on a yearly basis, and the current term has been extended for a period of one year from August 5, 2021.

It looks at the claims of Punjab and Haryana regarding their respective shares over waters remaining over and above what farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan get from the Ravi Beas system as of July 1985. The two states have been warring over the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal since then even when the matter was referred for adjudication to the Tribunal to be presided over by a Supreme Court Judge.

The construction of SYL Canal was originally slated to be completed by August 15, 1986.
Guwahati, April 23 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that if needed, Indian armed forces would go across the border to take actions against the terrorists who are inimical to India.

Speaking at the 'Felicitation Ceremony' of 1971 war veterans in Guwahati, the Defence Minister stated that this is the firm decision of the government that Indian armed forces would go across the border to take appropriate actions against the terrorists who are active against the country.

Referring to the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), he said that the act was recently lifted from 23 districts in Assam and from 15 Police stations each in Manipur and Nagaland as the situations were improved in these areas.

"Our Army also does not want to keep the AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir. Army is not responsible, but the situation forced the promulgation of the act in Jammu and Kashmir. Whenever the situations improve, the AFSPA would be withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir," the Defence Minister said. He said that the Army is not for maintaining the internal security of the country, this is the responsibility of other security forces and the state police.

"If the Army can be withdrawn from internal security, they would more effectively deal with the country's external security at the frontiers. The Indian Army's strength, dedication and spirit are incredible. Due to the dedication and courage of 15 lakh strong Indian armed force personnel, the head of 'Bharat Mata' would never be low down," Singh said.

This is a very proud feeling for the country that currently there are 38,000 to 40,000 retired Army veterans in the northeast region, he added.

Singh said that as part of the government's mission to make India an 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat' in defence equipment, the export of defence equipment increased by 334 per cent during the past few years.

"By 2025, Indian defence exports would cross Rs 35,000 crore. India is now among the 25 countries in making and exporting defence equipment," he said.

Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami, Bangladesh's Lt Col Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir (Retd.) among others were present in the event, held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati.

Lt Col Zahir (Retd.), who played a key role in the 1971 Bangladesh's war of Liberation, was awarded with the Padma Shri in the social work category by the Indian government last year.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Thiruvananthapuram, April 23 : State Congress president K.Sudhakaran on Saturday warned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against going forward with the K-Rail or SilverLine project as it would eventually turn out to be his "Waterloo".

"If Vijayan doesn't understand the pulse of the people here and their attitude towards K-Rail, what happened in Bengal will happen to Vijayan here and at the end the last bastion of the CPI-M in the country also will go out of the window. K-Rail would be Vijayan's Waterloo," said Sudhakaran.

Vijayan, he said, is fooling people by saying that commercial banks will provide loans to those people whose land have been marked by the K-Rail.

The Chief Minister is misleading people and even though he has been claiming it, the banks have not said any such thing. He is just trying to cheat the people, said Sudhakaran.

"No force in Kerala -- be it police or Army -- will be able to turn away the protesters, as they are fighting a valid fight. We will be with the people and will go to any extent to see that the project gets stalled," added Sudhakaran.

Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan said the Congress-led UDF has taken up the protest against K-Rail and the people have realised that this project will bring more harm than good.

"The people's strength is our strength and no force or threats will deter us as we are determined to see that the protests will end only when the project is shelved," said Satheesan.

If completed, the K-Rail project will see a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod with semi-high speed trains covering the distance in around four hours.

Both the Congress and the BJP says this project is not needed for Kerala given the massive cost which they say will be in excess of Rs 1.50 lakh crore and would be an environmental and economic disaster and would be a huge burden on the next generation.
Mumbai, April 23 : Andre Russell (4/5) and Tim Southee (3/24) picked seven wickets between themselves as Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Gujarat Titans to 156/9 in match 35 of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.

For Gujarat, it was a sensational crash in the death overs phase after captain Hardik Pandya elected to bat first, making it the first time a team went for batting first in the tournament.

Pandya, who missed last match against Chennai Super Kings due to groin injury, marked his return to the playing eleven with a 49-ball 67, his third successive fifty in IPL 2022. But Gujarat completely lost their way in the final five overs, losing seven wickets for just 29 runs, allowing Kolkata to make a brilliant comeback.

Southee provided the first breakthrough for Kolkata on his first ball in the second over. The right-arm pacer sent a ball angled down leg-stump which Shubman Gill (7) nicked behind to wicketkeeper.

Pandya promoted himself to three from his usual number four position and the decision began to pay off when he smacked Southee for back-to-back fours in the off-side. He got ample support from Wriddhiman Saha, who crunched Umesh Yadav for a six and four through the leg side.

Post power-play, Pandya continued to be the aggressor, ramping Shivam Mavi for a cheeky six over fine leg, followed by an extra cover drive for four and welcoming Varun Chakravarthy with a clean lofted six over long-off.

Pandya and Saha built an important stand of 75 off 56 balls for the second wicket, which was broken by Umesh in the eleventh over as Saha fell for run-a-ball 25, in an attempt to repeat the paddle scoop which got him a four on the previous ball.

David Miller had luck on his side when Venkatesh Iyer took a catch at long-off but his foot brushed with the boundary rope, gifting the left-hander a lucky six off Sunil Narine. Narine was further taken apart for a four and six by Miller after Pandya reached his fifty in 36 balls.

Just as Gujarat looked to cruise to a 180+ total, Miller was foxed by an off-cutter from Mavi in the 17th over, giving a simple catch to backward point. The ploy to reserve Southee for last five phase worked well as Pandya pulled straight to deep mid-wicket and three balls later, Rashid Khan fell for duck while trying to clear the same region.

Russell, who hadn't bowled in the match, was brought on for the final over and dismissed Abhinav Manohar and Lockie Ferguson on successive deliveries, caught at deep mid-wicket. He closed the innings by having Rahul Tewatia caught at deep cover and completing an alert caught and bowled dismissal of Yash Dayal.

Brief Scores: Gujarat Titans 156/9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 67, David Miller 27; Andre Russell 4/5, Tim Southee 3/24) against Kolkata Knight Riders

Latest updates on IPL 2022
Bengaluru, April 23 : Karnataka Health Department has stepped up measures to tackle the emerging situation in the state in the backdrop of detection of two cases of Omicron sub-variant BA.2, which is more transmissible than the original strain, in Bengaluru.

A decision has been taken to increase the number of tests in the state, especially in Bengaluru.

The authorities are worried that higher number of Covid cases are being reported from Mahadevapura and East Zones in Bengaluru where most major IT companies are located with lakhs of software professionals at work.

C.N. Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bengaluru, said on Saturday that Covid variants BA.2.10 and BA.2.12 have been found in the state.

BA.2 variants were earlier found in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Manjunath feels there is a possibility of a fourth Covid wave beginning in Karnataka in three to four weeks, and the BA.2 variant might be responsible for the surge.

However, if a fourth wave hits the state, the number of people getting admitted to hospitals will be lesser than before though the infection will spread rapidly, Manjunath stated.

"There are no restrictions in place in the state now and all activities have resumed just like in the pre-Covid period. This is going to result in a spike in Covid cases in another two weeks. People need to be cautious," he warned.

Those with comorbidities need to be cautious, while wearing masks should again be made mandatory, Manjunath said.

He also advised people not to neglect symptoms of fever, cough and cold and get tested at the earliest.

Earlier, Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar had said that some studies have shown that the fourth wave of Covid-19 may start in June-July and last till September, and the state is prepared to face it.
Islamabad, April 23 : Campaign on social media slamming the military establishment, Pakistan Army Chief and the judiciary, accusing the state institutions of being party to the alleged international conspiracy that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan seems to have melted down after counter action.

Anti-Pakistan, anti-establishment and anti-judiciary slogans, banners and chanting has been witnessed in many protests in and outside of Pakistan, while an organised social media drive in the same regard seemed to have launched from many social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Anti-army hashtags like #ImportedHakoomatNamanzoor stayed among the top trends on twitter in Pakistan. A direct target of these trends was the promotion of Imran Khan's ongoing campaign against the current ruling government, and other prime agenda was to target the army and judiciary.

As per records, anti-army trends has a few thousand tweets, #GhaltiSudharoElectionKarwao trend reached 140,000 tweets while #ImportedHakoomatnamanzoor shot up to at least 300,000 tweets.

During the last seven days, at least 591,000 tweets have been made under this hashtag, according to a PTI social media wing official who is monitoring such data.

Interestingly, twitter shows a strong trend against the army and judiciary, with over at least 20,000 tweets during the days leading to April 10, when former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted.

"The FIA's otherwise quick action against the social media activists believed to be supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has slowed down following the downturn in the malicious campaign against the army and judiciary," said an official with knowledge of the investigation.

"The anti-army and judiciary hashtags on Twitter and other online sites have seen a downward trend for two major reasons, the PTI leadership's intervention and law enforcement agencies' action. Raid on the house of Imran Khan's focal person on digital media, Dr. Arsalan Khalid, and some other PTI social media activists, had helped in containing this campaign," the official added.

The anti-army campaign seemed to be part of an organised and well-planned manner by social media activists operating these accounts from within and outside of Pakistan.

It has been stated that many of the social media activists associated with the PTI have gone underground or have relocated to get away from an expected FIA raid.
New Delhi, April 23 : Twelve years ago, Salim Chikna, one of the accused in the April 16 Jahangirpuri violence case, had robbed a man of Rs 600 on knife point for which he was arrested eight months later by the Delhi Police.

According to a police dossier obtained by IANS, Sheikh Salim alias Salim Chikna, 36, who was born in Jahangirpuri area, could not finish his studies due to financial crunch.

After growing up, he started working as a ragman but later fell into bad company and started committing crimes to make easy money.

Chikna is accused of being one of the most violent rioters during the communal clashes that broke out in Jahangirpuri on April 16, and has been booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

On April 20, a Delhi Court had extended his police custody by another three days.

"He only spilled out the truth under sustained interrogation," an official said.

Chickna, who has always lived in Delhi, has a family of four -- wife, mother and two brothers.

Although he was not been found involved in any criminal activity since 2010, sources claimed that he committed offences under the garb of a scrap dealer.

The police have so far arrested 25 persons besides apprehending two juveniles in connection with the case.




People's Daily OnlineThe Russia-Ukraine conflict that has lasted for more than a month already and has forced millions of Ukrainian refugees to flee their homeland. The United Nations Refugee Agency has warned that the situation in Ukraine could become "Europe's largest refugee crisis this century."

However, the U.S. has never mentioned its many years of fanning the flames in the region. Instead, the country has repeatedly added fuel to the fire of the conflict. This reveals Washingtons sinister intention of instigating ideological confrontation and a new Cold War by taking advantage of the conflict.

More than 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the ghost of the eras Cold War mentality still haunts the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. Some U.S. politicians have always observed the international situation from the perspectives of zero-sum games and ideological confrontation, attempting to start a new Cold War.

The current crisis and war in Eastern Europe reflect the cruelty and distortion of the powerful force behind this conventional mindset. Ukraine, which should be a bridge for communication between the East and the West, was gradually turned into an outpost for confrontation between major powers.

In its post-1991 hubris, the U.S. made two huge mistakes: to remake the world in its own interests; and to treat Russia as a defeated nation, noted British scholar Martin Jacques.

The current situation in Ukraine is a trap created by the U.S. after years of deliberate moves. Washington instigated the Orange Revolution and the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine and led NATO to engage in five rounds of eastward expansion, leading to a seriously imbalanced regional security situation. Russia has been forced to engage in a chess game designed by the U.S.

U.S. President Joe Biden recently delivered a speech full of language consistent with the countrys Cold War mentality in Warsaw, capital of Poland. In his speech, Biden tried to play up ideological confrontation and underscored the deterrent effects of the economic sanctions and the military deployments of the Western world.

On the one hand, the U.S. has continuously provided Ukraine with weapons, sacrificed the interests of the Ukrainian people, and undermined Russias national strength. On the other hand, the White House has magnified the security dilemma in Europe in an attempt to revive NATO.

Fundamentally, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the disastrous consequence of Washingtons long-term pursuit of its Cold War mentality and hegemony.

The evolution of the Ukraine crisis once again reminds the world that some U.S. politicians are living in the 21st century while clinging to outdated thinking based on zero-sum games. They have been keen on stoking confrontation and creating conflicts, attempting to hijack Western countries, including European countries, onto its war chariot to serve the purposes of U.S. hegemony and to seek private gains.

Obviously, Washington is reluctant to see a united, stable and independent Europe. After the end of the Cold War, U.S. politicians have tried every means to leave Europe in a geopolitical stalemate that is intractable while deepening Europes dependence on America.

Europe depends on Russia for over 40 percent of its natural gas. In 2021, Russias natural gas exports to the European Union (EU) stood at 192.6 billion cubic meters, accounting for 81 percent of its total exports. The EU is the largest trade partner for Russia, with two-way trade reaching $282 billion last year, making up 35.7 percent of Russias total imports and exports.

However, bilateral trade has dramatically declined as EU countries have joined in the sanctions against Russia. The U.S. has proceeded with its geopolitical agenda out of its Cold War mentality, gradually pushing the world into an abyss of confrontation and division once again.

The Cold War benefitted no one. It was a tragedy that cost millions of lives around the world, according to an article published in the American magazine The National Interest. However, American leaders have been obsessed with their Cold War mentality. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the U.S. and its Western allies have waged public opinion and information warfare through multiple means, including government statements, interpretations of experts from think tanks, and reports by mainstream media, further supporting the ideological narrative of the situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Repeatedly provoking crises and wars, showing indifference to peace talks, and even trying to protract the conflict, the U.S. has fully revealed that it is a Cold War conspirator in the 21st century. The protection of global and regional peace and stability has never been a priority in its strategy. What matters most to the country is its dominance in the international landscape, especially in the so-called superpower game.

The new Cold War will not gain popular support while conflicts serve no ones interest. Although the U.S. has repeatedly coerced and induced other countries to exert pressure on Russia, many countries have expressed their opposition to unilateral sanctions and have supported Russia and Ukraine in keeping up the momentum in peace talks and settling disputes through dialogue and negotiations.

If the U.S. still chooses to stay stuck in the old days of colonial expansion and hold onto its antiquated Cold War mentality and zero-sum game mindset, not to mention being a trouble-maker for peaceful development around the world, it will eventually end up in the dustbin of history.
Chennai, April 23 : Director Anish R Krishna's upcoming Telugu rom-com 'Krishna Vrinda Vihari', featuring Naga Shaurya in the lead, will now release on May 20, its makers announced on Saturday.

Produced by Ira Creations, the film was originally supposed to release on April 22. However, that was not to happen and rumours began to do the rounds that the film had dropped out of the summer race.

The team has now clarified that their film has not moved out of the summer race as was being speculated and that it would be hitting screens worldwide on May 20.

Sources close to the unit say that the film is currently in its post-production stage.

Music for the film has been scored by Mahati Swara Sagar and cinematography is by Sai Sriram.

Shirley Setia plays the female lead in the film in which Naga Shaurya plays a Brahmin. Yesteryear actress Radhika Sarathkumar too will be seen in an important role in the movie produced by Usha Mulpuri.
Srinagar, April 23 : An encounter has started between terrorists and security forces at Mirhama area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Saturday, officials said.

"Encounter has started at Mirhama area of Kulgam. Police and army are on the job," a police officer said.

The firefight between terrorists and security forces broke out after a joint team of the police and the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where the terrorists were hiding, they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.
Jaipur, April 23 : In a horrific incident, a three-year-old girl, who along with her mother came to attend a marriage function at a village in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, was allegedly raped and killed by a youth who also came to attend the wedding.

The incident was reported from a village under the Bassi police station in Chittorgarh district on Friday.

The police have arrested the accused after registering a case of rape and murder.

According to the information received, two daughters in a family were getting married in the village. When everybody was busy with the marriage rituals, the accused first picked up a four-year-old boy and took him near a well around a kilometre from the wedding venue. As he started molesting the kid, the child cried loudly which scared the accused who then left the child back at the venue.

After that, he picked up the three-year-old girl and took her near the same well. After raping the minor, he reportedly strangled her to death and threw her body into the well.

Thereafter, he went back to the marriage function where he even danced before returning to his village with the wedding procession.

When the girl was not found till late evening, the relatives and villagers informed the police.

During police interrogation, it was found that the girl was last seen with Rameshwar Dhakad, a resident of Kishanpura in Bhilwara.

At first, Dhakad kept misleading the police, but when the cops pressed hard, he confessed to the crime.

Meanwhile, the local villagers, including BJP MLA Chandrabhan Singh, have accused the police and the administration of dereliction of duty, besides demanding death penalty for the guilty youth.
Dharamsala, April 23 : Sensing early assembly polls, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the BJP will hold early elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, adding if voted to power, his party would implement the Delhi model of governance in Himachal Pradesh.

"I have heard that they (BJP) will hold early Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat," said Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, at a rally in Kangra town near Dharamsala.

"The BJP is scared of the Aam Aadmi Party in Himachal and Gujarat. Actually, they are scared of the public, not the AAP. The BJP has decided to hold early elections in Himachal and Gujarat. It does not matter whenever BJP conducts elections, power should come in the hands of common man," he said.

In both the states, the elections are due by year-end.

Kejriwal urged good leaders in the ruling BJP and the Congress to leave their parties and join AAP. "It is time to make 'naya' (new) Himachal Pradesh. I urge all the good people in BJP and Congress to leave their parties and join AAP. I request the people of this state to give AAP a chance." Saying that Himachal Pradesh is most beautiful place on the earth, Kejriwal said: "Both the Congress and the BJP looted the god gifted beautiful land. The Congress ruled for 30 years and the BJP for 17 years. Both parties are now abusing me." The Delhi Chief Minister said BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda abused him in a rally.

"Jai Ram Thakur said there is a two-party system in the state. I ask what is the third alternative. They are saying situation in Himachal is different, but I say your intentions are wrong." About the Delhi citizen-centric models, Kejriwal said private schools have not been allowed to increase fee for the past four years, while treatment is free for all citizens.
San Francisco, April 23 : Tech giant Microsoft's Edge Canary has reportedly restored the option to delete default search engines.

Until recently, it was possible to set different search engines as the default, but it was not possible to delete sites from the list of defaults to choose from, reports Windows Central.

The change was spotted by Leo Varela, who shared screenshots of the new menu browser on Reddit.

This is not new functionality for Microsoft Edge. Previous versions of the browser allowed users to delete default search engines in settings. That behaviour changed at some point, which was flagged up on Reddit. In response to that post from March 2022, Varela added some insight.

"Initially Edge received this change from upstream Chromium, but Google restored the option to remove default search engines in Chrome 99, so I do not understand why Microsoft has not restored this option in Edge yet, not even in the Dev and Canary versions (which are already at version 101)," said Varela in March 2022.

Google brought back the ability to remove default search engines in version 99. It took Microsoft until version 102, which is the latest version available through the Canary branch, to ship the change.

Edge Canary also gained a flag to show experimental appearance settings. Additionally, the browser's "Follow creator" feature can now switch between recent posts and creators you follow without having to open the Collections flyout.
Mumbai, April 23 : Hollywood star Will Smith was spotted at the Mumbai airport on Saturday. He was seen interacting and laughing with the people around.

The Academy Award winning actor has often visited India on several occasions. He also came in 2019 for the shooting of his reality show 'The Bucket List'.

Recently Viral Bhayani posted a picture of Will Smith at Kalina airport in Mumbai. As per the media reports he was staying at the JW Marriott Hotel in Juhu.

'The Pursuit of Happyness' actor also recently came into the limelight because of a recent incident at the Oscars where he slapped comedian Chris Rock since the latter made fun of Smith's wife's health condition. Post that he is banned from attending any Academy event for the next 10 years, including the Oscars. He has won the best actor award for 'King Richard' After this incident, Will also took to Instagram to apologise to Chris.

He wrote: "Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night's Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally." Post this incident his visit to India became more relevant.
Islamabad, April 23 : Three Pakistan Army soldiers were killed while responding to a cross border attack in Dewagar area of North Waziristan, military's media wing Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR) has said, the media reported.

The terrorists crossed the border from Afghanistan and opened fire on Pakistani troops who inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists, Samaa TV reported.

Pakistan has condemned the use of Afghanistan's territory for launching attacks in Pakistan. "We hope that the Afghan government will not allow such incidents to take place in the future," said ISPR.

The Pakistan Army is determined to defend Pakistan's borders against the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave men further strengthen our resolve, the statement added.

The cross border attacks in Pakistani troop on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have increased in recent days.

Last week, seven Pakistan soldiers were killed in a terrorists attack on a military convoy near the Pakistan and Afghanistan border in Isham are of North Waziristan.

On March 25, four soldiers were killed in an attack by terrorists who tried to enter Pakistan by cutting the border fence in Hassan Khel area of North Waziristan.
Kolkata, April 23 : With a significant arrangement between the Congress and political strategist Prashant Kishor alias PK almost certain now, speculations are rife over the imminent end of the existing arrangement between the Trinamool Congress and PK-founded organisation Indian Political Action Committee (I-Pac).

According to political leaders and observers whom IANS interacted with, if PK or I-Pac officially gets the chance of drawing the roadmap for Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, that assignment will surely be for pan-India and West Bengal will not be an exception. In that case, there will be an automatic termination of the existing arrangements between the TMC and I-Pac.

When contacted, TMC leader and three-time Lok Sabha member Sugata Roy made a significant statement that clearly hinted towards the imminent termination of the existing arrangements between TMC and I-Pac.

"If the ongoing discussions between the Congress and Prashant Kishor take a formal shape, TMC will surely have to rethink its relationship with I-PAC. However, political situation changes in moments and till the time the ongoing dialogues between Prashant Kishor and the Congress leadership takes a final shape, we will have to wait and watch," Roy said.

Congress member from West Bengal Subhankar Sarkar said that there is only one remote possibility that PK-TMC arrangements can continue even after the poll strategist officially gets the assignment to draw the roadmap for Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"The remote possibility is that Congress and TMC enter into a seat-sharing agreement in West Bengal in 2024, as the two parties did in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and 2011 West Bengal Assembly elections. But that possibility looks remote as of now considering that the TMC has continued to weaken the Congress by roping in its leaders. But again, nothing is final unless it is final in politics," Sarkar said.

BJP's West Bengal spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya refused to make any comment on the issue, describing it as the internal matter of Congress and TMC.

"However, the desperation to get PK as a savior speaks a lot about the leadership qualities of both the parties," he said.

Former head of the department of International Relations at the Jadavpur University, Om Prakash Mishra, also ruled out the possibility of a TMC-Congress seat-sharing arrangement in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"First, look at the TMC angle. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, both the Congress and its ally Left Front got totally wiped out even in the erstwhile Congress strongholds of Murshidabad and Malda districts.

"Not a single Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal is a safe seat for Congress now and in such a situation it is unlikely that the TMC would like to spare a single seat to the Congress.

From the Congress's point of view, in case of any arrangement, the Trinamool would demand some seats in other states from the Congress. So, in all probability, the relations between I-Pac and the TMC is heading for an inevitable end as, in my opinion, the PK-Congress innings getting official is just a matter of time," Mishra said.

Political analyst and former registrar of Calcutta University, Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty, said that officially Prashant Kishor does not hold any post in I-Pac, though this organisation was founded by him.

"So, an option can be that Kishor, on his behalf, operates for the Congress nationally and I-Pac works independently for the TMC in West Bengal. But the question of greater credibility will automatically arise then. So, the situation right now is extremely critical," he said.
Srinagar, April 23 : One terrorist has been killed in an ongoing encounter between terrorists and security forces at Mirhama area in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Saturday, officials said.

"One Pakistani terrorist of proscribed terror outfit JeM killed. Operation in progress," Jammu and Kashmir Police quoting Inspector General Police Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar tweeted.

The firefight between terrorists and security forces took place after a joint team of the police and the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding, they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.
Mumbai, April 23 : In a dramatic climax, the Mumbai Police on Saturday evening arrested independent Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her husband Badnera MLA Ravi Rana, soon after they suo-moto dropped their plans to storm Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence.

Among other things, the Ranas have been charged for disturbing peace and order, and making inflammatory statement, by the Khar Police Station following a complaint by Shiv Sena activists.

In a countermeasure, the Ranas also submitted a complaint with the Khar Police against various Shiv Sena leaders for allegedly threatening them.

The development came soon after they were detained by a team of Khar Police Station and later placed them under arrest with plans to produce them before a Magistrate Court on Sunday.

Earlier, the Ranas claimed that they had called off their plans to go and recite Hanuman Chalisa at the Chief Minister's private residence 'Matoshri', even as hundreds of Shiv Sena and Yuva Sena activists laid a siege at the politician couple's home, demanding an apology for insulting Thackeray.

An elated Yuva Sena leader Varun Sardesai said it was "the victory of the party and the Ranas could not move out of their home" let alone go to the Chief Minister's home.

"They have failed in their plans. We demand a public apology from them for their statements against the Chief Minister. We have shown them our strength. They are cowards who ran away," thundered Sardesai.

At the Ranas' home, there were heated exchanges with the police who wanted them to come to the police station, but the couple insisted the police should produce a warrant, with the entire high-voltage drama shown live on social media.

"We are elected representatives, but under Thackeray's rule, we have been forcibly taken to the police station. There's no law and order here. Sena goons have gathered outside our home since yesterday. If this is what we are facing, what justice can the commoners expect," said Navneet Rana.

Jubilant men and women Shiv Sainiks said that the Shiv Sena has shown its power and "people like (Ranas) these come and go" and the party doesn't bother about them.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Sudhir Mungantiwar slammed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and termed the detention of the Ranas as arising out of vendetta politics though they had withdrawn their agitation plans.

Other leaders have alleged that the law-and-order situation in the state has collapsed and President's Rule should be imposed.
Although wild birds are much more likely to survive bird flu than domestic fowl, Montana wildlife officials are still noticing fatalities.

In a press conference Friday, employees of state Fish, Wildlife and Parks said that while waterfowl seem likely to survive Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, wild turkeys are dying. The discovery comes as the states male wild turkey season begins. Hunters are advised to avoid birds that appear sick.

It appears these birds, at least the ones in Montana, these animals, several of them died in one location. So, it might be highly fatal to them, said Jennifer Ramsey, FWP veterinarian.

Ramsey said infected birds appear to be getting tired from the virus, though waterfowl can carry the virus without developing symptoms.

The current strain of bird flu is highly contagious, with infections confirmed in domestic birds in at least 29 states. HPAI is deadly to domestic birds and flocks are quickly and deliberately killed to prevent further spread of the illness. There have been 33.07 million domestic birds killed to prevent influenza spread so far, according to APHIS, including 76,240 in Montana.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control considers the latest bird flu strain to be a minimal risk to humans, but people are cautioned to be careful around birds to prevent spreading the illness to other wildlife. People should report dead birds, but not pick then up, say FWP and state Department of Livestock officials.

Hunters should be careful handling turkeys.

So, when hunters are addressing skinning animals, that's when most of the exposure, potential exposure, to various pathogens is likely to occur, Ramsey said. We would say don't harvest and consume animals that look sick. But also when you're harvesting and field dressing, skinning animals, wear gloves. You know, that PPE and really good hygiene goes a long way to minimizing your exposure to these kinds of things.

The U.S. Animal Plant Health Inspection Service lists two confirmed cases in wildlife in Montana, though Ramsey said there are at lest three now.

In wild birds, our first detections were actually in a Canada goose from the Belgrade area. Then we had, right after that, we had another detection in a snow goose from Canyon Ferry, Ramsey said. And since then, we're getting birds daily to be tested. So, a lot of those are in the process. We've received results from Freezeout Lake of a positive there. We've submitted wild turkeys and red-tailed hawks, submitted ducks, submitted pigeons.

So far, only the snow geese are confirmed positive, but the red-tail hawk and turkey cases are preliminary positive, Ramsey said.

Although the number of positive cases in Montana were few, in neighboring North Dakota, 108 cases in wild birds have proven positive, according to APHIS. Another 48 wild bird cases are confirmed positive in South Dakota. Most of those cases are geese.

The first positive bird flu cases in Montana were in domestic birds. State Veterinarian Marty Zaluski said HPAI poses a serious threat to Montanas domestic flocks.

The state has an egg industry worth $38 million a year that has grown significantly in the last year. Most of those eggs come from Hutterite colonies, each with laying operations of 5,000 to 6,000 hens. The cage-free layers provide eggs to Wilcox, a Washington-based egg supplier to Costco Wholesale.

Theres always avian influenza in the wild bird population, Zaluski said. Ultimately theres a risk to U.S. chicken exports if the bird flu harms international trade status. Theres no risk from eating U.S. poultry because the industry is so tightly regulated, he said.

We've tested seven flocks. We have two pending tests. So basically, we have nine tests that have been done or are in process. We have four positives, two of which are just small backyard operations, kind of hobby operations. Two of the four have some commercial presence. All of those have either been depopulated or are in the process of being depopulated, Zaluski said. And then we've had three negative tests. So, we continue to receive interest, phone calls from veterinarians, from poultry owners regarding symptoms and concerns.

Zaluski said bird owners need to avoid exposing their birds to wild fowl and also avoid interacting with other domestic flocks. If possible, domestic birds should be contained indoors.

Ramsey suggested not feeding wild birds right now.

We're trying to recommend that people reduce that risk by removing those feeders right now, Ramsey said. I have a backyard flock myself and I see those birds come in. I see other species of birds, larger species come in, attracted to that grain, and just to keep my flock from having that exposure, I have taken those feeders down.

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Amaravati, April 23 : Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday expressed concern over non-stop atrocities and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

He urged Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to act with responsibility towards ensuring safety of women.

Naidu said the Chief Minister's policies and actions should instill fear in the minds of criminals and perpetrators of atrocities on women.

He also demanded that the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) should stop misusing the police for political advantage. He said the government should stand by the side of the victim of gang-rape in the Vijayawada Government General Hospital (GGH).

Naidu reiterated his demand for Rs 1 crore financial assistance, a permanent house and livelihood for the victim. The government should appoint a special court immediately so as to give deterrent punishment to the culprits.

He alleged that because of the complacency of the YSRCP rule, the criminals are not afraid to perpetrate atrocities on women.

The TDP chief termed as deeply disturbing the atrocity committed on a mentally challenged girl in the busy hospital.

Three miscreants victimised the girl for 30 hours in a room in the hospital. They resorted to heinous crime in front of her parents.

This is a clear testimony to the total collapse of law and order in the state, he said.

Naidu said it was inhuman not to take any action even after the parents complained at the police station about their missing daughter.

"What message the police were sending by remaining in service of the ruling party leaders at the cost of women safety? There is no safety any more for girls going to schools and colleges and for women going to jobs and markets," he said.

Chandrababu Naidu asked whether the chief minister had any right to rule the state when his regime failed to protect women.

"The ruling YSRCP leaders themselves assumed the role of criminals and rapists. YSRCP leader Bhushankar and APCOB chairman Konduru Anil Babu molested a girl and then sold her into prostitution. Over 70 persons were accused in this but no action has been taken against them till now." The TDP chief pointed out that the police had not yet nabbed Venkata Reddy who was accused in the rape of a woman in the vicinity of the CM's residence in Tadepalli. "A Dalit girl was hacked to death in broad daylight in Guntur on the Independence Day but the accused was not punished even now." Naidu asked what happened to the CM's promise to punish criminals within 21 days under Disha law.

"Anti-social elements are rearing their ugly head. Ganja, drugs and illicit liquor are triggering more atrocities and crimes. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, one third of crimes against women in the country were taking place in Andhra Pradesh. It is condemnable that Andhra Pradesh stood top in the country in physical attacks, human trafficking and sexual harassment offences," he said.
Krishnagiri : , April 23 (IANS) Breaking silence over the current EV fires in India, Ola Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said on Saturday that the company hails the government's step to penalise EV makers for faulty e-scooters and if the company finds there is a problem in any of its batches, it will recall those e-scooters immediately.

In an interaction with journalists at the state-of-the-art Ola FutureFactory at the Pochampalli town here, Aggarwal said that the company is making sure that each and every scooter goes through stringent tests on all fronts, especially the battery which is an all-crucial part, and the company will not hesitate in recalling batches if any scooter is found to be faulty.

"We are concerned about the recent EV fire incidents and fully support the government's concerns. If we find any fault with our scooters, recalling that batch will be our top priority," Aggarwal said.

An Ola electric scooter -- S1 Pro -- caught fire recently in Pune although the cause was reported to be short-circuit.

Also, a rider in Guwahati met with an accident recently, allegedly over a fault in the regenerative braking system in an Ola e-scooter, a charge Ola has denied saying that the rider was overspeeding.

Aggarwal said the company is further investigating this particular case and will share more details in days to come.

After the recent fires, some EV makers have already recalled the faulty batches of their electric two-wheelers, as the government raised alarm, threatening the OEMs to penalise them if such cases keep repeating and hurt India's global manufacturing image.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at Nishant.a@ians.in)
Panipat, April 23 : A team of Muslim painters have been working dawn to dusk to prepare a painting of "Ik Onkar" (there is only one God) to commemorate a grand celebration here on Sunday to mark the 400th Parkash Purb of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur.

Mohammad Gulfam , who has been leading the team of 26 Muslim artisans, al hailing from Delhi, said: "Art knows no religion. We work in temples, mosques, and gurdwaras everywhere. Sometimes we even do decorations in 'jagrans'. Our team has done a lot of decoration work at various religious events organised on the occasion of Gurpurab." Along with fellow painters, he reached here on April 12 and have been working with reverence for 18-19 hours every day to decorate the venue.

His team members -- Sharif, Akram, Nawab Ali, Rizwan, Ayub, etc., had first prepared an iron structure at the main entrance, stage and backdrop. After that, a beautiful wood and thermocol art have been done on this structure to give a grand welcome to the devotees.

"Working on religious events that are preaching the message of communal harmony and brotherhood certainly gives him and his team an all different spiritual comfort and inner peace. We all should come together to show religious and communal harmony," added Gulfam.

Led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana is all set to welcome the people converging to mark the celebrations of Guru Tegh Bahadur, also known as 'Hind Di Chadar'.

A grand 'pandal' spread over 25 acres in Panipat has become the centre of attraction. Adequate parking arrangements have been made on 60 acres, an official statement said.

Khattar, his cabinet colleagues, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda, Sant Samaj members and leaders of all other political parties in the state will participate in the event. Sikh musicians, 'ragi' and 'dhadi' from across the country will also be present.

Member of Parliament, Sanjay Bhatia, who is the convener of the programme management committee, said it is a matter of pride for the state as they would be witnessing the grand and historic celebration.

The Information, Public Relations and Languages Department has also made arrangements for the live telecast of the event.

Ahead of the event, a team of the state government visited Amritsar to bring holy water from the Golden Temple sarovar for the programme.

Haryana has a special connection with Guru Tegh Bahadur as there are more than 30 gurdwaras in the state named after him. The government has been taking decisions from time to time to preserve these historical gurdwaras.

Khattar recently announced the establishment of a 'peeth' in the name of Guru Tegh Bahadur at Kurukshetra University in Kurukshetra.

A comprehensive research work will be done on the life of Guru Tegh Bahadur so that his biography can be understood in a better manner and can be promoted in society, especially among the youth, said the statement.
Thiruvananthapuram, April 23 : An ordinary citizen in Kerala's Trissur on Saturday was held 'hostage' by a group of 15 trade union workers, after he came to pick a parcel from the parcel office.

Jithin had ordered online a weed cutting machine. On Saturday, when he was informed that the parcel has arrived at the parcel office, he went to pick it up, but was prevented to carry it and put in his car.

"Around 15 trade union workers said that they were supposed to load it, and if I have the guts to do it, then I can do that. The parcel office people were helpless so I contacted the local police station," said Jithin.

Jithin said that he had to spend more than three hours and finally it was after the arrival of the police, that he was able to take his parcel and put it in his car and drove away. The parcel weighed about 65 kg.

The trade unions rule the roost in Kerala when it comes to loading and unloading of things (building materials, furniture and fittings) from shops, and when it arrives at homes.

It was not until A.K. Antony as Chief Minister in 2002 enacted a new bill, did things cool down.

But at times there are issues created by the trade union workers, demanding extra wages, even though the Labour Department has come out with rates and at some places, either the Labour Department officials or the police have to intervene.

Even though compared to the past, when the militancy of the trade unions was at its peak, despite a much better atmosphere now, the past continues to haunt Kerala and whenever this is brought to the attention of the Left leaders, the reply comes as -- "this is just a one off incident and there is no need to generalise,".
New Delhi, April 23 : After the arrest of 28-year-old Imam a.k.a. Sonu Chikna a.k.a. Yunus, the blue-Kurta Jahangirpuri shooter, a manhunt was launched to nab the person who supplied the firearm to him.

Imam was arrested on April 18, and two days after his arrest, the alleged arms supplier -- Ghulam Rasool a.k.a. Gilli -- was nabbed by the police.

Born in Jahangirpuri in 1995, Ghulam Rasool is illiterate. He was working as a fish shopkeeper before falling into bad company and the world of crime.

He has been twice arrested for thievery -- first time in 2017 and second time in 2020.

In 2017, Rasool along with his associates entered a house in the city and stole 4 gold chains, 8 gold rings, 2 gold necklaces and some money.

The owner of the house caught accused Rasool during committing the crime while his associates managed to flee from the spot.

In this case, accused Ghulam Rasool was arrested and sent to jail.

Three years later, in 2020, he was again held for committing theft in another house.

Ghulam Rasool has a family of five people -- father, mother and two siblings. All his life, he remained in Delhi.

Official sources said that interrogating Rasool was not very difficult. "He reveals everything by just simple interrogation," said a source.

It was also learnt that the accused is having a strong addiction to smoking 'Beedi'.
Mumbai, April 23 : Capping off two days of high-voltage political drama, the Mumbai Police on Saturday evening arrested Independent Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her husband Badnera MLA Ravi Rana, soon after they suo-moto dropped their plans to storm Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence.

A police officer said that they have registered a case invoking Sections 153(A) and Sec. 34 of Indian Penal Code, along with Sec. 37(1) 135 of Bombay Police Act, and further investigations are underway against the duo.

The charges against the couple -- Navneet Rana, 36 and Ravi Rana, 40, who describe themselves as 'farmers' - pertain to disturbing peace and order, and making inflammatory statements, by the Khar Police Station following a complaint by Shiv Sena activists.

In a counter move, the Ranas also submitted a complaint to Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Shinge against various Shiv Sena leaders like Thackeray, Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Transport Minister Anil Parab and 500-600 Shiv Sainiks.

The fast-paced developments came soon after the duo was detained by a team of Khar Police Station and later placed under arrest with plans to produce them before a Magistrate Court on Sunday.

Earlier, the Ranas claimed that they had called off their plans to go and recite Hanuman Chalisa at the Chief Minister's private residence 'Matoshri' in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Mumbai on Sunday.

The duo also launched a scathing attack against CM Thackeray labelling him as a 'Shani' (Saturn) for the state who had forgotten his 'Hindutva' ideals, not attending office for 2 years, ignoring the administration and only conspiring how to trap political rivals in fake cases, etc.

Reverting to its aggressive roots, hundreds of Shiv Sena and Yuva Sena men and women activists virtually laid a siege at the politician couple's home and prevented them from stepping out of their Khar flat.

An elated Yuva Sena leader Varun Sardesai said it was "the victory of the party and the Ranas could not move out of their home" let alone go to the CM's home.

"They have not succeeded in their plans. They took an escape route from the PM's visit to hide their failure. We demand a public apology from them for their objectionable statements against the CM. We have shown them our strength. They are cowards who ran away," thundered Sardesai.

At the Ranas' home, there were heated exchanges with the police who wanted them to come to the police station, but the couple insisted the police should produce a warrant, with the entire drama streamed live on social media.

"We are elected representatives, but under Thackeray's rule, we have been forcibly taken to the police station. There's no law and order here. Thackeray has sent the Sena goons who have gathered outside our home since yesterday. If this is what we are facing, what justice can the commoners expect, the masses will teach them a lesson and Lord Hanuman also," Navneet Rana screamed at times.

Jubilant men and women Shiv Sainiks celebrated with drums, distributing sweets and dancing, and warned that the Shiv Sena has shown its power and "people like (Ranas) these come and go" and the party doesn't bother about them.

Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil warned that if they (Ranas) wanted to chant Hanuman Chalisa, they should do it at their home and not someone else's (CM's) house.

Chief Spokespersons - Atul Londhe of Congress and Mahesh Tapase of Nationalist Congress Party - dismissed the Ranas as "a dramatic couple" who had been sponsored by the BJP, and have come to Mumbai to foment trouble with the aim of creating a law-and-order situation to clamp President's Rule in the state.

Sena MP Sanjay Raut declared in Nagpur that the Sainiks would not keep quiet, and the Ranas should prepare to go to the crematorium, while Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane hit back advising Raut to get ready for his funeral rites.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Leaders of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis (Assembly) and Pravin Darekar (Council), Sudhir Mungantiwar and others slammed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and termed the arrest of the Ranas as arising out of vendetta politics though they had withdrawn their agitation plans.

Other leaders like Darekar alleged that the law-and-order situation in the state has collapsed and President's Rule should be imposed, while Rane and Kirit Somaiya said they will visit the Ranas at the police station later on Saturday night.
Kabul, April 23 : At least 128 people were killed and 161 others were injured in violent incidents last week, the deadliest week since the regime change last year in Afghanistan, Pajhwok News reported.

Pakistan fighter jets bombarded Waziristan refugees' homes in Khost province and carried out similar strikes hitting villages in Kunar's Sheltan district last Friday night.

According to local sources, 41 people, including women and children, were killed and 21 others were injured in the airstrikes. Six people were killed in Pakistan bombardment in Kunar province.

Reports showed 40 people were killed and 70 others were injured in blasts and targeted attacks in the Qala-i-Zal and Imam Sahib districts of Kunduz province.

Twelve people were killed and 41 others injured in a bomb blast inside a mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif earlier in the week. According to reports, Daesh militant outfit claimed responsibility for the blast.

Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the UN called Pakistan's attacks on Khost and Kunar provinces a clear act of invasion of Afghan territory and formally complained to the UN Security Council about the matter.

The Afghan foreign ministry summoned the Pakistani envoy to Kabul over the attack and asked Pakistan to refrain from repeating such acts in the future.

Many Afghans in various parts of the country condemned Pakistan's attacks and said they were ready to defend their country.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also expressed concern over Pakistan's attacks on Afghanistan and civilian casualties caused by them, saying that civilians should not be targeted in any fight.

Attacks on civilians in Afghanistan last week have also been widely condemned on national and international levels, Pajhwok News reported.
Kolkata, April 23 : Armed with the prescription issued by the medical board of state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital advising him four-week bed rest, Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal again avoided grilling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday afternoon.

This is the sixth time that Mondal, who's also the Trinamool district president in Birbhum, avoided questioning by the CBI in connection with the central agency's probe into cattle and coal smuggling cases in the state.

At 2.30 pm on Saturday, CBI sleuths served a notice to Mondal, asking him to be present at the CBI office at Nizam Palace by 5.30 pm.

However, at around 6.30 pm, an e-mail from Mondal reached the office of CBI wherein he expressed his inability to be present on Saturday because of physical ailments.

He also attached the prescription of the medical board that advised him to take complete rest for four weeks following which there will be another round of medical check-up.

Mondal had returned from the hospital to his residence in Kolkata late on Friday evening.

Highly-placed CBI sources said that following the e-mail communication from Mondal, another round of discussions has started involving senior officials at the CBI Directorate in Delhi.

"We are weighing two options. Either to send another notice to Mondal or wait for another four weeks. We will act as per the advice of our senior officers and legal representatives," a CBI source said.

To recall, Mandal was supposed to appear at the CBI office for questioning on April 6. On April 5, he had reached Kolkata from his ancestral place in Bolpur in Birbhum district.

On the morning of April 6, he had even started from his residence, apparently heading for the CBI office. However, at the last moment he changed his route and reached the SSKM. After initial check-up, he was admitted to the hospital's Woodburn Ward, meant for the VVIPs.
Bengaluru, April 23 : Indian Railways has found itself in a spot over its comments on the distribution of a Right wing newspaper -- ' The Aryavarth Express' -- in the Bengaluru-Chennai Shatabdi Express on Friday.

The passengers borading from Bengaluru were surprised to find copies of Aryavarth Express in the train which contained controversial articles, prompting the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to issue a warning to the onboard services licensee later.

The Indian Railways authorities were first slammed by Left activists for the distribution of Aryavarth Express copies in the train.

The authorities then assured that the vendor has been advised to avoid such incidents in the future. They also assured that the staff will keep a strict vigil to avoid distribution of such newspapers as inserts.

The clarification from the IRCTC has angered Right wing activists, who questioned the move saying anything related to the interests of Hindus would meet the same fate and whoever spoke in favour of Hindus would be penalised. The IRCTC then deleted its tweets giving clarification.

The issue started with the distribution of Aryavarth Express along with the officially permitted newspaper in the train to the passengers.

The newspaper carried a lead article that read 'Genocide of Hindus, Sikhs and Budhists under Islamic rule needs to be recognised'. The other news items in the newspaper also spoke about the plight of Hindus.

One of the passengers, Gopika Bashi, a gender justice campaigner, took objection to the distribution of Aryavarth Express in the train.

She slammed the IRCTC on its twitter handle and questioned how a 'blatantly propagandist' newspaper be distributed by it.

Soon Bashi was joined by others who questioned the distribution of a Right wing newspaper in the train. The IRCTC, on its part, clarified that it was distributed as an insert along with the approved daily.

The Railway Ministry has clarified that its tweet was only regarding distribution of newspapers, and had nothing to do with the content.

IANS --mka/arm
Jaipur, April 23 : Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday asked one and all to avoid lending rumours to the leadership change in Rajasthan, and said such rumours affect governance leaving people confused.

Addressing the conference of Revenue Service Council in Jaipur on Saturday, Gehlot said: "Rumours keep going on. You don't have to pay attention to them. Rumors say that the government is changing, the chief minister will change. But I am a person, who has been assigned as CM thrice by Sonia Gandhi. When I became the Chief Minister in 1998, I have authorized her since that time. My resignation (letter) is permanently with her (Sonia Gandhi)." Gehlot was speaking in the wake of ongoing rumours doing the rounds about change of leadership in Rajasthan after the meeting of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi recently.

He said: "You can imagine, it should not come again and again that the Chief Minister is changing. What is happening? When the Chief Minister has to be changed, then no one will even come to know about it. Rest assured, you don't fall for rumours. I have been hearing such rumours for two-three days. People get confused by rumours and governance gets affected too," he said, and also praised veteran BJP leader Nitin Gadkari for his concern for the Congress.

Gadkari has recently said: "Hope the Congress gets stronger as a strong Opposition is good for democracy." On this, Gehlot said: "What is happening with the Congress should be a matter of concern within the country. This should also be a matter of concern for the people of the country. The common man who never voted for Congress also wants Congress to be strong in the country.

"One should think in the interest of the country. I tell Prime Minister Modi time and again that those who talk about Congress-mukt Bharat will be get 'Mukt' one day. The Congress may not be in power, but even today it is present in every village," he added.

His statement is believed to be a response to the discussions after Pilot met Sonia Gandhi.

When Pilot was asked about the change in strategy or face after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, he said, "It was being discussed." This statement was seen to be linked to change in Rajasthan. Now, Gehlot's statement is being considered as a response to change the narrative.
A man is dead after a shooting early Saturday morning in the parking lot of a Billings bar.

Billings police are still investigating the death of a 29-year-old man shot and killed around 12:45 a.m. by a 19-year-old man, according to a statement posted to social media. The shooting occurred in parking lot of America's Wild West on Southgate Drive. Both men were from Billings.

Although police have identified the shooter, no arrests have been made at this time. Photos taken by the Gazette showed dozens of patrons flooding out of the bar after shots were fired. At least one person was transported to the hospital, and detectives were inspecting a red sedan that had crashed into a ditch near the scene.

Saturday's shooting is the third homicide investigation conducted by Billings police this year. Joshua D. LaForge, 34, and Dante Bezpaletz, 30, died of gunshot wounds after an apparent fight broke out between the two and a third man inside a pickup truck on the 300 block of South 37th Street in January.

Earlier that month, 15-year-old Khoen Robert Parker was shot in the Heights. About 10 minutes after police received a report of gunfire, he died from his wounds in a local hospital.

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Mumbai, April 23 : In a must-win match against the Gujarat Titans to snap their three-match losing streak, Kolkata Knight Riders needed to get their A-game going in all three phases of the match.

Ideally, they would have liked to set the tone from the first six overs with both bat and ball. But that didn't happen for the Shreyas Iyer-led side on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the DY Patil Stadium.

"The way we started in the powerplay while chasing and even with the ball. We shouldn't have conceded that much in these conditions. I think 160-165 was a decent score and we did well to keep them below that. In this format, all matches that are close we need to win those and only then we can climb up the ladder," was Iyer's realistic assessment of where his team fell short after a narrow eight-run loss, extending their streak of defeats to four.

Tim Southee, the New Zealand quick, came in for Pat Cummins (niggle) as one of three changes in the playing eleven. In his first two appearances of the ongoing tournament before being side-lined in favour of Cummins, Southee picked five wickets at an average of 11.20 and economy rate of 7. Southee showed the control he brings to the Kolkata line-up from his very first ball when he angled down leg to strangle ex-Kolkata and current Gujarat opener Shubman Gill for just seven.

Gill's scalp was the only wicket Kolkata could get in the power-play with the ball. Gujarat's regular skipper Hardik Pandya, who missed his side's last match against Chennai Super Kings due to groin injury, marked his return to the playing eleven and took the daring decision to bat first on an up-and-down pitch, smacked Southee for back-to-back fours through backward point and lifting over extra cover.

Pandya got ample support from Wriddhiman Saha at the other end. With Umesh Yadav struggling to nail his lengths, Saha crunched him for a nice six on backfoot over fine leg and ended third over with a four pulled this time through mid-wicket. Though Pandya and Saha got only 16 runs from the last three overs of power-play, Gujarat didn't lose any more wickets in that phase.

Though Kolkata made a superb comeback in the last five overs by taking seven wickets and conceding just 29 runs despite Pandya making 67, Gujarat ensured that the momentum gained by the two-time IPL champions was finished off in the first six overs of the defence of 156/9.

With a new opening combination in Sam Billings and Sunil Narine, the fourth time Kolkata changed their opening pair in the tournament. The hope of getting a good start began well when Billings brought out a glorious straight drive against Mohammed Shami. But Shami was the one who would take them out in his excellent spell with the new ball.

Immediately after the straight drive, Billings top-edged a pull to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, opening the door for Gujarat to make inroads. Shami then setup and caused discomfort to Narine with short balls on body and then slipped one on hips, which the batter pulled uncomfortably to a diving Lockie Ferguson at short fine leg.

Nitish Rana fell cheaply, forced to poke at a Lockie Ferguson delivery coming from around the wicket without any footwork and took a healthy edge behind to Saha as Gujarat successfully overturned not out decision.

Kolkata's score of 34/3 became 34/4 in the first ball post power-play when Iyer had begun to look comfortable at the crease but was undone by over the wicket angle from Yash Dayal and nicked behind to Saha.

Though Kolkata had Rinku Singh and Andre Russell trying for a win which didn't happen, Kolkata would look back at the not-so-ideal starts they got in first six overs with bat and ball which pushed them back in the match hugely, leading to another so-close-yet-so-far loss.
New Delhi, April 23 : A 32-year-old woman was brutally thrashed, punched and face smashed on the floor by her husband, resulting in her death, an official said here on Saturday.

The police have arrested the accused husband, identified as Janmjai Singh, a native of Jharkhand.

Furnishing details, Deputy Commissioner of Police (outer north district), Brijendra Kumar Yadav, said a call was received at the Alipur police station on the intervening night of April 21-22 regarding the murder of a woman.

When the police reached the spot, they found that the said woman had been shifted to the Babu Jagjeevan Ram Hospital. The hospital authorities informed the police that the woman, identified as Gudiya Devi, was brought dead and was shifted to the hospital mortuary.

During investigation, it was revealed that the couple had reached Budhpur to take their daughter, who had come to Delhi 15 days back, to their home in Ambala, Haryana.

"An argument ensued between the couple over returning to Ambala either on the same day or the next day. The man wanted to return on the same day but his wife insisted on spending the night in Delhi," the official said.

The argument soon turned violent and in a fit of rage, the husband repeatedly smashed her wife's face to the floor, resulting in her death.

"Multiple injuries were found on the woman's face," the official added.
Patna, April 23 : RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav on Saturday slammed his party's state unit chief, Jagadanand Singh, for the latter's "mentally unstable" remark directed at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Earlier on Saturday, Singh had sparked a row by claiming that Nitish Kumar is a "mentally unstable person" and it is very difficult to trust him.

"There is no vacancy for Nitish Kumar to enter the RJD. There is no place for him in RJD. He is a mentally unstable person and it is very difficult to trust him," Singh said.

Singh pointed out that Nitish Kumar recently attended an Iftar party hosted by RJD's Rabri Devi, but that was not a political event.

Hence, it would be far-fetched if anyone is reaching to a conclusion that Nitish Kumar could support the RJD to form the government in Bihar, Singh said.

"I don't know what was the political motive of Nitish Kumar to visit Rabri Devi's residence for the Iftar party. It seems that he wants to apply pressure on the BJP," Singh said.

Reacting to Singh's remarks, Tej Pratap Yadav said, "First we have to ask Jagadanand Singh where he was when every prominent leader of the state was present at the house of my mother Rabri Devi. We were searching for him but he was not found anywhere. Why he stayed away from the Iftar party? As a state president of RJD, we were expecting that he would be there as a host," Tej Pratap said.

"CM Nitish Kumar came to the residence of Rabri Devi after we had sent an invitation to him. We are thankful to him that he came. We are thanking the other guests as well. At a time when the deck is almost clear for Tejashwi Yadav to become the chief minister of Bihar, he (Singh) is declaring Nitish Kumar as a mentally unstable person. It was an extremely unfortunate statement," Tej Pratap said.
Chandigarh, April 23 : Security was beefed up in Chandigarh on Saturday evening after suspicious material was found close to the high-security Burail Model Jail, close to border in Punjab's Mohali town.

"Suspicious activity was noted close to the Burail jail in Chandigarh. We reached the spot, some objectionable material was found. A bomb disposal team reached the spot. Prima facie, a burnt codex wire and a detonator was found," Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh told the media.

The Burail jail is housing several high-profile prisoners.

The assassins of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh -- Paramjeet Singh Bheora, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Jagtar Singh Tara -- and murder convict Devi Singh escaped from the Burail jail on the night of January 21, 2004.

Tara, who was arrested in 2015 after the escape in 2004, has been undergoing imprisonment in the Burail jail.
Patna, April 23 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced a grand memorial at the Jagdishpur fort in Bihar to pay tribute to Babu Veer Kunwar Singh, who had led a battery of mutineers against the East India Company during the first freedom struggle of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.

Shah was on a one-day visit to Bihar on Saturday where he went to Jagdishpur in Bhojpur district to celebrate the valour of Babu Veer Kunwar Singh.

The BJP state wing had organized an event at Jagdishpur where supporters of the saffron party assembled and waved 78,000 national flags, creating a new record.

While addressing the rally in Jagdishpur, Shah said that historians did not give proper respect to Babu Veer Kunwar Singh who fought against the Britishers at the age of 80.

"The way the people of Bihar came for the event in large numbers despite the soaring temperature was a real tribute to Kunwar Singh. I became speechless after seeing the patriotism of people in Jagdishpur today. The historians have done injustice to Babu Ji. He deserves more respect as a freedom fighter and for his contributions to the freedom struggle. The people of Bihar have given real tribute today," Shah said.

During the event, India scripted a new record by waving 78,000 national flags.
New Delhi, April 23 : The first ever Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Gandhinagar concluded with the AYUSH sector witnessing Letter of Intents of more than Rs 9,000 crore.

The investment proposals have come across major categories like FMCG, medical value travel and services, pharmaceuticals, technology and diagnostics, and farmers and agriculture.

"The investors and the entrepreneurs of the whole world have realised the comparative advantages which AYUSH is offering and its strengths," said Union Minister for AYUSH, Sarbananda Sonowal.

Speaking at the valedictory function, he added that the summit has been instrumental in developing an enabling framework to attract investments in the sector.

Sonowal said the investment and innovation opportunities in the field of AYUSH are limitless.

During the summit, an MoU was signed between the AYUSH Ministry and the Defence Ministry to start AYUSH facilities in more than 35 cantonment areas across India.

In total, more than 70 MoUs were signed between countries, research institutes, farmers groups and industry, said Ayush Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Sport and Youth Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur said the market size of the AYUSH has witnessed a quantum jump from just over $3 billion in 2014 to $18 billion in 2022, clocking a phenomenal annual growth of 75 per cent.

The Union Minister expressed hope that the country will soon see many start-ups and businesses investing in this sector.

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat was the chief guest at the valedictory session of the summit.

Minister of State (MoS) for Tourism, Shripad Yesso Naik and MoS for AYUSH, Mahendra Munjapara were also present during the function.
Guwahati, April 23 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday urged the Central government to announce a new industrial policy for the northeastern states in line with the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Inaugurating the 7th India Industrial Fair (UDYAM 2022) at the veterinary field here in Khanapara, the Chief Minister drawing attention of the Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, who was present on the occasion, said that if a new industrial policy was declared in line with Jammu and Kashmir, investors would look favourably at the region for their valued investments.

Sarma said that this would go a long way in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream policy -- Act East Policy -- aimed at connecting the economy of northeast India with that of the South-East Asian nations.

"Connecting the economy and businesses of the region with that of South-East Asia would not only offer our entrepreneurs the huge market but would also provide an avenue to our youths for self-employment by being a part of that trade link-up," the Chief Minister pointed out.

Appreciating the efforts of Laghu Udyog Bharti for taking initiatives for organising events like UDYAM 2022, Sarma said such platforms would encourage the entrepreneurs in the Industrial sector by motivating them to go ahead with greater zeal.

Saying that the MSME sector contributes to 29 per cent of the state GDP, the Chief Minister appealed to the major players in the industry to consider Assam as their most-favoured investment destination as the state today, under the current dispensation, is going through a phase of total peace and security across its length and breadth.

Sarma also said that the state government has initiated a host of initiatives, including auto-renewal of expired business licenses, aimed at an overhaul of the industrial environment in the state.

He also mentioned that the state government has undertaken steps to modernise and improve the roadways, river ways as well as the logistic infrastructure of the state.
Guwahati, April 23 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Assam's role was not confined to the battle front alone as some police officers trained and equipped freedom fighters of the Mukti Bahini to take on the Pakistani Army.

Speaking at the 'Felicitation Ceremony' of 1971 War Veterans in Guwahati, the Chief Minister said that Jnanananda Sarma Pathak and Biraja Nanda Choudhury of Assam belonging to the Special Security Bureau played an important role in the Liberation War.

He said D.N. Sonowal and Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya, both belonging to the Indian Police Service from Assam, also played a big role in the operation.

Paying his tributes to Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Sarma said that his songs had an electrifying effect on the war.

"His song 'Joy Joy Nobojato Bangladesh' and 'Joy Joy Mukti Bahini' are written as triumphal salutations to the newly sovereign Bangladesh and to the freedom fighters still fresh in everybody's heart," he said.

The Chief Minister informed that fulfilling its commitment, government of Assam has initiated a number of steps including ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh to the next of kin of deceased army personnel, job for ex-servicemen, reservation of seats for their children in medical colleges.

In the 'Felicitation Ceremony' of 1971 War Veterans, the state government honoured nine Army widows with Rs 10 lakh each, eight number of battle casualties with Rs 5 lakh each, two war prisoners with Rs 2.5 lakh each and 86 war veterans with Rs 2 lakh each.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami, Bangladesh's Lt. Col. Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir (Retd.) among others were present in the event, held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati.

Lt. Col. Zahir (Retd.), who played a key role in the 1971 Bangladesh's war of Liberation, was awarded with the Padma Shri in the social work category by the Indian government last year.
New Delhi, April 23 : An unidentified person has been impersonating Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and asking for financial help from the people, the Vice President Secretariat said on Saturday.

In a statement, the Vice President's Secretariat cautioned the general public against a person who is impersonating as the vice president and sending "WhatsApp messages soliciting help and financial assistance from the mobile telephone number 9439073183." "There is a possibility that such fake messages could emanate from more numbers," it said, adding that the impersonator has sent such WhatsApp messages to several VIPs.

The VP's Secretariat has alerted the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs after the issue was brought to the Vice President's notice.
Amaravati, April 24 : More than one-and-half month after Andhra Pradesh High Court delivered its verdict on the state capital, the work on some pending projects in Amaravati resumed on Saturday.

Officials resumed the activity to complete the works on MLA and MLC quarters in Rayapudi.

Workers were seen completing works like laying tiles, water pipelines and electricity cables in multi-storey buildings.

The work is likely to be launched on a full scale from Monday as more workers will be joining the duties.

Amaravati farmers, who have been opposing the state government's three-capital plan, welcomed the workers by presenting them flowers. The farmers said the intervention of the high court has done justice to them.

They demanded that the government also take up works relating to provision of basic amenities and hand them over developed plots which were promised to them in lieu of the lands taken from them.

On March 3, Andhra Pradesh High Court had directed the state government to complete implementation of Amaravati capital city master plan in six months.

The court also asked the government to hand over developed plots with all basic amenities to farmers within three months. The government was also asked not to alienate lands in Amaravati for any work other than development of state capital.

A bench of three judges headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra pronounced the judgment on 75 petitions filed by Amaravati farmers and others challenging the government's move for trifurcation of state capital.

Though the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government made it clear that it remains committed to three-capital policy, it decided to complete some works which could be required to continue Amaravati as a legislative capital.

The YSRCP government on November 22, 2021 repealed two laws enacted last year to create three state capitals but announced that it will come out with a new comprehensive legislation.

The Assembly passed Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of all Regions Repeal Bill 2021.

The Bill repealed the Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of all Regions Act 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region development Authority Repeal Act 2020 Act.

The government, however, had made it clear that it had not gone back on the decision to have administrative, legislative and judicial capitals at Visakhapatnam, Amaravati and Kurnool respectively.

The development had some as the high court was to resume hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the two legislations made in 2020.

After coming to power in 2019, YSRCP had reversed the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the only state capital. This had triggered massive protest from farmers of Amaravati, who had given 33,000 acres of land for the capital and were hoping to reap its economic benefits.

The farmers, women and others have been protesting against the trifurcation for more than 800 days.
A man was transported to a Billings hospital after a 1 a.m. shooting in the parking lot of America's Wild West at 4910 Southgate Drive according to police at the scene. A vehicle involved in the incident crashed into a ditch near the popular bar, restaurant and casino.
Hubballi : , April 24 (IANS) The rejoicing of Hindu group activists over no advocate coming forward to represent him and provide surety for bail for Moulvi Wasim Pathan, arrested by Karnataka police in connection with Hubballi violence, has raised a debate.

Pathan has been sent to police custody by the Hubballi Fourth JMFC Court for five days.

No advocate filed a 'wakalat' for the Moulvi and no one came forward to provide surety.

Hindu activists celebrated this fact and claimed that it is a good development that no one is coming forward to argue for a person who indulged in anti-national activity, said senior advocate Ashok Anvekar.

Sri Ram Sena founder Pramod Muthalik has also welcomed the development.

Ashraf Ali Bashir Ahmad, hotel industrialist and social activist in Hubballi, told IANS on Saturday that he condemned the celebratory statements over non-representation of Moulvi Wasim Pathan in the court.

"The celebration is totally condemnable. As an Indian citizen he should get legal aid. Presently, he is an accused and the verdict hasn't come yet. He has the right to get legal assistance," he said.

"He is not involved in anti-national activity. The violence is a reaction that came after religious sentiments were hurt. However, instigation to violence is wrong and if proved guilty he should be punished. But everyone has the right to get legal assistance," he added.

"Moulvi Wasim Pathan would get legal assistance. In fact, all accused would get legal aid. Anjuman Islam organisation is providing the legal assistance. Even now, people are getting picked up. The team of lawyers are working. The violence incident was unfortunate, it shouldn't have happened. Even Moulvi Wasim Pathan was found to be an instigator, he is bound to get legal assistance," he said.

The police have arrested 126 people in connection with the Hubballi incident.

The violence erupted in Hubballi, known as the 'Chota Mumbai' and commercial hub of north Karnataka region, last Saturday evening following an objectionable post which surfaced on social media.

Thousands of people gathered before the police station in Hubballi, indulging in large-scale violence, when police refused to hand over the accused youth to them.
Tabibuga Airport, Tabibuga, Papua New Guinea [ TBA / ]

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Tabibuga Airport Info:

Tabibuga Airport IATA Code: TBA Tabibuga Airport ICAO Code: Latitude : -5.55 Longitude : 144.583 City : Tabibuga Country : Papua New Guinea World Area Code : 804 Airport Type : Small Tabibuga Airport Address / Contact Details :

Tabibuga (TBA), Tabibuga, Papua New Guinea Timezone : Pacific/Port_Moresby Tabibuga Airport Timezone : GMT +10:00 hours Current time and date at Tabibuga Airport is 10:22:08 AM (+10) on Tuesday, May 10, 2022

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Tabibuga Airport Map - Location of Tabibuga Airport Load Map Papua New Guinea - General Information Country Formal Name Independent State of Papua New Guinea Country Code PG Capital Port Moresby Currency Kina (PGK)

 1 PGK = 0.284 USD

 1 USD = 3.523 PGK

 1 PGK = 0.269 EUR

 1 EUR = 3.719 PGK

 More PGK convertion rates Tel Code +675 Top Level Domain .pg

This page provides all the information you need to know about Tabibuga Airport, Papua New Guinea. This page is created with the aim of helping travelers and tourists visiting Papua New Guinea or traveling to Tabibuga Airport. Details about Tabibuga Airport given here include Tabibuga Airport Code - IATA Code (3 letter airport codes) and ICAO Code (4 letter airport codes)

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TBA - Tabibuga Airport IATA Code
As a member advocate of the Property and Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB), Venture Construction Group (VCG) was a Diamond Sponsor, and Venture Construction Group of Florida (VCGFL) and VCG International (VCGI) exhibited at the PLRB Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo. The conference was held on April 3-6 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. PLRB is a not-for-profit association of property and casualty insurance companies that provide research and educational services for member companies and affiliates.

We are honored to sponsor and exhibit at the PLRB Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo. This is a leading industry event for advanced learning, growth, networking, and advocacy, said Stephen Shanton, CEO and president of Venture Construction Group of Florida (VCGFL), Venture Construction Group (VCG), VCG International (VCGI).

The PLRB Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo is an opportunity for claims professionals and service providers from hundreds of companies to network and learn. The conference includes over 90 course selections within 14 education tracks taught by industry leaders. PLRB promotes furthering education and connecting individuals within the claims and insurance industries.

PLRBs mission is to encourage productivity and efficiency in the property and liability loss and claim adjustment processes of members and the insurance industry; to disseminate information on property and liability issues among members and within the industry; and to promote education and new and beneficial developments within the property and casualty insurance industry as a whole.

VCG a is a full-service general contractor that provides construction, remodels, renovations, property management services, storm damage repairs, consulting, independent 3rd party property damage assessments, and 24/7 emergency services to residential and commercial property owners. VCGFL is a leader in commercial construction, restoration, renovations, roofing, storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services throughout Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and the Caribbean. VCGI is a global leader in commercial and industrial construction, restoration, and storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services through the Bahamas and the Caribbean, North America, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

About Venture Construction Group of Florida

Founded in 1998, Venture Construction Group of Florida (VCGFL) is an award-winning leader in construction, restoration, renovations, roofing, storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services throughout Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Bahamas and the Caribbean. Specializing in residential, industrial and commercial projects, VCGFL assists homeowners, property managers, condominium boards, homeowner associations, association boards, hotels, and business complexes with general contractor services, roofing, specialty construction, historical restoration, water and flood mitigation, and property repairs due to fire, flood, water, wind and hurricanes. With offices in Boca Raton, Ft. Myers, Naples, Panama City Beach, Orlando, Stuart, Tampa, San Juan, and Nassau, VCGFL is committed to operational excellence and exceptional customer service. VCGFL takes care of the details every step of the way including roofing, siding, windows, drywall, flooring, paint, gutters to rebuilding properties after major storm events from hurricanes, tornadoes, and hailstorms. VCGFL has earned leading industry awards including Roofing Contractor Magazines Top 100, Better Business Bureau (BBB) Southeast Florida and Caribbean 2021 Torch Award for Ethics Finalist, Gold Coast Builders Association (GCBA) Silver PRISM Award for Safety Team of the Year, GCBA Gold PRISM Award for Craftsmanship- Commercial Exterior, GCBA Silver PRISM Award for Craftsmanship- Commercial Exterior,Owens Corning Pinnacle Award for Safety, Roofing Alliance MVP Award, Coatings Pro Contractor Award, Pro Remodeler Forty Under 40 Award, Qualified Remodeler Top 500 Remodelers Award, Qualified Remodeler Master Design Award, Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association S.T.A.R. Spotlight Trophy for the Advancement of Roofing Awards in Sustainability and Community Service. Shanton is a certified member of the WindStorm Insurance Network and is a WIND Certified Umpire, WIND Certified Appraiser, and WIND Certified Fellow. VCGFL carries advanced accreditations and is an exclusive certified National Storm Damage Center Preferred Contractor and Certified Member of the United Association of Storm Restoration Contractors. VCGFL is a proud member of Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems (EIFS) Industry Members Association (EIMA); Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (FRSA); Gold Coast Builders Association (GCBA); Insurance Appraisal and Umpire Association (IAUA); National Association of Environmentally Responsible Mold Contractors (NAERMC); National Association of Home Builders (NAHB); National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA); NRCA Qualified Trainer; Property Liability and Resource Bureau (PLRB); Restoration Industry Association (RIA). VCGFL is a registered U.S. Federal Government Contractor and holds leading manufacturer certifications including Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, Mule-Hide Legacy Contractor, Certified CertainTeed Contractor, and Duro-Last Certified Contractor status. VCGFL credentials have been vetted and screened through independent third-party Global Risk Management Solutions. For more information, call 866-459-8351 or visit us online at http://www.VCGFL.com.

About Venture Construction Group

Founded in 1998, Venture Construction Group (VCG) is a licensed general contractor and an award-winning leader in construction, restoration, renovations, roofing, storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services. VCG services commercial and residential properties throughout the East Coast, Greater Mid-Atlantic Region, Gulf Coast, and Midwest. Operational excellence is our mission in every project we undertake, and we pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service. Specializing in commercial projects, VCG assists property management companies, condo associations, multi-family structures, hi-rises, retail/business plazas, government facilities, hotels, and resorts with comprehensive general contractor services, restoration, mitigation, specialty construction, historical restoration, remodels, property repairs, and rebuilds due to fire, flood, water, wind, hail, and hurricane damage. VCG is committed to operational excellence and exceptional customer service. CEO Stephen Shanton is a proud member of the prestigious Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). Entrepreneur Magazine hails YEC Consists of Some of the Most Well-Respected Minds in Entrepreneurship. Shanton is a proud member of the WindStorm Insurance Network and is a WIND Certified Umpire, WIND Certified Appraiser, and WIND Certified Fellow. He also earned the prestigious Pro Remodeler Forty Under 40 Award. VCG is an exclusive certified National Storm Damage Center Preferred Contractor, Certified Member of the United Association of Storm Restoration Contractors, Certified Member of Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems (EIFS) Industry Members Association (EIMA), Certified Member of National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, Mule-Hide Legacy Contractor, Certified CertainTeed Contractor, and Duro-Last Certified Contractor. VCG credentials have been vetted and screened through independent third party Global Risk Management Solutions. With offices nationwide and a solid reputation throughout the country, we are able to respond to your needs with quality, ease, and top-notch service. For more information, call 866-459-8348 or visit us online at http://www.VentureConstructionGroup.com.

About VCG International

VCG International (VCGI) is a global leader in commercial and industrial construction, restoration, storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. With over 30 years of experience and the worlds leading industry accreditations, VCGI leads the way in best practices throughout the globe. Learn more at http://www.VCGInternational.com.

About Property & Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB)

The Property & Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB) is a not-for-profit association of property and casualty insurance companies that provides research and educational services for member companies and affiliates. Our mission is to encourage productivity and efficiency in the property and liability loss and claim adjustment processes of members and the industry as a whole. PLRB disseminates information on property and liability issues among members and within the insurance industry. PLRB promotes education and new and beneficial developments within the property and casualty insurance industry. Learn more at http://www.PLRB.org.

Media Inquiries:

Alexis Bott

Elev8 Consulting Group

Ph: 386-243-5388

Web:http://www.elev8cg.com
To be honored with four AMBIT awards in our first year of submitting entries and attending the KCDMA celebration with other top local marketing experts make it all the more special.

The annual AMBIT event, hosted by Kansas Citys Data-Driven Marketers Association (KCDMA), celebrates Kansas Citys best performing data-driven marketing campaigns.

EAGs digital marketing campaigns earned the following awards:

Two Gold AMBIT Awards

Category: Business-to-Consumer Digital Media/Advertising

Client: SchoolAppKC

School Smart KC has an online application where parents apply to 20 schools with one application. Being a digital campaign, rather than traditional media, EAG could provide proof of performance for each campaign element. Cost efficiencies allowed 16 continuous weeks of placement, which was not feasible with radio and television.

Category: Organic Search Engine Marketing (SEO)

Client: ScanSTAT

After a 2020 merger that led to the expansion of ScanSTATs service offerings and the renaming of a key service, EAG supported ScanSTATs organic search needs with an SEO strategy that launched the company to the top 5 organic results for 3 top priority keywords.

A Silver AMBIT Award

Category: Social Media

Client: La Fontanella Foods (Cascones branded sauces)

EAGs social media campaign generated awareness and measured engagement. There was a 2.5% increase to the "Find a Grocer" section online. Social media drove awareness among the target audience with 258,970 impressions to 103,191 people.

A Bronze AMBIT Award

Category: Business-to-Consumer Integrated Marketing

Client: La Fontanella Foods (Cascones branded sauces)

EAGs micro-targeting strategy raised the right awareness and engagement to put Cascones Italian sauces on the same playing field as national brands.

EAGs two gold AMBIT Awards projects automatically advance to the second round of judging at the DMA International ECHO Awards.

To have the data-driven marketing campaigns we execute for clients recognized for their success among our agency peers is always exciting for our hard-working team, says Michele Markham, president and chief executive officer. But, to be honored with four AMBIT awards in our first year of submitting entries and attending the KCDMA celebration with other top local marketing experts make it all the more special.

About EAG Advertising & Marketing

From its headquarters in the Crossroads Art District in Kansas City, Mo., EAG has served more than 500 clients, helping them expand their marketing capacity by becoming their full-service outsourced marketing department. In-house seasoned marketing professionals conduct services in all disciplines, including brand development, consulting, media placement, creative design, content development, channel management, website design and search engine optimization.

EAG is a winner of numerous small business and creative advertising awards, including Kansas Citys Best Places to Work, Fountain Awards, Philanthropic (Philly) Awards, Kansas Citys Fastest Growing Companies and 2019 Agency of the Year and KCDMA AMBIT Awards.
Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Bamia 2 LLC, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The San Francisco employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that Bamia 2 LLC violated the California Labor Code. The Bamia 2 LLC class action lawsuit, Case No. CGC-22-598895, is currently pending in the San Francisco County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit filed, Bamia 2 LLC allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse employees for required expenses, and (f) failed to provide wages when due, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections  201, 202, 203, 226, 226.7, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct.

Bamia 2 LLC allegedly failed to pay employees for all the time they were under the employer's control. This, allegedly, includes the time Plaintiff and other California Class Members had to submit to mandatory COVID-19 screening prior to clocking in for the day. To the extent that the time worked off the clock did not qualify for overtime premium payment, Defendant allegedly failed to pay minimum and overtime wages for the time worked off-the-clock.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Bamia 2 LLC, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

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In Mauds Circus, Michelle Renes fictionalized story of historical figure Maud Wagner, the first female tattoo artist in North America, the author brings to life a strong and passionate woman making her own way in a late-19th- and early-20th-century society. As a teenager, Maud Stevens runs away from home to join a circus as a contortionist and aerialist. After meeting the practical and loving tattoo artist Gus Wagner, she lets him tattoo her. Shes instantly hooked on getting inked and learns the art of tattooing herself. A commanding presence in her illustrated body, Maud tattoos other women, empowering them in the process. Rene spoke to BookLife about folding historical content into her bold saga of an inspirational woman.

What about Mauds story inspired you to write about her?

When I saw the photographs of her covered from neck to ankle in tattoos, how could I not write about her? During the turn of the century, in a time when wearing a bathing suit to the beach could get you arrested, this woman had the audacity to be a human art gallery. Im an artist by trade and education. Even though Ive never gotten a tattoo, Im fascinated by them. I love their beauty and what they mean to people. When I looked at that famous portrait of Maud thats on the cover, I couldnt help but wonder what each of her tattoos meant to her.

With the scant historical information about Maud, how did you determine what part of her life could be fictionalized?

A good deal of my information came from tattoo and circus history sources, which overlapped quite a bit. One book was a wonderful reference: Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo by Margot Mifflin. When writing historical fiction in general, I try to pinpoint one of the universal truths like love stories, tales of bravery, corrupting paths of greed, and epic tales of adventure. These archetypes transcend culture. I tend to focus on everyones undeniable need for family in my writing. Each step of the way, I placed myself in Mauds shoes and knit together the facts I knew with a story that I invented. It became such a personal experience that I cried while writing parts of it. I dont think Ive ever put so much of myself in a book before.

Maud is such a free spirit. How did you craft the character?

Shes sort of an amalgam of all the strong women in my family and the headstrong artists I know. Theres also a dash of me in there. But, no matter how outspoken or brave you are, there are still insecurities and fear underneath, those inner battles that are hidden behind a big personality. I wanted to show that in Maud. She has so much grief and hurt, but she sets the world on fire anyway, making history.

What motivates Maud to help the women of her time, who are so restricted by societys expectations?

Maud found her calling and place in the world, but she never turns her attention away from the countless women she sees suffering. Mauds tattoo tent is her little universe wherein she has all the power she needs to grant her brand of healing. Her friend Dora helped her when she needed it, so Maud does the same for the lost souls she finds. Sometimes all you need is the knowledge so you can fight back to change your fate.

Why did you highlight the special mother-daughter relationship between Maud and Lotteva?

[The real-life]

Maud never wanted her daughter to get a tattoo. She only relented after Lottevas father died. Why? In writing this book, I interviewed a lot of people about their tattoos and why they got them. Its where I got the main themes in the book: stories about healing, taking back your body, remembrance, and defiance. Maybe Maud never wanted her daughter to have to get a tattoo to heal, to live a pain-free life. Being the only child of a single mother, and a mother myself, this resonated with me. I dedicated this book to my mother.

Why was it important to depict the historical surroundings of the circus as accurately as possible?

I wanted you there, smelling the ink and tasting the food on the air. Mauds Circus is a long book, but I wanted it to read like it wasnt. My goal was to make it so immersive that the reader forgets where they are. When you write about something in history, its your duty to make the place feel real to your audience. Maud had a spectacularly bizarre way of life, and I wanted to make sure I captured it.

How did you depict the evolution of the circus in relation to the historical events in the book?

You cant paint a proper image of the circus without touching on the milestones that altered it. As the economic fortunes of America changed, so changed the circus landscape. I always try to paint the history as it was, nuance and all. Shows like Cirque du Soleil keep the art alive, and tattooists have moved to their own parlors to do business. The art is still there.

Lorraine Savage is a freelance writer from New England.
In this months thematic roundup of BookLife titles, we feature humorous and satirical fiction, memoir, and more.

Fiction

Alices Adventures Under Water

Lenny de Rooy

ISBN 978-9-09-034615-1

About the book: This book is a continuation of Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland stories, written in Carrolls familiar style, but packed with a great number of new puns, poems, parodies, and satires. This time, Alice explores an underwater world where she meets new characters who, once again, make her wonder about their strange logic and behavior.

Author statement: I have been studying Lewis Carrolls Alice books and maintaining a popular website about these stories for about 25 years, focusing on their origins and the more or less obscure references that can be found in them. Because I know these books and their background so well, I felt it was finally time to try my hand at a sequel that would be as true as possible to the original tales.

Havoc & Happiness

Wren Handman

ISBN 978-0-9952810-3-5

About the book: Michaela Peters didnt let dying get her down. After all, it was only for a few minutes, and the hospital had paid her a huge settlement. Now shes an emancipated minor with nine million dollars in the bank and her entire future ahead of her. Life could be a heck of a lot worse! Michaela moves to Montana, determined to enjoy the queer high school drama life is serving up. Instead, she finds herself caught in the crosshairs of a fight between horrible monsters, which shift with a persons imagination, and the gorgeous, trigger-happy siblings who hunt them.

Author statement: Havoc & Happiness is a comedy without being a parody, a sapphic love story, and a monster-hunting adventure. I wrote it because I was tired of queer content that was always so painfully depressing! Especially for teens, its always about the pain and challenges of coming out, instead of just an expression of love and joy about my community. Havoc & Happiness reflects my own experienceswith a magical twist, of course!

My Very Punny Dad

Ryan Milligan, illus. by Juan Castaneda

ASIN B09KN2P8VJ

About the book: My Very Punny Dad is a childrens story for parents with an appreciation of wordplay and kids who are starting to understand all the silly ways in which language can be used. While a young girl goes about her day, her father wants to keep the laughs coming with his constant puns and dad jokes. But just like snacking on cheese, can there be too much of a gouda thing?

Author statement: I have been a fan of wordplay for many years; Amelia Bedelia was my favorite book series growing up. When I became a father myself, I wanted to create a unique reading experience that could be enjoyed by both kids and their parents. Since I couldnt find any works that actually blended puns with rhythm and rhyme in a full story format, I decided to take on the challenge. English is quite a nuanced language, and the book went through countless rounds of editing to ensure a coherent story and consistent flow. While there are underlying themes of family, love, and respect, My Very Punny Dad is ultimately meant to be a fun and silly read. Creativity and humor are two things I value very much, and language is something that can be used outside its rules and constructs to make people laugh.

Powers Play

Eva Sandor

ISBN 978-1-73506-793-3

About the book: Meet newly minted nobleman Malfred Murdthe former Royal Fool turned outcast, then con man, then hero. After saving a mildly magical, technologically advanced country from oblivion, anyone else might rest on his lorro-leaves and enjoy being esquire of his very own town, however small. But Fred simply cant help plunging back into his own special brew of trouble, and this time he takes on a task thats outrageous even for him: going undercover to bust the biggest crime boss in a vast and decadent city. This page-turning comic fantasy gives readers a second entry point into Sandors blend of comedy, crime novel, and adventure.

Author statement: Im an illustrator and a former advertising copywriter who decided to take my imagination to the next level by sharing my wordplay and my worldview with you! Join me in and indulge in my own love of strongly drawn characters; long, twisty, and tasty sentences; sensory descriptions that grab you by the imagination; and laughter that hides a serious soul.

The Secret Sign of the Lizard People

Kevin E. Buckley

ISBN 978-1-5255-5962-1

About the book: When partners in crime-reduction Jerry Leafy Green and Bill Beefy Goodnesstwo of the LAPDs most skilled homicide detectivesinvestigate the bizarre killing of a fashion model at the Hollywood sign, it soon becomes clear that this murder is part of a much larger conspiracy that threatens not only the people of America, but the entire population of the planet.

Author statement: Three simultaneous, yet seemingly unrelated occurrences converged to inspire this book. Firstly, the global resurgence of populism to a level not seen since before the Second World War. Secondly, the immense power and wealth wielded by the giant corporations and the ever-expanding billionaire class and their cynical denial of the ongoing industrial-scale destruction of our planets flora and fauna. And last, but by no means least, the huge popularity of the UFO counter-culture and the resultant conspiracy theories that now resonate throughout our literature and social media.

The Thing From HR: A Cthulhu, Amalgamated Novel

Roy M. Griffs

ASIN B094BVGPW3

About the book: This humorous new interpretation of the Lovcraftian mythos imagines those Dread Beings as part of a large otherworldly corporation. Narg, our hero, was content working as a Damnation Services-10 in HR. Sure, he was related to one of the Elder Gods, but a little nepotism never hurt any Thing. His life was just wailing and gibbering, right up until his uncle needed a small favor from his nephew. All Narg had to do was go down among the humans... and pretend to be one of them.

Author statement: I had completed a six-volume historical fiction series that was pretty serious. I was a bit worn out from the effort of the research and the crafting of the series. Then my old high school girlfriendfirst love, first and forever fandied unexpectedly and in pretty tragic circumstances. Then my mother died a few months later. I couldnt write a damn thing for a year. When I was finally able to start writing again, I needed to write something lightnay, something outlandish.

Memoir & Nonfiction

To B&B or Not to B&B: Deromanticizing the Dream

Sue Marko

ISBN 978-1-63752-949-2

About the book: In this memoir, Marko recounts her dreadful and hilarious experiences in hosting the public through 14 years of B and B ownership.

Author statement: I kind of wrote this book by accident. I was living in the literal middle of nowhere, hosting guests in the B and B and managing the whole business and acreage by myself after my ex and I had a rather messy breakup. There was no time to seek out therapy and I sure didnt have the cash to take a holiday myself, so I created my own therapeutic process to cope with the anger, frustrations, insults, and hurt feelings that I received from my guests. After they checked out, I would pour myself a large glass of wine and sit down at my desk, open up my laptop, and pound out all the ugly offenses I had suffered. About when the glass was empty, I would save them to a file buried deep in the computer, and that was it: purge complete! A couple of years after selling the B and B, I opened up that file in my laptop and was really surprised to see how many stories there wereprobably enough for three books!

I Could Hardly Keep From Laughing: An Illustrated Collection of Vermont Humor

Don Hooper and Bill Mares

ISBN 978-1-57869-081-7

About the book: With cartoons by Don Hooper and prose by Bill Mares, I Could Hardly Keep from Laughing is a potpourri of art and words documenting how Vermont humor has evolved over 150 years, retelling some treasured stories to highlight more than a dozen modern humorists. Includes a foreword by Jeff Danziger, political cartoonist, author, and recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast Prize.

Author statement: Don and Bill met 35 years ago, as first-term representatives in the Vermont legislature from Brookfield and Burlington, respectively. They invented many jokes and quips to fill their days, and, in 2018, when Don asked Bill what his next book would be, quick as lightning Bill said, A history of Vermont humor, but only if youll do it with me! 

The Lighter Side

Sussanna Elliott-Newth

ISBN 978-1-398-40437-3

About the book: The Lighter Side is a collection of 32 stories and a selection of poems written after the authors husband was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Author statement: Poetry can craft more skillfully what prose finds clumsy. I am a prolific writer who writes predominantly for a female audience. People identify with the situations my husband and I experienced during his cancer journey. My stories show people another way to respond to tragedies that happen in our lives. We can choose to be victims, or we can choose to use every bad situation as a learning experience. I choose to entertain others!
DEAL OF THE WEEK

Mariner Joins Stevensons Family In a six-figure, two-book North American rights deal, Mariner Books Katherine Nintzel bought Benjamin Stevensons Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Mariner said the novel, acquired at a six-way auction, is a blend of classic and modern murder mystery that is Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club. Stevenson is an Australian comedian, and Nintzel brokered the agreement with Penguin Random House Australia. The book, which is set for January 2023, has also been optioned for a limited series adaptation by HBO.

Ronson Takes Grand Central to Infinity

Music producer Mark Ronson sold the memoir 93 Til Infinty to Grand Central Publishing in a North American rights deal. Colin Dickerman acquired the book, slated for 2023, from David Kuhn and Nate Muscato at Aevitas Creative Management. Ronson has worn many hats in a long career in the music industry, with a wealth of songwriter and producer credits to his name, and has worked with A-list performers including Adele and Paul McCartney. The publisher said the book focuses on the early days of his career DJing in New York Citys downtown hip-hop scene in the 1990s. It captures the music, characters, escapades, and energy of his DJ days, inviting readers into the tribe of creatives and revelers who came alive when the sun went down.

Sourcebooks Strikes Winsteads Hour

Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks bought Ashley Winsteads Midnight Is the Darkest Hour for six figures. Winstead (In My Dreams I Hold a Knife) was represented in the two-book deal by Melissa Edwards at Stonesong. Sourcebooks said the thriller follows a good preachers daughter and a man with a dark reputation as they do whatever it takes to protect their Louisiana bayou town from evilnot the horrors rumored to dwell in the swamp, but the real evil that walks among them. Midnight Is the Darkest Hour is slated for summer 2023.

Guanzons Debut Goes to HarperCollins

For six figures, Harper Voyagers Julia Elliott inked Thea Guanzon to a three-book deal, at auction, for her debut trilogy, the Hurricane Wars. The series, the publisher said, is an enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance set in a Southeast Asianinspired world of magic, airships, and strange beasts. Elliott took world rights to the titles from Thao Le at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency via Natasha Bardon at Harper Voyager UK. The first book under contract is set for fall 2023.

Flatiron Gets Erased by Tubbs

Bryn Clark at Flatiron books bought North American rights to Erased by Anna Malaika Tubbs. Tubbss debut, The Three Mothers, was named one of the best books of 2021 by both Amazon and NPR, and Erased, Flatiron said, is an examination of and reckoning with the history of patriarchy in America. The book aims to provide a common understanding and shared language for thinking about patriarchy and all the ways in which it is baked into the fabric of our nation. Julia Kardon at HG Literary represented Tubbs in the two-book deal.

Prism Brings Nafousis Manifest to U.S.

For Chronicle Prism, Cara Bedick nabbed North American rights to Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life, a U.K. bestseller by self-development coach Roxie Nafousi. Published in the U.K. in January, the book was touted by Vogue UK as the millennial answer to The Secret and is described by Chronicle as an introduction to the self-development practice of manifesting to cultivate self-love and live your best life. Jane Kirby at Penguin Random House UK handled the sale for Nafousi, and the book is set for a fall release.
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As public approval of unions surpasses its 40-year high and national headlines broadcast union victories at Starbucks and Amazon, Fight Like Hell, by journalist and union organizer Kim Kelly, due out April 26, offers lessons and inspiration for workers in any industry. Solidarity, Kelly said, is always unions greatest weapon.

Unions have long been a part of Kellys life. Her father worked in construction throughout her childhood, and she remembers his union striking several times. She started her career as a music journalist and established herself as Vices heavy metal editor. When the youth media companys editorial staff organized with the Writers Guild of America, East in 2015, she became a founding member of the Vice Union leadership. (Disclosure: the author of this article is a former Vice staffer who worked with Kelly to organize the Vice Union.) In 2021 she was elected to the council of the WGAE.

Kelly began to cover labor for other outlets while editing at Vice, and Fight Like Hell grew as an extension of her freelance work. Now she has a column in Teen Vogue; hosts videos for More Perfect Union, the Real News Network, and Means TV; and writes labor stories for outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review, Esquire, the New Republic, and Rolling Stone. She decided to write a book, she said, because the stories she wanted to tell often didnt fit in the amount of space she was given in other outlets.

In Fight Like Hell, Kelly focuses on women and people of color whose contributions to the labor movement have been forgotten or ignored. Each of the books 13 chapters is dedicated to the union heroes of different industries, such as the pioneering women who led Americas first factory strike in 1824 and the immigrant crop pickers in Hawaii and California in the 1940s. Between historical accounts, Kelly intersperses vignettes from her contemporary labor coverage, including the Warrior Met coal miners strike (which has been going on for over a year) and Amazon workers attempts to organize a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala. In each setting, she shows how business interests use race, class, lies, and violence to divide and exploit the workforce. She also shows how workers who fight back succeed through solidarity and boldness.

Its this balance between relevance and historical context that drew Simon & Schuster editor Nick Ciani to Kellys work. Labor is the issue of our time, Ciani said. He was already one of Kellys Twitter followers (which now total more than 117,000) when her agent sent him the proposal that became Fight Like Hell. Ciani brought it to OneSignal, S&Ss imprint for nonfiction, history, and memoir. He pitched it on the strength of its relevance and the trusted relationship Kelly has cultivated with her audience on social media.

Any book has to start out with a core constituency of readers, Ciani said. Kim is especially gifted in that way. She has shown her audience what shes about.

Even before its publication, Fight Like Hell struck a chord among labor leaders, including AFL-CIO president Liz Schuler and Association of Flight Attendants International president Sara Nelson. The book is energizing because it can, as Nelson put it in a blurb, inspire all of us to seize power for ourselves.

Kelly selects direct examples of strategies and tactics labor leaders used to overcome entrenched racism, sexism, and exploitation throughout American history. Workers unionizing at Starbucks, for example, have a lot to learn from 1960s labor organizer Dorothy Lee Bolden, according to Kelly. Both Bolden and Starbucks workers have demonstrated the effectiveness of solidarity unionism, a model espoused by the Industrial Workers of the World in which organizations are founded and led by workers themselves. Like the domestic workers of the 1960s, Kelly said Starbucks employees are part of a group that has traditionally been viewed as very difficult to organize, if not impossible. Theres been this idea we cant do it because its too hard. Its too messy. And a lot of traditional unions have just let it be.

Bolden was a domestic worker in Atlanta whose boss once called the police because she refused to work late. She shared her story with other domestic workers riding the city buses, and, with encouragement from her neighbor, Martin Luther King Jr., she organized her grassroots network into the National Domestic Workers Union of America in 1968.

Kelly points to specific tactics that made Boldens organization particularly effective. Members trusted her because she had worked the same exhausting hours for exploitative wages that they had. Membership required a fee of $1 and a completed voter registration form, providing the funds to operate the organization and the political clout for effective advocacy in local government. The NDWUA provided classes on how to access programs like Social Security and workers compensation. It prioritized lifting women out of poverty by banding together to refuse jobs that underpaid. By 1970, it saw their average wages of $5 per day triple to $15 per day.

Kelly also has lessons for the workers unionizing American booksellers. Many of Fight Like Hells contemporary reporting covers the largest bookseller in the worldAmazonwhich has spent millions of dollars to prevent its employees from unionizing. Workers at a Staten Island warehouse recently became the first unionized Amazon employees. Meanwhile, workers at community book retailers have successfully unionized in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz in California, as well as in Austin; New York City; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle.

In spite of this progress, there are huge cultural challenges for bookseller unions. In a Jacobin article titled Why Is Organizing Workers in the Book Industry So Damn Hard? the authors write, One of the steepest barriers to organizing is the myth of doing it for the love of books, which employers perpetuate to create the illusion that publishing workers are somehow exempt from the inherent exploitation of wage labor.

Kelly said she encountered similar rhetoric during Vices union organizing campaign. People are telling you, Oh, you guys dont need a union. You have a fun job. You just hang out with books all day, that must be great,  she said. No. Its a very difficult job, and all labor has dignity. And all workers need a union.

Beckett Mufson is a Texas-based copywriter, cofounder of the creative agency the Auxiliary, and journalist.
Kelley Reuer, of Kenmare, will be the speaker at the Bismarck-Mandan After 5 and Bis-Man Womens Connection meetings.
Almost everyone has looked at an animal and wondered what its thinking. But what might animals and our relationships with them tell us about ourselves? Forthcoming books approach the animal kingdom from unfamiliar angles, revealing the hidden commonalities between humans and a variety of species, and exploring entrenched misconceptions we hold about our partners in the natural world.

Sy Montgomery, naturalist and author of 2015s The Soul of an Octopus (310,000 print copies sold, per NPD BookScan), turns from the sea to the sky in The Hawks Way (Atria, May). In it, she explores her personal relationship with the birds of prey, which began when she enrolled as one of the first students at a school of falconry near her New Hampshire home. I was shocked by how bloody it was from the start, she says. The ferocity of these birds completely held my attention. I couldnt look away.

Montgomery found herself transformed by the raptors. If you open yourself up to these animals they will change you, she says. Her early experience with hawks, for example, provided a healthy dose of humility. Theyre allowing you to be their junior hunter partner, she says. And thats the highest form of praise they can give you. Working with animals has also given Montgomery perspective on her place within a larger cosmos. This incandescent life that we are but one part of should dazzle and inspire us with reverence and wonder and a resolve to protect all of creation, she says. Thats what animals teach us.

Personal stories also help writers express the more subtle ways their relationships with animals have changed them. In Pig Years (Knopf, June), Ellyn Gaydos recounts her time as a farmhand in Vermont. Its a seasonal story about plants and animals and the experience of working the land, Gaydos says. Its about life and death because thats a lot of what farming is.

Her interactions with pigs changed how she viewed the unhurried and seemingly unproductive act of spending time in close observation of animals. Sometimes when youre just sitting on a log hanging out with a pig, you feel like maybe this is a waste of time, she says. But it let me slow down and appreciate those relationships and also be more on the time of animals, who dont really care about wasting it. Gaydos sees something worthwhile in simply being around the animals, even if they dont jell with our progress-oriented, productivity-driven mindset. With nature theres not a moral to the story, she says. But it feels instructive having relationships with animals even if theres no clear redemptive narrative.

Other titles reevaluate humans relationships with animals through unexpected comparisons. In The Parrot in the Mirror (Oxford Univ., June), behavioral ecologist Antone Martinho-Truswell explores the parallel evolutionary histories of birds and humans. Ive always been interested in birds because theyre a very intelligent group of animals that have evolved from a totally different background than humans and other mammals, he says.

Despite evolving independently, birds and humans share key cognitive and behavioral similarities, including complex social lives, large brains relative to their size, and biparental childcare. It turns out that each of these behaviors reinforces the others, Martinho-Truswell says, noting that the collection of traits that makes us human is, as with birds, a package deal.

This example of convergent evolution offered the author, a professor at the University of Sydney, an opportunity to teach a general audience to see the world like a scientist. Its a walkthrough of how to think like an evolutionary biologist when youre looking at two different organisms and wondering why they share what they share and why they differ where they differ, he explains.

Martinho-Truswell says one major benefit of studying animal minds is what they can reveal more broadly about cognition. We should try as hard as we can to make educated conclusions about what its like to be in the head of a bird, what they do with information, and how they understand the world, he adds, because it helps us to understand how our brains and minds work.

Birds also reflect cultural and societal values back at us, according to ornithologist Tim Birkhead. In Birds and Us (Princeton Univ., Aug.), Birkhead shows how, across history, they have continually captured our imaginations. People have been impressed and influenced by birds, but the way that theyve interacted with birds has changed dramatically over time, Birkhead says. He describes the connection between humans and birds from the Paleolithic era, roughly 12,000 years ago, to the early 20th century as one of exploitation, but adds that there have always been a few empathetic voices.

Those empathetic voices come to the fore in Birkheads discussion of birds in art and culture. As humanity transformed from Neolithic hunters making cave paintings of birds to modern communities of scientists, birdkeepers, and birdwatchers working to conserve them, Birkhead suggests, our current relationship to birds shows how far weve come as a species. I wanted to remind people that our current feeling for birds hasnt always been there, he says. Concern for birds is a bit of a civilized luxury, and we want to hold on to it as long as possible. Its about treasuring the relationship we currently have where preservation is very high on our list of priorities.

Several new books take on commonly held conventions of the scientific establishment, calling for a reexamination of the human perspective on animalkind. In Bitch: On the Female of the Species (Basic, June), British zoologist Lucy Cooke confronts a deeply ingrained history of sexism and misogyny in the scientific communitys study of female animals. In the last few decades a revolution has been brewing, she says. We now understand that females are just as promiscuous, just as competitive and dominant as males.

According to Cooke, the effects of projecting human cultural views onto animal behavior have had implications on how we see ourselves. The really poisonous thing is the boomerang nature of this sexist bias that started as Victorian misogyny, was incubated by 100-odd years of science, and then was spat out to tell women how theyre meant to behave by evolutionary psychologists who are still doing it today, she says, cautioning against drawing parallels where none exist. The animal kingdom is often used as a guide for what we should be like as humans, and the truth is you have to be very careful about the inferences you make.

Cooke emphasizes that much of the shift in thinking about females is the result of diverse perspectives entering the fields of zoology and evolutionary biology. When feminist biologists went into the field, rather than ignoring the licentious promiscuity of lionesses, they saw that females were soliciting sex from males, she says. That doesnt seem very chaste to me.

From murderously competitive female meerkats to same-sex female albatross couples raising multiple chicks in a season, Cooke presents a more multifaceted view of female animals while also highlighting diversity in the natural world. Now we have LGBTQ voices in science making their presence felt, she says. So were getting these new ideas and new questions. Were not just seeing things as male and female. That story is so much more interesting.

Justin Greggs If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal (Little, Brown, Aug.) challenges deep-seated ideas about the superiority of human intelligence by contrasting it with stories of animals whove gotten along just fine without it. The underlying assumption is always that the human way of thinking is the best way of thinking, Gregg says. Yet other animal minds often provide a better solution for living a good life or being a successful species than human intelligence.

With a touch of humor, Gregg describes the incredible problem-solving abilities of animals including fruit flies, whales, pigeons, and household pets. He hopes readers see the fundamental commonality between animals and ourselves. If you understand that every mind on this planet, from slugs to dogs to humans, evolved through natural selection for the exact same purposeto find safety, to seek out pleasure, to minimize painthat breaks down all these barriers between species, he says.

Similarly, in How to Speak Whale (Grand Central, Sept.), naturalist and filmmaker Tom Mustill surveys the frontier of human-animal connection to reframe the conversation about what animals can teach us. After a whale breached on his kayak in Monterey Bay, Calif., Mustill was inspired to learn more about how new technologies could help humans better understand and possibly communicate with the natural world. I dont think weve taken in what a big deal artificial intelligence is for the life sciences, because weve previously been restricted by our own brains and senses and our own ability to take in and process information, he says. Now weve got tools that can find patterns within data. Its sort of superhuman biology.

As Mustill met with researchers, scientists, and technologists, he realized that technologies like neural networks trained to recognize whale song were moving beyond the limits of human perception. These machines will help us get over our human difficulty in perceiving the complexity of animal interaction and communication, he says. While Mustill acknowledges that such technologies could be used maliciously, as they have been with humans, hes ultimately optimistic. Discovery can forge connection, he adds. With these technologies, were going to see invisible worlds and, hopefully, reappraise our relationship to all of them.

Birkhead points to the growing sense of ecological catastrophe as one reason why readers are turning to books about the animal world. Were seeing the natural world disappear in front of our eyes, he says. That has increased peoples appreciation for it, and increased the number of opportunities for people to write about it.

Gregg is perhaps more philosophical about why were reaching for these books now. We turn to the animal kingdom and wonder what animals are doing that were not doing, because they seem to have it right, he says. Theyre not going to make themselves extinct from nuclear weapons. I think people are more interested in learning about animal cognition because theyre not that enthusiastic about human cognition at the moment.

Matthew Broaddus is a poet and associate poetry editor at Okay Donkey Press.

Read more from our Popular Science feature:

Memoirs of a Galaxy: PW talks with Moiya McTier

In 'The Milky Way' (Grand Central, Aug.), astrophysicist and folklorist Moiya McTier lets the galaxy do the talking.

Brain Matters: Popular Science Books 2022

Forthcoming titles broaden our understanding of the human mind.
Published on:

22 April 2022





Professor Bowen is moving to Queen Mary from the University of East Anglia (UEA), where she has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Social Sciences since 2018. She will take up her new role on 1 September 2022, when Professor Matthew Hilton steps down at the end of his second three-year term.

Before joining UEA, Professor Bowen held several key leadership positions at Queen Mary. Initially recruited as Professor of Innovation in 2011, she also worked as Deputy Head and Director of Research in the School of Business and Management, before progressing to Head of School and eventually becoming its Dean.

Ahead of her move, Professor Bowen commented: I am very excited to be coming back to Queen Mary University of London, and into this challenging role. Meeting colleagues through the application process in the last few weeks reminded me of the deep talent, expertise and passion within the Faculty and University. I look forward to working with old friends and new to shape the future of humanities and social sciences at Queen Mary.

Professor Bowen is a distinguished researcher in the field of corporate environmental strategy. She has a strong track record in attracting external funding to support her research - including grants from BEIS, Defra, ESRC, EPSRC and SSHRC. She is passionate about putting research into practice, and regularly advises both private and public sector organisations on sustainable business strategies.

Having earned degrees at the University of Oxford, Northeastern University (USA) and the University of Bath, Professor Bowen secured progressively more senior academic appointments at the University of Sheffield and the University of Calgary (Canada), where she was Associate Dean for Research. She has also held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore).

In her current role at UEA, Professor Bowen is responsible for seven academic Schools encompassing 6,000 students and 400 academic staff. She has also led institutionally significant projects across the Universitys wider portfolio, including the development of its international engagement strategy.

Queen Marys President and Principal, Professor Colin Bailey, said of the appointment: Professor Bowen is an outstanding academic leader, with a strong affinity to our values and mission, and I am certain she will be a great asset to Queen Mary once again. I am delighted she is re-joining Queen Mary in this key role, where I look forward to working with her to deliver the next chapter of our University Strategy.
In a piece published last month, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank lashed out at Koch Industries as a recidivist corporate offender that had earned a worst of the worst designation for refusing to reduce activities in Russia. Milbank reports that more than 450 multi-national companies have withdrawn from Russia, and Milbank contends that Koch Industries is wrong for not doing as others have done.

That Milbank would critique Koch is hardly news. Where it becomes interesting is that theres been so little defense of Koch and others from the Milton Friedman wing of the Right that shares the late Friedmans view that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. Its puzzling because staying in Russia certainly checks the profits box, but theres more to the decision. Contra Milbanks criticism, theres a reasonable case that staying in Russia is arguably more humane than leaving, and that continuing business operations in Russia will most enhance the odds of a peaceful outcome in Ukraine and beyond.
In a piece published last month, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank lashed out at Koch Industries as a recidivist corporate offender that had earned a worst of the worst designation for refusing to reduce activities in Russia. Milbank reports that more than 450 multi-national companies have withdrawn from Russia, and Milbank contends that Koch Industries is wrong for not doing as others have done.

That Milbank would critique Koch is hardly news. Where it becomes interesting is that theres been so little defense of Koch and others from the Milton Friedman wing of the Right that shares the late Friedmans view that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. Its puzzling because staying in Russia certainly checks the profits box, but theres more to the decision. Contra Milbanks criticism, theres a reasonable case that staying in Russia is arguably more humane than leaving, and that continuing business operations in Russia will most enhance the odds of a peaceful outcome in Ukraine and beyond.

For now, the exit of multi-national companies from Russia in response to the countrys hateful and primitive invasion of Ukraine has proven costly for those corporations, their shareholders, and therefore  most cruelly  their local employees. These externalities should raise eyebrows. It would be one thing if the economics of being in Russia no longer made sense. Except that the departures are not reported to be economic. Theyre instead taking place seemingly in protest of Russian leader Vladimir Putins tragic decision to invade Ukraine. Corporations are, according to the Wall Street Journal's Jean Eaglesham and Thomas Gryta, tallying up tens of billions in losses from their Russian operations as they grapple with the impact of asset sales, shutdowns and sanctions, and these effects will be felt well beyond the board room.

Conservatives in particular are often critical of woke capitalism whereby corporations sacrifice profits in order to take a stand or, more likely, to placate left-wing activists on the matter of the environment, race, sex, and other hot-button issues. As a member of the Right, its hard to critique the critics. Corporations would, in an ideal world, stay clear of politics. What's true about politics logically extends to geopolitics, yet the Right's been largely quiet about corporate exits from Russia that will harm more than the proverbial bottom line.

Indeed, its not difficult to make a case that the decision to exit business operations in Russia is less than humane. To be clear, the Ukrainian people are the biggest victims of Putins tragic actions. But Putin's villainy is a grim reminder that politicians and dictators start wars, while regular people rarely - if ever - do. Which is why mass departure from Russia is so sad. How many innocent Russian people will lose their livelihoods (and much more) as a consequence of so many corporations leaving the country? Theres no real way to answer this, but its one that Koch Industries thankfully considered regarding its own operations in Russia. In Milbanks aforementioned column, a spokesman from Koch was quoted as saying that the corporation will not walk away from our employees nor will it hand over its facilities to the Russian government; the latter an equivalent way of walking away from its employees. Good for Koch Industries.

To which Milbank would seemingly reply, as he does in his column, that the corporations remaining in Russia pay taxes, and those taxes help fund Putins war effort. Milbank is no doubt correct that fighting a war is much more than challenging (and realistically impossible) without an economy. At the same time, a booming or growing economy makes war very expensive. In other words, its perhaps not surprising that as global prosperity has increased, so has warring become less evident. People, or countries, with nothing to lose are far more dangerous.

Which China scares you more: the pre-1990s China that was crushingly poor, or the modern one with cities dense with Americana, including McDonalds everywhere you look? This question in particular should be answered by those conservatives who increasingly want to isolate Americans from China. Ok, but the growing economic ties between the U.S. and China mean that war between the two countries would be incredibly costly. More bluntly, if the U.S. and China ever actually go to war, the stock market correction that will follow will make 1929 (12.5%) and 1987 (22.5%) seem positively mild by comparison. The cost for both countries of warring against one another arguably makes war less likely. Good.

Which brings us back to Russia. While what Putin is doing to the Ukrainian people is nauseatingly inhumane, it might be wise at this point to avoid cornering him in ways that could make things much worse.

For now, departure of corporations merely adds to the cruelty of Putins decision to invade Ukraine; cruelty that will be paid for by the Russian people. From there, we must ask if an economic collapse in Russia will make Putin come to the bargaining table sooner, or if collapse will render a truly rash (perhaps nuclear) step much less costly.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Disney and Marvel's long-awaited sequel to the hit 2016 superhero film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is being banned in Saudi Arabia.

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The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Deadline reported Friday that the film isn't having a theatrical release in the country due to the inclusion of a gay character. According to the outlets, Saudi Arabian censors didn't issue a permit to release the film in the country since the changes they requested weren't approved by Disney.

The upcoming Sam Raimi-directed sequel is set to introduce the character America Chavez, who is played by Xochitl Gomez. Her character in the film is reportedly gay, which is accurate to how she is portrayed in the Marvel comics.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is slated for a May 6 theatrical release in the United States, initially was set for release in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries on May 5. Movies containing sex, homosexuality or religious issues are routinely cut to comply with censorship guidelines in the region.

Doctor Strange 2 comes on the heels of Chloe Zhao's Eternals, which also was banned across much of the Gulf in November after the inclusion of a same-gender couple in the film and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first gay superhero.
One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking a contest between good guys and bad guys.

A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign policy realists roll their eyes at talk about "good guys" vs. "bad guys." The world is made up of nation states with interests and those states act rationally on their interests. Good and bad ain't got nothing to do with it.

I've never bought this argument, on either analytical or moral terms.

Yes, nations have interests, but the way they define their interests is not always strictly rational. History is full of examples of nations committing vast resources to causes that are extra-rational. "The mistake of the 'realists' is not their interest in the struggle for power but their deliberate neglect of everything else, especially the non-scientific, contingent, very human feelings and beliefs that most powerfully move people," the late, great Donald Kagan wrote in "Honor Among Nations: Intangible Interests and Foreign Policy."

To claim that, say, North Korea's foreign and domestic policy is simply an expression of its rational self-interest is to declare you don't know anything about North Korea -- or the decisions its rulers chose to make in turning that society into a xenophobic gulag.

Choices matter. And that's where the moral failings of realism come in. Realists tend to conflate the interests of rulers with the interests of the ruled. It's hard to find a sane analyst who argues that Putin invaded Ukraine solely in the name of Russia's rational self-interest rather than his own notions of glory and historical retribution, and it's even harder to find one who thinks the invasion is objectively in the interest of the Russian people.

Again, while it would have been in everyone's interest -- however you define it -- for Putin not to have committed this monstrous crime, his choice makes it easy to call him and his enablers the bad guys. Deliberately targeting civilians, sanctioning mass executions and rape, not to mention the intentional wholesale erasure of cities, is objectively evil. The Russian state tacitly admits this when it refuses to tell its own people what it is doing.

Indeed, the scope of Russia's lies is so great that the liars are starting to say the quiet part out loud: that truth and truth-telling is an impermissible threat to the Russian regime.

Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT (formerly Russia Today), which once claimed to be a legitimate news organization, recently declared, "No big nation can exist without control over information" and that Russia should follow the Soviet or contemporary Chinese model, which would deny people freedom in "the political life of their country, in the informational life of the country." With media voices like Simonyan in charge, it's no wonder Putin allegedly polls well in Russia.

There's equal clarity for the United States. I think the realist case for doing everything possible to assure a Russian defeat is obvious. It is Russian policy to undermine our interests and the interests of our allies around the world.

But there's a deeper moral realism involved. In the 1990s, we pushed Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. In 2005, a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Dick Lugar and Barack Obama resulted in Ukraine destroying vast amounts of its conventional weapons, on the assumption that those security guarantees would be honored. In other words, we told them we'd have their back.

Putin said those guarantees -- which Russia signed on to -- were null and void because the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests in 2013 ushered in a new Ukrainian state. Whether you buy that garbage is immaterial, Putin's betrayal of his commitments doesn't release us from ours. And it is in our interest to be seen as a nation that honors its commitments, both moral and legal.

None of this is to say we should send our own troops into Ukraine -- not that we wouldn't be morally justified. Igniting a direct war between two nuclear superpowers is a bad idea. Besides, Ukraine isn't asking for that. It is asking for the modern equivalent of the arsenal of democracy, and we should give it to them, fast. Because Putin is now doubling down on his crimes in eastern Ukraine just to save face. It's not in our interest that he succeed. And, as the bad guy, he deserves to lose.

Jonah Goldberg writes for the Los Angeles Times.

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Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, have released on social media new photos of Prince Louis in honor of their youngest child's fourth birthday Saturday.

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"Thank you for all the lovely birthday messages for Prince Louis today!" Middleton captioned the images of the boy playing on the beach while wearing a grey sweater with multi-colored stars over a checked shirt.

One of the snapshots shows the prince laughing and the other looking more serious.

Two other pictures from the same series were released Friday. They show Louis running in the sand and standing in front of some grass holding a ball.

"4 years old tomorrow!" said a message accompanying them.

Middleton married William in 2011. They are also the parents of Prince George , 8 and Princess Charlotte , 6.
Willow Pill was crowned America's Next Drag Superstar on Friday's Season 14 finale of RuPaul's Drag Race.

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Pill beat out fellow finalists Angeria Paris VanMicheals, Bosco, Daya Betty and Lady Camden for the show's top honor, as well as $150,000 in cash.

"Willow Pill has the soul of a true artist," said RuPaul in a statement. "In the most competitive season ever, she stole our hearts and earned the crown. Willow is weird, wild and wonderful and she is exactly what the world needs now."

Runner-up Lady Camden took home a $50,000 cash prize.
BISHKEK, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Ruslan Kazakbaev was relieved of his post as foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan on Friday, the Kyrgyz president's press service said.

The corresponding decree was signed on Friday by President Sadyr Zhaparov.

By another decree, Zhaparov appointed Jeenbek Kulubaev as acting minister of foreign affairs, the president's press service said, without providing reasons for the dismissal.

Kazakbaev has served as Kyrgyz foreign minister since October 2020. Kulubaev previously served as head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration of Kyrgyzstan. 
The Democratic-NPL party will be honoring the legacies of Govs. William Guy, Art Link and George Sinner at a fifth annual raucous party in Bismarck on May 7.

On behalf of former lieutenant governors -- at least Wayne Sanstead and me -- I am boycotting the event, tired of being treated as the expendable appendix or tonsil of body politic.

The government wouldnt fall but just hobble along without our traditional backup for the governor. Governors never back up even though thats the reason the office of lieutenant governor exists. The only time the governor needed a backup, nobody told me. Apparently, they thought the governors office would be safer if I remained ignorant.

There are five states that do not have lieutenant governors -- Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon and Wyoming. North Dakota has one but that will probably be abolished when the oil money runs out. After all, its only an appendix or a tonsil.

In 1974, the people approved a measure that required governors and lieutenant governors be elected as a team. Prior to that time, the state had a problem with mixing horses of different colors, so they thought government would be more peaceful under the team concept.

Professor Larry Sabota of the University of Virginia, a nationally recognized guru of state and local government, summarized the position of lieutenant governor:

Its a part-time, poorly paid post whose occupants mainly spend their time running for governor.

This is not so in North Dakota. In 1976, Wayne Sanstead became the first full-time lieutenant governor and was given a portfolio that involved federal money. He became more of a utility player in later years.

Our lieutenant governors have not spent their time running for governor. They have been faithfully fielding foul balls. For many states, Sabota is right. Lieutenant governors are often trying to upstage governors to acquire political recognition. They are a pain in the body politic and elsewhere.

Now days at the outset of an administration the governor issues an executive order outlining the duties of the lieutenant governor. Of course, at the end of the order we find and anything else that comes up.

So lieutenant governors chair or serve on several of the 100 committees, boards and commissions that make up North Dakota government. The governor always gets more invitations to speak than he can accept, so the lieutenant governor fills in by ribboning prize pigs, naming water holes, opening picnic areas or speaking at lesser funerals. Hardly a launching pad for a gubernatorial campaign.

Since early 1900, lieutenant governors in the U.S. tried to run for governor 55 times and lost 38 times -- a 31% success rate or a 69% failure rate, depending on ones point of view.

In 1978, the people approved a constitutional amendment that would permit the lieutenant governor to break ties in the Senate. I had only one tie in two sessions of the Senate.

Ironically, the issue was removing the lieutenant governor as presiding officer in the Senate. The proposal was a plot between then-Sen. Wayne Stenehjem and me to get an interloper from the executive branch thrown out of the legislative branch. The measure got swamped by a 59% no vote, the constitutional principle of separation of powers notwithstanding.

Before the 1990 meeting of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, I pointed out to the officers that the National Governors Association was meeting only three days while the lieutenant governors met for five days. It didnt make sense. Another thing, the substance of the convention was supposed to be workshops but no one was attending them.

They told me that I was in line to be president but they had chosen someone else. Apparently, they didnt like North Dakota logic.

So I continued in obscurity without their help.

Lloyd Omdahl is a political scientist and former North Dakota Democratic lieutenant governor.

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In the outdoor courtyard of Terrapin Beer Co., around 29 local Athens organizations and businesses gathered for the annual Green Life Awards on Friday. For over ten years, Athens Clarke County Unified Government has helped plan this event to honor those leading a more sustainable Athens.
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.
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."
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PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in the country's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home.

A Macron victory in this vote  which could have far-reaching repercussions for Europe's future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine  would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist  yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll. Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who will either cast a blank vote or not vote at all.

Overseas French territories allowed voters to start casting ballots Saturday in polling stations that ranged from near the Caribbean shore in the Antilles to the savannahs of French Guiana on the South American coast.

Back on the French mainland, workers assembled a stage Saturday beneath the Eiffel Tower where Macron is expected to make his post-election speech, win or lose.

France's April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates, and who becomes the country's next leader  Macron or Le Pen  will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but dont want to see Le Pen in power either. Macron issued multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days in hopes of securing their support.

"Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: Im not going, whats the point? I can tell you that they regretted it the next day, Macron warned this week on France 5 television.

So if you want to avoid the unthinkable ... choose for yourself! he urged hesitant French voters.

The two rivals were combative in the final days before Sunday's election, clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate. No campaigning is allowed through the weekend, and polling is banned.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pens far-right party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger civil war in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right, Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to do everything during his five-year term so that the French have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.

Five years later, that challenge has not been met. Le Pen has consolidated her place on France's political scene after rebranding herself as less extreme.

Le Pen's campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russias war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as Frances first woman president.

She criticized Macron's calamitous presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

I'm not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macrons policies ... his economic record is also catastrophic, she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, said even if Macron is reelected, "there is a big problem," he added. A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.

He said that means Macron will face a big level of mistrust in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while still protecting social benefits. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise France's minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In several European newspapers on Thursday, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about populists and the extreme right who hold Putin as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.

A Le Pen victory would be a traumatic moment, not only for France, but for European Union and for international relationships, especially with the USA," Lazar said, noting that Le Pen "wants a distant relationship between France and the USA.

In any case, Sunday's winner will soon face another obstacle in governing France: A legislative election in June will decide who controls a majority of seats in France's National Assembly.

Already, the battles promise to be hard-fought.

___

AP Journalists Catherine Gaschka and Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to that story.

___

Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022
NEW MILFORD  A growing group of parents in the community has been very vocal in their insistence on the termination or resignation of School Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo.

A petition posted Friday afternoon to one of New Milfords Facebook pages, created by resident Brenden Farinha on Change.org called Calling for the resignation or termination of superintendent DiCorpo, had garnered 1,550 signatures as of Saturday.

The petition states that within the 18-month period since DiCorpo was hired in Feburary 2021, 10 members of the New Milford School District have left. The who have left include Director of Facilities Kevin Munrett, Information Technology Director Brandon Rush, Human Resouces Director Catherine Gabianelli, New Milford High School Principal Greg Shugrue and Schaghticoke Middle School Principal Chris Longo.

The latest staff member to resign is New Milford High School Principal Raymond Manka, who announced his news Friday, to go into effect June 30. Manka started his position in 2021.

In response to Mankas announcement, students at New Milford High School are planning a possible walkout Monday around 9 a.m.

New Milford senior Taylor Balzi, 17, said students will be walking to the front of the school parking lot, on Route 7.

We are going to be staying in the front parking lot and making signs to support Mr. Manka and everything thats going on, she said, adding that a group of students planned to meet *aturday evening to create posters to show their support of Manka.

Taylor, who has known Manka for 10 years, said he has put so much into the school and students like him very much.

He has become like a parental figure in my life and I was so excited when he became principal of our school. When I found out that he was resigning, I just got so upset thinking of all the underclassmen coming up to the high school in the next couple of years are going to be missing out, Taylor said. He has constantly supported his students and made it a comforting and welcoming environment for them. And he honestly has changed all of our lives.

She said Manka is someone students can go to if they just need to smile.

He is just such an amazing person. Everyone loves him, she added. I know a lot of people are going to be walking out in supporting him.

She said students will most likely wear green and white, the schools colors.

Additionally, another group of students are organizing the sale of clothing that say Bring Manka Back!

The clothing page, which says, help support principal Manka during these troubling times, also links to the petition.

The start and end dates of former staff members in the district are stated within the Board of Education meeting minutes, which can be found on newmilfordps.org.

Manka, who became principal in June 2021, did not indicate in his resignation announcement if he has taken on a new position and didnt comment as to the circumstances surrounding his resignation when reached by Hearst Connecticut Media.

In response to Mankas resignation, DiCorpo wrote she respects his decision in an email Friday evening.

I wish him the best, she added.

When asked about the petition, she said she had no comment.

New Milford Board of Education Chairman Wendy Faulenbach said staff additions and staff turnover are part of every months board meeting.

It is not unique to New Milford to have staff come and go, she said.

Faulenbach additionally said the board is aware of the petition that has been circulated, and the fact that it reflects the sentiment of a large segment of the community. We recognize the concerns that have been expressed.

However, she said that as much as she and other board members would like to comment on this issue, the board has to respect the legal protocols that require us to refrain from addressing specific personal matters while they are pending.

Farinha, caregiver of a child in the New Milford Public School District, said hes very concerned about the turnover  which he said is what prompted him to create the petition.

After the difficulties we have experienced during COVID, and so many leadership positions leaving, how can our community expect to recover and see change in our education system and kids? Farinha said. We as a community need to come together to support our education system and support our kids and our educators who are trying to do good in our town.
For the past nine months, Wilma has been the last "buffalo" in Buffalo.

The American bison, who tips the scales at 1,059 pounds, is the last survivor among three sisters who grew up in the Buffalo Zoo. But she may not be alone too much longer  the zoo is hoping to bring back a small herd this summer with the potential acquisition of two more bison.

The zoo on Monday also began making improvements to the 30,000-square-feet bison exhibit space that runners and walkers pass on ring road. The $500,000 project is expected to be completed in June.

"We are very excited for the zoo and for the community to get new companions for Wilma," said Lisa Smith, the zoo's chief zoological officer. "I think she is going to benefit greatly from having some company again.

Buffalo Zoo welcomes return of black rhinoceros Lulu, a 2-year-old Eastern black rhino, will live in the zoo's former elephant habitat, which will be modified to better accommodate her. She won't be on view to the public until early September.

"It is the national mammal for the United States, and it's certainly very important in Buffalo to have bison here at the zoo," Smith said. "We're looking forward to having a bigger herd again."

Wilma's sister Rose died in July 2021, two years after Betty passed away. The sisters are among the more than 35 bison that over the years have been in several locations in the country's seventh-oldest zoo. The Buffalo Zoo opened in 1875 and has been at its Parkside site since 1938.

Wilma, two months shy of turning 29, is one of the oldest bison living in captivity and in excellent health for her age, Smith said. Bison typically live into their teens and early 20s.

"We are looking at other zoos to potentially find some youngsters after all the construction is done," Smith said.

Wilma is more likely to accept younger bison than older ones, Smith said.

"An older one might challenge her, while younger ones will let her lead the herd, which she likes to do," Smith said.

Smith said she thinks Wilma looks at the keepers who work with her every day as part of her herd.

"She's great around them, and really follows their lead," Smith said.

Wilma eats a quart of grain in the form of fortified pellets daily, and a half to a full bale of Timothy hay, she said.

The enclosure enhancements are expected to offer amenities that will benefit the bison, keepers and visitors.

New gates and management systems will help move the animals in a safer manner, and a new chute system will allow them to get vaccinated or have their hoofs trimmed without necessarily requiring the use of anesthesia.

Boulders will be moved to create more open spaces in the enclosure, which will have new grasses and other plantings. Improvements will be made to the bison barn.

Improved sight lines and signage, and easier viewing for smaller visitors are planned.

As Albright-Knox eyes more state aid, other cultural organizations wonder how much will be left for them How much money will be left in the state budget for other cultural organizations, even with state government flush with money this year?

The zoo is also going to offer a VIP viewing area to the side of the exhibit, which will allow people to see the bison up close and possibly feed them in the future. Smith said the viewing area could be opened to the general public in the future, but it's seen now as an opportunity to bring in extra revenue for the zoo.

Keesha Bullock, the zoo's chief external relations officer, said the zoo's forthcoming master plan will call for a "new and expanded exhibit" for the bison, but no details are ready to be announced.

It's estimated that there were more than 60 million bison across the open plains of the United States and Canada in 1700. By 1889, they were nearly extinct, with only 835 bison remaining.

The main slaughter of bison occurred with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, when hunters shot them for sport.

Bison have been reintroduced in a few national parks, including Yellowstone in Wyoming and Badlands in South Dakota, but are sometimes shot to death by ranchers when wandering beyond the park boundaries.

Bison have been incorrectly referred to as buffalo since early settlers to the U.S. began calling them that because of their faint resemblance to the generally smaller Cape and water buffalo found in Africa, Asia and India. Both are part of the cow family, but are entirely different and different-looking animal species.

Mark Sommer covers preservation, development, the waterfront, culture and more. He's also a former arts editor at The News.

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Myanmar's Commander in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (C) poses for a photo during the second anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in Naypyidaw, in a file photo.

Myanmar junta chief, Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, on Friday offered to meet with leaders of armed ethnic groups to end conflict in the countrys remote border regions but was met with a mixed response from the armies, who said the military has broken vows in the past and needs to deliver on promises of peace.

The offer also was not extended to representatives of the countrys ousted, democratically elected government and the prodemocracy Peoples Defense Forces that sprang up in an effort to return it to power.

I have said that 2022 is the year of peace and that we will work for an end to all armed conflict in the country, he said in a speech broadcast on state-run television.

I call on the leaders of the ethnic armed groups to meet and negotiate, as peace needs to be implemented in practice. I will meet all the groups in person and later talks could be held with a delegation made up of members of the [junta].

Min Aung Hlaing proposed that the meeting include the heads of each ethnic army and two of their lieutenants  the names of whom should be submitted by May 9. He said a date would be set for full talks after the initial meeting.

Junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, told RFAs Myanmar Service that the military regime would assume responsibility for the safety of those attending the event.

We fully guarantee the safety of the people who will be attending the talks, and the [junta] will pick them up wherever they feel comfortable  and bring them in [for the meeting].

He said China had also agreed to help broker the peace process and that the junta is willing to work with all stakeholders.

Col. Khun Okkar, the leader of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), told RFA he believes the junta is determined to work for peace in the run-up to a general election, and suggested Min Aung Hlaing proposed the meeting to find a way to stabilize the country.

At the time of Myanmars Feb. 1, 2021, coup, Min Aung Hlaing promised elections within a year, but he has since pushed the date back to August 2023. More recently, the junta has said elections would only be held if there is stability in the country.

Khun Okkar said that by proposing the talks on television, Min Aung Hlaing was likely trying to bypass the red tape required to get talks started.

There's too much centralization.  There are a lot of steps and sometimes things don't get to the point in time, he said.

It seems he wanted to be more effective when he said he would take charge himself. Time is running out  and as he needs time to prepare for the elections, I think he wanted to have the talks as quickly as possible.

Padoh Saw Tawney, foreign affairs officer for the Karen National Union (KNU), said past experiences with the peace process have raised doubts within his group about the military's tactics.

"We have never rejected peace, but peace cannot be achieved with words only. So, we need them to show us real facts and actions that can lead to peace, he said.

Without these, we cannot accept any offers  even if he meets with us personally. ... We have taken part [in previous peace talks] and we know every little trick they use. So, there cannot be peace talks without accepting our conditions, he added, without providing details.

Ethnic minority Karen troops approach a Myanmar army outpost near the Thai border, which is seen from the Thai side on the Thanlwin, also known as Salween, riverbank in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, April 28, 2021. Credit: Reuters Political act in response to pressure

Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a Myanmar-based political analyst, called Min Aung Hlaings call for peace useless and suggested it was a political act to alleviate international pressure over the juntas brutal repression of its opponents. According to rights groups, security forces have killed 1,782 civilians and arrested nearly 103,000 since the coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests.

Proper peace talks cannot be held without all stakeholders, Sai Kyi Zin Soe said, and must also include the countrys shadow National Unity Government (NUG), prodemocracy Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries, and other opposition forces. The junta has ruled out talks with the groups, which it accuses of terrorism.

The path he is taking and the work he is doing is just a figurative demonstration of a desire for real political stability, he said.

[Failing to include groups beyond the ethnic armies] shows hes making the offer because of pressure from China or ASEAN amid international criticism, rather than out of a genuine desire for real peace.

Ye Tun, a former member of parliament with the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD), said he believes Min Aung Hlaing may be trying to keep the ethnic armed groups in check until he can eliminate the PDF and other armed opposition groups.

Ethnic armies have been fighting against Myanmars military since the countrys 1948 independence. In the aftermath of the coup, several groups have thrown their support behind anti-junta resistance fighters, while others are joining forces with the local PDF branches to fight the military.

Only 10 ethnic armies have signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government since 2015, when the document was inked in the presence of international observers and Myanmars highest legislature.

The 10 groups have suggested that the deal remains in place, despite an already flailing peace process that was all but destroyed by the unpopular juntas coup. However, they say they will not pursue talks with the military, which they view as having stolen power from the countrys democratically elected government.

While the junta has made peace overtures to the ethnic armies in the past, Friday marked the first time Min Aung Hlaing offered to meet with them in person.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Sources say employers fire workers at will and impose brutal work conditions on those who stay on.

Thu Thu, a 37-year-old laborer living in Shwepyithar township on the outskirts of Myanmars commercial capital Yangon, has been trying to find work at one of the Industrial Zones garment factories for more than two weeks with no luck. Using a pseudonym, she told RFAs Myanmar Service that she was unlawfully terminated from her job nearly a month ago and needs to care for her elderly parents and two daughters but said no one wants to hire a woman over the age of 30.

Before, under the [civilian National League for Democracy government], employers hired based on a persons skills. Now, under junta rule, they tend to look at age and they reject me after they see how old I am on my ID card, she said.

I am facing severe hardship trying to support my family. Sometimes, to speak truthfully, I even consider taking my own life.

She said she now works odd jobs to make ends meet but questioned how much longer she will be able to manage with few prospects of employment.

Thu Thu is just one of around 1,000 laborers trying to find work in the Shwepyithar Industrial Zone, a key component of Myanmars U.S. $3.4 billion textile sector. According to the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar, there are over 500,000 textile workers in the Yangon region alone.

However, job opportunities  even in the countrys once bustling cities  are drying up. The International Labor Organisation (ILO) estimates that more than 1.6 million workers, or nearly 3 percent of Myanmars population of around 54 million, lost their jobs last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and the political upheaval that followed the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup.

According to the Myanmar Garment Factory Entrepreneurs Association, only 504 of 759 factories in Yangon are currently operating.

Those workers in the Shwepyithar Industrial Zone who still have their jobs said they receive a fixed wage of 4,800 kyats (U.S. $2.60) per day and can no longer work for overtime pay because electricity shortages prevent their factories from operating at full capacity.

Other baseline worker benefits have also disappeared in the wake of the coup. Garment worker Su Su Aung told RFA that since the takeover, factory owners have stopped providing medical leave to their employees and instead require that they sign documents agreeing to have their status downgraded following any absences.

We used to be able to take impromptu leave for sickness or take medical leave, but we can no longer do that. If we take leave for a day or two because of an emergency, they reduce our pay grade or skip our bonuses, she said.

We never experienced these kinds of conditions before. When we appealed to them to keep the old policies in place, they threatened us and said no one would listen to our complaints, so we are forced to work under these conditions.

Workers arrive at a factory in Yangon, in an undated photo. Credit: RFA Reforms rolled back

A garment factory worker of seven years experience, who declined to be named citing fear of reprisal, said years of labor rights reforms under the NLD government were rolled back seemingly overnight by the coup.

Employers have become more self-centered. There is no rule of law, so they can do whatever they want, knowing that the workers will keep silent because we need the money, she said.

They think they are entitled to hire and fire people whenever they want. Its like a living hell for us. We can only hope that someone will emerge who can make our lives better.

Zin Wai Aung, a volunteer who assists workers, said he is receiving an increasing number of complaints about getting fired.

We get two or three cases each day  most of them are for being terminated from work. Many workers get unpaid time off for 20 days and are to come back to work for ten days on regular basis. They no longer have full-time jobs, but they arent getting fired either, he said.

In addition, we have seen many workers getting fired unlawfully, for complaining to their manager or requesting leave or holidays.

Workers arrive at a factory in Yangon, in an undated photo. Credit: RFA An owner of a garment factory that employs nearly 250 people told RFA that workers deserve someone to stand up for them in negotiating their rights.

It is normal to see disputes between workers and employers. We are trying to resolve them on both sides and things are getting better, he said.

But the owner added that after the coup, the labor situation in Myanmar returned to square one, leaving workers little protection of their rights.

Workers who spoke to RFA echoed the owners sentiments, noting that the unions which represented them in disputes under the NLD government had largely disbanded after the takeover because they were being targeted by the military regime.

Late last month, the ILO said it plans to investigate whether Myanmar is following conventions its government agreed to on the formation of worker unions and banning forced labor, but the junta has objected to the announcement.

Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
President Vladimir Putin has justified Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a necessary move for "defending the motherland," a claim Britain said mirrored the fascism and tyranny that sparked World War II, as Russian forces pressed ahead with their offensive in the east and south of the country.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised his war-ravaged nation that Ukraine will soon have two Victory Days, as the last Ukrainian defenders at the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol vowed to fight to the end against Russian troops who have surrounded them.

Putin, who presided over a military parade in Moscow's Red Square to mark the Soviet Union's role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, reiterated his accusation that NATO was creating threats right next to its borders and claimed that the invasion of Ukraine was a necessary preemptive action.

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.

He also addressed soldiers fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which Russia has pledged to "liberate" from Kyiv.

"Defending the motherland when its fate is being decided has always been sacred," he said.

In his own speech marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, Zelenskiy on May 9 likened the Allies' fight against Hitler with his nation's struggle to repel Russia's aggression.

We will never forget what our ancestors did in World War II, where more than 8 million Ukrainians died. Every fifth Ukrainian didnt return home, Zelenskiy said, adding, Soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine. And someone will not have even one left. We won then. We will win now, too,'' he said.

Meanwhile, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace called out the "absurdity of Russian generals -- resplendent in their manicured parade uniforms and weighed down by their many medals," saying they were "utterly complicit in Putin's hijacking of their forebears' proud history of...repelling fascism."

"All professional soldiers should be appalled at the behavior of the Russian Army," as they not only have "engaged in an illegal invasion and war crimes, but their top brass have failed their own rank and file to the extent they should be court-martialed," he said in a speech at the British National Army Museum.

"Through the invasion of Ukraine, Putin and his inner circle of generals are now mirroring the fascism and tyranny of 77 years ago, repeating the errors of the last century's totalitarian regime," he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden on May 9 signed largely symbolic legislation to reboot the World War II-era lend-lease program that helped defeat Nazi Germany.



Before signing the bill, Biden said that Putins war was once more bringing wanton destruction of Europe, drawing a reference to the anniversary of the allied victory in 1945.

Although there had been speculation that Putin might officially declare war on Ukraine, his 11-minute speech offered no assessment of progress in the war and gave no indication of how long it might continue.

Russian forces have so far failed to complete the occupation of the strategic Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters continue to resist in the sprawling network of underground tunnels and bunkers of the Azovstal steel mill.

Azovstal has achieved a symbolic value in the conflict, as Russian forces sought a celebratory win ahead of May 9. Zelenskiy warned of more intense attacks against the remaining defenders, who vowed to fight to the end.

The complete capture of Mariupol would also deprive Ukraine of a vital port, allow Russia to complete a land corridor to the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, and free troops up for fighting elsewhere.

On the battlefield, intense fighting raged in Ukraine's east, the port of Odesa in the south came under missile attack, and Russian forces sought to finish off the Ukrainian defenders of the steel plant, who have vowed to fight to the end.



The Odessa City Council said late on May 9 that three missiles were fired from an aircraft, destroying five buildings. Two people were injured and taken to hospital, a statement from the council said.



According to the City Council, rescuers managed to save a dog from under the debris.



"This is how they celebrate their Victory Day. Apparently, the only thing the occupiers have won is common sense and humanity," said Maksym Marchenko, head of the Odessa regional military administration.



Russian troops earlier on May 9 fired four missiles into the Odesa region from occupied Crimea. The missile strike occurred as European Council President Charles Michel visited the city.



In Washington, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said there had been indications that Ukrainians have been taken against their will into Russia."



Asked about statements from Kyiv that more than 1 million Ukrainians were being sent to Russia and placed in camps, Kirby said: "I can't speak to how many camps or what they look like." He called these actions "unconscionable" and "not the behavior of a responsible power."

On May 8, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) commemorated the anniversary of the end of World War II by pledging to "spare no effort" to hold Putin and the architects "and accomplices of this aggression," including the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Belarus, accountable for their actions.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States said Putin's actions "bring shame on Russia and the historical sacrifices of its people."

WATCH: Fighting continues to rage near Vuhledar, a city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Because of the ongoing, unpredictable shelling by Russian forces, many people are living in basements. The buildings have been cut off from electricity, water, and gas. Civilian casualties are buried in an improvised cemetery.

The United States after the meeting announced sanctions against three Russian television stations and executives from Gazprombank along with a ban on Americans providing accounting and consulting services to Russians.

Zelenskiy also told the G7 leaders that 60 civilians had died in the bombing of a school on May 7 in the eastern Luhansk region.

"They were hiding from shelling in the building of a regular school, which was attacked by a Russian air strike," he said.

British officials announced an extra $1.6 billion in military aid for Ukraine, while Britain's Defense Ministry said in its regular bulletin on May 9 that Moscow's invasion "has revealed shortcomings in its ability to conduct precision strikes" on a large scale and has shown utter disregard for the lives of civilians.

"Russia has subjected Ukraine's towns and cities to intense and indiscriminate bombardments with little or no regard to civilian casualties," the ministry said.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa
The Ukraine conflict has punctured Western perceptions of a mighty Russian Army since President Vladimir Putin seized Crimea eight years ago, and the Russian leader's refusal to let his invading army "reset and reform" is "good news for Ukraine and good news for the West," according to a former U.S. naval commander who heads a prominent strategic think tank.

But James Foggo III, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who heads the Virginia-based Center for Maritime Strategy, also said the "ugly" conflict has underscored a "trust gap" between the warring sides and he can't easily envisage Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sitting down to peace negotiations.

"I don't know how Ukraine gets out of this other than to defeat Russia, and that's a wild card that's up in the air right now," he told RFE/RL's Georgian Service in a recent interview. "You know, if the Russians continue to be beaten, then eventually, public opinion will catch up with Vladimir Putin."

Foggo offered a damning assessment of Russian military performance so far across all four axes of its initial full-scale attack on Ukraine, adding that "they ran out of fuel, they ran out of food, didn't have sustainment of ammunition, and they got hit pretty hard, particularly in the battle [for] Kyiv."

Putin launched the war on February 24 against Ukraine and its government, which Moscow has overtly and covertly opposed since unrest ousted a pro-Russian presidential administration in 2014, citing a need to "demilitarize" and subdue its much smaller post-Soviet neighbor.

"They're kind of stuck on fighting the last war, World War II," dominated by tank movements across Europe, Foggo said of what he's seen from the Russian war planners. "Can they figure out in a very short period of time how to act like a Western army, and inculcate leadership in noncommissioned officers which don't exist, using weapons systems that are not exactly state of the art?" he asked. "Certainly not before May 9."

Putin has suggested publicly that it is crucial to achieve military aims in Ukraine by the May 9 holiday marking the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Russia's massive invading force has taken major swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine but also suffered "significant" casualties, in the words of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and been beaten back in offensives targeting Kyiv and other places. Russia's navy has so far lost two warships, including its Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Moskva.

Foggo cites long-running Russian failures including a reliance on conscripts instead of a professional cadre of soldiers, underestimation of logistics as the "sixth domain of warfare," and misperceptions in Moscow that Russians can "operate in the Black Sea with impunity."

"I think the Russian Navy and the Russian naval infantry understand that they might get ashore, but they won't get very far inland," Foggo said.

Putin has recently replaced the top commander of what Moscow officially deems a "special military operation" in Ukraine, appointing Chechnya and Syrian campaign veteran army General Aleksandr Dvornikov to lead a new strategy to consolidate gains in eastern Ukraine.

Foggo said Dvornikov's "got a huge task ahead of him, but I believe he also knows that if he doesn't succeed, it's his head on the line because Putin is ruthless not only with his adversaries, but also with his own people and his own generals."

He said Dvornikov's first move was likely to be replacing Russian casualties in the first eight weeks of battle -- estimated by NATO to include at least 7,000 deaths in the first month, although Ukrainian estimates are higher. (Russia has classified its casualty figures in an effort to better control domestic fallout from the conflict.)

Foggo said the Russian casualties so far had "reduced their ability to fight" and Dvornikov was probably in a "recruitment and training cycle" at the moment. He predicted that Dvornikov "is in no hurry."

"He'll fill the gaps and seams in those units [and] he'll fix his armor -- the Russians have taken huge losses," Foggo said.

Putin was said to have pivoted away from storming Ukrainian troops holed up at the Azovstal metalworks in the encircled strategic city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, with an April 21 order for troops to seal it off so "not even a fly" could pass through the city. The order, during a televised meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was said to have been issued in an effort to protect the lives of Russian soldiers.

"If they take Mariupol, then with the other territory they've taken, they have built this coveted land bridge that they want down to the Black Sea -- a bridge across the Sea of Azov to connect Crimea with Mother Russia," said Foggo, speaking days before news of the Mariupol pivot.

He said the Russian side could then essentially consolidate its gains and control a corridor to reach the Black Sea without taking Odesa, a defiant and dug-in seaport of more than 1 million people before the current conflict.

But Foggo likened any campaign to take the capital, Kyiv, to famously painful military campaigns in Aleppo, Syria, or Fallujah, in Iraq.

"If you're fighting in an urban environment, in high-rise buildings with snipers around the corner at every corner, and every Ukrainian having an AK-47 or a Molotov cocktail on his balcony to drop on your tank, it's a losing proposition," he said. "So if the Russians make that decision, I think it's a bad decision. And they're going to take another licking just like they did the last time they tried to move on Kyiv."

U.S. President Joe Biden on April 21 announced a new $800 million package of military and security assistance for Ukraine, the second such allocation in the past five weeks. Foggo said the U.S. supply so far of hardware, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles, had seemingly been "very effective," adding that Ukrainian troops had "proven their ability to use them."

He also praised Western allies' provision of Soviet-era equipment that Ukraine's troops already know how to operate, and cautioned against the practical obstacles to effective use by Ukrainians of some "high-end weapons systems that they have not been trained on."

"Ukraine does not have the luxury of that training and garrison and certification before going to war," he said, "they're in war right now."

"Western powers, NATO, and the United States, have done a good job of flowing a lot of equipment [to Ukraine]. It may not be everything that the Ukrainians want, but they are proving effective on the battlefield," Foggo said. "The question is, how much longer can they last? They've got to be tired. The Russians are tired, too, but what the Ukrainians have going for them is leadership from the top down."

Written by Andy Heil based on an interview by RFE/RL's Georgian Service contributor Vazha Tavberidze
WASHINGTON  The U.S.-Canadian border will open a bit more starting Monday, as Canada eases its requirement that most visiting children be vaccinated and abandons its mandate that vaccinated visitors provide a quarantine plan just in case they come down with Covid-19.

"We are committed to a safe reopening, one that provides predictability, flexibility and shows the world that Canada is one of the safest places to travel," Randy Boissonnault, Canada's minister of tourism, said in announcing the moves on Friday. "Today's announcement is another step forward for travelling families, tourism workers and business owners, and the Canadian economy as a whole."

Canada still moving forward with tax that could hit vacation homes While Canadian officials made clear several months ago that seasonal homes that are not winterized would be exempt from the tax, the Canadian plan continues to worry both Americans who own property in Canada and sympathetic politicians in Southern Ontario.

Under the changes taking effect at 1 a.m. Monday, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children aged 5-11 who are entering Canada won't have to show proof of a negative test for Covid-19 so long as they are accompanied by a fully vaccinated parent, step-parent, guardian or tutor. Children under the age of 5 already don't have to show proof of a negative test. Partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travelers aged 12 and older who are eligible to enter Canada will still have to show proof of a negative test.

The requirement that travelers provide a quarantine plan will be abandoned not just for fully vaccinated adults, but also for children aged 5 through 11 who are accompanied by a fully vaccinated parent, step-parent, guardian or tutor.

In addition, starting Monday, fully vaccinated travelers to Canada will no longer have to do the following for the 14 days after their arrival:

 Wear a mask in public spaces.

 Monitor and report if they develop symptoms of Covid-19.

 Quarantine if a traveling companion reports symptoms or tests positive.

 Maintain a list of close contacts and locations visited.

However, Canada will continue to require that visitors show their vaccination status and other personal details in the ArriveCAN app.

"Thanks to Canadians who are following health measures and getting vaccinated, we are continuing to ease border measures," said Marco E. L. Mendicino, Canada's minister of public safety. "However, travelers may still experience delays at the border while some health requirements remain in place. People should be prepared by making sure they have their passports, ArriveCAN receipts and proof of vaccination ready when they cross into Canada."

The Canadian move came a day after the U.S. indefinitely extended its Covid-19 travel restrictions. That means only fully vaccinated travelers will continue to be admitted to the U.S. via land or air.

Families Are Essential, a group that's been working to eliminate border travel restrictions, noted that the vaccination requirement was extended amid pressure from the airline and tourism industries to abandon it.

"In his State of the Union speech, President Biden said it is time that we get back to normal, but how can the U.S. get back to normal, reunite families and increase international tourism when travel restrictions remain in place?" the families group said in a statement.

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A fifth round of talks has been held between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iranian media reported.

Nournews, a news website that is affiliated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Twitter on April 23 that the talks were held in Baghdad and that the "positive atmosphere...raised hopes for the two countries to take a step towards the resumption of relations."

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said high-ranking Iraqi and Omani officials played a role in bringing the sides together for the talks following a previous round in September.

Shi'ite Muslim-majority Iran and Sunni-led Saudi Arabia have for decades competed for influence in the Middle East. A bloody conflict in Yemen has been called by many experts a "proxy war" between Tehran and Riyadh.

Riyadh severed ties with Iran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following the execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.

The two sides started direct talks last year to try to contain tensions and restore ties.

In March, Iran unilaterally suspended the talks without giving a reason, but it came a day after Saudi Arabia said it had executed 81 men in its biggest mass execution in decades.

Activists said 41 of those executed were Shi'ite Muslims from the eastern Qatif region, which has historically been a flashpoint between the Sunni-dominated government and minority Shi'a.
Iranian state media say a general of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was unhurt but a bodyguard killed when gunmen fired on their vehicle in southeastern Iran early on April 23.

The apparent target, Brigadier General Hossein Almassi, is an IRGC commander in the restive Sistan-Baluchistan Province, a particularly poor and mostly Sunni region that borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The reports said suspects were apprehended after the attack near a checkpoint in the provincial capital, Zahedan, but they did not provide details.

IRNA said Almassi was not injured and identified the dead bodyguard as Mahmud Absalan, the son of a senior IRGC commander in the region.

Sistan-Baluchistan has been the scene of numerous clashes between Iranian security forces and Baluch militants, as well as drug traffickers exploiting it as a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin.

Some of its large Sunni population complain of discrimination by the majority Shi'ite Iranian authorities.

On January 1, the IRGC said it had killed six "armed bandits" in the province in an incident in which three local volunteers for the regime's Basij militia were also killed.

Days earlier, Iranian authorities said three men suspected in an attack in late December that left two IRGC members dead had been killed.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
A new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol appears to have failed, with local officials laying the blame on Russian forces who reportedly attacked a metals plant where desperate Ukrainian defenders are holding out in the devastated southeastern port city.

The report of a fresh effort to storm the Azovstal plant comes two days after President Vladimir Putin claimed in a televised meeting that Russian troops would merely seal off the facility in an effort to save Russian lives fighting for the "catacombs" underneath.

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.

Azovstal is thought to be sheltering about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, with much of the rest of the city already under Russian control.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine's president, told a briefing on April 23 that Russian forces had resumed bombardment from the air of Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

An aide to the city mayor said some 200 residents had arrived early on April 23 for a planned evacuation but were told by Russian troops to leave and warned of possible shelling.

Both sides have blamed the other for previous failures of attempts to evacuate civilians from the besieged city, which has been encircled since early in the conflict

Elsewhere, Russian forces intensified their assault on eastern and southern Ukraine with "around-the-clock" shelling, dashing hopes for a cease-fire as Easter Sunday approached on the Orthodox calendar.

In the strategic Black Sea port of Odesa, government officials said a Russian missile strike hit a military facility and two residential buildings, killing at least five people and injuring 18, although the reports could not immediately be confirmed.

The Ukrainian presidential office said a 3-month-old child was among those killed.

And Ukrainian governors in the eastern part of the country reported deadly fighting and shelling overnight and throughout April 23, although some reports indicated Russian advances had stalled in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance.

The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Sinehubov, said on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces had retaken at least three villages near the Russian border after "fierce battles."

British military intelligence said early on April 23 that Russian invasion forces appeared to have made no major gains in the past 24 hours.

U.K. intelligence also said Russian air and naval forces still had not established control of Ukraine's skies or seas in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.

In a video address late on April 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked countries that have delivered weapons to help Ukraine's defense and said its armed forces continued to deter attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukraine's General Staff has said Russian forces increased attacks along the entirety of the front line in the east.

"The Izyum direction, Donbas, Azov, Mariupol, Kherson region are the places where the fate of this war and the future of our state is being decided now," Zelenskiy said.

He also intensified warnings of Putin's alleged territorial aims elsewhere in the region in addition to its freshly stated goals of wresting away and occupying eastern and southern Ukraine.

The acting commander of Russia's Central Military District, Rustam Minnekayev, was quoted by official state media on April 22 as saying that full control of southern Ukraine was a strategic goal to allow access to Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester.

Minnekayev's comments were the most detailed public description yet of Russia's goals in the second phase of its invasion of Ukraine and were highlighted by Kyiv as a sign that the Kremlin has been lying with its previous statements that Moscow has no territorial ambitions.

Kyiv has also repeatedly warned that Transdniester could be used as a staging area for Russian operations against Ukraine or Moldova, which shares a border and a common history with NATO member Romania.

Transdniester is a sliver of territory that borders Ukraine where hundreds of Russian troops remain deployed over Chisinau's objections.

Minnekayev said Russian speakers were oppressed in Transdniester. Moldova and Western leaders say that is untrue.

Moldova's Foreign Ministry rejected the Russian statements as "unfounded" and summoned Moscow's ambassador to express Chisinau's "deep concern."

"Moldova...is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation," the ministry said in a statement.

In the eastern Luhansk region, Governor Serhiy Hayday said on television on April 23 that all of that region's cities were being shelled around the clock, and that the bombardment was only intensifying.

Hayday also said via Telegram that an evacuation effort was planned from the Pokrovsk railway station to help residents fleeing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

He also said two people were killed when the city of Popasna "got the most" of the Russian shelling of residential buildings in the region, in addition to street fighting that has continued for weeks.

He said Ukrainian defense forces were leaving some settlements in order to regroup. But Hayday insisted the movements were not a critical setback.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had called via Telegram for people in Mariupol to gather on a highway near a local shopping center in hopes of escorting them safely out of the city.

Many thousands of residents have fled the city of a prewar population of around 500,000 people, but bombardment blamed on encircling Russian forces has frequently derailed civilian evacuations.

The Ukrainian National Guard's Azov Battalion, whose forces are trapped in Azovstal, released video on April 23 of dozens of women and children who they said had been living in the tunnels beneath the plant for months. One woman talks about yearning for fresh air and sunshine.

The regiment's commander, Svyatoslav Palamar, told AP the video was filmed on April 21. Its contents could not initially be verified.

On April 22, new satellite images showed a second possible mass grave site in a nearby town, compounding the worst fears about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there since Putin's offensive began on February 24.

Putin issued an order this week for Russian forces to seal off Mariupol so that "not even a fly" could penetrate into the badly damaged city of around 500,000 people before the conflict.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian and Russian services, Reuters, AFP, and AP
As fighting intensifies in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, local officials have warned that Moscow is planning to hold a referendum on severing Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions in the coming weeks.

The staged vote in the partly occupied regions in Ukraine's south could seek to declare a so-called "Kherson people's republic," similar to what the Kremlin did in 2014 in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions prior to declaring them part of Russia in February.

Such a move could also open the door for Moscow to begin drafting local men to fight alongside its forces in Ukraine, as it has already done through a mandatory mobilization of men aged 18 to 65 in separatist-controlled parts of Ukraine.

"I believe that any referendum that will be held on the territory of the Kherson region will be illegal, because the Kherson region is Ukraine," Kherson Mayor Ihor Kolykhayev told Current Time in an interview.

In occupied areas across southern Ukraine, Russia has replaced mayors with handpicked figures sympathetic to Moscow, with the exception of Kolykhayev in Kherson, who has been allowed to keep running the municipality in accordance with Ukrainian law.

The city that was home to some 300,000 people before the war fell with little combat early on and is one of the only main regional centers that Moscow has gained control of since its February 24 invasion. Many families have left to escape living under Russian occupation and nearby fighting, with Kolykhayev estimating that about 40 percent of the city's population has left.

Russian forces have also set up their headquarters in the city and gained access to a database of locals who have fought against Kremlin-backed forces in the Donbas since 2014, which they have used to conduct selective raids throughout Kherson.

Kolykhayev says that more than 200 people have disappeared so far in connection to their names being on a list and that an atmosphere of nervousness and fear has set in over the city as Russian forces have set up shifting checkpoints and restricted some people from leaving.

"There is an anxiety for people right now because [Russian security forces] always have lists on hand with names and license-plate numbers, which leads to searches," Kolykhayev said. "At 5 p.m., there is practically no one [on the streets]. The city is dying out [and] becoming more empty."

Russian-Occupied Ukraine

Kolykhayev said he was not aware of a timeline for any vote and Moscow hasn't commented publicly on referendum plans or what it intends to do with the large territory it holds in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya.

But the warnings from Kyiv and recent statements from Russian officials point toward broader ambitions from Moscow.

The acting commander of Russia's Central Military District, Rustam Minnekayev, was quoted by official state media on April 22 as saying that full control of southern Ukraine was a strategic goal for Moscow and it would even aim to link up the area to Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester.

Similarly, Russia's RIA Novosti state news agency ran interviews with Dmitry Belik, a member of the Russian parliament, and Eyvaz Umerov, a pro-Moscow Crimean Tatar leader, where both called for absorbing the southern-controlled territories into Russia under an expanded federal district of Crimea, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014 after staging a referendum there.

Achieving those goals would not only require Russia to succeed in its new strategy of encircling Ukraine's forces in the Donbas, but also being able to seize the coastal regions of Mykolayiv and Odesa, something that many analysts and Western military officials see as unlikely given the setbacks suffered by Russian forces so far.

Still, the Russian calls point toward more brutal fighting ahead in Ukraine and come after Mariupol's mayor accused Russia of hiding evidence of "barbaric" war crimes by burying the bodies of up to 9,000 civilians in mass graves, allegations supported by satellite images from the U.S. company Maxar.

Mariupol has been mostly leveled by shelling, bombing, and street fighting and Russian officials say that the city is under their control, despite a small pocket of Ukrainian troops holed up inside a metal works plant along with civilians.

In an interview with Current Time, Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that he mostly saw the recent statements by Russian military officials about controlling large areas of the south as "propaganda" and that the Kremlin is looking to reframe its war goals after failing in the first phase of the war.

"Of course, they will try to come up with some new scenarios, [but] all this will only do is escalate the conflict and continue the war," Podolyak said.

More 'Filtration Camp' Warnings

The stepped-up fighting and more explicit political objectives stated by Russian officials have also prompted renewed concerns from Kyiv that Russian forces are forcibly relocating Ukrainian citizens to Russia.

The Ukrainian government says more than 878,000 of its citizens were transported to Russia from besieged and battered cities, where they have been taken to so-called "filtration camps" in separatist-controlled parts of Ukraine before being brought to Russian territory.

The camps function as a type of processing center, where Ukrainians have described to RFE/RL and other media outlets how they were fingerprinted, photographed, and interrogated before their documents were taken by Russian security personnel.

Russian officials have denied that they have forcibly moved any Ukrainians against their will. While some refugees said they went to Russia because other escape routes to western Ukraine were cut off, others have said that they were forced by Russian troops to go and are now facing difficulties leaving due to their documents being seized or logistical issues leaving the country after being relocated to more remote parts of Russia.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights, told Current Time that she was in contact with many Ukrainians who were brought to Russia and she is working with human rights groups in the country and international organizations to help get them to western Ukraine or countries in the European Union.

She also warned that there are growing reports of Ukrainians questioned by security forces about their views on the war and Russia at the camps and then taken away if they are deemed to be too pro-Ukraine.

"If our citizens do not pass the test, then they are labeled as 'bad elements' and sent elsewhere in Donetsk, where we no longer know their fate," Denisova said.
For more than seven years, Tammy Cleveland has waited for her chance to tell a jury about the night a doctor declared her husband, Michael, dead while he was still alive. She thought that chance would come Monday.

Now she will have to keep waiting.

The judge in her medical malpractice and wrongful death trial declared a mistrial during jury selection this week because of a story in The Buffalo News about an unrelated court case regarding a woman declared brain dead in Buffalo General Medical Center.

State Supreme Court Justice Frank Caruso granted the mistrial motion without asking the jurors whether they had read the article or seen the headline, Charles F. Burkwit, Cleveland's attorney, said Friday. If a new trial is held, it likely will not happen for at least a year.

"We were there prepared for trial. We had our experts flying in. Everything was a go. We were mentally preparing for this," said Tammy Cleveland, whose 46-year-old husband lived until the morning after his Oct. 10, 2014, heart attack.

The mistrial was sought by attorneys for Dr. Gregory Perry, who treated Michael Cleveland, and for Kaleida Health, owner of DeGraff Memorial Hospital in North Tonawanda, where Cleveland was taken after collapsing while shopping in a Tops Market in the City of Tonawanda.

Perry said Cleveland had died after failing to resuscitate him, only to have a coroner see Cleveland an hour later and find that he was still breathing. Cleveland died 15 hours after arriving at DeGraff.

Kaleida also owns Buffalo General, scene of the current controversy over the status of Beverly Whitehead, the Buffalo woman whose case is the subject of an unrelated lawsuit to keep her on life support.

"This newspaper article dealt with a brain-dead patient at a different hospital where there was no malpractice alleged to have occurred," Burkwit said. "I'm just baffled that a trial of this magnitude would be canceled over an unrelated newspaper article. I've never seen this before."

Kaleida spokesman Michael Hughes called the decision "a matter of judicial discretion" in a statement to The News.

"Justice Caruso is a very experienced jurist; he deliberated on the motion and decided that the publicity and narrative on other matters were such that they jeopardized the fairness of the Cleveland trial underway before him," Hughes wrote.

Kathleen Sweet, Kaleida's attorney, declined to answer questions Friday. Brian Sutter, Perry's attorney, did not return calls seeking comment.

"They said that it would unduly prejudice the jury pool and that we would not be able to have a fair and impartial jury as a result of that article," Burkwit said.

Burkwit said jurors had been warned not to read or listen to anything about the Cleveland case.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration, said the motion was based on "some online link" regarding Kaleida engaging in behavior similar to the Cleveland case.

"Jurors in the current case were discussing the link and claims against Kaleida prior to the trial," Chalfen said.

ER doctor wrongly ruled man dead, widows lawsuit charges Michael Cleveland, 46, suffered a heart attack and was declared dead at 8:29 p.m. Oct. 10 last year. He died again the next morning. Only the second death was

Burkwit disputed that.

"There's no evidence the jurors ever knew about it. They were in the central jury room all day," he said. "Nobody even questioned the jurors about whether they saw the article."

He said he tried to argue against a mistrial.

"The gist of my argument was that a mistrial could not be declared because the trial had not even started. We had not even questioned any of the jurors yet. All we had done was review the juror questionnaires."

"Pretty unbelievable. I just don't understand it," Tammy Cleveland said.

What happened at DeGraff

After his heart attack, Michael Cleveland was rushed by ambulance to the DeGraff emergency room, where Perry tried to resuscitate him. He gave up 25 minutes after the patient's arrival, saying Cleveland was dead as of 8:29 p.m., according to court papers.

But when Niagara County Coroner Joseph V. Mantione arrived about an hour later to take possession of the body, he found that Cleveland was still breathing.

"His chest was going up and down," Mantione said in a deposition he gave in 2016. Later, he also saw Cleveland's arm move. Cleveland's eyes were open but looked "glazed," Mantione testified.

'Dead people don't move': Judge cuts chances for damages in DeGraff case Attorneys for Kaleida Health and a former emergency room doctor scored a partial victory Friday in the case of an Amherst man who was declared dead when he was still alive. Dr. Gregory C. Perry declared Michael Cleveland of Amherst dead in the DeGraff Memorial Hospital emergency room in North Tonawanda in 2014, but his wife, Tammy A. Cleveland, and Niagara County

"Dead people don't move," Mantione told Perry and the other staffers, according to his deposition.

Mantione, who had been subpoenaed to testify in the trial, also said in his deposition that after he said Cleveland was moving, Perry checked Cleveland and said the patient had no pulse.

Mantione left, saying he wouldn't take the body of a man who was still moving. He testified in his deposition that Perry told him Cleveland would stop moving as soon as the drugs he had been given wore off.

Mantione said a nurse called him about an hour later and said that "the patient awoke," according to his deposition.

He headed back to DeGraff shortly after 11 p.m., in time to see emergency room staffers trying to hold Cleveland down on the gurney as the purportedly dead man was "thrashing, trying to get up, and making noises," the coroner's deposition said.

Cleveland then was transferred to Kaleida's Buffalo General Medical Center, but his heart was damaged and his lungs were full of fluid, court papers said. Cleveland died in Buffalo General at 10:48 a.m. Oct. 11, 2014, nearly 15 hours after he arrived at DeGraff.

Tammy Cleveland's lawsuit against Kaleida and Perry asserts that her husband's life could have been saved if Perry had responded faster to word that Michael Cleveland was breathing and moving, including repeated requests from Tammy and her adult children.

Whitehead case blamed for mistrial

Caruso granted a mistrial motion presented by Sutter and joined by Sweet, who contended that a story in Wednesday's Buffalo News on another family's dispute with Kaleida might have created bias among the prospective jurors.

That article, posted on BuffaloNews.com at 5 a.m. Wednesday and published on the front page of that day's print edition, dealt with Beverly Whitehead, a 62-year-old woman who had a heart attack last month.

Family blocks Buffalo hospital from pulling plug on their mother, but now what? Doctors at Buffalo General Medical Center declared Beverly Whitehead brain dead. Her family got a court order to prevent her from being removed from life support but say the hospital won't allow a second opinion from an outside doctor.

Her children went to court to prevent doctors at Buffalo General, who believe she is brain dead, from pulling the plug on her life-support system.

Burkwit said Caruso ordered the Cleveland lawsuit back into mediation, which had failed to produce a settlement in several sessions before the jury selection process began Tuesday.

"At this point we have not received any type of good-faith offer on the case," Burkwit said. "Until that happens, until the other side is willing to negotiate in good faith, I'm not ready to discuss a monetary amount."

If there is no settlement  and mediation has failed before in the case, Burkwit said  the trial will be rescheduled at an unknown date.

Burkwit said the trial would have lasted about four weeks. Now, he said, it would go to the end of the waiting list for civil trials before Caruso, meaning it might not be scheduled again until 2023 or later.

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Bridget Loder came to court seeking justice and closure.

Nearly four years ago, her son's body was found by train tracks along Lakefront Boulevard on the edge of downtown. An autopsy revealed that Kyle Loder died of a methamphetamine overdose three days shy of his 29th birthday.

In the courtroom on the afternoon of April 7, Jason Yelder, the man who admitted to giving Kyle Loder the drugs that killed him, was about to be sentenced to prison. Yelder, now 39, pleaded guilty last year to possession with intent to distribute 5 grams or more of meth. While he was not charged directly with Loder's death, the conviction takes into account that a person died as the result of taking the drug that was provided by the defendant.

But Bridget Loder wanted something more. She wanted Yelder to know what he took away from her when he gave her son the drugs that would kill him. She also wanted the world to know how the health care system and the criminal justice system failed to help her son.

She asked a reporter to witness the sentencing "because people need to know," she said. "People really need to know what the system is like. The more people I can engage, the more information. I think that we need to take mental health more seriously. And yes, I think there needs to be more immediate opportunities for people to get help when they need it. That's really key. If they're ready to go rehab today at 10 a.m. they may not be at 2 p.m."

Deaths by overdoses have skyrocketed over the last few years. Last year more than 100,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. Lawmakers and law enforcement officials increasingly focus on people like Yelder who provide the drugs. Last year, New York lawmakers were lobbied to pass a "Death by Dealer" law that would allow prosecutors statewide to charge dealers who sell fatal batches of narcotics with homicide. A judge in a recent Western New York case ordered a drug dealer to pay for the funeral of a person whose death he helped cause.

While most of the deaths are attributed to opioids, Kyle Loder's death is a reminder of how dangerous other illicitly made drugs can be. Kyle battled addiction to many drugs, always seeking out the next more powerful high, his mother said. She thinks too much emphasis is put on one addictive substance over another.

"Why can't it just be about substance abuse?" she said.

At the sentencing, Bridget Loder was joined by 12 other loved ones, including Kyle's two grandmothers. All wore purple T-shirts printed with a black and white photo of Kyle. One aunt brought a folder full of old photos of happier days. Around Bridget's neck was a necklace with a heart-shaped locket. Inside were some of Kyle's ashes.

The family first gathered in the lobby of the Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse. A woman quietly approached the crowd. "Are you Kyle's family?" she asked. She approached Bridget Loder, said something to her, and then proceeded toward security.

She turned out to be Yelder's mother. She told Bridget Loder she was "sorry" for her son's role in what had happened, "sorry" for both their sons' roles.

Bridget Loder was stunned and tears filled her eyes. She didn't know what to think.

In the courtroom, Bridget Loder and her family sat on one side of the courtroom. Yelder's loved ones, five people including his mother, sat on the other. Several others listened in through a remote audio connection.

After Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Adler and defense attorney Paul Dell presented their arguments, Bridget Loder stood to speak.

She detailed how treatments failed her son. How he was court-ordered to outpatient therapy three times a week but destined to fail because drug dealers would wait outside the parking lot to sell him drugs. How he was turned away from the hospital because his withdrawal symptoms weren't severe enough. How their health insurance wouldn't pay for in-patient treatment until he had failed outpatient for two years. How when he said he was ready for help, he was put on a wait list for a bed. How when he was jailed, he was steered away from methadone and was given a shot of Vivitriol instead, his mother said.

Three weeks later, Yelder invited Kyle Loder and a friend to stay with him at a downtown hotel. That's when Yelder admits he gave Loder some methamphetamine. Kyle Loder sent a text to a friend: "I had to go for a walk, I feel like I'm going to explode." A few hours later, he was found dead by the train tracks.

Bridget Loder spoke in court about how she had always taught her children to never use the word "hate," whether it be about peanut butter or another person.

But on that day in the courtroom, Loder said, she felt hatred.

"I truly hate you, Mr. Yelder," she said. Yelder had been convicted previously on federal drug charges and was put on probation but failed to show up to his mandated appearance.

Giving her son a fatal dose of methamphetamine "is the exact same thing as pulling out an illegal gun and shooting him in the chest," she said.

"I would hope Mr. Yelder does what he needs to do to turn himself around," she said.

Yelder and his attorney were given a chance to speak, too.

Dell said that Yelder has shown intense remorse and that he attempted suicide while in jail awaiting sentencing.

"He's very much aware of what he helped cause and he is sorry," Dell said.

Yelder apologized repeatedly. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm so, so sorry."

He said Loder was a friend and he never intended to hurt him.

"I hate myself," Yelder said. "I hate myself."

Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo then spoke. "This case is a tragedy no matter how you look at it," he said.

One young man was dead and another's life has been destroyed, leaving two heartbroken families.

"It's these damn drugs," Vilardo said.

Vilardo sentenced Loder to 11 years and three months in federal prison, followed by eight years of supervised release.

The judge said he understood Bridget Loder's rage, but also believed she doesn't really hate him. He pointed out how Bridget Loder wished Yelder would spend his time in prison wisely and make something of himself.

Vilardo told Yelder to turn his self-hatred into "something positive."

"As a tribute to your family, do something to stop this stuff," Vilardo said.

The day after the sentencing, Bridget Loder and some of her loved ones went to the spot where her son's body was found. They planted about 40 purple iris bulbs.

"I want people to remember that something happened there. That is where a life ended," she said.

A couple of weeks after the sentencing, she reflected on how the case ended.

She's not satisfied. She appreciated that the judge apologized for the system failing her son but 11 years doesn't seem like enough, she said.

"My other son says '11 years is a long time,' " she said. "But my son is dead. That's a lot more time. ... My son, Kyle, is gone forever."

But she also saw that Yelder was suffering and said she doesn't hate him so much as hate what he did.

"The part that he played  I think it's going to take him some time get through that," she said. "I hope that can happen."

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Several investors came forward with solutions to implement a strong socio-economic development program for Ho Chi Minh City until 2030. They felt the need to promote a strategy for turning the two districts of Hoc Mon and Cu Chi into new growth areas in the near future for the best interests of the people. Ho Chi Minh City has also set a goal to become a modern industrial service metropolis, a vibrantly cultural City, and a future digital economic locomotive. By 2030, Ho Chi Minh City may well become the economic, financial, commercial, scientific, technological, and cultural center of Southeast Asia.

Ho Chi Minh City has a general plan until 2040, and a vision upto 2060, which requires incorporating the North and Northwest Urban Areas into its main development plans. The Northwest Urban Area is expected to be developed into a smart city with the latest in hi-tech facilities. In the recent Investment Promotion Conference concerning Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts, hundreds of domestic and foreign businesses sought investment opportunities for the future in this area.

At the investment conference, there were almost 550 investors present. This was the largest investor gathering in the country since the Covid-19 pandemic brought all business activities to a standstill more than two years back. This conference has great significance for the country, for Ho Chi Minh City, and particularly for the two districts of Hoc Mon and Cu Chi. In the conference, majority of the investors and corporations present were competent, highly technical, and holding a sound financial status, and who were all enthusiastic about future development. At the conference, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc pointed out that both Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts are two separate administrative units but with similar economic space, so they must coordinate to work together and closely link with surrounding localities, not just Ho Chi Minh City.

At the conference, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sovico Group, and Standing Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of HDBank, said that despite many challenges, with the resources and motivation of the City, she believed that Ho Chi Minh City would make these plans into reality. Now, many businesses want to and are willing to join hands in the economic recovery and development of Ho Chi Minh City, and also of Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts.

After listening to many practical suggestions from investors, Mr. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the City has received the direction of the President, and recommendations of all related ministries. Ho Chi Minh City will update its strategic development plan, its general plan and its integrated plan for the Northwest Urban Area. City leaders will also focus on administrative reforms to continue supporting investors and businesses, and help in creating a favorable business environment, while promoting social investment resources for Ho Chi Minh City.

At the investment conference, under the direction of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Secretary Nguyen Van Nen of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, and Mr. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, ten investment certificates to businesses were awarded of total value of around USD 430 mn, along with 31 investment memorandums for Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts, valued at billions of US dollars.

Saigon Investment
Five illegally owned firearms, including an AR-15 and a shotgun, were seized in a raid Friday morning on a house on East Delavan Avenue in the Kenfield section of Buffalo, Buffalo police said.

Michael Thomas, 45, of Buffalo was charged with five counts of criminal possession of a weapon and was being held at the Erie County Holding Center Saturday.

A search warrant was executed at the address by members of the Buffalo Police Department Intelligence Unit and SWAT, who were assisted by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force, Erie County Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

They seized three handguns, rifle and shotgun, all of which were loaded, along with two bandoliers stocked with shotgun shells, police said. All of the weapons were loaded and were illegally owned, according to a statement from Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge.

Thomas is currently on probation for a driving while intoxicated conviction. Records show he also served three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and weapons charges for injuring two Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority police officers as they fought with him over a handgun in 2002.

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Erie County remains in the "high" Covid-19 community level after the county Health Department announced another 589 positive cases in Saturday's report of Friday's data.

The county shifted Friday from the medium to high level, as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using Thursday's statistics.

Despite the surge of cases from variants of the Omicron strain, county hospitalizations remain low. The Health Department said, as of Thursday, county hospitals had 86 Covid-19 patients, 34 of which were admitted due to the virus.

Compared to the day prior, those numbers reflected an increase of seven total patients and three admitted for Covid. While it's an increase, it's far lower than the peak of the Omicron wave when 581 people were hospitalized in Erie County hospitals Jan. 17.

"We'd have to see hospitalization numbers jump up into the hundreds and have those be hundreds of people admitted for Covid," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Thursday. In past waves, an increase in hospitalizations has lagged behind a rise in cases.

Poloncarz recognized rising Covid cases on Thursday, saying the county would monitor the rates but did not intend to implement any health-related restrictions at the time.

At the "high" community level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors when in public, staying updated with Covid-19 vaccines and getting tested if symptomatic. In addition to case totals, other metrics the CDC uses to determine a community's warning level include hospital admissions and bed capacity.

Covid-19 in Western New York: The latest statistics More than 325,200 Western New Yorkers have contracted Covid-19 since March 2020 and 3,900 h

County statistics released Saturday show 377 new cases per 100,000 residents, using a seven-day average, the highest rate since Feb. 2. That average has increased from 268 per 100,000 residents one week ago, and 154 two weeks ago. Erie does not include results from self-reported home tests in its statistics.

For late February, March and early April, the county average remained below 150 cases per 100,000 residents, while the Omicron wave in January ranged between 1,500 and 1,800 per 100,000.

Seventeen percent of cases have returned positive in the seven-day rolling average; that statistic reached 22% in January.

Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at btsujimoto@buffnews.com, at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10.

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last pocket of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced he would meet Sunday in his nation's capital with the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the U.S. secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment.

Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy gave little detail about logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results  not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.

It would be the first high-level U.S. trip to Kyiv since the war began Feb. 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country's foreign minister. Zelenskyys last face-to-face meeting with a U.S. leader was Feb. 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A 3-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, officials said. Zelenskyy said 18 more were wounded.

The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening? Zelenskyy said. They are just bastards. ... I dont have any other words for it, just bastards.

The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The command post was hit on Friday, killing two generals and critically wounding another, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said in a statement. The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a Zelenskyy adviser, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it was attacked.

The fate of the Ukrainians in the sprawling and besieged seaside steel mill in Mariupol, where Russia says its forces have taken the rest of the city, wasnt immediately clear. Earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly taken two days earlier in which women and children holed up underground, some for as long as two months, said they longed to see the sun.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, one woman in the video said. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.

Russia said it took control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses. Russian attacks also struck populated areas.

Associated Press journalists observed shelling in residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; regional Gov. Oleh Sinehubov said three people were killed. In the Luhansk area of the Donbas, Gov. Serhiy Haidai said six people died during the shelling of a village, Gorskoi.

In Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas, the AP witnessed two soldiers arriving at a hospital, one of them mortally wounded.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged Sloviansk apartment, Anna Direnskaya, 70, said, I want peace."

One of many native Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, Direnskaya said she wishes Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and that there should be no enmity between them.

"Why is this happening?" she said. I dont know.

While British officials said Russian forces had not gained significant new ground, Ukrainian officials announced a nationwide curfew ahead of Easter Sunday, a sign of the wars disruption and threat to the entire country.

Mariupol has been a key Russian objective and has taken on outsize importance in the war. Completing its capture would give Russia its biggest victory yet, after a nearly two-month siege reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin.

It would deprive Ukrainian of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere and establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014. Russia-backed separatists control parts of the Donbas.

An adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Russian forces resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal plant and were also trying to storm it, in an apparent reversal of tactics. Two days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had given an order not to send troops in but instead to blockade the plant.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.

Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraines National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of about two dozen women and children. Its contents could not be independently verified. But if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.

The video shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives havent seen neither the sky nor the sun since they left home Feb. 27.

The regiments deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told the AP the video was shot Thursday. The Azov Regiment has its roots in the Azov Battalion, which was formed by far-right activists in 2014 at the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and has elicited criticism for some of its tactics.

More than 100,000 people  down from a prewar population of about 430,000  are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat. Ukrainian authorities estimate that over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

Yet another attempt to evacuate women, children and older adults from Mariupol failed Saturday. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupols mayor, said Russian forces did not allow Ukrainian-organized buses to take residents to Zaporizhzhia, a city 227 kilometers (141 miles) to the northwest.

At 11 oclock, at least 200 Mariupol residents gathered near the Port City shopping center, waiting for evacuation, Andryushchenko posted on the Telegram messaging app. The Russian military drove up to the Mariupol residents and ordered them to disperse, because now there will be shelling.

At the same time, he said, Russian buses assembled about 200 meters (yards) away. Residents who boarded those were told they were being taken to separatist-occupied territory and not allowed to disembark, Andryushchenko said. His account could not be independently verified.

In the attack on Odesa, Russian troops fired at least six missiles, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko said via Telegram. Residential buildings were hit. It is already known about one victim. He burned in his car in a courtyard of one of the buildings.

Zelenskyy's news conference was held in a Kyiv subway station, where he paused at one point as a train noisily passed through. The subway system, which includes the worlds deepest station, attracted widespread attention early in the war when hordes of people took shelter there.

Regarding the expected visit Sunday by U.S. officials, Zelenskyy said: I believe that we will be able to get agreements from the United States or part of that package on arming Ukraine which we agreed on earlier. Besides, we have strategic questions about security guarantees, which it is time to discuss in detail, because the United States will be one of those leaders of security countries for our state.

Fisch reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Associated Press staff members around the world contributed to this report.

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.
Judge Johnnie Rawlinson, the first Black woman on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, says shes prepared to transfer to semiretired senior status after more than two decades on the bench and create an eighth opening for President Biden to fill  but only if he agrees to replace her with a Nevada attorney who was once her law clerk. Some legal ethics commentators say Rawlinson may have crossed the line into politics.

Federal judges, under the judicial Code of Conduct, are not supposed to take part in political activity. That might well include trying to dictate the choice of ones replacement.

Rawlinson, who was also one of the first two Black women to practice law in Nevada, worked as a prosecutor for 17 years before President Bill Clinton appointed her to the U.S. District Court in 1998, and to the appeals court in July 2000.

Now 69, she was the courts only Black female judge until this January, when the Senate confirmed Bidens nomination of Holly Thomas, a former civil rights lawyer and Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Rawlinsons preferred successor, Berna Rhodes-Ford, now general counsel at Nevada State College, would be the third.

I could do this job for another 20 years without hardship, God willing, Rawlinson told the Nevada Independent, an online publication. But I am cognizant of the fact that the torch needs to be passed at some point, and I think this is the opportune time.

She said she wanted to continue the legacy of the late Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had recommended her nomination to Clinton, and that Rhodes-Ford was the best choice.

Rhodes-Ford is married to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, which raises its own concerns about potential conflicts of interest; she told Reuters that if appointed, she would recuse herself from any cases involving his office. The larger question is whether Rawlinson is treading on forbidden ground by conditioning her departure on the presidents choice of a successor.

I think it raises ethical issues, said Arthur Hellman, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in legal ethics. A federal judge is supposed to be out of politics. The selection of a judge is a very political process.

Rawlinson could have signaled her preference to the administration in private, Hellman said. But by speaking publicly, he said, she has boxed Biden in. If it looks as if he has allowed the choice to be dictated by a federal judge, it makes him look weak. It also encourages other judges to do that.

Its understandable that judges take an interest in who succeeds them, and a judge seeking to advance a protege may have the best intentions, David Lat, founder of the legal website Above the Law, said in a recent posting. But judicial seats arent property to be bequeathed.

Rawlinson could also find herself at odds with Nevadas two senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Democrats.

The senators have established commissions, which they described as bipartisan, to recommend federal judicial candidates in Nevada. The commissions, like those consulted by Californias two Democratic senators, have usually been limited to considering candidates for U.S. District Courts, whose jurisdiction is geographically limited. But Nevadas senators told the Nevada Independent their commissions would propose a new Ninth Circuit judge if a vacancy occurred.

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.

Rawlinson countered that such commissions sometimes have the tendency to perpetuate themselves at the expense of judicial diversity, the Independent said.

Judges who violate ethical standards can be reprimanded by the Judicial Conference of their appellate circuit, removed from certain cases or referred to Congress for possible impeachment.

The Chronicle sought to question Rawlinson about the dispute, but Ninth Circuit spokesperson Katherine Rodriguez said the judge had no further comment.

Rawlinson is one of 16 Democratic appointees on the 29-judge court and has a somewhat more conservative record than others chosen by Democratic presidents.

She dissented from a 2-1 ruling in 2018 that reinstated a free-speech suit by a California Assembly candidate who belonged to the Socialist Party USA but was required by state law to describe his party affiliation as none on the ballot, because only the six largest parties could be listed, a burden Rawlinson described as only slight. She also dissented from a 2020 ruling reinstating a suit by dog and cat owners who claimed they were defrauded by companies that sold their products as prescription pet food.

But Rawlinson was part of a 2-1 majority on April 4 that ordered a judge to reconsider expansion of a Montana coal mine, approved by President Donald Trumps administration, and take into account the greenhouse gases that would be emitted after the coal was shipped overseas and burned as fuel.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Amid a national conservative push to remove lessons about racism from school curricula, a San Francisco teachers use of a cotton plant to illustrate the hardships of slavery has left parents divided over the teaching method itself, given the sensitive subject, and the backlash that followed.

The social studies teacher at San Franciscos Creative Arts Charter School brought in cotton plants, or bolls, to class on March 3 so her eighth-grade students could feel the sharp edges that had pierced hands while picking cotton and pulling out the seeds. The lesson was about the cotton gin and the impact it had on slavery and the Industrial Revolution.

Within 24 hours, the leadership at the school had launched an investigation into the classroom exercise  what some described as an inappropriate simulation of slavery.

On March 4, the schools director apologized in a letter to families for the unacceptable, harmful and inappropriate teaching that did not reflect the schools anti-racist, progressive-minded curriculum.

The teacher was not at the school for five weeks after the controversial class. The school declined to confirm whether or how she was placed on leave or disciplined during the investigation, but parents attributed her absence to disciplinary action. When the teacher returned on April 15, she issued a written apology to families.

Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle

The teacher declined to be interviewed for this story and is not being named by The Chronicle.

The K-8 charter school, which operates outside the purview of the San Francisco Unified School District, has 435 students identified as 219 white, 47 Black, 22 Asian, 84 Hispanic or Latino, and the rest Filipino, Native American or two or more races.

The situation there has divided the schools largely liberal community at a time when states like Texas and Florida are banning classroom discussion of Americas racist past altogether.

Teachers  like most Americans  struggle to have open and honest conversations about race, according to a 2018 report by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center. How do they talk about slaverys legacy of racial violence in their classrooms without making their black students feel singled out? How do they discuss it without engendering feelings of guilt, anger or defensiveness among their white students?

Teaching about the past, and specifically the history of races in America, can be difficult and uncomfortable and the two things you dont want to do are trivialize the subject or traumatize the children, said Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ohio State University history professor.

You just cant, despite your best efforts actually recreate what slavery was like, he said. Any kind of simulation, any kind of re-creation, any kind of that hands-on kind of teaching, just pushes you into the area of re-trauma, traumatizing children and there are better ways to go about it.

Creative Arts parent Rebecca Archer, who is Black and Jewish, said the cotton boll lesson was out of line and that she was shocked to see it happening at a progressive school in San Francisco.

Putting raw cotton in the hands of children, including students of color like her biracial son, re-creates conditions that evoke so many deeply hurtful things about this country, she said.

There are people who think this lesson plan promotes empathy; Ive heard that and understand that, she said. There are a lot of people who dont understand why its hurtful or offensive.

Students dont need to have firsthand experiences with slave labor to have empathy for slaves, she said.

Another parent, whose child considers the teacher one of his three favorite people in the world, said its unbearably cruel what the teacher has endured.

I think its insane they would treat a teacher like this and basically discard a teacher that has been so inspiring and dedicated, said the parent, who requested anonymity to protect her child. It feels like it was a lesson in sensitivity and empathy. Thats why my mind is so blown and I cant stop being angry about it.

The parent observed that in other states, where conversations about discrimination, racism or white supremacy are banned because they can make white students feel guilty, the lesson here appeared to have been condemned for opposite reasons.

Upon her return to her classes on April 15, the teacher sent a note to the schools families.

Prior to spring break, I taught a tactile lesson involving raw cotton in an effort to get the students to understand the difficulty of manually processing cotton prior to the invention of Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin, she said. While this lesson was sourced from reliable sources, after conferring with the administration and hearing many of the students reflections, I realize that this lesson was not culturally responsive and had the potential to cause harm.

In teaching U.S. history, there are many challenging and sensitive topics to learn about and I look forward to continuing to improve my approach to addressing these, with support from the administration.

Jeffries, faculty director for the K12 Teacher Institute on American Slavery, said thats the right approach to an imperfect situation. Teachers are going to make mistakes when teaching about slavery and other topics, he added.

Making the mistake does not mean we shouldnt teach it. It just means we should teach it better.

The schools director, Fernando Aguilar, declined to comment on any disciplinary action taken against the teacher, citing personnel privacy issues.

We didnt feel like the lesson fit into our mission and our vision, he said, adding the leadership is following collective bargaining procedures in regard to the teacher. We dont take things lightly that affect the well-being of our students.

Its a balancing act to teach uncomfortable subjects, said Zeus Leonardo, professor in UC Berkeleys Graduate School of Education.

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.

Being uncomfortable is part of learning, he said. And part of the learning is in the discomfort.

That said, you have to teach with an eye on the appropriateness and execution of the information.

It could be producing harm for the very students the teacher thinks theyre speaking up for, whose history theyre trying to unveil.

The lesson plan involving the cotton is widely available online, although some sites, including the Smithsonian Learning Lab, have deleted it. But this isnt the first time that the so-called cotton-picking activity has raised concerns in schools.

In 2019, a parent in Flint, Mich., questioned why her children were made to re-enact the oppression of their ancestors by cleaning or picking cotton. The middle school eventually removed the lesson from its curriculum.

In 2020, New Jersey officials investigated a teacher who had students lie on the floor picking and cleaning cotton amid whipping sounds. The teacher was cleared of improper behavior.

In 2021, in Spokane, Wash., a class that included two Black girls was instructed on how to clean cotton and challenged to see who could clean it the fastest.

After their mother complained, the school offered to remove the girls from the classroom. The mother requested a formal apology and the removal of the principal.

Gilda Bloom-Leiva, a professor in the San Francisco State Department of Secondary Education, said teacher education has changed drastically over the years.

The teaching of race and racism, for example, is tied to generational trauma and student teachers are taught to consider what challenges or harm lesson plans could create for the children in the classroom.

Weve come a long way in how we train teachers, she said. Its more beneficial for the teacher, rather than just being suspended, to take a course on curriculum instruction on how to teach Social Studies in 2022.

More than anything, the cotton-picking lesson plan should be a learning experience, Jeffries said.

Polls show that most parents want their children to learn history the way it happened. They want them to learn the difficult aspects of Americas past so they can understand Americas present and be on a course to make Americas future better than anything weve seen before, he said. There has to be a little grace given, especially in this moment where teachers are being beat up for the wrong reasons. We have to teach this. We just have to do it better.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Jilltucker
Aminah Ortiz-Simon was studying at a friends house Friday afternoon in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, D.C., when she heard a peal of gunfire, followed minutes later by sirens.

At about 3:20 p.m. ET someone had fired a volley of shots, apparently from the AVA apartment building where Ortiz-Simon lives next to Howard University School of Law and to a college preparatory school, she said. According to police, at least four people were wounded.

When the gunfire erupted, Ortiz-Simons fiance, Kenny Foster, was in their eighth floor apartment, where he remained sheltering-in-place as of 8:30 p.m. ET. He closed the blinds and listened to SWAT team members scurry through the halls, waiting to be evacuated, Ortiz-Simon said.

Im very, very nervous, she told The Chronicle in a phone interview from her friends home, where she expected to stay for perhaps the next several hours. Ortiz-Simon, 25, is a law student at Howard who grew up in San Francisco. Her mother, Lateefah Simon, is a member of BARTs Board of directors and a well-known advocate for police reform.

As dusk settled on the neighborhood, Ortiz-Simon kept communicating with Foster, still not knowing when he would be able to leave apartment safely. The Howard University law school campus had been under shelter-in-place orders until about 8 p.m., requiring professors to lock up classrooms and libraries until they received an all-clear order from law enforcement.

Even after students were allowed to leave, the quarter mile on either side of Connecticut Ave. is shut down, Ortiz-Simon said.

Police had surrounded her apartment building for hours, and social media videos purporting to show the incident from the shooters perspective frightened Ortiz-Simon. She said she recognized the blinds and the view from which the shooter perched.

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.

Its absolutely someone who  if they didnt live in the building, they had easy access to it, she said.

Police said a man they were looking for as a person of interest in the incident, Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax, Va., was found dead, according to the Washington Post.

This is a terror you never want your child to live through, Lateefah Simon said Friday night, after texting with her daughter all afternoon. I just wish I could be there for her right now.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Jacom Stephens/Getty Image

A dispute between two neighbors in San Francisco ended in a fatal shooting Wednesday evening that police have deemed a murder-suicide, authorities said Friday.

Police officers from Taraval Police Station responded to a report of a shooting in the 200 block of Farallones Street in the Ocean View neighborhood and found a 65-year-old man inside a vehicle who had sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, San Francisco police said in a statement.
Courtesy of Fulton County Sheriff Office/

A San Francisco man wanted in connection with a series of burglaries in the citys Taraval and Ingleside districts was arrested in Atlanta in an operation involving federal and Georgia law enforcement on Thursday, authorities said.

Jamariea Newt, 28, was arrested by FBI and Fulton County sheriffs deputies on outstanding warrants and on suspicion of weapons and firearms charges, drug trafficking and participation in criminal street gang charges, San Francisco police said Friday. Fulton County sheriffs officials said that all four suspects were alleged gang members with violent criminal histories.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Two candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday, clearing their path to face Democratic incumbents in the fall.

The meeting of thousands of delegates was a test of Trumps clout in the party.

His allies  attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, a lawyer, and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, a community college instructor  emerged victorious from three-person fields at the 10-hour endorsement convention in downtown Grand Rapids.

The political newcomers support Trumps false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state. They will be officially nominated at a second convention in August and challenge Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in November.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. But he won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard that was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

Trump has said his preferred candidates would not let Michigan be stolen in the next presidential election. He lost the state by 154,000 votes to Joe Biden. Trump's slate drew criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and was frustrated that party leaders openly backed them rather than be neutral.

State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said such critics are poor losers."

We're going to unite together, and we will be able to win this election this fall, he said.

DePernos main rival for the nomination was Leonard, the partys 2018 attorney general nominee whom Trump later nominated for U.S. attorney in western Michigan. State Rep. Ryan Berman, who finished third, urged his supporters to back Leonard in the runoff.

Bernadette Smith, one of the partys vice chairs, said DePerno is the only candidate who will fight for election integrity. As DePerno's supporters walked to the front of the hall to demonstrate their support, a video played of Trump touting DePerno and calling Leonard a RINO  or Republican in name only.

DePerno unsuccessfully sued after human error led rural Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno was in "the field working when no one else was, Smith said.

He may face repercussions over the Antrim lawsuit.

DePerno recently confirmed that the states Attorney Grievance Commission is investigating him. Nessel last year began a separate probe after a Republican-led legislative committee said people were making baseless allegations about the results in Antrim to raise money or publicity for their own ends. The panels report did not specify whom should be investigated, but the people mentioned in it include DePerno.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman supported Leonard.

Mark my words: Democrats are motivated and we will only win if we put our best candidates forward, he said. I truly believe he's the only candidate in this race with integrity, grit, determination and the skills to not only win in November but to perform the duties of attorney general on day one.

DePerno, however, said he can unite Republicans and defeat Nessel.

She is literally drunk on power and we are going to end that, he said.

In the secretary of state's race, Karamo defeated state Rep. Beau LaFave and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.

We're going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in, Karamo said.

In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party used machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-counted the ballots in a compromise with activists.

Nominees for Michigans statewide races are chosen at conventions except in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries. The midterm election climate is expected to favor Republicans, but incumbent attorney generals and secretaries of state rarely lose.

The state Democratic Party said the GOP should be ashamed of its endorsed candidates. Chair Lavora Barnes called Karamo a fear-spreading, inexperienced extremist and said DePerno is a Trump lackey" willing to protect the former president but not all Michiganders.

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
East Bay city leaders are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to set aside $3 billion over three years for flexible homeless funding in the state budget.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, gathered Friday outside of Clifton Hall, a college dormitory transformed into homeless housing, and called on the governor to maintain the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention funds to combat homelessness.

The Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention, or HHAP, program launched in 2020 and allowed cities and counties to apply for money that they could use for homelessness interventions. The first round of the program dispersed $650 million in grants. The second round dispersed $300 million and the third round $1 billion.

The need for the funding is dire, Schaaf said. In 2019, the most recent official count available, the city tallied more than 4,000 homeless people. And city leaders say that number has likely skyrocketed due to the pandemic.

We have children that are living on our streets, Schaaf said. We have elders that are aging on our sidewalks. This is the moral shame of our times.

Oakland received $42 million in HHAP funds and used it to increase its shelter bed capacity by 628 beds  nearly doubling the number of shelter beds in the city.

The funds have also been used to launch and operate more RV safe parking sites, which Oakland was the first to open in 2019, and cabin communities, or tiny homes. The city also used part of its funding to launch a tiny home village for 26 young people from Oakland and Berkeley.

Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle 2021

Jenn Oakley, a former resident of the cabin community at Lake Merritt, said she was living in tents and RVs for nearly 10 years before moving into the shelter. The cabin community gave her a safe space to sleep, allowing her the time and energy to get training in construction.

Within nine months, she moved into her own home. And in May, she starts a construction job.

Many of the citys homeless interventions that launched before HHAP funding was available now use those funds to maintain their operations. Oakland used $9.6 million from the states Project Homekey program to purchase Clifton Hall, which houses formerly homeless seniors permanently and homeless families temporarily. Oakland has spent about $7 million to continue the wraparound services at Clifton Hall.

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.

Overall, Oakland has used the funds to house 1,350 formerly homeless individuals, Schaaf said.

In neighboring Berkeley, Arreguin said, there are about 2,000 people sleeping outside on any given night. Berkeley has used HHAP funds to boost its street outreach, increase its shelter beds and open a navigation center.

Homelessness is the issue of our time, Arreguin said. The people of the Bay Area are fed up. They want to see action and they want to see action now. If this money goes away, its a huge setback.

Schaaf warned that if the state funding disappears, Oakland will lose 741 shelter beds and the city will likely see more than 1,000 people back on the streets.

This is a problem we must all prioritize, she said.

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
An Oakland City Council member will introduce an ordinance next month that requires people to wear masks at large indoor gatherings of 1,000 people or more.

The ordinance will drop the citys current requirement that people must show proof of vaccine to enter into bars, restaurants, gyms and other businesses. People will still have to show proof of vaccine when entering into senior centers and assisted care facilities.

Council Member Dan Kalb, who plans to bring the ordinance to the May 3 council meeting, said the changing rules are in part to align Oakland with neighboring cities San Francisco and Berkeley, which have also abandoned their requirements for people to show proof of vaccination.

If businesses want, they can still require proof of vaccination for patrons, Kalb said.

The mask mandate is an effort to stop superspreader events where people may gather indoors and be at risk of transmitting or catching the coronavirus, Kalb said. Last week, nearly 100 San Mateo students tested positive for the coronavirus after prom.

Kalb warned that if hospitalizations increase, the city could bring back the proof of vaccination requirement.

If there is a surge or increased hospitalizations ... we are not going to hesitate to bring it back, Kalb said. We are going to be very careful about this. If we are more cautious than other jurisdictions then so be it.

If passed, Kalb said, the new ordinance would go into effect May 4.

More than 81% of the citys population has been fully vaccinated, and nearly 88% have received at least one dose. More than 61% of the population has received a booster.

Kalbs ordinance comes nearly two months after the city implemented a rule requiring people to show proof of vaccine at restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses. At the time, Kalb, who also introduced that ordinance, said it was meant to encourage more vaccinations and to reduce the spread of the virus as concerns heightened over omicron.

Oakland chef Nelson German said having to ask patrons to show their proof of vaccination has been easy  most people have their proof ready in hand. German, the owner of Alamar Kitchen & Bar and Afro-Latino cocktail lounge Sobre Mesa in Uptown Oakland, said whether it will continue requiring the proof of vaccination if Oakland decides to do away with the rule depends on his staff.

For me, thats the most important thing  how does the staff feel? German said.

Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert in infectious disease at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said there are pros and cons to dropping the proof of vaccination requirement. The pros include taking the responsibility off businesses to enforce public health policy, which puts them in a very difficult position.

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.

But the downside is that people may have to be restrictive in what kind of activities they engage in depending on their vaccination status and health, Swartzberg said.

The decision to require masks at 1,000-person indoor gatherings seems arbitrary, he said.

Will people really follow this? Swartzberg said, adding that it will depend on how venues enforce the mask mandate.

The effectiveness of the mask mandate will also depend on what kind of masks people wear, the size of a venue and its ventilation, and whether people will take off their masks while theyre at a concert or another function.

I respect their aspirations, Swartzberg said. I dont know how practical it is.

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Masks in the emerging learning to live with it phase of the COVID pandemic are becoming a matter of personal choice versus government mandate  a shift that is raising debate over whether such mandates were ever as effective as advertised and what role they should play in future surges.

Masks work at preventing disease transmission: On this, nearly everyone agrees. Where the conversation gets complicated is how well mandates work at getting people to use them consistently, if theyre more effective than other protective efforts like social distancing, and ultimately, whether they lower the amount of virus in the community.

Proponents of mask mandates say the preponderance of evidence so far suggests they are protective, and the downsides are so minimal that theres little justification to doing away with them while COVID remains a threat. COVID is indeed still a crisis, they say: Cases are picking up nationally and too many people are vulnerable due to not being vaccinated or waning immunity.

To me this is just completely noncontroversial. What makes it controversial is that wearing masks has been politicized and theyre a little uncomfortable, said Dr. Stephen Luby, an infectious disease expert and epidemiologist at Stanford. Its very clear that mask mandates will protect people.

But opponents, including some scientists who favored mask mandates early in the pandemic, argue that the evidence for them isnt compelling, especially since vaccines became available. They worry that policymakers need to be more thoughtful now about expending their public health capital  peoples patience for COVID mitigation efforts is running too thin to waste on ambiguous measures, they say.

I think mandates were the right thing to have done, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at UCSF who was an early supporter of universal masking and has since led efforts against mandates, particularly in schools. We have to acknowledge were in a different place now, she said, pointing to high vaccination rates that offset the need to rely on masks  and other mitigation measures like lockdowns  to control the virus.

With the abrupt removal last week of the federal transportation mask mandate  in a ruling by a federal judge in Florida that is being appealed by the Biden administration  face coverings are generally required only in a handful of settings, mostly spots like hospitals and nursing homes that serve people especially vulnerable to severe illness.

Currently, universal masking is advised in only 1% of U.S. counties, according to standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of the country  including all of the Bay Area  is considered to have low COVID transmission, which means masks are not recommended. No city or county in California currently has a universal mandate in place.

Bay Area health officials note that mask mandates remain an important tool and may be reapplied if cases soar or they see signs that the virus has mutated to escape immunity from vaccines or previous infection.

But as recently as last week, even as cases were ticking up, local officials said they were sympathetic to an exhausted public and dont want to reinstate mandates prematurely, or put them in place now only to revoke them not long after. Thats what happened in Philadelphia, which instituted a mask mandate last Monday then lifted it only four days later.

At a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, the Alameda County health officer said he didnt anticipate needing to put in place another mandate soon. There is nothing to suggest a large-scale wave where wed deploy masking, said Dr. Nicholas Moss. San Francisco health officials similarly have said that another mandate is not currently on the table.

Bay Area officials also have not restored masking requirements for public transit since the federal mandate was lifted. In California, only Los Angeles County put in place a local order, which requires masking on trains, buses and at airports.

But the lack of recent buy-in for mask mandates has many infectious disease and public health experts concerned.

When its uncertain where things are headed, that is not the right time to be pulling back on mitigation, said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease expert at Stanford. You dont want to put preventive measures in place once a big surge is under way  you want them before.

The questions around masking underscore the challenges of responding to a public health crisis that at times has unfolded faster than scientists and policymakers can keep up.

Mask guidance has changed dramatically over the course of the pandemic, from face coverings being actively discouraged in the early months, when scientists werent sure they would be effective, to the implementation of near-universal masking across the country during the worst surges.

It was an enormous challenge to public health to set these very, very quick guidelines early in the pandemic, said Fenyong Liu, an infectious disease professor at UC Berkeleys School of Public Health. And a lot of people were frustrated that the guidelines kept changing. But there was so little we knew then.

As understanding of how the coronavirus spreads has improved, and as the virus itself has mutated and become more infectious, masking guidance has changed too. Infectious disease experts now agree that N95 and KN95 masks, which are categorized with respirators, are best at preventing transmission, and are even more important as fewer people wear masks overall.

Less clear, and inspiring more disagreement, is the role other types of masks play in disease control. Many people either dont have access to N95 and KN95 masks or choose to wear less effective face coverings  like cloth or surgical masks  when mandates are in place. Mandates also dont guarantee that people wear properly fitted masks, or that they keep them pulled over their noses.

Poor masking behavior severely undercuts the point of mandates, some scientists argue  if people dont have access to N95 and KN95 masks or wont wear them, then mandates will not slow down transmission much or at all, and could erode public trust in health guidance.

But mandate proponents say that even inferior masks provide some protection, especially if everyone is using them. Obviously, theres no way that a bandanna is going to do the same thing as an N95, Luby said. On the other hand, any mask is better than no mask, and the mask that you actually wear is the better mask.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Luby was involved in one of the largest and most-cited studies: A trial in Bangladesh that found widespread use of surgical masks was associated with a small but significant drop in the risk of coronavirus infection.

In fact, dozens of studies have been done to demonstrate whether masks  and mask mandates  are effective, but few meet the rigorous standards that usually back up major health policy. They range from laboratory trials that demonstrate how effective masks are against different strains of the coronavirus to observational studies that look at rates of infections and hospitalizations in communities with and without mandates.

Supporters of mandates acknowledge that the existing studies arent ideal, but they say nearly all of them show at least some benefit from masking.

The most powerful studies can take years to complete. And scientists may never perform the gold standard randomized controlled studies that clearly demonstrate whether a policy works by comparing outcomes in two similar groups  such a study would be costly and difficult, and potentially unethical, epidemiologists said.

We do not randomize anybody to something that we believe could cause harm, said Shira Shafir, an infectious disease expert and epidemiologist at UCLA. Forcing a community not to mandate masks would be potentially harmful and therefore unethical for research, she said.

It is important to contextualize that any research around this topic is going to be extremely challenging, Shafir said. But the best observational research we have suggests that in communities where there have been mask mandates, we have seen lower levels of viral transmission.

One of the criticisms some scientists raise about studies of mask mandates is that they dont do a good enough job of taking into consideration so-called confounding factors. The main critique is that communities that would institute mask mandates are more likely to be COVID protective in other ways too  they probably have higher vaccine uptake, and residents there may be more prone to avoiding large gatherings or indoor events that are sources of viral transmission.

Opponents of mandates note that states with masking orders have experienced surges in lockstep with states that never required face coverings. But supporters say that view doesnt take into account the full measure of how protective mandates may be  preventing not just cases, but hospitalizations and deaths.

And if case rates ultimately were similar between California and Georgia  which never had a mandate  that doesnt mean California wouldnt have been worse off if it had never required masks, said.

Its hard to measure if mask mandates were the right decision, Karan said. Its hard to know the cases that you prevented  how many more infections we would have had.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Catherine Ho contributed to this report.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California workplace regulators on Thursday extended mandatory pay for workers affected by the coronavirus through the end of 2022, acting more than two months after state lawmakers restored similar benefits through September.

The decision again pitted management against labor as the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board renewed revised workplace safety rules that would otherwise have expired in early May.

I dont think were done with this yet, board chairman David Thomas said of the pandemic.

Theres going to be a surge in a week or so, Thomas added. "This is the best  protection we have.

Laura Stock, an occupational safety representative on the board, echoed employee advocates who lobbied board members to continue special protections for workers even as health officials ease mask, quarantine and other requirements for the general public.

Unlike members of the public who can choose their own risk tolerance, Stock said, people who are in the workplace  have no choice but to be there.

Management representative Kate Crawford said the rules have caused confusion as she cast the only no in a 6-1 vote.

Keeping what is known as exclusion pay for workers who are sent home due to the coronavirus is both costly and confusing, particularly since the Legislature recently approved COVID-19 sick leave, said Rob Moutrie, a policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce,

Small businesses have particularly struggled with the obligation, Moutrie said. The Cal/OSHA rule applies in almost every workplace in the state, covering workers in offices, factories and retail businesses, while the state sick leave law applies only to companies with 26 or more employees.

The debate comes as the highly transmissible omicron variant BA.2 becomes dominant in California and across the U.S., threatening a new wave of infections.

The state's case rate is up by one-third and test positivity has doubled since late March. Hospitalizations and intensive care patients remain at or near their lows for the pandemic. But the state's models predict hospitalizations will increase from fewer than 1,000 now to nearly 1,400 in another month, while ICU admissions will begin to climb in early May.

In another sign of Californias changing response to the pandemic, public health officials are canceling the states contract with diagnostics company PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc. as of May 15, ahead of schedule. The company had been operating the states new $25 million COVID testing lab in Valencia, opened in November 2020, under a no-bid contract initially worth up to $1.4 billion. The state renewed the contract in October.

Republican state lawmakers hailed the cancelation, citing repeated problems reported at the facility, including testing delays and quality control.

This lab failed to serve Californians, and the state delayed accountability for months, Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk said.

State health officials said Thursday that they are now relying more on a different form of testing and efforts that link positive test results to immediate treatment. But they said the state will maintain the ability to test up to 500,000 people a day through a network of labs as part of the states rapid response plan to future coronavirus outbreaks.

Los Angeles County said Thursday that it will continue requiring masks for travelers aboard public transit and inside indoor transportation hubs, including Los Angeles International and other airports along with bus terminals and train stations.

Also Thursday, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon announced two settlements totaling nearly $26.5 million related to allegations of fake COVID-19 testing and false advertising by Venice, California, based Sameday Technologies, doing business as Sameday Health, which operates 55 testing locations nationwide.

Sameday Health said the problems arose amidst the chaos of massive surges in demand for services" early in the pandemic, but it said it has since corrected the problems.

The renewed workplace regulation requires employers to keep paying workers' wages and maintain their seniority and other benefits for as long as they can't work because of a coronavirus exposure or infection, unless they receive disability payments or the employer can prove the close contact wasn't work related.

"It is important that employees who are COVID-19 cases do not come to work," Cal/OSHA said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The state's sick leave law differs in that it provides employees with up to one week of paid time off if they get the coronavirus or are caring for a sick family member. They qualify for a second week off only if they or their family members test positive.

There's a troubling provision in the revised Cal/OSHA paid leave rules that isn't in current regulations, said Mitch Steiger, a legislative advocate for the California Labor Federation.

Currently, an employee who has had close contact with an infected worker is also sent home, with pay. But the revised rules can keep them on the job until they test positive.

The employer could force that person to stay at work and interact with co-workers, members of the public and immunocompromised people and whomever until that person tests positive, Steiger said before the board's decision.

The more that we walk that back, the more space we give the virus to spread, he said.

Agribusiness representatives objected that the workplace rules give employers two choices when dealing with an outbreak of three or more coronavirus cases if an employee comes in close contact. The employee must either test negative, or be given a week off with pay if they decline to be tested.

Youre encouraging people to not get tested, Michael Miiller, California Association of Winegrape Growers government relations director, told the board.

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Associated Press Writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this story from Los Angeles.
KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency posted a statement saying the command post was hit on Friday and two generals were killed and one was critically wounded.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it came under attack. He said their fate was unknown.

The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in the east

 Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

 Sanctions hit Russian economy, though Putin says otherwise

 Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said new evidence is emerging that shows Russian troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol and then tried to cover it up. He said Ukraine has intercepted Russian conversations about how they are concealing the traces of their crimes. Satellite images have shown what appear to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.

Zelenskyy said the Russians set up filtration camps near Mariupol for those trying to leave the city, which has largely been reduced to rubble. He said those who survive these camps are sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. Many of them, he said, are children.

He said he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday about the situation in Mariupol and the general course of the war.

Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible for the missile attack on Odesa, which he said killed eight people and wounded 18.

Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to observe a curfew and not attend Orthodox Easter services overnight. The lengthy services traditionally begin late Saturday and run through Sunday morning. But starting from 5 a.m. you may go to the church in your city, town or community, he said.

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SLOVIANSK, Ukraine  The sound of outgoing artillery and air raid sirens were heard Saturday in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas that had come under Russian attack the day before.

Two servicemen were brought to a hospital from a nearby town, but one of them was mortally wounded and could not be saved.

The Russian strike early Friday had damaged several buildings, including a school.

The war has brought back painful memories for residents of Sloviansk, where in 2014 Ukrainian government forces repulsed Russia-backed separatists after a fierce battle. In the years since, the separatists maintained control over part of the Donbas, and Moscow has now set out to capture the entire region.

Anna Direnskaya, 70, said she and her son and daughter-in-law decided to remain in Sloviansk.

I lived through 2014. I was also here. I didnt go anywhere and I dont want to go anywhere. I am not hiding from myself, she said while sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged apartment building. I want peace.

Direnskaya, who like many in eastern Ukraine is a native Russian speaker, said she wishes the Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and there is no enmity between them.

Why did this happen? Why is this happening? I dont know. Tell everyone I want peace and quiet, she said.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

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WARSAW, Poland  Poland and Ukraine have signed an agreement increasing cooperation in the railway transport sector, aiming to help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion affects its ports.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polands premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, met on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Morawiecki said on Facebook that they both agreed that current sanctions on Russia are insufficient, which can be seen by the condition of the Russian currency, bonds or inflation. They appealed to the international community for tougher steps that would stop Russias aggression on Ukraine and for more military aid to help Ukraine.

Morawiecki drew special attention to the plight of civilians seeking protection in a steel plant in Mariupol, as he called for the assistance.

In Mariupol soldiers  or rather Russian criminals want to make women and children starve to death. They are waiting until they run out of water. What kind of strategy is that? This is not war. This is genocide.

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ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April.

But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.

Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.

NATO-member Turkey has been trying to balance its close relations with Moscow and Kyiv and has positioned itself as a mediator between the two. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia but has closed the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to some Russian warships.

The country has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as talks between the two countries negotiating teams.

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BERLIN  Germanys former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: I dont do mea culpa.

In an interview with the newspaper published Saturday, Schroeder also claims that his long-time friend President Vladimir Putin of Russia is interested in ending the war with Ukraine.

Schroeder reportedly blasted German officials who now criticize his efforts to procure Russian energy supplies for Germany, saying that they all went along with it for the last 30 years.

In the interview, he called the war in Ukraine a mistake and said atrocities need to be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself ordered killings of civilians such as those allegedly committed by Russian troops in Bucha.

Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private mission to broker peace with Ukraine, claimed the Russian president is interested in ending the war.

But thats not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified, the New York Times quoted him saying, without elaborating.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said he promised more defense weaponry is on the way to Ukraine while speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday afternoon, the latest chat between the two leaders who talk to each other regularly.

The British leader told Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom is sending more weaponry including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.

Johnson also confirmed to Zelenskyy that the U.K. would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also updated the Ukrainian leader on new U.K. sanctions designations against members of the Russian military and told him the British government was helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

The two also discussed the U.K.s work on long term security solutions and financial support with international partners.

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, Downing Street said in a statement.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines president says five people including a three-month-old infant were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

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HELSINKI  Hundreds of protesters belonging to Latvias sizable Russian-speaking community have taken part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic nations capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscows aggression on Ukraine.

Participants of Saturdays rally entitled The Russian Voice Against War waved Ukrainian flags and posters with inscriptions such as Stop the genocide in Ukraine and Complete Russian gas and oil embargo at the central Freedom Monument, Latvias public broadcaster LSM reported.

Organizers said the protest aimed to demonstrate that many of Latvias Russian-speakers are not aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscows actions criminal.

Ethnic Russians make up around 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, like Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of the all citizens.

Earlier this week, Latvias Parliament unanimously declared killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official has announced a country-wide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office, said in a video address Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson -- the curfew will run from 7 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

In others regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv and Lviv, the curfew will run from 11 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

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KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal, Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.

Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

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LVIV, Ukraine  Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Unfortunately, the enemy doesnt have such a concept as a major religious holiday, Kozytskyy wrote. They are so beastly that they dont understand what Easter is.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraines National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plants tunnels for up to two months.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness.

Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen neither the sky, nor the sun. We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt, the girl pleads.

Azovs deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.

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According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the regions civilian infrastructure 56 times.

Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai says that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

Haidai said Saturday on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna got the most of it.

In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. Not all survived, Haidai wrote.

He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.

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KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukraine militarys General Staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived to Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

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KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.
WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later.

The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter.

Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood thats home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown.

Bibi Stewart of Anne Arundel, Maryland, was approaching the line to pick up her 12-year-old twins when she heard the gunfire ring out. She said it sounded like the shots were coming from above and at a distance.

They did it right at dismissal, she said.

Stewart said she saw glass shattering in a bridge connecting different wings of the school and she saw the tires of cars in the pickup line shot out.

Theyre just saying theyre OK and hiding in the school with their friends and adults, she said of her children.

Police suspect some of the bullets fired from the high-powered rifle may have traveled several blocks. At least two businesses nearby reported bullet holes in their windows.

Police in tactical gear were seen escorting people  including college students from nearby campuses  out of apartment buildings in the area. Officers pointed their rifles upward toward other buildings and windows as the people moved quickly down the street with their hands raised above their heads.

I had to look in parents eyes tonight who are terrified ... thinking of what might happen to their children, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference. And we have experienced this too much in our country. The epidemic of gun violence, the easy access to weapons, has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school.

Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

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We will get to the bottom of this. We will find what the motive is, Contee said. His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community.

The gunman had posted a video of the shooting on 4chan, though police are still working to determine whether it was streamed live or recorded and then uploaded online, Contee said. The video shows people running frantically as rapid gunfire rains from above and the gunman seemingly following them through a sight as they flee for cover.

The University of the District of Columbia, which is located nearby, went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place. In a tweet Friday, the college said there was an active shooting incident near student housing."

Eduardo Bugay, a student at the college, said he was in his first-floor apartment in the AVA building  the building where the gunman was eventually found  when he heard the shots.

At first I was confused, he said, not sure what he was hearing. Then, he said, he got scared.

Bugay said the university sent emails telling students to stay in place. About 30 to 40 minutes after he first heard the gunshots, police came knocking on his door to escort him and others from the building.

A slew of law enforcement officials and emergency crews were sent to the scene. Agents from the FBI arrived in an armored vehicle and the U.S. Secret Service said its officers were aiding police in the search and at the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also assisting in the investigation.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the U.S. Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man attempted to set himself on fire outside the building. The man was rushed by police helicopter to a local hospital and his condition wasn't immediately known.
A 23-year-old youth mentor shot dead with a gun stolen from the back of a police car. A woman violently assaulted by a mentally ill homeless man as she entered her Embarcadero condo  captured on camera for the world to see. A probationer charged with 11 felonies, including ramming a police car with a stolen vehicle, freed from jail to walk the streets pending trial. A sea of car windows smashed while police stood by and shrugged. Residents livid about the desecration of any sort of property rights or safety in San Francisco.

No, these arent descriptions of life under District Attorney Chesa Boudin. This was San Francisco in 2017, 2018 and 2019  in the run-up to Boudins election. Then, like now, headlines inspired outrage. Then, like now, there were those who demanded the city get tough.

And yet, in the 2019 election, when given the chance to select Nancy Tung, who vowed to crack down on drug and quality-of-life crimes, San Francisco voters rejected her resoundingly. They also narrowly dismissed Suzy Loftus, the then-acting district attorney who had charted an approach straddling toughness and reform.

Instead, San Franciscans put their trust in Boudin, who promised to pursue a more compassionate form of criminal justice that diverted nonviolent offenders away from jails and prisons and toward court-monitored rehabilitation programs that could potentially help them escape the cycle of recidivism.

Voters werent naive in making this selection. Concerns over the excesses and racial injustices of Californias traditional crime and punishment justice system were well-founded  and available data suggested Boudins approach could have merit.

A 2016 San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst report found that police crackdowns on the kind of low-level quality-of-life crimes that plague the city wasted money and produced little results. The report recommended shifting resources away from the criminal justice system to social and housing services.

Diversion data also showed promise. One San Francisco program boasted a 96% success rate in preventing recidivism  although some criminal justice experts cautioned that such results might be cherry-picked, because diversion programs at that time were typically reserved for offenders who showed the best chances of success.

Scaling up diversion is an experiment  one that we are now in the middle of. True to his campaign promise, Boudin is diverting a far greater percentage of cases than his predecessors.

Critics have branded this approach catch and release. But this is a cynical depiction of the plan voters knew they were signing up for.

Recall is a last-ditch tool for emergencies, not buyers remorse. And San Franciscans should respond accordingly by voting no on Proposition H.

Former homicide prosecutor Brooke Jenkins, a self-professed progressive who recently resigned from Boudins office, is among those leading the recall charge. In an interview with the editorial board, she argued that Boudin has brought a public defenders mindset to his office, and in doing so has removed the will to effectively prosecute crime. She questioned his overreliance on diversion  and the efficacy with which he used it  and advocated for a balanced approach between compassion and toughness, like that of Loftus. The Chronicles editorial board offered similar critiques of Boudins strategy when he ran for office in 2019  and ultimately decided not to endorse his candidacy.

Tactical differences of opinion, however, are not recallable offenses. And Jenkins or anyone else who decries Boudins methods and execution are free to run against him in two years.

In his recall endorsement interview with The Chronicle, Boudin was thoughtful, strategic and more than capable of justifying his decision-making. Boudin may be many things, but incompetent is not among them.

Crime stats that mirror those of when Boudin took office do not justify a recall. Violent crime is low and has stayed low even as it has surged across the country at rates not seen since the 1960s. Property crime rates were unacceptable before Boudin arrived and they are unacceptable now. San Franciscans have a right to be outraged. But prematurely sacking the district attorney wont be a magic fix.

Cities across the country  regardless of their criminal justice approach  have struggled after COVID lockdowns lifted. A tough-talking district attorney may offer reassurance to some uneasy minds, but aggression is hardly a criminal panacea. One need only look to Sacramento, where aggregated assaults and homicides shot up 43% and 67% respectively from 2019 to 2021 under District Attorney Anne Marie Schuberts notoriously harsh watch.

Reducing crime demands holistic solutions, and Boudin is far from the only leader who needs to step up.

Boudin vowed to fight crime by building a justice infrastructure that attempts to rehabilitate instead of incarcerate. That effort is a work in process. It may never come to fruition. But San Francisco voters signed up for a four-year experiment. We should have the courage of our conviction to wait for the results.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Kris Jenner became emotional while recalling a volatile 2016 argument she heard about between her son Rob Kardashian and his then-girlfriend Blac Chyna that traumatized him.

Jenner testified for the second day from the witness stand in a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday that she believed Chyna attempted to murder her son. At the time, she said she was told that Chyna pointed a gun at Kardashians head, tried to strangle him with a phone cord and hit him with a metal pole while intoxicated.

It was complete chaos. It was scary, said Jenner, the 66-year-old Keeping Up with the Kardashians matriarch. Shes the first of four defendants - a group that also includes her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner - to testify in Blac Chynas $100 million lawsuit alleging the women conspired to have her reality show Rob & Chyna canceled and damage her celebrity status.

Earlier this week, much of Chynas testimony dealt with the fight, and the celebration of the shows renewal the night before. Chyna testified that she was joking with her fiance when she wrapped a phone cord around his neck and grabbed his unloaded gun off a nightstand.

But Kris Jenner said putting a gun to her sons head was not a joke.

He was a mess, she recalled while talking to her son after the incident on Dec. 15, 2016. I could only imagine how he felt.  This was a horrible situation. I was heartbroken.

Kris Jenner began to shed tears while remembering the Rob Kardashian-Chyna spat, which happened months after Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. She said knowing that both her children had a gun pointed at them within the same year was traumatizing for her.

While Robs situation was going on, Kim had just been dealing with Paris, she said. He had a gun put at his head, and she was held at gunpoint and thrown into a bathtub. Thats a lot to take as a mother.

While on stand, Kris Jenner said her boyfriend Corey Gamble separated her son and Chyna - who she says smashed an expensive television in the master bedroom. But after Gamble pulled them apart and asked Rob Kardashian to leave, she was told that Chyna smashed a chair on the windshield of her son's car.

In her questioning, Chynas lawyer, Lynne Ciani, asked why Jenner or anyone else did not call the police. Jenner said her security team  former Los Angeles Police Department officers  helped diffuse the intense ordeal.

Kris Jenner claims she wanted to help Chyna. She said arguments between the couple were an ongoing theme in their relationship that included alcoholic beverages and drugs.

We didnt put Chyna on the show and give her this fabulous life to be taken away, she said. We created other opportunities. I was hopeful that it would be OK. Thats why I didnt call (the police).

Ciani tried to gain clarity about a text message sent from Kris Jenner to Rob & Chyna showrunner that read Chyna beat the (expletive) out of Robs face. She said the phrase was used as a figure of speech.

Kris Jenner compared her reference to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the recent Oscars.

Its like youre at an awards show and you get slapped, she said while drawing some laughter from jurors and some others in the courtroom while her daughters facial expressions remained stoic.

Ciani asked about another text she sent to the showrunner that read We need to ditch this (expletive) after her sons altercation with the Chyna. Jenner said she was very angry and upset at the time, but she claims she never had any involvement in hampering Chynas time on the show.

Its not my proudest moment, but it was how I felt at the time, she said.

Chynas lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleges defamation and interference with contracts. It accuses Kris Jenner of being a ringleader who used her daughters in a campaign to defame Chyna as abusive to Rob Kardashian.

Kris Jenner would be an executive producer on the couples Keeping Up with the Kardashians spinoff, Rob & Chyna, which premiered on the E! Network later in September of 2016. She said she had nothing to do with the network deciding to not pick up the reality show for a second season.

With Kris Jenner being her sons manager, she said she would receive a letter saying the show was green lit. But she says they never got a letter exercising the option.

Chyna and Rob Kardashian share a daughter named Dream.
The much-anticipated Battery Bluff park in the Presidio opens to the public today.

The 6-acre site features gardens, picnic tables and a majestic view of the Golden Gate, and marks the second of three sections to be opened around the restored site at what was once Doyle Drive.

Seven acres of tidal marsh opened at Quartermaster Reach in December of 2020. The final 14-acre park atop the Presidio Parkway tunnels, Presidio Tunnel Tops, is set to open in July.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

"Yes, I'm wearing heels in a park," joked Mayor London Breed at a clear sunny day at the site yesterday, in front of the old batteries. "I'm in awe of this view, and the magic of what I feel today."

"People come from all over the world to experience the best that San Francisco has to offer. They come for the sheer beauty, access to green and open space, and to visit some of the best urban parks in the country," Breed said. "Now, everyone will have more to look forward to and greater access to this national park with the historic renovation of Battery Bluff."

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Built in 1936 as a New Deal project, the original Doyle Drive connected San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge, but by the 1990s it was deemed both an eyesore and one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the city. Before it was finally torn down, federal highway officials gave it a safety rating of 2 out of 100. The park project to restore the site has taken numerous agencies and more than 30 years. The park was designed by late landscape architect Michael Painter.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Four historic gun battery sites, Slaughter, Baldwin, Sherwood and Blaney, are now on view at the site for the first time since the construction of Doyle Drive began in 1936. Built between 1899 and 1902, the batteries were part of the U.S. Armys coastal defense system around the Golden Gate to protect San Francisco Bay.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

"We are so grateful for the collaborative efforts of countless public servants and community members working together over decades to reimagine San Franciscos northern waterfront," said Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust, in a statement. "Thanks to that work, the Trust was able to create more park amenities for the enjoyment of all visitors. We look forward to unveiling the final gem, the Presidio Tunnel Tops, later this year."

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

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LUKASHIVKA, Ukraine (AP)  A single metal cross remains inside the church of shattered brick and blackened stone. Russian soldiers used the house of worship for storing ammunition, residents said, and Ukrainian forces shelled the building to make the Russians leave.

There will be no Orthodox Easter service here Sunday in this small village in northern Ukraine.

One of the church's golden domes was blown off. Its gilded cross is propped up against an exterior wall.

Its a great pity, resident Valentina Ivanivna, 70, said, standing with her bike on Orthodox Good Friday as men dismantled abandoned Russian military vehicles nearby.

The church in Lukashivka, a village near the city of Chernihiv, survived World War II and the most austere years of the Soviet Union, a time when authorities stripped it of its religious icons, residents said.

This time, locals think it will take years for the church to recover its past beauty.

Its bells fell onto unstable ground that is littered with ammunition casings and cans of Russian tinned meat. A stand for candles remains, along with a dented teapot and a pasta strainer.

Outside, the finned part of a rocket is stuck in the mud.

Villagers have vowed to rebuild, whatever it takes. Theyve already started on their own homes, even as they wait for basic services to resume.

There is no gas available to bake Easter bread. At a bend in a road, a military chaplain, Volodymyr Vyshyvkin, and volunteers handed out food and verses.

Remember, Jesus was resurrected, the chaplain told them. Ukraine will do the same. He called on the villagers to pray for those on the front line in places like Mariupol, a southern city the Russians are determined to take and continued to bomb Friday.

Resistance never died during the local occupation of Lukashivka, said Valentyna Golyak, 64.

I was telling the Russians, You will stay in this land as fertilizer. If you want to kill me, kill me. They looked ashamed, she said. I think they dont believe in God.

Golyak said she also told the Russian soldiers that she had lived her whole life without war and had expected to die the same. Instead, the soldiers damaged or destroyed almost every village home. And the church had been beautiful, she said.

But she celebrates new life, too. Her daughter gave birth in a village basement during the Russia occupation. On Saturday, the baby girl will be 1 month old.

She was named Victoria.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Sarah Lande (1st L) and Wanxiang America Corporation President Ni Pin (C, Front) sign the agreement of the "Sarah and Roger Lande Scholars" Program in Muscatine, Iowa, the United States, on April 20, 2022. China's Wanxiang Group earlier this week renewed its scholars program with Muscatine, a city on the western bank of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Iowa, with Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang as a witness. The "Sarah and Roger Lande Scholars" Program, signed on Wednesday, will act as a strong motivator for the Muscatine School District and Muscatine Community College students to choose Chinese as their first foreign language and to continue their Chinese language study beyond the district's "world language" requirement. (Xinhua/Xu Jing)

MUSCATINE, the United States, April 22 (Xinhua) -- China's Wanxiang Group earlier this week renewed its scholars program with Muscatine, a city on the western bank of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Iowa, with Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang as a witness.

The "Sarah and Roger Lande Scholars" Program, signed on Wednesday, will act as a strong motivator for the Muscatine School District and Muscatine Community College students to choose Chinese as their first foreign language and to continue their Chinese language study beyond the district's "world language" requirement.

With 500,000 U.S. dollars in aid from Wanxiang, students from the Muscatine High School and Muscatine Community College may go to China for six weeks to study Chinese and get a glimpse of Chinese people's life and Chinese culture in the summers of 2023 and 2024.

"Muscatine is a symbol of friendship between China and the United States," said Qin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, then party secretary of Zhengding County in China's northern province of Hebei, led a five-person delegation to Muscatine in 1985 and stayed with a local family for two days.

The seeds of friendship Xi planted 37 years ago have taken root, blossomed and borne fruit in the state of Iowa, Qin wrote in the guestbook after visiting the house where Xi has stayed, saying his trip there was a trip of "paying tribute to the friendship."

Qin is visiting Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota in the U.S. Midwest, and Muscatine is his first leg in Iowa. "One of my most important jobs is to take care of this special friendship, and let the friendship be passed from generation to generation," he said.

"So we talk about how to increase exchanges between students and how to make Muscatine a more attractive place of friendship to people of other places," he added.

Agricultural cooperation between China and the United States has developed very fast. Qin hopes that through his visit, China-U.S. cooperation in the area of agriculture will be strengthened.

Before signing the agreement named after her and her husband for their contribution to a strong China-U.S. relationship, Sarah Lande stressed the importance of having more opportunities for people, young people in particular, from China and the United States to get together. "When the people get together, it seems like the barrier comes down," she said.

Wanxiang used to sign a "Wanxiang Scholars" Program with the City of Muscatine, under which over 20 students from the Muscatine School District and Muscatine Community College went to China in 2017 and 2018 for immersion studies of Chinese.

Thirty-five-year-old Jennifer Miranda Zamora and 25-year-old Angellea Ibanez, then students at the Muscatine Community College, went to China in 2018 as "Wanxiang Scholars." Before the trip, all they knew about China was that it was home to the Great Wall. The six-week stay in China enriched their knowledge.

"It was amazing. It (China) was very rich in culture. It's not really what I pictured. It was a lot more," Ibanez said. "I felt like we had a lot more similarities than differences (with the Chinese)."

Ibanez told Xinhua that they also learned about the politics and economy in China and that she would definitely consider visiting China again.

"It's very obvious that those (kinds of) communication or kinds of programs will help build a bridge to our future," said Ni Pin, president of Wanxiang America Corporation, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Wanxiang Group Company based in Hangzhou, China.

The renewed program will have a funding of 500,000 dollars, up from the total grant of 300,000 dollars for the program in 2017-2018, which is meant to support more Muscatine students to go to China. 
Lately, Ive been reminded of a Poli Sci course I took with Professor Glenn Snyder at UB back in the 1970s. Although I didnt fully appreciate it at the time, a lot of things I learned in that class have echoed back to me through the ensuing years.

Snyder began the class by asking, What were the origins of World War I? Some of us lamely muttered something about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Snyder then patiently explained it was more of a chain reaction leading up to the assassination. Since then, Ive come to regard the assassination as merely the last block removed in a game of Jenga.

Among the precipitating factors, Germany, jealous of Britains colonies and naval superiority, soon found itself in an arms race with England.

Start with instability stoked by immigration, the emergence of radical political movements and resources wasted on militarism and profiteering. Add a few crazed leaders, sibling jealousy and competition and, perhaps, inbreeding among the royals, and you had a recipe for a war.

Recently, I shared some scenes from the Marx Brothers classic film Duck Soup. Sylvania floods Fredonia with refugees in order to destabilize it prior to a war. Students readily saw parallels between the film and the millions of Ukrainians flooding Poland, Slovakia, Romania, the Baltics, etc. These countries will presumably be next when Russia attempts to reclaim its lost Soviet empire.

Russia feels threatened because some former Soviet satellites joined NATO. Russia is also worried by countries tugged toward the West by democratization, capitalism, consumerism and cultural imperialism.

All of this might well cause one to wonder if we are going to have to refight WWI and experience all of its accompanying horrors, including the use of chemical weapons.

The big difference is, this time, there are oodles of nuclear weapons. Putin has threatened the West with unintended consequences if it persists in sending aid to the Ukrainians.

You might well find yourself singing a line or two from P.F. Sloans Eve of Destruction. I keep thinking of Randy Newmans Political Science, that little satirical masterpiece about nukes, knee-jerk hatreds, and the dangers and consequences of ethnic and national stereotyping.

Too often in this life, I have run into fools or drunks or drunken fools who think the solution to every international dispute is to simply nuke em.

Can we save the Ukrainians without repeating WWI or fighting a nuclear war, a war that at least environmentally, everyone loses?

It seems that all most of us can do is watch, as the poet Mathew Arnold put it, where ignorant armies clash by night.

A former dean and professor of English and education, Dan Schwartz, J.D., Ph.D. teaches business at SUNY Buffalo State College.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed an expansion of lands available for selection by Alaska Native Vietnam War-era veterans who are entitled to allotments.

Tom Heinlein, acting state director for the land agency in Alaska, on Thursday recommended opening about 27 million acres of land for allotment selections by eligible veterans. Currently, about 1.2 million acres are available. Concerns have been raised that some of the currently available lands are difficult to access or outside veterans' cultural homelands.

Heinlein said the next step is to provide detailed land descriptions to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. It would be up to Haaland to sign and issue an opening order for land selections, he said.

The plan is to get her that information in the coming weeks, Heinlein said. He called the matter a super high priority for Haaland.

Haaland visited with veterans this week during her ongoing trip to Alaska, her first to the state as secretary. We have a sacred obligation to Americas veterans," she said in a statement, adding that she "will not ignore land allotments owed to our Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans.

Under the 1906 Alaska Native Allotment Act, Alaska Natives were allowed to apply for up to 160 acres of land. Many Alaska Natives were unaware of this program, in large part due to communication hurdles, such as language barriers, according to the land management agency.

There were efforts to urge Alaska Natives to apply for lands if they hadn't already done so before a 1971 law took effect; that period overlapped with the Vietnam War. A 1998 federal law allowed veterans to apply for land, but the program was seen by some as restrictive.

A 2019 law lifted use and occupancy restrictions, the land agency has said. The application period extends to late 2025.

There are roughly 2,000 eligible individuals but several hundred for whom the agency is looking for heirs or addresses, said Lesli Ellis-Wouters, an agency spokesperson in Alaska. Of those eligible, 162 have made selections and eight have had land conveyed to them, she said.

Nelson Angapak Sr., who appeared at a news conference with Haaland in Anchorage on Thursday, said Friday that he hadn't seen the documents or maps yet. But he said if the land base from which veterans may apply is expanded, he sees it as a step in the right direction.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, has expressed concern with the pace of the process so far and with the federal government's approach.

Chad Padgett, a former state director for the Bureau of Land Management, is currently the state director for Sullivan's office. Padgett, in a statement Friday, said that by changing the process and attempting to open the lands just for veteran allotments (and excluding the state of Alaska and Native Corporations who also are allotted land under federal law), the Department of the Interior is promising land that they legally cannot.

The plan would likely be challenged in court, he said.

The land management agency falls under the Interior Department.
CEDARTOWN, Ga. (AP)  A suspect jailed in Alabama has been charged in the death of a man whose body was found stuffed in an abandoned toolbox by a road crew working in neighboring Georgia, authorities said.

The sheriffs office in Cherokee County, Alabama, said 28-year-old Erik Hooper is charged with murder and receiving stolen property. He remained jailed Saturday on $1.5 million bond.
PELHAM, Ala. (AP)  New public access areas will be available later this year at Alabama's largest state park, which is growing with the purchase of more than 1,600 acres (647 hectares) of land in metro Birmingham.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources plans to expand biking, hiking and horse-riding trails at Oak Mountain State Park with the addition of acreage acquired through the Forever Wild Land Trust, the agency said in a statement.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  The educator chosen to lead the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science was a member of the school's first graduating class in 1990.

The state Board of Education voted Thursday to hire Donald Cook as executive director of the residential public high school that provides an accelerated curriculum for high school juniors and seniors. He begins June 1 at the school, which is on the campus of Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.
BEIRUT (AP)  A boat carrying about 60 migrants capsized Saturday night off the Lebanese coast, and 45 people were rescued, while a young girl was confirmed dead and the rest were missing, officials said.

Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh told The Associated Press that 17 people had been brought to shore along with the body of the young girl. He said 28 others were rescued later by Lebanon's navy.

Search operations are ongoing for the rest, Hamieh, who is supervising the rescue operations, said by telephone.

He said authorities had no exact numbers of the migrants because they left the country illegally. But the Lebanese Red Cross said the boat was carrying about 60 migrants.

The Red Cross said it had sent ambulances to the port of the northern city of Tripoli in case there were injuries.

For many years Lebanon was a country that took in refugees, but since the countrys economic meltdown began in October 2019, hundreds of people have left on boats heading to Europe.

Migrants have been paying thousands of dollars to smugglers to take them to Europe hoping for a better life. Hundreds have made it to European countries, while dozens of others were stopped and forced to return home by the Lebanese navy. Several people lost their lives on the way to Europe over the past three years.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati's office said the boast capsized shortly after leaving the northern coastal town of Qalamoun near Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city. Tripoli is Lebanon's most impoverished city.

Mikati's office said the Lebanese army and authorities were on high alert following the case.

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean nation of 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, is in the grip of the worst economic crisis in the country's modern history. The economic meltdown has put more three-quarters of the country's population into poverty.

The World Bank describes the crisis as among the worst in the world since the 1850s. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs and the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  The Alabama Democratic Party has launched a Free Weed website to support its effort to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state.

The site, www.FreeWeedAL.com, argues that prosecutions for small amounts of cannabis are a waste of criminal justice resources and have disproportionately affected communities of color. The party argued legalizing marijuana could also bring economic benefits to the state.

Alabamas Republican politicians seem hellbent on wasting money criminalizing ordinary people, ruining lives in the process, state Rep. Chris England, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said in a statement.

He added that, criminalizing cannabis doesnt make us safer.

The site is a mix of policy advocacy and promotion for the state Democratic Party and its candidates this year. It includes statistics about marijuana prosecutions as well as links to donate to the state party, register to vote and to volunteer to help candidates. It also has Free Weed t-shirts and other merchandise for sale.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl called the site a stunt.

The Alabama Republican Party supports traditional family values. Its important to us that our society and our families stay safe, strong, and healthy. The recreational use of marijuana does not encourage these principles, Wahl said in a statement.

Eighteen states have legalized the recreational use of small amounts of marijuana for adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, although none of those are in the Deep South. Twenty-seven states have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, meaning violations are generally a civil or local infraction instead of a crime.

The Alabama Democratic Party announced the site on April 20, also known as 4/20, a date thats become associated with celebrating marijuana.

The Republican-dominated Alabama legislature has approved a medical marijuana program but rejected efforts to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
PEMBROKE, Mass. (AP)  A driver was ejected from her vehicle and died following a collision on a highway in Massachusetts, state police said Saturday.

The 54-year-old woman was driving an SUV south on Route 3 in Pembroke. The vehicle came into contact with a pickup truck that was heading the same direction in a sideswipe collision, police said. The SUV rolled over and the drive was ejected and died at the scene, police said.
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MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Community members are used to seeing the tower at Arconic, known as the accumulator, lit brightly for various occasions  it glows pink in honor of breast cancer awareness and green for Christmas  but it will turn purple to put the spotlight on victims rights.

National Crime Victims Rights Week is designated April 24-30 across the country. One Arconic employee, electrician David Toney, is responsible for getting his company to join in the recognition. Local 309 Union Hall in Alcoa will also be lit up in purple.

Toneys story is one of unthinkable tragedy that he is now using to help others.

He had moved to East Tennessee in January 1994, from Ashland, Kentucky. It was on July 7 of that year that his world was shattered.

My dad was kidnapped and murdered, Toney said. I found out about it on July 8 at 3:30 in the morning. His killer left him tied to a tree for 33 days. They captured his killer on July 19.

That would have been Thomas Toneys 50th birthday.

The career criminal who committed this heinous crime was Roy Pearce, who Toney argues wasnt supposed to be out of prison at the time he committed the murder of Thomas Toney. In order to avoid the death penalty, the murderer drew a map that led investigators to the location of Thomas Toneys body.

On Aug. 9 they found my dads body, Toney, 53, said. Or what was left of it. That was my papaws birthday.

David said the murderer first kidnapped his dad and stole his van. Thomas Toney was tied to the tree, still alive and was told to yell and someone would eventually hear him. But the van got stuck in the mud as Pearce tried to leave; frustrated, he shot Thomas. The killer was found in Michigan and brought back to Kentucky.

Pearce was convicted and sent to a Kentucky prison for life. Life for David Toney would carry on despite the senseless crime and monumental loss.

Then I was contacted in July 2020 that his parole hearing was coming up, Toney said. It kind of snuck up on me.

Toney and his family attended the hearing on Nov. 9, 2020. The investigator who found the body, Toneys stepmom and other family members attended. When it was all over, the Kentucky State Parole Board made the decision that Pearce would not be coming up for parole ever again; he was ordered to serve out his sentence with no chance of further parole reviews.

They told us we would never have to deal with him again, Toney said.

However, in May 2021, Toney said he got an email from someone who informed him the parole board had a new chairman and she was making a new directive, prohibiting inmates serving life sentences from receiving serve-outs the first time they appear before the board. The new rule would be retroactive, and Thomas Toneys killer was one of those who would get a new parole hearing. Toney wasnt told this information through the judiciary system. He would not have known about the directive were it not for the email sent by a concerned individual.

There were 45 people who were to get new parole hearings, Toney said.

Angry that his fathers killer might end up having parole hearings year after year and forcing his family to relive their nightmare over and over, Toney got to work. He called Kentucky state prosecutors, the state attorney general, the governors office and anybody else who would listen.

The attorney general and two commonwealths attorneys filed lawsuits to stop the directive; the judge placed a temporary injunction on it. Then Gov. Andy Beshear appointed a new chair of the parole board and the board rescinded the directive.

Toney said Marsys Law, which Kentucky passed in November 2020, led to this directive being struck down. Marsys Law is a victims bill of rights that has been passed in other states, like California. The act protects the legal rights of victims of crime.

Marsy Nicholas was the sister of Henry Nicholas, the co-founder of Marsys Law. She was stalked and murdered while a student at a California university, in 1983. It became law in California in 2008.

Tennessee hasnt passed the legislation. It failed to get out of committee. Marianne Dunvant serves as the victims outreach coordinator for Marsys Law in Tennessee. In Kentucky, it is part of the state constitutions victims bill of rights.

The law played a big part in this story, Toney said.

To celebrate the victory, Toney, family and friends gathered for a celebration, on July 31 in Ashland. The mayor of Ashland signed a decree making July 31, 2021 as Tom Toney Day, David said.

The pain is still present. Toney said he continues to help others who have lost loved ones due to violence. He is supposed to be speaking in front of the Tennessee General Assembly.

I miss him every day, Toney said of his father. He described his dad as someone who worked all of his life and who couldnt stand to see children or the elderly doing without. He had a rough upbringing, Toney said, but loved his family.

Christy Newman, communications manager for Arconic, said the lighting of the tower is definitely noticed by many in the community. When they see it purple in a few days, that may start some conversations, she said.

This is being done all across the country, Newman said. Hopefully, it will help spread awareness about victims rights. We are happy to do our part.
PRAIRIEVILLE, La. (AP)  Authorities say a man is dead after his truck crashed into a utility pole on a Louisiana highway.

Louisiana State Police say the single-vehicle wreck Friday night shut down a stretch of state Highway 73 in Ascension Parish and knocked out power to nearly 2,000 homes and businesses.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying a general of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Saturday morning, killing a bodyguard, state media reported.

The report said Gen. Hossein Almasi survived the ambush  in Zahedan city of the southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province  without any injury. It identified the fallen bodyguard as Mahmoud Absalan.

Authorities have arrested some suspects but did not identify them, the report added.

The area, neighboring both Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the scene of occasional clashes between Baluch militants and Iranian forces. Security forces have also clashed with drug traffickers in the province, which is on a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin.

In January three Guard members and five bandits were killed in a clash in the province, a month after the Guard killed a gunman who had attacked its rural intelligence office.
At Canterbury Woods, we old-timers have a spontaneous singing group. One day, after Auld Lang Syne and the Army Air Corps Song ended our ragged rendition of 30 others, we drifted into conversation. I learned of a memoir writing class scheduled for that week.

The Buffalo News confronted me with an article describing the sale of Schoellkopf Scout Reservation and Camp Stonehaven. The sale is to pay the debt incurred in suits against the Scouts for sexual abuse of Boy Scouts by scout leaders.

I had to write this memoir.

I was an Eagle Scout, a Silver Palm, in fact, which is 15 merit badges past Eagle. I was a den chief, a patrol leader, president of an Explorer Post and a waterfront staffer at Camp Scouthaven at Crystal Lake. I was proud of it, too, but not so much, lately.

I was not abused, not until now. Now, the courts are abusing the poor, already-aggrieved Boy Scouts. The incidental damage of these suits, the damage to the kids, the loss of those camps, accomplishes a grave injustice.

l have snapshots of Tom Keyes, Dick Jerome, Bobbie Dreher and me the weekend at Schoellkopf in 1943 that we planted trees on those hilly meadows. I returned in the 1970s to a magnificent forest.

The summer of 1945, the first summer after I started at Bennett High School, I was at loose ends. I persuaded my dad to drop Don Adams and me off in Zoar Valley with a tent, sleeping bags and four days worth of food. We swam in Cattaraugus Creek, climbed waterfalls, built campfires and got bored.

Then, I spent a week at Toad Hollow, another scout camp now sold and a private estate. Toad Hollow was an organized camp experience with hikes and a swimming pool, crafts and big campfires with sing-alongs (Old Hirams Goat comes to mind). But the best times were when we took off to hike up Marys Run, to Big Falls, to hunt for crabs under rocks, wade in the water, swim in the deeper spots and run wild.

Dad thought I was too old to sit around home the rest of that summer, so he got me a job. He said, I talked with scout headquarters. They need a handyman to work August at Schoellkopf.

Wow, a month in a tent in the middle of 500 wild acres and getting paid for it  that wasnt a job, that was Boy Scout Valhalla.

Roy Macready and I shared a walled platform tent. Six-foot-five Al Whigham, our cheerful boss, was our god. His pretty wife cooked our meals in a pop-up trailer where they lived. Al had just returned from the war in the Pacific and was full of stories. Filipinos took him for a general because he was so tall and carried a Colt 45.

I supervised the swimming hole. We had a no-kidding swimming hole. We threw up a stone dam by hand. It held back enough water to get you good and wet. And we strung a line from a tree branch to swing out over our little pond and drop in. I also cleaned latrines.

That summer, we constructed a group of four small cabins around a large mess hall, all made of logs, just like a Lincoln Log set. The Guggenheim family donated the funds in honor of their son, a bomber pilot and former Boy Scout who was lost over Europe

The times we had! And to think Stonehaven, Schoellkopf and Toad Hollow are no longer to be the preserve of kids like us. This is justice?
NORFOLK, Va. (AP)  In Jewish tradition, a reader of the Torah uses a pointer called a yad, which means hand in Hebrew. A yad, typically made of wood or silver with a miniature hand at its tip, helps readers of the books of Moses keep their place. It also keeps people from touching the sacred scroll.

For Clay Barr, who has collected dozens of yads, they serve another purpose: to honor the memory of her late husband, Jay.

Her collection, The Guiding Hand, is exhibiting at the Chrysler Museum of Art through Aug. 14.

It includes nearly 150 pieces, ranging from a 1700s yad piece from renowned English silversmith Hester Bateman to a recent carving by Norfolk sculptor Spencer Tinkham.

Barr, who lives in Norfolk, started collecting antique yads 28 years ago and also began commissioning them from artists she met at craft shows. She never stopped and doesnt plan to; five pieces are in the works.

There are no rules governing the form of a yad, and Barr encourages creativity in the material and the design.

Yads made of blown glass, forged steel and porcelain are in the exhibition. In a display case of yads made only by women, a For the Matriarchs pointer features a stack of 19th-century mother of pearl buttons on darning needles. Its symbolic, Barr said, because for a long time women were not allowed to read from the Torah, but they kept Jewish traditions in the home.

As Barr walked through the exhibit on a recent morning, she pointed out a wooden one made from a skateboard. Its shaped like a rabbit.

Im always looking for the next curious material, Barr said with a giggle.

Many of the yads feature Hebrew words or symbols from Jewish history, but patrons will have to look closely to see some of those intricate details. Each piece is numbered to correspond with a label that provides the artists name and medium.

The Guiding Hand is a traveling exhibit that has been to Oregon, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas. Its heading to Florida next.

The quality is so high, said Lloyd Dewitt, chief curator at the Chrysler. It makes a statement that Judaica belongs in an art museum.

He added that he and his colleagues are working to bring more diversity to the museum and that The Guiding Hand fits that goal.

We want to get the message out there that we honor these rich traditions, he said, and you can come here and see it proudly displayed.
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JERUSALEM (AP)  Christians celebrated their Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Saturday against a backdrop of rising tensions with Israel, which imposed new restrictions on attendance this year that it said were needed for safety.

Israel says it wants to prevent another disaster after a crowd stampede at a packed Jewish holy site last year left 45 people dead. Christian leaders say there's no need to alter a ceremony that has been held for centuries.

In the dense confines of Jerusalems Old City, where Jews, Christians and Muslims must share their holiest sites  no matter how reluctantly  even small changes can cause prophetic angst.

The city has already seen a week of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. It stands on a hilltop that is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

This year major Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays have converged against a backdrop of renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence. Tensions have soared as tens of thousands of people flock to Jerusalem's Old City to visit some of the holiest sites for all three faiths for the first time since the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that on the Saturday before Easter a miraculous flame appears inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a sprawling 12th century basilica built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

On Saturday, Greek Patriarch Theophilos III entered the Holy Edicule, a chamber built on the traditional site of the tomb, and returned with two lit candles, passing the flame among thousands of people holding candles, gradually illuminating the walls of the darkened basilica. The flame will be transferred to Orthodox communities in other countries on special flights.

The source of the Holy Fire has been a closely guarded secret for centuries, and highbrow skeptics going back to the Middle Ages have scorned it as a carnival trick for the masses.

Two years ago, the church was nearly empty because of a coronavirus lockdown, but Israel made special arrangements for the flame to be carried abroad. Hundreds attended last year, when travel restrictions were in place and the ceremony was limited to the fully-vaccinated.

This year, Israel applied a safety law that limits crowd size based on space and the number of exits. Authorities say they want to prevent a repeat of last year's stampede on Mount Meron in northern Israel during a religious festival attended by around 100,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews.

It was one of the worst disasters in the country's history, and authorities came in for heavy criticism over alleged negligence.

Theres never a problem until theres a problem, and this is what happened last year in Meron, said Tania Berg-Rafaeli, the director of interreligious affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

If something were to happen at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we would have to take responsibility for that, and we want to avoid any problem, she said.

Authorities said they would allow a total of 4,000 people to attend the Holy Fire ceremony, including 1,800 inside the church itself, which has a single large entryway with a raised step. Berg-Rafaeli said Israeli authorities have been in close contact with the churches and would revise the quota upwards next year if more doors in the basilica can be opened.

Its totally about safety and not at all about anything else," she said.

Church leaders rejected any restrictions on principle, saying they infringe on religious freedom. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, like Al-Aqsa, is governed by a decades-old set of informal arrangements known as the status quo. As at Al-Aqsa, seemingly minor violations have ignited violence, including notorious brawls between monks of different denominations.

In a statement released earlier this month, the Greek Patriarchate said it was fed up with police restrictions on freedom to worship.

The orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has decided, by the power of the Lord, that it will not compromise its right to provide spiritual services in all churches and squares, it said. Prayers will be held as usual." The patriarchate says up to 11,000 people attend in normal years.

Police sealed off the main entrances to the Christian Quarter with barricades. Large crowds jostled to get in, as the police waved through a trickle of local residents and some foreign tourists.

The ceremony, which goes back at least 1,200 years, hasn't always passed peacefully.

In 1834 a frenzied stampede broke out in the darkened church, and the ruler of the Holy Land at the time barely escaped with his life after his guards drew swords and hacked their way through the crowd, the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore recounts in his history of Jerusalem. Some 400 pilgrims died in the melee, most from suffocation or trampling.

Israel says it is committed to ensuring freedom of worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and has long presented itself as an island of tolerance in the Middle East.

In recent years, however, tensions have risen with the local Christian community, most of whom are Palestinian Christians, a population that has steadily dwindled through decades of conflict as many have sought economic opportunities abroad.

Israel captured east Jerusalem  which includes the historic Old City and its religious sites  along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after the war in a move not recognized internationally, and considers the entire city to be its unified capital.

In recent years, the Greek Patriarchate has been locked in a legal battle with a Jewish settler group over the sale of three properties in the Old City, including two Palestinian-run hotels. The patriarchate says it has proof of corruption in the disputed 2004 sale.

Israel's Supreme Court upheld the sale in 2019, ruling in favor of Ateret Cohanim, an Israeli organization that seeks to expand the Jewish presence in mostly Palestinian neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

The settlers took over part of one of the hotels  a popular backpacker hostel  last month. Christian leaders denounced the move, accusing them of trying to change the religious character of Jerusalem's Christian Quarter.

The frustration could be felt outside the New Gate leading to the Christian Quarter on Saturday, as crowds waited to enter. Some lifted baby strollers and small children over the barricades as they were waved through.

Its like this every year and every year theres a different excuse, said Dr. Muna Mushahwar, a physician who argued with police as she tried to organize the entry of a foreign delegation.

They dont want the Christians here. The more you push people the more frustrated they get and then they leave.
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TOKYO (AP)  Japan and Russia have reached an agreement over Tokyos annual catch quota for Russian-born salmon and trout, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said Saturday, despite delays and chilled relations between the two sides amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement on Japan's quota for the popular fish in waters near disputed islands north of Hokkaido is a relief for Japanese fishermen who were worried about the prospects amid worsening ties between the two governments.

Japan and Russia concluded talks Friday, setting a catch quota of 2,050 tons for salmon and trout this year in Japans 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, the fisheries agency said in a statement. The quota is unchanged from last year, and Japan will pay 200-300 million yen ($1.56-2.34 million) in fees  depending on the actual catch  to Russia.

The deal will be formally signed Monday, the agency said. The payment for the fish of Russian origin is stipulated under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

This years annual fishing quota negotiations began after the usual salmon season in the region started, amid growing tensions between Tokyo and Moscow over Japan's sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement only settles the quota within Japan's economic zone, but Japan still needs to negotiate a quota within the Russian EEZ.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Japan has imposed a series of sanctions against Moscow, largely in line with measures taken by other Group of Seven countries, including freezing the assets of Russian leaders, billionaires and groups, restricting trade and revoking Moscows most favored nation trade status.

In an apparent reprisal, Russia has announced a suspension of peace treaty talks with Japan that included negotiations over the disputed islands that Tokyo desperately wants to regain control of.

The dispute over the Russian-held islands, which the former Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II, has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their war hostilities. In an updated diplomatic policy report released Friday, Japans Foreign Ministry said the islands are being illegally occupied by Russia.
DETROIT (AP)  A judge has put on hold the exoneration of a Detroit man who has been in prison for 15 years for kidnapping and sexual assault crimes that prosecutors now say he didnt commit.

A Wayne County judge told prosecutors and defense lawyers for Terance Calhoun on Friday that a Detroit police officer came to her office earlier in the day with material claiming Calhoun had confessed to attacking two teen girls in 2006. Judge Kelly Ramsey said she did not look at the material but rescheduled Fridays hearing until Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP)  A federal judge ordered the head of New York City's jails to appear at an upcoming status conference on conditions at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, after prosecutors said the situation had become so dire that it might be necessary to install court supervision over the beleaguered system to institute necessary reforms.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed city Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina to attend the session scheduled for Tuesday.

She issued the order after getting a letter earlier in the week from the office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

In the letter, prosecutors said, The jails are in a state of crisis, inmates and staff are being seriously injured, and action is desperately needed now, and questioned whether the city and corrections department had the ability, expertise, and will to swiftly make the changes necessary to bring true reform.

Sixteen inmates died at Rikers last year, and three have died so far in 2022.

Prosecutors went on to suggest that more aggressive steps could be sought, including putting an independent authority in place to implement reforms.

In her order handed down Thursday, the judge noted the gravity and urgency of the security situation, and the consequent need for clarity as to planned changes and the implementation.

In a statement, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Molina is laying the groundwork for long-term change.

Fixing Rikers is critically important, a moral imperative, and we need to get it right. But to do that, we need the opportunity to implement our plan, he said. These are generational challenges, deeply ingrained, and no administration can solve them in less than four months. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with the federal monitor and all other stakeholders.
CHILTON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin man is charged with recently hiding the corpse of a man he was convicted of killing in the early 1980s.

John Andrews, 82, of Chilton, was arrested Friday and booked into jail. Andrews pleaded guilty in 1994 to homicide by negligent use of a motor vehicle in the death of 67-year-old Starkie Swenson, who went missing in 1983. Swenson's body was found last September by two people hiking in High Cliff State Park.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)  A northern Indiana man has been convicted of child neglect charges stemming from the shooting death of his 1-year-old son by a 4-year-old sibling.

A St. Joseph County jury returned guilty verdicts Friday against Avion Sexton, 24, on a felony count of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and several drug dealing and possession charges.
SLIDELL, La. (AP)  Louisiana State Police say a man has died after he was struck by a car while trying to cross a highway in a wheelchair.

The fatal crash happened in St. Tammany Parish on a darkened stretch of U.S. 11 shortly after midnight Friday, the agency said in a news release.
BALTIMORE (AP)  Arthur Wang, 17, realized the severity of COVID-19 months before most of his classmates when he got updates about the then novel virus from his uncle, who is a doctor in China.

It inspired the Columbia resident to come up with an effort to better support teachers and other workers in Howard County, where he is a junior at River Hill High School, and beyond.

We wanted to help the community, he explained. I realized how hard it was for the teachers to switch from virtual to in-person classes. Some teachers said it was like flying a plane with no direction.

Wang inspired 42 other students in the county to form the nonprofit Clarksville Youth Care Group. The organization has donated more than 1,400 protective kits to teachers at 62 schools. And hes not done yet.

The kits include a handmade colorful cloth mask in assorted designs that features a pocket where a filter can be inserted for additional protection; an ear saver, which reduces the strain that masks place on the ears; a thank you card and a mask lanyard. Each kit takes about three hours to make.

I realized that we should account for how tough it would be for the teachers. We expect them to be such a strong figure. We needed to appreciate all the hard work they do, said Wang, who previously raised $13,000 in an effort to make 3,600 face shields that were donated to 101 hospitals, clinics, dental offices, urgent care centers and first responders in seven states.

For this project, Wang raised $5,000.

Wangs efforts were recently recognized when he was one of two Marylanders of 25 high school students from around the country named as Prudential Emerging Visionaries.

Faaris Zuberi, 17, of Rockville, also was recognized for Financial Literacy Introduction Program, which offers financial literacy training to student members of the Youth Economic Initiative.

The award recognized the students for their outstanding, innovative solutions to pressing financial and societal challenges in their communities, according to Prudential Financial.

Emerging Visionaries is another way Prudential is demonstrating its commitment to our purpose: to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world, said Charles Lowrey, the firms chairman and CEO, in a statement. The students were honoring have a sense of possibility that drives them to look beyond themselves. Their vision and dedication are key to creating fully inclusive communities, and we are humbled and inspired by their work.

Each of the 25 winners will receive $5,000 in funding as well as an invitation to participate in an awards summit at Prudentials Newark, New Jersey, headquarters starting Saturday. At the summit, Wang will have the opportunity to vie for the grand prize of an additional $10,000 in funding. Prudential employees also will vote to name an Employees Choice Award winner, who will receive an additional $5,000.

Mikaela Lidgard, the principal at River Hill High School, first learned about Wangs project last year while working at another school.

The project has reached other schools in Howard County and Maryland, she said. Seeing young people take the lead and move forward and being compassionate about others was really inspiring. They are our best asset. And they are going to lead us in ways that are exciting, uplifting and reinforce our faith in humanity.

Amanda Wang, a 14-year-old freshman at River Hill, said she is very proud of her brothers ability to lead and inspire others in the effort. She also helps to run the group with him.

Its remarkable. Its not something you see every day. It stands out from the ordinary, she explained. He helped organize the entire group. His hard work inspired me and others to work harder and make sure this project was going at a smooth pace.

She added: (My parents) have been pretty supportive. They have been really proud of us. We needed their help for a few things  such as material costs and design  but its mostly us doing this.

The group has 300 kits remaining that it wants to donate to teachers.

Arthur Wang said he plans to expand the efforts to bus drivers and other community members who are in direct contact with the public. He also wants to inspire more students to join in the effort.

I think we can really take our stuff to the next level and expand to more and more people, he said.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican workers have voted yet again for an independent union, this time in a city where border assembly plants have been largely dominated by old-guard unions.

A government labor board announced late Friday that employees at the Panasonic Automotive Systems factory in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, voted overwhelmingly to be represented by a new union.

Employees at the maquiladora, as the plants are known, had long been represented by a union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. That federation long kept wages low and signed contracts behind workers backs.

The Independent National Industrial Union of Mobility Services won 1,200 votes, to 390 for the old union.

A similar vote occurred in late February in another border city, Matamoros, where many of the indepedent union organizing battles have occurred. Employees at a U.S.-operated Tridonex auto parts assembly plant in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, overwhelmingly voted to have an independent union represent them.

Lawyer, labor activist and federal congresswoman Susana Prieto said this week's vote was signficant because the movement had spread to Reynosa.

This is very important. It's Reynosa, not Matamoros, said Prieto.

In Matamoros, labor battles began in 2019 with a mass strike by about 25,000 workers at 48 assembly plants in the border city. The movement won 20% pay raises at all 48 maquiladora factories in Matamoros. It also won a one-time bonus worth about $1,685 at current exchange rates.

Also in February, workers at a GM plant in the northern Mexico city of Silao voted to oust the old-guard Confederation of Mexican Workers and replace it with an independent union.

Such votes, while still scattered and few in number, could eventually stem the outflow of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, as it becomes harder for employers to guarantee low wages by signing protection contracts with the old-guard Mexican unions. Many Mexican workers make 10% to 15% of wages for similar jobs in the U.S.

Recent reforms in Mexican labor laws now stipulate that all employees have the right to decide which union will represent them by secret ballot votes.
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Two candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday, clearing their path to face Democratic incumbents in the fall.

The meeting of thousands of delegates was a test of Trumps clout in the party.

His allies  attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, a lawyer, and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, a community college instructor  emerged victorious from three-person fields at the 10-hour endorsement convention in downtown Grand Rapids.

The political newcomers support Trumps false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state. They will be officially nominated at a second convention in August and challenge Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in November.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. But he won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard that was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

Trump has said his preferred candidates would not let Michigan be stolen in the next presidential election. He lost the state by 154,000 votes to Joe Biden. Trump's slate drew criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and was frustrated that party leaders openly backed them rather than be neutral.

State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said such critics are poor losers."

We're going to unite together, and we will be able to win this election this fall, he said.

DePernos main rival for the nomination was Leonard, the partys 2018 attorney general nominee whom Trump later nominated for U.S. attorney in western Michigan. State Rep. Ryan Berman, who finished third, urged his supporters to back Leonard in the runoff.

Bernadette Smith, one of the partys vice chairs, said DePerno is the only candidate who will fight for election integrity. As DePerno's supporters walked to the front of the hall to demonstrate their support, a video played of Trump touting DePerno and calling Leonard a RINO  or Republican in name only.

DePerno unsuccessfully sued after human error led rural Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno was in "the field working when no one else was, Smith said.

He may face repercussions over the Antrim lawsuit.

DePerno recently confirmed that the states Attorney Grievance Commission is investigating him. Nessel last year began a separate probe after a Republican-led legislative committee said people were making baseless allegations about the results in Antrim to raise money or publicity for their own ends. The panels report did not specify whom should be investigated, but the people mentioned in it include DePerno.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman supported Leonard.

Mark my words: Democrats are motivated and we will only win if we put our best candidates forward, he said. I truly believe he's the only candidate in this race with integrity, grit, determination and the skills to not only win in November but to perform the duties of attorney general on day one.

DePerno, however, said he can unite Republicans and defeat Nessel.

She is literally drunk on power and we are going to end that, he said.

In the secretary of state's race, Karamo defeated state Rep. Beau LaFave and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.

We're going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in, Karamo said.

In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party used machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-counted the ballots in a compromise with activists.

Nominees for Michigans statewide races are chosen at conventions except in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries. The midterm election climate is expected to favor Republicans, but incumbent attorney generals and secretaries of state rarely lose.

The state Democratic Party said the GOP should be ashamed of its endorsed candidates. Chair Lavora Barnes called Karamo a fear-spreading, inexperienced extremist and said DePerno is a Trump lackey" willing to protect the former president but not all Michiganders.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi is enacting a new law that says state and local government agencies cannot withhold services or refuse jobs to people who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The ban applies to state agencies, city and county governments and schools, community colleges and universities. COVID-19 vaccination mandates have not been widespread in Mississippi, but some lawmakers said they were acting against the possibility of government overreach.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday that he had signed House Bill 1509, and it became law immediately.

"Government shouldnt be in the business of forcing Americans to choose between the COVID-19 vaccine & putting food on their tables, sending their kids to school, or visiting a small business, Reeves said on Twitter.

Some other Republican-led states have enacted laws or are considering legislation that would ban COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Those efforts have largely been motivated by opposition to the Biden administrations earlier attempts to require vaccinations or testing by some employers, health care providers and federal contractors.

The Mississippi law specifies COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be required for children to attend school or day care. It does not change Mississippi's other childhood vaccination requirements, which are some of most stringent in the nation.

The law also specifies anyone in Mississippi can cite a sincerely held religious objection to avoid a public or private employers COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

Public health officials say COVID-19 vaccinations do not always prevent illness, but are effective at decreasing severe cases leading to hospitalization or death.

More than 12,400 Mississippi residents have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began two years ago, according to the state Health Department.

Mississippi has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States. About 52% of eligible residents in the state are fully vaccinated, according to a Mayo Clinic vaccine tracker. The national rate is about 66%.
CAIRO (AP)  Clashes between government-allied militias in western Libya caused damage to a sprawling oil facility, the state-run oil company said Saturday, the latest blow to the energy sector in the chaos-stricken Mediterranean nation.

The fighting erupted Friday in the coastal town of Zawiya between two rival militias allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, which is based in the capital of Tripoli.

The National Oil Corp. said the fighting damaged at least 29 sites, including storage tanks, at the Zawiya refinery complex. It said an assessment was continuing to determine the extent of the damage. The refinery is a major source of domestic fuel raising fears of an energy crisis amid the heat of the summer.

The National Commission for Human Rights, a local group, condemned the clashes, which pitted the so-called Stability Support Authority against the self-styled Criminal Investigation Department in Zawiya.

It was not clear what caused the clashes.

Dbeibah vowed to hold these responsible for the clashes accountable without naming the two involved militias. A rival administration, led by powerful figure Fathi Bashagha, voiced concern and called on armed groups to stop fighting which left unknown number of people dead.

Tensions have soared in Libya, especially in the western region, since the east-based parliament appointed Bashagha in February to lead a transitional government after the country failed to hold elections last year. Occasional fighting between militias also occurred in the capital.

Bashagha has yet to be seated in the capital as Dbeibah remained defiant against efforts to replace his government, insisting that he will hand over power only to an elected government.

Tribal leaders and protesters in the southern region also shut down oil facilities, including Libyas largest oil field, demanding Dbeibah step down. The region is controlled by forces of east-based commander Khalifa Hifter.

The blockade came as oil prices skyrocketed since Russias war on Ukraine. Brent crude, the international pricing standard, traded at more than $106 per barrel Friday.

The developments have raised fears that the country could return to civil war amid the ongoing standoff between the two rival governments.

The oil-rich North African country has been wrecked by conflict since the NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country has fragmented for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
TUPELO, Miss. (AP)  Since experiencing live theater in the Big Apple, Misty Cox has developed a deep appreciation for theatrical productions, both big and small.

Its the latter thats captured her heart.

As vice president of the Tupelo-based Pied Piper Players, Mississippis only all-children nonprofit theater, Cox is channeling her love of the stage into the next generation of theater kids.

Kids come from all walks of life to perform in our plays, and I realized very quickly that for some children, thats the only good time they have, she said from inside Tupelos Civic Auditorium, where the group held its production of Frozen Jr. earlier this month.

Based on the massively popular Disney animated film, Frozen, the musical tells the story of royal sisters Anna and Elsa, the latter of which was born with icy powers that she must keep from everyone  including Anna. When Elsa accidentally freezes the kingdom of Arendelle on her coronation day, she flees to the icy mountains, setting Anna and a growing collection of friends on an adventure to find her and bring her home.

Cox came by her love of theater naturally. She grew up attending Broadway productions in the hustle and bustle of New York City. As a student at a Baltimore boarding school, she would occasionally take the journey north by train when her mother came to visit.

My mom and I would take the train to New York City and squeeze in as many Broadway shows as we could in a weekend, Cox said.

After living in Louisiana, Baltimore, San Francisco and Atlanta, Cox returned closer to her hometown of Tupelo. When her daughter, Bel  now a ninth grader at Tupelo High School  began taking part in theatrical productions six years ago, Cox pitched in.

I was just a mom who worked backstage, she said of the time.

But three years ago, Cox was approached by volunteers with the Pied Piper Players about directing a production. After lots of thought and plenty of prodding from her daughter, Cox agreed. After that, she joined the Pied Piper Players' board.

According to Cox, she was scared to death when her first-ever rehearsal arrived.

I only had the first scene of Madagascar planned out, she said.

Her fears quickly subsided when she noticed how talented her older leads were, and how much working as a group meant to the kids.

A lot of what Ive learned has been from the kids, said Cox, who has yet to act on stage herself.

These days, Cox usually directs two of the theater companys four annual productions. Since the pandemic, however, the playhouse hasnt performed as many plays, although the upcoming season will see a return to their regular schedule.

Over the years, the director has realized her key role in the group is as a vessel for the children to learn to express themselves.

If kids have an idea, Im always going to try it, Cox said. Every kids idea is important.

The cast of Frozen Jr. comprises 75 children from across the area, the largest in Pied Pipers recent history. Among them is Meadow, Coxs youngest daughter, who has her first speaking part in the production. Bel is also helping direct, making the production a family affair.

Despite the headaches that naturally accompany such a large-scale small production, Cox said the rewards in the work shes doing are more than she ever expected.

Its a whole different ball game when youre touching kids lives that really need it, she said.
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (AP)  Police in North Carolina are investigating the deaths of a 1-year-old girl and her 3-month-old baby brother Saturday.

Rocky Mount Police say they were called after 9 a.m. Saturday to Drew Street in the city for a report of two unresponsive juveniles.
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ROME (AP)  Pope Francis made key appointments in his newly reformed Vatican bureaucracy Saturday, naming new deputies for the doctrine office and confirming the highest-ranked woman in the Holy See as the No. 2 in the development office.

The appointments are some of the first since Francis last month issued his long-awaited overhaul of the Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy, which acts as the central government for the 1.3-billion strong Catholic Church.

Francis promoted Irish Monsignor John Kennedy to head the discipline section of the newly named Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles clergy sexual abuse cases. In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy said the office had seen a tsunami of cases from parts of the world that had previously not reported any.

Joining him as secretary in the parallel doctrine section of the dicastery is Italian Monsignor Armando Matteo, currently the under-secretary in the office and professor of fundamental theology at Romes Pontifical Urbaniana University.

The powerful department is headed by Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who at 78 could retire when his five-year term expires in July.

Francis also confirmed the new leadership of the Vatican office for human development, which groups together the Holy Sees departments responsible for refugees, the environment, charity as well as its COVID-19 response. Heading that office is Czech-born Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Jesuit like Francis who was recently dispatched by the pope to Ukraine and its border areas as a sign of solidarity with refugees fleeing the war.

His deputy is Italian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, an economist and the highest-ranked women at the Vatican in her role as secretary of the dicastery. Smerilli has taken on increasing responsibilities in the past two years after helping steer the Holy Sees response to the pandemic.

Both they and a third official confirmed Saturday, the Rev. Fabio Baggio, had been appointed on an interim basis after Francis removed key officials last year and more recently declined to renew the mandate of Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, who was recently appointed chancellor of the pontifical academies for sciences and social sciences.

After nine years of work, Francis issued his blueprint for the Vatican bureaucracy on March 19. For the first time it explicity allows for laypeople  including women  to head Vatican dicasteries, imposes once-renewable five-year term limits on some officials and gives institutional weight to his advisory panel on clergy sexual abuse by incorporating it into the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

An official in the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Emer McCarthy, welcomed Kennedys appointment, tweeting Saturday: Its a good day for #Safeguarding.
It took the Russian military over a week to acknowledge that one serviceman died and two dozen others were missing after one of its flagship cruisers sank in the Black Sea, reportedly the result of a Ukrainian missiles strike.

The acknowledgment happened after families started searching desperately for their sons who, they said, served on the ship and did not come home, and relatives are posing sharp questions about Russia's initial statement that the entire crew was evacuated.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday in a terse announcement that one crew member died and 27 were left missing after a fire damaged the flagship Moskva cruiser last week, while 396 others were evacuated. The ministry did not offer any explanation for its earlier claims that the full crew got off the vessel before it sank.

The loss of the Moskva, one of three missile cruisers of its kind in Russia's fleet, was shrouded in mystery from the moment it was first reported early on April 14. Ukraine said it hit the ship with missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry would not acknowledge an attack, saying only that a fire broke out on the vessel after ammunition detonated, causing serious damage.

Moscow even insisted that the ship remained afloat and was being towed to a port, only to admit hours later that it sank after all  in a storm. No images of the ship, or of the supposed rescue operation, were made available.

Only several days later, the Russian military released a short and mostly silent video showing rows of sailors, supposedly from the Moskva, reporting to their command in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The footage offered little clarity on how many sailors were actually evacuated to safety.

Soon came the questions. An emotional social media post by Dmitry Shkrebets alleging that his son, a conscript who served as a cook on Moskva, was missing, quickly went viral.

The military "said the entire crew was evacuated. It's a lie! A blatant and cynical lie! Shkrebets, a resident of Crimea, wrote on VK, a popular Russian social media platform, on April 17, three days after the ship went down.

My son, a conscript, as the very commanders of the Moskva cruiser told me, is not listed among the wounded and the dead and is added to the list of those missing ... Guys, missing in the open sea?!

Similar posts quickly followed from other parts of Russia. The Associated Press found social media posts looking for at least 13 other young men who reportedly served on the Moskva whose families could not find them.

One woman spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, as she feared for her son's safety. She said her son was a conscript and had been aboard the Moskva for several months before telling her in early February that the ship was about to depart for drills. She lost touch with him for several weeks after that.

The news about Russia invading Ukraine worried her, she said, and she started reading the news online and on social media every day. The last time they spoke on the phone was in mid-March. He was on the ship but did not say where it was.

She didn't start looking for him until a day after she learned about trouble aboard the Moskva, because official statements from the Defense Ministry said the crew was evacuated. But no one called or messaged her about her son's whereabouts, and she started to get agitated.

Calls to various military officials and hotlines got her nowhere at first, but she persisted. A call she made on the way to a grocery store brought bleak news  that her son was listed as missing and that there was little chance he survived in the cold water.

I said But you said you rescued everyone, and he said I only have the lists. I screamed What are you doing?!" she told the AP. I got hysterical, right at the bus stop (where I was standing), I felt like the ground was giving way under my feet. I started shaking.

The Kremlin statements about the ships loss and the crews fate follow a historical pattern in which Russia has often met bad news with silence, denials or undercounts about casualties. Previous examples include the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in 2000 and the 1994-1996 Chechen war.

The families' accounts could not be independently verified. But they went largely uncontested by Russian authorities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment and redirected the question to the Defense Ministry when asked by the AP during one of his daily conference calls with reporters about families challenging the official statements about sailors being evacuated.

The Defense Ministry did not comment on the outcry either  until Friday, when it finally revealed that 27 crew members were missing and one was confirmed dead. The ministry still did not acknowledge an attack on the ship, however.

Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov says the sinking of the Moskva is a major political blow for President Vladimir Putin, not so much because of the outcry from families, but because it hurts Putin's image of military might.

This trait, might, is under attack now because we're now talking about the devastation of the fleet, Gallyamov said. But the families' woes underscores "that one shouldn't trust the Russian authorities.

In the meantime, some families with missing sons plan to continue seeking the truth.

Now we will turn to figuring out for how long one can go missing in the open sea, Shkrebets posted Friday.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Supporters of a bill to allow women to get birth control pills at South Carolina pharmacies without a doctor's prescription are trying to get it passed before this year's session ends.

A House subcommittee on Wednesday approved the bill, sending it to the chamber's full medical committee. The bill has already passed the Senate, but there are just nine regular legislative days left in the General Assembly's 2022 session.
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DURBAN, South Africa (AP)  Grief-stricken South Africans are still searching for family members swept away by last week's floods in which 435 people died and more than 40,000 were made homeless in the coastal city of Durban and the surrounding KwaZulu-Natal province.

The South African army has deployed 10,000 troops to help find those missing, rebuild roads, bridges and utilities, and distribute emergency aid to families made destitute by the deluge. The government has allocated $67 million in relief aid for affected families.

Families grimly persist in searches to find the bodies of their loved ones.

Joseph Nkosi, 56, of Inanda township, spends his days with neighbors searching through a debris-laden river stream for the body of his 15-year-old daughter, Ntombenhle, last seen trying to cross a low-lying bridge when the waters carried her away.

I am heartbroken," Nkosi told The Associated Press. "What I am hoping for now is just to find her body. I have already accepted that she is no more. All I am holding on to is her school tie which we found in this river stream.

In a nearby neighborhood, Apollo Mdladla, 47, said he and his young daughter are struggling to cope with the deaths of 10 members of a neighboring family. A mother, her children and grandchildren all died when the floods swept away their home.

We still have trauma. Those children used to play with my own child. Now she asks, Where is Manelisa? Where is Lulu? I had to be honest and tell her that they have died, because she can see that they are no longer here, said Mdladla as rescue teams searched for bodies in the pile of flotsam in his backyard.

Five bodies of the family have been found, but the other five are still missing, he said.

The largest number of deaths and homes destroyed occurred in Durbans low-lying poor neighborhoods, where families built homes on open, unsafe ground. But middle-class and affluent neighborhoods were also hit when mudslides crushed homes built on hillsides.

Schools, churches and community halls have become shelters for thousands of displaced families and most of those centers lack electricity or clean water.

The city remains in crisis 10 days after the storm, and it is now primarily a crisis of water and sanitation provision  to hospitals, clinics and communities. Failure to get this right could spell a deepening health crisis, characterized by water-borne disease, said Mani Thandrayen, medical team leader for Doctors Without Borders in Durban. The organization is supporting four shelters with food, water, cookware, blankets, mattresses and other basic items, he said.

Even many homes still standing must be evacuated because they are now unstable and may soon collapse, said South African National Defence Force spokesman Brigadier General Andries Mokoena Mahapa.

What we have said from day one is that those people need to be moved out. We need to shelter them at a temporary shelter while we are trying to find alternative accommodation," he said. We cannot repair them because any moment from now, those houses will fall off, said Mahapa.

Flood damage to roads and bridges is estimated at $373 million, schools at $26 million and health clinics at $12 million, according to officials.

Lack of maintenance of Durban's drainage systems worsened the floods in Durban, according to Jeff Smithers, director of the Center for Water Resources Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He's called for an improvement in early warning systems to respond to such disasters.

What has exacerbated the situation is the lack of maintenance," which allowed drainage systems to become blocked by trash, he said. But even in the perfect scenario we would have had some flooding.

Still shaken by the floods, Sandile Cele, 23, surveyed the scene of wreckage from his family's home on a small hill in Inanda. He used to look through a steel-framed window, but now an entire wall of the dining room is missing, torn away by the surging waters.

My mother was trying to sweep away the water that had entered the house, but we soon heard part of the house collapsing and we ran to our neighbors house, he said.

The family watched helplessly as the floods shattered windows, tore down walls and ripped off roofs from their two houses.

Weve lost so much. We had recently completed building the second house with the money that my mother received when my father passed away, said Cele. What we are desperate for is a home, a proper house where we can live and feel safe.
CHILTON  A Wisconsin man has been charged with recently hiding the corpse of a man he was convicted of killing in the early 1980s.

John Andrews, 82, of Chilton, was arrested Friday, booked into jail and charged with hiding a corpse, a felony. Andrews pleaded guilty in 1994 to homicide by negligent use of a motor vehicle in the death of 67-year-old Starkie Swenson, who was reported missing in 1983. Swenson's body had been missing for nearly 40 years.

Prosecutors say Swenson and Andrews were involved in a love triangle and that Andrews ran over Swenson. Andrews was sentenced to two years in prison.

Swenson's body was found last September by two people hiking in High Cliff State Park  a few months after news stories were published about UW-Oshkosh anthropology students being enlisted to help find the missing body.

The statute of limitations for hiding a corpse in Wisconsin is six years. Prosecutors say the corpse was hidden between June 7, 2021, and Sept. 28, 2021. WLUK-TV, the Associated Press and other news outlets ran stories about the ongoing search for Swenson's body in April 2021.

Investigators began questioning Andrews about the location of Swensons remains on June 7, while anthropology students at UW-Oshkosh unsuccessfully assisted in a search for the remains near Omro, about 30 miles away from where the body was found by the hikers.

Andrews admitted to seeing photos of Swenson but told investigators he never spoke to nor saw Swenson in person and didnt know Swensons whereabouts.

Andrews faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 6.

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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AP)  An Air Force major general in Ohio has been convicted by a military judge of one of three specifications of abusive sexual contact in the first-ever military trial of an Air Force general.

The charge faced by Maj. Gen. William Cooley during the weeklong court-martial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had three specifications, one alleging a forcible kiss and two alleging forcible touching in 2018. Cooley was convicted Saturday of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two.

Officials said the verdict marks the first court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the Air Forces 75-year history.

A former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, Cooley was charged with abusive sexual contact in an encounter with a woman who gave him a ride after a backyard barbecue in New Mexico nearly four years ago. Officials said the woman is a civilian who is not a Department of Defense employee.

Cooley was to be sentenced Monday morning and could face as much as seven years in jail as well as loss of rank, pay and benefits.

Cooley had the option of a trial by court member jurors or by military judge, and chose to have the case heard by the judge.

Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer has been held responsible for his heinous actions, the woman's attorney Ryan Guilds, said in a statement, the Dayton Daily News reported. ... Hopefully, this will not be as difficult for the next survivor.

Cooley was fired from his research laboratory position in January 2020 after an Air Force investigation and has worked in an administrative job since then. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney Saturday.

This case clearly demonstrates the commitment of Air Force leaders to fully investigate the facts and hold Airmen of any rank accountable for their actions when they fail to uphold Air Force standards, Col. Eric Mejia, staff judge advocate for Air Force Materiel Command, said in a statement.
SPARKS, Nev. (AP)  The Generator has a new space and a new mission.

The arts and maker space reopened earlier this month after signing a 10-year lease with Foothill Partners, developer of the much anticipated Oddie District  a 187,000-square-foot mixed use space just east of U.S. 395 in Sparks, next to Goodwill.

The Generator currently takes up about 70,000 square feet, about twice the size of its former home on Icehouse Avenue in industrial Sparks. Eventually, about half the space will be given to another tenant.

Any time theres a lot of people in a space making art, it makes us all feel better, right? Jessi Sprocket Janusee, communications director for the Generator, told the Reno Gazette Journal.

Since 2013, the Generator, also lovingly known as The Genny, has been lauded as a headquarters for Burning Man artists. Local and international artists alike have assembled colossal sculptures, from temples to whales to ships, before sending the installations into the desert to burn.

While continuing to be a magnet for Burning Man creations, staff at the Generator say the goals of the space are now more community-driven. Still run by a cast of established Burners, the team is placing a much heavier emphasis on community outreach year-round.

(Burning Man) is a huge part of where we come from and its a huge part of our culture here in Reno, said the Generators education coordinator, Alysia Dynamik Crissman. The downside of (focusing too much on Burning Man) is that the space is underutilized during the rest of the year, and we want to change that.

Kids play on a train during the Maker Family Meetup at The Generators new location at the Oddie District on April 15, 2022. The Maker Family Meetup is a social creative time for families at the Generator.

Welcome to the new Genny

Theres no loss of flair since the Generators move to new digs, a warehouse formerly used as a storage space by Renown Regional Medical Center. Before that, it was a Lowes home improvement store.

Visitors are greeted with a coal-black train at the entry, a recycled wood library filled with DIY books, and bright murals stretching across the back walls. Nooks and crannies are stuffed with circus art, steel horses and rows of sewing machines. Rainbow ribbons dangle from a cloud that hangs from the ceiling and reads, Make stuff.

The building is a little sparse of projects at the moment since actor Jeremy Renner, best known for his role as Hawkeye, and his crew recently wrapped up a filming project. The crew used the Generator to overhaul decommissioned vehicles to be used again by charities. Renner visited the set a handful of times, staff said.

The space is divided into a wood shop, metal shop, textile center and tech lab, among other sections. The maker space will also eventually have a glass blowing area, according to Janusee. Memberships give artists access to all the resources on-site. Monthly memberships costs $50 a month, and annual memberships cost $500.

About 55 studio artists are soon expected to fill the space, but only after the Generator hosts the Reno Punk Rock Flea Markets fifth year anniversary at months end. About seven Burning Man projects also are signed on to build at the site as the nearly 80,000-person arts festival officially returns later this summer after a two-year hiatus.

Staff are looking forward to the sounds of sawing, welding, laughing and blasting music come summer, peak build time for those headed to Black Rock City in August. While artists design their works at home, they often ship the materials to the Generator and gather there a month or two before Burning Man for construction of the pieces.

The mechanical horse, Wings of Glory, by New York metal sculptor Adrian Landon is presently stored at The Generator. The mechanical horse actually gallops and was at Burning Man in 2019. Many of the most memorable Burning Man art sculptures were built at the Generator.

There are lots of times too that you come in and youd hear four or five different languages. It felt like you were in a hostel, said Crissman of her experiences in the past.

The music heard during work time is often eclectic. Sometimes you hear punk, other times you hear classic country, and at least once a symphony of loon calls echoed throughout the Generator on Icehouse Avenue.

And, once the space starts to really get going, the air will fill with the perfume of fresh sawdust and hot metal, said Crissman.

Kid-friendly, community-driven

The Generators staff used to think their greatest asset as an organization was unparalleled room and resources to build and create.

That all changed when their previous landlord, Tolles Development Co., ended the lease at their previous location and the Generator was left without a long-term home. Then the pandemic hit and isolated everyone. While the staff found a temporary home near downtown Reno, it couldnt accommodate all the equipment that comes with the Generator.

Without that, we had to get a little more creative about what we could offer, said Crissman.

Autumn Cassidy, 7, front, and her sister Melynna Cassidy, 12, work on crafts during the Maker Family Meetup at The Generators new location at the Oddie District on April 15, 2022. The Maker Family Meetup is a social creative time for families at the Generator.

The Generator began more efforts to partner with community groups and started creating lessons for K-12 schools and workshops for patrons at local homeless shelters.

The outreach model is taking shape in new ways as the Generator moves into yet another home. It will continue to offer classes to members and non-members. The type of classes will be based on requests from the public and its membership, Crissman said.

Because many of the Generators staff are parents, that too has influenced the direction that the arts and maker space is headed in.

We really believe that if were not serving the children of the community, then were missing a huge segment of the population, not only the children but the caretakers, primarily women, said Crissman.

The Generators education manager Alysia Dynamik stands at entrance of The Generators new location at the Oddie District in Sparks.

The Generator provides a place where artists from around the world collaborate and where community art workshops are offered throughout the year. Some of Burning Mans most memorable sculptures were built at the Generator.

Every Thursday, the Generator hosts Maker Family Meet-ups, where caretakers and children can create together and the space is also opening up to local childrens groups. Summer camp classes are around the corner too.

In an effort to diversify income, its also allowing other organizations to use the facility for events such as fundraisers and weddings.

After spending several years trying to find a permanent home, the Generator still hopes that someday it will be able to find a space that will offer a longer-term lease or an affordable purchase option. There are few places, however, that are affordable and large enough to accommodate the builds at the Generator.

For now, though, the Oddie District feels like a fitting place for a new beginning.

The Truckee Meadows Community College theater also is moving into The Oddie District, as well as an Idaho-based venture called the Innovation Collective.

The Collective helps mentor and incubate promising technology companies while turning smaller communities into hubs for research and development.
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PRAGUE (AP)  A Czech leatherwork company that makes a wide variety of handmade products  travel bags, messenger totes, wallets and belts  never planned to add personal protective gear that would save lives in a war to its offerings.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that.

After Russian troops launched their assault on Ukraine, Tlusty & Co. hired refugees from Ukraine to help the company join a manufacturing operation equipping Ukrainian volunteers with body armor to face the invading troops.

The Prague-based company agreed to a request from the Post Bellum nongovernmental organization to join a project to supply the protection gear similar to bulletproof vests to Ukraines Territorial Defense Forces. Thousands of Ukrainian volunteers have joined the troops to resist the Russian invasion.

We specialize in completely different production, Tlusty & Co. owner Ivan Petruv said. We were facing a situation where we had to decide. And because we consider ourselves part of a community that wants to help in this situation as we can, which is only natural when you see the news, we decided to say yes.

To make the new production happen was a race against the clock, he said. The company needed to get new machines, new materials and above all, to hire extra employees to join the 20-25 staffers in a country whose unemployment rate of 3.4% reflects a lack of available workers in many fields.

What would take weeks if not months under normal circumstances, we had to solve in hours and several days, he said.

Since the war began, 300,000 refugees who fled Ukraine have arrived in the Czech Republic, mostly women with children, so Petruv said they became an obvious place to look for new hires.

We published an advertisement at 8 a.m. and at noon we had a list of 70 people, Petruv said.

Four days later, the 15 most qualified people started to work to complete the unusual contract. They sew ballistic plate carriers while other Ukrainians working for Post Bellum assemble the whole gear by inserting steel plates into the vests. The NGO finances it all through a crowd-funding campaign.

Natalia Bielonosova is one of the company's new workers. She came to Prague from her town of Irpin, located near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. with a friend.

I wanted to make the protection gear for Ukraine, Bielonosova said. Thats a way for me to help my country.

Her husband, a humanitarian worker, stayed at home and her son serves in the Ukrainian army.

He has no electricity, gas, heating or warm water but has survived so far, she said of her husband.

Of her son, she says its painful to read about whats happening. Id like a solution to be found to end the fighting.

With Irpin and many places badly damaged by heavy Russian shelling, Bielonosova can see her future in Prague, the Czech capital.

Theyve destroyed cities and destroyed infrastructure. It would be a very hard life (to go back), she said.

The work she and other Ukrainian refugees have done has impressed Petruv.

Wed like them to stay, he said. Were talking about hardworking, skillful people who deserve the job.

The Czech company has so far made 720 of the protective vests with 400 more to deliver. What happens next is unclear.

Petruv said his company was ready to continue the project but we would be delighted to end it as soon as possible, because this isnt something we want to do. We do it only because of the current situation and a feeling of responsibility.

Meanwhile, he is planning a new project for his Ukrainian workers for the time when peace is restored. It would be products designed for Czech kids and their families.

Its called Mothers for mothers.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
HONOLULU (AP)  The U.S. government on Friday dropped its appeals of a Hawaii order requiring it to remove fuel from a massive military fuel storage facility that leaked petroleum into the Navy's water system at Pearl Harbor last year.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Defense notified the state and federal courts of its decision. The move comes more than a month after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the military would permanently shut down the tanks and drain all of their fuel.

The Hawaii Department of Health, which issued the order, said the decision regarding the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility was a step forward.

While todays announcement is good news, the work continues, the department said in a statement. It said it would "continue to act expeditiously and proactively to oversee the safe defueling and decommissioning of Red Hill and restoration of the aquifer.

David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice which is representing the Sierra Club of Hawaii as an interested party in the case said his clients would remain vigilant to make sure the tanks are promptly defueled.

Its a wonderful Earth Day gift to the people of Hawaii and in particular to all the residents of Oahu who depend on safe, clean drinking water when they turn on their tap, Henkin said.

The Navy and the Hawaii Department of Health did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Henkin said even if Austin were to change his mind and try to keep the tanks open, the military will now face an enforceable, unimpeachable, unchallengeable order from the Department of Health that they need to follow.

The order from the Hawaii Department of Health requires the military to remove fuel from the tanks 30 days after its safe to do so. The military will have to stick to this deadline now that its dropping the appeal, Henkin said.

The military, with oversight from the state health department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is currently developing plans to safely remove the fuel. Its uncertain how long this will take.

Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in a statement that the dropping of the lawsuit "paves the way for us to shut down Red Hill this year.

The legal challenge made it hard for the state to work cooperatively with the Defense Department, Schatz said. He said he pushed hard for the military to make this decision.

Petroleum leaked from the Red Hill tanks into a Navy drinking water well late last year, sickening 6,000 people mostly living in military housing. Medical teams treated people complaining of nausea, headaches, rashes and other symptoms. The military put about 4,000 families in hotels for several months while it cleaned its water pipes.

The tanks also pose a threat to water consumed by 400,000 on Oahu. Thats because they sit 100 feet (30 meters) above an aquifer that serves the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, the citys water utility, in addition to the Navy's water system.

The city utility has suspended use of three of its wells until it can be sure petroleum wont migrate through the aquifer from the area by the Navys well to its own wells.

The water utility and local leaders are also worried another spill could poison the citys water system.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  Gov. Jim Justice has announced that the West Virginia National Guard will send armored personnel carriers for Ukraine to use against Russian aggression.

According to a news release, Justice says an an undisclosed number of M-113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine following a request from the Department of Defense.
STUART, Fla. (AP)  Some people spend their retirement traveling the world or relaxing at home. Sid Pennington spends his trapping the invasive lizards threatening native wildlife in his community.

Pennington, 60, has singlehandedly captured at least 117 Argentine black and white tegus from the woods and neighborhoods in western Fort Pierce where he lives.

In September, after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission saw how skilled Pennington was at catching nonnative tegus on his own, biologists lent him 20 traps and recruited him as a volunteer. Hes caught 31 this year alone.

I grew up being a big reptile guy, said Pennington, a former employee at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant. His first catch was a female tegu in 2019, measuring just under 4 feet long. I dont want them to be here. But it is fun.

Tegu populations spreading in Florida

With sharp teeth and scaly black-and-white splotches, tegus may be spreading faster than biologists can trap them. The state has no definitive population estimate, but residents have reported at least 132 sightings in St. Lucie County through 2021. Sixty percent of those sightings came from Pennington.

The South American lizards appetite for the eggs of native animals  such as killdeer, alligators and gopher tortoises  and its ability to flourish in cooler environments has prompted a strong response from FWC. If tegus start spreading north, it could wreak havoc on native species already straining from habitat loss and overdevelopment.

This St. Lucie County population likely originated from escapes or releases stemming from the exotic pet trade, according to FWC nonnative biologist Dan Quinn. The species is now successfully breeding in three other Florida counties: Charlotte, Hillsborough and Miami-Dade.

Over 12,000 tegus statewide have been removed from the wild to date.

Theyre starting to make a foothold here, Quinn said of Fort Pierce during a news conference off Rock Road Wednesday. Since 2016, when the first tegu was reported, weve seen an uptick in reports. We think its possible the population is increasing in this area.

Most sightings have been recorded west of Floridas Turnpike, with a majority of the reports south of Orange Avenue and north of Okeechobee Road, according to the FWC. Sightings have been verified over three miles apart.

Theres also been periodic sightings of individual animals in Martin and Indian River counties, which are likely released pets and not part of an established population, Quinn said.

Theres strong evidence tegus are affecting native species across Florida. A lizard caught in Charlotte County had gopher tortoise eggs in its stomach. University of Florida researchers in 2014 documented a tegu eating alligator eggs.

In April 2021, the FWC deemed tegus a high risk species, and banned owning or breeding them. The remaining tegus in captivity can live out the rest of their life, but any future sales are prohibited.

Tegus are lured to traps by chicken eggs and are then humanely killed, Quinn said.

The vast majority of sightings (in St. Lucie County) have happened in the last two years, Quinn said.

FWC seeks help from public

When it comes to removing invasive species, state wildlife biologists have their hands full. The FWC has removed thousands of Burmese pythons from the Everglades, overseen a multiyear statewide effort to kill lionfish from Florida waters and actively encourages iguana removal.

Tegus are now the latest animal on the list of problematic species, and the state has spent roughly $1.3 million since 2016 to reduce the population, according to FWC spokesperson Lisa Thompson. A female tegu can lay roughly 35 eggs annually.

As temperatures increase with climate change, cold-blooded invasive species will spread wider and faster. A population of tegus, for instance, has already been recorded in Georgia.

This past week, FWC outreach teams sent 3,800 mailers to St. Lucie County homes near where tegu sightings were documented and placed five informational signs along busy roadways. Theyve also visited hundreds of houses in the area, distributing brochures that read: How you can help stop the spread of an invasive lizard.

The goal is to inform the public and encourage documenting verified reports, Quinn said.

We suspect more people are seeing them and not reporting them, he said.
IN SUMMARY

In a 90-minute interview, the farmer and state senator from Lassen County talks about crime, climate change and the cost of living, and vows to cooperate with Democrats.

By Alexei Koseff

CalMatters

They may not agree on much, but Republican gubernatorial hopeful Brian Dahle pledges that Democratic lawmakers would find a more receptive partner at the Capitol if he unseats Gov. Gavin Newsom this year.

After a decade in the GOP's (super)minority in Sacramento, Dahle said he knows how to build relationships across the aisle and pass bipartisan legislation -- inviting colleagues to his seed farm in Lassen County, bringing them fresh peaches from a neighbor and annually gifting them See's candies, purchased through a fundraiser to help a local eighth grade class visit the state Capitol.

"They'll have more access to the horseshoe than they do now," Dahle said during a 90-minute interview this month at the CalMatters office in Sacramento. "I will have every single legislator in my office when I'm governor, and we will talk about their district and we will talk about the challenges and we will find places we can work together."

Dahle points to his work on major legislation carried by Democratic colleagues -- including a 2016 measure to stop surprise medical bills for insured patients who are treated by out-of-network specialists at in-network facilities -- as his proudest accomplishments.

"It will be a different atmosphere in that building" if his underdog campaign is successful, he said, far more cooperative with legislators than under Newsom, whom Dahle has slammed as a "dictator" for largely governing by executive order, without the Legislature's input, during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I'll find out what they care about. Because all of us love California, there's just too much politics in this place," Dahle said.

Here are five issues that he said would be a priority if he is elected governor.

'Get violent criminals off our streets'

Like many Republican candidates this election, Dahle is focused on crime rates in California. He said that, if political reality was no obstacle, his primary goal as governor would be to "get violent criminals off our streets and back off our streets and get repeat criminals off our streets." That requires more funding for local law enforcement agencies, he said, which have taken on a greater share of the burden over the past decade as California reduced the population of its overcrowded prisons.

Dahle also wants to roll back much of Proposition 47, an initiative approved by voters in 2014 to reduce some property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, which he blames for enabling serial shoplifting. He would maintain the reduced penalties for drug possession, however.

"I'm not for putting people in jail if they have been smoking marijuana and they were nonviolent criminals," he said. "Most of those people were nonviolent criminals."

'We need charging stations'

Dahle said his perspective has shifted the most on environmental issues during his decades in public office. He sees unique opportunities for collaboration, because of his own experience as a Lassen County supervisor, working with both environmental activists and the forestry industry to lobby the federal government for better forest management policies.

"What I learned in that process was, we don't hear each other sometimes," Dahle said. "We have a lot in common if we just would listen and hear each other and spend time together. I think that's what's really lacking. And so that's been something that I've picked up that has really changed my outlook on how to legislate."

Dahle's focus would be building more transmission lines so that clean energy could be shared from one part of California to another, rather than being exported out of the state when there is an excess supply. He said that would also help secure the grid for the transition to electric vehicles, though he does not support Newsom's mandate that all new cars sold in California be zero-emission by 2035.

"We need to make sure the grid is in a place where we can actually put electric vehicles and hubs in the cities," he said. "We need charging stations. We can't have electric vehicles if we don't have enough charging stations."

'If you frivolously sue...you have to pay'

Dahle believes the biggest obstacle to building more housing and increasing affordability is the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA, the landmark state law that requires government agencies and developers to study and mitigate the environmental effects of proposed projects.

While it was a "great law" in its original intent, Dahle said, "unfortunately, it's turned into a pawn in many schemes," misused by rival companies, labor unions and neighborhood groups to hold up projects they don't like.

To get around powerful interests that block any significant changes in the Legislature, Dahle said he would support a ballot measure to increase penalties for abuse of the environmental review process.

"We need to, first of all, hold people accountable who are using CEQA to sue just to extract," he said. "If you frivolously sue and you lose and continue to lose, you have to pay. You have to pay for this because you're just holding up the process. It's really not mitigating the impacts."

'We can produce it right here in California'

To bring down the cost of living for Californians, Dahle said he would also work as governor to lower the price of electricity. Studies estimate that consumers here pay on average 60 percent more for power than the rest of the nation.

In addition to his focus on building more transmission lines -- which Dahle said would reduce costs by making energy options more widely available throughout California -- he supports ramping up the production of oil in the state. He said it is safer and more efficient than importing from other countries.

"I would rather us put Californians to work," Dahle said. "At the same time, it's better for the environment. We can just pipe the oil to the refinery, and we can produce it right here in California."

'Spacing of the trees'

As California sinks deeper into drought conditions, Dahle does not favor imposing mandatory water use reductions, which he called "a sound bite that I don't believe is going to make much difference at all." He raised particular concerns, as a farmer, that harsh restrictions would further devastate California agriculture by forcing farms to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Dahle said the state should put a greater emphasis on increasing water storage by building the proposed Sites Reservoir. He also has a novel idea to improve water supply by thinning forests, a policy that would offer other benefits such as providing timber and reducing wildfire risks.

"When the snow lands on the trees, on the limbs, it evaporates," Dahle said. "When the snow lands on the floor, when you have the spacing of the trees, it actually goes into our watershed and is purified, and it's good, clean water for the habitat and for us."

Watch video of interview at https://youtu.be/1YwoVSWF-os.

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As Russias war in Ukraine continues, human rights groups have gathered evidence of Russian atrocities against civilians  including executions, rapes, and mass murder. These are war crimes, President Biden asserted recently, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be held accountable.

Biden is right.

Russias crimes in Ukraine clearly violate the laws of war enshrined under the Geneva Conventions as well as the UN Charter, which prohibits wars of aggression. The International Criminal Court has already opened an investigation into Russias alleged crimes in Ukraine.

The U.S. wants to support the move, but theres one big problem: Like Russia, the United States itself refuses to join the court. And that could make it more difficult to get justice for Ukrainians.

National courts would ideally prosecute the perpetrators of international crimes. But when states prove unable or unwilling to prosecute them  including for political reasons  the International Criminal Court has stood as the court of last resort.

Established in 2002 by the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court has 123 member states where it can investigate and prosecute crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and state acts of aggression. (Ukraine has also not formally joined the court, but has submitted to its jurisdiction in the past.)

International courts have long played an important role in pursuing justice  and the larger fight against impunity under international law.

After World War II, the prominent Nuremberg trials, led by the U.S. and allied powers, prosecuted Nazi war criminals. The U.S. has also backed international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, which have held high-ranking individuals accountable for terrible crimes.

But what happens when a state is too powerful to be bound by international courts?

The problem isnt the absence of law but rather its breakdown, when states refuse to comply and arent held accountable. This can further inflame conflicts. The resulting pattern of war, displacement, and rampant human rights violations were seeing in Ukraine has tragically become all too familiar.

But its not just Russia.

When President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute, he advised against U.S. ratification out of concern that the court could assert jurisdiction over U.S. officials and service members. President George W. Bush then famously unsigned the Rome Statute less than one year before his illegal invasion of Iraq.

The Trump administration went so far as to sanction International Criminal Court prosecutors who were investigating possible U.S. crimes in Afghanistan.

The U.S. now has an opportunity to reset its contentious relationship with the International Criminal Court  and the global rule of law more broadly.

A resolution now in Congress, introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, calls for the U.S. to join the International Criminal Court. Another resolution would repeal a 2002 law that prohibits U.S. support for International Criminal Court investigations. Enacting both would bolster the courts effectiveness through greater U.S. involvement and show that the U.S. is serious about international criminal justice.

Ultimately, no country should stand in the way of accountability and remedy for victims of conflict, whether in Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, or elsewhere. That includes the United States, which must also reckon with its own crimes committed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We cannot successfully cooperate with the rest of the world in establishing a reign of law, warned Robert H. Jackson, the chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg, unless we are prepared to have that law sometimes operate against what would be our national advantage.

Law alone wont deliver global justice. But if we want fewer wars, more diplomacy, and more international cooperation, then no country can remain above it.
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

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SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern Randall County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Eastern Oldham County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northeastern Deaf Smith County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Potter County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 700 PM CDT.

* At 607 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Wildorado, or

12 miles east of Vega, moving northeast at 55 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Boys Ranch, Wildorado, Bushland and Valley De Oro.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

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Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

Special Weather Statement

National Weather Service Amarillo TX

635 PM CDT Fri Apr 22 2022

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern

Hansford and Sherman Counties through 700 PM CDT...

At 635 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 8

miles northeast of Cactus, or 17 miles southeast of Stratford, moving

northeast at 55 mph.

HAZARD...Wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph and nickel 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...

Texhoma.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT for

the Panhandle of Oklahoma...and the Panhandle of Texas.

LAT...LON 3648 10143 3606 10169 3606 10210 3650 10191

3650 10147

TIME...MOT...LOC 2335Z 211DEG 48KT 3613 10189

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.88 IN

MAX WIND GUST...55 MPH

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern Carson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Western Hutchinson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northern Potter County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Moore County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 730 PM CDT.

* At 639 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 4 miles east of

Four Way, or 13 miles south of Dumas, moving northeast at 55 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Dumas, Cactus, Fritch, Sunray, Stinnett, Sanford, Four Way,

Masterson, Lake Meredith and Pringle.

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

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Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Despite what you might have seen on social media, the Christian faith is not about a political party or a particular nation. In reality, the Christian faith is rooted in a cosmic story throughout history of a God who creates and redeems. It is a story of a God who sees our suffering, our rebellion and our lostness and responds in love.

And at the center of this story is Easter. It is where God fulfills his promises of victory through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is both of these eventsGood Friday and Easter Sundaythat together capture Gods abiding love for his creation. On Good Friday, Christians celebrate Gods victory over the brokenness of our world through Christs death on the cross.

Just looking around, we see the effects of sin on our world. Hostility, suffering and oppression are so prevalent today, yet the Christian hope is that all these scourges are defeated through Jesus death on the cross.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate Jesus resurrection as victory over death itself. Through his resurrection, Jesus offers eternal life to those who believe in him.

In a pandemic season where both the brokenness of this world and the pain of death have been lived realities for many, Easter is the story of Gods love that transcends even seemingly insurmountable loss.

So when a Christian invites you to church services for Easter, its because of the belief that there is no better news than the good news, or the gospel.

Thats the hope we have in Jesus to forgive sin and free our hearts to love God and others.

In other words: Its a story that Christians believe we must tell.

Church During COVID Pandemic

For the past two years, COVID-19 has forced the church to find new means of telling this story. In 2020, when the pandemic was still fresh and restrictions necessarily high, fewer churches held Easter services in the United States than ever.

Just before Easter 2020, only 3% of regular attendees said they planned to attend in-person services, according to one study, though 61% planned to watch online or on TV.

Though in-person attendance increased to 39% by last year, churches continued to struggle with celebrating Easter face to face.

With recent surveys suggesting that 62% of U.S. Christians could attend Easter services Sunday, and 1 in 10 of those who are religiously unaffiliated plan to do so as well, it appears we are returning to a sense of normalcy. And church leaders cannot wait to again tell the story of Easter.
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Carson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Southern Hutchinson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northwestern Gray County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Southern Roberts County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 845 PM CDT.

* At 802 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles southwest

of Panhandle, moving northeast at 75 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Pampa, Borger, Panhandle, Stinnett, White Deer, Groom, Skellytown,

Sanford, Kingsmill, Pringle and Pantex.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR WESTERN BEAVER...NORTHERN

HANSFORD AND NORTHWESTERN OCHILTREE COUNTIES IS CANCELLED...

The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of

the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT for

the Panhandle of Oklahoma.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Armstrong County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Eastern Randall County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Southern Carson County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Southwestern Gray County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northwestern Donley County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 915 PM CDT.

* At 812 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles southeast

of Palo Duro Canyon, or 18 miles east of Canyon, moving northeast

at 45 mph.

HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

* Locations impacted include...

Panhandle, Claude, Groom, Wayside, Washburn, Palo Duro Canyon,

Goodnight and Pantex.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

TX

. TEXAS COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ARMSTRONG CARSON DALLAM

DEAF SMITH DONLEY GRAY

HANSFORD HARTLEY HUTCHINSON

MOORE OCHILTREE OLDHAM

POTTER RANDALL ROBERTS

SHERMAN

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 845 PM CDT

FOR NORTHERN CARSON...SOUTHERN HUTCHINSON...NORTHWESTERN GRAY AND

SOUTHERN ROBERTS COUNTIES...

At 813 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 9 miles north of

Panhandle, moving northeast at 75 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible. Hail

damage to vehicles is expected.

Locations impacted include...

Pampa, Borger, Stinnett, White Deer, Skellytown, Sanford, Kingsmill

and Pringle.

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR HUTCHINSON...NORTHWESTERN

ROBERTS AND NORTHEASTERN MOORE COUNTIES IS CANCELLED...

The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of

the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM CDT for

the Panhandle of Oklahoma...and the Panhandle of Texas.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 830 PM CDT

FOR HANSFORD AND WESTERN OCHILTREE COUNTIES...

At 814 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles southwest of

Spearman, moving northeast at 30 mph.

HAZARD...Ping pong ball size hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

Perryton, Spearman, Gruver, Waka, Morse and Farnsworth.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, April 22, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Beaver County in the Panhandle of Oklahoma...

Southeastern Texas County in the Panhandle of Oklahoma...

Northwestern Lipscomb County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Eastern Hansford County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Ochiltree County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 915 PM CDT.

* At 821 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Spearman,

moving northeast at 50 mph.

HAZARD...Two inch hail and 60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

People and animals outdoors will be injured. Expect hail

damage to roofs, siding, windows, and vehicles.

* Locations impacted include...

Perryton, Spearman, Booker, Elmwood, Bryans Corner, Farnsworth,

Boyd, Waka and Balko.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, April 23, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Eastern Beaver County in the Panhandle of Oklahoma...

Northern Lipscomb County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northeastern Ochiltree County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 445 AM CDT.

* At 347 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Booker, or 12

miles east of Perryton, moving northeast at 60 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Booker, Darrouzett, Gate, Knowles, Elmwood and Slapout.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, April 23, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southeastern Lipscomb County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Northeastern Gray County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Southeastern Roberts County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Hemphill County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 530 AM CDT.

* At 434 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Codman, or 5

miles west of Miami, moving northeast at 60 mph.

HAZARD...Quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Canadian, Miami, Glazier, Codman, Lake Marvin and Lora.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM CDT /9 AM MDT/ THIS

MORNING TO 9 PM CDT /8 PM MDT/ THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...West winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph

expected.

* WHERE...Guadalupe and Delaware Mountains.

* WHEN...From 10 AM CDT /9 AM MDT/ this morning to 9 PM CDT /8

PM MDT/ this evening.

* IMPACTS...Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile

vehicles. Severe turbulence near the mountains will be

hazardous for low flying light aircraft.

Remember, a High Wind Warning means a hazardous high wind is

imminent or occurring. High winds could make driving difficult

for motorists driving high profile vehicles such as campers, vans,

and tractor trailers.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
VIDEAO & SLIDES



The video is available for viewing above or from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtbDRAcuPYA

To download the powerpoint slides from the event, click here.



These materials are available for non-commercial use only. If you use of these materials for non-commercial purposes, please make sure to give proper attribution:

Wieman, C. (2021, May 6). A Year in Public Health: The Collision of Three Public Health Emergencies  the COVID-19 pandemic, the toxic drug poisoning crisis and Anti-Indigenous Racism. Public virtual lecturePublic virtual lecture -- SFU Psychology Indigenous Reconciliation Committee: Invited Scholar Colloquium, Simon Fraser University, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtbDRAcuPYA





ABOUT THE EVENT

On May 6th, 2021, the Department of Psychologys Indigenous Reconciliation Committee hosted a talk featuring the first female Indigenous psychiatrist in Canada, Dr. Cornelia (Nel) Wieman, MSc, MD, FRCPC titled, 'A Year in Public Health: The Collision of Three Public Health Emergencies  the COVID-19 pandemic, the toxic drug poisoning crisis and Anti-Indigenous Racism.'

Though only two are declared public health emergencies, COVID-19 and the toxic drug poisoning (opioid) crisis, anti-Indigenous racism is now regarded as a third and underpins both emergencies. Over the past year, we have seen how Indigenous people have been disproportionately impacted during the pandemic and how they are overrepresented in the toxic drug poisoning crisis. But in BC, First Nations communities and nations have relied on their Indigenous strengths and, through partnerships, have met all three public health emergencies with resistance and resilience.

This talk tells this story as we all look forward to a better future.

ABOUT DR. CORNELIA (NEL) WIEMAN

Dr. Cornelia (Nel) Wieman, Anishinaabe (Little Grand Rapids First Nation, Manitoba), is the Acting Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the First Nations Health Authority and has served as the President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada (IPAC) since 2016. Dr. Wiemans specializations include COVID-19 Response, Vaccine Confidence, Mental Health and Wellness, Addictions, Trauma-Informed Practice, Cannabis, Communications and Wellness Initiatives.

Dr. Wieman completed her medical degree and psychiatry specialty training at McMaster University. As Canada's first female Indigenous psychiatrist, Dr. Wieman has more than 20 years' clinical experience, working with Indigenous people in both rural/reserve and urban settings. Her previous activities include co-directing an Indigenous health research program in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the National Network for Indigenous Mental Health Research, being Deputy Chair of Health Canada's Research Ethics Board, and serving on CIHR's Governing Council. She has also worked and taught in many academic settings, has chaired national advisory groups within First Nations Inuit Health Branch - Health Canada, and has served as a Director on many boards, including the Indspire Foundation, Pacific Blue Cross and the National Consortium on Indigenous Medical Education
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OMAHA  A nonprofit group has begun planning an estimated $50 million inpatient behavioral health facility for children on the campus of Immanuel Medical Center in north-central Omaha.

The center will be operated by CHI Health.

Omaha philanthropist Ken Stinson said the facility will have 36 to 40 beds and serve children ages 5 to 18 who are experiencing mental health challenges. Thats double the 18 beds for children and adolescents currently available at Immanuel.

Stinson, former Kiewit Corporation chairman and CEO, said he took the lead on the project about nine months ago, based on his interest in mental health care. He has formed a nonprofit group to plan, design and raise money for the facility.

The notion of building a new mental health center for adolescents has been in the works for four or five years, he said. But the need recently has become clearer.

There is a general consensus that the increase in mental health problems among young people has been going on for a decade or more, Stinson said. Some see social media as a main contributor to the problem, and experts agree the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated it.

I think its an important issue, Stinson said, and its become more important with the ramifications of the pandemic.

Indeed, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory in December to highlight the urgent need to address the nations mental health crisis among youths.

In early 2021, emergency room visits in the U.S. for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher for adolescent boys compared to the same period in 2019, according to research cited in the advisory. From 2009 to 2019, the proportion of high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased by 40%, and the share seriously considering attempting suicide increased by 36%.

Stinson and Rhonda Hawks, another Omaha philanthropist and mental health advocate, led a previous campaign that in 2008 led to the opening of the 64-bed Lasting Hope Recovery Center, an inpatient adult treatment center near downtown.

Lasting Hope Recovery Center also is operated by CHI Health, which is the largest provider of inpatient mental health care in Nebraska.

The group is staying on brand with the new facility, which will be called the Lasting Hope Center for Children and Families.

Stinson said he put together a team of health care professionals, business leaders and educators to develop the plan for the facility. The group hired HDR Inc. to conduct a study on the demand for beds. It also has completed a study of the mental health care workforce in Region 6 Behavioral Healthcare, which covers Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Dodge and Washington counties.

In addition, the group is working with educators at Metropolitan Community College, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University, Bellevue University and Iowa Western Community College, who are focusing on ways to expand their output of mental health care workers.

Stinson said it is still early, but the collaborators are becoming comfortable that they will be able to staff the new facility when it opens, likely in a couple of years.

Meanwhile, the group has hired Kiewit to serve as contractor and HDR to design the facility. A portion of the estimated $50 million cost will be covered by a share of the $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for mental health projects in the state. The Legislature last week approved LB1014, which lays out how the states share of those federal dollars are to be spent.

Stinson said the group has other preliminary commitments from other potential funders. Fundraising will begin in the next several months.

The group also is looking at state-of-the-art facility design and best practices, working with a group from Boston led by Dr. David Rubin, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program.

Robin Conyers, CHI Healths vice president of behavioral health services, said the current pediatric psychiatric unit at Immanuel was set up on a medical-surgical floor. It has no access to the outdoors.

Children and families currently come through the hospitals emergency room to get to the unit, which isnt necessarily an ideal experience for kids and families in crisis.

The new facility will have a pediatric assessment center, where kids can be seen and stabilized and either admitted or referred for other care. The facility also will consolidate all of the campus child services, Conyers said, creating a one-stop shop for families and providing a full continuum of training opportunities for Creighton University child psychiatry residents and fellows.

Conyers said the new facility will have all private rooms. The existing unit has semiprivate rooms. That can create capacity challenges, given the need to avoid mixing patients of different genders and ages.

We know that weve had these services in our organization for 100 years, Conyers said, but what were currently doing is not enough, and the pandemic has exacerbated that for us.  Were honored to have the opportunity to provide this to our community.

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Last June, wild storms and floods ripped through 2 million hectares of public land in Victoria, uprooting trees and snapping them like matchsticks. The Wombat State Forest near Daylesford was strewn with fallen trees. Authorities estimated it could take two years to clear roads and debris.

Now, residents have raised the alarm over salvage logging operations underway by state logging agency VicForests in the Wombat State Forest, including areas the Andrews government promised would become a new national park, the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park.

In March, VicForests added 175 new salvage coupes in the Wombat and Cobaw state forests to their forestry schedule, saying these would allow forest recovery operations following the 2021 storms. Residents say approximately 80 of these are within the promised national park.

Local residents say salvage logging operations in Wombat State Forest are removing too much of the surrounding bushland. Credit:Sandy Scheltema

Residents say salvage logging at Babbington Hill, east of Daylesford, resulted in about two acres beng cleared of trees and vegetation to create a log landing and machine depot, and tracks have carved through the coupe. They are concerned this will happen in all the 170-plus logging areas scheduled for salvage logging, says Wombat Forestcare spokesperson Gayle Osborne.
As one prominent moderate, Victorian Liberal woman observed: There was never any thought that he would ditch her because it was calculated. He wanted her because it enables him to reinforce a message that has quite significant support in growth areas. Katherine Deves, the Liberal Partys contentious candidate for Warringah. The episode will do no favours for Liberal MPs like Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, Dave Sharma in Wentworth and Katie Allen in Higgins. All three MPs crossed the floor of parliament in the interest of transgender children, in the religious freedom debate. The bigger issue is that Morrison did what he did knowing it would make political life more difficult for them. The PM this week made clear what he is willing to give up for a bigger prize. The question this raises, one now being openly discussed inside the Liberal Party, is whether a Coalition government could be turfed out of its inner-city electorates in Sydney and Melbourne but take enough ground in the suburbs and regions to stay in power. To some Liberals, this is electoral madness. We want to represent the city, NSW Senator Andrew Bragg says. These people are an important part of our history and future. Electorally I dont accept the premise that they are gone, or they are gone because there are not enough seats to replace them elsewhere. The electoral map is very clear; its a path we cant go down.

Senator Bragg is also concerned at what the potential loss of MPs like Josh Frydenberg, who is facing an intense battle to hold his seat of Kooyong against teal independent Monique Ryan, would mean for the Party and its politics. Kooyong was the seat of Robert Menzies and Frydenberg, the Treasurer and Liberal Deputy Leader, is considered the Liberal most capable of keeping everyone under what Bragg describes as the Partys great big tent. Frydenberg spent part of this week campaigning in Sydney with Sharma, who sees no evidence that Wentworth has been abandoned by his party. I have got no doubt the division of the party are working really hard and providing me the resources that I need to make sure I retain the seat of Wentworth, Sharma says. Josh Frydenberg with Liberal candidate for Wentworth Dave Sharma at World of Whisky in Double Bay in early April. Credit:Steven Siewert To other, more conservative Liberals, the future lies elsewhere. To lose Kooyong would be a huge, emotional loss for the party, but it is just a seat, said one. It is certainly not the jewel in the crown anymore. The abandonment of the Liberal Party by its traditional base of tertiary educated voters is not a new phenomenon. Nor is the partys appeal to less educated, disengaged voters on the edges of capital cities whose aspirations are anchored in cost-of-living concerns.

The long-standing tension between these disparate constituencies is being exploited by the independent movement which, if successful, would purge the party of MPs most closely aligned to the stated values of their candidates and supporters. This would in turn hasten the partys shift away from urbane, secular liberalism to a more populist, moral conservatism. About one third of Victorian Liberal Party members are registered to branches in Kooyong, Higgins and Goldstein. A Liberal Party without these Melbourne seats, Curtin in Perth and Wentworth and North Sydney would represent a radical redrawing of Australias political boundaries. But one well-connected Liberal points out, those boundaries are being redrawn anyway, by forces beyond the control of the party. To see where centre-right politics in Australia is potentially heading, look to the red/blue divide of America, Boris Johnsons previous success in dismantling of the red wall in England and this weekends extraordinary presidential run-off vote in France. None of these political systems are the same as ours but in all these countries a potent mash-up of right-wing populism has found a warm embrace in less educated voters who feel spurned by big-city elites and institutions. Compulsory voting and proportional representation are suppressing the electoral impact of the shifting fault lines in Australia, but the great divide within the Liberal Party is no longer over economic policies, as it once was, or even climate change, but social issues and identity. This is why Morrison sees value in the likely short-lived political career of Deves. It is also why moderate Liberals fear that a loss of urban seats will lead to a further coarsening of the political debate and alienation of educated voters.

Goldstein takes in some of Melbournes most affluent bayside suburbs and has been a safe Liberal seat since its creation. The emergence of Zoe Daniel, a former ABC journalist endorsed by Climate 200, has left sitting MP Tim Wilson facing a serious challenge to hold the seat. Wilson is not a conservative and rejects the term moderate. As he puts it: My liberalism doesnt come in moderation, nor did I join the conservative party. In his 2020 book The New Social Contract: Renewing the Liberal Vision for Australia, he writes that Australia has allowed the foundations of liberalism to erode. What would it mean if Goldstein were to go independent? Governments set the agenda, parliaments vote on it, so if a community deals itself out of a government party their representation is limited to responding to those that chose a government MP, he tells The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. The less urban communities support the party of government the more the voice of suburban and regional communities gain political weight. Aspiring candidates will always claim their communitys voice will be amplified with them, but it wont be heard around the Cabinet table and will largely be the diluted echo around an empty House of Representatives chamber. Candidates for Goldstein: Independent candidate Zoe Daniel and Liberal MP Tim Wilson. Credit:Simon Schluter

How is the battle going on the ground? Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, a Kooyong elector, says it feels as though every house in his neighbourhood suburb has been obliterated by signs for either Frydenberg or Ryan. If you click onto the University of Queenslands election ad dashboard you can follow the money on in the online campaign. Three days ago, Ryan was spending $4 for every $1 by Frydenberg on sponsored Facebook posts. By Friday, Frydenberg had matched her and then some. Their combined spend in Kooyong dwarfs all other seat campaigns. Kooyong independent Monique Ryan at her campaign launch earlier this month. Credit:Aaron Francis The Liberal Party has spent much of this week portraying the Holmes a Court-endorsed candidates as fake independents who are only in it to replace the Coalition government with a Labor one. These are not centre right people, Greg Hunt says. They are GetUp! In teal rather than orange. Its an undeclared party of the left. Allegra Spender, the independent seeking to win Wentworth, rejects this. She says she has always held traditional liberal values. It is the party, not her, which has shifted.

Spenders father John was a Liberal MP for North Sydney who ironically, was unseated by an independent, and her grandfather Sir Percy Spender was a minister in Robert Menzies cabinet. She says the party they served was small-l, rational and business focused. Liberal MP Dave Sharma and independent rival Allegra Spender shake hands at this weeks debate in the seat of Wentworth. Credit:Richard Dobson My values havent changed and Wentworths values havent changed, she says. We have always been pretty socially progressive, we are environmentally focused and people that I talk to dont think there has to be a choice between the environment and the economy. For Spender, the dumping of Malcolm Turnbull, the partys self-styled champion of centrist rationalism, was the decision that estranged her from the Liberals. This was also the event that prompted Kerryn Phelps, a member of the Climate 200 advisory council, to stand as an independent candidate for Wentworth at the subsequent byelection. The dumping of Turnbull was also acutely felt in Victorias Liberal heartland. At a state election held three months after Morrison became Prime Minister, the Liberals lost the state seat of Hawthorn, which falls within Kooyong, and were hammered in Brighton, in the centre of Goldstein.

Phelps describes herself as politically dead centre and says that when she decided to run as an independent in 2018 she was motivated by anger and frustration at the direction the Liberal Party had taken, rather than any expectation she would win. From a standing start, Phelps won the seat against Dave Sharma with swing of nearly 20 per cent. Sharma reclaimed Wentworth at the 2019 election and Liberals point to this and the fate of other single-term independents as evidence that the teal candidates, even if successful, will be nothing more than a flash in the polls. Labor figures see the Liberal identity crisis as a variant of the long-standing problem they face in trying to bridge the divide between inner-city progressives and what remains of Labors traditional, blue-collar base. Loading Kos Samaras, a former Victorian ALP campaign strategist and assistant state secretary, has been watching seats like Kooyong and Wentworth for the past two years. His political consultancy RedBridge is providing polling to the teal independents.
The lead Country Liberal Senate candidate for the Northern Territory, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, has backed Warringah candidate Katherine Deves views about transgender women and womens sport.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Alice Springs today, Price said she had plenty of experience with Australian rules competitions in the Territory.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price speaking at an event in 2019. Credit:Edwina Pickles

The girls here put on a hard hit playing AFL, but if you have to go up against [someone who wasnt born a girl], thats potentially life-threatening, the Senate candidate said.

This is what were talking about and this is what Katherine Deves is talking about when shes standing up for the rights of women.

Being pro-women is not anti-trans as far as Im concerned.

Deves has come under fire in recent weeks for past comments made on her now-deleted social media accounts, including several comparisons to Nazi Germany, references to groomer gender zealots, and a description of transgender children as surgically mutilated.

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Asked if she supported that kind of language, Price said: Her language on standing up for womens rights, I agree with.

The Senate candidate added that if the majority of people dont back a white woman from the affluent suburbs of Sydney, then the voices of other women, marginalised Indigenous women, voices of ethnic women who deal with their own cultural issues when it comes to patriarchal cultures, they dont get to have a voice, either. The seat of Warringah centres around Mosman and Sydneys Northern Beaches region.

While some high-profile Liberals (like the NSW treasurer) have suggested Deves needs to be disendorsed, others  such as the PM  have backed her candidacy.

Last week, Morrison suggested that the majority of people would sympathise with Deves views, even if they were poorly put. However, research conducted in Australia, England and Canada suggests the majority of women athletes support the inclusion of transgender women. A minority of women believe trans women have an unfair advantage, according to the research.

with Broede Carmody
OMAHA  Childrens Hospital & Medical Center announced last week 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 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 Legislature allocated $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 last week.

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.

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More homes should be built around existing train stations and new Metro stops, he said. Letting people live near rail means people have access to everything Sydney has to offer, its the path to true long-term affordability. Brendan Coates, the economic policy program director at the Grattan Institute, said Sydney had a shortage of medium- and high-density housing where people want to live. It is a myth that new home-owners only want a quarter-acre block. A City of Canterbury Bankstown spokeswoman said the council was given an unreasonable target by the state government and had given forced to absorb more homes than neighbouring councils. Credit:Lyndal Irons Current planning rules and community opposition made it difficult to create extra homes in the inner city and middle-ring suburbs, Coates said. Local councils in highly-sought-after neighbourhoods reflect the interests of those that live there, he said. Prospective residents that would move into any new housing built dont get a say.

Data collated by the Urban Development Institute of Australia shows home ownership rates for Australians aged 25-34 were just 42 per cent in 2021  compared to 50 per cent in 2006 and 61 per cent in 1981. Coates said home building will slow and housing prices will rise if NIMBY residents win. Australians need to face up to a harsh truth: either people accept greater density in their suburb, or their children will not be able to buy a home near where they live, he said. Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said housing targets had been set low, yet most councils were way off achieving housing targets. While COVID explains some of this slowdown they are still unlikely to achieve their five-year targets despite immigration forecast to return, he said.

Those that refuse to work towards the delivery of housing targets should have their planning powers progressively removed from them as they are hindering the economy, employment and the very future of our city, he said. Loading Coates said councils ignored housing targets because there were no consequences, while planning regulations had not changed much despite the citys growing housing needs. Councils such as Fairfield and Inner West have criticised the state government for failing to count granny flats, seniors housing developments and boarding house rooms. This causes an obstacle to achieve housing target numbers for western Sydney and in particular Fairfield City, a Fairfield City spokeswoman said.

Five-year housing targets varied dramatically across Sydney with councils such as Parramatta (21,650), City of Sydney (18,300) and Canterbury Bankstown (13,250) required to approve thousands of new homes than councils such as Hunters Hill (150), Mosman and Woollahra (both 300). Hunters Hill Liberal mayor Zac Miles said his councils housing target was lower than neighbouring councils such as Ryde and Lane Cove, but it is a significant number for Hunters Hill. This is partly due to our size, the amount of heritage and conservation areas we enjoy and, given we are a brownfield council, we have much fewer locations suitable for redevelopment outside our village centres, he said. Similarly, Mosman Council has limited capacity to add more homes, has minimal population growth and lacks heavy rail infrastructure, a spokeswoman said. Council is confident Mosman will meet its short to medium term targets which have been set by the state government, with any shortfall made up by new projects in the pipeline or currently under construction. Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan said the council was not opposed to housing targets, but there needs to be appropriate infrastructure in place to support this growth, including public transport, schools, open space and hospitals.

A council spokeswoman said Canterbury Bankstown had been given an unreasonable target by the state government and had been forced to absorb more homes than neighbouring councils. Loading The council had fallen behind its housing target because of the length of time planning processes take to pass through the state government, she said. A Planning Department spokesman said in a statement more than 180,000 homes had been built across Sydney in the past five years. We are building a faster, simpler planning system with clear expectations for councils as well as providing them with incentives to assess applications more quickly. Greens planning spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann said western Sydney councils were bearing the brunt of the governments target for new housing.

We have to find a way to meet demand that is fair across Sydney and that includes incorporating development wherever possible on existing development footprint and where there is decent infrastructure, she said. Faehrmann rejected calls from developers to strip councils of more planning power. Communities should be empowered to decide what sort of developments are appropriate in their backyard instead of property developers deciding whats best for their bottom line. Coates said the state government needed to carry bigger sticks to ensure councils meet housing targets, including taking away planning powers. Loading The NSW government could also offer carrots such as bonus payments for councils that meet or exceed housing targets, he said. Although obviously these bonuses need to be large enough to outweigh the political costs to councils of pro-development decisions.
They may not be in military dress, but the drag queens calling two-up at the Kings Cross Hotel on Monday are no less reverential about Anzac Day.

Tomi, whose drag queen name was given by Lindsay Lohans publicist, said the Anzac Day tradition of two-up was an opportunity for people to unite in celebration of an important day in Australian history.

Drag queens Fairah, Tomi and Paris will be hosting two-up on Anzac Day at the Kings Cross Hotel. Credit:Louie Douvis

I love seeing how competitive people get, Tomi said. The atmosphere is gripping.

Tomi will be joined by fellow drag queens Paris and Fairah to host two-up at the Kings Cross Hotel from midday on April 25  one of many venues that will host the traditional gambling game on Anzac Day.
Poor building standards and rising energy costs force 30 per cent of Australians to get out of the house during summer, as hot weather takes an increasing toll on physical and mental health.

Low-quality homes that do not offer protection from the heat and poorly planned suburbs without trees and shelter from hot weather leave many Australians to suffer heat distress, even during milder summers.

Anthony Matthews with partner Natalie and two-year-old daughter Kayla at their Glendenning home in western Sydney. Credit:James Alcock

As energy prices rise due to the war in Ukraine, a survey of how people cope with hot weather by the community-based Sweltering Cities found a majority (61.8 per cent) said concerns about cost stop them turning on their airconditioner.

For renters, they dont have the power to install efficient air-con with solar infrastructure, so theyre either baking in hot homes or buying expensive portable air-con units, Sweltering Cities founder Emma Bacon said.
A 59-year-old man from Kenthurst has been refused bail after he allegedly attempted to meet with what he believed was a child under 10 for sex on Friday.

Detectives say Scott Bullock had been communicating online with what he believed was the mother of a child under 10 and engaged in sexually explicit conversations about acts he wished to perform on the child, police said in a statement on Saturday.

Scott Bullock is arrested in Liverpool on Friday. Credit:NSW Police

Police allege that unbeknown to the man, he was actually communicating with Strike Force Trawler, whose 21 detectives use online stings to catch alleged child abusers by impersonating children or paedophiles who share child abuse material.

Investigators also raided his Kenthurst home in Sydneys north-west and seized electronic storage devices for further examination.
It was encouraging to read that Liberal MP Dr Fiona Martin accepted the link between mental illness and climate change in her final report for the 2021 government inquiry into mental health (Young hold snowflake to blowtorch, April 17). While many worry that talking about climate change with young people only raises their anxiety, for sufferer Isaac Percy opening up to his family and friends had the greatest effect on lifting his mental health, and his anxiety attacks went away. Adverse human-induced climate change is here, and young people know it. The least adults can do is listen to their concerns and support them in their actions. Ray Peck, Hawthorn (Vic)

Insight man

Peter FitzSimons generally isnt shy about his scepticism, yet he has passed on a wonderful little Easter homily from an elderly priest, Monsignor Tony Doherty (Raising faith, doubt and the G word after 60 years as a priest, April 17). No gotcha moments but a portrait of faith and lifelong engaging with people  in spite of some honest doubts along the way. In a society where religion is on the decline, the Monsignor knows that the funerals he conducts are still an opportunity for us to own our feelings of love and loss and acknowledge the transcendent in our world. Likewise, the joys at baptisms and marriages. Retirement? Perhaps not quite yet. Margaret Johnston, Paddington

Passport ransom

The Australian Passport Office says to allow six weeks for passports then says it takes on average 17 business days (Waiting times double in rush for passports, April 17). So, we lose about three to four weeks initially and passports are only useful for nine years and six months. I want to nominate a start date of July 1 for my renewal. No way, said my federal member and the passport office. Why not? Our passports are among the most expensive in the world. Since July 1, 860,000 passports have been issued at $308 for each adult or $25 million approximately. When you have a monopoly, why bother offering any customer service? Lindsay Somerville, Lindfield
Tom Tate has confirmed he will recontest his Gold Coast mayoral position in the 2024 election, and hes taken aim at any federal election candidates who dont back his councils projects.

Tate, who has been in office since 2012, announced on Saturday morning that he would recontest his position in the March 2024 poll. If he wins and serves the full term, he will become the Gold Coasts longest-serving mayor.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has confirmed he will recontest his position in the March 2024 election. Credit:Glenn Hunt

But the LNP stalwart, who has remained popular in the largest Australian city outside the capitals, called on federal politicians to back three major projects the council has been pushing through.

He said he wants all federal politicians to understand that council has voted unanimously for a federal government contribution for stage four of the light rail, the Greenheart parkland project, and the next stage of the Home of the Arts (HOTA).
Skov accepted the position of island manager for a timber company in Vanikoro in 1936. Ships would arrive from Melbourne four times a year to collect the logs and deliver supplies. It was an island outpost, she said in an interview, where giant butterflies chased birds and crocodiles would snatch the pet cat.

Ruby Olive Jones was born in Sydney in 1891 and was working as a saleswoman when she married laundry operator Skov Boye, who had previously lived in the Solomon Islands. They had two boys, Don (Phills father) and Ken.

Amid allegations of failure of foreign policy, the eve of Anzac Day merits the telling of the achievements of a remarkable woman who was Australias only female Coastwatcher during the Second World War.

Asked if he believed Australia had taken its eye off the ball, he said: I guess you could say that. Thats a fair enough statement. I think she [Ruby] would probably feel the same way. That was a very hard-fought area in that part of the Pacific, the battles right nearby were pretty horrific.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, Vanikoro formed part of a Coastwatching network in the South Pacific. The two boys were sent for schooling in Sydney and the island was evacuated. When the radio operator left, a 50-year-old Mrs Boye took on the role. She and her husband were the only non-Solomon Islanders remaining.

In an interview on Snapper Island in Sydney in 1978, she said: I learnt how to read the panel of instruments for the weather reports, there were plenty of storms and hurricanes. Soon after, there was news of Pearl Harbor being bombed [on December 7, 1941] and we were a bit scared about that.

I was sending messages to Tulagi [in the Solomons] where they were compiled, then Tulagi was bombed, so I was advised through coded messages to use Morse code, which I had been practising since a Jap had called me and told me to get out or else.

They [the Royal Australian Navy] thought it was best for me to be in a uniform and the navy appointed me as an honorary third officer in the WRANS [Womens Royal Australian Naval Service]. It was just in case I was captured because I would be classed as a spy otherwise. It was dropped by parachute and it came down like a big pearl into the sea. They also sent cosmetics. I sent a message back saying, Thanks for the goodies, I am now a raving beauty.

It was very scary. We would hear the throbs of submarines on the reef. We would see Jap planes flying over. Later on, they bombed one of the aircraft tenders that were in the harbour.
Recently uncovered original drawings of St Pauls Cathedral reveal its English architect got so frustrated with the Melbourne builders carrying out his vision that he resigned, not once, not twice, but three times.

Im sorry I ever heard of Melbourne, declared the renowned but short-tempered William Butterfield after news got back to him in England that his plans werent being adhered to.

State Library of Victoria senior conservator Marika Kocsis, director of collections Jo Ritale and conservation manager Jane Hinwood with the original drawings of St Pauls Cathedral. Credit:Simon Schluter

The State Library of Victoria is preserving the collection of his 154 detailed plans, dating from 1878, that informed the Gothic revival design of the Flinders Street landmark.

It is raising funds to make the collection  which ranges from small scale to six-metre-long life-size renderings of key architectural features  publicly accessible to ensure the story behind it can be told for years to come.
Former prime minister John Howard has savaged the high-profile teal independents running in once-safe Coalition seats as anti-Liberal groupies, urging traditional Liberal voters to stick with the party even if they feel disgruntled.

Howard was speaking at a campaign event in his former seat of Bennelong, which Labor is targeting as a prime pick-up opportunity after the retirement of long-time Liberal member John Alexander.

Former prime minister John Howard, campaigning for the Liberal Party in his former seat of Bennelong. Credit:Renee Nowytarger

During the campaign rally Howard also blasted Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese for forgetting the unemployment rate in the first week of the campaign, a dramatic departure from his original reaction of so what? when asked about the gaffe.

These men and women are all posing as independents, Howard said of independent candidates such as Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Kylea Tink in North Sydney and Zoe Daniel in Goldstein. All are backed by businessman Simon Holmes a Courts Climate 200 fundraising group.
For his longtime dedication to causes in the community, Art Spenner has earned Columbus Morning Rotary Clubs Service Above Self award.

Spenner, whos served as a deacon at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church since 1979, was honored with the designation Thursday morning during the Rotarys meeting held at the Picket Fence Cafe in Columbus.

The Service Above Self award recognizes a community member who goes above and beyond to help the Columbus community. Spenner was nominated by Judy Trautwein, Robert Trautwein and Melanie McKinney.

We've had Service Above Self for a number of years, said Aaron Kosch, a Rotary member who helped plan this years award. It's been exciting to honor someone for their hard work and generosity of their time. We're just excited to have Art here.

Born on a farm near Beemer, Spenner served 14 years in the U.S. Navy where he was a flight engineer. Following that career, he joined Thomas Bernstein Sr. at Torin Products, Inc., as co-owner in 1966. Spenner managed the production side of the business, and Torin is credited with manufacturing miniaturized parts critical to the various moon landings and the advent of computerization, according to his nomination form. Spenner retired in 1996.

Spenner said he moved to Columbus in 1978. His contributions to the community include lending a hand in helping form Columbus Area Recreational Trails (CART) and being a longtime volunteer with the Platte Valley Literacy Association.

In 1997, Spenner and Curt Alms were having a coffee and started talking about the need for recreational trails in Columbus. The two contacted then City Administrator Lloyd Castner for advice and, along with eight other people, CART was created. These days theres a variety of recreational trails for Columbus residents and visitors to enjoy, thanks to the help of Spenner.

Art was very involved in the formation of the Columbus Area Recreational Trails, otherwise known as CART, which has grown in this community, added Miki Naylor, a Rotary member who also helped with the award. I'm thankful to you and your cohorts that had that vision to bring that to our community.

Spenner didnt stop there  he started with the literacy association in 1999. According to the nomination letter, hes tutored GED and adult basic education students.

Platte Valley Literacy Association Executive Director Mary Wiegand said that Spenner has helped about 23 to 24 students obtain their GEDS.

He has helped many of our students succeed and he's really been their support system. If we have a student that was struggling with math, Art was our guy to go (to), Wiegand said.

Spenner made similar comments.

I was called the math guru. So whenever they had a problem with math, they'd come see me, if I could help it, he added. It's so good to see someone get through the program and be happy about it.

Spenner also worked with the citizenship program, has tutored English as a second language students and served as a classroom assistant. Spenner noted the difficulty that those attempting to get their citizenship face.

Wiegand said that when she speaks to groups about the organization, she will bring a citizenship book that contains 100 questions that the students will get asked. She asks the group to pick a number between one and 100; she then asks the group the question that corresponds with the selected number. Often, she noted, people will be unsure of the answer.

Its a very, very hard test sometimes, Wiegand said. Art understands the hardships and struggles that our students have gone through to get there.

His nomination form states that one of Spenners students was a father whose son wanted to drop out of high school. The father and son made a deal that if the son stayed in school, the father would get his GED. The father ended up at the Platte Valley Literacy Association. With help from Spenners tutoring, both the father and son received their high school education.

Spenner noted that hes had people express their gratitude for what he does for the organization.

You meet somebody on the street and say, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me get through that program.' And I can't say the number of times I've met people who said that to me, he said.

Spenner has served on the board of directors for both CART and the literacy association. He was awarded the Peter D. Rush Spirit of Volunteerism award in 2008 by the Columbus Area United Way. He has also been seen giving a hand at special events throughout the years, including Columbus Days and the Columbus Hispanic Festival.

Hannah Schrodt is the news editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at hannah.schrodt@lee.net.

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September 21, 2021 was a busy day for Katherine Deves. After firing off dozens of tweets about gender identity  including one that called it a toxic religion-without-a-god that comes for our children [and] infects our society  Deves submitted an application to rejoin the Liberal Party.

Almost three months later, on December 13, Deves application was accepted by the Fairlight branch. That day, asked why trans women should be accommodated in womens sport, Deves tweeted: Because the feelings of addled and entitled men are far more important than the inescapable, lived reality of little girls, teenage girls, young women and older women.

Katherine Deves, Liberal candidate for Warringah, enters the Forestville RSL for an event on Friday April 22. Credit:James Alcock

Those remarks about trans people and gender identity are relatively tame compared to some of Deves other tweets and comments unearthed in recent weeks after she was selected by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as the Liberal candidate for Warringah. Held by independent MP Zali Steggall, the Liberal Party has generally regarded the seat as unwinnable at this election.

Too numerous to recount in full, Deves now-deleted tweets involved many references to groomer gender zealots, several comparisons to Nazi Germany and a description of transgender children as surgically mutilated. In other forums she called LGBTQ initiative Wear It Purple Day a grooming tactic and speculated that shadowy interests paid actor Elliot Page to come out as transgender.
Labor will target national security concerns about Liberal MP Gladys Liu in advertisements in the ultra-marginal seat of Chisholm at the same time as leader Anthony Albanese accuses the government of failing to curb Chinese influence in the Pacific.

The federal opposition has spent days attacking the Coalition for failing to use diplomatic pressure to stop Solomon Islands signing a pact with China that could allow the superpower to establish a military base on Australias doorstep, labelling it the worst failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific in almost 80 years.

Chisholm MP Gladys Liu campaigning in Box Hill last week. Credit:Joe Armao

Liu, the Hong Kong-born MP who won the seat in Melbournes eastern suburbs by about 500 votes in 2019, last week said the Coalition government had handled the issue very well.

As recriminations continue and the US attempts to thwart the agreement, Labor will pay for ads on Facebook, Google, YouTube and Instagram to remind voters in her electorate about Lius record.
The landmark security deal between China and the Solomon Islands, which could see Chinese forces stationed less than 2000 kilometres from Australias east coast, has thrust Australian diplomacy into the heart of a domestic political campaign.

Its also prompted questions about Marise Paynes handling of the Australian governments response to the deal, her performance as the countrys top diplomat and even her political future.

Foreign Minister Marise Paynes colleagues say shes smart and on top of her brief but is reluctant to front media. Credit:Steven Siewert

Labor has sharply criticised the media-shy foreign minister for not travelling to Honiara and compared it unfavourably with the United States decision to send its Indo-Pacific Chief, Kurt Campbell.

The failed mission here is the last nine years of this government ... and the chief person responsible for doing that ought to be the foreign minister, deputy leader Richard Marles said Saturday.
The signing of the security pact between China and Solomons Islands represents one of the gravest Australian diplomatic and intelligence failures in more than half a decade. This failure didnt just happen, nor is it the result of a particular leader or party.

Australians, of course, want to know what happened. Understandably, there will be many commentators and academics who will point the finger of blame now and into the future. However, its far more critical that Australias next government provides a clear picture of what they will do about this development.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Beijing in 2019. Credit:AP

The origins of this failure can be found in arrogance and hubris that extends across more than 20 years. For two decades, Australia was busy fighting the war on terrorism. This war and global ambitions around being a middle power drew our attention away from the Pacific.

Various governments over this time had assumed that the Pacific family bond was so strong that they could return to the region and start where they left off when and if they needed. They were wrong.
She wants to leave but dare not dare say so, and thats never good he said at a rally in eastern France. She says that she wants an alliance of nation states, but she is going to find herself in a corner and she is going to try to come up with an alliance with her friends. It would be a strange club. I dont think it is a club that would be good for France. I dont think it would be good for Europe. But Macron, 44, has found it harder and harder in recent weeks to pin down Le Pen, who in the past five years has reshaped and softened her image and gone about courting new voters from across the political spectrum. Despite coming from a far more privileged and Parisian background than her opponent, she has portrayed herself as a voice of the downtrodden  the mother of the nation  against the arrogant Macron who is the establishments candidate of choice. Whatever the outcome of the re-match between the pair, Le Pens progress has been remarkable.

Her father Jean-Marie, a xenophobic and anti-Semitic founder of the Front National party, made the first breakthrough for the far-right in France 20 years ago, when he squared off in the second round of voting against Jacques Chirac. Loading He was trounced 82 per cent to 18, but his daughter managed to double that figure five years ago and this year the margin is again set to narrow. Her success has been largely due to her promise to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, which has hit France as hard as the rest of the worlds leading economies and  despite the war in Ukraine  tops voter concerns, according to polls. A long list of catch-all populist economic policies includes slashing VAT  the broad-based consumption tax on the value added to goods and services  on fuel from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent and removing it from a list of about 100 basic goods.

She wants to encourage firms to increase wages by making the rises free of employers contributions and exempt everyone under 30 from paying income tax. While Macron wants to raise the retirement age to 65, Le Pen would maintain it at its current level of 62  one of the lowest in Europe  and reduce it to 60 for those who started work before they were 20, mainly those in heavy labour trades. Pascal Lamy, a former World Trade Organisation commissioner and French businessman, said while Macron had pitched himself as a centrist he had not governed as one. Macron is right-wing on some issues and left-wing on other issues, he said.Hes right-wing on economics, and hes left-wing on social issues. And Le Pen, he says, has a traditional extreme left, sovereigntist, protectionist, nationalist agenda while the substance of her manifesto is also traditionally right-wing, including strong anti-European rhetoric and promise to make it a fineable offence for women to wear headscarves in public.

In working-class Arras, a town of around 40,000 people in northern France on Friday morning AEST, Le Pen addressed more than 3000 voters who travelled to see her in person. The line ran for hundreds of metres out the door as over-officious security guards frisked everyone entering the convention centre. Emilie, 28, who works in retail, said she had driven from nearby Lille to listen to Le Pen. People say shes just like her father but she is not, she said. She has answers to the problems we are facing. It is so expensive to live now even outside the cities. She is offering a better life for young people. Her boyfriend, Robin, 26, who studied IT but is currently working in a bar, agreed. Macron is only for the rich. He has put up the price of petrol. He does not care about the young or the working class. She is promising to at least to make things better. The pair didnt want their picture taken because they both come from a long line of left-wing voters.

They say that, although they know more people who are voting for Le Pen this time, there is still some stigma. Most of their families wont vote at all on Sunday, they said, because they cant stand either candidate. Loading Pollsters are predicting a higher than normal rate of abstention for this second round, with up to around 28.5 per cent of almost 49 million voters likely to stay at home. But the same winds that brought about Brexit and helped elect Donald Trump are also blowing through France, as Macron, a former banker, tries to shake his reputation as president of the rich. Like America, France too has become bitterly divided on issues of free-trade, immigration and global markets. Disaffected working-class voters in the old industrial heartlands in the north and east are turning to Le Pen where, for generations, they had embraced the socialists and even communists.

And the distribution of the votes in the first round showed that, like in America, Britain and even Australia, there is a major shift taking place where geography determines how people live, think and vote. Those closer to city centres have more access to services, cultural activities, transport links, hospitals and schools and are more likely they are to be optimistic about their future. And they are voting for Macron. Le Pen went on the attack during her final rally of the campaign, dubbing Macron and her media critics a cohort of sad sires, merchants of fear and peddlers of slander. The National Rally candidate railed against a globalist oligarchy she said had hurt French businesses and an elite she accused of destroying rural life. People of France, rise up! she said. To chants of Marine, president, Marine, president she took aim at the system which she said drapes itself in morality and relies on the maimed of past politics, referring to former presidents of the Republic  Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande who have both endorsed Macron.

Supporters of French far-right Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen at her campaign rally in Arras. Credit:AP She contrasted her family of families that is the nation with the vision of the opposing camp she said would lead towards isolation, discord, and the abyss. Macrons France would be a nomadic and liquid world, she said, governed by a law of the jungle built on social contempt, lack of empathy, and brutality. The first signs of a shift against Macron came in November 2018, with a series of grassroots, populist rallies in small towns and rural France. The so-called Yellow Vest movement took its name from the high-visibility jackets protesters adopted as a symbol of their complaint. They sprang up spontaneously against hikes in car fuel taxes, with supporters donning the fluorescent safety vests that French law requires all motorists to carry. They were angry at record prices at the pump, with the cost of diesel increasing by about 20 per cent in the past year to an average of 1.49 euros ($2.20) per litre. Macron then announced further taxes on fuel, from January 2019, in a move he said was necessary to combat climate change and protect the environment.

French President Emmanuel Macron outside Sainte-Marie-Majeure cathedral in Marseille. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen is trying to unseat the centrist Macron, who has a slim lead in polls ahead of the April 24 presidential run-off election. Credit:AP The protests snowballed into a wider movement against Macrons perceived bias favouring the elite and well-off city dwellers. Workers on lower middle incomes are angry that they can barely scrape by and think they get scant public services in exchange for some of the highest tax bills in Europe. When Macron won the election in 2017 telling France it needed to change, he pushed through labour reform that made it easier for businesses to hire and fire. The unemployment rate fell to its lowest in 13 years, but suddenly jobs werent as secure as they once were. This heightened anxieties. Le Pen has tried to maintain her grip on many rural and deindustrialised areas in the past week, while Macron has focussed on more-prosperous urban areas, talking about climate change and the future of Europe as a bloody war plays out just a few hours away. It is in foreign policy that Macron has an advantage. The rise of authoritarian, populist and nationalist leaders worldwide  Trump in the US, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Vladimir Putin in Russia  has been a mixed blessing for Le Pen. Her campaigns have been financed by Russian and Hungarian banks but her cosiness with Moscow has been a constant source of criticism during the past two months.

This 2017 photo op with Vladimir Putin has come back to haunt French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. Credit:Sputnik/AP She has, however, profited from the loathing for her opponent felt by the French left, where Macron is scorned as an elitist for having abolished the wealth tax. Dr Marco Duranti, a lecturer in modern European and international history at University of Sydney, says that by continuing to strengthen his grip over the political centre, Macron had created a vacuum on the left and right. The electorate drawn to the populists resents these elites, has seen its economic security eroded, and feels itself to have been the losers of globalisation, he said. Because of these parallels, we should not be surprised if Le Pen wins an unexpected victory resonant of Brexit and Trumps election in 2016. The anti-immigrant stance that has been the hallmark of the National Rally party since it was founded as the National Front by Le Pens father in 1972 has been toned down but not gone away.

Loading Macron said this week that Le Pens plan to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public would trigger civil war in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. According to the polling firm, Ifop, nearly 70 per cent of Muslims voted for left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round, the only major candidate to have consistently condemned discrimination against the group. Macron gained on 14 per cent and is now aiming to increase that. Many it seems might just hold their nose and vote for Macron through gritted teeth. In a survey of 1600 people conducted by Ipso this week, 45 per cent of voters want Macron to win  half because he will make a good president and the other half to block Marine Le Pen. One in three  34 per cent  want Le Pen to win and 21 per cent didnt care.
Vladimir Putins alleged mistress has resurfaced in Moscow after speculation that she had been hiding out in Switzerland.

Alina Kabaeva, one of Russias most revered gymnasts and long rumoured to be the partner of the 69-year-old president, was photographed on Thursday for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks with gymnast Alina Kabaeva as he hosts Russias Olympic athletes at a Kremlin banquet in Moscow in 2004. Credit:AP

The 38-year-old Olympic medallist stopped by a rehearsal at Moscows VTB Arena ahead of the Alina festival, her annual charity event on Saturday.

Photographs of Kabaeva were posted by Ekaterina Sirotina, a well-known rhythmic gymnastics choreographer, who thanked the former champion for a very special creative atmosphere at the event.
Rob Gasper said he remembers a time when downtown Columbus was the place to be, and he hopes an upcoming event can help spark that interest again.

Rob - who owns The Friedhof Building, 1270 27th Ave.  is hosting the second annual 27th Avenue Springfest starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. The event is going to be on 27th Avenue between 13th Street south to the alley.

The outdoor family-friendly event includes live music, food trucks, bounce houses, a classic car and motorcyle drive-in show, and a scavenger hunt.

Its a great attraction to bring people to downtown Columbus, Rob said. We have such a great downtown with the park (Frankfort Square) centrally located here. With our building here, I think we have a really great place to do it.

Reginas Kitchen and The Friedhof will supply the food  which ranges from mac and cheese bites and bierocks (pastry pocket sandwiches) to chili dogs and barbecue ribs.

Meanwhile, S.T.A.R. Escape Rooms is helping run the scavenger hunt  which is from 1-3 p.m. - along 13th Street, said Tracy, Robs wife. It costs $5 to enter for the first 50 teams and the two top teams will come away with prizes, she added.

Rob teased that the scavenger hunt has an item in it that not many people know about Columbus. He said the clue alone is worth the cost of the scavenger hunt.

I think it will shock people that its in Columbus, Nebraska, Rob said.

The music  which begins at 2 p.m.  starts with local band Second Time Around, followed by Kyle Sayler and The Tim Zach Band closing out the night.

Rob said hes excited to have all three performers. Second Time Around is a local mainstay while the others will also provide quite a treat for attendees, he added.

I believe we have the best voice in Nebraska coming in at 7 and that will be Tim Zach, Rob said, adding his music and voice are similar to Garth Brooks and Metallica.  Were absolutely lucky to have him.

Springfest was originally held in 2019 but due to COVID-19 the event hasnt been held since, Rob said. However, he hopes it will become an annual tradition with the hopes of also starting another similar yearly event in the fall.

We want to promote getting people back to the citys center, Rob said. Over the last 20, 30 years, theres been so much outsourcing around the edges.  Everything comes in cycles and everything comes back to the citys center usually.

So its something were trying to promote and people are really receptive because they are attracted to downtown areas. I really believe there are a lot of reasons to come downtown. Were trying to get people to have fun reasons why they should come downtown and enjoy the atmosphere.

Rob said his goal is for folks from the surrounding areas to check out Columbus. He added Hastings holds a similar event, Do the Brew, for its downtown which coincidentally is held the same day as Springfest. It has become a popular attraction there, Rob said.

They have done a fantastic job of getting people to come back downtown, he said.  Our goal is to build this and create that into something like what theyve done there. Hopefully, itll provide the atmosphere that the people want.

Tracy said Springfest is made possible by volunteers and the Columbus Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

CVB Director Katy McNeil said the upcoming event is a nice way to enjoy the warmer weather.

I think Springfest is the perfect event to kick off the summer activities happening in downtown Columbus, said McNeil. The weather is getting nicer and nothing says come on out better than great food, great music and the potential to make great new friends!

Rob said hes looking forward to Springfest.

Its going to be a really nice event, he said. It looks like the weather is going to be nice.

Andrew Kiser is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at andrew.kiser@lee.net.

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It's S-1 filing time and the WeWork offices are in complete chaos. Unsurprisingly, Adam and Rebekah's initiative to provide an non traditional filing didn't have the expected result, and the company is scrambling to deal with the blowback. So let's get started on the final dive into WeWork's downfall!



The management team (including the guy of former -"COCK" written on his forehead at Summer Camp- fame) is spiraling and they finally convene at Adam and Rebekah's place to discuss how bad, exactly, the situation is. The investment banks did not appreciate Rebekah's little ideological manifesto, which apparently included a photo spread (I don't even dare to imagine what the pictures could be of). One does wonder if spurred on by her WeGrow ventures, she confused the S-1 filing with a coloring book.

"Its a financial document, that no one reads!"

"Well, they do read the Wall Street Journal and theyre working on a story."

"Theres a story?!"

"Well, maybe about late night parties, tequila shots and uh, a brick weed in a cereal box on an international flight?"

"Damian! My PR guru! How was it?"

"I think were finished."

asshole

"No one is getting fired yet!"

"I assure you, WeWorks best days are ahead of it!"

"Were fucked.

Damian, by the way, is looking increasingly flustered and it seems like he's the one feeding stuff to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the investors are also freaking out, and actually want the IPO to be postponed, or to lower the initial evaluation from 47 billion to... 20. Meaning that had the company gone public, if anyone had invested at that initial evaluation, they would be "getting fleeced", which was pointed out by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez at a congressionnal hearing.As a result, Adam is in full damage control mode and filming an explanatory video supposed to reassure, well, everyone. It does not go well since he both can't concentrate and can't pronounce "paradigm" correctly. Rebekah, of course, swoops in with her (probable) three weeks of acting knowledge and tries to help him with his lines. I desperately wanted to see her try and get him to do another accent, like she did during that ill-fated play, but alas, we will have to make do with Damian's expression of barely contained horror as he watches the scene unfold, all while suddenly being informed that the WSJrunning the story. When Adam finally succeeds in getting through the script without faltering, everyone rejoices (from relief, more than actual celebration), except Damian, whose eyes are glued to his phone, reading the first sentences of what is the beginning of WeWork's end.The article is too much for the board, who finally realizes the extent of Adam's "eccentricities" and votes him out. Rebekah and Adam are not having it though, and immediately lawyer up(with "all" the lawyers), in order to confirm that legally, the board can't actually fire Adam. Adam, however, dearly wishes to fire the entire board, in retaliation. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for everyone else), there's a little something called state law, that requires them to actually have a board. Amid disturbing whirring noise from the smoothie-making machine, as Rebekah asks for some kind of disgusting green juice to be made (of which I can only assume she got the recipe from Elizabeth Holmes) until it fits her exact specifications, one of the lawyers explains that while Adam's shares are still 65%, him firing and replacing the board isn't actually a great move either (big surprise). There'd be massive legal action, they have no time, and when Adam and Rebekah start throwing names such as "Warren? Bill? Barak?" in the air as board member replacements, you can tell the lawyers are one green smoothie away from quitting.While Adam is deep in denial, Miguel gets tasked with reassuring the WeWork troups. I can't imagine how it feels to be working for a company that suddenly gets destroyed in the press and not knowing if you still have a CEO, or, more to the point, a job. Miguel, as we know, isn't great at the public-facing stuff and this is clearly the last thing he wants to do. Valiantly, after grabbing a mic, he tries to pretend everything's fine, but the speech gets derailed fast."YET"? mouth striken employees in despair, as Miguel begins to sing. Yes, sing. Fortunately, and never has his arrival been such a relief, Adam walks in and saves Miguel from further attempts at PR. Because crisis PR time it is, and Adam has hired a team to take over WeWork's image and make it great again. The crisis team also takes over the Neumann residence, to Rebekah's despair. Her floors! Her couch!! Everyone must wear booties!!! The image of her and Adam pushing the "confidential" white board by skipping across the street, all while covering it with Adam's jacket to hide it from spies (?) has been living rent-free in my mind ever since I saw it.Despite Adam refusing point blank to give up his CEO position (and Rebekah's right to choose a successor in case of his death), he finally, after someone explains it to him, understands that he's going to lose everything. Especially since in the meantime, the Uber and Theranos stories made big headlines and investors are far less enclined to give him any leeway. If he stayed, not only would WeWork go bankrupt, but Adam would lose all his money. Adam then turns to Masa for help, but Masa is done too. He'll block the IPO if Adam proceeds with it, and Masa has deep, very deep pockets, which are now turning against Adam. When someone takes a picture of Adam, looking visibly flustered and barefoot on the street, which goes viral, he and Rebekah finally decide it's time to let it (the CEO position), go.Miguel is trotted out for yet another announcement (no, he doesn't sing this time, to everyone's relief), and this one is pretty huge. Guess who's taking over as CEO? That Cameron guy who tried to help WeWork with its IPO, to tidy things up before going public. He's off to a brilliant start, too.5 seconds later, in front of the board.As it turns out, the board finds out that WeWork has about two months before it runs out of money. What they didn't realize, apparently, is that with Masa as the only investor, WeWork's business model was to expand as much as possible in new locations (which means construction, which means funds) in order to dominate the market, regardless of cost. Layoffs aren't an option since they mean severance pay, with money the company doesn't have. Adam still owns majority shares, which is another issue. So the only solution is to buy him out.Masa makes several offers, which Adam refuses. Because his altruism only goes so far, if he's going to leave, he's going to to do with a golden parachute. And at first, it seems like he wins. Because Mada relents and admits that Adam is actually theone, in Masa's earlier analogy. And it looks like Adam will get off scott free, even though his employees are filing for unemployment and the company is falling apart around him. He and Rebekah jet off to Israel, kids, nannies, and everyone else in tow. But Masa makes one last phone call, which Rebekah takes because Adam is off swimming.Turns out, as Masa puts it, it isn't the crazy one, or even the smart one, who wins. It's the one who has the most money, and in this case, it's Masa. He doesn't plan on giving one cent of the settlement package to Adam, and Rebekah, who'd pretended money didn't matter in the end, and they just needed to start over, starts shreeking about losing all the money as she reaches for Adam in the water. Adam's eyes, apparently, are sensitive to seawater and he stumbles blindly as Rebekah keeps screaming into the waves, and the camera pans out.In the end, everyone sued everyone. Adam and WeWork sued Softbank, the WeWork employees sued Adam, and the list goes on. All in all, quite a wild conclusion to the WeWork saga. I was worried, five minutes before the end, that Adam was actually going to be able to set off in the sunset with 0 consequences (havaing not read up on the actual final happenings), but thankfully there were at least some, even if in the end, he still was able to leave with 480 million dollars. This spring really was the Startup Downfall TV era, and I honestly enjoyed it all a lot, whether it was about WeWork, Theranos, or Uber (I couldn't get through the Anna Delvey show though, so I'm not including it here). How did you enjoy the finale and the series overall? As usual, sound off in the comments!
NASA has shared audio coming from the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster, Ukrainian civilians are crossing front lines to 
BANGOR, Maine (AP)  An 18-year-old charged with having homemade explosive devices that he intended to use to attack a mosque and other houses of worship in Chicago pleaded not guilty to federal charges.

Xavier Pelkey, of Waterville, was arraigned Thursday after being indicted on a charge of possession of unregistered destructive devices. He remained in federal custody pending trial.
When Alex Jones business entities filed bankruptcy cases just days before a trial was set to award defamation damages, a Justice Department overseer and a group of Sandy Hook families questioned the timing and legitimacy of the 11th-hour action that put everything on hold.

What may have surprised some observers on Friday, however, was how many questions and concerns federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Lopez voiced about Jones filings after the judge determined that for the moment, he would take no action to sanction the bankruptcy process.

No one is going forward today on anything, Lopez told a crowd of 70 attorneys and observers, shortly after the video-conferenced hearing began from Southern Texas Bankruptcy Court. (But) I have questions and I am going to get my questions answered.

What followed was a spirited two-hour hearing about the highest-profile defamation cases in the country, which have been in the national headlines for a month.

There is clearly a lot of emotion on both sides, which is completely justifiable, Lopez said. I think some of these concerns are legitimate.

Lopezs main concern was the way Jones proposed to use the bankruptcy process to pay damages in three defamation cases he lost to Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut, without Jones himself filing for bankruptcy.

Jones proposed to do this by filing bankruptcy for InfoWars and two other business entities and setting up a litigation settlement trust to be administered by two former Texas bankruptcy judges. The trust would be funded by Jones himself and his Free Speech Systems, starting with $10 million.

The reason Jones would have to fund the trust is because two of the business entities in question have no cash and the third has a monthly income of $38,000, his representatives said.

That concerned Lopez.

One of the concerns that I have is  if the third-party contributor decides to pull the plug at any point, the life blood of these Chapter 11 cases go away, Lopez said. There has to be some guaranteed source of funds  and it cannot be based on something I havent approved.

Jones own representatives did not help clear up questions on Friday when they conceded that they were amending the details of that litigation settlement trust as they spoke.

On the settlement fund, I want the parties to have the opportunity to negotiate to get comfortable with it in light of all the things that have been said about it, said Kyung Lee, Jones lead bankruptcy attorney.

I need to tell you that the parties have worked very hard in good faith to bring a proposal to pay creditors and pay them in an equal fashion, Lee said. This allows a resolution to the bickering that has been going on for years(but) I hear nothing but complaining by those who want the money or those who are entitled to the money.

With good reason, the Sandy Hook families attorneys responded.

They want the benefit of bankruptcy without being in bankruptcy, said Randy Williams, an attorney representing an FBI agent and 14 people from eight families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook massacre. Mr. Jones and (Free Speech Systems) are staying outside of it but that is not right; they are getting the advantage of keeping that case from going forward on Monday, and our folks are waiting to liquidate their claims.

An attorney for a Justice Department official who oversees bankruptcy cases in southwestern Texas agreed.

These cases appear to be orchestrated by (Jones) to limit his liability and the liability of FSS, said Jayson Ruff, who represents U.S. Trustee Kevin Epstein.

Protecting Alex Jones brand

Jones himself was not in the courtroom, because Jones himself has not filed for bankruptcy.

When asked why Jones didnt file for bankruptcy, a representative said Jones feared he would lose credibility with listeners and product sales would suffer.

InfoWars is a prominent trademark in the conspiracy theory community and Alex Jones is equally as prominent, said Marc Schwartz, the proposed chief restructuring officer for Jones business entities in bankruptcy. It would ruin his name and harm his ability to sell merchandise.

For the time being, Jones defamation awards trials in Texas and Connecticut are on hold.

Its the latest development in a series of adverse events for Jones, whose fortunes turned after he called the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and educators staged, synthetic, manufactured, a giant hoax, and completely fake with actors.

In bankruptcy court on Friday, Schwartz said Jones has paid $10 million in attorneys fees because of the Sandy Hook defamation cases, and that Jones has seen his revenue drop by $20 million.

Schwartz, who described the Jones brand as the Coca-Cola of the conspiracy theory community, said Jones name drove merchandise sales of at least $76 million in fiscal 2019.

If you look at the impact of litigation in 2021, his estimated revenue  is $56 million, or $20 million less, Schwartz said.

Lopez scheduled a status conference for April 29 when he expects to get an update and to have at least one motion to dismiss the bankruptcies from Sandy Hook family attorneys.

Your honor this just isnt right - this is illegitimate, said the Connecticut families attorney Williams. We do intend to file an emergency motion to dismiss.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Authorities near San Francisco say they seized nearly 100 pounds of illicit fentanyl worth over $4 million, blocking it from being sold on streets across the Bay Area.

This is a glimpse of the fentanyl epidemic, the Alameda County Sheriffs Office said in a tweet Saturday that showed a picture of the drugs in dozens of baggies after being seized.
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STAMFORD  City Representatives could make calling 911 in specific emergencies a Stamford requirement.

A Board of Representatives subcommittee last week floated the idea of creating a penalty for businesses that do not call 911 during a crisis. Their proposal, discussed informally before the Public Safety Committee, comes less than a month after board members learned that a city developer did not immediately alert emergency services after part of an outdoor terrace caved into a parking garage.

Though Stamford developer Building and Land Technology failed to call 911 to its waterfront high-rise Allure, the company did alert its engineers. Stamford Fire Department officials later that day learned of damage to Allures parking garage after receiving a complaint from a residents mother.

Members of Mayor Caroline Simmonss administration and the elected board criticized BLTs decision to bypass city emergency services. Head city lawyer Doug Dalena Thursday told representatives that it was completely unacceptable that 911 wasnt called a lot sooner, something he claimed that the mayor emphasized to the developer.

However, a company spokesperson told The Stamford Advocate last month that the site was secured and made safe (by its) team, as well as contractors and engineers. Fire officials agreed that, by the time they arrived, Allure was stable.

Nonetheless, there is no general legal requirement to call emergency services like the police or fire department in any situation. Some states mandate that bystanders provide reasonable assistance in some criminal circumstances but no such requirement exists in Connecticut.

Committee Chair Rep. Jeffrey Stella specifically singled out building employees  like property managers, superintendents, security personnel and door attendants  while describing who a potential rule could target. But beyond defining the who, Stamford has narrow enforcement powers.

The city has no power to impose criminal penalties, Dalena said.

But it can impose civil penalties, he said. There are a lot of city ordinances that levy a fine when theres a violation, he said Thursday.

The maximum penalty that Stamford could impose is $250. With the Law Departments help, Representatives must ultimately decide whether individuals or their employers are on the hook for that fine, he said.

If the Board moves forward with an ordinance, board members must also determine what would trigger the requirement. Stella listed common sense situations like a stabbing, a shooting, or someone fainting or collapsing as examples.

However, Rep. Mary Fedeli, R-17, urged caution as the city explores any potential rule.

She argued that drafting the most precise standards possible, potentially with the help of a working group, would make future enforcement less open to debate.

I think you really do want to codify it correctly and put it in place correctly so that its as cut-and-dry as it can be because you want it to be enforceable, and you want the incident to be easily identified, she said.

In the end, Stella said that the goal of a potential enforcement ordinance would not be to punish anyone. Instead, he wants it to serve as a warning.

My goal is that this is never used because, honestly, everyone (will know) the rules... and this will never happen again, he said.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
NEW CANAAN  A report of a stolen Land Rover this week turned out to be a repossession, according to local police.

Officers were dispatched to a home on Horton Lane for a reported stolen vehicle. The owner told police that they last saw their vehicle, a 2015 Range Rover HSE, parked in the driveway the evening before. The owner told police that they believed the car was left unlocked and their wood grain watch valued at $700 was left inside.

Police later determined that the car was not stolen, but was repossessed.

Along with addressing the report of a stolen car, police are reminding residents to set their alarm systems, lock their vehicles and secure their valuables after an attempted burglary and mail theft this week.

After returning from vacation, a New Canaan resident noticed a window on the second floor of their Turtleback Road home was open. They then discovered another window was broken and a wooden bench outside had been moved and placed on its side, providing access to both windows, according to the New Canaan Police Department.

Police were called to the home around 3:40 p.m. Wednesday for the attempted burglary. They later determined that the suspects never made it into the home and nothing was missing.

About an hour later, police were called to a home on Old Norwalk Road for a report of stolen mail. Police said the homeowner used the United States Postal Services informed delivery feature, which allows recipients to preview the mail that is scheduled to come in.

The feature said the homeowner was supposed to receive two checks, an EZ Pass and a letter. They were all missing from her mailbox, police said.

The next morning, Police are encouraging residents to always set their alarm system, lock their vehicles, take their keys with them and secure valuables.

NEVER leave valuables in your vehicle, the police department said in a statement. Often, identity theft occurs when drivers licenses and credit cards are stolen.

In 2021, the New Canaan Police Department reported 44 thefts from motor vehicles, 39 motor vehicle thefts, 14 instances of identity theft and nine burglaries, according to crime data from the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP)  Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has dropped an effort to prosecute two U.S. Park Police officers who fatally shot an unarmed motorist back in 2017.

The Attorney General's Office filed a motion Friday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond withdrawing the appeal in the shooting of Bijan Ghaisar, 25, of McLean.

Miyares' decision ends a nearly five-year legal saga in which Ghaisar's family, police reform advocates and some members of Congress sought to see officers Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya face criminal charges for shooting Ghaisar after a stop-and-go chase on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in November 2017.

The FBI investigated the shooting for two years, but federal prosecutors ultimately opted against filing charges.

At that point, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano, who had recently been elected on a police accountability platform, filed manslaughter charges against the officers in state court. Descano was supported by then-Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat.

The manslaughter charges set off a tug-of-war between state and federal officials over who had jurisdiction. The police officers' lawyers successfully had the case removed to federal court.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria dismissed the prosecution, ruling that the officers' actions were necessary and proper in the context of the chase.

Herring and Descano appealed Hilton's ruling in October, but Herring in November lost his re-election bid to Miyares, a Republican.

Miyares and Descano have feuded openly for months, with Miyares accusing Descano of being soft on crime and refusing to support police. Descano has accused Miyares of trying to meddle in local affairs and undermine him and other reform-minded prosecutors in northern Virginia.

In a statement, Miyares said and others in his office reviewed the evidence and ultimately concluded that Hilton's ruling was correct and should not be appealed.

I will not perpetuate the continued prosecution of two officers who were doing what they were trained to do under tremendously difficult circumstances, he said.

At a press conference Saturday, Ghaisar's mother, Kelly Ghaisar, said she is outraged and disgusted by the decision and holding out hope the appeals court will refuse to allow Miyares to drop the appeal.

I am here to plead with anyone who can hear me  please do not dismiss this case, she said.

State Sen. Scott Surovell, a Democrat who lives a few blocks from where Ghaisar has shot and who has supported the family's effort to have the officers prosecuted, spoke at the press conference and said Miyares filed his notice late on a Friday to avoid calling attention to what he had done.

As news of this gets out, people will be highly disturbed, he said.

Descano said he's heartbroken by the decision but holds out hope that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will reconsider the decision made during the Trump administration not to bring its own charges.

For Attorney General Miyares to not even allow this case to be heard in the Fourth Circuit for purely political reasons is shameful - especially considering all of his rhetoric about supporting victims, Descano said.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., whose district encompasses the location of the chase and shootin, called Miyares' decision misguided Saturday.

Giving officers a get-out-of-jail-free card for a fatal shooting after a grand jury indictment for involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm cannot help but undermine trust in law enforcement in the community, Beyer said in a statement. This is not how you support the police.

Ghaisar was fatally shot after authorities say he left the scene of an accident on the parkway, outside the nations capital, and led officers on a stop-and-go chase.

Dashcam video released by Fairfax County Police, which played a supporting role in the chase, shows the pursuit starting on the parkway, then continuing into a residential neighborhood. It shows the car driven by Ghaisar stopping twice during the chase, and officers approaching the car with guns drawn. In both cases, Ghaisar drives off.

At the third and final stop, the officers again approach with guns drawn, and Amaya stands in front of the drivers door. When the car starts to move, Amaya opens fire. Seconds later, when the car begins moving again, both Amaya and Vinyard fire multiple shots.

Miyares' decision ends the criminal prosecution, but Ghaisar's family has filed a civil suit that has been on hold while a criminal case was being pursued.
Nearly a week after he was the subject of a news report detailing allegations that he groped eight women, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster filed a lawsuit against one of his accusers: state Sen. Julie Slama.

In a filing Friday, Herbster said Slama defamed him and caused him to suffer "grievous harm to his reputation."

The complaint echoes many of Herbster's arguments made in the wake of the allegations, which were reported by the Nebraska Examiner on April 14. The online news site reported that eight women said Herbster, a Republican megadonor and CEO of Conklin Co., touched them inappropriately. The women were between their late teens and mid-20s at the time, according to the Examiner, and all the incidents occurred between 2017 and this year.

Slama, who has served in the state Legislature since 2019, was the only woman identified by name, and she later confirmed the Examiner's reporting in a statement to the media and a radio interview that same day.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages, as well as money for fees and costs.

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The General Inspectorate of the Border Police informs that, on Friday, at national level, 87,208 people entered Romania through the border points, of whom 6,743 Ukrainian citizens (down by 11.3% compared to the previous day).

According to a release sent to AGERPRES on Saturday, 3,474 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania at the border with Ukraine (down by 9.6%), while 1,004 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania at the border with Ukraine (down by 24.7%).

Since the onset of the crisis in the neighboring country and until Friday, in the 24-hour inyterval, at national level, 773,355 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania.
Cardinal Lucian, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia and Fagaras, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek Catholic, sent, in the pastoral letter addressed on the occasion of the Easter holidays, the importance of solidarity with the Ukrainian citizens, hardly tried in this period.

The high prelate stressed that "the war in Ukraine dramatically marks the existence of the inhabitants of this country, it disturbs the stability and international relations, but it also interpellates each of us in terms of humanity.", according to agerpres.ro.

"The horrors and sufferings created by this conflict shake us and address our consciousness! The words of the Holy Father Pope Francis turn out to be prophetic and very topical: 'Every war leaves the world worse than it found it. War is an echelon of politics and humanity, a shameful surrender, a defeat to the forces of evil. (...) Let's look at so many civilians massacred as 'collateral damage'. Let's ask the victims. [...] Let us consider the truth of these victims of violence, let us look at reality with their own eyes, and let us listen to their stories with an open heart. Thus, we will be able to recognize the abyss of evil in the heart of war' (Fratelli tutti, 261). Any armed conflict is a radical degradation of humanity, an eruption of hatred and selfishness, which contradicts the love of God and disfigures the dignity of individuals in the name of petty ideologies and interests. Our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are not alone in their suffering! Our Lord Jesus Christ is with them, He assumes their pains, identifies with them, and strengthens them in these moments of hardship and unjust trial. Next to them is the Romanian Church United with Rome, which knows all too well what suffering violently imposed in the spirit of ideologies contrary to human dignity means," Cardinal Lucian said.

He thanked all the priests, monks, nuns and believers who recognized the risen Jesus in the image of the refugees who entered Romania during this period, welcoming them into their homes and generously helping them.

"May the good God please them for the good they have done, and let Him offer comfort and protection to those who live the drama of war, to instill hope and strength in them! Many of them are in our midst and together with them today we celebrate the risen Jesus. They are part of our family and we receive them as our brothers. Together with them we break the bread of sorrows, our hearts burn by joining them, like the disciples of Emmaus. Let us accompany them with our prayers, having the conviction that the Lord had not left them, and the Most Holy Virgin Mary does not forget her sons! Let us ask Jesus to enlighten those who cause all these sufferings in order to find the way of peace and repentance!" the cardinal said.
Let's receive Lord's Resurrection in unity, good understanding, and confidence in the future, on Saturday said the National Defence minister, Vasile Dincu, adding that the country's defence is in good hands, with the military on duty permanently to make sure Romania enjoys peace, quiet, integrity and sovereignty.

The minister said that, through the traditions left by the ancestors, the feasts of the Holy Easter are spent at home, together with the loved ones, in order to share in the family the hope given by Christ, through His Resurrection, to the entire Christianity.

"We are also with the Ukrainian people, hard-tried by an unjust, undeserved and absurd war, carried with an invader who reminds, through their brutality and cruelty, of times we thought were past. Unfortunately, many, outrageously many Ukrainian civilians have lost their lives as a result of Russian aggression and millions of citizens of Ukraine have taken the path of exile. Many of these refugees receive the Holy Light here in Romania, where they are welcome," the minister said.

He thanked all Romanians for the trust they have in the Army and for the constant support they give to the institution.
The Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bucovina, His Holiness Teofan and the Metropolitan of Bessarabia, His Holiness Petru will receive, on Saturday evening, at the International Airport in northeastern Iasi, the Holy Light brought by the representatives of the Iasi Archdiocese in Bucharest, after being taken over from the delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate in Jerusalem.

The Communication Director of the Archdiocese of Iasi, Lucian Apopei, said that the Holy Light will then be offered only to the delegates of the deaneries and parishes, the faithful will then receive it at the Resurrection Service.

"We mention that this is the first time that our brothers from across the Prut river come to Iasi to receive the Holy Light brought by a delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate of the Holy Land. It will then be transmitted, by land, throughout the Metropolitan of Bessarabia. The event will be attended by representatives of the local authorities and of the management of the Iasi International Airport," explained Lucian Apopei.
President Klaus Iohannis sent a message on Saturday on the occasion of the Easter holidays celebrated by Orthodox believers, Greek Catholics, Armenians and neoprotestant cults.

"The feast of the Holy Easter brings us together around the great Mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether we are home or far from those we carry in our souls. To all Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian and neoprotestant believers who celebrate the Holy Easter, I send them my warmest wishes for peace, health and good understanding! These days, we carry in our thoughts and hearts our Ukrainian neighbours, whose suffering we try to comfort through hospitality and support. We thus share around us from Christian love, and this solidarity now embodies the expression of neighbour's love. Dear Romanians, may the miracle of the Resurrection strengthen us in faith and receive the Holy Light with hope and love. I wish you all blessed, in harmony Easter holidays with your loved ones," is the message sent by the president, on the eve of the Holy Easter.
As many as 556 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 408 from the previous day, with 11,479 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Saturday.

Of the new cases, 66 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 - 239 and in the counties of Ilfov - 48, Timis - 32, Brasov - 31, Iasi - 26.

As of Thursday, 2,887,824 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 1,210 people with COVID-19, down 39 from the previous reporting, including 75 children, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 212 patients are in intensive care, down by six compared to the previous day.

Of the 212 patients admitted to ICU, 185 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, another 9 Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 - 6 men and 3 women - are reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Out of the total 9 patients who died, 7 were unvaccinated and 2 vaccinated. Two of the vaccinated patients who died were between 60-69 years old, three between 70-79 years old and four were over 80 years old.

All deaths were in patients with comorbidities.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,421 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.
About 2,000 Romanian tourists have chosen to celebrate Easter on the Black Sea littoral this year, says Corina Martin, honorary president of Resto Constanta, in a press release of the organization, sent on Saturday to AGERPRES.

"The best sold the all-inclusive Easter packages combined with spa services from Eforie - the two representative locations (Steaua de Mare - Acvatonic and Mirage Med Spa are occupied at capacity). Also, several 4-star hotels in Mamaia (Oxford, Sulina, Bavaria Blu, Iaki) and Venus (Afrodita Hotel) have an average occupancy rate of 80%," Martin said.

According to the source, for the weekend of April 29 - May 1, 30,000 tourists are expected at the shore of the sea, "and these estimates could be exceeded if the weather is sunny".

The most requested destinations are: Mamaia and Mamaia Nord, Costinesti and Vama Veche.

Thus, in the first weekend of May 1, the Festival du Bonheur and Sunwaves Mamaia will take place.

Between April 28 and May 2, Festival du Bonheur returns to the Seaside in the Enigma Complex area - Mamaia Nord/Constanta, and will offer the richest culinary experiences.

Also, Sunwaves Mamaia 2022 will run from April 28 to May 4, to which participants who purchase tickets in 2020, when the edition was canceled, will also have access. In the six days and six nights of concerts, over 5,000 visitors/day are expected.

Resto Constanta will also mark this year the opening of the 2022 season at the seaside, with a new event dedicated to the HoReCa (hospitality) industry on the seaside, on April 28, at Kupolla Ballroom Mamaia, where, together with the members of the organization, there will be also hotel colleagues and owners of locations from all over the country.
The President of the Senate, Florin Citu, transmitted, on Saturday, to the faithful who celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord health, peace and prosperity.

"May the Light of Resurrection reunite us all in the spirit of generosity and love of our neighbour, and let hope to trample our thoughts! Christ is risen!" said Citu, according to the Senate's website.

Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians celebrate the Lord's Resurrection on Sunday, the greatest celebration of the Christianity.
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At first glance the stately white home with matching 20-foot ionic porch columns and extensive dentil millwork appears just as when it was built in 1910. An immense wraparound porch and two walk-out porches on the upper floors exude a feeling of gentility.

The design of the 5,900 square foot, six-bedroom, six-bath Second Empire residence was inspired by the Missouri Building at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis and was built for Judge Shackelford and his wife. In 1927 it became the home of the Desloge family.

I bought it from the curb, Karen Kalish recalls when she saw the house for the first time in 2001.

Today it still looks like it did 112 years ago. Sort of. The sculpture of ruby red lips on the front steps titled Running Off at the Mouth, and a sculpture of chairs covered in grass aptly titled Your Ass is Grass, hint this is no longer your typical historic mansion. The silhouette of a full-size naked woman glowing in red neon welcomes guests just inside the front door. On the lawn a Black Lives Matter sign appears alongside a Ukrainian flag.

It is obvious someone who appreciates art and who has a keen sense of humor, as well as definite political opinions, lives inside.

Past the front door, the palette of vibrant colors on the interior walls, and myriad artwork, also reveals this is not just a home, but a celebration of happiness and color. I do not like dark, Kalish says. Someone once said the house looks like a Crayola box exploded, but I wanted a house where you could not be in a bad mood. When I bought it, the rooms were so dark you would have needed antidepressants to live here.

Interspersed with the colors and art in every room are reminders of family. The dining room table was her grandmothers. A portion of her fathers collection of 18,000 toy cast iron soldiers is displayed in leaded glass cabinets over fireplace mantels. An unusual family tree spanning three generations consists of photos of parents, children and grandchildren, all taken at about 8 years of age and all dressed in identical sailor outfits.

The art ranges from primitive to contemporary, and Kalish says every piece has an interesting story. A Yaacov Agam lithograph took on new meaning after she met the renowned artist by accident in the gift shop at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

A portrait of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg created by St. Charles artist Zack Smithey honors the late justice, who was a friend. They exchanged handwritten correspondence and then emails over two decades. The friendship began as a result of a leadership program Kalish founded for teens when she was living in Washington, D.C. The program included having the teens meet justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

There is also art in unexpected places. A kitchen island sits atop a painted floor rug. Walls in the utility room feature a painting of a clothesline of colorful garments hung out to dry.

When I go to someones home I want to know about the art, she says. That is why each piece of my art has a small card next to it identifying the artist and where I found it.

A stairway wall displays photographs and newspaper articles recalling the time Kalish helped the late artist Christo, noted for his site-specific environmental installations wrapped in fabric, wrap the 1985 Pont Neuf bridge in Paris. Later she worked in the public relations office for the Umbrellas installation in California in 1991.

She has made several architectural changes to the residence. After a dining room with large windows on three sides was added, she liked it so much it became her living room. The kitchen has been redone, and she refinished half the lower level, adding a media room and exercise room.

I have a lot of books and was shocked this house had no bookcases, Kalish says. Now there are several on all three upstairs floors.

Kalish enjoys entertaining, and frequently hosts fundraisers for nonprofits. I enjoy sharing my house, but I have my Black and White rule, she says. African Americans must be included, and if there are more than 50 people only white wine is served. I do not want red wine spilled on my light colored rugs!

Words painted boldly on the kitchen soffit are one of Kalishs favorite quotes and give an insight into what drives her admirable community service. They are: What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. GOETHE.

Karen Kalish

Age  76

Occupation  Karen identifies herself as a serial social entrepreneur, and has earned numerous awards for her community service. She is the founder of Home Works! (teacherhomevisit.org,) Books and Badges (karenkalish.com) and Cultural Leadership (culturalleadership.org.) She is also the head of the Estelle W. and Karen S. Kalish Fund supporting parent and family engagement, literacy and initiatives to end discrimination.

Home  Clayton

Family  Two cats named Michelle and Barack. Two dogs are named Fannie Lou Hamer, in honor of the African American womens rights activist; and Vernon Johns, named after a southern African American minister who was an early pioneer in the civil rights movement.
ST. LOUIS  Advocacy groups are looking at next steps for the residents of four St. Louis homeless encampments ordered by the city to close.

Organizers said they planned to go to the encampments over the weekend to ask the residents how they would like to proceed.

Ultimately, were going to do whatever they want, said Alex Cohen, co-founder of Tent Mission STL.

The city on Thursday evening posted flyers at tent encampments by the riverfront and under the Interstate 44 overpass near Cole Street, warning residents that they must vacate within 10 days.

In a statement provided by the mayors office Friday, interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom said the city had received reports of poor health conditions and numerous calls for service in the riverfront area, both related to the encampment and the surrounding community.

Isom said the city estimates that about 25 people in total were staying at the encampments that received notices.

The city did not respond to a question about whether there is enough shelter space in the city, should all of the occupants choose to go to shelters, but Isom said the city is evaluating all of our available options.

The encampments include one near the riverfront where around 20 people have been staying. Though the city has offered to find temporary housing, some have said they dont want to stay in homeless shelters. And advocates say theres not enough room in shelters anyways.

Shelters, said Ramona Curtis, founder of UnhousedSTL, are not going to be a real solution for this community.

Its just really going to be about us scrambling to get them somewhere else, temporarily, she said.

Organizers are gathering supplies such as tents, food and water in case they need to help people relocate. Cities move encampments all the time, leaving the homeless residents dispersed but not disappeared, Curtis said.

Cohen agreed.

The same thing will keep happening, Cohen said.

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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is finally getting some pushback from his own party for abusing the legal system in his quest for a Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Schmitt has filed dozens of frivolous lawsuits against Missouri school districts and cities over pandemic precautions in a cynical bid to appeal to the right-wing political base. This relentless hounding of Missouri taxpayers was done on the taxpayers dime.

Now, top Republicans in the Legislature have moved to deny a $500,000 bump to Schmitts budget, questioning the necessity of it for an official who, in the words of the top state Senate Republican, has used his office for political purposes. Its a healthy sign for democracy when Republicans are willing to risk damaging a GOP frontrunners Senate campaign in order to tell him he has crossed the line.

Schmitts barrage of lawsuits last year challenging local mask mandates cast aside both sound medical expertise and the conservative principle of leaving local decisions to local officials. His tactics included sending threatening letters to school boards based on a misrepresentation of a court order that didnt apply to those boards. The Atlantic was dead-on in September when it suggested in a report that Schmitt was trying to sue his way to the U.S. Senate.

That tax-funded effort has been accompanied by ideologically bombastic tweets and public statements from Schmitt  in his official capacity, remember  about leftist authoritarian politicians and bureaucrats, elites & the ruling class and other familiar tropes from the right-wing grievance-politics playbook.

Even some of Schmitts fellow Republicans have finally had enough. The state Senate Appropriations Committee last week tentatively nixed a $500,000 increase that Schmitt wants for additional attorneys  and several top Republicans linked that action directly to Schmitts litigation stunts.

Would I say that probably the attorney general went a little out of his way for political purposes? Yeah, probably, Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden told reporters. Rowden opined that school districts shared some of the blame for the conflict  an unfounded but perhaps politically necessary bit of both-siderism. But its difficult to overstate the significance of the top Senate Republican even suggesting that a Republican statewide elected official abused his office in that manner.

Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Lincoln Hough went further. Ive just had a lot of complaints from folks back home saying, I dont know why our attorney general is meddling in everyone elses policies , Hough said. Generally were conservative Republicans, and we like smaller government.

That last point is an important one. Theres nothing conservative about a state office holder seeking a budget hike so he can undermine local authorities, flood the legal system with divisive lawsuits and campaign on public time and resources. Republican primary voters who are considering Schmitts conservative credentials this fall should keep that firmly in mind.
Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday that Department of Education Secretary Noe Ortega will step down on April 29.

Noe is a dedicated advocate for all students and Im grateful for his service, Wolf said. He led the department through unprecedented times, ensuring a safe return to in-person learning and providing access to COVID-19 testing and vaccines.

Prior to his appointment as secretary, Ortega served as the deputy secretary and commissioner for the Education Departments Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education.

I am extremely proud of the accomplishments made and the resiliency demonstrated by the PDE team throughout my tenure, Ortega said. Together, we worked tirelessly to ensure that every learner in Pennsylvania has access to a high-quality and equitable educational opportunity.

Wolf said Eric Hagarty will serve as acting secretary. Hagarty is the governors deputy chief of staff responsible for implementing Wolfs priorities and policies relating to education.

These include the Level Up program to invest more in chronically underfunded schools, the COVID-19 vaccine initiative for teachers, regulatory reforms to Pennsylvanias charter school system and Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education initiatives.

I look forward to working even more closely with the hard-working and dedicated staff at the Department of Education, Hagarty said.

Joseph Cress is a reporter for The Sentinel covering education and history. You can reach him at jcress@cumberlink.com or by calling 717-218-0022.

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In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy angrily told those around him that he intended to tell then-President Donald Trump he should resign, according to a new book. How that McCarthy became the current Trump lapdog who refuses to hold the ex-president accountable (and, as was proven last week, lies to the public about it) is a study in political cravenness and cowardice. Perhaps its McCarthy who should consider resigning.

The book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future, is written by two New York Times reporters and was outlined in that newspaper last week. It reveals that McCarthy and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues after the attack that Trump was culpable for whipping up the mob with his election-fraud lies.

McConnell told confidants, If this isnt impeachable, I dont know what is. McCarthy told members of his caucus, Ive had it with this guy. Referring to the approaching House impeachment vote, McCarthy told them that he planned to tell Trump,  I think [the impeachment motion] will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign. 

McCarthy never delivered that message. In a scathing statement, he denied ever even contemplating it, calling the Times report totally false and wrong and alleging it was concocted to further a liberal agenda.

The Times then posted an audio clip of McCarthy saying exactly what it had reported he said. This should dispel any lingering uncertainty about the level of this mans integrity and credibility.

McCarthy and McConnell both ultimately voted against impeachment, after realizing most of their caucuses werent on board. McConnell at least broke with Trump in a scathing speech. McCarthy, in contrast, now runs interference for the man hed declared unfit for office.

Thats because McCarthy yearns to become House speaker if Republicans win the chamber this year, and hed need the support of most House Republicans, including Trump-supporting extremists like Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene. That means staying on Trumps good side.

That explains McCarthys trip to Mar-a-Lago, just weeks after the assault, to symbolically kiss Trumps ring. Since then, McCarthy has refused to cooperate with the House committee investigating the attack. He has publicly ostracized Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two House Republicans who have put duty and democracy ahead of grubby partisanship to participate in the committee. He has even tried to scare phone companies into refusing to cooperate with the committees requests for phone records. To this day, McCarthy refuses to forcefully challenge Trumps continuing, toxic election-fraud lies.

With the new report, its more clear than ever that McCarthy still offers his endless fealty to Trump not because of, but in spite of, what he knows is right. Its difficult to imagine anyone less worthy to serve in the House, let alone lead it.
At the end of March, the Pakistan Navy received its third locally built Azmat-Class FAC-M (fast attack craft-missile). These 560-ton ships are 63 meters (207 feet) long with a max speed of 56 kilometers an hour and max range of 1,900 kilometers and endurance of 3-4 days. The crew of 15 operates search and navigation radars as well as a 25mm multi-barrel autocannon CIWS (Close In Weapons System) for defense against missiles and small craft. Main weapons are eight C-802 anti-ship missiles with a range of 120 kilometers and top speed of 1,100 kilometers an hour. There are also six Harbah cruise missiles with a range of 700 kilometers at a speed of 980 kilometers an hour. These can be used against land targets. All the missiles use GPS and inertial guidance to reach a specified target (for the cruise missile) and radar homing for the C-802 to hit a ship after reaching the area where there are supposed to be targets.

The first Azmat was built in China, to Pakistani specifications, based on the older Chinese Type 037H missile boat. This was a 520-ton missile boat carrying C-801 anti-ship missiles. Only nine were built for the Chinese navy. But when Pakistan approached China for FAC-M ships, Pakistan selected a modified version of the Type-037H. The first was built in China and the other three in Pakistan under a technology transfer agreement. Pakistan received the first Azmat in 2012 and the other three in 2014, 2017 and 2022. Pakistan is satisfied with the performance of the Azmats and considering building more of them. The first four cost about $50 million each. In 2012 Bangladesh bought two Azmats from China, with a few modifications.

Fast Attack Craft are a ship type that has been around since the late 19th century when they were armed with the relatively new torpedo. These FACs were called torpedo boats and used for coastal patrol and defense. Torpedo boats were quite common during the World Wars and into the 1960s. A FAC using missiles instead of torpedoes was developed by Russia in the late 1950s. Russia was the largest user of torpedo-armed FACs after World War II. The missile armed FAC, or FAC-M, proved its worth when two Russia Komar class FAC-M boats sold to Egypt launched four Russian anti-ship missiles at an Israeli destroyer and sank the ship after three of the missiles hit it. That prompted Israel and many Western navies to equip their FACs and corvettes with new, lightweight anti-ship missiles and develop defenses (like the Phalanx CIWS) against them. Electronic defenses as well as flares were also developed to defeat missile attacks.

Russia and China still have a lot of FAC-M boats as does North Korea and Iran.
With the commercialization of Qvella technology for Positive Blood Culture (PBC) processing, healthcare facilities can now get results up to 24 hours faster than current methods

TORONTO & LISBON, Portugal--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Qvella, a diagnostics company that aims to reduce time to results in bacteriology, today announced the commercialization of its FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge product for Positive Blood Culture (PBC) processing. The products have received CE marking for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) use in Europe and are now listed as Class I IVD devices with the FDA for the U.S. market.

Qvella's patented FAST-Technology (Field Activated Sample Treatment) eliminates the need for time-consuming culture methods. This allows the processing of downstream applications up to 24 hours faster than current methods so lifesaving treatment, for example, could be started much more quickly than ever before. This disruptive technology can change outcomes for patients, while simultaneously saving money for healthcare providers.

During recent beta trials of Qvellas FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge at renowned healthcare centers in the U.S. and Europe, the research labs noted that Qvellas technology easily integrates with existing workflows and the fully automated solution requires a minimal hands-on time of approximately two minutes. The FAST System isolates and concentrates pathogens to generate a Liquid Colony (LC) which can be readily used to set up for a variety of downstream workflows, including ID by MALDI-TOF, and AST by automated systems such as BD Phoenix, bioMerieux VITEK2, Beckman Coulter MicroScan WalkAway, Disc Diffusion, and others. The resulting LC very closely match the standard of care. The LC can be generated immediately after obtaining a PBC, potentially saving 24 hours or more in diagnosis of infections. The trials also noted that Qvellas solution is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other rapid technologies.

With several performance evaluation studies completed and EU and USA marketing authorization granted, we have officially reached the commercialization milestone for our FAST System, said Tino Alavie, president, CEO, and co-founder of Qvella. Given the shortage of technicians that healthcare systems are seeing right now amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the timing could not be better for the commercialization of our technology. It can be used to accelerate infection identification, for example, or to accelerate antibiotic susceptibility testing, with results delivered 24 hours earlier than previously possible. It is also very cost effective compared to molecular blood culture identification panels.

Study Published in Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Concurrent with the marketing authorization and commercialization of the FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge, the results of a completed study have been published in the latest Journal of Clinical Microbiology in an article titled Saving Time in Blood Culture Diagnostics: a Prospective Evaluation of the Qvella FAST-PBC Prep Application on the FAST System.

Qvella at ECCMID

At the 32nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) taking place in Lisbon, Portugal and online from April 23  26, 2022, Qvellas FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge are the subjects of two presentations.

April 24, 2022, at 11:30 WEST, Product Theatre Pavilion 3

Prof./Dr. Alexandre Dalpke, Dept. of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Heidelberg, Germany will be presenting details on the study published in the Journal of Microbiology. His presentation is titled: Saving time in microbiological blood culture diagnostics: Evaluation of Qvellas FAST system for accelerated identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing

April 25, 2022, at 14:00 WEST, Product Theatre Pavilion 3

Alberto Antonelli PhD, Research fellow at the University of Florence, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicines, will be presenting on this topic: Rapid detection of Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacterales using a novel sample preparation method and lateral flow immunoassays from positive blood culture.

About Qvella Corporation

Qvella is a diagnostics company founded in 2009 by a group of scientists and engineers with the goal of dramatically reducing time to results in bacteriology. The company aims to revolutionize how medicine is practiced by significantly cutting time, costs and saving lives. Qvella's FAST technology utilizes a novel sample treatment technique that enables the rapid isolation and concentration of bacterial cells in clinical specimens. When implemented in concert with a variety of downstream applications and detection methodologies, it can significantly reduce time to results. When these efforts are coupled with Antibiotic Stewardship programs, now being adopted by most major medical centers, timely clinical decisions can be made which leads to improved patient outcomes, reduced hospital stays, lower side effect profiles, and a significant reduction in treatment costs. Qvella has nearly 130 employees working from its headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ontario as well as offices in Carlsbad, California and Mechelen, Belgium. Additional information is available at qvella.com.

Disclaimers

For In Vitro Diagnostic Use. FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge have not been validated for any downstream diagnostic procedures or applications and are only indicated for positive blood culture specimens containing bacteria. The user is responsible for validating the FAST System and FAST-PBC Prep Cartridge in combination with diagnostic procedures used in their laboratory and in accordance with applicable regulations. Products are region specific and may not be approved for sale in your jurisdiction. Contact Qvella for regulatory status and product information pertaining to your country/region.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220421005897/en/

Media

Jodi Echakowitz

Boulevard Public Relations

416-271-7250

[email protected]

Source: Qvella Corporation
CALGARY, Alberta, April 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CORDY OILFIELD SERVICES INC. (the Corporation or Cordy) (CKK: TSX-V) is pleased to announce that at the special meeting of Cordy shareholders held today (the "Meeting"), the Corporations shareholders (Cordy Shareholders) passed a special resolution (the "Amalgamation Resolution") approving the previously announced acquisition of Cordy by Vertex Resource Group Ltd. (TSXV: VTX) ("Vertex") by way of three-cornered amalgamation (the Transaction).

The Amalgamation Resolution was required to be passed by not less than 662/3% of the votes cast by Cordy Shareholders, either in person or by proxy at the Meeting, and by a simple majority of the votes cast by Cordy Shareholders, either in person or by proxy at the Meeting, after excluding the votes cast by such Cordy Shareholders that were required to be excluded pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101").

A total of 113,047,967 Cordy Shares (approximately 48.90% of the issued and outstanding Cordy Shares) were represented at the Meeting in person or by proxy. The Amalgamation Resolution was approved by 95.33% of the votes cast by Cordy Shareholders, either in person or by proxy at the Meeting, and 95.03% of the votes cast by Cordy Shareholders, either in person or by proxy at the Meeting, after excluding the votes cast by such Cordy Shareholders that were required to be excluded pursuant to MI 61-101.

The Transaction remains subject to final approval by the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). The Transaction is expected to close on or about April 25, 2022. Following completion of the Transaction, Cordys common shares will be delisted from the TSXV. An application will also be made for the Corporation to cease to be a reporting issuer in the applicable jurisdictions upon closing of the Transaction.

Additional information regarding the terms of the Transaction are set out in the Circular which is available under Cordys profile at www.sedar.com, and on the Corporations website https://www.cordy.ca/.

ABOUT VERTEX

Headquartered in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Vertex employs a staff of approximately 800 full-time and contract personnel that provide environmental services across North America. Vertex is a leading provider of environmental solutions, a unique combination of environmental consulting and environmental field services and equipment. Vertexs integrated environmental solutions support asset development, operations, decommissioning, and restoration for customers in five North American sectors: Energy, Mining and Industrial, Utilities, Agriculture & Forestry, and Government. Established in 1962, Vertex combines 60 years of experience with an innovative, modern approach to provide versatile, expert solutions to the market.

ABOUT CORDY OILFIELD

Cordy provides construction and environmental services in western Canada. Cordy is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol CKK.

For further information please contact:

Terry Stephenson, CEO of Vertex:Tel: 780-464-3295Email: [email protected]

Darrick Evong, CEO of Cordy Oilfield:Tel: 403-262-7667Email: [email protected]

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information

All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding the closing of the Transaction, are forward-looking statements. Although Cordy believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Corporation can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in the Corporations periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators, and assumptions made with regard to: the Corporations ability to complete the proposed Transaction; the Corporations ability to secure the necessary legal and regulatory approvals required to complete the Transaction and the Corporations ability to achieve the synergies expected as a result of the Transaction. Forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Corporation's expectations include risks associated with the business of Vertex and Cordy; risks related to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions to the closing of the Transaction; non-completion of the Transaction; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time and additional risks identified in Vertex and Cordys filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Cordy does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source: Cordy Oilfield Services Inc.
A man was killed Friday at Luke Air Force Base when his vehicle crashed into automated barriers that were deployed after he tried to run the gates at the Arizona installation.

The Glendale Police are leading the investigation into the incident, which happened just before 4 p.m., the Air Force said Friday.

The service did not identify the man who was killed, but base officials said he was not a member of the military.

The man tried to enter the base through the South Gate security checkpoint without following proper procedure, a statement said.

Members from the 56th Security Forces Squadron deployed an Automated Vehicle Barrier, which stopped the moving vehicle, it said.

Medical personnel who responded to the incident pronounced the man dead.

Luke Air Force Base is home to the Air Forces largest fighter wing, the 56th Fighter Wing, which trains F-35 pilots.

Glendale Police Department did not issue a separate statement and did not immediately respond to an emailed inquiry early Saturday morning.

news@stripes.com
MIAMI, FL (Tribune News Service) -- The white speck appears on the radar screen, bobbing in the surf far below as the waves crash into one another in the deep blue waters of the Florida Straits. A U.S. Coast Guard aviation electronics technician, manning the screen, leans forward for a closer look while cameras from the HC-144 turboprop airplane zero in.

A few minutes go by and the crew is still trying to determine if what is obviously a vessel is a fishing boat  or a migrant smuggling operation in process. Lt. Katrina Prout, the pilot, has already circled back once, and the crew decides its a false alarm. Its a fishing boat.

As the number of Haitians and Cubans risking their lives at sea to reach the United States surges, the U.S. Coast Guard is stepping up its patrols to respond to the influx. On Friday, a five-plus hour patrol by air yielded two false alarms in the Florida Straits and one possible smuggling boat, left abandoned on Anguilla Cay in the Bahamas, the same place where last year three Cubans were stranded for 33 days. Thats an unusually quiet day compared to recent flights, Prout said.

Every day, were seeing somebody coming over. So, were out here trying to proactively help anyone whos in vessels that arent in a very good state. A lot of times, people are coming over in vessels that can barely float, she said. So were trying to help them out by protecting their lives, because we know theyre risking their lives trying to come to the United States.

Some days its like this. Choppy waters, cloudy skies and no migrant vessels. Some days, there may be a boat out there, but it could easily be missed because of weather conditions and because the ocean is so vast.

Its the luck of the draw, Prout said, noting that when the crew of six does spot a boat, they will alert a nearby cutter while assessing the vessels stability from the air. It largely depends on our radar. When you have a lot of waves, a lot of noise on the radar, its hard to figure out sometimes whats a boat, and what is not.

Flying 300 feet above some of the Bahamian cays and 1,500 feet above the Florida Straits, the crew, which operates out of Coast Guard Air Station Miami in Opa-locka, keeps a watchful eye. While Prout and co-pilot Lt. Hannah Boyce fly the aircraft, two aviation electronics technicians monitor the radars and the two flight mechanics, doubling as spotters, watch the ocean from a window on each side of the plane. On Friday, a Miami Herald reporter and photographer were aboard.

The crew spotted the abandoned boat after opening the bay of the plane and dropping to just 300 feet above Anguilla Cay. Located just north of Cuba, the cay is near where the Coast Guard stopped an overcrowded wooden Haitian sailboat ferrying 123 passengers on March 4.

We always go take a look, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Nicole Groll said, after flight mechanic Petty Officer 3rd Class Mike Powell pointed out the boat.

Groll suspects the boat may have been used in a smuggling operation, because there is no reason for a vessel to be down there.

Fridays patrol turned out to be uneventful. But the number of migrants trying to reach South Florida has been on the rise since October, along with Coast Guard interdictions at sea.

The law enforcement agency has interdicted more than 3,500 Haitians at sea and nearly 1,400 Cubans since October.

The Florida Straits, and Windward and Mona Passages, are dangerous. ... The Coast Guard and our partners have increased air and sea patrols, and if you are stopped, you should expect to be returned to your country of origin, Groll said.

We are urging families in the U.S. to not encourage these dangerous and unsafe voyages, she added. The risk for loss of life is great and there is always the uncertainty of not knowing if your loved one made it or not.

Family members in the U.S. inquiring about possible family members interdicted at sea should contact their local U.S. representative. Relatives located outside the U.S. should contact their local U.S. embassy, the Coast Guard said.

2022 Miami Herald.

Visit miamiherald.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii  A pair of Hawaii-based Marine Corps helicopter squadrons were deactivated this week, casing the colors of units that trace their lineage to World War II.

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 cased its colors during a ceremony Thursday, followed by the deactivation Friday of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367, the Marine Corps said in separate news releases.

Both squadrons were part of Marine Aircraft Group 24 at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Squadron 463, nicknamed Pegasus, was stood up in 1944 and was involved in the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm and more recently to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When you think of every clime and place, you must think of the Marines and Sailors of Pegasus, Maj. Gen. Brian Cavanaugh, commander of 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, said in a news release Thursday following the deactivation ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.

During my time in 1st MAW, which spans across three decades, I've witnessed HMH-463 operate across the entirety of the range of military operations, he said.

Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367, nicknamed Scarface, activated in 1943 as Marine Observation Squadron 351 in Quantico, Va.

Legacy is what makes todays deactivation ceremony special, Lt. Col. Page Payne, Squadron 367s commander, told the ceremonys audience on Friday according to a news release that day. Scarface is fortunate to have a guaranteed future in the very near term, resurrecting to carry on our legacy, lineage, and the warfighting spirit of those before us.

The squadron will later this year be reactivated as a unit of Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., the Marine Corps said.

It will bring along its 27 AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters, the Marine Corps said.

The dual deactivations are just the latest changes as the Marine Corps implements its Force Design 2030 to remold the service into a lighter force more adapted to fighting in the kinds of contested maritime spaces that would be central in a conflict with China.

Squadron 463s dozen CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters are being distributed to other aviation units across the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps said.

Force Design 2030 led to the deactivation in January of the Hawaii-based 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

In February, the Marine Corps activated the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion in Hawaii, the first such unit to be stood up under the restructuring plan.

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 was activated in 1944 in North Carolina as Marine Bombing Squadron 463, the Marine Corps said. Since then, the squadron has operated on both coasts of the continental United States and Hawaii, as well as serving in all three of the Marine Corps aircraft wings.

The unit has been based in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, since 1971.

During a nighttime mission in January 2016 on the north end of Oahu, two of the Squadron 463s Super Stallions collided and crashed into the sea, killing all 12 Marines aboard both aircraft.

A Marine Corps investigation of the crash determined the cause to be pilot error, but the probe also revealed an overall lack of unit readiness because helicopters were too often sidelined for maintenance problems to provide adequate training time for crews.

The squadrons most recent rotation ended in May 2021 after spending nine months with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Japan, the Marine Corps said.

Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 has been based at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay since 2012.

Among the honors bestowed on both squadrons are the World War II Victory Streamer, National Defense Service Streamer with two bronze stars and Vietnam Service Streamer with two silver and one bronze stars, the Marine Corps said.
San Diego, CA (Tribune News Service) -- Unit commanders in the Navy and Marine Corps will no longer have investigative authority over sexual harassment allegations, according to a department-wide message sent Friday by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.

Effective immediately, the message says, commanding officers must escalate complaints to the next higher-level commander, who will then appoint an investigating officer. That investigator should be from outside the command and shall not be familiar with the subject or the complainant, the message says.

The interim policy includes a carve-out to allow an investigator from within the same command to investigate, however, if that next-level commander determines an outside investigation would unreasonably interfere with the commands ability to complete its mission. Such a carve-out requires sign-off from at least a one-star admiral or general, the message says.

The change comes on the two-year anniversary of the murder of 20-year-old Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who complained about sexual harassment at Ft. Hood, Texas, before her killing.

Del Toros policy will stand until the service funds and staffs independent investigators to handle sexual harassment complaints.

However, those complaints are still to be handled within the military chain of command. Last year the military stripped sexual assault investigations from commanders but left harassment up to commanders.

A bill submitted in both chambers of Congress Friday seeks to address that discrepancy.

In a statement, California Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who introduced the bipartisan Sexual Harassment Independent Investigations and Prosecutions Act in Congress, said it fixes the massive oversight of the 2022 budget.

SPC Guillen was sexually harassed by a superior prior to her disappearance and dismemberment, Speier said in a statement. No action was taken on her complaint. Many other victims of sexual assault and violent crimes in the military have shared with me how they also suffered from sexual harassment. As long as sexual harassment courts-martial continue to be handled through the military chain of command, victims voices will be stifled and overwhelmed by a system stacked against them at every turn.

The Navy did not issue a statement or news release announcing the policy shift. On Friday, Lt. Cmdr. Devin Arneson, a Navy spokesperson, confirmed the change is in effect across the Navy department, including the Marine Corps.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

2022 The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Visit sandiegouniontribune.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A man is in custody without bond after being accused of molesting a 10-year-old girl last year.

Joel Keith Casey, 36, of Woburn, Massachusetts, with ties to the local area, was charged this month in St. Francois County with second-degree child molestation involving a child less than 12 years of age.

According to a probable cause statement from the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department, on Feb. 28, a detective responded to the Children's Division in reference to assisting with an emergency investigation at a Bonne Terre address.

The detective reportedly spoke with a Children's Division worker, who told him she went to investigate a disclosure made by a girl to a teacher at school.

The report states the Children's Division worker then informed the child's parents that a man, identified as Casey, had placed his hand in her private area. Authorities believe the sexual contact occurred about July 2021, according to the statement.

On March 1, the detective reports attending the Child Advocacy Center interview of the child. The report states the girl disclosed that sometime in July 2021, Casey, touched her thigh and her private area.

The child reportedly stated that Casey was then lying on his back and had attempted to get her to touch him in his private area. She explained that she kept pulling her hand away from him when this was occurring, according to the report.

Casey was booked at the St. Francois County Jail on Friday, where he is currently being held without bond. If a bond is set, the man is ordered to comply with GPS monitoring before being released.

Court filings indicate that Casey is considered an extreme flight risk as he is employed as an over-the-road salesman.

Casey had his initial court appearance on April 12, waiving formal arraignment on the charge and requesting time to hire private counsel.

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com

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RIGA, Latvia  A Russian commander said Friday that Moscow wants to take full control of eastern and southern Ukraine, in part so it could have a path to neighboring Moldova  raising fears that the nearly two-month war could spill outside of Ukrainian borders.

The comments from Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias Central Military District, seemed to hint that the Kremlin  which has been stymied in its bid to take over the Ukrainian capital  still wants to conquer wide swaths of its neighbors land, and potentially threaten the nations that lie beyond. They drew swift condemnation from Moldova, where residents have worried since the beginning of the war they could be next in the Kremlins crosshairs.

Minnekayev said capturing Ukraines east and south would create a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula  which the Kremlin annexed in 2014  and give Moscow influence over vital objects of the Ukrainian economy, according to the Russia state media outlet Tass. It would also provide another way out to Transnistria, Minnekayev said, referring to a thin strip of land that runs along Moldovas border with Ukraine that functions as a separate nation, though it is not recognized as such, even by Russia.

Minnekayevs comments came at the end of another grim week in Ukraine  particularly in the eastern Donbas region, where Kremlin forces have refocused their fire in recent days. The devastated southern port city of Mariupol remained under siege, with Russia vowing to trap remaining Ukrainian forces that have been holed up in a steel plant there.

Although tens of thousands of people each day have begun returning to the capital, Kyiv  where Ukrainian forces seemed to successfully push back invading Russian forces  they have done so cautiously, knowing they might soon have to flee once more. Kyivs mayor has warned residents to stay where they are, as airstrikes around the city continue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said the invasion will continue until full completion, without detailing what that means, and it was not clear whether Minnekayevs comments describe official, high-level thinking in Russia. But they give fresh insight into the broader ambitions of those fighting for the Kremlin, including plans for a Russian-controlled passage to Transnistria, the breakaway enclave in Moldova that is held by pro-Russian separatists and hosts roughly 1,500 Russian troops.

Moldova is not a member of NATO, though an incursion on its borders would be an alarming expansion of Russias war effort. The remarks were the first time a senior Russian military official has hinted at Russia expanding its offensive beyond Ukraine.

The Moldovan Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement to The Washington Post that it had summoned Russian Ambassador Oleg Vasnetov on Friday to express deep concern over the commanders remarks.

His comments are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, the ministry said.

Mimicking language used to justify Moscows initial invasion of Ukraine, Minnekayev indicated he was concerned by the oppression of the Russian-speaking population in the Transnistria enclave. The Moldovan government released a statement calling the accusations unacceptable, adding that the comment would lead to increased tensions and mistrust in society.

Russian forces have so far been unable to seize ground in the areas close to the Moldovan border, including the strategic port city of Odessa. Ukrainian officials initially feared that Moscow would use Transnistria as a staging ground for attacks on Odessa, but no such assault materialized.

Minnekayevs remarks came as senior military officers and defense ministers from the United States and at least 20 partner countries prepared to meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday to discuss support for Ukraines defense and security efforts, the Pentagons top spokesman, John Kirby, said Friday.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the United States will send $1.3 billion in fresh aid to Kyiv, including $800 million in military assistance. Kirby said, though, that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin does not have a particular outcome in mind, and that the meeting is not designed to provide specific security guarantees to Ukraine.

He wants to hear from allies and partners, and from the Ukrainians themselves about what theyre doing and what they will need going forward, Kirby said, adding that a total of 40 nations, including some NATO members, have been invited.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that Russian forces have captured most of the key southern port city of Mariupol after a prolonged siege that exhausted electricity, food and medical supplies. Satellite images taken over the city Thursday show another mass grave where an estimated 1,000 residents may be buried, according to the mayor. Mariupol is particularly significant, because its capture allows the Russians to build a land bridge to annexed Crimea. Zelensky said Friday that regions in the south and east are the places where the fate of this war and the future of our state is being decided.

A number of outgunned Ukrainian fighters and civilians remain in a hideout at the Azovstal steel plant, a large industrial complex in Mariupols south that backs onto the Sea of Asov. Mariupols mayor, Vadym Boychenko, on Friday renewed a desperate appeal for a full evacuation of the city. But Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said no corridors would open in Ukraine on Friday amid unrelenting shelling.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said he strongly urged Putin in a phone call Friday to immediately open up humanitarian access to Mariupol, after Russia had a day earlier declared its siege of the city a success.

As they have for weeks, peace talks produced little substance  with both Russia and Ukraine trading barbs over who is to blame.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have stalled, criticizing Zelensky and Ukraines response to Russian proposals.

Zelensky accused Russia of rejecting a proposed truce during Orthodox Christian Easter, which takes place this weekend. That idea is supported by Pope Francis and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

This shows very well how the leaders of this state actually treat the Christian faith, one of the most joyful and important holidays, Zelensky said. The head of Ukraines Orthodox Church called on people to forgo the holy celebration in areas with heavy fighting this week.

Zelensky said last week that all negotiations with Russia could end if the Mariupol defenders were killed during the citys capture. Asked for a response to the comment Friday, Lavrov dismissed the remarks. Russia will not tolerate ultimatums, he said.

Other countries have continued to pressure Moscow to halt the invasion. The Netherlands said it plans to stop using Russian fossil fuels by the end of year, while Britain and India urged Russia to call an immediate cease fire after a meeting between the two countrys leaders Friday.

We reiterated the importance of territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. India, which is heavily reliant on Russia for arms sales, has so far shied away from directly criticizing Moscow, and earlier abstained from a U.N. vote to expel Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson  who was in India for the visit  announced that Britain will expand defense ties with that country, a move that could help it reduce its reliance on Russian arms.

Recovery efforts and investigations of possible war crimes are ongoing in areas of northern Ukraine where Russian troops withdrew before refocusing their offensive in the south and east.

The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said it will send a group of security and safety staff to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Tuesday to conduct tests and ensure there are no accidents at the site in the wake of its occupation by Russian forces. Grossi has expressed grave concern over the plant during the invasion, and said next weeks mission is designed to quickly establish exactly what needs to be done, and how and where.

The high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations said Friday her mission in Ukraine has uncovered growing evidence of war crimes, and has verified the killings of at least 2,345 civilians. Michelle Bachelet said she expects the actual number of dead to rise after horrors inflicted in places like Mariupol come to light.

Over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside, Bachelet said.

Ukraines top prosecutor, Iryna Venediktova, accused Putin on Friday of planning the rape, torture and killing of civilians who refused to surrender. She told Sky News in an interview that her office had found a huge number of cases where Ukrainians had been killed because they had resisted Russian forces, and those killings included summary executions. Venediktova did not offer any evidence to support her allegations.

Zelensky said that Ukraine has suffered $550 billion in economic damage since the war began, and would need hundreds of billions of dollars to recover after the conflict.

The Russian troops are deliberately destroying all facilities in our country that could provide an economic basis for life, he said.

___

Cadell, Lamothe and Bella reported from Washington. Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine. The Washington Posts Andrew Jeong in Seoul; Niha Masih in New Delhi; Ellen Francis in London; Kim Bellware in Chicago; and Aaron Blake and Claire Parker in Washington contributed to this report.
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine - Russia is renewing its attacks on the last Ukrainian holdouts in the besieged port city of Mariupol, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, accusing Russia of a surge in airstrikes and alleging preparations to storm the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, where many of the citys remaining defenders are based.

The enemy is trying to suppress the last resistance of the defenders of Mariupol, Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video posted to Telegram. Our defenders are withstanding it, despite a very difficult situation, and are even carrying out counter maneuvers. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly ordered his forces Thursday not to storm the site but to seal it off.

Arestovich said Saturday that Russian troops were trying to storm the plant but were met with counter maneuvers from forces at the sprawling facility. The Washington Post could not independently verify the claim. The enemy is trying to suppress the last resistance of the defenders of Mariupol and in the region of Azovstal has resumed airstrikes . . . and attempts to carry out storming activities, he said in a video on Telegram.

Putin said Thursday that he had ordered his troops not to storm the steel plant but to blockade it so that even a fly could not get through. The Russian leader declared victory in an offensive to control the strategic coastal city although Ukrainian fighters holed up there rejected Moscows deadlines to surrender.

A video released Saturday by Ukrainian forces at their last stronghold in the Azovstal steel plant in the southern port of Mariupol appears to show a large number of civilians living in cramped conditions in an underground bunker, the majority appearing to be women and children.

The video, if confirmed, would be the most extensive footage to date of life in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, where an unspecified number of Ukrainian civilians and fighters - members of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade and the Azov Regiment - are said to be holding out against a much larger and better-equipped Russian force. The video could not be independently verified.

In the video, members of the Azov Regiment are shown descending a flight of stairs - past graffiti on the walls in large letters in Russian saying children - to deliver food to civilians in an underground basement with a steel door.

A large group of women and children gathers to receive the delivery. None are identified. The shelter appears to be home to a few dozen people, tightly crowded and with their belongings suspended on lines above their beds to maximize the use of the space.

Ukrainian commanders, speaking previously to The Washington Post over a satellite connection, said that beneath the plant is a system of underground tunnels and rooms similar to the one shown in the video, where they find refuge from the shelling. It is not clear how many civilian shelters exist beneath the factory complex.

The commanders say there are hundreds of civilians. Ukrainian government officials have said there could be as many as 1,000.

The Azov Regiments deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told the Associated Press that the video was recorded Thursday.

Russia has said the Ukrainians can leave the plant if they lay down their arms. The Ukrainian soldiers have refused, saying they do not trust the Russian forces and have insisted on an evacuation and guarantee of safety by a third country. In the video shared Saturday, some civilians said they wanted to be evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled territory and demanded a halt to all fighting.

The civilians also said they were running out of food. Some said they had been there since the end of February or the beginning of March and moved to the plant because it seemed at that time a refuge from the shelling.

The Azov Regiment is a nationalist group that is part of Ukraines National Guard and has been a key component of Ukraines defense of Mariupol. In the past, the group has previously been connected to the extreme right, but during Ukraines war against Russia, it has become a magnet for fighters from a wide array of backgrounds and political persuasions, or with no political affiliations.

The renewed focus on Mariupol came after Zelensky warned late Friday that Russia poses a threat to more countries in the region, cautioning that the invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning and that the Russians want to capture other countries. Zelensky made the remark after a Russian commander said the Kremlin intends to establish a path through Ukraine to a breakaway territory in Moldova. Moscow declined to confirm whether this was official policy; some analysts said they doubt that Russia has the capability.

A flurry of diplomatic endeavors to end the war continues, even as Russia claims that talks with Ukraine have stalled. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez heads to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin, before visiting Ukraine on Thursday for discussions with Zelensky. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has hosted a previous round of peace talks, plans to call Putin and Zelensky in the coming days to push for a leaders summit in Istanbul.

Zelensky said that life in some parts of Ukraine that have been liberated from Russian forces is starting to return to normal, nearly two months into Moscows invasion.

Zelensky, who warned late Friday that Russia poses a threat to more countries in the region and that the invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning, said he was grateful to nations that have supplied his country with weapons that will be able to save the lives of thousands of people.

And we will be able to show the occupiers that the day when they will be forced to leave Ukraine is approaching, Zelensky said in his address. The return to normal life in the territories liberated from the occupiers continues.

The Ukrainian president said the return of some normality in Ukraines cities and communities signifies the return of life in the full sense of these words.

I believe that such a return will take place in the south of our country and in the east of Ukraine, he said in his address, in all areas where degradation, destruction and death have been brought under the Russian flag.

He concluded his speech by stressing to Ukrainians that a return to normal life means not cooperating with Russian forces.

Ignore the occupiers, he said. Do not cooperate with them. Dont help them.

In other developments, a missile struck what appeared to be a residential area of Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea, authorities said Saturday.

The citys official Telegram account said infrastructure was hit and asked residents not to share photos or videos, on the grounds that doing so would help the enemy. No information was immediately available about what specifically was struck and whether anyone was killed.

The only aim of Russian missile strikes on Odesa is terror, tweeted Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines foreign minister. Russia must be designated a state sponsor of terrorism and treated accordingly. No business, no contacts, no cultural projects. We need a wall between civilization and barbarians striking peaceful cities with missiles.

As an economically important port city, Odessa has been a target for Russian forces. But Moscows military has struggled to advance past Mykolaiv to the east, and Odessa has been attacked much less than many other cities.

Life had largely returned to normal there, and many residents are preparing to celebrate Orthodox Easter on Sunday. The city has implemented a curfew from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday because the holiday weekend is considered at higher risk for attacks.

The governor of the embattled Luhansk region in Ukraines east said Saturday that the area has been under heavy Russian shelling, as other areas experienced a worsening humanitarian crisis, including water shortages.

Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were without water and that some 5,000 residences there had no electricity. He accused Russian forces of hitting power lines as well as substations that pump water to homes. Emergency crews were working to restore both amid heavy shelling, he said. The cities of Popasna and Rubizhne also were facing water shortages.

Earlier Saturday, Haidai said in a video that Ukrainian-controlled cities in Luhansk were being shelled. Moscow is intensifying its military campaign in Ukraines east, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week. Russia seeks the complete liberation of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, including besieged Mariupol, he said. Earlier this week, Haidai said Russian forces were in control of 80 percent of Luhansk, which is part of the broader eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

Urging civilians to flee, Haidai said that some evacuations from Severodonetsk were conducted Saturday and that trains would run from the station in Pokrovsk to evacuate residents from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Two people were killed by shelling in Popasna and street fighting was underway there, he said. The Washington Post could not independently verify his claims.
WASHINGTON - Six days before the invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took a final crack at getting his Russian counterpart to admit that the Kremlin was about to launch a massive assault after assembling more than 100,000 troops at the border with its neighbor.

I know what youre doing, Austin told Sergei Shoigu in an icy, deep baritone.

It was Feb. 18, and Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, had been trying to convince Austin, who was visiting Poland at the time, that the buildup of Russian forces to the north and east of Ukraine was only for routine military exercises. Austin didnt buy it. He had seen the intelligence, and while he had yet to convince every NATO member of the inevitability of a full-scale Russian invasion, the Pentagon chief was certain of Russian President Vladimir Putins intentions.

The tense, last phone call between the two top defense officials - described by people familiar with how it unfolded - was among numerous actions that Austin took in the run-up to the Ukraine war, both to warn Russia and to prepare NATO for what was to come, officials said.

Austins blunt, forceful manner with Shoigu, and his near daily engagement with allied defense officials, stands in sharp contrast to his public image in Washington as a taciturn, sometimes silent partner on President Joe Bidens national security team who serves in the shadow of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William J. Burns.

Austin appears content with a backstage role.

He wants to succeed in this job, said retired Adm. Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who stays in touch with the Pentagon chief. But hes not really concerned about focusing on his legacy. It will be whatever his legacy will be, so hes not going to burnish that up front, or try to.

This portrait of the defense secretary is based on interviews with 15 current and former government officials, some of whom have known Austin for years. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive issues. Austin, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed.

Austin has faced criticism that he didnt argue forcefully enough to get large quantities of arms to Kyiv until Russia was already crossing the border - and that his guarded approach to public advocacy could have been a factor in Washingtons reluctance to flood Ukraine with arms before the invasion.

The response to Russias aggression against Ukraine has been necessary but not sufficient, said Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., an Army veteran on the House Armed Services Committee, in an interview. What were doing is certainly better than nothing - but its often been too little, too late.

The Ukrainians, Waltz said, would have been better off if the United States had sent more weaponry before Russias invasion, rather than rapidly expanding deliveries afterward.

Where Austin stood in that, Waltz added, I dont know.

- - -

Austin seemed an unlikely pick for the top civilian position at the Pentagon - and not only because he was a retired four-star general assuming a role that many in Congress didnt want to go to someone who had just been in uniform.

Retired generals were supposed to spend seven years as a civilian before they could be considered for defense secretary. Lawmakers had legislated an exception for retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, President Donald Trumps choice, and prominent Democrats didnt want to repeat the exercise. Austin, the former head of U.S. Central Command who oversaw military operations in the Middle East, had another apparent deficit: a discomfort with the public-facing parts of the job, including appearing before Congress and dealing with the news media.

Austin, however, had personal and professional connections with President Biden. The general - a devout Catholic - had attended mass with Bidens son, Beau, when the two were stationed in Iraq. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wanted to pivot the country to a diplomacy-first model and did not want a swashbuckling secretary at the Pentagon. Austin, 68, could be trusted to provide counsel without upstaging his boss, officials said.

In the E-Ring of the Pentagon, Austins office projects a sense of humility and history. Few personal photographs or effects are present, despite a 40-year military career that included a Silver Star for valor earned during the 2003 U.S. assault on Baghdad. There are, however, framed homages to military pioneers, including Henry Flipper, a personal hero of Austins. Another Black son of southern Georgia, Flipper became the first formerly enslaved person to graduate from the defense secretarys alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., just a dozen years after the Civil Wars conclusion.

Im honored to be the first African American secretary of defense, the 28th secretary of defense  but I really dont want to be the last African American secretary of defense, Austin said at a Black History Month event in February.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., said that while Austin wasnt someone who just walked in off the street, he faced the same dramatic learning curve that all new Pentagon chiefs do.

Its one thing to have been in the military for more than 30 years; its something else to be the secretary of defense, Reed said. You have to answer more directly to the president, you have to answer to the Congress, you are constitutionally the civilian in charge.

The biggest misconception about Austin is that because he is not flashy or bombastic in public, he is not a dynamic player in the administration, said Sullivan, the national security adviser. Austin offers Biden his unvarnished advice, Sullivan said, and does not muzzle his disagreements during weekly meetings with Sullivan and Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, to hash out issues.

Its not just like everyone is agreeing with one another, Sullivan said - though he declined to cite any specific examples of Austin swaying administration policy. Its an active process of going back and forth and coming up with a solution that we can all buy into.

- - -

Within weeks of taking office, Biden set out to follow through on a campaign promise: Ending the U.S. war in Afghanistan after 20 years. The administration deliberated on the issue for months, with senior Pentagon officials - including Austin - advising Biden that it would be wise to leave behind a force of a few thousand troops.

With Biden adamant on the issue, Austin held his tongue in public, frustrating U.S. military officials who wanted him to speak up more on behalf of the position of military leaders. Biden announced last April that he would pull all U.S. troops within a matter of months, promising an orderly withdrawal even as an ascendant Taliban battered Afghan forces.

The subsequent crisis consumed virtually every waking hour for Austin and his team. Armed Taliban fighters seized Kabul on Aug. 15, prompting the United States and allies to launch a chaotic and deadly evacuation from a single runway, as thousands of desperate Afghan civilians attempted to make their way past Taliban checkpoints into the airport.

Some veterans of the war called for Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to resign. U.S. commanders later vented to military investigators that it appeared to them that Washington did not have a grasp of what was happening in Kabul.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine Corps veteran who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said that it was apparent to him that both Austin and Milley were trying to do the right thing during the Afghan withdrawal, like starting the evacuation of Afghans who supported the war effort earlier in the face of broader administration resistance.

But at the end of the day, he is the secretary of defense - and its his responsibility to ensure an operations success, Moulton said.

Republicans are harsher in their critiques.

This was a moment worth pushing back as hard as possible, to the point of doing what Secretary Mattis did during the Syria context and offering to resign if the plan was executed, said Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a Marine Corps veteran who sits on the same panel. If he was pushing back, clearly he was not successful in convincing the president.

Officials said that the crisis in Afghanistan prompted Austin and his team to adopt a crisis-management mind-set during the summer of 2021, typically meeting both morning and evening on the third floor of the Pentagon to manage the exit. Weeks later, Austin brought the meetings back as the possibility of a Russian invasion emerged.

It immediately helped improve coordination, said Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

Those 17 or 18 days in August were among the most intense that I think any U.S. policymakers focused on national security have engaged in in a long time, Kahl said. But it generated various habits, procedures, rhythms, that have actually carried over into the Ukraine crisis in a way that, had we had to invent those processes out of whole cloth at the beginning of Ukraine, I think would have been slower.

In addition to his regular meetings, Austin began spending early weekend mornings in the basement of the Pentagon, typically joined by his senior military assistant, Army Lt. Gen. Randy George, as he quizzed intelligence analysts about the situation in Ukraine. In October, Austin punctuated that work by making the first trip by a Biden administration Cabinet official to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and declared that U.S. support for Ukrainian sovereignty was unwavering.

The trip also included stops in Georgia and Romania, and a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. Putin took notice, responding with a warning that Ukraines military development - a key component of its bid to join NATO - really poses a threat to Russia.

He set to work, providing the facts, the numbers, the intelligence indicating so plainly that Russia was preparing a full-scale invasion of an independent sovereign nation in Europe, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview.

Stoltenberg said that Austins wealth of experience and his knowledge of what was needed makes others listen to him when he speaks. Another NATO official said that he speaks with gravitas punctuated with a James Earl Jones voice.

He doesnt lecture the allies, the NATO official said, but he knows how to put his thumb on the scale to get results.

- - -

A month ago, Austin found himself in Slovakia trying to broker deal to get the Ukrainians a familiar Soviet arms system - the S-300 surface-to-air missile. The Slovaks wanted a similar system in return, or assurances that the protection of one would be provided.

The Pentagon had anticipated that Slovakia would want to keep their pending agreement quiet, said Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. But Jaroslav Nad, the Slovak defense minister, surprised them by disclosing the possible deal at a news conference on March 17 while standing alongside Austin. Slovakia, Nad said, was ready to turn over its S-300 immediately as long as its terms could be met.

Austin pressed U.S. military officials in Europe for days afterward to explain why site surveys required to send the U.S. Patriot missile system to Slovakia had not been completed, defense officials said.

Why dont we have an answer? he asked during a video conference April 1. When military officials said that it would take another two or three days to complete, Austin was not satisfied.

We need to have it tomorrow, he said flatly.

The following Monday, the United States informed Slovakia that it would be getting a fully-manned Patriot battery deployed as soon as it wanted it. The Slovaks announced the S-300 was on its way into Ukraine, and Austin monitored its delivery, defense officials said.

Hes not a leader who leads by fear; hes a leader who leads by inspiration and motivation and just the quiet confidence he has in his team, Wallander said. He really brings the team along, and Ive seen him be effective in that instance of Slovakia and other places.

Sullivan said the Pentagon chief has pushed other ministers of defense outside their comfort zones to seal weapons transfers that have had enormous impact in Ukraine. Austin keeps a color-code chart tracking weapons shipments into the war zone, and keeps the president up to date with it, Sullivan added.

Gallagher, the House Republican, is unimpressed. While its a welcome development that NATO allies now appear eager to spend more on their own defense and provide weapons to Ukraine, it took a country being invaded and pillaged in order to galvanize the West into action under Austins defense strategy, Gallagher said.

Kahl, a senior adviser to Austin, rejects the criticism. For months, he said, it has been all hands on deck, 24/7, at the Pentagon on Ukraine.

Its easy for folks who are not in the system to say Why arent you doing more? Why arent you going faster? Kahl said. But I dont know anybody who resides in the system who is making that argument. . . . We are literally defying the law of bureaucratic physics by how fast we are going.
If youre about to head out on your first vacation since the pandemic started, double-check that youre following the right guidelines when you pack your bags for your flight, and maybe leave the can of stew and bottle of hot sauce in the kitchen.

While the rules arent new, Transportation Security Association spokesperson Lisa Farbstein said airports have seen an increase in prohibited items brought in carry-on bags now that more people are flying after COVID-19 travel restrictions have eased.

At Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, right now were seeing about 70% of the passenger volume we saw before the start of the pandemic, Farbstein said. We do advise that people get to the checkpoints about 90 minutes before their flight.

During a press conference at the airport on Friday, Farbstein talked about common mistakes travelers make when packing liquids in a carry-on bag.

The most common no-nos that travelers bring to the checkpoint through the screening process are liquids, gels and aerosols that are larger than the acceptable limit. Each passenger may carry liquids, gels and aerosols that are 3.4 ounces or less through a checkpoint providing those items fit into a one quart-sized, resealing bag.

If you can spill it, spread it, or pour it, its considered a liquid, gel or aerosol, Farbstein said.

Common travel items that must comply with the liquids rule include toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, sun block, mouthwash and lotions. Containers of liquids, gels and aerosols that are larger than 3.4 ounces, regardless of the size container, may be transported in checked baggage.

The exception to the rule is that, due to the pandemic, TSA now allows travelers to bring one liquid hand sanitizer container of up to 12 ounces. Thats one container per passenger in their carry-on bags.

Passengers can expect that these containers larger than the standard allowance of 3.4 ounces of liquids permitted through a checkpoint will need to be screened separately, which will add some time to their checkpoint experience.

Farbstein showed dozens of examples of real items that had been confiscated from travelers at Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. These included full size toiletries such as facial cleanser and sunscreen and more unusual items like a can of Brunswick stew and a bottle of Texas Pete hot sauce.

Farbstein also pointed out brand new perfumes and skincare products that cost over $50 but could not be brought past checkpoint.

But Farbstein said the most common item that TSA agents have to ask travelers to leave behind is water bottles.

We recommend if you do show up with a beverage, just step out of the checkpoint line, go back on the public side of the checkpoint, finish your beverage or spill it out, she said. And you can bring that empty bottle [back through the line] and fill it up on the secure side of the checkpoint and you have saved yourself a few dollars, Farbstein said.

Farbstein encouraged travelers to think about waiting to buy certain items, such as sunscreen and stew, until they reach their destination.

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Tauranga Girls College International Department are calling on families to host international students from July 2022.

With the borders set to reopen this year, it is the first time the school has been able to accept international students in more than two years.

This break had led to a shortage in homestays, and now with the college gearing up for international students returning, they are seeking out loving families that meet the requirements to host a student to put their hand up.

The Ministry of Education has allowed us to take in a cohort of international students this year, and we have 10 lined up to come and learn in July, says Tauranga Girls College director of international students Linda Clifford.

For the Tauranga Girls College principal, Tara Kanji, international students provide an essential role in the schools culture.

We have really missed the girls coming from overseas to study. We are all about embracing and valuing the diversity tht international studens can provide, says Tara.

We are really looking forward to having international students return, but we need homestays.

Due to the school having no new international students, the school has not needed host families to put their hands up until now.

For local Tauranga students, having international peers at their school also provides significant value.

We develop compassion, and we learn more than we usually would, says Tauranga Girls College deputy head girl of learning, Sukthleen Kaur.

At our school we have three different international committees. Learning about different cultures and developing an understanding of the wider world is something that international students bring, and that is a very valuable experience.

International students who have stayed at the college during Covid-19 such as Yui Kondo say that coming to New Zealand has been a life changing experience.

In Japan where I am from, I feel that I dont have as much freedom to be myself, says international student Yui Kondo.

Coming to New Zealand, I have not only experienced another life and culture, but I have also felt more comfortable being who I am.

Yui has learned an exceptional amount of English in her three years of being here, says Linda.

Shes been totally immersed in it. Yui has gone from being mainly able to only communicate through writing in our English as a second language programme to writing and speaking in NCEA level three English classes.

Accepting international students into schools is something that everyone benefits from. Tauranga Girls College is searching for host families who meet the following requirements:

To provide a student with their own room with a desk, wardrobe and heater in the colder months.

Three meals a day as well as snacks and any takeaways or meals out your whanau are having.

Including your student in family outings or trips around our beautiful Bay of Plenty.

Provide transport to occasional school events or sporting activities

Be able to support your students transition into New Zealand culture and life with empathy and tolerance.

Agree to have all members of the whanau who are over the age of 18 police vetted.

To contact the Tauranga Girls College homestay coordinator, Toni Bieleski, phone: 07 578 8114 with the extension of 2168. Alternatively, you can email: tbieleski@tgc.school.nz
Remember when Tauranga had waterslides and a marine park at the beach? Or when the visiting circus would parade elephants down The Strand?

Supercut Projects is excited to be bringing a special interactive heritage exhibition titled Echoes: Tauranga Moana to the Baycourt Community and Arts Centre X Space from May 19  27.

The kaupapa of Echoes: Tauranga Moana is to encourage the community to discover and learn about its past, with the interactive experience featuring hundreds of photographs of places, people, events, and objects.

When viewed together, they offer a unique glimpse into the extraordinary history of Tauranga. The images have been hand-selected from three local archives - the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Tauranga City Libraries Pae Koroki and The Elms Foundation Collection.

Within the exhibition, the public will be drawn towards hundreds of projected images, and a sensor will allow the audience to interact with the experience. Visitors can also become part of the exhibition by uploading photos of themselves, friends and whanau via the hashtag #echoestgamoana.

Over the seven days, Echoes: Tauranga Moana will grow as these photos are added  the community of today joining the echoes of our past.

The experience has been created by Wellington-based creative studio Story box who are known for their dynamic digital projects, including the Mana Moana water screen works on the Wellington waterfront, and Ahi Ka, the immense projections on Te Papa Tongarewa for Matariki 2020.

Supercut Projects Director Sonya Korohina says, Echoes: Tauranga Moana is special, it shares the whakapapa of our city and our people.

Those who have lived here for years are going to be moved as they may recognise friends and whanau. Others, our tamariki and new residents, will be fascinated to see how the city has changed over the decades.

Supercut Projects works with artists and creatives to develop experiences such as Echoes: Tauranga Moana and in June will open a major public artwork, Midnight Sun by Sara Hughes.

This is in partnership with Tauranga City Council and will be on Willow Street. Echoes: Tauranga Moana has been generously supported by Creative New Zealand, Tauranga City Council, Cooney Lees Morgan, and Baycourt Community and Arts Centre. For more information visit @echoestgamoana
A person who has travelled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the XE variant of Omicron. This is the first known detection of the variant in New Zealand.

The person arrived on April 19, was tested on April 20 and whole genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the XE variant, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

They are isolating at home.

XE has been spreading overseas and its arrival in New Zealand is not unexpected. At this stage, the public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants are assessed to be appropriate for managing XE and no changes are required.

XE is a combination of BA.1 and BA.2 sub variants of Omicron. There is some early evidence that it may be slightly more transmissible than BA.2, which is more transmissible than BA.1.

There is no evidence to date that XE causes more severe disease than other Omicron lineages, noting that it takes weeks or months to identify the severity of each new variant.

The Ministry of Health are also reporting 7,930 new community cases of Covid-19, 494 hospitalisations and 19 deaths.

Today we are sadly reporting the deaths of 19 people with Covid-19.

The deaths being reported today include people who have died over the past 7 days. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with Covid-19, rather than from Covid-19, and Covid being discovered only after they have died.

These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 665 and the 7-day rolling average of reported deaths is 13.

Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today, one person was from Northland; six from the Auckland region; two from Waikato; one from Bay of Plenty; one from Whanganui; one from Taranaki; one from the Wellington region; one from Nelson-Marlborough; four from the Canterbury region and one from Southern.

Two people were aged under 9; one person was in their 20s; four in their 60s; two in their 70s; five in their 80s and five people were over 90.

Nine were male and ten were female.

This is a very sad time for whanau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them.

Out of respect we will be making no further comment.

Todays seven-day rolling average is 8,475, while the seven-day rolling average of cases as at last Saturday was 8,283.

There are 494 cases in hospital today with 37 in Northland; Waitemata: 75; Counties Manukau: 73; Auckland: 79; Waikato: 39; Bay of Plenty: 25; Lakes: 7; Tairawhiti: 2, Hawkes Bay: 10; Taranaki: 8; Whanganui: 3; MidCentral: 6; Wairarapa: 1; Hutt Valley: 9; Capital and Coast: 15; Nelson Marlborough: 9; Canterbury: 60; South Canterbury: 5; West Coast: 2; Southern: 29

The average age of current hospitalisations is 59 and there are 15 cases in ICU or HDU.

The locations of new community cases are as follows (PCR & RAT): Northland (275), Auckland (2,037), Waikato (548), Bay of Plenty (300), Lakes (163), Hawkes Bay (253), MidCentral (321), Whanganui (123), Taranaki (263), Tairawhiti (73), Wairarapa (83), Capital and Coast (459), Hutt Valley (240), Nelson Marlborough (294), Canterbury (1,306), South Canterbury (164), Southern (929), West Coast (93), Unknown (6)

If you are going away this ANZAC weekend, you should have plans in place in the event you contract Covid-19 or are identified as a household contact of a case.

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 physical distance and using self-service petrol stations

However, if you have used public transport or travelled between islands, you wont be able to isolate at your home. So 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 this long weekend.

Firstly  be up to date with vaccinations, including a booster if youve not yet had one. If you are planning to be away, get boosted before you go.

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: 4,026,380 first doses; 3,977,336 second doses; 31,716 third primary doses; 2,620,241 booster doses: 260,855 paediatric first doses and 109,037 paediatric second doses

Vaccines administered yesterday: 31 first doses; 101 second doses; 30 third primary doses; 1,657 booster doses; 97 paediatric first doses and 1,046 paediatric second doses.

People vaccinated

All Ethnicities (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 4,056,177 first dose (96.4%); 4,006,520 second dose (95.2%), 2,616,837 boosted (71.1% of those eligible)

Maori (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 520,900 first dose (91.2%); 503,875 second dose (88.2%), 233,401 boosted (55.1% of those eligible)

Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 281,787 first dose (98.3%); 276,859 second dose (96.6%), 139,038 boosted (57.2% of those eligible)

5 to 11-year-olds all ethnicities: 258,273 first dose (54.2%); 106,510 second dose (22.4%)

5 to 11-year-olds - Maori: 40,707 first dose (35.2%); 12,082 second dose (10.5%)

5 to 11-year-olds - Pacific Peoples: 23,413 first dose (47.4%); 5,889 second dose (11.9%)

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 (67.9%)

Auckland DHB: first dose (99.2%); second dose (98.3%); boosted (72.9%)

Counties Manukau DHB: first dose (96.2%); second dose (95%); boosted (66%)

Waitemata DHB: first dose (96.5%); second dose (95.6%); boosted (70.8%)

Waikato DHB: first dose (95.1%); second dose (93.6%); boosted (66.7%)

Bay of Plenty DHB: first dose (95.1%); second dose (93.4%); boosted (66.2%)

Lakes DHB: first dose (93.2%); second dose (91.4%); boosted (66.6%)

MidCentral DHB: first dose (96.4%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (72.3%)

Tairawhiti DHB: first dose (93.2%); second dose (91%); boosted (66%)

Whanganui DHB: first dose (91.9%); second dose (90.4%); boosted (71.6%)

Hawkes Bay DHB: first dose (97.2%); second dose (95.6%); boosted (70%)

Taranaki DHB: first dose (94.6%); second dose (93.3%); boosted (68.3%)

Wairarapa DHB: first dose (96.5%); second dose (95%); boosted (73.1%)

Capital & Coast DHB: first dose (98.5%); second dose (97.8%); boosted (79.5%)

Hutt Valley DHB: first dose (96.6%); second dose (95.7%); boosted (75.1%)

Nelson Marlborough DHB: first dose (96.4%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (73.6%)

West Coast DHB: first dose (92.7%); second dose (91.3%); boosted (71.9%)

Canterbury DHB: first dose (99.7%); second dose (98.8%); boosted (74.6%)

South Canterbury DHB: first dose (94.8%); second dose (93.8%); boosted (74.7%)

Southern DHB: first dose (98.5%); second dose (97.4%); boosted (73.3%).

*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 or 16 and 17 year olds who have become eligible 6 months after having their second dose.

Percentages are based on 2020 HSU data - a health-specific population denominator. As the population continues to change over time, coverage rates can exceed 100%.

Hospitalisations

Cases in hospital: total number 494: Northland: 37; Waitemata: 75; Counties Manukau: 73; Auckland: 79; Waikato: 39; Bay of Plenty: 25; Lakes: 7; Tairawhiti: 2, Hawkes Bay: 10; Taranaki: 8; Whanganui: 3; MidCentral: 6; Wairarapa: 1; Hutt Valley: 9; Capital and Coast: 15; Nelson Marlborough: 9; Canterbury: 60; South Canterbury: 5; West Coast: 2; Southern: 29

Average age of current hospitalisations: 59

Cases in ICU or HDU: 15

Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region only, excluding Emergency Departments): Unvaccinated or not eligible (49 cases / 19%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (6 cases / 2%); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (72 cases / 28%); Received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (119 cases / 47%); unknown (9 cases / 4%).

Cases

Seven day rolling average of community cases: 8,475

Seven day rolling average (as at Friday last week): 8,283

Number of new community cases: 7,930

Number of new community cases (PCR): 256

Number of new community cases (RAT): 7,674

Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (275), Auckland (2,037), Waikato (548), Bay of Plenty (300), Lakes (163), Hawkes Bay (253), MidCentral (321), Whanganui (123), Taranaki (263), Tairawhiti (73), Wairarapa (83), Capital and Coast (459), Hutt Valley (240), Nelson Marlborough (294), Canterbury (1,306), South Canterbury (164), Southern (929), West Coast (93), Unknown (6)

Number of new cases identified at the border: 55

Number of active community cases (total): 59,300 (cases identified in the past 7 days and not yet classified as recovered)

Confirmed cases (total): 875,794

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

Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 2,641

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 17,855

PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 2,045

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (last 7 days as of 22 April 2022): 629,000. (Please note that this number is not updated over the weekend and reflects the number of tests as of Friday).
Two lucky Lotto players will be celebrating this long weekend after each winning $500,000 with Lotto First Division in Saturday night's live Lotto draw.

The winning First Division tickets were sold at Countdown Manukau City Mall in Auckland and on MyLotto to a player from Auckland.

Powerball was not struck last night and has rolled over to Wednesday night, where the jackpot will be $10 million.

Meanwhile three lucky Strike players from Auckland, Napier and Marlborough will also be celebrating after winning $66,667 with Strike Four. The winning Strike tickets were sold at Clendon Postshop Lotto, Paper Plus Napier and on MyLotto.

It will be a long weekend to remember for fifteen lucky lotto players after each winning $18,254 with Lotto Second Division in Saturday night's Lotto draw.

The winning Second Division tickets were sold at the following stores:

Store Location MyLotto Northland Clendon Postshop Lotto Auckland MyLotto (x2) Auckland Countdown Pukekohe South Pukekohe Whitcoulls Centre Place Hamilton MyLotto Waikato Paper Plus Mt Maunganui Tauranga Trafalgar Lotto Whanganui Inner City Post & Lotto Palmerston North MyLotto (x3) Canterbury Windsor On the Spot Express Port Chalmers MyLotto Southland

All of New Zealand is now in the COVID-19 Protection Framework - otherwise known as the traffic light settings. Lotto NZ counters can open at all traffic light settings providing retailers comply with health and safety guidelines set out by the Ministry of Health.

Anyone who bought their ticket from the above stores should check their ticket as soon as possible either in-store, online at mylotto.co.nz, or through the Lotto NZ App.

The long weekend is the perfect time to explore NZ's incredible walking tracks and trails. And planning the journey is easy with the Plan My Walk app. Designed by NZ Mountain Safety Council, the app puts everything Kiwis need to plan for a day outdoors at their fingertips - and it was 100 per cent funded by Lotto NZ players. Read more here.
An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge dismissed a civil lawsuit Friday that alleged that the county school boards anti-racism policy discriminates against students and creates a culture of hostility.

I think you are wrong and your case is going to show it, Judge Claude Worrell told the plaintiffs attorneys during the hearing. The law doesnt support you.

At the end of the hearing, Worrell said the policy in question is not perfect. But he said the case laid out by attorneys for parents who filed it is not strong enough to continue. The School Board had argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to file the lawsuit and failed to show how they are were harmed by the policys implementation.

Albemarle spokesman Phil Giaramita said that the division was pleased that the court agreed with its position.

Judge Worrells decision is very encouraging in terms of our commitment to establish and sustain an equitable school community that rejects all forms of racism, Giaramita said.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said after the hearing that they would need to see the specific orders in order to determine next steps, including an appeal.

Worrell ended the hearing by asking the attorneys representing the school board to prepare orders for the granting of two of the motions: a dismissal of the lawsuit and a plea in bar." Richmond-based attorneys from Harman, Claytor, Corrigan and Wellman are representing the School Board and division.

The Alliance for Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based nonprofit, represented the eight students and nine parents who filed the lawsuit in December. They claimed the school division violated their civil rights, including freedom of speech and freedom from religious and viewpoint discrimination by implementing the policy.

The complaint was largely based on anti-racism lessons piloted at Henley Middle School that focused on bias, race, identity, culture, and empathy through readings, activities and question prompts. Slides from those lessons were referenced several times during Fridays hearing.

Vincent Wagner, senior counsel with ADFs Center for Parental Rights, said the issue wasnt that the schools were teaching about racism but that they were personalizing it to students in the room.

He pointed to one activity that defined the dominant culture in the U.S. as white, middle class, Christian, and cisgender and asked students to sort different identities into the dominant culture box. In filings, ADF attorneys have said this portrayal of culture teems with racial stereotypes.

... Come on, its a conceptual framework for a discussion to teach children," Worrell told the ADF attorneys. "What are you afraid of? ... You never tell the court what the problem is with teaching kids in this way."

The School Board has argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because the plaintiffs lack standing to sue and failed to show how they were discriminated against or harmed. Additionally, the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia that the plaintiffs allege the School Board violated cannot be enforced without an underlying statute, according to the School Boards attorneys.

In the end, plaintiffs are asking this court to create a new cause of action that has not existed in order for them to sue the School Board, schools attorney Jeremy Capps said.

The plaintiff's proposed injunction would have stopped the school board from implementing, enforcing or engaging in policies, practices and conduct that inculcate racial and religious stereotypes and treat students differently based on race and discipline students for opposing the anti-racism policy, among other actions.

Worrell quickly cut in after Wagner started speaking during his arguments to ask if he had read the anti-racism policy and how exactly the policy discriminates against students. Wagner responded that the answer is in how the policy is implementing and pointed to examples of lessons and resources for teachers.

Several times during the hearing, Worrell asked for more specifics about what happened to the students that allowed them to bring a lawsuit and appeared skeptical of the plaintiffs claims.

Wagner said that the fact the policy is being implemented gives the plaintiffs standing to sue.

No, it doesnt, Worrell said. There must be something that triggers your ability to come to court.

Wagner said the policys implementation is affecting students lives, which is why they brought the suit.

The very act of educating changes childrens lives, Worrell said. Tell me why changing lives is now actionable.

Worrell said the plaintiffs arguments are unprovable and that its just not true that implementing the policy discriminates against white students.

As part of Wagners arguments, he pointed to one activity in the pilot lesson in which students were to create anti-racist vision statements stating how they would change the way they look, think, sound, and act.

Worrell then asked: Isnt that what education does? Change the way you think and speak.

He used as an example students learning at school that using the n-word is not an appropriate way to speak about people.

Isnt there value in that? he asked. ... [The] parents and students dont like that they are doing it this way. That doesnt give you standing.

If the plaintiffs had their way, Worrell said, the school board would have to create individualized education plans and provide one-on-one tutoring for students in order to not make them uncomfortable.

I think it happens during education that certain people are made to feel uncomfortable about history and their place in it, Worrell said.

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It was a message and a reminder.

Hey Jim Ryan, the planets dying! chanted dozens of University of Virginia students as they marched across Grounds Friday afternoon, waving and flourishing homemade signs on their way from the Rotunda to UVas heating plant.

The march was held to both celebrate Earth Day and protest of UVas decision to not drop all of its fossil fuel investments and was led by DivestUVA, a student group that wants the school make greater commitments to help mitigate the climate crisis.

We had a really great turnout and, honestly, were just glad to kind of foster community here around this, said Maille Bowerman, an organizer with DivestUVA.

In March, the UVa Investment Management Company announced a new framework for making responsible investments that takes some steps toward more sustainability, including a commitment to align its investment portfolio to net-zero greenhouse emissions by the year 2050, if not sooner.

However, the management company has decided not to fully divest from fossil fuels.

The management company provides investment management services to UVa and associated organizations by investing the endowment and other long-term funds of UVa and associated organizations.

Currently, fewer than about 0.05% of the companys investments are directly in fossil fuels. DivestUVA want to see that number down to zero.

DivestUVA has a list of demands for both UVa and the city of Charlottesville including conducting research to understand climate change impacts on communities of color and a climate-focused zoning code.

The students were joined on their march by other members of the community, including Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne.

Theres been a movement for years for UVa to divest from fossil fuels and just look at the reality of climate science for institutions, including UVa, including the city of Charlottesville, said Payne, who has been one of the most vocal members of City Council when it comes to climate reform. I think its just something that the university and the city have to take action on,

Earlier this week, City Council and staff discussed forming the citys climate action plan. Payne said he takes the students demands of the city seriously and he wants to see more action from the city.

We had a presentation but we really need deliverables and timelines and money behind it, Payne said.

Following the march, the students gathered in the park next to UVas heat plant where the George Rogers Clark statue once stood. Students and community speakers addressed the group, discussing next steps for activism.

Jacqueline Kim, co-founder of the Environmental Justice Collective at UVa, spoke about the impact climate change disproportionately has on communities of color.

We must understand the harms committed by the fossil fuel industry within the context of greater systems of violence, Kim said.

Victoria Thompson, a second year environmental science student, read a poem she wrote about her anxiety over the climate crisis.

As an environmental science major, Im pretty aware of everything thats going on and it can really mount to a kind of insane pressure. I feel like its just a culmination of all these events that motivated me to write that and speak today, Thompson said.

Zac Russell, a fourth year student and president of the Native American Student Union at UVa, passed the demonstration and asked the organizers if he could give some remarks to the crowd. Russell, a citizen of the Cherokee nation, said he was proud to see the area where the George Rogers Clark statue stood reclaimed.

If we keep going like this, we wont survive. Seeing people crying out, saying this is our Earth, theres no planet B, in this space, is powerful, Russell said. Its beautiful and I thought this represents exactly the kind of values that honor indigenous people. Indigenous people are really disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, as are many communities of color.

DivestUVA wants to expand its focus beyond divestment and to advocate changes for the university.

Were planning on structuring DivestUVA to be something that addresses not just divesting from fossil fuels, but looking at other ways we can stop or mitigate environmental injustice, said Aayusha Khanal, with DivestUVA.

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Samsung TV can allow several apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to run. However, some users reportedly have concerns when using YouTube on the same smart home device.

There are instances that the said app won't work when you access the Samsung TV. If you're experiencing a similar problem, here's how you can fix it.

How to Fix YouTube Issue on Samsung TV

According to Guiding Tech, there are seven tricks that you can do to troubleshoot the problem with the YouTube app not working on the Samsung TV. Check these out.

Assess YouTube Servers

If you're experiencing the same problem repeatedly, the first thing you need to do is assess if the YouTube servers are okay. In case an outage happens during your streaming, it should be expected that you won't be able to use the app plus the Samsung TV.

You can start by going to the Downdetector and looking for YouTube. If you notice that the trend is unusual for the said app, there's clearly an outage that is taking place. At this point, you need to wait for a remedy from Google regarding this issue.

Check Network Connection

There are cases where your internet connection is one of the problems why YouTube doesn't run properly on Samsung TV. If you want to check it right away, open the Samsung TV home and scroll to the left to access the Settings menu.

Then, head to the Quick Settings menu and scroll right until you see the Network menu. Just check if it's connected. Once it's connected, tap the upward arrow and choose Network Status.

Reinstall YT

If the issue is still persistent, you may want to reinstall YouTube from the device. Begin by accessing the Samsung TV and go to the Apps menu. At the top part of the screen, tap the Settings and choose YouTube from the options.

Now that you're finished doing it, you can now start the reinstallation process.

Related Article: Google: YouTube Vanced to be Discontinued | Developers Says it's Because of 'Legal' Reasons

Unlock YouTube

Since Samsung only allows Tizen OS to run, there's a possibility that the YouTube app won't open because it's locked. A four-digit PIN will be asked, and you should open it.

From the Samsung TV, head to the Settings. If the app requires a PIN code, you will see an icon bearing a small lock on it. Just enter your PIN, and you should be able to use YT again.

YouTube Auto-Update

If the above steps do not work, maybe it's now the time to enable the auto-update for the YouTube app. You can do this by opening the apps menu and choosing the Settings icon.

Then, check if the auto-update has been switched on in the app.

Diagnose Samsung TV

Troubleshooting is not only limited to reinstalling and enabling updates. You can also utilize device care if the Samsung TV still remains unstable on your part.

To use it, go to the Samsung home and search for Device Care from the quick settings. Choose Start Device Care to run the fix on your device.

Update Tizen OS

If your YT is still showing no signs of improvement, its OS might be outdated as a result. You need to update the Tizen OS as soon as possible.

To start with it, access the Quick Settings and scroll down further. Click Support and choose Software Update. Finally, tap Update Now.

In other news, Samsung reveals the new Neo QLED 8k and QLED TV range for an immersive smart home experience.

Read Also: Google Play Movies, TV App to Depart from Smart TVs of Samsung, LG, Roku, and Vizio in Favor of YouTube TV

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Laurenz Heymann) Apple

Apple is planning to adopt the 2nm process for its Mac and iPhone chips as early as 2025 as the tech giant's leading chip supplier, TSMC, has set in motion a plan to produce that process in the early parts of the said year.

Apple to Adopt 2nm Process in 2025

According to DigiTimes, all of Apple's latest chips feature the 5nm process, including the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13 series and the entire M1 Apple silicon line.

TSMC will start the mass production of the 3nm chips in late 2022, with 2nm following in 2025, with Apple and Intel being among the first to use the newer technology.

According to MacRumors, TSMC has set a timetable to move its 2nm GAA process to production in 2025 while commercializing its 3nm FInFET process with improved yield rates in the second half of 2022, with Apple and Intel among the first ones to adopt both nodes, further consolidating its dominance in the advanced foundry sector.

Also Read: Dropbox Gets Ready for Apple M1 Chips After Previously Saying They had 'No Plans' to Support It

A report from 2021 claimed that the next iPad Pro, expected to be announced in late 2021, will feature a 3nm process. The current iPad Pro features the M1 chip, and the 2022 version is expected to include Apple's all-new M2 chip.

The 3nm process technology features performance improvements of up to 15% while being at least 25% less battery-hungry than the other processes.

Apple Unveils M1 Ultra

In March, Apple announced M1 Ultra, which is the next leap for Apple silicon and the Mac. The M1 Ultra features UltraFusion, which is Apple's innovative packaging architecture that interconnects the parts of two M1 Max chips to make a system on a chip with unprecedented levels of performance and capabilities.

M1 Ultra also delivers amazing computing power to the new Mac Studio while maintaining industry-leading performance per watt. The new SoC consists of 114 billion transistors, the most ever in a personal computer chip, according to Apple.

M1 Ultra can be configured with up to 128Gb of high-bandwidth, low-latency unified memory that the 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, can access, and 32-core Neural Engine, giving excellent performance for developers compiling code.

The M1 Ultra also provides great performance for artists working in massive 3D environments that were previously impossible to render and video professionals who can transcode video to ProRes up to 5.6x faster than with a 28-core Mac Pro with Afterburner 1.

Johnny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, said that M1 Ultra is another game-changer for Apple silicon that will shock the computer industry.

Srouji added that by connecting two M1 Max parts with the UltraFusion packaging architecture, they could scale Apple silicone to unprecedented new heights.

Srouji also said that the M1 Ultra's powerful CPU, massive GPU, ProRes hardware acceleration, great Neural Engine, and the massive amount of unified memory complete the M1 family as the world's most powerful and capable chip for a personal computer.

The foundation for M1 Ultra is the powerful and power-efficient M1 Max. To create the M1 Ultra, the parts of two M1 Max are connected using UltraFusion, Apple's custom-built packaging architecture.

The most common way to scale the performance is to connect two chips through a motherboard, which typically brings trade-offs, including increased latency, reduced bandwidth, and increased power consumption.

Related Article: Apple 5G Chips for iPhones 13 Could Happen This 2023! Is Qualcomm Out?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/ Mufid Majnun) COVID

More than seven in 10 people in England have been infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.

England COVID: seven out 10 people have COVID.

The estimate suggests that 71% of people in England had caught COVID between April 27, 2020 and February 11, 2022, according to The Guardian.

The Omicron wave caused the increase in COVID cases in the country. There was the highest prevalence at any time in the pandemic, including in older age groups that had previously had very low rates of infection.

Prof. James Naismith, the director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford, said that the total number of infected people was increasing rapidly when the data stopped. This means that the majority of people in the UK now have COVID-.19.

The analysis used a sample of 535,116 people who completed one or more tests as part of the UK coronavirus infection survey or CIS, which covers people over the age of two years living in private households.

Longest COVID-19 Infection Recorded

Doctors from the United Kingdom have documented the longest COVID-19 infection on record. The patient they treated had detectable levels of the virus for more than 505 days, or 16 months, in total.

The unnamed patient had other underlying medical conditions and died in the hospital back in 2021. Persistent infections like this are still rare, according to the London medics.

Most people naturally clear the virus, but the patient in question had a very weak immune system. Chronic infections like these need studying to improve the doctor's understanding of COVID-19 and the risks it can pose.

According to BBC, the patient first caught COVID-19 in early 2020. They had symptoms and the infection was confirmed with a PCR test.

The patient was in and out of the hospital several times for more than 72 weeks for both routine checks and care. On each occasion, about 50 in all, the patient had tested positive, meaning the patient still had COVID-19.

Also Read: Singapore MOH Claims Existing COVID-19 Vaccines Work Against Omicron! But Recovered Patients Could Still Be Infected

The doctors from King's College London and Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust say detailed lab analysis revealed the same infection instead of repeated bouts.

The patient could not shake the infection, even after being given several antiviral drugs. This is different from long COVID, where the symptoms persist after the infection has gone, according to AP News.

One of the medics presenting the findings at a medical conference, the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, is Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell.

Dr. Snell told the BBC that these were throat swab tests that were positive each time. The patient never had a negative test. They could tell that it was one continuous infection because the genetic signature of it, the information that they got from sequencing the viral genome, was unique and constant in that said patient.

In March 2020, a COVID patient saw signs of improvement after taking a breast cancer drug.

In May 2020, doctors found an antibody from a former SARS patient that blocked the COVID-19 virus.

Related Article: COVID-19: Experts Say Coronavirus Can Spread Even After Patient's Death

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google's cookie pop up has been updated in Europe for both Search and its video-sharing platform, YouTube, which clearly explains how it works, all the while giving users a more customizable experience.

The new look of the cookie pop up banner of Google started rolling out in various cities and countries in Europe.

Google's Newest Cookie Popup

As per a news story by Android Headlines, Google and YouTube users based in France have already started seeing the new cookie pop up beginning earlier this April.

It should available to more YouTube and Google users in Europe as it is still rolling out as of writing.

Android Headlines noted that the new cookie banner shows tons of information about how Google uses cookies. The pop up appears wordy as the tech giant laid out what the "Accept All" option will do.

Meanwhile, according to a report by Ghacks, it also comes with a notable "Reject All" button, making it easier than ever to decline cookie collection.

Google Cookie Popup

Before Google rolled out its new cookie pop up in Europe, Ghacks said in the same report that the previous banner only had two options to choose from, either "Customize" or "I Agree."

That said, if users want to stop YouTube or Google from collecting cookies, there is no single "I Disagree" or "Reject" button. Instead, visitors have to go ahead and click the "Customize" button. But if you are in a hurry - the easier route is to select "I Agree," even if, in reality, you feel otherwise.

It is worth noting that when users choose the "I Agree" option, it should give Google full control as to which data it collects.

On the other hand, the "Customize" route lets users enable or disable several data collections, such as Search, YouTube History, and even ad personalization options.

Read Also: Google Chrome 100 Update Releases New Icon for Desktop, Mobile | What's New

New Google, YouTube Cookie Reject All Button

This time around, users based in Europe are in for a treat as Google is now giving them the "Reject All" button.

The new option should block all cookies while browsing, well, except for some that are deemed necessary.

The search engine giant said in its announcement that the new cookie option on both Google and YouTube is available for first-time visiting users or those who are browsing in Incognito mode on Chrome.

The new "Reject All" button is rolling out to the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and all of the European Economic Area member states.

Related Article: Google Play Store's Outdated App API Presence Limitation To Enhance Android Security

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/dole777) social media

On Apr. 23, the European Union approved the new legislation that would pressure massive tech companies like Google, Meta, and Twitter to enforce illegal content on their respective platforms or potentially risk paying billions in fines.

EU Passes New Legislation for Tech Companies

After 16 hours of negotiation, the EU finally reached a deal on Apr. 23 in Brussels on the Digital Services Act or DSA, according to USA Today.

This is a landmark law requiring companies to police their content and take down anything deemed harmful or illegal.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen said that the new EU legislation would protect users online from harmful content.

What is illegal offline will be illegal online in the EU, and this serves as a strong signal for people, businesses, and countries worldwide.

Also Read: Facebook Has to Oblige with Europe's Privacy Orders, No Exceptions for Social Media Apps

The vote comes a year after the EU presented the Digital Services Act or DSA and the Digital Markets Act or the DMA, which the EU approved in March to the European Parliament, according to CNBC.

The DMA seeks to curb the marketing power of massive tech companies. The EU said that the legislation is the first to target digital regulation.

The EU said that the legislation aims to protect the digital space against the spread of illegal content and protect users' fundamental rights. Platforms with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU are subjected to the law.

Targeting with Online Ads

A critical part of the EU law would limit how tech companies target their users with online ads. The DSA would stop the platforms from targeting users with algorithms using data based on their race, gender, or religion.

Also, targeting children with ads will be prohibited. The new law will also impact popular content platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, according to SCMP.

The change also comes as lawmakers in the United States are still grappling with how to make tech companies do better with curbing harmful content.

The EU law was met with praise in the United States. Jim Steyer, the CEO of the San Francisco-based Common Sense Media, said that the passing of the legislation is a massive moment for tech policy around the world.

Steyer also said that the law is a monumental moment in the global fight to protect children and their families from online harm caused by unregulated social media platforms.

Steyer added that European lawmakers had taken a massive step towards making the internet safer for children and teenagers. He said that lawmakers in the United States "need to look in the mirror and act swiftly to protect children and the country's democratic future."

Former US Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton encouraged the EU to get a deal done and said that tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism with no accountability at all.

Former US President Barack Obama told an audience at Stanford University that the tech companies need more regulation to stop the spread of online disinformation that is putting the country at risk.

In February 2021, the EU claimed that TikTok failed to protect its young users.

Related Article: EU and UK Start First Antitrust Investigation on Facebook and its Control on Classified Ads

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"I was first in the whole school"... The identity of the woman who walked to the Olympic Boulevard was revealed
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Of Moving Colors will perform 'Clock Tower' on Thursday, April 28, in the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts.
Youve likely seen the performance and visual art duo known as the Huxleys before; their penchant for glitter, wild costumes and disco balls make them hard to miss. In one of their Bloodlines pieces for international photo festival Photo 2022  to appear at the Centre for Contemporary Photography  they pay homage to the influence of the late artist Keith Haring, an AIDS patient, mimicking his famous heart-themed artworks by wearing head-to-toe glittery red costumes with certain, um, parts of their anatomy dressed up in sequinned finery as well. And in a series of photos that will appear in light boxes at Birrarung Marr, The Huxleys are dressed as gigantic sea creatures  we loved the idea that a lot of sea creatures are gender fluid  in outlandish fluorescent costumes that they hope will bring viewers joy.

Although The Huxleys (made up of Will and Garrett Huxley) works have appeared in London, Berlin, Moscow and Hong Kong, its Melbourne where they found the safest landing. Before then, they did not always find a place that understood their brand of androgyny, queerness and high camp. Says Will Huxley: I very much agree that theres a sense of freedom in Melbourne, in particular. We both grew up really struggling to express ourselves as queer people and not really fitting in; it wasnt until I moved to Melbourne [from Perth; partner Garrett is from the Gold Coast] that I felt that freedom to just be who I wanted to be. I came out here, and that part of me that I had always hidden was celebrated. All the things I was scared of or couldnt express have now become the things that make us who we are as artists.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone, the Huxleys. Credit:The Huxleys

Photo 2022s theme of being human incorporates 90 exhibitions and outdoor artworks throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria, not just from local artists but also renowned photographers such as Cindy Sherman and Helmut Newton. Some of the Melbourne-based artists have based themselves here after somewhat tumultuous or fraught pasts in other cities and countries  and they feel like there is something about the city that has not only encouraged them to express their identity through art, but has helped further their careers too.

Melbourne has this beautiful queer community in the performing and visual arts, and its inspiring because we didnt have that growing up, says Will Huxley. Our art is all about breaking those boundaries. It doesnt matter what gender you are; in our art, we like to confuse people.
Cronulla was all but a ghost town last weekend with many of the Shires well-heeled residents descending on the Hunter Valley township of Wollombi to see Tara Doyle wed long-term partner Johnny Gillette.

The weekend-long event was held at the picturesque homestead Red Leaf at Wollombi, where eastern suburbs sweetheart Montarna Pitt tied the knot in 2018.

Tara Doyle and Johnny Gillette tied the knot in a Hunter Valley wedding last weekend. Credit:Instagram

Doyle and Gillette spared no expense, with a sprawling marquee featuring a champagne tower and monogrammed Gillette slippers on hand, with the couple drawing tears from family who watched as the bride and groom slow-danced to Van Morrisons Someone Like You.

High-profile guests included model Jemma Barge and her ex-Sydney Roosters boyfriend Boyd Cordner. But noticeably absent was Taras brother, Matthew, who is currently imprisoned for drug importation. He was sentenced to eight years jail in 2020 after undercover police caught him trying to import 300 kilograms of cocaine into Australia.
Rhys Nicholson has taken out the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Award for Most Outstanding Show (formerly the Barry Award) for his latest hour Rhys! Rhys! Rhys!, announced Saturday afternoon at a ceremony hosted by Joel Creasey.

The highest of comedic accolades, rivalled only in prestige globally by the Edinburgh Comedy Award, is judged by a panel of clandestine industry cognoscenti. In the past, the award has catapulted the careers of the ilk of Daniel Kitson, Maria Bamford and The Mighty Boosh.

Rhys Nicholson takes out top honour at the MICF. Credit:Jim Lee

This show is half Kyran Wheatleys, noted Nicholson during his acceptance speech, referencing his partner and the co-owner of one of the festival hubs Comedy Republic.

Everyone deserves an award this year. Not this one. This one is mine, he quipped.
When superstar rapper Jack Harlow dropped a 10-second teaser on TikTok for his yet-to-be-released single, First Class, the internet briefly lost it.

The clip featured Fergies 2006 hit Glamorous, and it was revamped for 2022. With the chorus slowed down and lowered in pitch, Harlow rapped between Fergies now iconic spelling of the songs title.

Jack Harlow at the Nickelodeons Kids Choice Awards in California this month. Credit:Nickelodeon

Am I old enough that Glamorous is being sampled?! wrote one TikToker, a comment that garnered 108,000 likes on the app.

The teaser went viral. The song was released two days later, and it soared to the top of the charts, earning the second biggest debut in US Spotify history, with just under 6 million streams on the day of its release.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size We are not long into the new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, before we are confronted with the image of a bare-chested Spock. Back in 1966, when the original Star Trek was unfurled, it did not take long for fans to begin a long fascination with the sexual side of the cool and logical Vulcan. Spocksploitation, anyone? For Ethan Peck, the actor playing Spock in this spin-off/prequel series (more on that later), those scenes, and another where Spock, who suppresses his emotions, is heard to laugh, are a sign that by dialling the clock back to Stardate 1739.12  less than a decade before the 1966 setting of the original series  we are in unfamiliar territory. Rebecca Romijn as Number One, Anson Mount as Captain Pike and Ethan Peck as Mr Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Credit:CBS Studios Theres a certain amount of fun that hes finding in being himself, in being these strange and disparate halves of himself, says Peck. (Spock is, if you know your Star Trek canon, half-human, half-Vulcan.) Hes really trying to balance his two sides, which is what I think makes him such a compelling character. I think it also speaks to so many of us who are constantly drawn between our emotional and impulsive sides and our more civilised parts that we must present ourselves in a way, and behave in a rational manner. Theres a certain amount of fun to be had in discovering that. What is too rational? What is too emotional? Were provided with an opportunity on Strange New Worlds, to really get into his inner life and more deeply understand his conflicts, his insecurities, his doubts, his romantic curiosities. Hes so mythical at this point. If you like Star Trek, Strange New Worlds beats a path back to the core of the half-century old franchise. A television series, episodic in nature, set on the iconic starship which started it all, the USS Enterprise, going boldly where no one has gone before to seek out new life forms and visit strange new worlds. If you find the long-form storytelling of the newer Star Trek shows too ponderous, then this is your show; the Star Trek franchises The Mandalorian.

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Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Credit:CBS Studios Commanding the ship is Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), who audiences first met in the 1965 Star Trek pilot The Cage, when he was played by actor Jeffrey Hunter. Pikes first officer, Number One (Rebecca Romijn), is an update of The Cage character played by Majel Barrett, the wife of Star Treks creator Gene Roddenberry. In Strange New Worlds she even gets a name, Una Chin-Riley. And, of course, there is Mr Spock, played here by Peck, but played in the original series and films by the legendary Leonard Nimoy, and in the Kelvin-timeline films (see breakout) by Zachary Quinto. At this point in the storys canonical history, Spock is just the ships science officer, fresh off the shuttle, as it were, and finding his way. In a way, ironically, Spock has become something of a Rosetta Stone for Star Treks stories, like Hamlet or Macbeth, a characteristic anchor through whose struggle we can open a window into the storytelling. In his third incarnation, he feels like the most recast of the Star Trek characters, though there are certainly as many Captain Kirks. Each is different, but all are quintessentially Spock. Thats a flattering comparison, not just for the actors playing him, but for the character himself, and a wonderful one, Peck says. I am just trying to do my best to discover him every day that I work. With each new script, Im presented with new challenges, and Im quite often frightened. But I have given myself over to this unknown that occurs every single day that we work. Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Melissa Navia as pilot Erica Ortegas in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Credit:CBS Studios The remainder of the crew are a mixture of Original Series reboots, such as Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and Dr MBenga (Babs Olusanmokun), and new characters, including security chief Laan Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), pilot Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and chief engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak). In the second season, which has already begun filming, we will even meet young James T. Kirk, to be played by Paul Wesley.

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The series begins not quite as you might expect, with Captain Pike on Earth  in Bear Creek, Montana  somewhat resistant to hopping back in the captains chair. He has his reasons: recent events, seen in early episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, have exposed him to glimpses of his future, including his death, and he is a troubled man as a result. But, says Mount, its Earth-bound kick-off is also an homage to Roddenberrys original vision for Star Trek. Gene said many times that Star Trek was really a show about the old wagon trains moving west, says Mount. Its that same sense of exploration he wanted to tap into, and bring into a science-fiction setting. Were starting on a horse, both literally and metaphorically. Perhaps the most striking thing about the series is its physical structure. One of the challenges setting Star Trek projects in the close-to-Original Series era is they simply cannot replicate the 1966 television series too closely, lest they look dated. Strange New Worlds has struck that balance magnificently, delivering a USS Enterprise which serves as a piece of future tech, without departing too dramatically from the mid-century aesthetic which informed the original series. Babs Olusanmokun as Dr MBenga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Credit:CBS Studios Loading Architecture is one of the most misunderstood, underappreciated, aspects of acting, Mount says. Knowing and being able to use ones environment in relationship to a camera and other people. Every time, every space I walk into, one of the things Im thinking about is architecture. Every single time. In this case, there is such a legacy there that we really wanted to find a balance, a call back to something, and yet something that is still going to feel not only futuristic today, but is going to meet the very high standards of todays television. How do you balance all of that?

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Though the subtle design notes have changed, the Strange New Worlds bridge is essentially the same bridge introduced in early episodes of Star Trek: Discovery which set up the new series. This bridge is smaller, more reflective of the Original Series bridge, and has more tactile controls. For the three actors who first appeared in Discovery  Peck, Mount and Romijn  the pinch-me moment was back on Discovery when they first walked onto the bridge. We had a very physical reaction to it, Romijn recalls. Like, what is happening right now? Is it possible that they built this set for one episode? We had no inkling where this would take us. Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Credit:CBS Studios It reflects one key point, adds Mount, which is that the USS Enterprise is a character in the story. I am not the star of the show, Pike is not the star of the show, the cast is not the star of the show, the Enterprise is the star show, he says. Loading As is the big idea of the week. Television is at its best when it serves as a metaphorical platform in which we can talk about other stuff. And Star Trek was one of the shows that has done that the best. Its really a mandate to us to continue to do that, so hearkening back to the episodic structure clears out space for the big idea, or the big planet, of the week. What I loved about the Original Series was every Sunday night, at six oclock on channel 13, that sense of excitement I got turning on the TV. Because not only did we not know where the Enterprise would end up, we didnt even know where the Enterprise would start.

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I wasnt tuning in to find out what happens in this relationship or with this cliff-hanger or with that plotline. I was tuning in to see the new discovery. And hopefully, weve managed to bring that sense of excitement to our episodes. Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock, Nichelle Nichols as Lt Uhura and William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the 1966 Star Trek. Credit:CBS WIBBLY WOBBLY TIMEY WIMEY: MAKING SENSE OF THE STAR TREK TIMELINE The Original Series Era The era of what fans consider to be classic Star Trek, that is, the adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and Dr McCoy, and the crew of the USS Enterprise, including Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and Scotty. The three-season original series produced from 1966 was set between the years 2266 and 2269, the two-season Star Trek: The Animated Series covered 2269 to 2270 and the era of original Star Trek movies, including The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Undiscovered Country, produced in the 1980s, and featuring the original TV cast, were set around 2273 to 2293. Strange New Worlds Considered a prequel to the Original Series for two reasons: firstly, it is set on ostensibly the same USS Enterprise, Starfleet registry NCC-1701  though because Strange New Worlds is a contemporary production, it has been tricked up substantially, but still holding on to a sort of mid-century retro chic. And secondly, Captain Pike, who commands the ship, was in the very first Star Trek pilot The Cage, then played by Jeffrey Hunter, in 1965. Strange New Worlds is set about four years after The Cage, which puts it in the calendar of (roughly) 2258. The Next Generations When the Star Trek franchise was rekindled in the 1980s, Star Trek: The Next Generation picked up the story almost a century after the classic Star Trek era. TNG, as it was known, was set in the calendar years of 2364 to 2370, following the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D, the fourth ship in the line, commanded by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). This era of Star Trek includes the spin-off shows Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (set between 2369 and 2375), Star Trek: Voyager (set between 2371 and 2378) and Star Trek: Picard (set between, so far, 2399 and 2401.) Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. Credit:Paramount Pictures

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John Curdie OAM became president of the Epping sub-branch of the Returned Services League when his granddaughter Brittany Evans was two years old.

Whenever we had a street parade or a function, ever since she was a tiny tot, she was very keen to be marching with me, Curdie said.

For Evans, 24, attending the marches with her grandfather, now 85, are among her earliest memories.

RAAF Veteran John Curdie with his granddaughter, Private Brittany Evans. Credit:James Alcock

Papa would always let myself and my siblings be involved with the march and the veterans, and it was nice to get so excited about it, she said. Id worry that I was doing the right marching technique and all that sort of stuff.
Politicians have criticised a Queensland postman who allegedly dumped about $13,000 worth of postal vote applications in a bin on his delivery run, and then tried to bribe a resident after he was caught.

A Queensland grandmother, Annette Weller, who lives in the electorate of Blair, in western Brisbane and marginally held by Labors Shayne Neumann, caught the postman on CCTV dumping a stack of letters into her wheelie bin.

The letters were sent by LNP Senator Paul Scarrs office. Credit:Nine

The CCTV shows Weller approaching the postman, asking him about the incident.

The footage then shows him apologising and offering Weller $10 after she told him LNP Senator Paul Scarr, whose office had sent the letters, was on his way to collect the pile.
Service with a smile has returned to Melbourne, as hospitality and retail workers shed their masks after two years of COVID-19 restrictions.

Their beaming faces could be seen in the shops and cafes on Northcotes High Street, in the citys inner north, on Saturday morning.

Bec Moore, owner of cafe Tinker on High Street, Northcote, delivers a coffee with a hospo smile. Credit:Scott McNaughton

The COVID-19 mask mandate for hospitality and retail workers was eased at 11.59pm on Friday, following the Victorian governments announcement on Wednesday. Patron vaccination checks and close-contact isolation requirements were also scrapped.

Meg Funston, an assistant at gift shop The Phoenix and the Turtle, said after some initial safety anxiety, she was relaxing into serving customers mask-free.
Perhaps he lacks the capacity to properly weigh the harm caused by vaccine mandates to unvaccinated people in this phase of the pandemic, where the general risk to the system is less than it used to be. Or, perhaps, he simply doesnt care, and this was purely a punitive decision.

Either way, in what is supposed to be a liberal democracy, his decision is deplorable.

Lisa Corrigan, Mentone

Voters, take note

Among the climate policy details of some of the teal independents, is the creation of an independent statutory body to advise the government on climate policy initiatives. (Zero sum game, Insight, 23/4).

Such a body  the Climate Commission  was created under the Gillard Labor government with the support of the Greens in 2011. As soon as the Liberals came to power in 2013, they abolished it with then environment minister Greg Hunt celebrating the event with his exuberant parliamentary colleagues.

Voters wanting action on climate change should take heed.

Michael Hassett, Blackburn

Pair of fictions, indeed

Peter Hartchers columns are compulsory reading. His two articles (Libs spin in debts and dragons, Comment, 23/4, and Leaders should hang their heads in shame, Comment, 21/4) provide an insightful analysis into the so-called economic and national security credentials of the government. He describes the claims of those who seek to remain in charge without the smoke and mirrors and marketing spin. He refers to the massive, climbing debt (as a percentage of GDP) as not all being due to the pandemic, together with the Solomon Islands debacle (that on Anzac Day would have the soldiers who fought in the Pacific turn in their graves).
Since the inception of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2013, two complex and concerning issues have dominated discussion about this vital service for disabled Australians.

One is whether the existing system is financially sustainable. The other is the quality and fairness of service the NDIS provides to participants and their families. Both were implicit in a question asked during the leaders debate last week.

Catherine Yeoman, whose young son has autism, wanted Prime Minister Scott Morrison to outline what the future of the NDIS would look like under the Coalition, considering many participants, such as her family, had experienced cuts to their funding allocations.

Morrisons remark that he was blessed not to have disabled children incited a furore that crowded out the vital question every disabled person, their families and supporters might be asking in this election: what does the Coalition or, indeed, Labor have in mind for the future of the NDIS?

Those who fund the program and focus on budgets  the federal and state governments  may well be concerned about the rising number of NDIS participants and the obvious implication that has for the cost of the program.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is resisting calling his Solomon Islands counterpart despite a top-level delegation from the United States arriving in the country to warn it against allowing China to establish a military base.

The White House said on Saturday it would expedite the opening of an embassy in the Solomon Islands and warned the Pacific nation that it would respond accordingly if steps are taken allowing China to set up a permanent military presence.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne have faced questions over their handling of the Solomon Islands-China deal. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Days after the Solomon Islands sent shock waves across the Pacific by signing a security cooperation pact with Beijing, the American delegation  led by National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator, Kurt Campbell, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink  met with members of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavares government for 90 minutes to discuss their concerns.

Morrison has also only spoken to Sogavare once during the past month, and did not call him in the days leading up to the signing of the agreement.
When a friend comes down with COVID-19, how do you best help them out? Drop over some homemade chicken soup? Offer to walk the dogs? Pick up some prescriptions at the pharmacy?

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke eschewed such humdrum acts of kindness when he made a visit to Anthony Albaneses Marrickville home clutching a vinyl record on Saturday.

Labor Minister Tony Burke paid a visit to Opposition leader Anthony Albaneses Marrickville home to drop off a Gang of Youths record. Credit:Oscar Colman

After being diagnosed with coronavirus, the opposition leader is spending a week off the campaign trail.

As well as preventing him from visiting crucial marginal electorates around the country, Albaneses COVID-19 infection proved inconvenient in another way.
It will cost $3 million to save one of the most Instagrammable scenes in Melbourne due to increasing sand erosion that threatens the picture-postcard Brighton bathing boxes.

Bayside City Council is scrambling to protect the 96 colourful sheds, most of which were built at waters edge in the 19th century to protect the modesty of bathers in demure colonial times and now sell for more than $300,000 each.

Estelle Graham, 18 months, in front of her familys Brighton bathing box with parents Jenna and Matthew and five-year-old brother Angus. Credit:Penny Stephens

Next month the council, which owns the heritage-protected Dendy Street beach (most other Melbourne beaches are Crown land) will import sand from north Brighton beach to renourish the boxes after sandbagging at the southern end failed.

We cant do much about the rising seas, but we can do something about the storms, Bayside mayor Alex del Porto said.
A three-bedroom house in Yarraville that sold for $1.62 million in December, passed in at auction on Saturday on a bid of $1.405 million.

The vendors were selling 76 Benbow Street, in inner-western Melbourne, after unforeseen circumstances in the family meant they were no longer able to move in.

Auctioneer Manny Zennelli tries to get more bids at the auction in Benbow Street, Yarraville. Credit:Penny Stephens

Bidding opened at $1.2 million and two parties made conservative offers before a vendor bid of $1.4 million was made. After one more bid, the property passed in for negotiation.

Ray White Seddon selling agent Mat Crothers said he was not surprised the home had passed in, with agents now negotiating with three to four interested buyers who had held back at the auction.
An explosion at an illegal oil refining depot in Nigerias Rivers state killed more than 100 people overnight, a local government official and the NGO Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC) said on Saturday.

The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition, the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said.

Unemployment and poverty in the Niger Delta have made illegal crude refining an attractive business but with deadly consequences. Crude oil is tapped from a maze of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.

The hazardous process has led to many fatal accidents and has polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.

Reuters
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: The French military has released videos appearing to show Russian mercenaries burying bodies near an army base in northern Mali, which it says is part of a smear campaign against France who handed the base to Malian forces earlier this week.

Aerial surveillance images taken by the French military on Thursday morning and provided to The Associated Press show what appear to be 10 Caucasian soldiers covering approximately a dozen Malian bodies with sand 4 kilometres east of the Gossi military base in the countrys north, according to a French officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press on the matter.

This image taken from a video shows soldiers burying bodies near an army base in northern Mali. Credit:French Army/AP

In the video one of the soldiers appears to be filming the scene. The Caucasian soldiers in the video are believed to be members of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force, the officer said.

Several tweets with pictures of the bodies have been posted on accounts that support Russia or fake accounts created by Wagner, the officer said. The tweets blame the French for the killings and the burials, according to the French officer.


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A Chinese oil company gets kicked off the New York Stock Exchange, but raises $4 billion in China. Why are its Chinese competitors funding it?

Cities across China endure lockdown-induced food shortages. Videos emerge, giving a glimpse into what locals are dealing with.

Why is China sticking to its zero-COVID-19 policy even though its hurting the economy and its people? A China expert breaks down the political reason behind the move.

We examine the differences between Chinas underground churches, and those sanctioned by the Chinese state.

A new move from Beijing is alarming world powers. We break down why Chinas deal with an island nation in the Pacific is making America and its allies nervous.

Topics in this episode:

17 Chinese Firms Forced to Delist in US

Chinese Court Sentences US Citizen to Death

Northeastern China Residents Struggle to Find Food

Why Chinas Sticking With Zero COVID

Q&A: Current Status of Chinas Underground Churches

US to Sharpen Sanctions if China Helps Russia

Black Boxes From China Plane Crash Severely Damaged

Chinas Pact With Solomon Islands Raising Concerns

Have other topics you want us to cover? Drop us a line: chinainfocus@ntdtv.org

And if youd like to buy us a coffee: https://donorbox.org/china-in-focus

Subscribe to our newsletter for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit us on Gettr and Twitter.
General view of P&O ferry Norbay (Lt) moored at Gladstone Dock in Liverpool, England, on March 21, 2022. (Pete Byrne/PA)

2 More P&O Ferries Cleared to Sail Following Mass Sacking of Crews

Two P&O Ferries vessels have been cleared to resume sailing, the UKs maritime authority said on Friday.

Norbay, which serves the Liverpool-Dublin route, was cleared after a Port State Control (PSC) inspection that started on Wednesday.

The Spirit of Britain, which was detained on April 12 over a number of deficiencies, was released from detention following reinspection, meaning the company can now resume some of its operations between Dover, England, and Calais, France.

But the Maritime and Coastguard Authority (MCA) said it had found a small number of deficiencies in the European Highlander after an inspection that started on Thursday.

The MCA requires confirmation that these have been rectified before the vessel is free to resume service, it said.

The European Highlander normally operates between Larne, Northern Ireland, and Cairnryan, Scotland.

Another ship serving the same route, the European Causeway, was detained on March 25 after it was deemed unfit to sail due to failures on crew familiarisation, vessel documentation, and crew training, and released on April 8 following reinspection.

A report showed MCA had found that European Causeways launching arrangements for survival craft were not as required.

Among other flaws identified by the MCA were an inflatable evacuation slide not properly maintained, inadequate fire prevention systems, and crew having a lack of familiarity with radio equipment.

There were also problems with labour conditions, navigation, and documentation.

The Paris Memorandum of Understandingan alliance of 27 national maritime authorities, including the UKlisted the 31 safety deficiencies but did not provide further details.

Among the eight vessels that are subject to inspections, three have resumed sailing, one was cleared to sail, two remain under detention after failing the inspections, and two others are awaiting inspection.

P&O Ferries, which was bought by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in 2019, sparked outrage when it fired 786 UK-based seafarers without any prior notice on March 17 and later replaced them with cheaper agency workers, citing a 100 million ($132 million) year-on-year loss.

The firm suspended most of its sailings but reportedly only expected the disruption to last up to 10 days.

Following the mass-sacking of seafarers, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ordered the MCA to carry out detailed inspections of all P&O vessels under the PSC regimewhich is the inspection of foreign ships in national ports to verify that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with these rules, according to the International Maritime Organization.
A Pharma Giant Imposed Follow the Mandate on Vaccine Objectors. They Are Now Ex-Workers.

Mandy Van Gorp was confident that her employer of 18 years, Eli Lilly and Company, would treat her fairly when she objected to its company-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The pharmaceutical giant had promised to exempt employees with valid health or religious objections to the policy and she believed she had had both.

Despite presenting a doctors note in support of her exemption, citing an auto-immune disease, the company denied her request for a medical exemption. To add injury to the insult she felt, she tested positive for COVID-19 the day after receiving her rejection letter. She then appealed for a six-month deferral on grounds of the positive test. Lilly also denied that request. When she then raised her religious concerns, Lilly said she had missed the application deadlinea deadline that had lapsed several weeks before Lilly replied to her initial accommodation request.

The toughest night was when we were sitting at the dinner table and my 12-year-old was sobbing, hysterically begging me to get the vaccine so I could keep my job, recalled Van Gorp, a 42-year-old sales representative and mother of three. I had to explain that my choice was not about money and that I felt God was leading me not to follow a mandate. Its hard to explain that to a 12-year-old.

Van Gorps experience was echoed by more than a dozen other former Lilly employees who recounted to RealClearInvestigations how the companys vaccine mandate and its strict enforcement pushed them out.

Not only did they lose their jobs and health insurance, but some lost out on stock options and severance packages. Others struggled to collect unemployment, claiming Lilly misrepresented their dismissals to state offices. Salespeople who won exemptions said they too were effectively dismissed as the company pushed them toward roles in which they wouldnt have direct contact with the publicjobs for which they often had little or no training and which would require them to relocate in some instances. When presented with a series of questions regarding its vaccine mandate policy and many of these claims, Lilly responded with a statement in support of vaccination as guided by science.

Lilly is just one of many major corporations that have publicly announced vaccine mandates for their employees. But specific policies have been imposed in private. The accounts of the former Lilly employees, including their never-before-disclosed allegations of unfair treatment, open a window on a largely secretive process that has roiled the American economy.

The objections of some also illuminate a trend seen across the health care industry: resistance to vaccines rooted in science and professional training, beyond objections solely based on religion or ideas of personal liberty. In this instance, those affected were in the business of manufacturing and selling drugs, including monoclonal antibodies used to treat COVID-19.

Lilly announced its vaccine mandate in August 2021, declaring that those who do not meet this requirement or do not have an approved religious or medical accommodation in place by November 15th will be separated from the company. The company had told its salespeople, who had worked remotely throughout the pandemic and then were allowed back in the field by March 2021, that those who received an exemption would remain secure in their jobs. They were instructed to follow the direction of the customer and/or health care facility they are visiting, which could require mandatory vaccinations, masking, negative test, etc. after Nov. 15, as they had been doing since March.

While some employees approved of the mandate, others immediately pushed back. In a company-wide online forum discussion, the text of which RCI obtained, objectors raised various concerns ranging from the ethicalWhat happened to individual liberty?to the scientific.

Even though Im vaccinated, prefaced one participant, I think that as a company who makes medicine and is fully aware of the amount of time it generally takes to get even non life-saving drugs tested and approved, this move makes no sense and goes against the safety and quality commitment Lilly tries to instill in its employees.

Another employee questioned why the policy ignored evidence of protection provided by previous infection, writing: The science of immunity from natural infection is being ignored, which is super disappointing considering we are a science-based company who developed an antibody treatment from those recovered.

The employee was referring to the fact that Lilly had produced multiple monoclonal antibody treatments, which aim to neutralize active infections of COVID-19, as opposed to COVID-19 vaccines, which aim to protect patients from infection and severe illness.

Robin Clark, a former Lilly process engineer, was one employee who sought an exemption from Lilly. RCI reached Clark through a Telegram group of 85 ex-employees who have bonded over their shared outrage at how Lilly let them go. Unlike Clark, most members had been sales representatives. RCIs investigation indicates the company may have subjected them to more onerous requirements in pursuing accommodations than non-customer-facing personnel.

Clark claims her opposition to vaccination was based on a sincere and long-held religious objectionone she did not want to disclose to her employer because theres a lot of discrimination against people who hold my beliefs.

But Clark also had a pre-existing autoimmune disorder, so this was the basis on which she filed her initial exemption request.

In that request, she noted she had not received any vaccines since she was diagnosed with her condition in 1986, and quoted the Centers for Disease Controls website, noting: People with autoimmune conditions may receive a COVID-19 vaccine. However, they should be aware that no data are currently available on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people with autoimmune conditions.

Clark also appended a letter from her doctor, provided to RCI, stating, My medical professional assessment of this patient is that she not be immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine, as the risk of harm and medical injury to the patient outweigh the benefits.

She also indicated she had contracted COVID-19 in November 2020 and that she still had antibodies, confirmed by a test conducted internally by Lilly for a study it was running on the previously infected.

The companys HR department denied Clarks request, while informing her that there were many ways for her to receive vaccination should she so decide.

In the rejection email sent to Clark, Lilly noted: This decision was made utilizing the most up to date CDC definition of true medical contraindications to COVID vaccination  with this evidence-based guidance, there are very few scenarios that meet the criteria for medical accommodation.

Several ex-employees told RCI they had heard Lilly granted few if any medical accommodation requests. Lilly did not respond to questions from RCI aimed at verifying this claim, nor any other questions concerning accommodations.

Like Mandy Van Gorp, Clark said Lilly denied her subsequent request for a religious exemption on the ground that she had missed the application deadline. Internal documents provided to RCI do not reference any appeals process for those seeking leniency from the mandate, and they say nothing about whether an employee could have applied for both a medical and religious accommodation up front.

With her requests rejected, and having refused to get vaccinated, Clark was fired for misconductinsubordination.

Salespeople seeking an exemption from Lilly faced other challenges. Scott, a nearly 20-year Lilly veteran in his mid-50s who asked that his last name not be used because he is looking for a new job, sought a religious exemption based on his long-time opposition to abortion and the fact that cells believed to be from aborted fetuses were used in the testing or development of the COVID-19 vaccines. He wrote a six-page letter detailing his objection, and included a letter from his pastor. He also provided proof that he had COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection.

To Scotts surprise, and to the surprise of colleagues who received the same demand, Lilly asked him to send proof that fetal cells had been used in vaccine development, including documentation of which fetal cell lines were used. The company also asked other follow-up questions to which several employees with whom RCI spoke objected.

One such email from Lilly HR obtained by RCI required self-identified Catholics to explain why they opposed official Church policy.

Ohio native Amy Schultz, a sales rep whose religious exemption from getting vaccinated was approved, says that there was another issue at play. She claims the accommodation process itself wasnt handled consistently, noting that some people were asked for a letter from their pastor. I wasnt.

Scott was granted a temporary religious accommodation. Then Lilly threw him several curve balls. First, Lilly HR told him in an email that due to the in-person nature of sales, management has determined this accommodation creates an undue hardship for the company and the customers we serve. At this point, you may choose to post for a remote-based role  If you are unable to secure a different non-customer facing position or should you choose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by November 15th, you will be terminated from the company.

The non-customer-facing roles to which Lilly directed Scott were for scientists, engineers, and office staff, and many of those, he claims, were based at corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, far from his home out west. Despite having worked at the company for nearly 20 years, he would be treated like any other job applicant. Scott said he applied for six positionsfour of which would require him to report to headquarters, and all of which would have resulted in significant pay cutsand failed to receive an interview for any of them.

Lilly further pressured him by strictly enforcing the terms of a relocation agreement to which Scott had become party two years before. It stipulated that Scott remain employed by Lilly through November 18, 2021, or else be liable for $43,000 in costs the company had incurred to move him and his family. Due to his vaccine-related circumstance, Scott would be terminated two days shy of that date and therefore be on the hook for those moving costs.

Lilly HR offered a solution, but one that Scott felt left him little choice: Accept the severance plan offered to people like him who couldnt find an acceptable alternative job at Lilly, and the company would waive his repayment obligations. With three kids in college, and the $43,000 bill coming his way, Scott signed the severance agreement and applied for unemployment as he sought a new job.

But Lilly was not done with Scott. The state unemployment office rejected his claim for benefits, asserting, You were discharged from this [Lilly] employment for violation of company policy. Scott appealed and received another letter stating he was ineligible because he had quit the company. He appealed again, provided all relevant severance documentation, and explained in a hearing before an unemployment court exactly what had transpired. He asked the Department of Labor representative, What did Lilly specifically tell you about my employment? Scott claims that the representative grew dead quiet, then said, They checked the box that you quit. Ultimately, the Labor Department approved his benefits.

Other former Lilly sales representatives also reported problems in obtaining unemployment compensation. Two residing in the same state provided letters to RCI from its unemployment office indicating that they were initially denied benefits due to voluntary leavingwhat they saw as clearly an inaccurate account of their separation from Lilly. One of the two ultimately received benefits, the other did not.

Several former employees left the company over its mandate citing safety concerns with the vaccine rooted in their professional experience. One expressed concern over adverse events. By late 2021, he said, he had been observing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System co-managed by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration and watching and noticing the staggering amount of AEs [adverse events] reported from seizures, death, myocarditis. I told my manager, If this was our product and I was seeing these kind of reports, wed be pulled off the shelves immediately.

As of Aug. 12, 2021, the date of the Lilly mandate announcement, the vaccine reporting system had collected over half a million reports. It presents users accessing the data with a disclaimer noting its limitations, including that adverse events may not be attributable to vaccines; that the reports themselves may be incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise flawed; and that since they are voluntary, they could be subject to biases.

The former salesperson was particularly sensitive to this issue given his position as a pharmaceutical rep, a role in which he says he was obligated to report any and all adverse events encountered in connection with any Lilly drug.

Schultz added: Where there is a risk, there should be a choice and clearly there is a lot of risk here with this thing and Lilly didnt care, [about] any of our personal beliefs, it didnt matter. Its all about money. Its all about control.

Several other sales representatives expressed reservations about taking a vaccine they felt had been hastily brought to market. Van Gorp said, Its kind of an oxymoron to be fired for not taking a vaccine that doesnt have enough information and enough safety data for me to take it myself and give it to my children.

Another former rep, Amber Nikolai, a military veteran, made a similar point:

Being new to pharma I only knew the training that they had put me through and they put us through so much training that is saturated in understanding the clinical trials  we really had to understand every in and out of the clinical trial and the product info sheet and we had to make sure we could answer every question to be able to help that doc to identify appropriate patients for that medication and to feel good that it had been thoroughly tested and [to] gain their confidence  When this [Lilly imposing its mandate] started happening I thought this is exact opposite of what you teach us. An experimental therapy?

Those interviewed who expressed concerns over risks associated with the vaccines, and their rapid development and launch, cited varying reasons for their caution: Some referenced growing adverse-event figures. Others noted Israeli studies on waning vaccine efficacy. Still others leaned on anecdotal evidence from friends and family they claim had suffered adverse reactions to the jabs. How those issues should be weighed against a once-in-a-century pandemic went unstated.

Lilly, in a Q&A document obtained by RCI that was delivered to employees in conjunction with its Aug. 12 vaccine mandate announcement, noted:

From a safety standpoint, more than 4 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide. In the U.S. alone, more than 347 million doses have been administered. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the largest vaccine adverse event tracking system in history for the COVID-19 vaccines. Since the vaccines became available, reported severe side effects have been uncommon. As a science-based company, we have thoroughly reviewed all the data and options available to us. We believe this decision helps keep our employees, families and customers safe and healthy, and ensures we can continue making life-saving medicines for people around the world.

Lilly also referenced a sense of urgency to get employees vaccinated, rooted in science: Were making this decision ahead of the anticipated full approval of the vaccines by the FDA, which is imminent, because we believe every day counts. Science tells us that the current vaccines are effective in slowing transmission and reducing severe illness and deaths.

For the salespeople who left the company, another twist awaited them: The day the mandate went into effect, Lilly reported to employees that a small portion of unvaccinated customer-facing employees would be given permission to work virtually, acknowledging that experts now believe that fully vaccinated individuals with COVID can transmit the virus at the same rate as those who are not vaccinated.

On that date, Lilly HR reported in an email to employees that 99 percent of U.S. employees met the vaccination requirement or have an approved medical or religious accommodation in place.

Today, COVID-19 restrictions are easing across the country, and some employers are following suit. United Airlines, for example, is allowing unvaccinated employees who had been out on approved accommodation requests to return to the office.

For his part, Scott said he would not go back to Lilly if given the opportunity. He wrote a letter to his colleagues on his final day: An employer that thinks they have the right to tell you what to put in your body with no liability is not a company that I want to work for.

Nikolai, who was granted a religious accommodation but did not pursue a non-customer-facing role and was separated from Lilly, turned down a severance agreement. For me, my religion cant be bought. My freedom cant be bought. There have to be some people that are willing to stand.

She is now pursuing legal action against the company.

Am I going to win against a multibillion dollar pharma company who is insulated five ways from Sunday? No, their pockets are deep. But someones gotta stand and say this is wrong, if we dont try, where does it end?

This article was written by Clayton Fox for RealClearInvestigations.

Comment from Eli Lilly and Company:

As guided by science, Lilly believes that COVID-19 vaccination helps keep our employees, families, communities, and customers safe and healthy, and ensures we can continue making life-saving medicines for more than 45 million people around the world.
This film is only available in the US because of territorial licensing.

In this weeks episode Jill meets the in-house floral stylist at The Westcliff hotel to find out more about working with an African contemporary theme. Jill also shares technicalities to consider when working within this theme and teaches you how to create an African contemporary floral design.

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Arizona Judge Dismisses Lawsuits Aimed at Disqualifying Reps. Gosar, Biggs

An Arizona judge has tossed lawsuits that attempted to disqualify Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) from holding office.

The suits, which also took aim at state Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican, failed because the U.S. Constitution does not provide for private action to enforce Section 3 of the U.S. Constitutions 14th Amendment, Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury ruled.

The section, known as the Disqualification Clause, says that no person shall hold a federal office if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the government.

Two groups linked to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described socialist, filed the complaints, claiming that Gosar, Biggs, and Finchem violated the clause because they helped facilitate the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

But the clause clearly states that Congress is the body that has the power to enforce the section, a determination also outlined in one of the few cases that deal with it, Coury said.

Congress has not created a civil private right of action to allow a citizen to enforce the Disqualification Clause by having a person declared to be not qualified to hold public office, the judge ruled.

Plaintiffs, expecting such a judgment, also argued that the ability of citizens to challenge candidates is created by a state law, but Coury also disagreed.

The law says that Any elector may challenge a candidate for any reason relating to qualifications for the office sought as prescribed by law.

In sum, even assuming arguendo that the court were to accept plaintiffs argument that Arizona (and not just Congress) had the power to create a private right of action to enforce the Disqualification Clause, A.R.S.  16-351(B) does not do this, Coury said. To expand the inquiry to include disqualificationsor who is proscribed from holding officewould re-write the applicable statute and create a cause of action and remedy in a statutorily-created body of law. This would be contrary to established precedent.

The qualifications for members of Congress are exclusively determined by each chamber, as outlined in Article 1, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution. The qualifications for officials in Arizonas Executive BranchFinchem is running to be secretary of stateare stated in the Arizona Constitution.

Coury dismissed the complaints.

Todays ruling is a win for the Constitution. The 14th Amendment allows the House of Representatives to determine eligibility to serve, not some left-wing, radical, special interest group, Biggs said in a statement.

Challengers didnt respond to a request for comment.

Coury is the third judge to rule on complaints lodged by Free Speech for the People, a nonprofit that says its aim is to fight for free and fair elections, for reliable and secure voting systems, and for the bedrock principle that, in a democracy, all voters must have their votes properly counted. More recently, the group launched a campaign against officials linked to Jan. 6, seeking to bar them from holding office.

The ultimate goal, according to the group, is to ensure former President Donald Trump cannot win the 2024 election.

In a similar challenge against Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II, a Trump appointee, in March entered a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a state law that permits a qualified voter who is registered in the same district as the office of a candidate for an office in the state to challenge the candidates constitutional or statutory qualifications for office, including the Disqualification Clause.

Myers ruled that enforcement of the clause was removed by Congress by two laws: the Amnesty Act of 1872, which said that all political disabilities imposed by the section no longer applied to people, with certain exceptions; and the Amnesty Act of 1898, which ended the disabilities for everybody else.

The plain language of these statutes, first removing the disability from all persons whomsoever except those listed in the statute and, second, removing the disability from the excepted persons, demonstrates that the disability set forth in Section 3 can apply to no current member of Congress, the judge said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) offered an argument along those lines in a request for an injunction in the challenge against her, but U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg denied the request.

Totenberg, an Obama appointee and a sister of NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg, ruled that the Amnesty Act only applied retroactively. She also rejected Greenes assertion that the Georgia law the challenge invoked violated her constitutional rights.

Greene appeared at a hearing in the case on Friday.
Australians Urged to Remember Korean War

Australians are being encouraged to reflect upon the nations involvement in the Korean War in the lead up to Anzac Day.

Minister for Veterans Affairs Andrew Gee says Sunday marks the anniversary of the Battle of Kapyong, where 32 Australians lost their lives in the defence of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

I urge all Australians to take time today to reflect on all those who served  in what was one of the most important battles of the Korean campaign and all those Australians deployed during the Korean War, he said on Saturday.

The Korean War is often described as the forgotten war but it is our duty to ensure all those who served, gave their lives, were wounded or taken prisoner are remembered and honoured.

When hostilities erupted in June 1950, Australia quickly committed personnel as part of a United Nations force to defend South Korea.

The 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment was positioned in the Kapyong Valley as a buffer against the communist advance towards Seoul the following April.

Chinese troops attacked Australian positions on the 23rd.

With Canadian and New Zealand reinforcement, the advance was halted two days later but not before 32 Australians were killed, 59 injured and three taken prisoner.

More than 17,000 Australians served in Korea in total. Of them, more than 1200 were injured, 340 killed, and 30 captured.

There are still 42 troops listed as missing in action.

Meanwhile, the New South Wales (NSW) opposition is calling for the establishment of a memorial in Sydney to honour Australians who served in the Middle East campaigns of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The state opposition Labor leader Chris Minns also says a national war cemetery, first proposed by the NSW state government last year, needs to be established in Sydney.

Across Australia memorials have been erected dedicated to remembering the sacrifice of Australian soldiers, nurses, personnel, and those who have died in war, as well as the men and women who have served for our country, he said.

It is time NSW has a significant memorial for the recent Middle East conflicts too.

Elsewhere, 16 local government areas across the state are to benefit from funding for conservation work to existing war monuments.

NSW Veterans Minister David Elliott says more than $125,000 has been awarded in the latest round of funding, with individual grants ranging from $3000 to $10,000.
Biden Administrations Plan to Destroy Medical Conscience Is Un-American

Commentary

Freedom of religion is fundamental to the American concept of ordered liberty. But President Joe Biden doesnt seem to care.

If news reports are right, his administration intends to force doctors and nurses to participate in abortionseven when it violates their religious beliefs. It plans to force Catholic hospitals to violate Church teachings by requiring them to provide sterilization and gender transition procedures, even on children.

In short, the Biden administration will coerce health care workers and institutions to adopt the values of secular woke culture in their professional lives.

How? According to Politico and other news sources, the Department of Health and Human Services will soon promulgate regulations obliterating the medical conscience protections put in place during the Trump administration, designed to protect doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and hospitals against being punished for refusing to participate in medical procedures that violate their moral or religious beliefs.

The Trump approach made eminent sense. Todays society is morally polyglotand growing more sowith resulting controversies roiling health care as they have other sectors of society. In such a milieu, comity is the essential ingredient to maintaining societal cohesion. Medical conscience furthers this end by allowing patients to obtain legal, morally contentious procedures from willing professionalswhile also permitting dissenting medical professionals to stay true to their own beliefs and continue to serve patients and society.

The Trump medical conscience rule was already stricken by a court, and the Biden administration indicated to the Court of Appeals that it would not defend it. But the absence of explicit conscience protections apparently isnt enough for the cultural imperialists who now control the executive branch. They and their culture warrior allies, such as Planned Parenthood, see the governments substantial control of health care granted by the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and other such programs as their vehicle to push through woke social change that they might not be able to achieve through democratic means.

Thats hardly democratic. Moreoveras with many other Biden policieseviscerating medical conscience would not only be explosively contentious, but profoundly unwise:

Compelling doctors to violate their faith beliefs will sow noxious seeds of national disunity that already dangerously divide the religious from the secular and the politically conservative from the liberal. At the very least, watching doctors get punished for refusing to act against their own religious precepts will convince people of faith that their own government regards them as cultural enemies.

The rule will further erode liberty and add to the creeping authoritarianism afflicting our society. If freedom of religion can be pushed aside by government fiat even though its expressly protected in the Bill of Rights, so can other fundamental freedoms.

The rule will lead to years of bitter litigation that will test the viability of the Religious Freedom Restoration Actenacted in 1993 to protect against this exact kind of overreach by the federal government. And once again, the Supreme Court will be dragged into raw partisan politics to its substantial detriment.

There could be a significant brain drain from the medical professions. If we force health care professionals to violate their moral beliefs, some older doctors and nurses will retire, taking their experience and knowledge with them. Talented young people who would make splendid doctors, nurses, or pharmacists may avoid the field altogether. In a time of strained medical resources, we would all be the losers in that.

Forcing medical professionals to participate in legal but morally contentious procedures could be bad for patient outcomes. For example, its not a medical given that blocking puberty for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria serves these patients best interests, even though the Biden administration has adopted the ideology of the transgender movement as official government policy. Puberty blocking has been all but banned in Finland and is now strongly disfavored in the UK. Most recently, Frances National Academy of Medicine published an urgent warning (pdf) against routinely subjecting children diagnosed with gender dysphoria to mutilating surgeries and the impeding of normal maturation.

Nor would the coercion necessarily stop with abortion and transgender transitions. The areas of moral contention in medicine will only intensify in coming years. As just a few examples: Some bioethicists are lobbying for laws that would give dementia patients the right to sign advance directives instructing nursing homes to withhold sustenance once they reach a specified level of cognitive decline. If these acts become legaland if theres no right to say no because medical conscience has been obliterateddoctors and nurses who practice in this field could be forced to participate in the starving of their own patients.

Without medical conscience rights, if genetically engineering embryos becomes a normal part of reproductive medicine, doctors could be forced to participate in blatant acts of eugenics. Or if assisted suicide becomes ubiquitous and considered a human rightwhich is the direction in which society is movingdoctors might be forced to kill legally qualified patients.

Dont shake your head and roll your eyes. All doctors in Ontario, Canada, must either kill legally qualified patients who ask for euthanasiaor find a doctor for the patient who they know will give a lethal injection.

This much is sure: The stakes in the medical conscience controversy are very high. As the Declaration in Support of Conscientious Objection in Health Care puts it: If health care workers are not to be reduced to mere functionaries (of the state, of the patient, of the legal system), they must be free to exercise their professional judgment and to allow their consciences to inform that judgment.

Compelling doctors to violate their religious and moral beliefs in their work isnt just authoritarian and immoral. Its profoundly un-American.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Blast in Northeastern Nigeria Injures 11 People, Say Police

ABUJAA blast in the capital of Nigerias northeastern Taraba state on Friday evening injured 11 people including children, police said, days after an explosion claimed by ISIS terrorist group killed 3 people at a marketplace in a rural town in Taraba.

The blasts in Taraba mark the spread of ISIS insurgencies that have gripped Nigerias northeast for a decade.

There was an explosion at about 8.15 p.m. yesterday in Nukkai, Jalingo. Eleven youths, comprising 10 male and one female, mostly between 11 and 18 years had minor bruises and have been treated. No one died. No one has owned up to the act, Usman Abdullahi, a police spokesman in Taraba State, said.

The explosion at a marketplace in Iware on Tuesday killed 3 people and injured 19.
President Joe Biden (2nd R) together with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (3rd R) and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) attend a meeting on Russia's war in Ukraine with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (2nd L) and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (L) in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Blinken, Austin to Visit Kyiv and Hold Talks with Ukrainian Leader: Zelenskyy

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said Saturday.

The U.S. top diplomat and Pentagon chief will hold talks with Zelenskyy and discuss what kinds of weapons are to be provided to Ukraine to confront the Russian offensive, the Ukrainian leader said during a press conference.

The visit was announced after President Joe Biden add an extra $800 million in military aid to Ukraine.

Some heavy artillery weapons72 155mm Howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunitionwere listed in the package disclosed by Biden on Thursday along with 72 tactical vehicles to tow 155mm Howitzers, over 122 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, and other field equipment and spare parts.

The United States has provided approximately $3.4 billion of security assistance in total to Ukraine since the beginning of Russias invasion on Feb. 24.

A man walks with a bicycle in central Mariupol on April 12, 2022. (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 22, 2,435 civilians had been killed and 5,381 injured in Ukraine since Russias invasion, and almost 5.2 million people had fled the country.

After a botched effort to take control of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, 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 Donbass, with Mariupol being a key city along the corridor.

Moscow claimed that Mariupol has been taken by Russian armed forces.

The city has been taken definitively and completely.  The strategically important administration building of the Azovstal plant has been taken under control, and all adjacent territory has been cleared, Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic said on his Telegram channel.

Some so-called Ukrainian nationalists are still blocked under a thick layer of concrete and steel inside the plant, he added.

However, the two sides have been at an impasse in ceasefire talks for weeks as Ukraine refused to accept the Kremlins proposal.

A map by the UK Ministry of Defense shows troop locations of Russia and Ukraine as of April 22, 2022. (U.K. Ministry of Defense)

Zelenskyy called on his Western allies to provide more heavy weapons to confront Russian forces as the war drags on and the ceasefire talks are deadlocked.

We need heavy artillery, armored vehicles, air defense systems, and combat aircraft, he said in a video message in early April. Anything to repel Russian forces and stop their war crimes.

As many as possible 155 mm artillery pieces and 152 mm artillery shells are included in the weapons list he requested.
California Disney Fans Respond to Walt Disney World Controversy

ANAHEIM, Calif.Longtime Disney fans spoke out about the companys denouncement of the State of Floridas passage of the Parental Rights in Education billbanning sexual orientation and gender identity in K3rd grade classroomswhich escalated April 22 when Gov. Ron Desantis signed it into law to abolish special districts in the state, including the Walt Disney Companys, which has afforded it self-governance since 1968.

Many, including Disney, claimed the billwhich is now lawwas discriminative against the LGBTQ community, despite the text not including the word gay or prohibiting schools from saying the words.

Floridas HB 1557, also known as the Dont Say Gay bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law, Disney said in an earlier statement while vowing to repeal the legislation.

One man, who said he was a Disney pass holder and asked to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times it was a bad move for Disney to take a political stance.

Their company is rooted in kids and they should keep it that way, he said. Disney was once one of the best companies and now they are biting at the hands that fed them and I will no longer invest in the company as much as before.

But Kat Frazier, a lifelong Disney fan, however, said she disagreed with Floridas decision to strip the company of its special district status, which allowed the company to oversee its own zoning and such things as fire protection, emergency medical services, and electricity needs.

I think a good chunk of this is [a] scare tactic to get Disney to fall in line into supporting the bill, Frazier told The Epoch Times. Its a very opportunistic move for the Florida government to essentially control this corporation that has started to build its own sovereignty.

Frazier also said shes concerned regarding Walt Disney Worlds ability to build attractions with local government approval now needed.

The company having the ability to develop and expand whenever they want with little to no say from the Florida government can be beneficial, she said. Fans get rides and attractions at a much faster pace than they would in its California counterpart.

Frazier said she believes the issue of Disneys stance on the new bill, which opposers nicknamed Dont Say Gay, and its self-governance did not have to coincide and should have been handled differently.

These things need to be two separate discussions that have somehow become tangled in Florida politics when its very much unnecessary,  Frazier said. Disney as a company is allowed to voice [its] opinion on the Dont Say Gay bill and I dont think it should have any retaliation brought onto it because of this opinion.
Soldiers with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery B Troop move their M777 155mm Howitzer at the forward operating base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan April 15, 2007. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

Canada Has Sent Heavy Artillery and Ammunition to Ukraine

Canada has sent a number of M777 howitzers and ammunition from the Canadian Armed Forces to the Security Forces of Ukraine, fulfilling the prime ministers promise to send heavy artillery to the embattled country.

In a news release Friday, the federal government said its also provided a significant number of Carl Gustaf anti-armour ammunition.

The M777 towed howitzer is capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 30 kilometres, the Department of National Defence said.

Its the Canadian Armys main artillery gun, firing 155-millimetre shells. Thirty-seven of the weapons were acquired from the United States.

The equipment provided is part of the Armed Forces inventory and will be replenished, the government said.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a list of equipment he said his military needed to fight Russia, including 155-millimetre heavy artillery guns and ammunition.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Anita Anand refused to confirm any further details Friday, saying the Ukrainians have asked allies to be careful about what information is being shared.

The government is not saying how many howitzers or how much ammunition has been provided to Ukraine, or how much it will cost to replace.

The president of the Canadian Ukrainian Congress expressed gratitude for Canadas ongoing support Friday.

Ukraine is defending the freedom of Europe from Russias genocidal war, said Alexandra Chyczij in a statement.

We are grateful that Canada and allies continue to provide the weapons and materiel the courageous Ukrainian Armed Forces need to defeat Russia.

The Liberal government has previously dipped into the Canadian Armed Forces inventory to provide lethal aid to the Ukrainian military.

However, unlike some of the weapons already donated to Ukraine, the M777s remain in use. In response to Russias attack, the government recently deployed one M777 unit to reinforce a Canadian-led NATO battlegroup in Latvia.

Retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie, who served as an artillery officer, said in an interview this week that the guns would be vulnerable to Russian assaults.

The M777 gun crews are out in the open and theyre towed by light-skinned vehicles, he said. So theyre very vulnerable to fighter jets to attack helicopters and to relatively sophisticated forces such as the Russians have.

The federal government said Friday its finalizing contracts to buy commercial pattern armoured vehicles that will be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Its also negotiating a service contract for maintenance and repair of the specialized drone cameras that have already been sent.

The government set aside another $500 million in the recently released budget to provide military aid to Ukraine, after committing $118 million worth of equipment since January.

Earlier on Friday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Russia should be booted from the G20 over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

It was a key topic of discussion during meetings this week of finance ministers and central bankers from the group of nations in Washington, D.C.

Freeland said Russia doesnt have a place at the table among countries trying to maintain prosperity when its illegal war in Ukraine has strained the global economy.

But in her comments during a closing news conference alongside her Ukrainian counterpart and International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, Freeland hinted that the feeling isnt unanimous.

China has argued against removing Russia from the group.

You cant be a poacher and gamekeeper at the same time, Freeland said about why Russia should be expelled.

You dont invade and try to take over another country. Having violated that principle, and continuing to violate it with an ongoing war, its impossible to talk about international collaboration, international co-operative efforts with Russia.

Freeland, along with other allies, walked out of the G20 meeting when the Russian delegation looked to speak. She said Canada wont be a part of any meeting where Russia is taking part.

The invasion has lasted nearly two months, killing thousands and leading 5.1 million people to flee Ukraine.

By Sarah Ritchie and Jordan Press
Charges Dropped for Imprisoned BLM Activist Convicted of Illegal Voter Registration

A Black Lives Matter activist sentenced to prison earlier this year after being convicted of illegal voter registration had her criminal charges dropped and will no longer face a new trial, a district attorney said on Friday.

Pamela Moses, 44, described by some outlets as the founder of a BLM chapter in Memphis, was sentenced in January to six years and one day after being convicted of illegally registering to vote in Tennessee as a convicted felon. Moses had felony convictions in 2015, making her ineligible to register to vote.

Moses will not be tried a second time on the felony charge of illegally registering to vote, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said in an April 22 statement. In all, Moses has spent 82 days in custody  which is sufficient, she added.

The activist has been acquitted of all charges and prosecutors dismissed her illegal voter registration case and probation violations in the interest of judicial economy, the district attorney said.

Mark Ward, a judge in Shelby County who handed down Mosess prison sentence, ordered a new trialwhich now wont take placebecause the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to turn over a key piece of evidence that supported Mosess defense.

Moses had claimed to be unaware that she was ineligible to vote and had faulted officials for not telling her about her ineligibility after she began probation on the 2015 charges.

According to an email that was never presented in court, the probation department mistakenly signed a form in September 2019 that cleared Mosess voting rights.

The Tennessee Department of Correction determined two days later that it was an oversight by the service. The agency said the probation officerreferred to as Manager Billingtonhad to search with more care to find additional documents that indicated Moses was actually still on probation and not able to register to vote.

The focus of the case was whether Moses had knowingly voted while being aware she was actually ineligible. She said at her sentencing hearing in January she did not falsify anything and was just trying to get her rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission had told her.

Mayoral contenders Pamela Moses (2nd L) and Lemichael Wilson attend a May Day Rally outside City Hall in Memphis, Tenn., on May 1, 2019. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian via AP)

I relied on the election commission because those are the people who were supposed to know what youre supposed to do, Moses told News Channel 3 in December 2021.

Ward said during that same hearing that Moses made false statements to the probation department to register to vote and cast six illegal votes before being caught.

You tricked the probation department into giving you documents saying you were off probation, Ward said at the time. After you were convicted of a felony in 2015, you voted six times as a convicted felon.

In 2015, Moses pleaded guilty to felony charges of tampering with evidence and forgery. She also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of perjury, stalking, and theft under $500, according to reports. She was placed on probation for seven years after pleading guilty to the felonies and misdemeanors.

From NTD News
A woman walks across a road at a traffic light in a high-end shopping district on a polluted and foggy evening in Beijing, China on March 24, 2022. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Chinas Richest Made Gains Despite Pandemic

Chinas wealthiest got richer during the first year of the pandemic, says a recent report that follows an earlier study that indicates the top 2 percent of the population owns 80 percent of the countrys total wealth.

As of Jan. 1, 2021, wealthy Chinese familiesthose with total assets exceeding approximately $942,000had a combined wealth of about $25.1 trillion, roughly 1.57 times Chinas GDP in 2020, said Chinas Hurun Research Institutes 2021 wealth report released April 14.

There was a 9.6 percent increase in the combined wealth of those affluent households in 2020 over the previous year, exceeding Chinas 2020 GDP growth of 2.2 percent, the report said.

Households considered high-net-worth, with total assets exceeding $1.57 million, reached 2.06 million, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year.

The number of ultra-high net worth householdsthose with total assets exceeding $16 millionreached 133,000, increasing 2.5 percent from the previous year.

According to the report, the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Beijing, and Shanghai gathered the highest number of high-net-worth households, accounting for 42 percent of the national total.

Two Percent Own Over 80 Percent

Another annual report by state-owned China Merchants Bank indicated that ultra-wealthy individualsthose with average daily assets of over $1.57 millionaccounted for 0.07 percent of the Chinese population in 2021. The report released in March, said they held about $4.36 million in assets per capita, and such individuals owned approximately 31.54 percent of the nations wealth.

Average daily assets refer to the average value of assets on a particular day. It is calculated by adding the value of the assets at the beginning of the day to the value of the assets at the end of the day and dividing by two.

Meanwhile, Chinas middle classthose with average daily assets of over $78,000accounted for 2.05 percent of the Chinese population and owned 50.58 percent of the nations wealth in 2021. They have about $240,000 in assets per capita.

On the other hand, nearly 97.88 percent of people in China have less than $78,000 in average daily assets. Those individuals accounted for 17.87 percent of the nations wealth, and they held approximately $1,800 in assets per capita.

The ultra-wealthy individuals and the middle class in China are considered the top 2 percent of the countrys population, and according to the report, they own over 80 percent of the nations total wealth.

A man wearing a face mask walks past an Apple store in an upmarket shopping district in Beijing as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, China, March 4, 2020. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Wealth Gap

A 2014 study by the University of Michigan found the wealth gap between the rich and the poor in China is among the highest in the world and has surpassed that of the United States. The study found, at the time, that the Gini coefficient for family income in China was around 0.55 compared to 0.45 in the United States.

The Gini coefficient or Gini index is a single number that demonstrates a degree of inequality in the distribution of income/wealth within a nation or group. A higher Gini index indicates greater inequality, with high-income individuals receiving much larger percentages of the populations total income.

In September 2021, Ning Jizhe, director of Chinas National Bureau of Statistics, stated that the Gini index of mainland China in 2020 was 0.468.

According to the United Nations Development Program, the alarming level of the Gini index is 0.4. A coefficient larger than 0.4 indicates a significant income gap between the rich and the poor.

In May 2020, Chinas Premier Li Keqiang said that although Chinas per capita annual income is about $4,700, more than 600 million people only earn about $157 per month.

Scavengers pick up useful construction waste from a garbage dump in Hefei, central Chinas Anhui Province, on Dec. 9, 2012. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Hidden Income

One reason for the gap between the rich and the poor in China is the corruption of officials, some have pointed out. In 2010, Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of Chinas National Economic Research Institute, said corruption among Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials is a primary cause of the countrys massive wealth gaps.

Wang said Chinas official Gini index cannot accurately reflect the countrys true income gaps due to the data omitting a large figure of hidden income.

Hidden income or gray income refers to unreported or undeclared wealth that stems from corruption, bribery, or other forms of illegal or unethical dealings.

Wang said if hidden income was taken into account, the actual income gap between the highest and the lowest income groups among Chinese households would be nine times the official number in 2008. The per capita income of the highest income group would be 65 times the lowest, over 23 times higher than the officially reported number, he said.

A 2015 study by Liu Qiongzhi and Luo Qin from Wuhan Universitys School of Economics and Management, showed that if hidden income was taken into account, Chinas Gini index in 2011 would have been 0.53, which was significantly higher than the 0.477 published by its National Statistics Bureau.

In 2014, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that nearly 22,000 people from China or Hong Kong were hiding their wealth in offshore financial centers. Many among them were found to be relatives of the current or former top leaders of the CCP.
Warships and fighter jets of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy take part in a military display in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. (Reuters)

Chinas Secret Navy in the South China Sea

News Analysis

Few regions are more strategically important to China than the South China Sea (SCS). Beijing has increasingly treated the SCS as a Chinese lake, subject to its indisputable sovereignty.

Beijings competing territorial claims within other countries bordering on the SCS have led China to be militarily engaged and active in this area for many years. This has often led to tensions, if not outright clashes.

The issue of Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea has been less and less about economicsoil and gas reserves or fishing rightsand more about control and sovereignty.

The South China Sea is, quite simply, a key defensive zone for Beijing. Accordingly, China has particularly increased its military presence in the region through expanded patrols by the PLA Navy (PLAN). In addition, there has been a dramatic military expansion on the Hainan and Woody islands in the western SCS.

Woody Island has witnessed the construction of a 2,700-meter runway that can accommodate most Chinese fighter jets, an improved harbor, and the deployment of long-range HQ-9B surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

Beijing has also been engaged in a massive effort to assembleand subsequently militarizea constellation of artificial islands in the Spratlys, in the eastern part of the SCS. This building program included the construction of runways on Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief reefs, harbors and barracks, and, finally, the emplacement of radar stations, anti-aircraft guns, HQ-9B SAMs, and YJ-12B supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) to the islands.

An airstrip made by China is seen beside structures and buildings at the man-made island on Mischief Reef in the Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea on March 20, 2022. (Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Beyond an overt military presence in the SCS, China has lately expanded its paranaval activities. These include more traditional undertakings, such as increased patrols by the Chinese Coast Guard, and the use of an irregular but still Beijing-controlled maritime militiathe so-called little blue men.

Coast guards are usually noncontroversial in maritime matters. They are primarily concerned with protecting freedom of navigation and operations in regional sea lines of communication (SLOC). This includes combating piracy and other sea-based criminal activities, human trafficking, and drug smuggling.

Coast guards are also used to enforce exclusive economic zones (EEZs). EEZs are regional maritime territories, extending out from shore no more than 200 nautical miles, within which a country has exclusive rights to exploit for economic gain; this includes fishing but also oil and gas deposits.

EEZs in the SCS are particularly contentious since many countries claims overlap. Therefore, regional coast guards have found an increased function in enforcing EEZ rights.

The advantage of using coast guards in sovereignty enforcement operations is that they are lightly armed (usually just a small cannon or machine guns). This lowers the risk of catastrophic clashes in the SCS. But if such clashes increase or the stakes are raised, they could escalate into more violent action involving navies.

For example, using paranaval forces to sink commercial ships, resulting in a large loss of life, or employing coast guards to forcibly remove personnel from bases in the SCS or block oil and gas exploration from disputed areas and, thus, provoking armed resistanceall of these actions could increase the risk of conflict.

It should surprise no one that the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) is the largest in the SCS and one of the most active. Until recently, China operated five civil maritime forces: China Marine Surveillance (CMS), the Border Patrol, the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command, Customs, and the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA). Many of these forces overlapped in their missions and competed with each other. In 2013, the first four services were combined into a single China Coast Guard (CCG) under the command of the State Oceanic Administration.

The CCG operates over a hundred patrol boats, particularly the 41-meter Type-218 offshore patrol vessels, armed with twin 14.5mm machine guns. In 2007, the PLAN transferred two 1700-ton Type 053H (Jianghu-I) frigates to the CCG, making them the largest ships in the coast guard.

In 2016, China launched two 12,000-ton monster cutters for the CCG, the largest paranaval vessel in existence. At least one of these ships has been more or less permanently deployed to the SCS.

A Vietnamese coast guard ship shows a Chinese coast guard vessel (R) sailing near Chinas oil drilling rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea on May 14, 2014. (Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, the CCG has been one of the most aggressive paranaval fleets in the SCS. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the CCG has been involved in a sizable majority of clashes in the SCS, including bullying, harassing, and even ramming of other countries coast guard and fishing vessels. In November 2021, the CCG used water cannon on two Filipino supply boats operating within the Philippines EEZ.

But the CCGs actions are nothing compared to those of Chinas militarized fisherman, the so-called little blue men who go out in the SCS and purposely clash with ships from other nations, both commercial and naval. These are not simply private fishermen engaged in patriotic activities. On the contrary, these vessels are, in actuality, a maritime militia subsidized by Beijing and effectively a part-time military organization.

These boats are sent out to collect intelligence, show the flag, and promote sovereignty claims. Moreover, they are not above creating minor clashes with other ships. They provide Chinese naval and paramilitary forces, particularly the Chinese Coast Guard, with a pretext (protecting Chinese civilians) to intervene and thereby bolster Chinas military presence in the SCS.

While this maritime militia has been around for years, they have lately become a much more active and aggressive force, and one that has a growing strategic purpose, what has been dubbed the 3Ds of Chinas SCS strategy: declare (Chinese claims), deny (other countries claims), and defend (those claims).

The use of paranaval and irregular maritime forces permits the Chinese to operate in overpowering numbers within the SCS. A RAND Corporation report calls this a classic gray zone operations  designed to win without fighting by overwhelming the adversary with swarms of fishing vessels, further bolstering Chinese claims of indisputable sovereignty in the region.

China has created a powerful paramilitary tool by combining its reinvigorated coast guard with its increased use of a vast and aggressive maritime militia.

According to Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs at the University of the Philippines, the ultimate goal is to establish de facto control and dominance over the entire South China Sea.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (R) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect honour guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2019. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Security Deal in Pacific Should Be Met With Strong Pushback From US, Allies: Experts

The Chinese Communist Party managed to secure a controversial security deal with the Solomon Islands by exploiting the domestic politics in the pacific island nation, according to experts, who added that the United States and Indo-Pacific allies now need to work doubly hard to push back against Beijings expanding influence in the region.

The deal, signed earlier this week, would allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)with the consent of the Solomonsto dispatch police, troops, weapons, and even naval ships to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in the Solomon Islands, based on leaked pages from the document.

It has stoked fears from the United States and allies that the deal would be used by Beijing to establish a military footprint in the region, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific. The Solomon Islands occupies a strategic position in the Pacific and is less than 1,200 miles from Australia.

A senior-level U.S. delegation met the Solomon Islands leader on April 22 and warned that Washington would have significant concerns and respond accordingly to any steps to establish a permanent Chinese military presence in the Pacific island nation.

US National Security Councils Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell (C) leaves after a meeting with the Solomon Islands government in Honiara on April 22, 2022. (MAVIS PODOKOLO/AFP via Getty Images)

A White House statement said Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare reiterated to the visiting delegation led by White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell that there would be no military base, no long-term presence, and no power projection capability under a security deal signed with China.

The White House gave no indication of what the U.S. response would be to such an eventuality, but its blunt tone indicated the level of U.S. concern that led to the dispatch of Campbells mission to the remote island nation this week.

If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly, it said.

The United States emphasized that it will follow developments closely in consultation with regional partners.

A Chinese military base in the South Pacific would significantly shift the balance of power in the region, according to Satoru Nagao, a non-resident fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

If the Chinese navy set up a base in the South Pacific, it will be more difficult to track Chinese naval ships in the Pacific. China can deploy naval ships anytime near Hawaii or other regions between the U.S. and Australia easily and attack Alaska and US western coasts, said Tokyo-based Nagao.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare speaks at a press conference inside the Parliament House in Honiara, Solomons Islands on April 24, 2019. (Robert Taupongi/AFP via Getty Images)

Aligned Interests

The security deal played into the interests of both Sogavare and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Cleo Pascal, a non-resident senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracy. The pact, she said, was actually one between the two leaders and not between the two nations.

It is designed to secure the PRCs [Peoples Republic of China] position in the country and Sogavares hold on power, she said, adding that the deal is widely unpopular in the island nation of 700,000 people.

If free and fair elections are held in 2023, as scheduled, [Sogavare] is likely to lose. If he loses, a new government is likely to cancel the deal, and maybe even switch back to Taiwan, Pascal said.

That would be a huge blow to Xis prestige in China, opening him up to political attacks at home. And it makes investigations of Sogavares activities more likely, she added.

The Solomons switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. The switch was one of the reasons behind unrest on the island in November that resulted in the arson and looting in its capital Honiara.

The domestic politics in the Solomon Islands and China means both Sogavare and Xi need their security partnership to sustain and deepen, Pascal said, adding even if it means provoking a new civil war to justify postponing elections and putting Chinese peacekeepers on the ground.

Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at Washington-based Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that the worst-case scenario for the islands nation would be if Sogavare uses the security deal to invite Chinese forces to suppress political disputes with his rivals.

Once that happens it will be very difficult to roll back any Chinese military presence there, said Sadler.

Given the domestic context, Pascal urged Campbell to use his visit to build ties with opposition voices in the country.

If they only meet with corrupt, pro-PRC Sogavare, they are just reinforcing his prestige in the country, said Pascal, adding that Campbells delegation should instead meet with the leader of the opposition, some of the provincial premiers, local chiefs, religious leaders, and womens groups who have come out against the deal.

If they do that they are showing they truly want to work with the vast majority of the people of Solomons to build democracy, transparency, accountability, and rule of law. That is the way forward.

US National Security Councils Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell (L) leaves after a meeting with the Solomon Islands opposition leader Mathew Wale (R) in Honiara on April 22, 2022. (MAVIS PODOKOLO/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia-US Coordination

Experts have long argued that the United States outsourced its regional policymaking to Australia, but with this development, it can no longer afford to take a back seat. Some are now calling for an independent U.S. policy for the Pacific Islands as well as greater coordination between countries of the informal Quadrilateral Security Dialogue grouping (Quad)Australia, India, United States, and Japanto counter Chinas influence in the region.

Washington has had nearly a zero diplomatic presence in the Solomon Islands, Sadler said, adding that it has only lately started to address it by announcing in February that it would be re-opening its embassy in the country.

While Australia could be relied upon to deal with matters concerning Pacific Island countries, the Biden administration should be more proactive and make public statements on matters early, and in concert with Australia, Sadler noted, highlighting that only Washington can argue for U.S. interests even where allies are concerned.

The U.S. needs to be more attuned to the South and Central Pacific than it has been, he added.

Pascal alleged that while the Australian government in Canberra has been able to deal with the Chinese regimes coercion domestically, it hasnt encouraged the same in Pacific Island nations.

Ive heard from multiple sources that more direct and effective engagement by countries such as the U.S. was discouraged by Canberras Pacific experts as it might provoke China, she said.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the CCP operates. The CCP expands until it is stopped. And, even then, it doesnt stop, it just looks for other ways to advance.

Nagao of the Hudson Institute said greater coordination between the Quad countries is needed in the region to counter the Chinese regime. He noted that Beijing has invested heavily into the South Pacific in the past few decades and thats why the CCP is succeeding.

But the recent disaster in Tonga, US-Australia-Japan coordinated to support Tonga well. If the US-Australia-Japan and India cooperate well, the Quad can push back Chinas influence, said Nagao, referring to the massive volcano eruption and tsunami that hit Tonga in January.

The expert added that the Quads work in the Pacific Islands has just started and needs to be sustained for long-term impact.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Cumulus, stratus, cirrus, nimbus.

Objects with these strange names affect our lives in many ways. Like a bucket overfilled with water, they pour out rain and snow; with the wind as their partner, they whip up tornadoes and hurricanes; in a pile of styles and sizes, they dress up a clear sky. Like a mothers arms, they encircle the land with protection and love. We call them clouds.

Artists show us the beauty of clouds in their works of art. John Constables (17761837) heart lay in a lifelong study of clouds, and he painted them with almost scientific accuracy. He called his study skying.

Tools and Techniques for the Outdoors

Constable painted clouds and the natural world he saw in the Suffolk region of England. He usually painted outside to capture clouds of all shapes and under all conditions, and his tools and techniques prepared him for this task.

When he painted out of doors, he carried with him four palettes, a wooden sketching box with brushes, a chalk holder, a palette knife, and pigments in glass phials; the phials were used before paint tubes were available. He packed a lump of white gypsum, which he used for drawing as well as roughening the paper.

Constable glued three pieces of paper together and primed this card with a colored ground, which made it somewhat water-resistant. To catch ever-changing scenes of light and movement, Constable often mixed the colors right on the surface of the paper, rather than mixing on the palette and then transferring the paint.

Constable painted more than 50 oil sketches of cloud formations. For his outdoor work, he used an impasto technique (broad and naturalistic brushstrokes) to catch the swiftly changing weather. He favored natural tones to match the true colors of the landscape, unlike past conventions that used coffee colors in landscape painting.

To remind himself of the scene, Constable often made notes on the back of his sketches, such as: Very lovely eveninglooking Eastwardcliffs & light off a dark grey skyeffectbackgroundvery white and golden light.

Oil Sketches Capture Movement and Light

The artist made sketches of weather changes throughout the day. In his oil sketch of cirrus clouds, he made the wind visible as it whisks the clouds around. The background shows various shades of blue shifting to gray. There are streaks of clouds, not enough for rain but enough to rouse the bigger clouds above.

Some of the larger cloud formations are touched with gray at their base to indicate the beginning of a rain cloud. In the lower register, Constable showed touches of light for more distant clouds. A lot is happening in the sky with only a cluster of whiteness.

Study of Cirrus Clouds, 1822, by John Constable. Oil on paper; 4 1/2 inches by 7 inches. The Victoria and Albert Museum. (PD-US)

His Cloud Study gives us a tumultuous sky and not the usual perception of cloudy. It appears active with a great mix of colors: white, gray, blue, and even touches of gold where the sun might be shining through.

Cloud Study, 1822, by John Constable. Presented anonymously, 1952, Tate. (PD-US)

In his oil sketch Brighton Beach, Constable managed to show the buildup of a storm. Wind-swept cloud formations have now coalesced into rumbling behemoths. The billowing grayness packs a skyful of rain. Very soon, the rain clouds will completely block the last of the light sky. Some smaller gray clouds reflect the last light before the storm. The base of the sketch supports in tones of brown.

Brighton Beach, 1824, by John Constable. Oil on paper; 4.72 inches by 11.69 inches. Victoria and Albert Museum. (PD-US)

In another oil sketch made at Brighton Beach, titled Rainstorm Over the Sea (1822), dark gray rain drops heavily to the water from a cloud higher than what is seen. Clouds on the left are blue-black with rain about to crash down. This is a localized rainfall, as seen by the light clouds in the background. These dark clouds will drop heavy rain but it will end soon.

Rainstorm Over the Sea, 182428, by John Constable. Oil on paper; 8 3/4 inches by 12 3/16 inches. Royal Academy of Arts (RA), London, UK. (PD-US)

In Cumulus Clouds Over a Landscape, the storm has passed as quickly as it arrived. Dark clouds move away as the storm passes into the upper left of the sketch, as larger cumulus clouds fill the skyline. To the right, the light of a setting (or rising) sun dots the clouds that are swiftly moved along by its companion, the wind.

Cumulus Clouds Over a Landscape, 1822, by John Constable. Oil on paper laid on canvas laid on board. National Trust, Fenton House. (PD-US)

Six-Footers

Constable made his oil sketches of the stratosphere not as an end in themselves, but to prepare for the actual work of large landscape paintings. He did a series of full-size landscape paintings, known as six-footers, of places in Suffolk. On these paintings, his firmament shines.

The White Horse was the first of these large works. According to contemporary artist Charles Robert Leslie, it was on many accounts the most important picture Constable ever painted because it provided him the financial freedom to paint what he wanted. In 1819, it earned him a place in Englands Royal Academy of the Arts.

The White Horse, 1819, by John Constable. Oil on canvas; 51 3/4 inches by 74 1/8 inches. The Frick Collection. (Public Domain)

The composition does not draw our attention to the animal in the lower left of the painting, but to the magnificent clouds that cover the land. The scene shows a barge carrying a horse to the opposite shore, but the viewer sees a magnificent cloud-filled sky as the main event. Great activity is happening above the tranquil river. The trees seem to have been touched by the activity in the sky and are beginning to move and respond to the white clouds above. The blue sky struggles to remain free of the robust and rumbling cloud cover, which is dappled in gray, pink, and soft white.

Beloved Landscapes

Constables seemingly simple scenes have become highly valued. In November 2021, ArtNews reported that a painting, called The Glebe Farm, which was once considered a Constable copy, has been verified as an original. It sold last year in Cincinnati for $54,000; the landscape is to be auctioned at Sothebys with a low estimate of $4.03 million!

A gallery exhibit Creating Constable recently closed in the Suffolk region, where the artist lived. Since the exhibition coincided with the 200th anniversary of the completion of the famed landscape The Hay Wain, Londons National Gallery loaned it to the gallery for the exhibition.

Clouds of Ones Own

Landscape artists enable people to muse, consider, and reflect on the world. Many who view Constables landscape paintings look at their own backyards and feel bathed in serenity and happiness.

Study of a Cloudy Sky, 1825, by John Constable. Oil on paper on millboard; 10 3/8 inches by 13 inches. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. (Public Domain)

But some even feel uplifted when simply appreciating the beautiful cloud formations that they see when they take a walk. Blogger Michelle Monet says: Whenever I go outside now, especially this time of year, I seem to be drawn to looking at cloud formations. It feels otherworldly, spiritual, freeing, magical? Maybe it makes me feel connected to the Universe. I dont know. I just think clouds are FUN! Clouds make me feel happy and calm!

The Cloud Appreciation Society (yes, there is one) held an exhibition of Constables cloud studies in 2016. Its website states: Constable, who represented clouds as one of Natures best gifts to humanity, would no doubt concur with this rule of the Cloud Appreciation Society: Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds!

We dont need to travel the world to find the perfect cloud. English artist John Constable preferred to paint landscapes near his home in the Suffolk region of England. I should paint my own places best, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821. Constables sketches and paintings show how clouds nourish our minds, bodies, and spiritsand we can find them in our own backyards.
Crypto Miner BitRiver Sanctioned by US Over Russian Operations: Bloomberg

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned crypto mining firm BitRiver, targeting one of the industrys top data-center service providers over its operations in Russia, Bloomberg reported.

The Swiss-based company BitRiver provides Bitcoin miners worldwide with energy sources, mining facilities, and large-scale management solutions, including those in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Treasury announced restrictions on BitRiver, including 10 of its Russia-based subsidiaries, as the war in Ukraine enters the third month.

The Treasurys action comes just a day after the International Monetary Fund warned that cryptocurrency mining could provide a way for countries like Russia and Iran to avoid sanctions by diverting natural resources that they cant export to energy-intensive mining operations like Bitcoin mining.

By operating vast server farms that sell virtual currency mining capacity internationally, these companies help Russia monetize its natural resources, the department stated. However, mining companies rely on imported computer equipment and fiat payments, which makes them vulnerable to sanctions.

According to the IMF, Bitcoin mining generated an average of $1.4 billion in revenue each month last year, with around 11 percent going to Russian miners.

The BitRiver sanctions could have far-reaching impacts beyond the Russian crypto mining industry, potentially redistributing and reducing computing power for Bitcoin mining worldwide, according to Roman Zabuga, chief marketing officer at Hamburg-based BWC, a data-center operator for crypto miners.

By Akanksha Bakshi

 2022 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds press conference in The Villages and signs SB 7044 on April 19, 2022. (Screenshot, The Florida Channel)

DeSantis-Drawn Districts Map Begets Big GOP Boost in Congress

Floridas newly drawn congressional map, which has not yet been signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has already resulted at least one lawsuit but is likely to be in place for the states August primaries and November general elections.

The Florida Senate on Wednesday, and House on Thursday, approved DeSantis proposed state congressional district map after three months of contention among Republican leaders over how to reapportion the states 27 districts into 28 newly configured districts.

On Friday, as expected, the League of Women Voters of Florida, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Equal Ground Education Fund, Florida Rising Together, and several individual Florida voters filed a lawsuit in state court in Tallahassee challenging the new congressional map as a naked attempt by Gov. DeSantis to rig congressional elections in favor of his own party.

Until Thursday, Florida, New Hampshire, and Missouri were the only three states that had not adopted post-2020 Census district maps.

Once DeSantis signs the map 425 of the 435 seats in the United States Congress will be reapportioned for 2022 elections.

According to analyses by FiveThirtyEight and MCI Maps, the governors map creates 20 congressional districts where Republican Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election and eight that voted for Democrat Joe Biden.

This has about as big of a Republican bias that Floridas congressional map could have  and darn close to the most egregiously partisan map in the country, FiveThirtyEight senior elections analyst Nathaniel Rakich wrote. This map will significantly shake up Floridas congressional delegation, as it virtually guarantees that Democrats will lose three of their House seats in Florida.

Republicans now hold a 16-11 Florida congressional delegation advantage. Under the new map, the 28-member delegation breaks down anywhere from a 17-11 to a 20-8 GOP advantage.

But the new map will have impacts beyond the Sunshine State.

According to reviews and updated trackers posted by FiveThirtyEight, MCI, Real Clear Politics, Politico, and Fox News, until Thursday, neither party stood to make significant gains nationally from reapportionment in securing the 218 seats necessary to hold the majority in Congress.

Varied analyses maintain redistricting nationwide thus far has created between eight-to-11 more Democratic-leaning seats, two-to-six fewer Republican-leaning seats, and significantly fewer competitive districts.

On April 7, Politicos classified the mapped 397 congressional seats as 183 being strong Biden, 153 being strong Trump, and 61 being competitive districts.

On April 4, FiveThirtyEights redistricting tracker indicated that of the 397 mapped districts there were 181 Democrat-leaning congressional districts, 182 Republican-leaning districts, and 34 highly competitive districts.

With Floridas new map, 189-191 seats would be strong Biden, with anywhere from 173 to 202 being strong Trump, depending on how competitive districts are defined in varied analyses.

DeSantis map would dissolve two districts now represented by Black Democrats  CD 5, represented by Rep. Al Lawson of Jacksonville, and CD 10, represented by Rep. Val Demings of Orlando, who is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio for his Senate seat in November.

DeSantis called state lawmakers back to Tallahassee for an April 19-22 special session to adopt his version of new congressional district maps after vetoing the map adopted by the Legislature in March.

Florida gained more than 2.7 million residents since the 2010 census, boosting its population to 21.54 million, a 14.6 percent increase, to gain one congressional district under the United States Census Bureaus 2020 Apportion Results , expanding its congressional delegation to 28 seats.

In January, the Senate adopted a reapportioned congressional district map that was regarded as fair enough for most Democrats to approve.

In March, the House adopted a far redder map version that would have created at least 15 slam-dunk Republican districts.

In both sets of maps, Republican legislators said the states Fair Districts amendment approved by voters in 2010 requires the preservation of a historically performing minority district in North Florida, Lawsons CD 5.

The Fair Districts amendment prohibits districts drawn to favor or disfavor a political party or candidate and prohibits the diminishment of minority communities ability to elect a representative of their choice.

Nevertheless, DeSantis threatened to veto whatever map the Legislature approved if it kept CD 5 as a historically performing minority district, claiming it violates the 14th Amendment by prioritizing race over compactness in drawing the district.

CD 5, which spans a 200-mile swath of eight counties from Jacksonville west to Tallahassee, has been held by a Black Democrat since 1993, including Lawson since 2017.

In response to the governors veto threat, lawmakers produced a revised map that made CD 5 a more compact Duval County-only district.

DeSantis still vetoed it as a racial gerrymander on March 24 and called for the special session.

Lawmakers did not propose any more maps and only accepted or rejected those submitted by DeSantis, which they did on Wednesday and Thursday.

In a March 29 memo to DeSantis, Governors Office General Counsel Ryan Newman spelled out what would likely be the states argument in anticipated legal challenges.

Newman said the maps drawn by the Legislature violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution because they include a racially gerrymandered districtCongressional District 5that is not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest.

The 14th Amendments Equal Protection clause was installed after the Civil War to give newly emancipated Black voters a voice in Congress.

CD 5 is a sprawling district that stretches approximately 200 miles from east to west and cuts across eight counties to connect a minority population in Jacksonville with distinct minority populations in Leon and Gadsden counties, he writes.

Not only is the old and reconfigured district not compact, it does not conform to usual political or geographical boundaries and is bizarrely shaped to include minority populations in western Leon County and Gadsden County while excluding non-minority populations in eastern Leon County, Newman continued.

While the Houses revised map was more compact, Newman said the reconfiguration has caused the adjacent district  CD 4  to take on a bizarre doughnut shape that almost surrounds CD 5 and, as such, the constitutional defect still exists.

Newman said the Legislatures maps may violate Sections 2 and 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, but DeSantis maps do not.

There is no good reason to believe that District 5 needed to be drawn as a minority-performing district to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) because the relevant minority group is not sufficiently large to constitute a majority in a geographically compact area, he wrote.

Newman acknowledged that the Legislatures maps were designed to conform to the Fair District amendment but that lawmakers interpreted on their own, albeit incorrectly, that the Florida Constitution requires a black minority seat in North Florida.

However, he also pointed out potential issues with the governors new map if, or when, it is challenged in court.

The only justification for drawing a race-based district in compliance with Article III, Section 20 (a) of the Florida Constitution. But District 5 does not comply with this provision under the Legislatures map, he wrote.

That passage states  districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice.

Newman said the section is modeled after the VRA but Relevant here is the Florida Constitutions non-diminishment requirement.

Under this, he writes, new maps cannot eliminate majority-minority districts or weaken other historically performing minority districts where doing so would diminish a minority groups ability to elect its preferred candidates.

Even if they violate the 14th Amendment as racially gerrymandered, the existing districts serve as a benchmark in assessing the effects of post-census apportionment, Newman said.

Where a voting change leaves a minority group less able to elect a preferred candidate of choice than the benchmark, that change violates the non-diminishment standard, he writes.

Thursdays House adoption of DeSantis map capped a week of agitation at the capitol with Democrats disrupting the chamber vote with two Black lawmakers staging a sit-in on the floor, noting with dark irony that DeSantis is saying the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause is racist.

I am occupying the Florida House chamber floors to ensure that Black people will not be forgotten. We are here to stay, said Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) during the floor protest. We are occupying the floor, were doing good trouble. Ron DeSantis is a bully, Ron DeSantis does not care about Black people.

Lawson issued a statement after the vote.

Florida House Democrats demonstrated courage today by protesting the DeSantis drawn map on the floor. They comprehend that this map violates the Voting Rights Act along with the U.S. and Florida Constitutions. Minority voters in Florida deserve congressional representation. It is astounding that someone tasked to lead the state is playing partisan politics for his own political aspirations.

Governor DeSantis is bullying the Legislature into drawing Republicans an illegitimate and illegal partisan advantage in the congressional map, and hes doing it at the expense of Black voters in Florida, Kelly Burton, the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in a tweet . This blatant gerrymander will not go unchallenged.

That first of those challenges came Friday when the League of Women Voters lawsuit was filed in the states Second Circuit Court in Tallahassee.

The League and the other plaintiffs have chosen to not stand by while a rogue governor and a complicit state Legislature make a mockery of Floridas Constitution and try to silence the votes and voices of hundreds of thousands of Black voters, LWV Florida President Cecile Scoon said. It is our belief the shameful refusal to protect the Florida Supreme Courts previously created Black districts will directly harm Black voting power established by Florida Supreme Court and harms every citizen in the state, regardless of race.

Floridas post-2010 Census map drafted in 2012 were debated for four years before the states Supreme Court adopted the current map. If legal challenges play out the same way a decade later, DeSantis reconfigured map will go before a Supreme Court he has reconfigured by appointing three of the panels seven jurists.
Guests wear masks as required to attend the official reopening day of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla, on, July 11, 2020. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Disney Has Lost $34 Billion in Value Since Embarking on Culture War With Florida

Disneys market cap has shrunk by nearly $34 billion since the company expressed its full-throated opposition to a Florida law banning instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools for kindergarten through third grade.

Florida lawmakers in March passed HB 1557, dubbed by opponents as the Dont Say Gay bill, which was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 28.

That same day, Disney waded deeply into the controversy, issuing a statement that was highly critical of HB 1557, saying it was the companys objective to have it repealed. From March 28, the day the company issued the statement, to April 22, Disneys market cap has fallen by roughly $33.9 billion.

Backers of the legislation say it gives parents more power around deciding how and when topics relating to LGBT issues can be introduced to their children. It also gives parents the opportunity to sue school districts for violations of the rules set out in the legislation.

Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards, the measure (pdf) reads.

DeSantis said on the day he signed the legislation that parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.

On the day DeSantis signed the measure, Disney issued a statement saying that Floridas HB 1557, also known as the Dont Say Gay bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.

Disney noted that it was the companys goal for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.

Disneys declaration of opposition to the bill prompted some parents groups to call for boycotts of the companys products, movies, theme parks, and shows.

Based on 1.82 billion outstanding shares and on the March 28 share price of $136.90, Disneys market cap stood at about $249.2 billion. With its shares having fallen to $118.27 on April 22, Disneys value as measured by market capitalization has declined to $215.3 billion, a drop of $33.9 billion.

On April 22, DeSantis signed a legislature-passed measure to dissolve Walt Disney Worlds self-governing status in Florida, with potential tax implications for the company.

DeSantis made reference on April 22 to Disneys pledge to have HB 1557 repealed.

I was very clear about saying, You aint influencing me. Im standing strong right here, he said. Incredibly, they say, We are going to work to repeal parents rights in Florida.

And Im just thinking to myself, youre a corporation based in Burbank, California, and youre going to marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state. We view that as a provocation, and were going to fight back against that.

Representatives for Disneys corporate office and Walt Disney World didnt respond to requests for comment by press time.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Downing Street Parties During Barbaric Lockdowns a Disaster, Conservative MP Says

Another senior Conservative MP revealed that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson over law-breaking gatherings during the CCP virus lockdowns.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker said the scandal has been a disaster that he fears will reap the whirlwind on polling day.

Since December last year, a series of media reports alleged that over a dozen rule-breaking gatherings had occurred during the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

Johnson was allegedly present at six gatherings and has so far been fined once by the police over a birthday get-together for him, along with his wife Carrie Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday apologised to Parliament for his denial of rule-breaking after the first allegations emerged, but Parliament on Thursday voted to note that his statements appear to amount to misleading the House [of Commons], and referred them to the Committee of Privileges so it can consider whether Johnsons conduct amounted to a contempt of the House.

Steve Baker MP, deputy chair of COVID Recovery Group, speaks to NTD outside No. 10, Downing Street, in London on Jan. 17, 2022. (Earl Rhodes/NTD)

Baker, a vehement opponent of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus restrictions, appeared to have been ready to forgive Johnson on Tuesday, saying the prime minister could not have made a more humble apology.

However, he had changed his mind soon after a meeting of Conservative backbenchers started that evening.

The problem is the contrition didnt last much longer than it took to get out of the headmasters study. By the time we got to the 1922 Committee meeting that evening, it was the usual festival of bombast and orgy of adulation. It took me about 90 seconds to realise he wasnt really remorseful, Baker told The Telegraph in an interview published on Friday.

The interview occurred on Thursday morning before the debate in Parliament on whether to refer the prime minister to the privileges committee for investigation.

During the debate, Bake praised Johnson for finishing the two jobs he had been given, namely getting Brexit done and defeating then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election.

He also said that removing a sitting prime minister is an extremely grave matter and an extremely big decision, and it tends to untether history.

All of us should approach such things with reverence, awe, and an awareness of the difficulty of doing it and the potential consequences, Baker said, before telling MPs that the prime minister should just know that the gig is up.

During the interview, Baker said Johnson had dealt with Ukraine brilliantly and is capable of rising to the gravest of international challenges, adding, but the vast majority of the expressed opinion in my constituency of Wycombe is fury.

He hit out at the CCP virus restrictions, under which people couldnt visit their dying family members in hospitals or nursing homes or attend funerals of family or friends.

People lived under barbaric rules. They were told that if they deviated one iota from the law they would kill people. And they suffered for it. Meanwhile in Number 10, where they should have been obeying both the letter and spirit of the rules, clearly they breached both. Its been a disaster and I fear we will reap the whirlwind on polling day, he said.

The Epoch Times has reached out the 10 Downing Street for comment.

The Metropolitan police said it will not provide updates on any further Partygate fines until after the local elections, which are set to be held on May 5, but Downing Street has indicated that it will still say whether Johnson or the Cabinet secretary are fined before the local elections.

Another internal investigation into the parties, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray, is expected to publish its report after the police investigation has concluded.
Graham Air Base

to close in DecemberGraham Air Base will close permanently when the local contract school ceases operation for the Christmas holidays in December, according to a release from the Secretary of the Air Force.

School officials were advised Thursday that under a new consolidated pilot training program Graham will be phased out along with five other primary training schools.

The shutdown of all the bases will be complete in March 1961, the released said.

It cost the Air Force nearly $4.2 million to run the Graham Base last year, while training 482 aviation cadets. Jackson County Floridan, Friday, April 22, 1960

Charges filed

against husband

in Graceville caseCharges of unlawful handling of firearms, and drunkenness were lodged against a Geneva, Alabama, man yesterday after he threatened his wife who was staying with her parents in Graceville, authorities say.

W.F. Thomas, Constable of the Graceville area, said that William Tate, 31, ripped a two-foot hole in the screen of the house where Mrs. Mary Helen Tate was staying after she left her husband.

Mr. Tate was carrying a double-barreled shotgun with which he had threatened to kill his wife, Thomas said.

Tate was arrested outside the home.Jackson County Floridan, Friday, April 22, 1960
Elon Musk's twitter account is seen on a smartphone in front of the Twitter logo in this photo illustration taken on April 15, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Elon Musk Creates 3 Holding Companies in Effort to Buy Twitter

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has created three Delaware-based holding companies in his recent bid to acquire Twitter, raising the possibility of a broader umbrella company for the investors numerous business interests.

These holding companies, named X Holdings I, X Holdings II, and X Holdings III, were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, stating that all three companies were established in order to acquire or merge with Twitter.

The naming convention revolving around the letter X is a perennial feature of Musks business enterprises. Musk launched his career on the success of X.com, which was merged with Confinity to form the company now known as PayPal in 2000, and he continued his loyalty to the 24th letter in the names of his aerospace startup SpaceX and the Tesla SUV Model X. The letter has even featured prominently in the names of Musks children, with the most infamous example being his son X  A-Xii Musk, for whom the letter stands alone as a legally given name.

The creation of these companies hints at the possibility of roping Musks business empire under a single umbrella company called X, a concept that the tech entrepreneur first floated in 2020.

CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks at the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing Cyber Rodeo grand opening party in Austin, Texas, on April 7, 2022. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)

At its most expansive, such a company would include Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, making for a diverse and multifaceted enterprise. At current levels, the other subsidiaries of this hypothetical umbrella corp would be dwarfed by Tesla, which is by far the most valuable of Musks business interests with a market cap of over 1 trillion dollars.

However, such an eclectic umbrella company is still a long way from fruition, as Musks takeover of Twitter remains an ongoing process with no guarantee of success.

Throughout the controversy, Musk has presented himself as a proponent of free speech, disillusioned with Twitters content moderation and censorship policies. Fears that a Musk takeover of Twitter could result in a more open information policy have galvanized the progressive left, who complain that Musks views about free speech would have a deleterious effect on women and minorities on the platform.

On Tuesday, Musk made further headlines in the ongoing battle over Twitter, when the electric car tycoon tweeted, _______ is the Night. Though cryptic, this statement is widely interpreted as a reference to F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel Tender is the Night, alluding to the concept of a tender offera proposal to buy shares of a company directly from stakeholders, bypassing the approval of the companys board of directors.

_______ is the Night  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022

Musk has largely attempted to keep his cards close to his chest through much of the acquisition process, notably refusing to elaborate upon his Plan B should the attempted acquisition of Twitter fail.

However, the South African-born entrepreneur has seemingly been unable to resist the temptation to drop hints as to his intentions. With the formation of the three aforementioned holding companies, Musk has provided what may be valuable information for assessing his future intentions in his ongoing struggle to acquire Twitter.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits a Tesla factory in Berlin on Aug. 13, 2021. (Patrick Pleul/Pool via Reuters)

Elon Musk Rebuffs Bill Gatess Climate Philanthropy Request in Scathing Text

Elon Musk has said he confronted fellow billionaire Bill Gates over the Microsoft founders supposed holding of roughly $500 million in Tesla shorts in a series of testy text messages in which Musk rebuffed Gatess request to discuss climate change philanthropy.

In an April 22 Twitter post, Musk confirmed the veracity of a text message exchange between him and Gates in which the Microsoft founder admitted he was short-selling shares of Tesla, meaning that he was betting on the stock dropping in price.

Do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla? Musk wrote in one of the messages, a screengrab of which was shared by the @WholeMarsBlog account on Twitter.

Sorry to say I havent closed it out, Gates reportedly replied, following it up with a request to discuss philanthropy possibilities.

Musk responded by saying he couldnt take Gatess proposal seriously if the latter was betting on a drop in Tesla shares.

Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change, Musk said.

The @WholeMarsBlog account posted a follow-up Twitter post to the screengrabs, tagging Musk and asking him whether the exchange was real.

Musk replied by confirming its accuracy, although he said he hadnt leaked it and that it must have gotten out through friends of friends.

I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so its not exactly top secret, Musk wrote.

Yeah, but I didnt leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends. I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so its not exactly top secret.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Gatess media relations team didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

Shadow Ban Council

In what appeared to be a fresh salvo in the apparent spat between the two billionaires, Musk posted a meme on Twitter on April 23 poking fun at Gatess physical shape, which he followed with another Twitter post suggesting that Twitter moderators were considering whether to take action.

Shadow ban council reviewing tweet  Musk wrote, along with an image of cloaked, shadowy figures apparently assembled for some kind of meeting.

Musk has repeatedly taken aim at Twitter for what he has described as the companys opaque moderation policies while questioning the platforms commitment to free speech.

He recently bought nearly 10 percent of the company and later offered to buy all remaining shares, saying he has plans to shake up the companys moderation policies, which have been accused of anti-conservative bias.

Twitter has repeatedly denied claims of censoring some minority and politically conservative viewpoints.

Musk told the audience at a TED talk in Vancouver, Canada, that his aim in seeking to buy Twitter was to transform it into an inclusive arena for free speech, taking it private and making it open-source for maximum transparency.

In my view, Twitter should match the laws of the country, Musk said, acknowledging reasonable legal caps on free speech, such as direct incitement to violence or the equivalent of crying fire in a movie theater.

But going beyond that and having it be unclear whos making what changes to where, having tweets mysteriously be promoted and demoted with no insight into whats going on, having a black box algorithm promote some things and not other things, I think this can be quite dangerous.

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.

Twitter has sought to block Musks takeover attempt, adopting a limited duration shareholder rights planoften referred to as a poison pill tacticto make it financially more painful for a potential acquirer.

Undeterred, Musk has taken further steps to buy Twitter, unveiling a $46.5 billion financing package, part of which would come from his assets, with the remainder coming from bank loans secured against the social media platforms assets.

Musk said earlier that he didnt care about the economics of the deal at all and that he was pressing ahead with plans to take over Twitter because he believes it has become a de facto town square thats important for democracy and for the function of the United States as a free country.
Technical installations of the Untergrundgasspeicher Bad Lauchstaedt underground natural gas storage facility of VNG Gasspeicher GmbH near Halle, Germany on April 20, 2022. (Stringer/Getty Images)

EU May Allow Gas Payments Under New Russian Ruble Exchange Decree Without Breaching Sanctions

The European Commission sent new guidance to its member states on April 21, admitting that it appears possible for European buyers of Russian gas to pay according to the terms of Moscows decree on ruble conversion without violating international sanctions.

Many European countries in the Euro bloc are heavily dependent on 40 percent of their energy needs from Russia, especially important economies like Germany.

There is widespread concern in European capitals, that the cut-off of supply of Russian gas will cause a major economic or even a serious political crisis.

On March 31, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree requiring countries sanctioning Russia over the war in Ukraine to purchase its gas in rubles instead of through dollars or Euros, through its new currency conversion system or risk having supplies suspended.

The guidance sent to member states provides a loophole for them to pay for Russian gas without being in conflict with EU law.

Brussels admitted that the new rules from Moscow acceptably amends the legal framework enough for supply contracts to be lawfully executed between Russian gas suppliers and Western importers, but with certain legal obligations for each EU-based company that does not specifically conflict with sanctions.

EU companies can ask their Russian counterparts to fulfil their contractual obligations in the same manner as before the adoption of the decree, i.e. by depositing the due amount in euros or dollars, according to the EC in the document.

The decree does not preclude a payment process which is in line with the EU restrictive measures. However, the procedure for derogations from the requirements of the decree is not clear yet.

The decree introduces a new payment procedure, whereby the deposition of euros or dollars on the suppliers account is no longer considered as fulfilment of the contractual obligations, said the memo.

Instead, euros or dollars received by EU companies need to be converted into rubles under the decree, and EU companies are only deemed to have fulfilled their contractual obligations once the conversion process has been successfully completed, and the payment has been made in rubles, it concluded.

Gazprom logo is seen on a gas processing column under construction at the Amur gas processing plant, part of Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in the Amur region, Russia on Nov. 29, 2019. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

According to the new Russian regulations, the Kremlin will allow the Russian Central Bank to carry out the currency exchange transactions linked to the banks assets and reserves, which is technically on paper prohibited under EU sanctions.

As the conversion process may take an undefined amount of time, during which time the foreign currency is entirely in the hands of the Russian authorities including the Central Bank, it may even be considered as a loan granted by EU companies, said Brussels.

Additionally, the EC also said current sanctions against Russia do not prohibit transactions with Gazprom or Gazprombank other than refinancing.

Likewise, they do not prohibit opening an account with Gazprombank. Such engagement or account, however, should not lead to the violation of other prohibitions, that the EC.

Meanwhile, the British government issued a temporary license on April 21, to allow the winding down of existing financial transactions with Gazprombank from the issuing of the contract until the end of May for natural gas imported into the EU.

The license issued by the U.K. Treasury is issued solely for the purpose of making gas available for use in the European Union.

In Washington, the White House said on April 22, that it is fully confident that Americas European allies are still determined to further maintain joint efforts to tighten oil and gas sanctions against Moscow.
Dollar for public dollar, the United States may have the worst health care system in the world

The number of COVID deaths in the United States dwarfs that of any other country. According to Statista.com, as of April 11, well over 1 million Americans have died. The United States is a large country, so a high number of deaths might be expected.

But the U.S. also ignominiously ranks in the top 10 in the number of deaths per capita, along with much poorer countries such as Chile and the Philippines, according to Johns Hopkinss Coronavirus Resource Center.

There are many reasons for Americas failure to help its citizens enjoy good health and avoid succumbing to COVID, but one thing is clear: Glaring systemic problems in the way we deliver health care in the United States are a big part of the problem.

America spends an enormous amount of money on health care. According to the Commonwealth Fund, health care in the United States is more expensive than anywhere else in the world, by a lot, with nearly 17 percent of the GDP spent on it. And that spending includes a huge amount of government funding, with the third-highest per-capita public health care expenditures in the world. That means that per person, the U.S. government spends more on health care than every country in the world except Germany and Norway.

And yet, despite that huge public investment, and then a significant private investment from employers and households, the United States has abysmal health statistics. A lack of health insurance, problems accessing care even when you do have insurance, and overtreatment plague our system.

Lack of Insurance Leads to Unnecessary Deaths

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine found that an average of 18,314 people between the ages of 25 and 64 die every year because they didnt have health insurance.

In 2008, researchers from the Urban Institute used the same method that the IOM had used and found that the number has risen to 22,000. Using another method these researchers thought was more accurate, they uncovered that the number of adults in America who died unnecessarily was closer to 27,000.

A 2009 study from Harvard Medical School, which analyzed data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveys, put the number closer to 45,000 annual deaths, with the uninsured being 40 percent more likely to die than those who were privately insured.

So how is it that while the United States is putting more tax dollars toward health care per-capita than Canada, Finland, or Sweden, it has thousands of deaths each year due to people being unable to afford health care? And that happens despite employers and individuals also paying huge sums on health care.

No Insurance, and a System Even Insured Cant Afford

At least 31 million people still dont have insurance. Thats partly because of the families that fall through the cracks, households that dont make enough money to pay out of pocket for health insurance but make too much money to qualify for state-funded care.

The median income for a family of four in 2008 was $67,019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Wages since then have only risen about 26 percent (to $84,443). Between monthly premiums of about $1,403 and deductibles of about $8,000 annually, the average family of four could expect to pay about $17,000 in 2019 for unsubsidized health insurance coverage, and up to $25,000 before they saw any real benefit from it. Thats hard enough for a median family to pay for. For the 50 percent of families that fall below the median, its all but impossible.

High health care costs are also frequently cited as the most common reason for personal bankruptcy filings. Its hard to get accurate data on that because people are not required to list a reason when they file for bankruptcy, but a 2015 study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about one-fifth of people with medical bill problems (about one-quarter of Americans aged 1864) declared bankruptcy at some point. According to a 2011 estimate from Debt.org, the average 65-year-old couple faces $275,000 in medical bills throughout retirement, despite Medicare coverage.

Aiden Ekanayakes family has health insurance. But after the 14-year-old received the second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, he began having chest pains. He was hospitalized with myocarditis (swelling of the heart muscle).

Since Aiden was discharged from the hospital, his mom has had to take him to endless rounds of doctor visits. Now, his family is facing thousands of dollars in hospital and doctor bills, despite having insurance, as reported by National Geographic.

Insured But Denied Coverage Anyway

Even if everyone were adequately insured, it wouldnt solve many of the problems inherent in the American medical system. Even when Americans have insurance, we face barriers to accessing care, several recent studies have found.

Insurance plans vary widely and generally contain lots of clauses, exceptions, and confusing language regarding procedures, medications, doctors, and hospitals that the plans will cover.

Many insurers make it a point to avoid paying claims as often as they can. This has been shown to be the case even with state-funded insurers that are purportedly not driven by profits, as a 2016 investigation I did for Jefferson Public Radio revealed about low-income pregnant women in Oregon being denied health care.

Doubtless, youve also experienced having your valid insurance claim unethically denied firsthand. I know I have.

After my mother had a stroke, we brought her back from the hospital in an ambulance to fulfill her explicit wish to die at home in Amherst, Massachusetts. But her insurance company refused to pay for the ambulance ride.

I had not only cleared it with her insurance beforehand by telephone, but I knew the exact page number in the written policy manual that indicated that the ambulance would be covered.

I fought the denial and won. But doing so caused a huge amount of stress during an already incredibly difficult time. And many people, especially those who are not health literate, dont know how to advocate for themselves or their loved ones in this way.

Insurance companies are also notorious for denying any treatment they can claim is experimental, even if the doctors recommending it consider it the standard of care. They will also often deny certain procedures outright with the justification that the procedure is elective, even when the procedure is medically indicated or even life-saving.

Thats what happened to Erika Giduturi. She was diagnosed with a rare cancer that affects the duct between the liver and small intestine. While the hospital cleared her for a life-saving liver transplant, her insurance provider refused to cover the operation, citing a bureaucratic technicality, Inside Edition reported in January.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that one in every seven insurance claims made under employer insurance plans is initially denied.

Insurance companies count on people either not knowing how to appeal these denials or not bothering to do the paperwork necessary to do so. The more hurdles placed in front of the claimants, the fewer who will try to clear them.

At the same time, a study from the Government Accountability Office found that when the denials are challenged, almost 50 percent are reversed.

Even when claimants are careful to choose a covered hospital and get pre-approval for a procedure, the doctor who performs the procedure may not be covered. A 2016 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 22 percent of patients who went to hospitals covered by their insurance company received bills from doctors who werent in their network.

The highest bill in the study was more than $19,000, but Michael Trost of Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, received a surprise bill for $32,325 from the cardiologist who had repaired his mitral valve.

Unnecessary Interventions

Just as troubling as necessary surgical and other procedures being unfairly denied, people with private insurance are often subjected to unnecessary surgery and other unneeded overly aggressive treatments.

That may be in part due to the culture in any given hospital, as well as the long lag time between new information and clinical changes (on average it takes 17 years for doctors to integrate research into a better standard of care). But its also true that the more surgeries are performed, the greater the income for a particular doctor, the doctors practice, and the hospital where the surgery is performed.

In his 2019 book, The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care and How to Fix It, Marty Makary explores how this provides a powerful incentive to perform surgery even when it isnt necessary or there are good, less invasive, alternatives.

Importantly, Makary doesnt think more public health care dollars will fix the problem. The real solution is transparency. Even after President Donald Trumps regulatory changes to ensure health care providers and insurers tell patients how much a service will cost before they get it, many patients still find it all but impossible to know beforehand what a procedure will cost. That makes it impossible to shop around and put the free market to use.

The result is that the United States, despite being a leader in medical advances and medical education in many health fields, is often providing taxpayers with the worst possible combination of a free market and government-funded health care plan.

That can lead to some disturbing phenomena in the delivery of medical care, including overtreatment.

Many surgeries popular with doctors and hospitals are for issues that can be often easily treated less invasively. Maybe youve even had one. These include:

Abdominal surgery for childbirth: at least 600,000 unnecessary C-sections are performed every year

at least 600,000 unnecessary C-sections are performed every year Arthroscopic surgery for knee pain: According to a 2020 article by Harvard Universitys Robert H. Shmerling, 750,000 knee operations are done each year at a cost of $4 billion but this surgery doesnt help most people who undergo it, and involves many risks

According to a 2020 article by Harvard Universitys Robert H. Shmerling, 750,000 knee operations are done each year at a cost of $4 billion but this surgery doesnt help most people who undergo it, and involves many risks Gall bladder surgery: a 2017 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology found that 70 percent of people who keep their gall bladders despite having acute pancreatitis had no future problems

How to Get Better Care

While individual consumers cant fix the broken system, there are things you can do to advocate for yourself and your loved ones to insure you get better, safer, and more necessary health care when you need it.

Interview Prospective Docs

When youre looking for a new doctor, dont just make an appointment for care. Most doctors offer free initial visits to prospective patients. This face-to-face meet-and-greet is your chance to interview your potential care provider and get a sense of whether your values are in alignment. Ideally, you will be able to find a doctor in your network who is on Team Health, not Team Money.

Always Get a 2nd Opinion

Youre in pain and you want to solve the problem quickly. But there may be better, safer, and less invasive options than what your doctor recommends and what your insurance is willing to cover. A 1982 study published in the journal Medical Care found that mandatory second opinions led to a 20 percent drop in the surgeries that are most likely to be performed unnecessarily, such as hysterectomies.

Arm Yourself With Information

Even if youve never picked up a book in your life, a health crisis is the perfect time to start reading and educating yourself. Books, especially those written by integrative medical doctors who combine the best of western medicine with insights from other modalities, can help you learn about your specific condition and how to treat it.

So, for example, if youre suffering from an autoimmune condition, get a copy of Amy Myerss 2015 The Autoimmune Solution out of the library. The late Robert Mendelsohns How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1984 and will help you keep your children healthy without going to the doctor. And Jerome Groopmans 2007 How Doctors Think will provide you with invaluable insight into whats going through your doctors head and how best to talk about your health conditions with clinicians.
Washington, Metropolitan Police officers run with civilians while one of the officers keeps his weapon trained on a nearby building as police evacuate people to safety at the scene of a reported shooting and active shooter near Edmund Burke Middle School in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, on April 22, 2022. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Gunman Takes Own Life After Wounding 4 Near Elite Washington Preparatory School, Police Say

WASHINGTONA gunman opened fire on random victims from a snipers nest in an apartment building near an elite prep school in the nations capital on Friday, wounding four people, before taking his own life as police closed in, officials said.

Police said the suspect, Raymond Spencer, 23, of suburban Fairfax, Virginia, was initially identified from video he had posted on social media that appeared to show gunshots fired from the vantage point of an upper-floor window, with the misspelled label: Shool shooting!

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee told a late-night news conference the video looks very much to be authentic, but it remained uncertain whether the footage was streamed live or had been posted after it was recorded.

Police had issued a bulletin with photographs of Spencer hours earlier saying they were seeking him as a person of interest in their investigation.

The shooting and manhunt paralyzed the upscale Van Ness neighborhood of northwest Washington next to the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory academy, just as classes were about to be dismissed for the day.

The school and other properties in the vicinity were placed under a security lockdown, with frightened students texting anxious parents as police mounted a door-to-door search for the suspect.

Various firearms are seen on a table at the apartment where the suspect of shooting near the Edmund Burke School was found dead, in Washington, on April 23, 2022. (DC Police Department Handout/Handout via Reuters)

With help from eyewitness reports, police managed to pinpoint the gunmans position to the fifth floor of a particular apartment building and ultimately breached the location where the suspect took his own life, Contee said.

Police seized more than half a dozen firearms, including several rifles, and large amounts of ammunition in the apartment, which had been arranged in a sniper-type setup with a tripod weapons mount, the chief said.

His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community, but investigators had yet to determine a motive, Contee said, adding that the gunman acted alone.

The four victims were shot at random as they were going about their business  on the streets of the District of Columbia, he told reporters.

Three people struck by gunfire were taken to area hospitalsa 54-year-old man and a woman in her mid-30s with severe wounds, and a 12-year-old girl wounded in the arm, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said during an earlier briefing.

A fourth victim, a woman in her mid-60s, was treated on the scene for a slight graze wound, Emerman said.

Eyewitnesses told Reuters and local media outlets they heard multiple bursts of rapid gunfire. Contee said at least 20 shots were fired.

By Chris Gallagher and Steve Gorman
Japan, Russia Reach Agreement on Fishing Quotas Amid Ukraine-Related Sanctions

Japan and Russia have reached an agreement on Tokyos fishing quotas for salmon and trout spawned in Russian rivers, despite Moscows anger over the spate of economic sanctions that Tokyo imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Japans Fisheries Agency said Saturday that the two countries agreed on Tokyos fishing quota of 2,050 tons of salmon and trout within its exclusive economic zone, with the agreement expected to be signed next week, Kyodo News reported.

Under the agreement, Japan will pay an annual cooperation fee of between 200 million yen ($1.56 million) to 300 million yen ($2.34 million) to Russia, depending on the eventual tonnage of the catch. A cooperation fee is paid to the country where the fish were spawned.

Japan requires Moscows permission to catch salmon and trout even within its exclusive economic zone, owing to a mutual agreement that vests the country of origin with fishing rights. Japan paid 260 million yen ($2.02 million) in a cooperation fee to Russia last year.

The country has imposed a slew of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, including sanctions targeting Putin and several other Russian leaders. It also restricted exports of certain goods to the country and banned Russian banks from the SWIFT global interbank network.

On April 12, Japans cabinet agreed to freeze the assets of 398 Russian individuals, including two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as those of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovs wife. This brings the total number of Russian individuals sanctioned by Japan to 499.

Japan said it will impose sanctions on 28 additional Russian organizations and two Russian banksSberbank and the Alfa-Bankwhich will take effect on May 12. It also banned imports of Russian alcoholic beverages, including vodka, machinery, and lumber products, with a total of 38 goods being subjected to the ban.

Russia placed Japan on its unfriendly nations list and suspended peace treaty talks with Japan in retaliation for Tokyos sanctions against its invasion of Ukraine, a decision Japan has strongly condemned.

On March 23, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan wont pull out from the Sakhalin-2 LNG project in the Russian Far East, saying that the project is extremely important to Japans energy security.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles, on Dec. 8, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

LA Deputy District Attorneys Lawsuit vs. Gascon Moving Forward

LOS ANGELESA lawsuit to issue an injunction against LA District Attorney George Gascon from hiring unqualified deputy public defenders is closer to setting a trial date, according to an April 20 ruling from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff.

The lawsuit, filed by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys in October of 2021, alleges Gascon hired three unqualified political cronies of the LA County Public Defenders office early last year who were political supporters of his election campaign in 2020.

The association claims it has standing to sue on behalf of its members who have  been adversely affected by Gascons unlawful promotion of unqualified public defenders rather than those who are qualified within their ranks.

A spokesperson for the association, which represents more than 800 deputy district attorneys in LA County, told The Epoch Times in an email that during this weeks hearing, Gascons counsel requested a trial date in December.

However, the judge was not receptive to that idea, according to association representative Eric Rose and instead set June 8 as the date to set the trial.

Gascon is facing a recall effort, which could potentially be on the Nov. 8 ballot, if petitioners gather 566,857 verified signatures by July 6.

The attorneys association is joined by several other organizations supporting Gascons recall, including the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

Gascons office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rep. Greene Testifies at Hearing Over Effort to Disqualify Her From Reelection Bid

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) appeared in an Atlanta courtroom on April 22 in response to a lawsuit by a left-wing activist group that claims shes constitutionally ineligible to hold office because of her comments on and after Jan. 6, 2021.

Greene is accused of having played a part in the 2021 Capitol breach, which some people have described as an insurrection. She has denied any involvement.

Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, brought the action against Greene because of a section of the 14th Amendment that deals with insurrection or rebellion.

Under the 14th Amendment, one of three Civil War amendments that Southern states were forced to ratify to reenter the Union, those who served with the Confederacy or otherwise rebelled against the federal government were made ineligible for most federal offices.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress  or hold any office, civil or military  who, having previously taken an oath  to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof, the text of the amendment reads.

This is a rare action and, in fact, it hasnt happened for over 150 years because insurrections against the United States, let alone insurrections in which members of Congress were involved is a very rare phenomenon, Fein said before the hearing.

But Marjorie Taylor Greene crossed the line, and she met the legal standard for engaging in insurrection, which, under our Constitution, means that she is disqualified from future public office.

In the complaint asking for Greene to be disqualified from running for reelection, petitioners alleged that Greene had aided and engaged in an insurrection.

Opening Statement

In his opening statement, James Bopp, Greenes legal counsel, rejected the complainants characterization of Greenes statements and actions in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

This is a court of law, Bopp said in his opening statement, referencing the politicization of the hearing. This is not a place for hyperbole, this is not a place for political smears.

Words matter here, he said.

The decision reached in the case, Bopp said, has very broad ramifications for the rights of Representative Greene, the voters in her district, and our democracy.

Those bringing the complaint, he said, want to remove the right to vote from thousands of people living in the 14th district of Georgia by having Greene removed from the ballot.

Voters have the right to vote for the candidate of their choice, Bopp said. And they have the right to have their vote counted.

Instead of the 14th Amendment, Bopp said, the issue is actually a First Amendment question; under those standards, he contended, Greenes speech was entirely legal and protected under the law.

While he said some of Greenes past statements have been hyperbole, he insisted that her statements were well within the bounds of her right to free political speech.

Speaking against the certification of the election alone is political speech and should be protected, he said.

1776

During another section of the hearing, Fein seemed to tie support for the American Revolution to support for Jan. 6, and he asked her a long string of questions during which he described the American Revolution as an insurrection, echoing terms that some have used to describe the events of Jan. 6.

The Declaration of Independence describes King George as a tyrant, right? Fein asked, to which Greene responded in the affirmative.

And you would agree that when a government acts tyrannically, then its unfit to be the ruler of a free people, right? Fein continued.

Were typically against tyrannical governments, yeah, Greene replied.

You know that the American Revolution was a violent rebellion against British rule? Fein asked. And they were trying to overthrow the government in Britain that was ruling the colonies, is that right?

Yes, Greene said, adding America was trying to start our own government.

That was an insurrection, wouldnt you agree? Fein asked.

I dont know where it said that, Greene replied. I believe the American Revolution is a part of our history where we separated from the crown and started our own government.

And the separation was brought about by violence, yeah? Fein asked.

There was a revolutionary war, yes, Greene answered.

And the colonists were justified in using violence to get rid of the tyrannical government in Britain, right? Fein asked.

I assume so, Greene said. It was a revolutionary war, it was violent.

Fein then linked the two by playing a clip of Greene speaking on Fox News from around the same time in which she referenced the Declaration of Independence, when speaking about the events of Jan. 6.

If you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants, Greene said at the time.

In that statement we looked at, youre comparing the overthrow of the British Crown in America to 1776, Fein asserted.

However, the statement was cut off, causing Greene to express concerns over its accuracy.

Later, Fein rounded out his argument, contending that Greenes reference to the documents and ideals of the American Revolution, including a tweet prior to Jan. 6 reading 1776, showed that she supported political violence.

Earlier in the hearing, Fein was even more explicit in tying the two together, suggesting that Greenes 1776 tweet was a codeword for insurrection.

The day before the attack, she signaled to her followers a codeword that meant to storm federal buildings and supposedly overthrow tyrants, Fein told MSNBC on April 20.

Speaking on her use of the term 1776, Greene said, I have used it as a term, but I do not use it as a term of violence, as youre trying to push.

In a tweet attached to a photo of the front of the courthouse, which had 1776 on a placard, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who arrived at the courtroom unexpectedly on April 22, mocked Feins efforts to tie the two together.

This seal hangs over the Georgia Courthouse hearing the MTG matter, Gaetz said. Note the 1776 date. Why would such an idol to insurrection be allowed here?

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) also blasted Fein for the line of questioning.

The radical Left now thinks that mentioning the year 1776 automatically makes you a supporter of the events that transpired on Jan. 6, Biggs said. Their logic would mean that Americans who celebrate the Fourth of July are also supporters of the events that occurred on Jan. 6.

The lawyer arguing this frivolous case against Representative Greene is clueless and is unjustly smearing her. The irony of this all is that the year 1776 is featured on the state seal in the very courtroom where the proceedings are occurring.

McCarthy, Other Republicans Defend Greene

Throughout the trial, many prominent Republicans defended Greene in tweets and other statements.

President Donald Trump in a statement blasted high-level GOP officials in the state for allowing the hearing to proceed.

The Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, perhaps in collusion with the Radical Left Democrats, have allowed a horrible thing to happen to a very popular Republican, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump wrote. She is now going through hell in their attempt to unseat her.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called the effort undemocratic in a tweet, suggesting that it was a cheap effort to remove Greene from the ballot over the heads of voters.

American voters should determine who represents them in Congress, not well-funded political activists, McCarthy wrote, adding that [the] case against Rep. Taylor Greene is undemocratic & un-American.

In another tweet, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)who has been the focus of similar effortswrote, The left is trying to remove patriots like @RepMTG and me from the ballot. We expect them to act like that.

Gaetz also commented on Twitter after he arrived, saying, Im here in Atlanta to support Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene against the assault on democracy that is this effort to remove her from the ballot.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona also wrote in defense of Greene.

The Radical Lefts smear campaign of @RepMTG is unacceptable, Biggs said. Preventing voters in #GA14 from deciding who their elected representative is does not protect our democracy. I stand with MTG!

Nick Adams, a conservative political commentator, said in a tweet: Liberals cant beat Marjorie Taylor Greene at the polls so they have to try to kick her off the ballot with trumped up charges.

State Judge Charles Beaudrot, who presided over the all-day hearing, asked both sides to submit briefs by midnight on April 28, and said he would try to complete his findings within a week after that. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, will then take Beaudrots findings and decide whether Greene is eligible for the May 24 primary.

The hearing was broadcast live on C-SPAN, a fact that Greene criticized earlier this week.

Theyre going to allow the press in the courtroom. Theyre going to allow the whole thing to be videoed live and go anywhere in the world they want to, Greene said in a video posted to social media. You know what thats going to look like? The Democrats and the nasty mainstream media, the ones who lie about me constantly anyways, theyre going to be able to twist and turn and clip out any little piece they want of these horrible things that these funded attorneys are going to try to say about me.
RussiaUkraine War (April 23): Russia Destroys US and EU Weapons Delivered to Ukraine, Moscow Says

The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, April 23. Click here for updates from April 22.

Russia Destroys US and EU Weapons Delivered to Ukraine, Moscow Says

The Russian defense ministry said it used high-precision missiles on Saturday to destroy a logistics terminal in the Black Sea port city of Odesa where a large number of weapons supplied by the United States and European nations were being stored.

It also said Russian forces had killed up to 200 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 30 vehicles on Saturday.

In Odesa, at least eight people were killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings, and two more were destroyed on Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces said.

The death toll could not be independently verified. The last big strike on or near Odesa was in early April.

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Blinken, Austin to Visit Kyiv and Hold Talks with Zelenskyy

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said Saturday.

The U.S. top diplomat and Pentagon chief will hold talks with Zelenskyy and discuss what kinds of weapons are to be provided to Ukraine to confront the Russian offensive, the Ukrainian leader said during a press conference.

The visit was announced after President Joe Biden add an extra $800 million in military aid to Ukraine.

Read the full article here

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Russia Investigates Media Report on Presence of British SAS Special Forces in Ukraine

Russias top state investigative body said on Saturday it was looking into a Russian media report alleging that sabotage experts from Britains Special Air Service (SAS) have been deployed to western Ukraine.

The SAS is an elite military force trained to conduct special operations, surveillance, and counter-terrorism. Russias RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday quoted a Russian security source as saying about 20 SAS members had been sent to the Lviv region.

In a statement, the Investigative Committee said it would follow up on the report that they had been sent in to assist the Ukrainian special services in organizing sabotage on the territory of Ukraine.

The British Ministry of Defense had no immediate comment on the Russian investigation in response to a Reuters request.

Britain said it sent military trainers to Ukraine earlier this year to instruct local forces in using anti-tank weapons but the British government said on Feb. 17a week before Russias invasionthat it had pulled out all troops except those needed to protect its ambassador.

It was not clear what steps the Investigative Committee planned to take in response to any SAS involvement in Ukraine. But the investigation into the possible presence of forces from a NATO country is significant, given that Russia has issued warnings to the West not to get in the way of its special military operation in Ukraine.

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Russian Space Chief Warns of Possible Trigger for World War III

An attack against a spacecraft could usher in the next global war, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russias national space agency Roscosmos, said on Saturday.

One must keep in mind that the destruction of a foreign spacecraft means World War III. Its a casus belli, and theres no doubt about that, Rogozin said, using a Latin term for a formal legal reason to start a war.

Rogozin was commenting on Washingtons decision to stop conducting anti-satellite missile tests. Announcing the move on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris called the destruction of satellites during such tests reckless and irresponsible because it leaves dangerous space debris.

The Roscosmos chief, however, argued that the United States is now pretending to be doves because it had already conducted all the necessary tests. This move should, therefore, be strictly viewed as propaganda, he said.

Rogozin argued that the Boeing X-37, an unmanned U.S. shuttle-like spacecraft currently orbiting the Earth, could potentially be used for spying and carrying weapons of mass destruction. He said that a proposal by Russia and China to sign a treaty banning the placement of weapons in outer space was met with dead silence in Washington.

The stationing of weapons of mass destruction in outer space has been internationally banned since 1967.

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General Accuses Boris Johnson of Disclosing Military Secrets

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is tempting evil with his statements about the training of Ukrainian troops abroad amid the conflict with Russia, Polish General Waldemar Skrzypczak, who advises the defense minister, said on Friday.

During a visit to India earlier this week, Johnson told journalists that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of anti-aircraft defense, and actually in the UK in the use of armored vehicles.

Skrzypczak, who headed one of the multinational divisions in Iraq in the mid-2000s, told Polish newspaper Fakt that when we were on missions abroad it was hard to imagine that one of the politicians would talk about our plans or training on television.

By making the comments, Johnson reveals military secrets to Russia, the general said. Training is a military matter and must be kept under wraps. The man should  think before saying such things.

The former commander of Polands land forces called the prime ministers behavior extremely irresponsible, warning that it could lead to disastrous consequences.

The prime minister may not be aware of this, but with such statements he endangers the success of the entire military operation, as well as the safety of soldiers, Skrzypczak said.

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Russia to Deploy Sarmat Missiles by Autumn in Historic Nuclear Upgrade

Russia said on Saturday it plans to deploy its newly tested Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles by autumn.

The target stated by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency, is an ambitious one as Russia reported its first test-launch only on Wednesday and Western military experts say more will be needed before the missile can be deployed.

The Sarmat is capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads and decoys, and of striking targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe.

This weeks test, after years of delays due to funding and technical issues, marks a show of strength by Russia at a time when the war in Ukraine has sent tensions with the United States and its allies soaring to their highest levels since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Rogozin said in an interview with Russian state TV that the missiles would be deployed with a unit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, about 3,000 km (1,860 miles) east of Moscow.

He said they would be placed at the same sites and in the same silos as the Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles they are replacing, something that would save colossal resources and time.

The launch of the super-weapon was a historic event that would guarantee the security of Russias children and grandchildren for the next 30 to 40 years, Rogozin added.

Western concern about the risk of nuclear war has increased since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 with a speech in which he pointedly referred to Moscows nuclear forces and warned that any attempt to get in Russias way will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.

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Japan, Russia Reach Agreement on Fishing Quotas Amid Ukraine-Related Sanctions

Japan and Russia have reached an agreement on Tokyos fishing quotas for salmon and trout spawned in Russian rivers, despite Moscows anger over the spate of economic sanctions that Tokyo imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Japans Fisheries Agency said Saturday that the two countries agreed on Tokyos fishing quota of 2,050 tons of salmon and trout within its exclusive economic zone, with the agreement expected to be signed next week, Kyodo News reported.

Under the agreement, Japan will pay an annual cooperation fee of between 200 million yen ($1.56 million) and 300 million yen ($2.34 million) to Russia, depending on the eventual tonnage of the catch. A cooperation fee is paid to the country where the fish were spawned.

Read the full article here

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Ukraine President Spoke With UKs Johnson About New Phase of Military Aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about a new phase of military aid, including the provision of heavy weapons, the presidents deputy chief of staff Andriy Sybiga said on Saturday.

Speaking on national television, Sybiga said the pair also talked about further financial support for Ukraine on the call.

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Zelenskyy: Allies Finally Delivering Weapons Kyiv Asked For

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said allies were finally delivering the weapons that Kyiv had asked for, adding the arms would help save the lives of thousands of people.

In a late-night video address, Zelenskyy also said comments earlier in the day by a Russian commander about the need to link up with Moldova showed Moscow wanted to invade other countries.

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Ukraine: Missile Attack Kills 5 in Odesa

An adviser to Ukraines president says five people were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

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US Warns Russia of Astronomical Nuclear Price

Russia would pay an astronomical price should its President Vladimir Putin order the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, said on Friday amid the ongoing Russian offensive.

In an interview for the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, Nuland was asked to assess the possibility of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons. She responded that she could not rule out such a catastrophic scenario as Putin has already ordered what, she alleged, were brutal war crimes, and the world must be prepared for the worst. At the same time, Nuland stressed, the consequences of such steps would be catastrophic for Russia and for Putin personally.

She refused to provide any details about the potential response from the West, saying instead that use of nuclear weapons would take the situation to a fundamentally new level where the price will be simply astronomical.

Asked by a journalist if Kyiv can rely on its Western partners support in a worst-case scenario, Nuland reassured Ukraine that it would not be left alone. Meanwhile, the under secretary of state said, the United States would continue to provide Ukraine with military assistance. She revealed that Washington has begun supplying Kyiv with multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and would do its best to keep up with Ukraines needs.

Nulands strongly-worded warnings came just two days after the Pentagon said that at this point it does not see a need to change the countrys nuclear posture. The U.S. Department of Defense spokesmans statement followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys claims that Moscow could use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

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Pentagon Seeking Info From US Industry on Ukraine-Ready Systems

The Pentagon is looking for new avenues for U.S. industry to accelerate production and build more capacity for proven, effective weapons that require minimal training and can be rapidly exported to Ukraine, according to a government website posting on Friday.

The Department of Defense posted a request for information on SAM.gov that had an initial response deadline of May 6 and sought information on weapons or commercial capabilities related to air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense, counter battery, unmanned aerial systems, and communications like radios or satellite internet.

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Germany Should Stop Sending Weapons to Ukraine: Public Figures

Further military aid to Ukraine would only lead to an uncontrollable escalation of hostilities and prolong the suffering of the people caught up in the fighting, a group of German politicians and public figures have warned Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an open letter. By providing arms to Kyiv, Germany and other NATO nations have de facto made themselves a war party, the letter published by the Berliner Zeitung on Friday has said.

The co-authors of the letter, which include the ex-vice president of the Bundestag, Antje Vollmer, and a former U.N. assistant secretary general, Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck, have said that Ukraine has become the battlefield for the conflict between NATO and Russia over the security order in Europe, which is now waged at the expense of the Ukrainian people.

If the conflict is not stopped quickly, it will end up in another big war similar to Word War I, the letter warns, adding that this time nuclear weapons might be used, bringing widespread devastation and the end of human civilization. Avoiding further destruction and escalation should be an absolute priority, it adds.

The co-authors, who also include a former German MP, Norman Paech, as well as an ex-director of the Center for Conflict Research in Marburg, Johannes Becker, maintain that NATOs military support only delays a diplomatic solution, fueling the resistance of the Ukrainian army that has little chance of winning. Instead, steps to end the bloodshed must be taken, they argue.

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Russia Reveals Crew Losses From Sunken Warship

At least one person was killed and another 27 are missing after the Moskva, the flagship of Russias Black Sea fleet, sunk earlier this month, according to Russian state media.

Another 396 crew members were evacuated to nearby ships and sent on to Sevastopol, a city in Crimea, Russias TASS news agency reported. The Russian government, as of Tuesday, had not previously acknowledged any casualties.

The Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, sunk on April 14, though the cause remains disputed.

Ukraine says it hit the Moskva with anti-ship cruise missiles, which sparked a fire that detonated stored ammunition. The Moskva was armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as torpedoes, naval guns, and missile defense systems, meaning it would have had massive amounts of explosives aboard.

Russias Defense Ministry, however, says a fire of unknown origin detonated the ammunition and the resulting explosions left the Moskva with structural damage. It says the warship then sank amid rough seas as it was being towed to a nearby port.

Photos and a short video clip emerged early Monday on social media showing the Moskva badly damaged and on fire in the hours before it sank. The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and significant scarring just above the waterline on the port (left) side in the middle of the vessel. The Kremlin on Monday said it had seen the photos of the Moskva but that they could not verify them.

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Ukraine: Russians Trying to Storm Steel Mill

An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed airstrikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

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Lviv Announces Curfew Starting Easter Night

Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

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Civilian Evacuation Effort Set for Mariupol

Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children, and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

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US Convening Talks on Ukraines Defense Needs

The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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Russia Says Ukrainian Fighters Securely Blockaded at Mariupol Steel Plant

Russias defense ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries had been securely blockaded at the Azovstal steel plant where they have been holding out in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

President Vladimir Putin had ordered his defense minister on Thursday to block off the vast Azovstal complex so not even a fly can get through rather than try to storm it.

The defense ministry also said Russia had hit dozens of targets in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine on Friday.

All remnants of the Ukrainian Azov Nazis, together with foreign mercenaries from the United States and European countries, are securely blockaded on the territory of the Azovstal plant, the ministry said in a statement.

The Nazis are ignoring our demands to release the women and children allegedly with them to travel freely in any direction.

Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 with the stated aim of demilitarizing and denazifying the country.

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Ukraine Says Shelling of Eastern Luhansks Cities Intensifying

All the Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern region of Luhansk were being shelled by Russian forces on Saturday and the barrage was intensifying, the regions governor Serhiy Haidai said on television.

He claimed Ukrainian forces were leaving some settlements there in order to regroup, but that the move did not amount to a critical setback. Russia denies targeting civilian areas.

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UK Claims Russian Forces Made No Major Gains in the Last 24 Hours

Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours despite increased activity, as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts, British military intelligence claimed on Saturday.

Despite Russias claimed conquest of the port city of Mariupol, heavy fighting continues to frustrate Moscows attempts to capture the city, impeding their progress in the Donbas region, the Ministry of Defence claimed on Twitter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

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Kyiv Accuses Moscow of Imperialism After Russia Flags Interest in South Ukraine

Moscow wants to take full control over southern Ukraine, a Russian general said on Friday, a statement Ukraine said gave the lie to Russias previous assertions that it had no territorial ambitions.

Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Minnekayevs statement showed Russias invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning.

On Twitter, Ukraines defense ministry said Russias goal of the second phase of the war is simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined specific comment on Minnekayevs statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldovas sovereignty and was clear-eyed about events on the ground. No one should be fooled by the Kremlins announcements, Porter said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked if Russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how Moscow saw the political future of southern Ukraine.

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Russia Says It Shot Down Ukrainian Fighter Jet in Kharkiv Region

Russias defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet and destroyed three MI-8 helicopters at an airfield in Ukraines Kharkiv region.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine regarding the Russian claims.

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G20 Cannot Function With Russia at the Table, Canada Claims

The Group of 20 major economies cannot effectively function as long as Russia remains a member, Canadas finance minister claimed on Friday after a week of protests against Moscows war in Ukraine at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington.

Discord over Russias presence at the meetings has been on display all week, with officials from the United States, Canada, Britain, and other Western countries staging walkouts three days in a row whenever Russian officials spoke.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, who met in Washington on Wednesday, failed to agree on its traditional communique outlining economic policy goals as Russia blocked language condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

The IMF steering committee and the World Bank-IMF Development Committee also failed to issue joint statements.

The G20 cant function effectively with Russia at the table, Chrystia Freeland, Canadian minister of finance who is of Ukrainian descent, told a news conference with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko in Washington.

The tensions have called into question the effectiveness of the G20, which includes Western countries that have accused Moscow of war crimes in Ukraine, as well as China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, which have not joined Western-led sanctions against Russia over the conflict.

This years G20 host country Indonesia is still optimistic that progress can be made on a number of issues despite the tensions, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters in an interview.

Even with a walk out, we all agree on the substance of work that needs to be done, Indrawati said.

Indrawati said she is more focused on grassroots technical work underlying issues such as strengthening a G20 common debt framework for poor countries, and creating a new financing mechanism for future pandemic needs, than issuing a communique at the present stage.

With other G20 finance meetings scheduled for July and October and a leaders summit in November, Indrawati said there was ample time to continue progress.

If there is no forum at all, then the world is going to be in a much worse place, with each country setting policy without regard for others.

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Russia Says It Plans Full Control of Donbas and Southern Ukraine; Moldova Summons Russian Ambassador

Russia plans to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine during the second phase of what it calls its special military operation, the deputy commander of Russias central military district said on Friday, reported Russian news agencies.

The Interfax and TASS news agencies cited him as saying that full control of southern Ukraine would improve Russian access to Moldovas pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine.

Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to Transdniestria, where there is also evidence that the Russian-speaking population is being oppressed, TASS quoted Minnekayev as saying at a meeting in Russias central Sverdlovsk region.

Moldovas foreign ministry said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to express deep concern about the remarks.

These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic of Moldova, it said on its website.

During the meeting, it was reiterated that the republic of Moldova  is a neutral state and this principle must be respected by all international actors, including the Russian Federation.

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Ukraine: Russian Offensive Continues in East

The Ukraine militarys general staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker, and three artillery systems, the general staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived in Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

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UN Chief to Meet Putin and Zelenskyy Next Week

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet Russias President Vladimir Putin and then head to Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Guterres will head to Moscow on Tuesday and meet Putin as well as having a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Eri Kaneko, Guterres associate spokesperson, told a news briefing in New York on Friday.

He hopes to talk about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine urgently, Kaneko said.

He will meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and staff at UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance efforts, the U.N. spokespersons office said in a statement.

Aldgra Fredly, Allen Zhong, CNN, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Visitors walking their dogs across the U.S. Supreme Court Plaza on Capitol Hill on Feb. 22, 2022. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Man Who Set Himself on Fire in Front of Supreme Court Dies

The male who set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court has died, the Metropolitan Police said on April 23.

Authorities identified the man as 50-year-old Wynn Bruce from Boulder, Colorado, and said he died from the injuries after he set himself on fire.

A police report states that Wynn lit himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court at about 6:30 p.m. on April 22. He was airlifted to a local hospital after the incident.

Supreme Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe told media outlets in a statement that the event took place on the plaza in front of the Supreme Court building.

The Supreme Court Police, U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police had responded to the incident. No one else was injured.

There was no threat to public safety, McCabe told media outlets.

The area remains closed for further investigation, but this is not a public safety issue, she said in a statement.

The U.S. Capitol is located across the street from the Supreme Court.

Washington police cruisers parked on K Street in McPherson Square, Washington, on Feb. 5, 2012. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)

The incident comes after a shooting in Washington, where at least four people were hit.

Police said the suspect was found dead hours later inside a residence in the area of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness Street in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington.

The identity of the suspect wasnt released.

Police believe the man erected a sniper-type setup with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

A shelter-in-place order was issued after the shooting and was lifted at roughly 9:30 p.m. after the suspect was found dead.

The four victims of the shooting include a 54-year-old man whos a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm.

Theyre all expected to recover, police said.

Gabrielle Stephenson and The Associated Press contributed to the report.
The logo for McDonald's restaurant is seen in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 27, 2022. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

McDonalds Calls Icahn Demands on Sourcing Pigs Unfeasible, Expensive

BOSTONMcDonalds Corp. on Thursday said Carl Icahns call for the fast food chain to stop buying pork from suppliers that house the animals in crates would be logistically unfeasible and prohibitively expensive.

The billionaire investor, who owns roughly $50,000 worth of McDonalds stock, is pushing the company to change how it sources its pork and has nominated two directors to the companys board to help monitor progress on the issue.

He has said confining pigs in crates during their pregnancy is inhumane and McDonalds pledged a decade ago to stop buying pork from suppliers that use the crates by the end of this year.

McDonalds said in a statement that it cares about the health and welfare of the animals in its supply chain but objected to Icahns calls for new commitments.

What Mr. Icahn is demanding from McDonalds and other companies is completely unfeasible, McDonalds said in the statement. It added that Icahns campaign has one certain outcome: a greater financial burden on customers.

McDonalds said that it would require at least 300400 times the animals housed today in crate-free systems to keep its supply chain running.

McDonalds was responding to a letter Icahn sent to the companys shareholders on Thursday morning in which he called on the fast-food chain to become an ESG leader in the restaurant and food service industry by setting verifiable targets for improved animal welfare objectives in areas where the company currently exhibits grave shortfalls.

Icahn urged fellow investors to back his two board nominees. Investors will vote at the companys annual meeting on May 26.

McDonalds said in its statement that Icahn seeks to replace two current directors with single-platform nominees that not only lack public company board experience, but also the expertise and qualifications to add meaningful value to the majority of issues regularly faced by the McDonalds board.
Students walk to their classrooms at a public middle school in Los Angeles on Sept. 10, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

More Secret Gender Transition Closets Discovered in Public Schools

Groups fear parents are being kept in the dark

They started in colleges, but trans closetsrooms stocked with transgender clothes and accessories for students to change into after arriving at school and back out of before going homeare being discovered in public schools, with some indication that theyre being kept secret from parents.

In a recent TikTok video, a California teacher implies that the trans closet he started at the high school where he works is meant to be kept from parents.

The goal of the transition closet is for our students to wear the clothes that their parents approve of, come to school, and then swap out into the clothes that fit who they truly are, the teacher said.

The California Family Council and others eventually confirmed the identity of the teacher as Oakland Unified School District Spanish teacher Thomas Martin-Edwards, whos also the founder of Queer Teacher Fellowship.

Martin-Edwards, the teacher who runs the trans closet, is also transgender. He has posted videos of himself in the classroom showing off the stilettos he wears to school.

Neither Martin-Edwards, a former assistant principal in another school district, nor the school responded to inquiries by The Epoch Times about the trans closet.

This is [an] example of the deceit schools are deliberately using to carry out a growing transgender movement in public schools behind the backs of parents, California Family Council, a Christian conservative group, wrote on its website. In addition to gender ideology madness, this school is teaching children that it is acceptable to defy their parents.

California Family Council first discovered the trans closet through a Facebook posting by a nonprofit group that calls itself The Transition Closet.

On its Facebook page, The Transition Closet stated that its working with one of the districts high schools to create a trans closet, posting, We are extremely excited to begin our journey in working with Fremont High School of Oakland, California, along with our favorite teacher of TikTok/@justaqueerteacher.

Amare Roush, founder of The Transition Closet, told The Epoch Times that her organization does support keeping the existence of trans closets at schools secret from parents, because of the abuse she says children often face at home if they disclose to their parents that theyre transgender.

We do provide a safe space for kids whose parents are not accepting, because its known to help lower the suicide rate, said Roush, whos also a certified advocate for domestic violence victims. These kids are going to do it anyway; we just want a way to provide them with a way to do it safely to where theyre not wearing clothes that are too small for them or doing so in a way thats going to get them hurt by their parents.

Roush emphasized that school was the best venue to provide trans kids with trans clothing.

Kids are at schools 40 hours a week; thats where they spend most of the time; thats where they form most of their relationships, she said. Clothing is a big part of how we express ourselves, and those kids that are able to express themselves correctly are able to feel supported correctly.

Another trans closet, operated out of the Denver Conservatory Green Middle School in Colorado, was also the subject of recent posts on social media. A Twitter post about it ignited a flurry of messages slamming the school for encouraging transgenderism among students as young as 12 years old.

This is grooming, one Colorado man wrote on Twitter. Police should come to the classroom and arrest whoever the teacher is in this classroom.

The Denver school also didnt respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times.

The original post about the Denver trans closet was made by Buy Nothing Central Park and refers to the closet for transgender students as being started at our school. It also asks for clothing for the trans closet to be dropped off at the school.

Megan Fox, a freelance columnist for PJ Media and co-host of the weekly YouTube show Weekly Family Court Corruption Update, recently raised $1,650 through GoFundMe.com to pay for documents relating to the trans closet at a Colorado school.

Fox recently wrote in her column that the school told her that she had to pay $1,650 to obtain the documents, which she requested via the Freedom of Information Act. According to Fox, the school said the bill was based on 55 hours of staff time at $30 per hour to fulfill her request.

On its website, The Transition Closet stated that the near future holds transition closet[s] and services throughout the school district for students of the Trans/Nonbinary/Intersex and additional LGBTQIA+ community members.

Roush said her organization is working with other schools in the United States to start trans closets and that her organization currently runs them at churches of several denominations, including Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Methodist.

For the California school trans closet, the Arkansas-based group also includes contact information linked to the website ValidByBrodie.com, which includes a start your own closet section for students, teachers, and school administrators.

It has also adopted the slogan when [youre] ready to come out of the closet, step into ours and has an online shop that includes a variety of transgender accessories. It also sells transgender workbooks for teens and runs online name change clinics.

Roush emphasized that transgender accessories are never supplied to minors without a parents permission.

She said transgender kids can end up physically hurting themselves by using duct tape instead of transgender accessories to hide their genitals.

Nobody would ask for this; we are just trying to ease the transition of kids that are dealing with this, she said.

Her group also works with colleges to establish transition closets.

Marshall University, the University of Arkansas, Penn State, and the University of California are among colleges that have been operating trans closets for years.
People participate in a rally at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 11, 2016, as the court heard arguments in the 'Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association' case. The justices were to hear arguments in a case that challenges the right of public-employee unions to collect fees from teachers, firefighters and other state and local government workers who choose not to become members. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

NEA Pays Lavish Salaries to Headquarters Officials, Spends Only 5.4 Percent of Its Revenue Representing Teachers

Americas largest labor union is the National Education Association (NEA), organized in 1906 with a congressional charter to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.

Now, 116 years later, the average individual U.S. teacher salary is $60,909, just below the median household income of $67,521 for the country in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Inadequate teacher pay has long been a staple of NEA rhetoric and advocacy, as seen in this April 29, 2019, statement by then-NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia:

Across the nation, educator pay continues to erode, expanding the large pay gap between what teachers earn and what similarly educated and experienced professionals in other fields earn.

Educators dont do this work to get rich, they do this work because they believe in students. But their pay is not commensurate with the dedication and expertise they bring to the profession.

Given the NEAs frequently professed concerns about low teacher pay, critics wonder why the union spends so little of the $377 million it received mostly in dues paid by 2.9 million members in 2021 on representational activitiesthat is, bargaining for better pay and working conditions for rank-and-file classroom teachers.

According to its latest LM2 report to the Department of Labor, the NEA spent only $32 million, or 8.5 percent of its total dues revenue, on those representational activities.

Calculated as a percentage of NEA total revenue from all sources of $588 million, the $32 million represents only 5.4 percent. The $588 million figure includes the $194 million the NEA received through the sale of investments and fixed assets.

The NEA didnt respond by press time to The Epoch Times request for an interview with a spokesman regarding the data it reported on its LM2. All labor unions are required to submit the LM2, which is a detailed picture of revenue, assets, and spending, to the Labor Department annually.

Digging deeper into the NEAs LM2 reveals a union that pays lavish salaries to hundreds of its more than 1,900 employees, especially among those working at the national headquarters in Washington.

There are 344 NEA employees being paid more than $100,000 annually, nearly one in every five; many of the 344 make twice or three times the national average teacher salary.

Another 45 NEA employees are paid more than $200,000 annually, with many of those receiving as much as four times the national average teacher salary.

Then, there are the high-dollar compensation packages the NEA provides to its top leadership, which are eye-popping even in a town known for extraordinarily highly paid union, corporate, and nonprofit executives:

Rebecca Pringle, the current NEA president, receives $431,317 in total compensation, including $345,590 in salary.

Princess Moss, NEAs vice president, gets $371,748 in total compensation, including $302,710 in salary.

Noel Candelaria, the NEA secretary-treasurer, socks away $348,050 in total compensation, including $278,190 in salary.

Kimberly Anderson, NEAs executive director, is second only to Pringle, making $406,951 in total compensation, including $323,685 in salary.

John Stocks, listed on the LM2 as an NEA Special Adviser, gets $319,689 in salary, with $334,219 total compensation.

Critics of the NEA also point to the imbalance between how much the union spends in the form of campaign cash to Democratic candidates, especially those running for Congress, compared to the organizations representational activities.

According to the 2021 LM2, the NEA spent $65 million on political campaigns and lobbying, twice the $32 million on representational activities. Fully 94 percent of the NEAs campaign contributions went to Democrats, while 85 percent, or $5.1 million, of the unions independent expenditures in 2020 were against Republicans.

Asked about the extremely generous salaries paid to NEA employees, National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix told The Epoch Times that it is good to be a union official, particularly when you are granted special privileges to impose your so-called representation on your brothers and sisters in order for them to keep their jobs and support their families.

Equally skeptical was Virginia Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center of Independent Womens Voices, who told The Epoch Times the teachers union empire needs to be dismantled because it works against the interest of teachers.

Rather than advocating for increased salaries for teachers, union leaders lobby for more federal and state funding so school districts will hire more dues-paying members, many of whom arent actually teachers, she said. Unfortunately, the unions have no interest in increasing teacher salaries; union leaders are just focused on increasing membership and collecting dues to spend on political campaigns and union leaders already-high salaries. Teachers union leaders are self-serving and callous to the needs of individual teachers. Parents shouldnt have to feel powerless and teachers shouldnt feel hopeless anymore. Similarly, the Heritage Foundations Jonathan Butcher told The Epoch Times the basic issue posed by the NEAs LM2 data is whether the unions leaders are representing the best interests of members. Its common for school administratorsand interest-group employees who claim to represent teachersto earn more than teachers, Butcher said. Given the amount of misspending and political lobbying that may not represent the interests of individual teachers, educators should be asking whether unions are really operating in a way that protects their jobs and improves their working conditions.
Senator Pauline Hanson debates in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 4, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

Sen. Pauline Hanson Calls for Ban on Foreign Ownership of Australian Properties

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson has called on the federal government to ban foreigners from owning properties and reduce the immigration level to tackle the current housing crisis.

In a statement released on April 21, Hanson said that Australia should follow the lead of New Zealand and Canada.

Many countries dont allow foreign ownership of land or housing, but its open slather for foreign investors in Australias overheated residential property market, Hanson said.

New Zealand banned foreign ownership in 2018, and Canada recently introduced a two-year ban as well.

In dealing with the properties owned by foreigners, she proposed that the federal government give the owners a 12-month grace period to sell their land or housing.

At the same time, Hanson said that the housing crisis was worsening as the federal government was going to bring in more immigrants into the country when there was already a shortage of housing.

Housing is in extremely short supply with many thousands of Australians now struggling to buy or rent a home, but from 2023 the government will bring in 213,000 immigrants per yearmore than the entire population of Hobart, she said.

Were strugglingand failingto secure accommodation for people already living in Australia, but the government is only adding to the problem with these huge numbers.

Citing a study from the Grattan Institute, she said that 100,000 new homes needed to be built to accommodate the number of immigrants above.

In addition, she mentioned that unless state governments reformed their planning systems, the federal government should consider cutting down immigration numbers.

To reduce the demand for housing, Hanson suggested that the federal government decrease the number of immigrants to no more than 100,000 per year.

She also emphasised that the current housing crisis, both in terms of availability and affordability, required coordination and leadership at the state and federal levels.

A sold real estate sign is seen outside a high-rise apartment block in the suburb Kirribilli in Sydney, Australia, on May 8, 2021. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

On the issue of unaffordable housing prices, chief economist Peter Tulip from the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies previously told The Epoch Times that the solution was to ease planning restrictions and allow builders to build more.

Citing the example of Japan, Tulip said that if Australia increased the supply of housing, prices would fall.

For example, between 1990 and 2015, Japan increased its housing stock by 25 percent per adult, which reduced real housing prices by 35 percent, he said.

In contrast, Australias housing stock has struggled to match population growth, and our prices have soared.

Meanwhile, the rental crisis in Australia is already worsening, with the national vacancy rate falling to one percent in March, the lowest level since 2006.

Vacancy rates are edging towards zero percent in the smaller capital cities and dropped below two percent in Sydney and Melbourne.

Additionally, capital city rents for houses have recorded increases of 14.7 percent, while unit rents have jumped by 11.2 percent in the past 12 months.

Housing experts stressed that Australia needs an immediate solution.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington, Ohio, on June 26, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Republican Group Urges Boycott of April 23 Trump Rally

While J.D. Vance is basking in the benefits of an endorsement from Donald Trump and campaigning alongside Donald Trump Jr.., a GOP group that disapproves of the former presidents decision is encouraging voters to boycott Trumps Save America rally on April 23.

The event will be held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio and feature Trump as the keynote speaker at 7 p.m. Vance will also address the crowd.

Though he has faced consistent criticism from his opponents about comments he made about Trump in 2016, Vance gained the former presidents endorsement on April 15 ahead of the May 3 primary.

Ohio Value Voters, a conservative group that endorsed former Ohio state treasurer and state representative Josh Mandel, sent a message to supporters urging them to skip the rally in protest of Trumps backing of Vance.

The endorsement was a terrible decision and can only be attributed to very poor advice from people around the former president, according to the message.

However, if you decide to attend, when President Trump introduces J.D. Vance, make your voices heard by letting Trump know, J.D. Vance is Wrong for Ohio, the message read. Booing is entirely appropriate!

Donald Trump Jr., son of U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a Republican National Committee Victory Rally at Dalton Regional Airport January 4, 2021 in Dalton, Georgia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump Jr. joined Mandel at campaign events leading to the April 23 rally and has publicly supported Vance for several weeks, even before the elder Trump gave his stamp of approval.

The MAGA Movement is strongly united behind my fathers endorsement of J.D. Vance, which you can see by the surge hes seen in the polls since the endorsement, Trump Jr. said.

Its unfortunate that career politician Josh Mandel is pushing his supporters, some of whom are on the dole, to boycott a Trump Rally. Very not MAGA of him! he added.

Vance has seen a rapid rise in the polls in April.

A Trafalgar Poll released on April 15 showed Mandel leading the Republican field with 28 percent, followed by Vance (22.6 percent), Mike Gibbons (14.3 percent), Matt Dolan (11.6 percent), Jane Timken (7.5 percent), Mark Pukita (2.1 percent), Neil Patel (0.8 percent), and 13.1 percent undecided.

The poll also found that 54.9 percent of respondents, who are likely GOP primary voters, are either more likely or much more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Trump.

Fabrizio, Lee & Associates conducted a survey for the pro-Vance super PAC Protect Ohio Values that was released on April 6 and showed Vance, Gibbons, and Mandel in a tie for the lead at 18 percent each.

Earlier this week, Protect Ohio Values released a poll of 800 Republican voters showing that Vance sat atop the crowded field vying to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman with 25 percent followed by Mandel (18 percent), Cleveland investment banker Mike Gibbons (13 percent), former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken (11 percent), and Ohio State Sen. Matt Dolan (9 percent) with 23 percent undecided.

We found that President Trumps recent endorsement of J.D. Vance in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate has significantly improved Mr. Vances position in the race after only a few days putting him into first place overall, said the polling memo, which was written by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates for Protect Ohio Values.

There is further room to grow that lead as awareness of Trumps endorsement is far from ubiquitous among the GOP electorate, according to the memo.

When it announced its recommendation to boycott the April 23 Save America rally, Ohio Value Voters included a video that highlighted several quotes where Vance disparages Trump.

Vance cannot be trusted to stand upon principals when he practices situational politics,' Ohio Value Voters President John Stover said. In 2016 and 2017, Vance led all others with his derogatory comments against Trump.

Now, he claims to be 100 percent behind our former president, Stover added.

Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel and pastor JC Church appear at a Faith and Freedom rally at Ascent Church in Westlake, OH on Mar. 9. (photo courtesy of Josh Mandel Twitter)

Ohio Value Voters reinforced its support for Mandel and urged Ohioans to vote for the U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Iraq.

Since announcing his intention to run for Portmans seat last year, Mandel has centered his campaign on churches by hosting Faith & Freedom rallies across Ohio.

The mantra of our campaign is pastors over politicians, Mandel said. Im more interested in earning the support and endorsements of pastors, Christian activists, and citizens who are Christians than getting approval from politicians.

Mandel was endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R  Texas), who will appear at a Faith and Freedom on April 29 in southwest Ohio.

At a campaign event after learning that Trump decided to back Vance, Mandel would not speculate why the former president made that decision and said, Im more confident than ever Im going to win.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served as Trumps national security adviser, has joined Mandel on the campaign trail multiple times.

I think he made a huge mistake, Flynn said about Trumps endorsement of Vance. Hes got people around him that are advising him and I think they advised him poorly.

Trump says he is clearly aware of what Vance said about him in 2016.

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, Trump said in the April 15 statement announcing his endorsement of Vance. He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.

At a campaign stop with Vance earlier this week, Trump Jr. told reporters that his father was disgusted with the on-stage altercation between Gibbons and Mandel at a March 18 debate.

You know, he makes up his own decisions, as youve seen over the years. He is a sort of a professional contrarian and I think thats served him very well, Trump Jr. said. On the policies, this was a no-brainer.

Regarding the moment when Gibbons and Mandel went nose to nose at the debate, Trump Jr. recalled a conversation with his father.

I go, you saw those things, he goes, Yeah, that was pretty ugly.
Rosenblatt Gets Cautious on Texas Instruments, Intel Ahead of Earnings

Rosenblatt views on the earnings for next week:

Texas Instruments Inc. will report results on April 26. Rosenblatt saw a slight beat and raise limited by continued supply chain constraints.

Rosenblatt saw the 1Q22 sales coming in above its consensus estimates of a low-single-digit sequential decline and EPS coming above its consensus estimate buoyed by strength in Industrial and Automotive and Texas Instruments continuing to spend to keep up with demand.

For the June guide, Rosenblatt saw sales above its consensus estimates on Analog and Embedded and continued strength in Automotive and Industrial.

The critical issues for investors include the aggressive 300mm fab build-out of two new fabs in the next two years and an additional four through the early 2030s to meet an expected doubling in analog industry sales growth.

Intel Corp. will report on April 28, where it saw a more mixed quarter and outlook due to the 14-week 1Q dynamic that will make it difficult to hit the flat-to-up sales growth for 2Q22 suggested by consensus.

Rosenblatt saw 1Q22 coming roughly in line with its consensus estimates driven by weak consumer PC and an improving commercial PC environment.

For June, Rosenblatt saw a below-consensus view on the extra week in 1Q22 and continued data center that a muddled Sapphire Rapids launch should solidly offset.

The flattish 2022-year guide (and 2023 sales growth target) and gross margins continue to be wildcards given the various data center dynamics that include Sapphire Rapids delays, Granite Rapids delay into 2024, the Investment Phase that Intel is going through, and ASPs and process node yields.

By Anusuya Lahiri

 2022 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Ukrainian servicemen look at a destroyed Russian tank on a road in the village of Rusaniv, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 16, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia Makes No Major Gains as Ukrainian Counterattacks Hinder Offensive

Russian forces have failed to make any major gains over the last 24 hours in their offensive in Ukraine as counterattacks by the defenders have hampered their efforts, according to UK intelligence and U.S. analysts.

British intelligence said in an April 23 operational update that Ukraines airspace and its Black Sea waters remain contested as Russian air and maritime forces have been unable to establish control in either domain owing to the effectiveness of Ukraines air and sea defense.

Despite increased activity, Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts, the UK Ministry of Defense said.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands at a position near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 20, 2022. (Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters)

A Ukrainian serviceman walks past destroyed Russian tank near Gusarovka village, in the Kharkiv region, in Ukraine, on April 16, 2022. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images)

Minor Gains

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. think tank, said on Friday that Russian forces managed to secure minor gains in offensives along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, including localized attacks against Ukrainian positions south of Izyum, where they failed to make any advances.

According to ISW, Deputy Commander of the Central Military District Rustam Minnekaev said on April 22 that Russias standing objectives in what the Kremlin calls a special military operation are to capture the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and to defend against Ukrainian counterattacks in the south.

While Minnekaev said that Russian control of southern Ukraine would provide Russian forces with the capability to carry out an offensive operation toward Transnistria, a breakaway republic in eastern Moldova, ISW analysts said this was not an indication of an imminent attack.

A cat walks next to a tank of pro-Russian troops in front of an apartment building damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 19, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Women walk past a building damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 21, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Land Corridor to Transnistria?

ISW analysts cited Minnekaev as saying that Russian control of southern Ukraine will provide another way out to Transnistria, the illegally Russian-occupied strip of territory in Moldova, where he falsely claimed there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population.'

One of the Kremlins key justifications for invading Ukraine has been to allege that the Russian-speaking population in the separatist-controlled Donbas and Luhansk region were being subjected to repression and genocide.

A long list of scholars and academics has denounced Russias claims of genocide and de-Nazification of Ukraine as a false pretext meant to justify unprovoked aggression against its southern neighbor.

Analysts at ISW said they dont read Minnekaevs remarks as a statement of intent to conduct a major offensive operation toward Moldova, adding that they believe the Russian commander was referring to a future capability to conduct an offensive toward Transnistria.

Any attack in the direction of Moldova is likely to be phrased by Russian commanders as securing a land corridor,' much like the one linking the separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Russia-annexed Crimea, ISW analysts said.

Even if Russian forces did seek to resume major offensive operations toward Mykolaiv and on to Odesa, they are highly unlikely to have the capability to do so, ISW analysts added.

Two Russian soldiers patrol in the Mariupol drama theater, which was bombed on March 16, in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 12, 2022. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

A woman talks with Russian soldiers in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 12, 2022. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

Missiles Hit Odesa

Still, reports emerged on Saturday that Russian forces had fired missiles at the Black Sea port of Odesa, which is relatively close to Transnistria.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister, said in a post on Telegram that Russian forces had fired at least six cruise missiles at Odesa, adding that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several of them.

At least one missile landed and exploded, Graschenko wrote, adding that one person had been killed.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, he wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

The Epoch Times has been unable to verify the claimed Russian missile strike.

An apartment building heavily damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 18, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo/Reuters)

A man walks downstairs outside a residential building damaged during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 21, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Several Ukrainian officials have corroborated Graschenkos report.

Inna Sovsun, member of Ukraines Parliament, said in a tweet Saturday that a Russian missile had just hit Odesa and that this was a sign that Russian forces were apparently going for this crazy plan of making a corridor to Transnistria.

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet that the only aim of Russian missile strikes on Odesa is terror, while calling for Russia to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

No business, no contacts, no cultural projects. We need a wall between civilization and barbarians striking peaceful cities with missiles, he said.

Smoke rises after an attack by Russian forces in Odesa, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. (Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)

A firefighter walks outside a destroyed apartment building after a bombing in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022. (Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Last Major Offensive

Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, said in a series of tweets on Saturday that he believes Russias efforts in Donbas are the last major offensive Moscow can muster given the current state of its military capability.

Without national mobilization, I think the Donbas is the last major offensive the Russian military can attempt given the current state & availability of forces. Whether it succeeds, or fails, the Russian military will be largely exhausted in terms of offensive potential, Kofman wrote.

Does this presage a stalemate? Not necessarily, Kofman said, adding that Ukraine has counterattack options while Russia might try to consolidate its territorial gains and pressure Ukrainian forces by imposing a blockade.

A Russian soldier patrols in a street of Mariupol on April 12, 2022. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

A man rides a motorbike past a destroyed Russian tank on a road in the village of Rusaniv, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 16, 2022. (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images)

Kofman said hes reluctant to make any predictions on how the battle for Donbas will play out.

The outcome can range from Russian forces making gains to suffering another significant defeat, he said.

Russia, for its part, has declared a limited victory of sorts with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announcing that the besieged city of Mariupol had been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel plant, a heavily fortified defense stronghold where around 2,000 Ukrainian troops remain holed up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent bid to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have said that around 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain inside the Azovstal compound, which has an extensive underground network of bunkers and corridors designed to withstand direct missile strikes.
A worker in protective overalls stands in the middle of empty streets in a locked down area in the Jingan district of western Shanghai on April 4, 2022. (Chen Si/AP Photo)

Shanghai Netizens: State Media Outlets Report of 1,000 Stores Being Reopened With Sufficient Food Supplies is Fake News

Residents of the locked down city struggle for food, supplies, and medical care

Shanghai, with a population of more than 26 million, has been under lockdown for almost 3 weeks, causing an increasingly dire situation. The local people are struggling for food, supplies, and access to medical care.

The Chinese communist regimes state TV network CCTV recently reported that more than 1,000 supermarkets and stores in Shanghai have resumed operation and that there is a sufficient supply of daily necessities.

However, Chinese netizens posted online saying the news is fake.

On April 16, CCTVs Network News Broadcast reported a news package titled Shanghai persistent in dynamic clearing while ensuring supplies of daily necessities, showing video footage of adequate goods and supplies in stores. The news broadcast claimed that as of April 15, 1,011 key supermarkets and stores in Shanghai have reopened, 42 non-infected warehouses of e-commerce platforms have resumed business, and 779 non-infected front warehouses have resumed business.

However, Chinese netizens disputed the news broadcast on social media.

Photographer Fei Diwen posted that he shot the first three shots of people shopping at a supermarket in the CCTV news on March 31 at RT-Mart (Yangpu District store) in Yangpu, Shanghai, which was before Yangpu was locked down in early April in the Shanghais two-step city lockdown. He added that the footage was shot for another CCTV program Economy 30 Minutes.

Netizens posted screenshots of the news, alleging it was fake, showing the vegetables piled on the counter in front of the camera, while the rest of the store counters remain empty.

Netizens posted a screenshot of the CCTV news on social media, in April 2022. (Weibo)

Many residents in Shanghai were enraged by the broadcast. Posts on social media accused the state media of spreading rumors and called for CCTV to be held accountable for it.

A netizen calling himself Laosheng Talks About Bulk Again demanded answers, asking in his post, Which area of Shanghai is in this footage? Specifically, which supermarket is it? Who in Shanghai has done a good job in supplying daily necessities? Where can I get the supplies?

Posts that questioned the CCTV news broadcast were quickly deleted by authorities. Shanghai officials further stated that online posts questioning the news were rumors and that the CCTV news footage reflected the situation in the supermarket in Jinshan District on April 15.

Many netizens reacted to the statement by Shanghai officials saying, Jinshan cant represent the whole Shanghai city, right? Why not report the real situation in the urban area? Jinshan is a suburban district of Shanghai.

Other netizens said, Shanghai authorities credibility is zero, CCTVs credibility is negative, and their level of rumor-making is really outrageous.

Li Jin contributed to the report.
Shanghai Residents Tell of Death and Suffering During Strict Lockdown

The continuous pandemic lockdown of Shanghai has caused various hardships for residents. People are starving from lack of food and patients are struggling to get necessary medical treatment. There have been several deaths involving patients with acute but treatable illnesses, as they had to have a negative COVID-19 test result before being admitted to hospital.

When Chinese state media reported that Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, was quickly admitted to the hospital because he had a headache on April 19, readers asked angrily in the comments section, Didnt he also have to take a nucleic acid test?!

Wu is currently receiving treatment at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University for what was diagnosed as a vascular headache.

However, it is very difficult for ordinary citizens to receive medical treatment in a timely manner.

Yu Ying (pseudonym), who lives in Shanghais Minhang District, told The Epoch Times that she learned from friends on social media that a young man recently died in a hospital lobby waiting for his COVID-19 test result.

People are saying that a few days ago a young man went to the hospital with his mother because of chest pain. Although he had a negative COVID-19 test certificate from his communitys PCR testing, the hospital refused to accept it. He had to pay 40 yuan (about $6.20) to have another test done by the hospital, Yu said.

While enduring the pain in his chest, the young man died hours later, waiting for the test result, with his mother in the hospital lobby.

His mother told others that the last words he said were, Has my test result come out? Two hours later, it was the negative result he expectedbut it was too late. He left behind his wife, parents, and a five-year-old child, Yu said.

Wu Lin (pseudonym), a resident of Shanghais Xuhui District, told The Epoch Times that many people were taken to quarantine locations, but the conditions at the site were deplorable. There was no separation between one bed and another. People basically lived together regardless of gender. Some had no symptoms on arrival, but got ill at the quarantine facility because of cross-infection, yet the whole site was left unattended. Residents formed a social media group to share information with outsiders and to cry for help, but their chat group was quickly blocked, Wu said.

A woman and her baby, who was just over 20 days old, were also sent to the makeshift hospital for isolation. Photos she sent to friends showed that the makeshift hospital was semi-finished and had cement flooring, Wu said. People inside have to wear masks 24 hours a day. Her husband and mother-in-law are very worried about her and the baby, and tried to seek help on social media. All of their messages and pictures were deleted by internet police. What can ordinary people do about it? Even Wang Sicongs Weibo account was banned.

Wang Sicong is a well-known figure in China, as his father is Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, a Chinese multinational conglomerate. The younger Wang is a board director of the company. On April 19, he posted on Weibo: The nucleic acid test every morning is not a test about negative or positive, but a test of your servility and boldness. Starting today, I will not go out to do nucleic acid [test] again. His Weibo account was subsequently suspended.

Yu Ying shared some details about her own family.

We are forbidden to step out the door except to get the nucleic acid test every day. For such an extended lockdown, we were only given five pounds of rice. As a household of five, we dont even have enough rice to make porridge. The community distributed vegetables three times and meat once. The vegetables were all rotten and the meat was stinky, Yu said. The government touted on TV every day that there was enough food for us Shanghai residents, but what we experience here is that people who complain about starvation are being taken away and silenced.

Yu also said that the most pitiful were the non-permanent residents of Shanghai. She knows of a business owner from neighboring Zhejiang Province whose business was suspended immediately after the lockdown began.

He couldnt pay the employees, and he owed bank loans. He later committed suicide by hanging himself, Yu sighed.
Professor Nicola Spurrier, Chief Public Health Officer for SA Health speaks during a media opportunity at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide, Australia on January 09, 2021. (Photo by Sue McKay/Getty Images)

South Australia Will Drop COVID-19 Isolation Rules

South Australia (SA) will drop the requirement for COVID-19 close contacts to isolate for seven days, but not for another week.

The change comes into effect from April 30 bringing SA in line with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory.

It will come with new rules including a requirement for close contacts of positive cases to take five rapid antigen tests over the seven-day period.

They will also be required to wear masks when outside the home, are banned from visiting high-risk settings such as aged care centres, and must tell their employers and any schools they have contact with of their status.

Close contacts will further be urged to avoid any non-essential gatherings or contact with vulnerable people.

If they develop symptoms they must take a PCR test and isolate until receiving the result.

Its a very big change, an important step, Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said on Friday.

But we still need to take some precautions, because we know people who are close contacts are at higher risk of catching the disease.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the change would provide considerable relief to the business sector impacted by the isolation requirements even though it might result in case numbers slightly ticking up.

We can do this because our hospital system is managing to cope in difficult circumstances, he said.

The change to close contact arrangements has been a thoughtful and considered judgement.

Which is why were going to buy that additional week to ensure that the case numbers continue to operate at the appropriate levels and our hospital system is coping.

The changes came after a meeting of SAs Emergency Management Council was brought forward from Tuesday next week.

The decision also followed a rise in infections on Friday to 4500, up from 4079 on Thursday and after SA dropped its widespread mask mandates last week.

By Tim Dornin
Phu Quoc airport to be invested to serve 10 million passengers a year

Phu Quoc International Airport in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang will be invested to be able to serve 10 million passengers a year.













Phu Quoc International Airport (Photo: VNA)

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), currently there are six domestic and 10 foreign airlines operating regular flights to/from Phu Quoc airport. Its passenger throughput reached 3.7 million in 2019, but down to 3.23 million in 2020 and about 1.6 million in 2021 due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Recently, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan signed a document sent to the CAAV requesting to consider land and propose investment forms to expand the airport.



Accordingly, the Ministry asked the CAAV to actively coordinate with relevant agencies and units, including the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), to seek appreciate types of investment.



The Ministrys requirements came after the Prime Ministers working session with provincial leaders, during which he directed the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, and the People's Committee of Kien Giang in studying suitable investment types to expand Phu Quoc airport, with a goal of increasing its total capacity to 10 million passengers a year by 2030 so as to meet the localitys socio-economic development requirement.



Regarding investors interested in the project, recently the Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG) proposed the Transport Ministry allow it to participate in the Phu Quoc International Airport expansion project.



IPPG wants to invest in the airports international terminal, cargo terminal, warehouse, and runway./
Dung Quat Refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai. Photo courtesy of Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical

Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical is set to upgrade to its Dung Quat Refinery at a cost of $1.8 billion.

It will increase its annual capacity from the current 6.5 million tons of crude to 7.6 million tons.

In a document seeking approval from shareholders at its annual general meeting, company said the upgrade would finish within 6.5 years from the time it invites bids for the front-end engineering design.

It plans to borrow 70 percent of the cost.

Dung Quat in Quang Ngai Province and the Nghi Son Refinery in the central province of Thanh Hoa account for around 70 percent of the countrys fuel demand. The rest is imported.

In the first quarter of this year, Dung Quat had to operate at 105 percent capacity as Nghi Son cut production due to a cash crunch leading to gasoline shortages in the country.

Vietnam also plans to build a third refinery in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau with an annual capacity of 10 million tons.

It would take domestic production to 23 million tons, enough to meet demand.
SpaceX Starlink 5 satellites are pictured in the sky seen from Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark, on April 21, 2020. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters)

SpaceXs Starlink Inks First In-flight WiFi Deal

WASHINGTONSpaceX signed its first deal with an air carrier to provide in-flight wireless internet using the Starlink satellite network, the space company said on Thursday as it jockeys with other burgeoning satellite firms to put high-speed internet on commercial airlines.

The company, owned by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, has been in talks for months with airlines to provide Starlink internet in-flight, a key prong in SpaceXs strategy to scoop up enterprise customers beyond consumers and households in rural areas of the globe with little to no internet access.

The deal is with semi-private jet service JSX and involves equipping 100 airplanes with Starlink terminals, with the first Starlink-connected plane taking flight by years end, the charter company said in a statement. A JSX spokesperson declined to disclose the value of the partnership.

SpaceX has launched some 2,000 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2019 and, though the network is not yet fully deployed, offers broadband internet service to thousands of customers in a handful of countries for $110 a month using a $599 terminal dish roughly the size of a pizza box.

SpaceX has sought regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to operate Starlink on airplanes and shipping vessels and had previously tested the internet network on a handful of Gulfstream jets, as well as military aircraft.

The Starlink service on JSX planes will come at no charge to JSX customers, the jet service said in its statement, adding it will not require logging in or other complexities associated with legacy systems.

By Joey Roulette
Taiwan Broadcaster Apologizes for Accidental False Alerts Reporting Chinese Invasion

Chinese Television System (CTS) News and Info, Taiwans key broadcaster, issued an apology for a blunder that caused newsfeeds to scroll text onscreen saying the Chinese military had attacked Taiwanese cities with missiles.

On April 20, during the 7:00 a.m. morning news broadcast, text appeared at the bottom of the CTS screen declaring New Taipei City hit by communist Chinas missiles; Vessels exploded, facilities and ships damaged in Taipei harbor; The Chinese Communist Party goes to war preparedness frequently; President issues emergency order effective at 8:00 p.m. on March 6; and War threatening to break out.

After recognizing the error, the host immediately clarified the situation and apologized to viewers. Soon afterwards, CTS apologies appeared in scroll bars on all its channels, including on YouTube, to spread the correction message.

Please dont panic, CTS said in an emergency statement. We hereby clarify and apologize for a news alert setup mistake by our post-production staff that led to airing yesterdays disaster prevention drill videos as news. The incident triggered an uproar across the island. However, Taiwan media reported that while the public reacted to the misinformation mainly with dismay and surprise, there were no signs of panic on the streets of Taiwan. Later, CTS provided more details about the incident in a statement, saying it had recently recorded educational videos for the New Taipei City Fire Department designed to let the public how to survive a disaster, on April 19, which were mistakenly scrolled during the news broadcast because staff forgot to resume the connection to regular files after the completing the recording. Following the incident, CTS held an urgent internal disciplinary meeting to examine this mistake, and decided to punish relevant personnel, supervisors, and managers. On April 22, Yu Xiu Chen, chairperson of Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS), and Yalin Chan, General Manager of CTS, declared their resignations, according to a statement by CTS. The National Communication Commission (NCC) of Taiwan conducted an administrative inspection at CTS. A preliminary check suggested that CTS faces a fine of NT$200,000 to NT$2 million (about $6,800 to $68,000) on a charge of disrupting public order under the Broadcasting Act, according to the NCC officials. Moreover, the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan also apologized for the error, saying CTS, as a member of Taiwan Broadcasting System, should have avoided. On April 20, Chiu Kuo-cheng, the current Minister of National Defense, at the Legislative Yuan described the incident as a lesson for news outlets. He said the Taiwan military has its own intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, which would immediately respond to any incident.

Controversial messages would significantly impact the morale of Taiwanese citizens, the minister warned media outlets.
A group of Cubans wade across the Rio Grande from Mexico toward the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 19, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Texas National Guard Soldier Missing After Trying to Rescue Migrant From Water

A soldier from the Texas National Guard has gone missing after trying to rescue a female migrant from the Rio Grande, a major river that forms a part of the U.S.Mexico border.

The soldier has yet to be found, according to the Texas Military Department in a statement.

A Texas Army National Guard Soldier assigned to Operation Lone Star has gone missing along the river during a mission related incident, Friday, April 22, 2022, in Eagle Pass, Texas  We are aware of reports of a fatality, although those reports are inaccurate, the statement reads.

The department is working rapidly with the Texas Border Patrol and Department of Public Safety to find the soldier, it said.

Operation Lone Star is a mission launched in March 2021 under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, to address the smuggling of humans and contraband into Texas across the southern border. Abbott later expanded the operation to also address human trafficking.

In a statement, Abbott said his office continues to work with the Texas National Guard and other law enforcement agencies as they search for the missing soldier in Eagle Pass, adding that updates will be provided as more details become available.
The Sinking of the Russian Black Sea Flagship: A Lesson for the US Pacific Fleet

Commentary

The unanticipated sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian navys Black Sea fleet, on April 14 garnered worldwide attention. It led to intense speculation about how it will impact Russias ongoing war against Ukraine.

This historic sinking of this 12,000-plus ton nuclear-weapons capable Slava-class cruiser has immense implications for another area of the world: the Indo-Pacific region.

There are a number of key lessons to be learned from the sinking of the Moskva that bears directly on the survivability of the warships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and those of Americas allies like Japans Maritime Self-Defense Force.

These lessons must be learned and acted upon today rather than be put off until we are in, or on, the verge of being in combat. We guarantee strategic defeat if we wait to learn these lessons in combat when our warships are at great risk of being sunk by superior Chinese navy anti-ship weapons and from the same kinds of internal inattention to detail exhibited by the Russian navy.

Lessons gleaned from the Moskva sinking may be categorized under the broad headings of defense and offense.

The Russian navys guided-missile cruiser Moskva sails back into a harbor in the port of Sevastopol, Crimea, on Nov. 16, 2021. (Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

Defense

Under defense, the most obvious question is why the captain and crew of the Moskva were not prepared for such an attack from Ukrainian coastal defense anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM).

Part of the explanation can certainly be attributed to the Russian navys relative lack of practical experience with that particular threat. Unlike the U.S. Navys past three decades of experience conducting naval operations in the confined operating areas with a high coastal ASCM threat like the Persian Gulf, the Russian navy has not had such defensive skill-honing experience. As such, the Moskva found itself without the benefit of having an established posture for operating within the lethal threat envelope of Ukraines ASCMs.

Over 30 years of experience have driven the U.S. Navy to develop rigorous alert postures, focused and integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and defensive technologies like close-in weapons systems. Most importantly, over time, naval officers implicitly understood that if the U.S. Navy were ever in a shooting conflict, then neutralizing an adversarys coastal missiles would be one of the highest priority targets in the earliest phase of the conflict.

By all accounts, it appears that Russias navy had not developed the same level of awareness and respect for Ukraines coastal defense missiles. This inexperience can also be applied to the apparent failure of the Russians to appreciate the importance of damage control and maintaining firebreaks and the watertight integrity of their warships. Over the years, American naval observers reported that Russian navy damage control and attention to watertight fittings and seals have more often than not been poor.

Throughout my career, the U.S. Navy placed great emphasis on material readiness, damage control, and firefighting. Yet over the past decade, there have been increasing indicators that the Navys high standards are slipping.

Collisions in 2017 by the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain that resulted in the deaths of over 17 sailors, the fire and destruction of the USS Bonhomme Richard, and a spate of recent images showing rusty and unkempt warships with Americas flag aboard are more than troubling.

These recent events highlight the stress that U.S. Navy commanding officers and crews are under today in peacetime and remind Americans that Navy leaders owe these sailors the very best material readiness and most realistic training against the ASCM threat, especially in the Pacific.

When comparing the current level of upkeep of U.S. naval vessels on the front lines with the spit-polished appearance and zeal Ive witnessed from the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), it makes me believe that PLAN ships are relatively prepared to defend themselves. Past assessments of the opposite being the cases are decades out of date. Its well past time for the U.S. Pacific Fleet to be resourced and tested to ensure its equipped and troops are well trained.

Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles, potentially capable of sinking a U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in a single strike, drive past the Tiananmen Gate during a military parade in Beijing, China, on Sept. 3, 2015. (Andy Wong/Pool/Getty Images)

What makes these defensive capabilities so important is the lethality of ASCMs, like those used to sink the Moskva. Its important to understand that the Ukrainian subsonic Neptune coastal defense missiles that sank the Moskva are based on decades-old technology.

By comparison, China has equipped its navy, air force, and coastal defense forces with the finest ASCMs in the world for the past two decades. The PLAN today fields the supersonic YJ-18 ASCM that has a range of over 200 nautical miles. The YJ-18 is fitted on the PLANs latest combatantsthe Type 055 cruiser and Type 0524D destroyerand aboard its latest submarines and naval air forces.

Essentially, the PLA threatens the U.S. Pacific Fleetbut not just from Chinas coastline. The American fleet is now at risk from the Chinese navys ASCMs throughout the first and second island chains, past Guam to an increasingly threatened Hawaii.

The ASCM threat from below, on, and above the sea is the most critical threat to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Accordingly, our commanding officers, crews, and ships must be prepared to defend against such critical threats.

Offense

Other Moskva-related lessons learned deal with offense. While Moskvas sinking was a startling demonstration of the lethal threat to modern warships posed by ASCMseven ones based on 30-year-old technologyit would be a big mistake to come away from this event with a lopsided focus on the need for increased attention to counter-ASCM measures for U.S. Navy warships, particularly if it is effectively to the exclusion of stepped-up development and fielding of our own ASCM capabilities. Procedurally and technologically, ASCM-defense is already an extremely high priority for the U.S. Navy. It has been for decades.

As critical as it is for the United States to continue to hone its missile defense capability in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. Navy faces a more urgent focus-delta regarding its anti-ship capabilitiesthe offensive versus the defensive side of the ASCM challenge. Having made limited advances in ASCM capabilities relative to its progress in counter-ACSM measures since the Cold War, the U.S. Navy is currently less than optimally prepared for offensive war-at-sea against the Chinese navy.

In large part, this lack of offensive preparedness is the product of years of overly optimistic New World Order-type assessments of the threat environment by generations of U.S. Navy leaders. The leadersincluding political appointees, senior flag officers, and senior civil servantsassumed that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Navy had no peers at sea and, therefore, there was no urgency to prioritize developing, funding, and fielding afloat ASCMs.

For instance, in the late-1990s, following the Soviet Unions collapse, senior officials with the U.S. Navy Staff, including chiefs of naval operations, decided not to upgrade or expand the Navys only afloat ASCM, the Harpoon.

This attitude continued as Navy leaders moved from thinking about fighting war-at-sea as they had during the Cold War and the Reagan administrations maritime strategy to the doctrine of fighting forward  from the sea where naval power was projected ashore from benign and safe positions off the coast of various nations in the Middle East.

Fighting at sea while fighting from the sea are not mutually exclusive concepts, of course, but a combination of arrogance, lack of vision, and a certain amount of political and intellectual dishonesty led to the fateful decision to divest from serious ASCM investment.

The Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) conducting underway operations in the South China Sea on April 28, 2020. (Samuel Hardgrove/U.S. Navy/AFP via Getty Images)

The threat posture began to change in the early 2000s, and for a decade and a half, every Pacific Fleet commander submitted requirements for fielding afloat ASCMs for the fleet. Regrettably, for two decades, Navy leadership in Washington rejected or ignored those requests.

By 2015, the need for afloat ASCMs was becoming apparent, given the increasingly menacing capabilities of the Chinese navy. But the mindset was still too focused on fighting wars in the desert and not on fighting a peer competitor navy at sea in the Western Pacific. Consequently, senior Navy and Office of the Secretary of Defense officials took a band-aid approach to adapt existing naval standard missiles and cruise missiles into longer-range cruise missiles that can target PLAN warships.

The problem is that these band-aid programs are all subsonic and, in many cases, are shorter range than those of the PLA navy and air force. It is not too harsh to state that the failure of defense officials to prepare the U.S. Navy for the ASCM threat is tantamount to sending the fleet to certain destruction and defeat in high-intensity combat operations that are not too far distant on the horizon.

This self-destructive mindset must be changed, and the sinking of the Moskva should be the wake-up call for this nation and the U.S. Navy.

Suppose two Soviet-era Neptune ASCMs can take out the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet. How do our national and Navy leaders believe in a war-at-sea to defend Taiwan (or Japan or Australia) that our fleet will stand a chance against the PLAN where every Chinese platform is equipped with vastly superior anti-ship missiles, including supersonic ASCMs?

Its time to get serious and stop denying this reality. We must break this anti-ASCM development mindset in the Pentagon and do it now. We must start arming our warships with our own indigenously produced, superior supersonic, long-range ASCMs. That may take getting service leadership willing to put their stars/jobs on the table for this capability.

The lessons from two subsonic coastal defense ASCMs are not just for the ongoing war in Russia; they are vitally important lessons for the U.S. Pacific Fleet today. When it comes to defense, these lessons can be learned without a huge budget increase: it is about reallocating money from within the Pentagon toward ship maintenance and realistic ASCM defense training.

Again, the cost-benefit analysis is a no-brainer when it comes to offense: invest in state-of-the-art ASCM or lose billions of dollars in capital warships and the irreplaceable crews that operate our fleet. Worse, we willwithout questionlose the war.

Its time to return the U.S. Navy to be what it always has been: the greatest afloat fighting force in the world.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A fishing port where a tour boat which went missing, left for a tour in Shari, in the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, on April 23, 2022. (Kyodo News via AP)

Tour Boat With 26 Missing in North Japan After Distress Call

TOKYOA tour boat with 26 people aboard was missing in rough and cold waters off northern Japan on Saturday after issuing a distress call and reporting to be sinking, the coast guard said.

No survivors have been found after more than 10 hours of an intense search involving six patrol boats, five aircraft, and divers. The coast guard said it will continue with the search through the night.

The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in early afternoon, saying the ships bow had flooded and was beginning to sink and tilt while it was traveling off the western coast of Shiretoko Peninsula in the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said.

The tour boat has since lost contact, according to the coast guard. It said the boat was carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew.

Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing.

An official of the vessels operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment as he had to respond to calls from worried families of the passengers.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was attending a two-day water summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan, was canceling his program for Sunday and was set to return to Tokyo to deal with the missing boat, the NHK public broadcaster reported.

Shiretoko Peninsula in the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, on Sept. 25, 2021. (Kyodo News via AP)

High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fisheries cooperative. Japanese media reports said fishing boats had returned to port before noon because of the bad weather.

NHK said there was a warning for high waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet) high.

Yoshihiko Yamada, a Tokai University marine science professor, said the boat was likely to have run aground after it was tossed around in high waves and damaged, flooded, and probably sank. A tour boat of that size usually does not carry a life boat, and passengers possibly could not jump out of a rapidly sinking vessel with its windows probably closed to shield them from strong winds.

In an interview with the TBS television, Yamada said there is also a slight possibility that the boat might have been hit by a whale.

The cold temperature and strong wind could cause hypothermia and put the passengers in severe conditions for survival, according to Jun Abe, vice chairman of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research. Its a very severe condition especially when they are wet, Abe told TBS.

According to the operators website, the tour takes about three hours and offers a scenic view of the western coast of the peninsula, including the nature and animals such as whales, dolphins, and the brown bear. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous as the southernmost region to see drifting sea ice.

By Mari Yamaguchi
U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance speaks with prospective voters on the campaign trail in Troy, Ohio, on April 11, 2022. (Gaelen Morse/Getty Images)

Trump Ally Peter Thiel Infuses J.D. Vance With $3.5 Million As Ohio GOP Senate Primary Nears

A week after securing the coveted endorsement from Donald Trump, Ohio GOP U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance will speak at the former presidents Save America rally in central Ohio on April 23.

The Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist will take the stage bolstered by another $3.5 million from billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel via a super Political Action Committee that backs Vances campaign.

Thiel, who is the co-founder of PayPal and Facebooks first outside investor, has now contributed $13.5 million to the pro-Vance Protect Ohio Values.

Federal Election Commission filings indicate that the super PAC had spent all but $289,000 of Thiels initial $10 million donation by the end of March. Vances campaign had $1.6 million in the bank at the end of March, which represents a fraction of what opponents Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons reported.

Though he has faced consistent criticism from his opponents about comments he made about Trump in 2016, Vance gained the former presidents endorsement on April 15 ahead of the May 3 primary.

J.D. Vance received the endorsement from Donald Trump for the Ohio GOP Senate primary on April 15. (J.D. Vance for Senate)

Vance is running against Mandel, who is a former Ohio state representative and state treasurer; and Gibbons, a Cleveland investment banker who was defeated by Jim Renacci in the 2018 Ohio GOP U.S. Senate primary.

Former Ohio Republican Party chairperson Jane Timken, Ohio State Sen. Matt Dolan, Columbus entrepreneur Mark Pukita, and central Ohio businessman Neil Patel are also in the race.

Trump said that he endorsed Vance because the U.S. Marine Corps veteran has the best chance of defeating Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan in the general election. Ryan is the clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary.

Early voting in Ohio started on April 5 and continues through May 2.

Ive studied this race closely and I think J.D. is the most likely to take out the weak, but dangerous, Democrat opponentdangerous because they will have so much money to spend. However, J.D. will destroy him in the debates and will fight for the MAGA Movement in the Senate, Trump wrote in a statement.

Its time for the entire MAGA movement, the greatest in the history of our Country, to unite behind J.D.s campaign because, unlike so many other pretenders and wannabes, he will put America first, Trump added. In other words, J.D. Vance has my Complete and Total Endorsement.

Fueled by Thiels latest contribution, Protect Ohio Values launched a new television ad on April 18 that aired across Ohio promoting Trumps endorsement of Vance.

The ad is part of a $500,000 buy that is airing on broadcast and cable outlets. The blitz is part of a seven-figure purchase to saturate the market leading to the May 3 primary.

J.D. is the conservative outsider who will continue Trumps fight to secure our borders, protect the unborn, get rid of the corrupt politicians and stop Joe Biden, a narrator says in the ad, which features a newspaper headline touting the Trump endorsement.

Trump fought back and so have I, Vance said in the spot. Now, Ill take our fight to the U.S. Senate.

A Trafalgar Poll released on April 15 showed Josh Mandel leading the Republican field with 28 percent, followed by Vance (22.6 percent), Gibbons (14.3 percent), Dolan (11.6 percent), Timken (7.5 percent), Pukita (2.1 percent), Patel (0.8 percent), and 13.1 percent undecided.

The poll also found that 54.9 percent of respondents, who are likely GOP primary voters, are either more likely or much more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Trump.

Republican pollster David Lee conducted a survey for Protect Ohio Values, a pro-Vance super PAC, that was released on April 6 and showed Vance, Gibbons, and Mandel in a tie for the lead at 18 percent each.

Mandel is backed by the well-funded Club for Growth, which has aired numerous ads reminding Ohioans of Vances harsh criticism of Trump and Trump supporters in the 2016 presidential election.

When asked about his disparaging remarks about Trump from 2016, Vance said that his opinion evolved during the early years of the presidents term.

You know what? Facts change, Vance said. I saw the corruption that exists in this country. I saw Donald Trump as the only person in either party fighting against it, and Ive been a huge supporter of Trump for the past several years.

Sources close to Trump said that he spent days before April 15 talking to donors and advisers gauging their thoughts about supporting Vance.

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, Trump said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) and PayPal founder Peter Thiel (C) listen as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with technology industry leaders at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Thiel, who is 54, announced in February that he was stepping down from the board of Facebook parent Meta to back Trump-aligned candidates in the midterms.

Thiel also gave $10 million to support Blake Masters in his GOP U.S. Senate race in Arizona.

Vance once worked at one of Thiels venture capital funds while Masters is Chief Operating Officer of Thiel Capital and president of The Thiel Foundation.

A close Trump ally, Thiel has accompanied Masters and Vance to separate meetings with the former president. Thiels support has also helped both candidates generate backing from Silicon Valley-based donors who traditionally refrain from supporting Republicans.
President Donald Trump speaks with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 22, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trump Says Relationship With McCarthy Not Damaged by Call

Former President Donald Trump says his connection with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was not damaged by the release of a call that showed McCarthy saying he would recommend Trump step down from office if impeached after the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he was not happy when he learned of McCarthys comments, which were made on a call with colleagues. But McCarthy never advised him to resign, Trump also said, alleging McCarthy shifted his view when he found out the facts.

I think its all a big compliment, frankly, Trump said of McCarthy and others who later came to back him. They realized they were wrong and supported me.

The ex-president declined to say whether he supports McCarthy for speaker. Republicans hope to flip the lower chamber in the upcoming midterm elections, and McCarthy is currently the top-ranking Republican in the House.

McCarthy has not responded to requests for comment on the call.

The New York Times initially reported on what the minority leader said during the Jan. 10, 2021, meeting, prompting McCarthy to describe the reporting totally false and wrong.

The paper then released audio of the call.

McCarthy told a reporter on Friday night that he never asked the president to resign and that he just walked through different scenarios on the call.

He also said he stood by his earlier statement, in which he also said that President Joe Bidens time in office has proven that our country was better off when President Trump was in the White House.

Rather than address the real issues facing Americans, the corporate media is more concerned with profiting from manufactured political intrigue from politically-motivated sources, he added.

In the wake of the Capitol breach, McCarthy on Jan. 13, 2021, said Trump bears responsibility for what happened, alleging that the former president should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. He floated censuring Trump, rather than impeaching him.

McCarthy voted against the impeachment. Trump ended up being acquitted by the Senate after he left office.

On Jan. 21, 2021, McCarthy told reporters that Trump did not provoke the crowd in Washington, if you listened to what he said at the rally.

Trump urged supporters before the breach to fight like hell but also told them to remain peaceful when they marched to the Capitol. After the breach, he called for people to leave the building.

About a week after McCarthys briefing, the minority leader traveled to meet with Trump in Florida. Trumps political action committee said the meeting was good and cordial while McCarthy said Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022.

Joseph Lord and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
An image of former President Donald Trump next to a phone screen that is displaying the Truth Social app in Washington, on Feb. 21, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Truth Social Migrates to Rumble Cloud, Trump Platform Preparing to Onboard Millions

Former U.S. President Donald Trumps social media platformTruth Socialmigrated to Rumble Cloud on April 22 as it attempts to onboard millions of internet users on the network.

Truth Social, created by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), successfully migrated its website and mobile applications to Rumbles cloud infrastructure, according to an April 22 news release.

This migration will ensure that the network can easily scale significantly on a cancel-culture-free cloud platform, the release said.

Truth Social is the first significant customer to onboard Rumbles cloud business service.

Devin Nunes, CEO of TMTG, said the migration was a major stride toward rescuing the internet from the grip of the Big Tech tyrants.

Our teams have worked tirelessly to realize this great endeavor, Nunes said. Rumbles cloud infrastructure is second to none and will be the backbone for the restoration of free speech online for ages to come.

This illustration photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for Truth Socialowned by Trump Media & Technology Groupwith its website on a computer screen in the background, in Los Angeles, Oct. 20, 2021. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)

Following the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, Twitter banned Trump from their platform, blaming him for inciting violence even though the former president never openly called for such actions. In October, Trump announced that he was planning on launching his own tech company.

I created Truth Social  to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech, he said. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter yet your favorite American president has been silenced.

Truth Social was launched on Presidents Day, Feb. 21, 2022.

Shortly after its release, it became the most popular social media platform on Apples App Store. However six weeks into the launch, the platform was beset with several technical problems.

In early April, roughly 1.42 million people were placed on a waitlist as they were unable to register.

During its initial days, the app was downloaded 170,000 times daily. But this fizzled down to 8,000 per day by late March. It is the 51st most downloaded app in the social networking category.

In its April report, Kerrisdale Capital argued that Truth Socials disaster of a launch and multiple other red flags at TMTG raise valid concerns about the companys long-term viability.

DWACs stock has much further to fall given the demonstrably misleading statements in DWACs registration statement, the status of TMTGs operations at the time the merger agreement was executed, the cast of characters seeking to consummate that merger and those individuals flagrant disregard for SEC rules and regulations, the report said.

The Kerrisdale report also came with a disclaimer saying that at the time of the reports publication that Kerrisdale had short positions in shares of DWAC. Kerrisdale stands to realize gains in the event the price of DWAC shares decrease, the disclaimer added.
A Twitter logo is seen outside the company headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2021. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

Twitter Bans Ads That Contradict the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change

Twitter is prohibiting advertisers from running ads that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change, the company announced on April 22.

The clampdown on such ads aligns with the companys policy on inappropriate content, which bans ads using misleading content, two Twitter officials said in a blog post.

We believe that climate denialism shouldnt be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldnt detract from important conversations about the climate crisis, Sean Boyle, Twitters director of sustainability, and Casey Junod, the companys global sustainability manager, said.

The new approach was said to be informed by authoritative sources. The only source cited was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body.

The announcement was made on Earth Day, a holiday aimed at promoting awareness of the environment.

Climate change refers to the shift in temperatures and other changes in weather over time. According to the IPCC, global temperatures rose about 1.98 degrees Fahrenheit from 1901 to 2020.

Scientists and others who have studied the climate diverge over how much of an impact humans have had on the changing climate.

Twitters new policy drew support from some, and criticism from others.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, for instance, called the move good news.

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist, though, in a nod to how many predictions of climate change have been wrong, wondered whether doomerism or apocalyptic info would also be banned.

Google and Pinterest previously imposed bans on certain content, including posts that refer to climate change as a hoax or a scam.

Twitters new policy comes as it tries to fend off a takeover bid from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has said his goal in buying the company and taking it private is to fulfill its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it, he said at the time.

Musk has not commented yet on the climate change policy.

Twitter, launched in 2006, originally performed only light moderation of posts, but has increasingly censored content and ads concerning a variety of topics, including President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden, election irregularities, and biology.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect honor guards at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2019. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

US to Respond Accordingly If Solomon IslandsChina Pact Permits Military Base

The United States has warned the leadership of the Solomon Islands that Washington will respond accordingly if China is allowed to install a military base on the Pacific nation under the terms of the Solomon IslandsChina security pact.

A high-level U.S. delegation has met with Solomon Islands leaders in Honiara and raised concerns about the purpose and transparency of the agreement, the White House stated on April 22.

According to its statement, Solomon Islands officials said the security deal was solely for domestic applications, but the U.S. delegation said it posed potential regional security implications for Washington and its allies.

If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly, it stated.

The White House didnt specify how the United States would respond.

U.S. National Security Councils Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell (L) leaves after a meeting with Solomon Islands opposition leader Mathew Wale (R) in Honiara on April 22, 2022. (Mavis Podokolo/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.S. delegation was led by Kurt Campbell, the National Security Councils Indo-Pacific coordinator, and Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

The White House stated that Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has reassured that no military base, long-term presence, or power projection capability would be permitted under the agreement with China.

The United States emphasized that it will follow developments closely in consultation with regional partners, the White House said.

During the meeting, the Solomon Islands agreed with Washingtons proposal to open a high-level strategic dialogue to address mutual concerns and drive practical progress, the White House stated.

It noted that Washington will also expedite the opening of a U.S. embassy in the Solomon Islands, dispatch the Mercy hospital ship to address public health, deliver additional vaccines, and advance initiatives on people-to-people ties.

Both sides agreed to discuss in greater detail security issues of mutual concern, economic and social development, public health, and finance and debt, the White House said.

The Solomon IslandsChina security deal, which was signed last week, triggered alarms in the United States and among its allies that Beijing may use the accord to establish a military presence in the region and destabilize the Indo-Pacific.

According to a leaked draft of the agreement, Beijing would be able to dispatch police, troops, weapons, and even naval shipswith the consent of the Solomonsto protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in the Solomon Islands.

The location of the Solomon Islands is critical; it was the scene of extensive fighting during World War II because of its influence over sea lanes. The security deal would expand Beijings reach beyond the South China Sea to within 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles) of Australias northern city of Cairns.

On April 18, the United States convened a meeting with officials of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, during which they expressed concerns about the SolomonsChina deal. The White House expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and unspecified nature of the agreement.

Daniel Y. Teng contributed to this report.
Corolla Cross is the best-selling imported car of Toyota in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Toyota

Japanese brands, including Toyota and Mitsubishi, were the biggest sellers among imported cars in Q1.

Toyota sold 11,661 completely built units, while Mitsubishi imported 7,797.

They were followed by Honda, Mazda and Suzuki.

Last year, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Suzuki sold the most imported cars, with Toyota alone selling more than half of all imported cars.

Fifteen out of 17 models Toyota sells are imported from Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. The sedan Vios and SUV Innova are assembled locally, while the SUV Fortuner is both assembled and imported.

Mitsubishi also imports most of its models, with the popular MPV Xpander, imported from Indonesia, accounting for 53 percent of its total imports sold last year.

The remaining models, like the pickup truck Triton and sedan Attrage, are imported from Thailand.

Suzuki and Isuzu also import from Thailand and Indonesia.

Nearly 7,000 Mazda cars, distributed by Truong Hai Auto Corporation, were imported from Thailand last year. This accounted for 26 percent of total Mazda sales in Vietnam.

Honda has its two main models City and CR-V assembled locally and imports the rest.

Ford has recently started assembling its pickup truck Ranger model in Vietnam while the other models SUV Everest and SUV Explorer are imported from Thailand and the U.S. respectively.

Some luxury brands like Volkswagen, Audi and BWM only import completely built units.

Kia, Hyundai and VinFast only assemble.
The Digital Media Arts Center at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

USC Officials Unaware of Approvals Related to Film Shoot That Killed Chapman Student in Crash

Following the death of a Chapman University cinematography student, who was killed April 15 in a dune buggy accident in the Imperial County desert during a University of Southern California (USC) student film project, officials said the students did not follow safety protocols.

Peng Wang, a third-year graduate student, was partially ejected from a 2022 dune buggy in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area located in the southeast corner of California when the vehicle overturned while driving along the side of a sand dune.

Peng was a beloved member of the Chapman film school community, and he will be greatly missed, a spokesperson from Chapman University told The Epoch Times. Because this was not a Chapman-related or organized film shoot, we have very little information and are relying on USC to keep us informed.

Wang volunteered as a cinematographer on the production with three other students from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

All three USC students involved in the crash survived, with no significant injuries reported.

The School of Cinematic Arts has extensive safety protocols and requirements that apply to all student productions, USC spokesman Jeremy Pepper told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. Under our policies, any shoot taking place more than 50 miles away from our campus, or involving the use of all-terrain vehicles, would have required very specific approvals from the school.

Pepper said the University is unaware of any such approvals having been requested or provided in this tragic matter.

According to USCs film schools Safety Rules for Student Productions, students must always wear seatbelts while driving, and projects filmed outside the Los Angeles zone must have law enforcement present.

Students who violate those rules will face a disciplinary committee of peers and faculty members and could receive a lowered or failing grade and have their film confiscated.

While the investigation is still ongoing, California Highway Patrol officials said the students were not under the influence at the time of the accident.

Wang was an award-winning student filmmaker and scheduled to graduate with a Masters Degree in May 2022.

Due to student privacy laws, USC declined to provide further comment.
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP)  More than a month after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recommended closing down four New Mexico VA clinics, including the one in Las Vegas, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, as well as Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, were in town to speak to local veterans as they fight to keep them open.

On March 14, the VA announced recommendations, following years of analysis, that would lead to the closure of community-based outreach clinics in Las Vegas, Espanola, Raton and Gallup, forcing veterans in those areas to seek treatment elsewhere, specifically at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, nearly two hours away from the current clinic in Las Vegas. In total, it was recommended that 174 local clinics, across all 50 states, close.

Though the process of actually following through on these recommendations, and potentially closing the local clinics, will be a long one, potentially taking years, lawmakers are wasting no time getting in front of veterans and letting them tell their stories in the hopes that personal accounts will sway the VA.

Dont feel like you need to convince me that it needs to stay open, Heinrich said Tuesday as he spoke to a room full of veterans at the Las Vegas VFW Post 1547. What I need from you is to arm me with the stories of what its like to live in a community and to need help where you are, and why its unreasonable to have to drive to Albuquerque.

More than 50 veterans attended at least one of the two meetings with the senators this week. the Las Vegas Optic reported. Many of them shared stories and detailed how losing access to their local clinic would impact them. Among the most vocal in attendance at Heinrichs event was Bob Phillips, who spoke at length about the challenges he would face.

Phillips, who struggles with various back and knee issues, said traveling the long distance regularly to Albuquerque would do nothing to improve his current situation.

Driving to Albuquerque is not comfortable, Phillips said. And the older you get, the harder it gets.

He also said he feels, based on this ruling as well as several of his personal experiences, that veterans like him are not seen as a priority when it comes to healthcare.

The feeling that I get is, why are veterans at the bottom of the healthcare system? Phillips said. I served my country, Ive paid my taxes, and I have to fight like heck to get healthcare.

The VA made its recommendations earlier this year based on the decline that local VA clinics in rural New Mexico have seen over the past five years. That includes a 55% decline in unique patients at the Las Vegas clinic, with more decline expected over the next decade, according to the VAs recommendation.

However, Heinrich believes the statistics used in the report dont take into account the current reality, as many numbers used are from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Lujan in his meeting with veterans at New Mexico Highlands University on Wednesday said that across New Mexico, 32 of the 33 counties in the state are facing healthcare staffing shortages, making it more difficult for individuals, and especially veterans, to access the care they need.

It doesnt sound to me like we should be closing off even more access to care, Lujan said.

Heinrich, Lujan and Leger Fernandez wrote a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough last week, inviting him to visit New Mexico and meet with the veterans himself to get a better understanding of how important these clinics are to people living in rural areas.

In the letter, the states elected officials ask the VA to reconsider its recommendations because of the impact the decision would have on rural veterans access to healthcare, due to travel and increased wait times from all of New Mexicos veterans being forced into one centralized location.

The officials also said the decision does not take into account the increased healthcare worker shortages caused by the pandemic and how the lack of broadband access, specifically in rural areas, would prevent telemedicine from being as realistic as it may be elsewhere.

All VA recommendations must be approved by an AIR Commission, appointed by President Joe Biden. The president is tasked with nominating individuals to the commission, all of whom must be approved by the Senate. The recommendations also must be approved by the president and Congress.

Heinrich stressed that they are just now at the beginning of a years-long process, and nothing has been officially decided. But he told the veterans he met with that he would continue to fight to keep the clinic open as long as it takes.

Lujan detailed the process that will take place. By Jan. 31, 2023, the commission must make a determination on the recommendations. The recommendations will then go to the president, and then to Congress, which will have the final say. Even if approved by Congress, it would take several years for everything to be finalized, according to Lujan.

Nothing is happening today, tomorrow or next week, but we want to make sure we keep pushing forward, Lujan said.

Phillips said keeping the clinic alive is important to him for his own sake, but especially for those that will come after him  the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom are not yet seeking frequent care from the VA, but likely will be in the years to come.

There is not one of us here that wants to see that close because it needs to be there for the next generation of veterans that come along, Phillips said. I think anyone who lays down their life to serve this country and protect it deserves, and has earned the right, to be taken care of.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  When the waves wash trash onto the beaches of front-line South Korean islands, Kang Dong Wan can often be found hunting for what he calls his treasure  rubbish from North Korea that provides a peek into a place thats shut down to most outsiders.

This can be very important material because we can learn what products are manufactured in North Korea and what goods people use there, Kang, 48, a professor at South Koreas Dong-A University, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

He was forced to turn to the delicate information-gathering method because COVID-19 has made it much harder for outsiders to find out whats going on inside North Korea, one of the worlds most cloistered nations even without pandemic border closures.

The variety, amount and increasing sophistication of the trash, he believes, confirms North Korean state media reports that leader Kim Jong Un is pushing for the production of various kinds of consumer goods and a bigger industrial design sector to meet the demands of his people and improve their livelihoods.

Kim, despite his authoritarian rule, cannot ignore the tastes of consumers who now buy products at capitalist-style markets because the countrys socialist public rationing system is broken and its economic woes have worsened during the pandemic.

Current North Korean residents are a generation of people whove come to realize what the market and economy are. Kim cant win their support if he only suppresses and controls them while sticking to a nuclear development program, Kang said. He needs to show there are some changes in his era.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Kang regularly visited Chinese border towns to meet North Koreans staying there. He also bought North Korean products and photographed North Korean villages across the river border. He cant go there anymore, however, because Chinas anti-virus restrictions limit foreign travelers.

Since September 2020, Kang has visited five South Korean border islands off the countrys west coast and collected about 2,000 pieces of North Korean trash including snack bags, juice pouches, candy wrappers and drink bottles.

Kang said he was amazed to see dozens of different kinds of colorful packaging materials, each for certain products like seasonings, ice cream bars, snack cakes and milk and yogurt products. Many carry a variety of graphic elements, cartoon characters and lettering fonts. Some still can seem out of date by Western standards and are apparent copycats of South Korean and Japanese designs.

Kang recently published a book based on his work titled Picking up North Korean Trash on the Five West Sea Islands. He said hes now also started to scour eastern South Korean front-line beaches.

Other experts study the diversity of goods and packaging designs in North Korea through state media broadcasts and publications, but Kangs trash collection allows a more thorough analysis, said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea.

Kangs work also opens up a fascinating window into North Korea.

Ingredient information on some juice pouches, for instance, shows North Korea uses tree leaves as a sugar substitute. Kang suspects thats because of a lack of sugar and sugar-processing equipment.

He said the discovery of more than 30 kinds of artificial flavor enhancer packets could mean that North Korean households cannot afford more expensive natural ingredients like meat and fish to cook Korean soups and stews. Many South Koreans have stopped using them at home over health concerns.

Plastic bags for detergents have phrases like the friend of housewives or accommodating women. Because the assumption is that only women do such work, it could be a reflection of the low status of women in male-dominated North Korean society.

Some wrappers display extremely exaggerated claims. One says that a walnut-flavored snack cake is a better source of protein than meat. Another says that collagen ice cream makes children grow taller and enhances skin elasticity. And yet another claims that a snack cake made with a certain kind of microalgae prevents diabetes, heart disease and aging.

Kang has been unable to verify the quality of former contents inside his trash.

North Korean snacks and cookies have generally become much softer and tastier in recent years, though their quality still lags behind that of South Koreas internationally competitive products, according to Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seouls Konkuk University.

Noh Hyun-jeong, a North Korean defector, said she was ecstatic about the South Korean bread and cakes that she ate after her arrival here in 2007. She said the confectionaries and candies she had in the North were often bitter and as hard as a rock.

Kang Mi-Jin, another defector who runs a company analyzing North Koreas economy, said that when she had South Koreans try new North Korean cookies and candies in blind taste tests, they thought they were South Korean. But Ahn, the website head, said the North Korean cookie he obtained in 2019 was tasteless.

Kang said his trash collection is an attempt to better understand the North Korean people and study how to bridge the gap between the divided Koreas in the event of future unification.

In 2019, Kang said he was denied entry at Shanghais airport, apparently because of his earlier, mostly unauthorized work along the China-North Korea border. During a previous period of inter-Korean detente that ended in 2008, Kang said he visited North Korea more than 10 times but could only buy limited goods that didnt help him understand the country.

Picking up trash on the islands, about 4-20 kilometers (2.5-12 miles) from North Korean territory, is a tough job. He most often visits Yeonpyeong, an island shelled by North Korea in an attack that killed four South Koreans in 2010.

On some trips, South Korean marines quizzed Kang because residents who saw him collecting trash thought he was doing something suspicious. He was sometimes stranded when ferry services were canceled because of bad weather. Kang said he occasionally cried in frustration on the beach when he failed to find North Korean trash or received calls from acquaintances jeering or doubting his work.

But I was heartened after collecting more and more trash ... and I determined that I must find out how many goods are in a country where we cant go and what we can find from that trash, Kang said. When the wind blew and the waves ran high, something always washed ashore and I was so happy because I could find something new.
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MEXICO CITY (AP)  The haunting story of a young woman left on the side of a highway late at night in northern Mexico ended in sorrow, with her decomposing body found in a subterranean water tank at a motel.

Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said Friday that the woman's body  apparently unrecognizable after what may have been nearly two weeks in the water  had a crucifix necklace and clothing that Debanhi Escobar was wearing the night she disappeared.

Despite what authorities in the border state of Nuevo Leon described as a massive search for her, the story ended the way it often does in Mexico: when her body was found by local people.

The alert was sounded by hotel workers, because of the fetid odors coming from the area, Mejia said.

State prosecutors later said they had confirmed the body was Escobar's.

Escobar's case made headlines because of a haunting photo taken by a driver who was supposed to take her home that night. It was not clear why she got out of the car, but her father, Mario Escobar, said prosecutors told him that surveillance camera footage suggested the driver inappropriately touched his daughter.

I suppose that my daughter did not put up with the harassment, the father said. The driver has been questioned, though his full name has not been released. Mario Escobar said while the driver may not have killed her, he was responsible for his daughter's death.

The driver, who worked for a taxi app, took the photo to show Debanhi, 18, got out of his car alive April 8 on the outskirts of the city of Monterrey. There she was, a young woman standing alone at night on the side of a highway, wearing a skirt and high-top sneakers.

The image seemed to speak of the tremendous vulnerability, and the self-assuredness  or desperation  of the young woman.

Nobody saw her until late Thursday, when investigators managed to pull her body from the 12-foot (4-meter) deep water tank near a pool at the roadside motel.

Mario Escobar said The prosecutors didn't do their job correctly.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday the case has caused, logically, a lot of worry, a lot of concern among Mexicans.

Critics are disturbed by the fact that even when authorities are spurred to act by public outcry, investigations are seldom very timely or efficient.

During the week that investigators said 200 personnel used drones, search dogs and reviews of security camera footage to look for Debanhi, her body was actually lying not far from where she had been last seen.

Killings of women have increased in recent years in Mexico, rising from 977 cases in 2020 to 1,015 in 2021. And those were just cases classified as feminicides a legal term used in Mexico when women are killed because of their gender. Killings of women overall are much higher.

Disappearances of women are also high, with about 1,600 reported missing so far this year. Officials say 829 of them are still listed as missing, and 16 were found dead.

Just before Debanhi Escobar disappeared, another women was slain in Monterrey, Maria Fernanda Contreras, 27. A suspect  apparently, a friend or acquaintance of the woman  has been arrested.

During the week authorities were searching for Escobar, local media reported that the bodies of five other women and girls had been found in the state. The victims had all been reported missing around the same time as Debanhi. Four were 16 or younger.

Later, the head of the state Search Commission, Mary Balderas, said the reports were wrong. She said all five young women had been found alive.

Angelica Orozco, who leads the relatives group United Forces for Our Disappeared in Nuevo Leon state, said the problem is not only that authorities are slow to investigate and do it badly, but that they also tend to blame the victims.

The first thing is that they don't carry out diligent investigations or searches, and the second thing are the statements issued by authorities, in some cases linking them to illegal activities, Orozco said.

She was particularly disturbed when the Nuevo Leon state prosecutor, Gustavo Guerrero, said Thursday that most women disappear voluntarily, or as an act of rebellion.

The main reason for the disappearances of women is because of a lack of communication with their families, because of disputes with them, because of the rebellion of young people, Guerrero said. The range of age of most of the women who disappear is from 14 to 25, but it's not due to a crime, but rather is a voluntary situation."

That view was disputed by Maria de la Luz Estrada of the activist group National Feminicide Observatory, who said it has become a depressing pattern that when women disappear, they turn up dead.

It's very serious and lamentable, Estrada said of Escobar's case, but that has been the pattern in recent years, disappearances become crimes like feminicide.

Nor is the problem limited to Nuevo Leon. Authorities in another border state, Sonora, have so many disappeared women  and men  that state prosecutors there announced they are sending mobile labs to three cities to collect mass DNA samples from relatives of the missing to help identify bodies found there.
People gather in front of St. Josephs Cathedral of Hanoi during the Christmas holiday in 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Lan Huong

The Vatican and Vietnam have agreed to upgrade their relations, which have been slowly improving since a total break after the Vietnam War nearly half a century ago.

A joint working group agreed at its latest meeting in Hanoi that in the near future relations would be upgraded to the level of residential representatives in both Hanoi and Rome, a Vatican statement said on Friday.

This would be one step short of full diplomatic relations with ambassadors, which have been the stated aim of the talks since they began in 2009.

There are about seven million Catholics in Vietnam out of population of about 97 million. Most Vietnamese practice folk religions or Buddhism.
The 32nd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa being held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, starts from 11 to 14 April 2022

A promising transformation has already started in Africas farmlands. Family farmers are increasingly using innovative approaches and scientific research, combined with traditional knowledge, to increase the productivity of their fields, diversify their crops, boost their nutrition, and build climate resilience.

This shift can go much further with the addition of digital tools, increased links to markets, and greater efficiency along agrifood chains, especially if the private sector and national policies also support the effort.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), along with a broad range of partners, is working to promote the African continent to make Africas agrifood systems more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable.

For this transformation to be achieved, African countries must be in the drivers seat.

From 11 to 14 April 2022, representatives from more than 50 African countries will come together at the 32nd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to define regional priorities for agrifood systems transformation on the continent.

The conference comes at a time when 281 million people in Africa do not have enough food to eat each day, nearly three-quarters of the African population cannot afford nutritious food, and drought threatens lives and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, countries are still grappling with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like the tall ceiba tree on Equatorial Guineas national flag, which grows around the island of Malabo, we too must stand tall in the face of Africas many simultaneous and overlapping challenges. We will hold the four-day high-level meeting in the same venue where leaders of the African Union member countries first committed to transform the African agriculture sector to end hunger in Africa by 2025.

Time is running out. Without extraordinary efforts by every African country, it will be difficult to meet these aspirations and the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Digitalization and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can be game changers in this extraordinary effort. At FAO, we see digitalization as a core element of rural development. Our 1000 Digital Villages initiative is currently being piloted in seven African countries. It aims to equip communities with digital tools and services to fast-track rural transformation and wellbeing. Through this initiative, FAO has already supported countries in using digital tools to create electronic land registries and apps for pest and disease management, including extension services reaching the last mile farmers.

In the same way, the AfCFTA can radically transform Africas rural prosperity. This regional single market, covering 1.2 billion consumers, is a major opportunity to boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and broaden economic inclusion. Swift national implementation, taking into account women and youth, will see this opportunity benefit all.

Indeed, African countries already have a suite of instruments to speed up transformation of agrifood systems and rural development. Chief among them is the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)  the continent-wide initiative led by African countries to end hunger and reduce poverty through agricultural development.

I welcome the African countries recent renewed commitment to accelerate CAADP implementation towards achieving the Malabo commitments. FAO stands ready to support this work, including strengthening the quality of data used to measure progress as part of the CAADP biennial review.

Other existing instruments to accelerate progress include the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which provides a common framework for African stakeholders to build integrated infrastructure to boost trade and jobs; the African Union Climate Change Strategy that aims at achieving the Agenda 2063 Vision by building the resilience of the continent to the negative impacts of climate change; the Science Technology Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA), which can have enormous benefits for agriculture; and Boosting Intra African Trade to make trade a development driver.

African ownership and African leadership in all of these is vital.

These issues and more will be at the core of the 32nd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa. Ministerial roundtables will focus on the policy priorities needed to address and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on African agrifood systems; investing in ecosystem restoration in Africa for agrifood systems transformation; promoting trade and investment under the AfCFTA; and ensuring that women, youth, and rural farmers are included in the continents agrifood systems.

I invite policy makers, civil society organizations, research institutions, the private sector, donor partners, and all stakeholders interested in Africas transformation by innovation in agriculture to follow the proceedings.

Underpinning the discussions will be the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, which supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and sets out our roadmap for achieving the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

Central to delivering on these objectives are FAOs flagship initiatives, such as the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, which identifies gaps in rural transformation and matches countries with partners to deliver tangible results. It is supported by a geospatial data platform powered by FAOs wealth of data on key sectors.

So far, 27 African countries have joined this global initiative. I encourage more countries in Africa to take part and benefit from this unique opportunity.

FAO also has recently launched the One Country One Priority Product initiative in Africa to support countries in developing sustainable value chains and reaching new markets.

Our new Green Cities Initiative, which integrates urban forestry and agriculture into local planning, is underway in several African cities. This makes for more sustainable cities and shorter routes for nutritious food to reach markets. All these initiatives are country-driven and country-owned, highlighting that action at the country level is critical.

Together we can transform Africas agriculture to achieve The Africa We Want.

Mr. Qu Dongyu is the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Follow the conference at FAOs webcast portal: www.fao.org/webcast

For more information on COVID-19, visit www.un.org/coronavirus

Africa Renewal
No fewer than 10 members of the Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) along with 300 cows have been reportedly abducted in Obene Community in Ogbaru local government area of Anambra State by suspected unknown gunmen.

The South East Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Gidado Siddiki who reported the incident, stated that the abductors have demanded N4m ransom and a gun from families of the victims.

Siddiki disclosed that the incident happened around 1.30am on Saturday, adding that the herders were attacked at their settlement while asleep and their animals were forcefully taken away by the bandits numbering about 40.

Stating that the bandits invaded the area with sophisticated weapons, guns, cutlasses, sticks and charms, Siddiki confirmed that the incident had been reported to security agencies.

In his words: As I speak to you now, I have reported the incident to the Police and DSS for prompt action.

While appealing to the kidnappers to free his members and cows with his words that the abductees were mere strugglers, Siddiki condemned the politicisation of the herdsmen and host communities conflict across the country.

He said the herdsmen were always accused of crime, even in situations where they were the victims of attack.

In his confirmation of the incident, the Anambra State Police spokesman, Ikenga Tochukwu, urged the leadership of Miyetti Allah in the State to provide more information that would enable the Police commence aggressive investigation into the matter.

He said: Yes, we are aware of the incident, but we want the Miyetti Allah leadership to supply us with more information, since the Kidnappers have established ransom contact with the victims families.

Assuring that the victims would be rescued from their captors, the spokesman advised the Miyetti Allah leadership not to take any action beyond civil manner.
Even Phuket farmers need tourism, Senator told

PHUKET: Even poor farmers in Phuket need tourism to lift their incomes above subsistence level, a senator on a fact-finding visit to the island was told yesterday (Apr 22).

tourismeconomicsCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Saturday 23 April 2022, 09:30AM

Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew (left) explained to Senator Somchai Sianglai that Phuket had lost 96% of its revenue from tourism, resulting in people being forced to live in acute poverty. Photo: PR Phuket

Senator Somchai Sianglai chaired a meeting at the old Phuket Provincial Hall on Thursday (Apr 21), where he was told that Phuket had lost 96% of its revenue from tourism, resulting in people being forced to live in acute poverty. Photo: PR Phuket

Senator Somchai Sianglai chaired a meeting at the old Phuket Provincial Hall on Thursday (Apr 21), where he was told that Phuket had lost 96% of its revenue from tourism, resulting in people being forced to live in acute poverty. Photo: PR Phuket

Villagers on Koh Maphrao tell Senator Somchai Sianglai yesterday (Apr 21) exactly what life has been like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo : PR Phuket

Villagers on Koh Maphrao tell Senator Somchai Sianglai yesterday (Apr 21) exactly what life has been like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo : PR Phuket

Senator Somchai Sianglai, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee for People in the Southern Provinces, heard the news first-hand while talking with villagers on Koh Maphrao (Coconut Island), off Phukets east coast.

Koh Maphrao has an area of more than 2,000 rai. The island is home to some 180 households, and has a population of over 700 people.

Of note, Baan Koh Maphrao is one of the villages off Phuket that has needed the support of the One Phuket initiative and the Living Waters Phuket Foundation in providing Life Bags of essential household items to villagers in need. The island, under the administration of Koh Kaew Municipality, lies less than 500 metres off the east coast of Phuket.

Before the pandemic, 80% of the villagers on the island earned income from tourism due to the abundance of natural attractions, fresh seafood from fishing, the villagers explained at a meeting set up under the shade of a large tree beside one of the idyllic beaches on the island.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the people of the island suffered. Without tourism, the villagers had no market to sell their catch, produce and wares, Senator Somchai was told.

Baan Koh Maphrao is one of a handful of villages that was singled out for special support under a project launched by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew. The aim of the project was to help the island become sustainable through focussing on four aspects: the people, the islands economy, the infrastructure and the environment, explained Mukda Limnukulpattanakan.

Suban Rakthong, of the Phuket Provincial Agriculture Office, pointed out that his office had provided support through a B248,400 project to assist 52 farmers on the island by promoting their produce and increasing the efficiency of agricultural production.

The project included two prototype plots as learning centers so that people can develop them as supplementary occupations, he said.

Yet, the villagers still suffered under the current economic pressure, Senator Somchai heard yesterday.

Mr Somchai praised the efforts of the Coconut Island Model of self-reliance based on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. But from listening to the villagers, it was found that tourism has to support them. There is an obvious dependency, he said.

Therefore, it is recommended that government agencies prepare the data set based on the principles according to the needs of the villagers according to the current reality so we can create awareness of the situation, and we would like to see [government agencies] helping villagers in terms of community development and agriculture in Phuket, he said.

Mr Somchai did point out that the villagers had a specific advantage in how they continue to live their lives according to their traditional lifestyle.

Coconut Island can make a valuable difference, it has a valuable soft power, he said.

At a meeting at the old Provincial Hall on Narisorn Rd in Phuket Town on Thursday (Apr 21), Senator Somchai was especially welcomed to Phuket by Governor Narong so the senator could see first-hand the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on local livelihoods.

In 2019, Phuket province generated more than B442.9 billion in income from tourism. From the COVID-19 situation, that income [from tourism] has been reduced by more than 96%, causing people to suffer from acute poverty, Governor Narong said plainly.

Phuket Province must adjust its five-year provincial development plan to be in line with the 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan and the economic and social conditions to be able to continue living without relying on the one-way economy that comes from the tourism sector, Governor Narong said.

In addition, Phuket is ready to push Phuket to be the centre of not just tourism, but also education and service innovation at an international standard, and working towards sustainable development by upgrading the grassroots economy so that people have the chance to be aware of changes to their sources of income, he said.
Air tickets to tourist hotspots almost sold out for weekend holiday

Many flights and train tickets to tourist destinations during the Reunification Day and Labor Day holiday next weekend are nearly fully booked, with prices for remaining seats double the norm.

A survey by VnExpress found that flights at reasonable hours from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to popular tourist hotspots like Quy Nhon, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Da Lat and Con Dao Island have been sold out. Tickets for early morning and late-night flights are still available, but fares are double the norm.

On the Vietnam Airlines website, a one-way ticket from Hanoi to Phu Quoc Island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang on April 29 costs from VND4.1 million ($178.41) while business class tickets are nearly VND7 million.

On the afternoon of May 3, there were only a few seats left for the Phu Quoc-Hanoi route at the same price.

Vietjet Air stated there's no slots for the Hanoi-Phu Quoc route on April 30.

For the route from Hanoi to Con Dao, Bamboo Airways said flights that depart on April 30 and May 1 were fully booked two weeks ago.

On April 29, there were only a few one-way business class seats left at VND7.6 million per person.

On the Con Dao-Hanoi route on May 3, all five flights are full. On May 2 and 4, there are few seats left on early morning flights.

Last month, Vietnam Airlines announced an increase of 2,300 flights and 450,000 seats during the four-day holiday break (April 30-May 3) and said it has sold over 90 percent of all seats.

A representative of Bamboo Airways said travel demand increased quickly after the pandemic situation was brought under control and travel restrictions were lifted, with the number of passengers to exceed that in 2019.

The airline has recorded a seat occupancy rate on its domestic routes of 90-92 percent during the upcoming holiday.

Dinh Viet Thang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said the number of passengers traveling by air during the long holiday next week will increase by 25-30 percent against normal days and reach about 90-95 percent against the same period last year.

Regarding infrastructure at the countrys two busiest airports, two runways at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi that were closed for a few months for upgrades resumed operation from Saturday morning while the repaired runway at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC is expected to begin operation from April 27.

Noi Bai airport is expected to have the highest daily capacity of more than 500 flights and approximately 78,000-80,000 passengers, mainly domestic.

Authorities advise passengers to arrive at the airport two hours before flight time for domestic flights and three hours for international flights to avoid congestion.

On the ticket booking website of Vietnam Railways Corporation, train services from Hanoi to Hai Phong, famous for Lan Ha Bay, and Dong Hoi, near worlds largest cave Son Doong, are nearly sold out for April 30 while theres only a few return seats on May 3.

In the south, Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company said train services from HCMC to Phan Thiet and Nha Trang are full.

Some tourist hotspots like Vung Tau, Phu Quoc Island in the south, Da Lat in the Central Highlands and Sa Pa in the northern highlands are both expected to see huge crowds during the next weekend holiday.

Vietnam's domestic tourism has been recovering after two years of Covid. Crowds overran tourist hotspots during the Lunar New Year holiday in February and Hung Kings festival two weeks ago.

Currently, there are no longer any travel restrictions for domestic tourism.
Holiday-goers flock to Bai Sau, a popular beach town in the southern beach town Vung Tau, on April 30, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Dang Khoa

Hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected to flock to Da Lat and Vung Tau during the Reunification Day and Labor Day holiday next weekend, with most accommodation facilities already booked up.

Da Lat, a popular town characterized by its year-round cool climate in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, expects to receive 180,000 tourists during the four-day break that will begin next Saturday, up 135 percent year-on-year.

Hotel room occupancy is expected to reach over 90 percent and most three-to-five-star hotels in downtown Da Lat are already full.

Room rates during the upcoming holiday also increased by 30 percent compared to normal days. Currently, Da Lat has more than 29,000 rooms that can serve around 50,000 tourists a day.

In the south, Vung Tau beach town is predicted to become one of the hottest travel destinations during the holiday break.

Trinh Hang, director of the provincial Department of Tourism, said the province expects to receive 160,000 tourists during the holiday, double compared to the three-day Hung Kings festival.

On major hotel booking sites like Booking.com and Traveloka, over 70 percent of mid-range hotels in Vung Tau have been fully booked.

Room prices in some hotels in the downtown area have doubled against normal days, at around VND2.3 million ($100.41) a day.

Some other tourist hotspots like Phu Quoc Island in the south and Sa Pa in the northern highlands cannot escape the holiday tourism boom either. Nearly 90 percent of three-to-five-star hotel rooms have been booked a week ahead of the holiday.

Vietnam's domestic tourism has been recovering after two years of Covid. Crowds overran tourist hotspots during the Lunar New Year holiday in February and Hung Kings festival two weeks ago.

Currently, there are no longer any travel restrictions for domestic tourism.

The frequency of searches for domestic flights and accommodation facilities this month have increased 44 percent year-on-year, according to data from Google's Destination Insights.
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ALTON  On Friday, students, teachers, and public figures gathered near the playground of East Elementary in Alton to celebrate the ribbon cutting ceremony for the East Outdoor Classroom. The classroom serves as pavilion with picnic tables and located next to the school's Butterfly Garden.

Jen Herring, a fifth grade teacher at the school, said that this project was a collaborative effort between various community partners and resources.

"There are so many benefits to an outdoor classroom," Herring said. "Research has shown that students are happier and learn better when they spend time outdoors."

According to Herring, when environmental education is integrated into curriculums, students achieve higher scores in areas like math, science and reading.

"I've already been hearing student, including my very own son, express their excitement to be able to finally come outside and learn," Herring said. "

"Sam (Herring's son) even said to me last night 'I can't wait to go outside to do math,'" Herring said.

Joining the was The National Education Association President Becky Pringle and Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin.

A middle school science teacher with 31 years of classroom experience, Pringle expressed her excitement for the outdoor classroom.

"It is our shared responsibility to make sure that when say every single one of our students will have what they need and deserve, we mean every," Pringle said. "That's what this community is about."

Being a science teacher herself, Pringle said that she was "thrilled" with the concept.

"Every single school should have an opportunity for outdoor learning right out in their backyard," she said. "All science connects to their world and it is essential for them to see how that happens every single day. These students here at East will get to do that."
JERSEYVILLE  Jersey/Calhoun Employment and Training are hosting an open house and ribbon cutting next month in celebration of their offices new location.

The new location at 120 West Pearl Street in Jerseyville will serve job seekers and businesses in Jersey and Calhoun counties

We are excited about our new office and look forward to working with people on the tools and skills they need to prepare or move up in the world of work, Jersey County Career Services Coordinator Carolyn Taviner said.

To celebrate the new location the open house will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3.

The community is invited to come tour our new office and get more information on the services we offer, Taviner said.

In July 2019 Jersey and Calhoun counties joined Madison and Bond counties as part of one of the states economic development regions.

At the Madison County Employment and Training Director Tony Fuhrmann has called it a win-win for all the counties involved.

The change stemmed from a 2016 audit the economic development agencies showed that Jersey and Calhoun counties needed to join the southern group. The switch was originally expected to take place several years later, but was fast-tracked.

Staff assists the public on job search activities, resume writing and exploring education and training options. Businesses can receive assistance with employee recruitment, training, upskilling and retention.

State, county and municipal and other officials  State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, Jersey County Board Chairman Don Little, Jerseyville Mayor Billy Russel and Local Workforce Board Chairman Paul Wellhausen  will cut the ribbon and 3 p.m. to officially open the office to the public.

During the event, door prizes will be available to attendees. Jersey/Calhoun area businesses that leave a business card or promotional material will be put in a drawing for free social media promotion, through the Madison County Employment and Training Social Media Network.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the Open House, Taviner said.

Some information provided by reporter Scott Cousins
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  When abuses were reported in recent weeks in Mali  fake graves designed to discredit French forces; a massacre of some 300 people, mostly civilians  all evidence pointed to the shadowy mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group.

Even before these feared professional soldiers joined the assault on Ukraine, Russia had deployed them to under-the-radar military operations across at least half a dozen African countries. Their aim: to further President Vladimir Putin's global ambitions, and to undermine democracy.

The Wagner Group passes itself off as a private military contractor and the Kremlin denies any connection to it or even, sometimes, that it exists.

But Wagner's commitment to Russian interests has become apparent in Ukraine, where its fighters, seen wearing the group's chilling white skull emblem, are among the Russian forces currently attacking eastern Ukraine.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Wagner has gained substantial footholds for Russia in Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali. Wagner's role in those countries goes way beyond the cover story of merely providing a security service, experts say.

"They essentially run the Central African Republic," and are a growing force in Mali, Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of U.S. armed forces in Africa, told a Senate hearing last month.

The United States identifies Wagners financer as Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who is close to the Russian president and sometimes is called Putins chef" for his flashy restaurants favored by the Russian leader. He was charged by the U.S. government with trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the Wagner Group is the subject of U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Russia's game plan for Africa, where it has applied its influence as far north as Libya and as far south as Mozambique, is straightforward in some ways, say analysts. It seeks alliances with regimes or juntas shunned by the West or facing insurgencies and internal challenges to their rule.

The African leaders get recognition from the Kremlin and military muscle from Wagner. They pay for it by giving Russia prime access to their oil, gas, gold, diamonds and valuable minerals.

Russia also gains positions on a strategically important continent.

But there's another objective of Russia's hybrid war in Africa, said Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Siegle said Russia is also waging an ideological battle, using Wagner as a coercive tool" to undermine Western ideas of democracy and turn countries toward Moscow. Putin wants to challenge the international democratic order because Russia can't compete very well in that order, Siegle said.

If democracy is held up as the ultimate aspirational governance model, then that is constraining for Russia," Siegle said.

Rather, Wagner promotes Russian interests with soldiers and guns, but also through propaganda and disinformation, as Prigozhin has done for Putin before.

In Central African Republic, Wagner fighters ride around the capital Bangui in unmarked military vehicles and guard the country's gold and diamond mines. They have helped to hold off armed rebel groups and to keep President Faustin-Archange Touadera in power, but their reach goes much further. Russian national Valery Zakharov is Touadera's national security advisor but also a key figure in Wagner's command structure, according to European Union documents accusing the mercenary group of serious human rights violations.

A statue erected last year in Bangui depicts Russian soldiers standing side by side to protect a woman and her children. Russia is cast as the country's savior and pro-Russia marches have been held in support of the war in Ukraine and to criticize former security partner France  though several protesters said they are paid.

A Central African adage says that when someone helps you, you have to reciprocate. This is why we have mobilized as one to support Russia, said Didacien Kossimatchi, an official in Touadera's political party. Russia has absolved us of the unacceptable domination of the West."

Kossimatchi said Russia was acting in self-defense in Ukraine.

Such support from African countries is a strategic success for Russia. When the United Nations voted on a resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine, 17 of the 35 countries that abstained from the vote  nearly half  were African. Several other African nations did not register a vote.

Africa is fast becoming crucial to Putins efforts to dilute the influence of the United States and its international alliances, said a report in March by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit set up by the former British prime minister.

Russia's strategy in Africa comes at a minimal cost economically and politically. Analysts estimate Wagner operates with only a few hundred to 2,000 mercenaries in a country. Many are ex-Russian military intelligence, Siegle said, but because it's a private force the Kremlin can deny responsibility for Wagner's actions.

The real price is paid by ordinary people.

The people of Central African Republic aren't more secure, said Pauline Bax, Africa Program deputy director of the International Crisis Group think tank. In fact, theres more violence and intimidation, she said.

France, the U.S. and human rights groups have accused Wagner mercenaries of extra-judicial killings of civilians in Central African Republic. A U.N. panel of experts said private military groups and "particularly the Wagner Group have violently harassed people and committed rape and sexual violence. They are just the latest accusations of serious abuses by the group.

Central African Republic in 2021 acknowledged serious human rights violations by Russians, which forced Russian ambassador Vladimir Titorenko to leave his post.

The Wagner group has responded with a charm offensive  creating films designed to please the public, sponsoring beauty pageants and distributing educational materials that promote Russias involvement in Africa. Russian is now being taught in universities.

Russia has taken its Central African Republic blueprint to Mali and elsewhere in Africa. In Mali, there has been an uprooting of democracy, said Aanu Adeoye, an analyst on Russia-Africa affairs at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

Following coups in 2020 and last year, France is withdrawing troops from its former colony that had been helping fight Islamic extremists since 2013. Wagner moved in, striking a security deal with Mali's new military junta, which then expelled the French ambassador and banned French TV stations. Tensions with the West have escalated. So has the violence.

Last month, Mali's army and foreign soldiers who witnesses suspected were Russian killed an estimated 300 men in the rural town of Moura. Some of those killed were suspected extremists but most were civilians, Human Rights Watch said, calling it a deliberate slaughter of people in custody."

This week, when French forces handed over control of the Gossi military base, suspected Wagner agents hurriedly buried several bodies nearby and a Russian social media campaign blamed France for the graves. The French military, however, had used aerial surveillance after their withdrawal to show the creation of the sandy graves.

Both atrocities bear the hallmarks of Wagner mercenaries and Russia's foreign policy brand under Putin, say several analysts.

"They have no concerns about minor things like democracy and human rights, said Chatham House's Adeoye.

___

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa. AP writer Jean Fernand Koena in Bangui, Central African Republic contributed.
EDWARDSVILLE  Two Edwardsville residents were charged with child abduction and endangering the welfare of a child Thursday.

Jordan M. Jones, 33; and Falon R. Miles, 39, both of the same address in the 1300 block of Randle Street, Edwardsville, were charged April 21 with child abduction, both Class 4 felonies; and endangering the life or health of a child, both Class A misdemeanors.

The cases were presented by the Edwardsville Police Department.

According to court documents, between April 17-19 the two violated a court order granting temporary custody of a 3-year-old girl to the Illinois Department of Children and Family service by concealing the childs location; and endangered the child by allowing her to wander from the residence for an extended period of time while (the two were ) impaired.

Bail was set at $50,000 each.

Other felony charges filed April 21 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Davion L. Evers, 22, of St. Louis, was charged with armed violence, a Class X felony; and unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, a Calss 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on April 20 Evers was found to be armed with a Glock 30 .45 caliber handgun while committing the offense of unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver; and was found to be in possession of between 30-500 grams of cannabis with intent to deliver. Bail was set at $100,000.

 Deandre O. Parsons, 24, of St. Louis, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony; unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, a Class 3 felony; and violations of the cannabis control act, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 21 Parsons was found to be carrying a loaded and accessible Taurus G3 9 mm handgun in a vehicle while violating the Cannabis Control Act; was in possession of more than 30 grams of cannabis with intent to deliver. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Kyra T. McKire, 30, of Brooklyn, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony; and domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on April 21 McKire caused more than $500 damage to a 2014 Dodge Avenger belonging to another person; and sprayed a less than lethal chemical agent into the eyes of a household or family member. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Rodney J. Akers, 34, of the 100 block of W. Forest, Hartford, was charged with unlawful use of credit card, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. According to court documents, on Feb. 25 Akers obtained gas and cash valued in excess of $500 by using the credit card of another. Bail was set at $30,000.
People board a ferry during evacuation as a wildfire burns in the village of Limni, on the island of Evia, Greece, August 6, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Nicolas Economou

Europeans endured the hottest summer on record last year, with wildfires, floods and intense heatwaves hitting the continent, according to a report by EU scientists released Friday.

Summer temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording temperatures of 48.8C  a provisional record for the whole of Europe.

A particularly bad heatwave in the Mediterranean helped to ignite severe wildfires which burned more than 800,000 hectares in countries including Greece, Turkey, and Italy. Meanwhile, record rainfall led to devastating floods across Belgium and western Germany that killed more than 200 people.

The report, published yearly by the EUs Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), draws on satellite observations, on-site measurements, and computer models to provide an update on the state of the continents climate.

"We are facing a lot of challenges," said Mauro Facchini, head of the Copernicus Unit at the EU.

He said the record 2021 temperatures and extreme weather outlined an urgent need for countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions to avoid further heating that would unleash more destructive weather events.

Globally, the last seven years have been the warmest on record. Last year, however, was slightly cooler compared to recent years as temperatures were tempered by a La Nina weather pattern which cools sea temperatures in the north of the globe.

Though countries pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels, most have failed to make sufficient progress and last year global CO2 emissions rebounded strongly following a temporary Covid-19 pandemic-induced dip.

Countries are already experiencing the consequences of inaction.

Climate scientists last year found that the disastrous flooding in western Europe last summer was made at least 20% more likely by climate change  reflecting a long-known principle that for every degree the atmosphere heats up, it can hold 7% more moisture, hiking the chance of heavy rain.

"This is one of the most visible and pronounced changes that we are seeing with global warming," Wim Thiery, a climate scientist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, told Reuters.

He said governments had made some progress in adapting to such events by creating natural flooding areas, but that cutting greenhouse gas emissions was the cheapest and most effective option to limit climate hazards.

The report also found that 2021 sea surface temperatures in parts of the Baltic and Mediterranean sea were the highest since satellite records began in the early 1990s. "Parts of the Baltic were 5 Celsius above average, which is quite a lot for (the ocean)," said Freja Vamborg, a senior climate scientist at C3S.
In this series, we bust the jargon and explain a popular investing term or theme. Here it's Leverage.

What's it to do with finance?

We're not talking fulcrums and beams here, but debt. Leverage is the term for the use of money borrowed from a bank or broker to finance an investment.

The purpose is to generate a profit that is larger than the cost of the debt, but there is, of course, no guarantee that this will be the outcome.

One of the most popular uses of leverage is spread-betting on shares, bonds and currencies in which you take a gamble on the difference between the buying and selling price over a set period.

Debt: Leverage is the term for the use of money borrowed from a bank or broker to finance an investment

You need only deposit a small amount of the full bet  the 'margin'  to open the position. On a more mundane level, when we buy a house with a small deposit and a mortgage, we are using leverage.

The effect is that it magnifies your potential profits, but also any losses.

What can go Wrong?

A great deal because, regardless of whether the investment goes up or down in value, the loan must still be repaid with interest. the best known historical example of the extreme hazards of leverage was the Wall Street crash of 1929. Many ordinary people, with no previous experience of the stock market, bought shares on margin, using them as collateral for their loans.

As panic spread, banks began to demand repayment. But investors could not raise sufficient cash to meet their obligations, as the stock market had fallen so calamitously. Millions were left ruined.

Tell me more about the use of leverage today

An increasing number of people are trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs) 'with leverage' or 'on margin'  this is despite the fact many lose money. A CFD allows you to speculate on the future movement of an asset (a bond, share, currency or commodity) or a stock market index without actually owning it. Under rules drawn up by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the amount of leverage that you will be allowed to have depends on the size of the position you take.

You can reduce the margin requirement by agreeing stop-loss limits which should limit your downside if the price of the asset tumbles.

Can investment funds use leverage?

Investment trusts  which are quoted companies that invest in shares  can use leverage, or 'gearing' as they tend to call it.

The facility to borrow money allows them to take swift advantage of opportunities, with the aim of achieving a return greater than the cost of the loan.

A highly geared trust is usually seen as more risky: its price tends to rise more sharply when the stock market is booming, but declines rapidly when the mood darkens. Information on the level of a trust's gearing is given in its monthly factsheet available online.

The average level of gearing is 7 per cent.
The City watchdog has raised concerns over how so-called challenger banks tackle financial crime.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said smaller digital lenders  which have been popping up in ever-growing numbers in recent years  were often failing to run sufficient checks on their customers.

They should be collecting more data about where their clients are making their income and what their jobs are so they can better spot criminals and money-launderers, the FCA said.

Concern: The FCA said smaller digital lenders were often failing to run sufficient checks on their customers

And in a warning that has taken on greater significance following the sanctions on Russian oligarchs, the FCA said some lenders were not applying greater checks to the so-called 'politically exposed', who may be more likely to be involved in corruption or bribery offences.

Fully digital challenger banks are still relatively new to the UK. They began springing up in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis  but as they became bigger, many did not invest enough in their risk departments. Unlike the major High Street lenders, they had little in the way of resources and staffing. And because they operate solely online, they have had to come up with digital checks to verify a customer's authenticity which may formerly have been done by a person.

The FCA said some banks were also not being specific or detailed enough when they submitted so-called Suspicious Activity Reports to regulators, flagging potentially dodgy transactions.

The watchdog did not disclose which banks were included in its review, but said it spanned six retail lenders which were primarily digital with a combined total of more than 8m customers.

Starling confirmed it was one of them and praised the FCA for 'taking financial crime seriously'. Others are likely to include Monzo and Atom Bank, though neither responded to a request for comment.
Ukraine's government has branded Shell 'deplorable' after accusing it of using an 'accounting trick' to keep buying Russian oil.

Officials in Kyiv said Western companies were continuing to 'bankroll Putin's war machine' despite promising to cut ties with the Kremlin.

In a letter sent to Shell boss Ben van Beurden, seen by the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian economic adviser Oleg Ustenko said it was a 'national shame for many governments and institutions that are financing these aggressions towards us'.

'Deplorable': Shell said earlier this month it would stop buying Russian oil, but it was legally obliged to take delivery of crude which derived from contracts signed before the invasion

He added: 'The notion that any company will continue to bankroll Putin's war machine through an accounting trick is deplorable.'

Shell said earlier this month it would stop buying Russian oil, but it was legally obliged to take delivery of crude which derived from contracts signed before the invasion.

When it comes to refined oil-based products, such as diesel, Shell only defines them as Russian if 50 per cent or more of the blend is from the country. This leaves the door open to Shell trading products where 49.9 per cent of the blend is of Russian origin.

A spokesman for the British oil giant said: 'Since Shell announced its plan to withdraw from Russian hydrocarbons on March 8, we have not bought products exported from Russia for blending to be sold on as 'non-Russian'.

'We have stopped all spot purchases of Russian crude and liquefied natural gas, and eliminated the vast majority of spot purchases of refined products that may contain a proportion of Russian fuel that was blended in further up the supply chain.'
Ukrainian iron miner Ferrexpo has scrapped its dividend and paused long-term projects as it grapples with the war wreaking havoc across the country.

The London-listed company, which employs over 10,000 people in Ukraine, did not give a timeline as to when payouts to investors would resume, merely saying it would 'continue to assess the situation'.

Despite the war, Ferrexpo's chairman Lucio Genovese said the company was still operating and continuing to export its products to Europe via rail and barges.

Troubles: Ferrexpo did not give a timeline as to when payouts to investors would resume

'Whilst there remains significant uncertainty in the near term outlook with the ongoing hostilities, the resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people continues to impress in these dark and difficult times,' Genovese said.

The assessment came as the firm reported its results for 2021, which saw revenues jump 48 per cent year-on-year to 2billion thanks to higher iron ore prices.

Production for the year remained flat at 11.2m tonnes.
Troubled Petropavlovsk posted a rise in gold production in the first quarter of 2022 despite sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

The miner, which is based in London but has most of its operations in Russia, reported output of 103,000 ounces of gold in the three months to the end of March, an 8 per cent increase year-on-year.

Despite this, the group cut its guidance for the full year to 375,000 to 405,000 ounces of gold from 380,000 to 420,000 previously due to expected disruptions to its supply chain.

Driving force: The miner reported output of 103,000 ounces of gold in the three months to the end of March, an 8 per cent increase year-on-year

The company's mines had operated 'without disruption' during the quarter in spite of the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia by western countries following the invasion.

However, Petropavlovsk boss Denis Alexandrov said sanctions led to 'various challenges at the corporate level'.
The Chinese owner of the huge Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland could quit its joint venture with billionaire Jim Ratcliffe after more than a decade, The Mail on Sunday understands.

City sources said Beijing's largest oil and gas producer PetroChina is considering a sale of its stake in Petroineos, the oil trading and refining venture co-owned by Ratcliffe's Ineos.

State-owned PetroChina linked up with Ineos in 2011 to create Petroineos, which owns Grangemouth and the Lavera refinery in France.

Quitting?: State-owned PetroChina linked up with Ineos in 2011 to create Petroineos, which owns Grangemouth (pictured) and the Lavera refinery in France

Petroineos boasts trading revenue in excess of $30billion (23billion) and the two refineries process more than 420,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The signing of the deal was witnessed by then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang. At the time, the business had 1,000 employees and turnover of $15billion. A City source said PetroChina had hired advisers to examine options for its stake as part of a wider review of its assets.

The source said chemicals and manufacturing conglomerate Ineos was the most likely buyer if PetroChina pressed ahead with a sale. Ineos has owned Grangemouth since 2005.

A separate source said: 'The hope [in the oil industry] is that they sell the stake to Ineos. In terms of buyers, it will be a pretty short list.'

The move comes as PetroChina aims to shift away from fossil fuels. It wants renewables to make up a third of its energy portfolio by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2050.

Refining has taken place at Grangemouth since 1919 and it provides most of Scotland's fuel supplies, as well as the North of England and Northern Ireland.

But the industry was hit hard by the Covid outbreak when demand for oil slumped.

The last accounts for Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland, which only includes Grangemouth refining business, show the company suffered an 89.9million pre-tax loss in 2020, deeper than the 26.1million loss recorded a year earlier. Revenues fell by around 45million to 210million.

At the start of the pandemic, it was reported that Petroineos bosses asked the Scottish and UK governments for a loan worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

However, global demand for oil has since surged. Given the sharp fluctuations, it is not clear what the value of the stake could be.

Ineos and Petroineos declined to comment. PetroChina said it 'does not comment on speculation'.
Teaching children about money and budgeting is more important than ever as the cost of living rises, leading personal finance teachers are warning.

Personal finance lessons are currently not compulsory in primary schools and not all secondary schools teach it. But millions of children are living in households where debt is an issue and rising bills are further straining budgets.

Nick Redfern is a primary teacher at Powers Hall Academy in Witham, Essex, and winner of an Interactive Investor personal finance teacher award in 2021.

Vaulable lesson: Personal finance lessons are currently not compulsory in primary schools and not all secondary schools teach it

He says: 'Personal finance is so vital, particularly in the current economic climate. Look at what's happening with energy prices and the cost of living. We need to give pupils tools to address these issues as they get older.'

He says one of his most popular lessons is about debt, adding: 'It resonates with a lot of pupils, and I have to rein back many from recounting their experiences about how their parents are coping with debt.

'Children must understand these issues, which they are already experiencing at home.'

Danny Topping is a teacher at Blackpool Sixth Form College and also won an award. He says: 'Personal finance teaching is supposed to be covered in Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) lessons. It often gets less attention than it deserves among many competing priorities. The rising cost of living is creating a crisis in many communities here. Financial education could not be more vital.'

Interactive Investor's hunt to find the UK's 2022 personal finance teacher of the year starts tomorrow. A 25,000 prize will be shared among the winners' schools. Parents, carers or pupils should email teacher@ii.co.uk with the name of the teacher they wish to nominate and name and address of the school by July 8. Teachers will be asked to submit a lesson plan and supporting statement by July 22.

They can also nominate themselves and the first 250 teachers to submit these details will receive a 50 Amazon voucher.
A passenger has her information checked on arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Feb 1, 2022. Photo by AFP

Thailand on Friday announced the end of compulsory Covid-19 tests for vaccinated travelers, as the country steps up efforts to revive its pandemic-thumped tourism industry.

Tight border restrictions helped the kingdom limit infections and deaths in 2020 but brought the tourism sector -- which had accounted for about a fifth of the country's economy -- to its knees.

Thailand's Covid-19 taskforce said that from May 1, fully vaccinated visitors would no longer have to take a test on arrival and wait in a hotel room for the result.

Taskforce spokesperson Taweesin Visanuyothin said authorities will now only require arrivals to show proof of vaccination and health insurance coverage of at least $10,000.

"This will propel the economic (recovery) momentum since we are a country that relies quite heavily on tourism," said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha.

Unvaccinated travelers will either need to show a negative test result taken within 72 hours of departure for Thailand or undergo five days of hotel quarantine and a test.

Earlier this month, Thailand dropped the requirement for mandatory pre-arrival Covid tests.

Hotels, resorts and tour operators have long been pushing for hassle-free entry rules in an effort to lure more foreign tourists.

The kingdom faces an uphill battle to bounce back from its worst economic performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Experts estimate around five million international visitors will come to Thailand this year, down from nearly 40 million in 2019.

The country has a seven-day average of about 20,000 new daily infections, and the daily death rate has hovered above 100 for almost a fortnight.

Out of some 260,000 foreign tourists arriving under the Test and Go scheme, only 1,195 (0.46 percent) tested positive for the virus in April, according to government data.
Newmont Corp., which posted first-quarter earnings down from the 2021 quarter because of COVID-19 and supply chain issues, also reported a potential change at the Cripple Creek & Victor Mine in Colorado could affect Nevada Gold Mines.

Newmonts first-quarter earnings were $448 million, or 56 cents share, down from $559 million, or 70 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2021, and adjusted net earnings of $546 million, or 69 cents per share while revenue was up 5.2% to $3.02 billion on higher gold and copper prices despite lower production.

The adjusted earnings per share fell below Zacks Consensus Estimate of 71 cents per share.

The Denver-based company produced 1.34 million ounces in the quarter, compared with 1.46 million ounces in the 2021 quarter, including 288,000 ounces of gold from its share of Nevada Gold Mines production. Newmont owns 38.5% of NGM, and Barrick Gold Corp. holds 61.5% and is the operator.

Cripple Creek ships ore from its mine to NGM in Nevada for processing, but Newmonts chief operating officer, Rob Atkinson, said in the April 22 earnings call, that Newmont is looking at converting Cripple Creek to a heap leach operation only instead of sending concentrate to Nevada.

He said that with the pending conclusion of a contract for shipping the ore, were stepping back to assess not running the mill and only heap leaching ore. Atkinson said there will be an update in July.

The average realized gold price was $1,892 per ounce, up from $1,751 per ounce in the 2021 quarter, and Chief Operating Officer Nancy Buese said Newmont receives $400 million in free cash flow from every $100 hike in the gold price.

Gold prices closed at $1,932.30 Friday, and Newmont shares were down $3.30 to $74.52 on Friday.

Newmonts president and chief executive officer, Tom Palmer, said in the April 22 earnings call that the company remains on track to meet its guidance for the year of 6.2 million ounces of gold production, and he expects production to ramp up in the second half of the year.

Palmer said there were COVID-19 challenges in the first quarter because of a surge in the Omicron variant that led to absences and affected production, but he said that Newmonts requirement that all employees be vaccinated prevented serious cases.

Newmont also is closely monitoring supplies of critical material due to pandemic-related supply chain issues and issues created with the war in Ukraine, Palmer said, commenting that we are in uncharted territory. The company has budgeted a 5% cost escalation for this year.

The all-in sustaining costs for production in the first quarter averaged $1,156 per ounce, compared with $1,039 in the first quarter of last year. The all-in cost for NGM was $1,086 in the quarter.

In addition to the 1.34 million ounces of gold production, Newmont reported 350,000 ounces of attributable gold equivalent ounces from co-products.

The production drop was attributed to lower mill throughput at Cripple Creek, Tanami in Australia, Porcupine in Canada and Nevada and lower ore grades at Penasquito in Mexico, Newmonts 40% share of Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, Eleonore in Canada and Porcupine and a build-up of in-circuit inventory.

Higher ore grade milled at Boddington in Australia and higher production at Yanacocha.

Newmont acquired 100% of the sulfides project at Yanacocha in Peru in the quarter, including Buenaventuras 43.65% and Sumitomo Corp.s 5% interest, and the company continued to advance the sulfides project, as well as the Tanami Expansion 2 in Australia and Ahafo North in Ghana.

The company also announced a dividend of 55 cents per share for the quarter, consistent with the prior quarter, and stated that $475 million remains of its $1 billion share buyback program and share buybacks will be used opportunistically this year.

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Kentucky officials say they have identified Sean Daniel Roberts, 40, Norton, after his arrest in Wolfe County Friday on auto theft and other local charges. Roberts, in this photo released Friday by the Norton Police Department, has been charged as a suspect in a domestic assault Friday in Norton that left a woman and a child injured.
An Ecuadorian court chief on Friday signed a request seeking the extradition of ex-President Rafael Correa from Belgium to serve an eight-year jail term for bribery, although the former leaders spokespersons said Brussels had granted him asylum.

An Ecuadorian court sentenced Correa to eight years in prison in 2020, accusing him and other officials of accepting bribes in exchange for contracts to finance his political campaigns between 2012 and 2016.

Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 and has lived in Belgium since he left power, has denied the accusations, describing the case against him as one of political persecution led by his opponents.

Court president Ivan Saquicela signed an order requesting Correas extradition, based on an agreement in force between Ecuador and Belgium and other international agreements, he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

This is the first time that extradition has been requested and, accordingly, it is strictly in line with the law, Saquicela said, dismissing claims by Correa that extradition requests had been made previously.

This is not about political persecution, but rather it is the decision of a sovereign state, he said later, at a virtual press conference. A conviction for crimes of corruption has been ratified.

The extradition request will next move to Ecuadors foreign ministry, who must formally ask Belgium to extradite Correa.

Belgiums foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Belgiums Commissioner for Refugees declined to comment.

Correa dismissed the extradition request as another scrap of paper and called Saquicela a clown in a series of Twitter messages.

Correa has requested political asylum from Belgium. That has been accepted by the government in Brussels, according to his spokespersons, who sent Reuters a copy of a document from the office of the Belgian Commissioner for Refugees dated April 15 confirming Correas refugee status.

On April 19, 2022, the federal government of Belgium granted political asylum to the economist Rafael Correa Delgado, Ecuadors former President, thus recognizing the political persecution against him, the spokespersons said.

Ecuadors foreign ministry had not heard of asylum being granted by Belgium to Correa, it said in a statement. Saquicela said he was unaware Belgium had reached such a decision.

The foreign ministry said it was waiting for the formal extradition request from the court before sending it to Belgium via diplomatic channels.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russias invasion of his country was just the beginning and that Moscow has designs on capturing other countries, after a Russian general said it wants full control over southern Ukraine.

All the nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next? Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Friday.

Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west. read more

That would cut off Ukraines entire coastline and mean Russian forces pushing hundreds of miles further west, past the major Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.

The statement was one of the most detailed about Moscows ambitions in Ukraine and suggests Russia does not plan to wind down its offensive there anytime soon.

Ukraines defence ministry said Minnekayevs comments showed Russia was no longer hiding its intentions.

Moscow, it said on Twitter, had now acknowledged that the goal of the second phase of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.

But despite Russias ambitious objectives and claims to have seized Mariupol, its forces made no major gains in the last 24 hours, British military intelligence said on Saturday.

Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder Moscows efforts, and heavy fighting is frustrating Russian attempts to capture the key port city, impeding their progress in the Donbas, the Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.

Russia says it is conducting a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and liberate its population from dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies call Russias Feb. 24 invasion an unjustified war of aggression.

Moldovas foreign ministry said it had summoned Moscows ambassador on Friday to express deep concern about the generals comments. Moldova was neutral, it said. Moldova last month applied to join the European Union, charting a pro-Western course hastened by Russias invasion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on whether Russia had expanded its goals or on how Moscow saw the political future of southern Ukraine.

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington, Zelenskiy said allies were finally delivering the weapons Kyiv had asked for.

President Joe Biden said on Thursday he had authorized a further $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, including heavy artillery, ammunition and drones. Canada said on Friday it had provided more heavy artillery to Ukraine.

A senior EU official said the next couple of weeks would likely be decisive. We are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of Russian military attacks in the east (and on) the coast, he told reporters.

Ukraines military said Russia is continuing its offensive operations in the east, trying to establish full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and secure a land connection to Crimea.

Russian forces are also partially blockading the city of Kharkiv, according to a Saturday morning update from Ukraines general staff.

In Mykolaiv, 87 civilians have died in the invasion, including one child, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said late Friday on his Facebook page. Nearly 400 people have been wounded. Reuters could not independently verify reports from either side.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russias Chechnya region who has often described himself as Putins foot soldier, wrote on his official Telegram account late on Friday that Chechnya was deploying hundreds of additional volunteers to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office said there was growing evidence of Russian war crimes, including indiscriminate shelling and summary executions. It said Ukraine also appeared to have used weapons with indiscriminate effects.

Russia denies targeting civilians and says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities committed by its soldiers were faked. Ukraine has previously said it will punish any soldiers found to have committed war crimes.

Russia said it had securely blockaded thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in a huge steel works in Mariupol, the main port of the Donbas, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the army would not bother rooting them out.

Putin declared victory in the city after a nearly two-month siege. In a Russian-held section of Mariupol, dazed-looking residents ventured out this week to a background of charred apartment blocks and wrecked cars.

Volunteers in white hazmat suits and masks roved the ruins, collecting bodies from apartments and loading them on to a truck marked with the letter Z, symbol of Russias invasion.

Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have died in Russias siege of the city and says 100,000 civilians are still there and need full evacuation.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Friday said there is a possibility a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol could be opened up on Saturday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet Putin and discuss urgently bringing peace to Ukraine, a spokesperson said, adding that Guterres will then head to Kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy.

SOURCE: REUTERS
SPRING CREEK  Candidates for the Elko County School District Board of Trustees had varying views on what to do if another COVID-19 mask mandate came down from the state, and on class sizes, infrastructure, transparency and four-day school weeks  but all agreed that the education of children is paramount.

Trustee Jeff Durham of West Wendover said the vaccine question is tough but what we do is follow the law and talk to an attorney, but not make a snap decision. Personally, I dont like mandates, he said, but the state can put the board in a tough position.

District 2 candidate Robert Leonhardt, who was on the school board before resigning last year, said he had a target on my back over COVID-19, and he believes masks should be a parents choice, not the governors.

Candidate Brian Gale of Ruby Valley, who is opposing Durham for the district 6 board seat, said COVID-19 mandates have torn our county apart and torn our nation apart but he opposes mandates. He said laws are made by the Nevada Legislature, not the governor.

District 3 trustee Matt McCarty said, however, that while he opposes mandates and favors protecting personal freedom, Gov. Steve Sisolak had very broad authority and the Legislature didnt choose to act. The reality is it failed to act.

On transparency and communications, Dr. Joshua Byers, who was appointed to the board late last year, said the school district has begun addressing the openness issue with new access on the districts website. It now includes financial details and links to state figures.

Its one of our goals, he said.

Leonhardt said that back when he ran for the board in 2020, transparency was a big issue and it still is. He said he wants to work with the community to know the needs.

District 7 candidate Brooke Ballard said I understand that through COVID and how heated things got, the lawyers told them probably it was best not to respond, and I understand that, but board members need to be a conduit between the community and school district. We need an open line of communication.

She also said the school board uses too many acronyms and should explain to the public what they mean.

Gale said that while the school board is restricted at meetings to what is on the agenda, he suggested trustees say what is going on in their heads on Facebook, for example. There are always problems, but there are solutions.

McCarty said he agreed the board needs to work on relationships with the community, and the board is starting to rebuild trust. He urged voters to pick the current trustees because of the gains they have made since their appointment.

Brent Kelly, a District 7 candidate, said there need to be open lines of communication from the board to administrators to teachers to the community.

Were a community, and I think we need to act like one, he said.

District 1 candidate Misty Atkins, who said she got involved with school issues during the pandemic, said she would give teachers a safe place to speak out without retaliation from peers or administration. They are the experts.

She said she also wants to provide students with a chance to speak out without criticism.

Atkins criticized the district for robo-calls that werent accurate, such as saying ACT tests were mandatory for juniors, when they are only mandatory for seniors, and she would make sure concerns are brought to her, if elected.

On the related question of whether legal counsel should be at board meetings, District 1 trustee Susan Neal said the costs would increase to have counsel there.

Infrastructure needs in the wake of the failure of the pay-as-you-go tax and subsequent failure of a bond issue and district spending were also questions presented by moderator and Elko County Commission Chairman Delmo Andreozzi.

Atkins said that to her knowledge student enrollment in Elko County hasnt changed much in 10 years, which limits the need for new schools, but she said that if the school district and superintendent work on transparency, a future pay-as-you-go or bond issue would pass.

Neal said she agreed with Atkins that there is a chance, but in the meantime the board and administrators need to work with the community on a plan to meet district needs. And she pointed out that without pay-as-you-go, the districts budget will no longer have the separate tax revenue.

The district cannot save money for new facilities within the district budget because the Nevada Board of Education can sweep back high ending balances. McCarty said there wont be money for new buildings and maintenance of current facilities, and we need to get that information out to the public.

Ballard said some who voted against the issues had lost trust in the school board and superintendent, and she thought they would get a property tax break with defeat of pay-as-you-go, but Elko County and the City of Elko have stepped in to grab much of that 75-cent tax.

The best thing is to get community trust back and be responsible with funds, so when the time comes to try to get funds back, maybe we can share in the funds now being used by the city and county, Ballard said.

Leonhardt said failure of the bond issue was huge, and now the school board needs to look at excessive spending and a fund-raising committee.

A lot of people want to help. We just need to get trust back, he said.

Byers agreed with Leonhardt, saying that we have to trim the fat somewhere.

He said that he thinks there are some programs that are using funds that we may need to pull out. We need to look at supplies, different areas to see if there is overspending. We also need to look toward the future. We cant cut so small that we dont have any plans for the future.

Candidates also had ideas about what to do about recruiting new teachers to the district.

Neal, a retired teacher, said the board can brainstorm to come up with ideas to get teachers, especially in rural communities.

On class sizes and curriculum, District 3 candidate Lincoln Litchfield said teachers need to teach a curriculum that is standardized across the board so that if a student goes to Spring Creek High and moves to Carlin High, the curriculum is the same.

McCarty said classes sizes are a legislative issue, and if we want to address the class size issue we need to make sure that we have voters across the state of Nevada who agree with us. What we can do is be more creative with our teachers.

Gale suggested school administrators could teach a class, and students would benefit from the knowledge they had gained over the years.

On curriculum, Litchfield said that when COVID-19 hit and parents were helping students with online classes, they learned that what is being taught in school isnt what I was being taught. We need to be part of a movement that puts curriculum back in the hands of parents.

McCarty said, however, that the local school district only has the power to select textbooks from a pool presented by the Nevada Department of Education.

If we dont like what the state Department of Education is presenting, we need to encourage voters across the state to elect people to the state Board of Education that agree with us. We dont have all the control. We have to take basically what we are given.

With that said, we need to have more trust in our educators. They are our neighbors. They are the parents of the kids that are in the class right next to our kids. We need to understand that they are going to teach what is appropriate. When there is a conflict, we take it to the state level. We also need to make sure that people being vocal in opposition to books understand truly what they are saying and not just throwing out catch phrases, McCarty said.

He said critical race theory is not being taught in the countys schools, but he is aware that people are worried.

Neal said the community has a chance to look at the textbooks, and there is an economics textbook now at the administration offices to look over.

Talking about recruiting teachers, Atkins said she knows local teachers who came from larger cities and the transition was quite a shock to them. Her plan would be to consult with those teachers about what enticed them to come to Elko County, and if they might know other teachers who might want to come here.

Durham said the Elko County district can learn from other school districts and from employers, and he pointed to the COVID-19 bonus the district recently voted to pay to all employees that would look good to potential recruits, and show the district has a good reputation.

He also said the district can look outside the box at how other industries recruit employees.

Gale said recruiting to rural communities is difficult, so we need to appeal to them, and one way would be to offer more money. He said offering opportunities for creative teachers could excite teachers to come to work in Elko County.

On a four-day school week, which several smaller schools have already implemented, McCarty said he wants more information and public input because parents and businesses would feel the impact.

Litchfield said he lives in Carlin where there is a four-day school week, and when I first heard of it, I thought it would be a disaster. What I found out about the four-day school week is that students are more involved with their academics and with sports. They actually excel. I think it is a very positive thing.

On retirement buyouts, Ballard said they can be good but it is in the best interest of the district to appeal to teachers to stay, rather than retire early, and her opponent, Kelly, said he agreed that experienced teachers could bring us out of the slump we are in.

Neal said the priority is the education and safety of students. She said she is prepared for board meetings and will focus on the good things that are happening because negativity breeds negativity.

Kelly said he would be a fighter for kids.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 EXPLAINER: Why the battle for Mariupol's steel mill matters

 EXPLAINER: Why Washington is boosting heavy arms for Ukraine

 UN rights chief sees horror story of violations in Ukraine

 US to welcome Ukraine refugees but no longer through Mexico

 Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

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UNITED NATIONS  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to meet Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to press for fighting to stop in Ukraine.

The U.N. chief will travel to Moscow for conversations with Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.N. spokesperson Eri Kaneko said Friday. She said discussions about a similar visit to Ukraine are under way.

He wants to discuss with the leadership steps that can be taken right now in order to silence the guns, in order to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out to do so safely, she said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Guterres is due to meet Tuesday with Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that Putin will also host the U.N. chief.

Guterres asked to meet with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in their respective capitals. Ukraine has welcomed the idea.

Guterres had appealed for a four-day humanitarian pause in fighting leading up to Sunday, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter.

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BUCHAREST, Romania  The Moldovan government strongly criticized comments Friday by a Russian military official suggesting that Russia's forces are aiming to take control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern Ukraine as well, creating another way to the region of Transnistria in Moldova.

Moldova's government on Friday called Rustam Minnekayev's comments not only unacceptable but also unfounded." The statement added that his words will lead to increased tension and mistrust in society.

Minnekayev said at a defense industry event earlier Friday that broader control of Ukraine would open the way to Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria.

Transnistria broke away after a short civil war in the early 1990s and is unrecognized by most countries. An estimated 1,500 Russian soldiers have been stationed there since the civil war.

Since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine on Feb. 24, fears have grown that Moldova could be next in Russia's crosshairs. Moldova is not a member of the European Union or NATO.

The war has prompted Moldovan officials to try to speed up the country's bid to join the 27-nation EU, which it applied to do last month. The process, however, will likely take many years.

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MOSCOW  Russias top diplomat says talks to end the fighting in Ukraine have ground to a halt, because Moscow hasnt received any response from Kyiv to its most recent set of proposals.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference on Friday that right now, they (talks) have ground to a halt, because another proposal we passed on to Ukrainian negotiators about five days ago, which was drawn up with their comments taken into account, it remains without a response.

Lavrov also charged that recent statements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his advisers suggest they dont at all need these talks, they have put up with their destiny.

However, Vladimir Medinsky, President Vladimir Putins aide and Russias lead negotiator at the talks with Ukraine, confirmed reports that he held several lengthy conversations Friday with the head of the Ukrainian delegation.

He didnt offer any details as to what was discussed or if any progress was made.

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MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia gave Ukrainian forces inside a Mariupol steel plant the option to surrender, with guarantees to keep them alive.

The comments came during a phone call between Putin and European Council President Charles Michel, according to a readout of the call provided by the Kremlin. Putin also said the Ukrainian forces were offered decent treatment and medical care.

But the Kyiv regime does not allow them to take this opportunity, Putin charged, according to the Kremlin.

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LVIV, Ukraine  A city official in besieged Mariupol says Russian forces are continuing to bomb a massive steel mill where Ukrainian fighters are holed up.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupols mayor, told The Associated Press on Friday that every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal, despite false promises not to touch the defenders. Andryushchenko added that fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.

The Azovstal plant is the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, which the Russians has blocked for nearly two weeks and declared victory over this week. Ukrainian authorities have estimated that 1,000 civilians are inside the plant along with the fighters.

A day after satellite images came to light that indicated mass graves outside the port city in southeastern Ukraine, Andryushchenko said local residents reported that Russian forces were using mobile crematoria at two locations.

Initial estimates said the apparent mass graves could hold up to 9,000 bodies, but Andryuschenko said there could be more.

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BERLIN  The International Atomic Energy Agency says its director general will visit the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant next week, on the anniversary of the 1986 disaster there.

The Vienna-based IAEA said Friday that Rafael Mariano Grossi will head a team of experts from the U.N. nuclear watchdog that will be at Chernobyl on April 26, which is 36 years since the day a reactor at the plant exploded.

The IAEA says the team will deliver vital equipment and conduct radiological and other assessments at the site, which Russian forces held for five weeks until they withdrew on March 31.

The experts will repair remote monitoring systems that stopped transmitting data to the IAEAs headquarters at the start of the war.

Grossi said in a statement that the Chernobyl visit will be followed by more IAEA missions to this and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming weeks.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

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WASHINGTON  Pentagon press secretary John Kirby says assessments show Ukrainian troops are still contesting the southern city of Mariupol despite Russian President Vladimir Putins claim of victory in the battle for the city in Ukraines industrial heartland, home to coal mines, metal plants and heavy-equipment factories.

Putin on Thursday ordered his troops not to storm a giant Mariupol steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainians remain holed up but to seal it off  in an apparent bid to free up his troops for the broader campaign in the east.

Kirby said it was unclear why Putin did that and Putins words need to be viewed with skepticism.

They made this big show yesterday of him saying he wasnt gonna go into that plant and try to eradicate the people that are there, Kirby told CNN on Friday. I think we have to watch and see what the Russians actually do here. What we would tell you this morning is that we still assess that Mariupol is contested, that it hasnt been taken by the Russians and that theres still an active Ukrainian resistance. So they continue to fight for that city.

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SEOUL, South Korea  South Koreas Foreign Ministry says its trying to confirm intelligence that a South Korean citizen who had come to Ukraine as a volunteer fighter to defend the country against the Russian attack has been killed.

The ministry said Friday it received the information from an unspecified foreign government but didnt immediately provide more details.

The ministry said there were at least four South Koreans who went into Ukraine without government authorization. It pleaded them to quickly return home as the war escalates with Russias new offensive in eastern Ukraine.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  The three Baltic prime ministers want more sanctions against Russia.

Latvian Prime Minister - Krisjanis Karins pointed out Friday that it is necessary to lessen Russias ability to finance its war in Ukraine, and this includes sanctions at the European Union level on all Russian banks and all energy resources, including natural gas and oil.

His Lithuanian counterpart Ingrida Simonyte stressed the importance of continuing to put pressure on the Kremlin by strengthening sanctions. Kaja Kallas of Estonia agreed. They spoke after a meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers, the Baltic News Service said.

The parliaments of Latvia and Estonia on Thursday adopted a statement on Russias war crimes and genocide in Ukraine.

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BERLIN  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is defending his center-left partys record on relations with Russia against criticism following the war in Ukraine.

Scholzs Social Democrats have long been proud of the legacy of Cold War rapprochement pursued by former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. But critics accuse it of having clung too much to close relations with Russia, particularly over recent years.

Scholz made clear in an interview with weekly Der Spiegel published Friday that he sees no need for the party to chew over its stance, and said that it doesnt have to accept the criticism. He argued that its policies of detente set the ground for overcoming Europes Cold War-era division, and said it always backed a strong German military and integration with the West.

Scholz decried what he called distorting and defamatory portrayals of the Social Democrats policies toward Europe and Russia going back to West Germanys early post-World War II years.

He did not, however, mention ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeders ties with the Russian energy industry, which Scholz has urged Schroeder to end.

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KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official says no humanitarian corridors for civilian evacuations will be open in Ukraine on Friday because it is unsafe.

In a post on the messaging app Telegram, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk asked people awaiting evacuation from war zones to be patient and hang in there.

Vereshchuk said Russian forces offered to open a corridor for military surrender but not for an estimated 1,000 civilians sheltering at a steel mill that is the last Ukrainian stronghold in besieged southern city of Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday said Moscow was ready at any moment to introduce a regime of silence for both the troops and civilians at Azovstal. But Ukrainian troops must raise white flags in determined areas around the plant before evacuations can begin, the ministry said.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the U.K. is looking at sending tanks to Poland to replace the Soviet-era T-72 tanks the Poles are shipping to Ukraine.

Johnson made the comments Friday during a news conference in New Delhi, where he held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I think perhaps what I havent said publicly before is were also looking more at what we can do to backfill in countries such as Poland who may want to send heavier weaponry to help defend the Ukrainians, Johnson said. So were looking at sending tanks to Poland to help them as they sending some of their T-72s to Ukraine.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the U.K. plans to reopen its embassy in Ukraines capital next week.

Johnson announced the planned action on Friday during a trip to India. Diplomats from other European nations have returned to Kyiv since Russian troops withdrew from the capital region to focus on eastern Ukraine.

Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv this month to show solidarity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At the time, the prime minister detailed a new package of financial and military aid, and Zelenskyy said the U.K. had pledged to help rebuild the city after the war.

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BERLIN  The U.N. human rights chief says that international humanitarian law appears to have been tossed aside in Russias war in Ukraine.

The Geneva-based human rights office said in a statement Friday that Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure  actions that may amount to war crimes.

The office said its mission in Ukraine so far has verified 5,264 civilian casualties, including 2,345 deaths, since the war began on Feb. 24. It said that 92.3% of those were recorded in Ukrainian government-controlled territory.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet added that the actual numbers are going to be much higher as the horrors inflicted in these areas of intense fighting such as Mariupol come to light.

She said that over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside.
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ALBANY - The College of Saint Rose's 2022 commencement speaker will be Sanjay Shrestha, a 1997 graduate of Saint Rose and general manager of energy solutions and chief strategy officer at Plug Power.

The commencement ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. May 14 at the MVP Arena in Albany, where the college will recognize nearly 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students.
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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  As climate change bakes the planet, dozens of nations and many local governments are putting a price tag on greenhouse gas emissions that are increasing flooding, droughts and other costly catastrophes.

Pennsylvania on Saturday becomes the first major fossil fuel-producing state in the U.S. to adopt a carbon pricing policy to address climate change. It joins 11 states where coal, oil and natural gas power plants must buy credits for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit.

President Joe Biden is attempting a less direct approach  known as the social cost of carbon  that calculates future climate damages to justify tougher restrictions on polluting industries. Republicans say that could crush many businesses. They want the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the administration after lower courts in Louisiana and Missouri split on the issue.

Governments elsewhere have moved more aggressively. Canada, for example, imposes fuel charges on individuals and also makes big polluters pay for emissions. It's one of 27 nations with some kind of carbon tax, according to The World Bank.

The varied strategies come as scientists warn climate change is accelerating  and all can help reduce emissions. But experts say U.S. efforts have been hobbled by its fractured approach.

Part of the reason you need all of these things to work in tandem is we do not have a federal climate policy," said Seth Blumsack, director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State University. We have social cost of carbon used in regulatory decisions but not (a carbon price) that is faced by the market.

SO WHAT'S THE PRICE TAG?

It varies. A lot.

The Biden administration's social cost estimate is about $51, meaning every ton of carbon dioxide spewed from a power plant or tail pipe today is projected to contribute to $51 in economic damages in coming years. The state of New York has its own social cost of carbon, updated in 2020 to $125 a ton to account for economic trends.

By contrast, emissions were most recently valued at $13.50 per ton at auction under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast, which Pennsylvania is joining. A similar cap and trade emissions program is in place in California, and one is due to go into effect in Washington state in 2023.

Canada's carbon taxes include a minimum fuel charge for individuals equivalent to about $40 per ton.

WHY THE BIG DIFFERENCES?

The social cost of carbon attempts to capture the value of all climate damage, centuries into the future. Carbon pricing reflects how much companies are willing to pay today for a limited amount of emission credits offered at auction.

In other words, the social cost of carbon guides policy, while carbon pricing represents policy in practice.

Youre trying to get the price to reflect the true cost to society, said economist Matthew Kotchen, a former U.S. Treasury Department official now at Yale University. A more stringent policy would have a higher carbon price. A more lax policy would give you a lower carbon price.

In the most efficient world, economists say the two figures would line up, meaning there would be agreement about what climate change damages will cost and the policies used to address them.

IS ANY OF THIS WORKING?

Emissions from northeastern states would have been about 24% higher if the carbon pricing consortium hadn't been in place, according to researchers from Duke University and the Colorado School of Mines.

The carbon auctions also have brought in almost $5 billion that can be used to reduce household energy cost increases and promote renewable energy.

The consortium began in 2009  the year of a failed push in Congress to establish a nationwide cap and trade program. The bipartisan proposal died amid arguments over cost and whether climate change was even occurring.

Following lawsuits from environmentalists, President Barack Obama's administration crafted the social cost of carbon and began including future damage estimates in cost-benefit analyses for new regulations. It was used under Obama more than 80 times, including for tightened vehicle emissions standards and regulations aimed at shuttering coal plants.

President Donald Trump moved to roll back many of the Obama-era rules  and to help justify the changes, the Republican administration cut the social cost of carbon from about $50 per ton to $7 or less. The lower number included only domestic climate impacts and not global damages.

On its face that might sound okay, but when you think about it, global harms from climate change have implications in the U.S. in terms of the global financial system, said Romany Webb, a climate change law expert at Columbia Law School.

WHAT'S NEXT?

On the day Biden took office, he set up an interagency group that revived the Obama estimate and promised a revised figure incorporating previously overlooked consequences of climate change. Many economists expect the revised figure to be higher, perhaps more than double the current $51.

Without a nationwide cap and trade program, environmentalists and some economists want the government to be more aggressive in using the social cost of carbon to overhaul government energy policy.

Under Biden, the U.S. Interior Department for the first time is applying climate damage considerations to oil and gas sales on public lands and waters. An upcoming lease sale in Wyoming, for example, could result in future emissions of 34 million tons (31 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide. Thats equivalent to more than $1.5 billion in future damages.

But the agency still plans to sell the leases because officials said there were no established thresholds to evaluate whether the increased emissions were acceptable, or not.

The expansion of carbon pricing into Pennsylvania remains tenuous. A legal challenge is pending and the state's term-limited Democratic governor could soon be replaced by a successor who opposes the state's participation.

While pricing carbon would be the gold standard, it seems politically difficult to actually get there, said Brian Prest with Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @matthewbrownAP
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The final weeks of the college school year have been disrupted yet again by COVID-19 as universities bring back mask mandates, switch to online classes and scale back large gatherings in response to upticks in coronavirus infections.

Colleges in Washington, D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas have reimposed a range of virus measures, with Howard University moving to remote learning amid a surge in cases in the nation's capital.

This is the third straight academic year that has been upended by COVID-19, meaning soon-to-be seniors have yet to experience a normal college year.

I feel like last summer it was everyone was like, Oh, this is it. Were nearing the tail end, recalled Nina Heller, a junior at American University in Washington D.C., where administrators brought back a mask mandate about a month after lifting it. And then that didnt quite happen, and now were here at summer again, and theres kind of no end.

Mandates were shed widely in the wake of spring break as case numbers dropped following a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant. But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, as the BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant continues to rapidly spread throughout the U.S.

As much as we would like to move on and think that the pandemic is over, and I think we all would like that to happen at this point, its wishful thinking, said Anita Barkin, co-chair of a COVID-19 task force for the American College Health Association. The pandemic is still with us.

COVID-19 had eased so much at Williams College that the private liberal arts school in Massachusetts allowed professors to decide whether to require masks in their classes early last week. But just days later, with cases rising, it reinstated an indoor mask mandate, which was even stricter than what had been in place before.

I think students are really feeling like people they know are dropping like flies, said junior Kitt Urdang, whos had a half-dozen friends test positive in recent days. Theres definitely been a lot more uncertainty than theres been on campus since COVID hit."

Philadelphia recently brought back its mask mandate, leading the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University to again require them starting Monday. Although the city ended the mandate Thursday, the colleges haven't made any changes.

In Washington, D.C., Howard Universitys main campus, affectionately dubbed The Hilltop by students and alums, was largely quiet this week, with many students taking classes and exams from home. The academic year is coming to a muted end as rising virus numbers prompted administrators to abruptly shift back to online education.

The city's COVID infection rate has more than doubled in April. Besides American, Georgetown and George Washington University also reinstated their indoor mask mandates. But Howard is the only one that has moved away from in-person instruction. The spring semester ends Friday, with final exams for most students starting next week. Administrators have promised an update on what this means for the May 7 commencement ceremony.

I dont think people are super unhappy about wearing masks, said Lia DeGroot, a George Washington senior who never shed her mask during the single week the mandate was lifted at her school. Of all of the things that the pandemic has disrupted, I think wearing masks is, you know, a relatively small thing to do. I think thats kind of the mindset that a lot of students have.

In nearby Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University announced this month that it was testing all undergraduate students twice weekly through Friday, noting a steep rise in cases. The school also said masks would be required not just in classrooms, but in places like residence hall common areas.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

In Houston, Rice University announced earlier this month that students should resume wearing masks in classrooms, citing an uptick in cases on campus. Large college parties also were canceled.

New Mexico State University took a different tack, announcing Monday that all students on campus must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 1, ending the option of submitting weekly tests as an alternative.

One of the few counties still identified by the CDC as having high spread is home to New York's Syracuse University, which announced Monday that it would again require masks in classrooms.

J. Michael Haynie, the schools vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, said in a letter that it is important that we take reasonable action to minimize the impact of COVID infections" with finals and commencement fast approaching.

The University of Rochester in upstate New York, the University of Connecticut, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and Columbia University in New York City took a similar approach. Many, like Columbia, noted that their surveillance testing programs were finding more cases.

While many students were eager to mask up, grumbling was emerging.

Were to the point where were tired of masks, said Neeraj Sudhakar, a Columbia grad student studying financial engineering. We probably have a 99% vaccination rate, so at this point I think we just need to move on with the pandemic and treat it as endemic rather than going back to what we were doing the past two years.

___

Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Robert Bumsted in New York, contributed to this report.
One of the alleged attackers recently accused of beating and injuring a Saratoga Springs High School senior was charged with aggravated assault and drunkenness in South Carolina this week.

According to the Georgetown County Sheriffs Office in South Carolina, the 18-year-old, along with his 19-year-old brother, allegedly beat a 49-year-old Mechanicville man in the early morning hours of April 19. The sheriffs report alleges the Stillwater teens, who were on vacation with family and friends, knocked the man down and punched him multiple times in the face.

The injured man, with whom the teens were acquainted, told deputies the altercation started when he tried to break up a fight between the brothers at about 4:15 a.m. They allegedly turned on him, the police report indicates, fracturing his eye socket. The Mechanicville man was sent to Waccamaw Hospital in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, to be treated.

The 19-year-old faces the same charges as his brother.

The 18-year-old was part of a group of people recently accused of beating a 17-year-old person of color at an underage drinking party in February in Saratoga Springs, city Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino confirmed. The brothers, whose names the Times Union is withholding, have been charged with misdemeanor offenses. Neither the teens nor an attorney representing them could be reached for comment.

In the Saratoga Springs incident, the victim suffered a concussion, a split lip, a loose tooth, black eye and a cut on his back. Saratoga Springs police did not charge anyone in the alleged assault, saying that the 17-year-old victim shoved one of his attackers first.

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When Montagnino demanded that something be done with the suspects in the alleged beating, a police lieutenant refused, saying the victim was prone to concussions. She has since been put on administrative leave.

The Georgetown County Sheriffs Office incident report indicated there were multiple fights between vacationers at a South Waccamaw Drive house the night of the arrests there. Deputies also wrote in their report that when they tried to talk to the 18-year-old, who had a cut chin and blood on his clothes, he continue(d) to use obscene language and was unable to provide an accurate account of the incident.

Deputies, realizing he was intoxicated, transported him to Georgetown Hospital where he was cleared for jail. He is expected to return to court May 26.

Montagnino said on Friday he did not want to comment further on the recent arrest.
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SCHUYLERVILLE  For four years, everything Claire Pelletier-Hoblock has done was aimed at getting into the U.S. Naval Academy.

Every class she took, extracurriculars and even her part-time job were all chosen in a well-researched effort to get that acceptance letter.

It was just my life, especially the last year and a half. Everything I did was because of it, she said.

And since the academy has a 9 percent acceptance rate, she hedged her bets by applying to the other two military academies that involve seafaring: the U.S. Merchant Marine and the Coast Guard academies.

Last week, all that effort won her the trifecta: she was accepted into all three schools.

Shes the first female student from Schuylerville High School to get into one military academy, much less three. Shell have to get used to that, she said: only 28 percent of the students at the Naval Academy are women.

She was hoping to be accepted to the Naval Academy partly because she wants to operate the biggest ships on the ocean. She plans to become a surface warfare officer, a Navy career that leads to commanding ships as a captain.

I really want to be on the water, she said. I have a dream to drive big ships.

The dream was sparked by a Carnival cruise she took to the Bahamas when she was in eighth grade. She loved the ship so much she preferred being onboard rather than going on excursions. She started imagining what it would be like to command the cruise ship, and her mother noted that she could learn to do that in the Navy.

She spent ninth grade researching and determined how to maximize her chances of getting in. She applied for and attended summer programs at the Naval and Coast Guard academies to impress officials with her work ethic.

One of the points at which many prospective students fail is the need for a nomination, usually from a member of Congress. So she started working for U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, her congresswoman.

I knew if I worked hard for her, shed be more likely to nominate me, she said. She noticed my hard work. So when I asked her for the nomination, she had no hesitation.

In the meantime, Pelletier-Hoblock found a new passion. Now she plans to major in political science.

I had so much fun on the campaign, she said.

Another point she focused on was passing the physical exam.

A lot of women apply and (the academies) dont take them, she said. Ive been working since January 2020. I got into the best shape of my life preparing for these.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

That will help with her next hurdle: Plebe Summer, a program that consists of rigorous physical and mental training, a process the Academy says turns "civilians into midshipmen."

She graduates from high school on June 24 and leaves for the Naval Academy on June 29. For the following six weeks, she must surrender her phone and can make just one call.

Its going to be really hard. They definitely break you down, but this is what Ive always wanted, she said.

Shes looking forward to meeting the other students, because she doesnt know anyone who is as driven as she has had to be as she went through the years-long process.

These students are going to become my family, she said. And we all went through the same process, so thats helping.

Shes been warned that shell need internal motivation to get through the summer. Shes ready to do whatever it takes to get onto those big ships.

I love to be a leader, she said. My grandfather was in the Coast Guard. He was stationed on Cape May. We go almost every summer and climb the same lighthouse he served in. Its always the highlight of my summer.

This year she wont be able to go. But she can already see herself following in his footsteps, and that will be enough.
Every year thousands of New York high school graduates enter adulthood with only the vaguest notion of the tools they will need to be productive citizens  such as what an auto insurance policy does and does not cover, what a credit score is and why that is important, how to maintain a checking account with the least amount of fees, how to apply for college loans, the relative advantages and disadvantages of leasing a car or buying a car with a loan, and what the risk/reward rubric is for investments.

The Legislature should mandate, or Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and the Regents should require by regulation, every public high school in the state to develop a separate personal financial literacy course for students to take in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.

The Council for Economic Education surveys of financial literacy curricula in all states found that, as of 2022, New York does not require any separate personal financial literacy course for high school students, but merely suggests possible topics to be integrated as part of a one-half credit requirement (one credit in New York City) that students complete in economics.

A 2018 study by the respected Brookings Institution found that in New York only three of the 15 standards for financial literacy were being taught.

There are several bills pending in the Legislature, such as A. 731, A. 6234 and S.7257, which would mandate high school instruction in personal financial literacy, but these proposals have sat in both the Assembly and Senate education committees since January 2021.

By contrast, students in Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah are required, by law, to pass a separate high school course in personal financial literacy, and just recently, the Florida legislature unanimously voted to mandate a separate financial literacy course.

Yet here in New York  the financial capital of the world  it is deeply dismaying that a student can graduate high school and even obtain an Advanced Regents Diploma without ever receiving this valuable, essential instruction. As the Brookings Institution found, covering these matters briefly in an economics course is hardly a sufficient means of educating thousands of New York high school students in what they need to know about banking, insurance, investing and borrowing.

Indeed, the abysmal quality of financial literacy instruction in our state is evident in the Grades 9-12 Social Studies Framework posted on the State Education Departments website. The document lays out what topics in history, civics and economics New York high school students should learn. In the section on economics, the framework devotes all of two paragraphs to understanding the role of credit as informed consumers, but it contains not one single mention of the importance of knowing about checking accounts, savings accounts, individual retirement accounts, money transmitter services such as Zelle and Venmo, student loans, car leases, auto insurance, health insurance, homeowners/renters insurance and life insurance. Another document on the SED website, the Career & Financial Management Curriculum Framework, is flatly wrong in saying bodily injury and liability coverages are optional parts of a required auto insurance policy in New York.

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The state Department of Financial Services provides much useful and detailed information to consumers about various types of insurance and about banking services, credit and student loans on its consumer web pages. Yet the department has not published statistics showing how many New Yorkers have read any of these materials, and there is no effective, systematic program to encourage, let alone require, high school students in New York to read them.

School districts should not have to spend scarce funds to train teachers to present lessons in personal financial literacy. There are a wide variety of internet-based lesson modules and other materials developed by experts and made available through organizations such as CentsAbility, Jump$tart, and The Council for Economic Education. The Federal Reserve also offers online information about banking and credit which a school district can easily adapt with assistance from the State Education Department. Teachers do not have to administer in-class examinations to students. A pass/fail assessment can be taken online.

If public officials in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee can insist that their high school graduates know the essentials of banking, insurance, investments and credit, there is absolutely no reason for New York to leave its high school graduates bereft of this critical information. Hopefully Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislators, or Chancellor Lester Young, the Regents and Commissioner Rosa, will act this year to give our high school students the financial literacy tools they will need to navigate an increasingly complex world.

Richard G. Liskov, of Riverdale, is a former Deputy Superintendent and General Counsel of the New York State Insurance Department and former Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York.
It's been an enormous, sweaty, vein-popping week for extravagant demonstrations of manliness.

Moving backwards in time from the sublime to the ridiculous: Friday brought the release of "The Northman," a Viking epic based on the same story that inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and starring Alexander Skarsgard (who has already played Tarzan) as a decidedly grubbier incarnation of the vengeance-minded young prince. My son and I saw the trailer last weekend playing before "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which is your average woman-centered science-fiction martial-arts family drama, and we both agreed that Skarsgard looked pretty cut.

Indeed, the actor looked like he had been cast from the same front office that had provided the personnel for another trailer, this one for an upcoming "Tucker Carlson Original" documentary, or "documentary." Another product of the Fox News grievance workshop, the extended clip is so ridiculous that it seems impossible to satirize. We first see archival footage of President John F. Kennedy using the bully pulpit to push physical fitness and talk smack about "soft, chubby, fat-looking children," followed by his nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  reviled in his own family for his conspiracy-mongering  warning of a catastrophic drop in sperm count.

And then comes the peroration: Against the unsubtle bombast of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the viewer is subjected to slo-mo images of shirtless guys doing pushups; a shirtless guy firing a large-caliber weapon; a guy reaching for a cow's udder, his intentions and possible shirtlessness unclear because of the angle; a hand turning what appears to be meat on a barbecue; and two shirtless guys wrestling.

These shots are all very short  but then we get a slow pan up to a naked male figure standing on a rocky plinth in front of what appears to be a charging station for his genitals, which are illuminated by the device. One possible explanation: Carlson subsequently did an interview about the potential salubrious effects of exposing one's testicles to "red light"  apparently an element of what's known as "bromeopathy."

Oh, you want more? We next get images of a shirtless guy flipping over one of those big truck tires that seem to exist only as Crossfit props; an especially jacked shirtless guy swinging a well-polished ax; a maybe-shirtless guy taking an outdoor ice bath; and a guy drinking deeply of a glass containing ... well, something. Vodka? Raw eggs and prairie oysters? His own tears?

"Once a society collapses, then you're in hard times," intones a suspiciously British voice as these images unspool. "Well, 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  and then they go on to reestablish order, and so the cycle begins again." The final image shows the back of a shirtless guy in soft focus against what looks like the wall of a disco flexing his biceps as the title appears: "The End of Men."

The reaction was swift, and probably wasn't what Carlson's team was going for. "This is so gay," actor and noted gay icon George Takei said on Twitter.

The author Mark Harris (whose World War II history "Five Came Back" is one of my favorite books on American cinema) wrote on the same website, "I am sitting here next to my gay husband living my gay life reading a gay novel as research for my new gay book ... and yet I am not and will never be as gay as whatever is haunting Tucker Carlson's fantasies."

The trailer contains no significant images of men doing anything with, y'know, women  like embracing them, or working alongside them, or surreptitiously letting the air out of their tires in order to get them into your car so you can attempt to ensorcell them even though you're married to someone else. If that last one seems both problematic and rather specific, it's because that was the form of male behavior modeled by Carlson's Fox News colleague Jesse Watters in the very same week on an episode of "The Five."

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Watters revealed that he used this technique on his current wife back when she was merely a much-younger co-worker and he was a married father of twin daughters. "So you're basically the Zodiac Killer," the equally odious Greg Gutfeld told Watters.

Watters, of course, used to work for Bill O'Reilly, who in 2017 was jettisoned after the New York Times reported that he and/or Fox News had settled five-count-'em-five lawsuits in which women connected to his show  as employees or guests  had made sexual misconduct allegations against the host. (Later the same year, Watters was obliged to inform his bosses about his affair after his wife filed for divorce.)

O'Reilly later said his one regret was not fighting back after a horde of advertisers abandoned his show in the wake of the Times' reporting.

Also last week, it was revealed that O'Reilly had been recorded earlier this month profanely bullying a JetBlue employee. (Youre threatening me with violence, man, the worker says at one point, to O'Reilly's sputtered denials.)

These are, apparently, some of the things that men do.
Specifically, Vietnams exports to Laos reached more than 130 million USD, down 18%, while imports were valued at 272 million USD, up 52.4% compared to the same period last year.

Photo for illustration. (Source: VNA)

Vietnams exports to Laos recorded the highest growth in the first three months, including fertilizers up 161.6% (valued at over 10 million USD); petrol and oil, 142.3% (8.8 million USD); electric wire and cable, 42.5% (nearly 1.9 million USD); iron and steel of all kinds, 18.6% (22.7 million USD); textiles and garments, 17% (over 2.5 million USD); clinker and cement, 15.9% (over 860,000 USD); and products from ceramics, 6.6% (more than 3.1 million USD).

Regarding Vietnams imports from Laos, statistics of the Vietnam Trade Office in Laos showed that all items saw growth. Of which, exports of ores and other minerals increased by 405.8% (valued at 28 million USD); wood and wood products, 67.7% (over 33 million USD); rubber, 45.3% (over USD 54.2 million); fertilizer, 34.8% (18.3 million USD); vegetables and fruits, 31.6% (nearly 4.3 million USD); and other goods, 34.2% (over 133.1 million USD).

Decrease in export turnover from Vietnam to Laos caused a decrease in export turnover in the first quarter, while in the opposite direction, import turnover from Laos increased sharply. The reason is that the products imported from Laos are mainly ores, minerals, rubber and wood, which suffered high price increase and scarce supply due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Laos, the two-way trade turnover between the two countries in April 2022 is expected to continue to increase in the import direction./.
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Take a peek at the legacy of Mayor Q's sketchy public policy and misguided housing efforts.

What's even more interesting is that it took a Northland prosecutor from another county to finally crackdown on this troubled effort . . . Here are more deets . . .



43-year-old Travis Betts was found guilty for knowingly setting a fire at the Sure Stay Hotel near the Kansas City International Airport on July 14, 2021.



The jury found that Betts started a fire in the bathtub of one of the hotel rooms.



This defendants actions created a dangerous situation and undermined efforts to help the homeless community find emergency housing, Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said. All Platte County residents, regardless of socio-economic status, deserve to live in a place where this sort of criminal behavior is not tolerated.



According to records, Betts admitted the being under the influence of methamphetamine.



The hotel was being used as part of the citys initiative to house the homeless as they saw an increase in homeless population during the COVID-19 pandemic.



The fire was deemed to have been set intentionally.



Betts is known to have a criminal history of almost two dozen prior felony convictions.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Today we learned of pandemic progress that's worth a peek.



But be warned . . . It comes with a caveat that we might be forced to submit to dress codes all over again and probably around election time . . .



According to the CDC, Wyandotte Countys COVID-19 community level is currently low and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows Wyandotte County at the moderate level of risk.



The school district voted last summer to require masks for all students and staff except those with specific health conditions.



"Our district respects that some students and staff may choose to continue to wear masks for personal, safety, or other health reasons. Please be respectful and supportive of all choices," the school district said in a statement Friday.



The district will be prepared to reinstate a mask requirement if needed.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

KCK Public Schools removing mask mandate next week KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Beginning Monday, April 25, Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools will no longer be requiring masks inside school buildings. According to the CDC, Wyandotte County's COVID-19 community level is currently low and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows Wyandotte County at the moderate level of risk.

KCK Public Schools dropping its face mask requirement Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools announced Friday that it will lift its face mask requirement for students and staff.The district said the reason for the change is that Wyandotte County's COVID-19 case level is low to moderate.Masks will be optional in all school buildings starting Monday.District officials said they will continue to work with the Unified Government Public Health Department on COVID-19 concerns and they will be prepared to reinstate a mask requirement if needed.

Developing . . .
A quick peek at trouble over the not so friendly skies of Kansas City.



Here's happy news regarding the outcome . . .



"Flight 9966, an Airbus A-320, reported multiple failures, according to airport officials. It landed safely just before 11 p.m. Two people were on board."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Delta flight lands safely at KCI Airport after reporting trouble KMBC file image KCI Airport control tower SOURCE: KMBC file image A Delta Airlines plane was forced to turn back to Kansas City International Airport late Friday night shortly after take-off.Flight 9966, an Airbus A-320, reported multiple failures, according to airport officials.It landed safely just before 11 p.m.Two people were on board.An airport official said the plane may have been worked on at the overhaul base and was being flown out when the pilot reported trouble.

Plane lands safely at KCI after turning back due to 'multiple failures' KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Delta Airlines Flight 9966 landed safely just before 11 p.m. after circling the Kansas City International Airport due to 'multiple failures,' according to a KCI spokesperson. Flight Aware indicates the plane departed for Atlanta, Georgia, around 9:30 p.m, but the Airbus A320 was forced to turn back not long after takeoff.
Dr. Syra Madad of the Netflix documentary "Pandemic" says the "viral timeline" can potentially take years, but that doesnt mean the virus needs to dominate our lives as we have weapons to fight it. - Demetrius Freeman
Whether you live in Niagara or North Bay, we've got you covered.
The opposition is calling for an audit of the Childrens Authority before any more funds are allocated to it.

Speaking at the UNCs weekly Sunday press conference, Senator David Nakhid condemned the revelations of the investigation into reports of child abuse at childrens homes.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Friday, April 22, discussed support for Ukraine in the war against Russia: new sanctions, finances and weapons.

"Ukraine needs modern weapons to protect our people. Our army has shown a high level of professionalism, including through exercises with European and American colleagues in previous years. Therefore, it is also necessary to continue this good tradition," Shmyhal said.

He stressed that sanctions, finances and weapons are the key components of Ukraine's victory, and the level of U.S. assistance in these matters is difficult to overestimate.

The parties also coordinated their positions on sanctions against Russia. In particular, the need to give a worthy response to the blocking of Ukrainian ports by Russia and the intention of the aggressor country to create a food crisis in the world was emphasized.

"We urge our allies in the West to disconnect absolutely all Russian banks from SWIFT, as well as to recognize Russia as a sponsor of terrorism. This will be a powerful political signal for the whole world," the head of the Ukrainian government said.

Shmyhal also expressed hope that the United States would diplomatically and economically contribute to the implementation of Ukraine's European perspective and EU accession.

Blinken, in turn, assured that the United States will continue to support Ukraine as much as possible and will continue to actively coordinate its actions with European allies in order to increase pressure on Russia.

"Excellent meeting with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to discuss what Ukraine needs most to defend itself and rebuild. Ukraine's courage in defense of freedom and democracy inspires all of us," he said on Twitter.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding back enemy attacks in the east and south of Ukraine, where the fate of the war and the future of our state are being decided.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a video address, Ukrinform reports.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to hold back attacks by Russian invaders in the east and south of our country. Izium, Donbas, the Sea of Azov area, Mariupol, Kherson region are the places where the fate of this war and the future of our state are being decided," he said.

He stressed that the enemy in this war is trying to achieve a primitive goal - to kill as many people as possible and destroy everything they see. "This is happening in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and the Donetsk region as a whole, in Popasna and the Luhansk region as a whole, and in the Kharkiv region," Zelensky said.

On February 24, Russia launched a new phase of its war against Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and bombing peaceful Ukrainian cities, towns and villages.

The Ukrainian military stopped the enemy's attack and is inflicting heavy losses on Russian invaders. As of April 22, Russia lost about 21,200 soldiers in Ukraine.
The Russian army completes its regrouping and tries to identify the vulnerabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to launch a large-scale offensive in Donetsk operational area.

"The enemy completes the regrouping of its troops. All battalion tactical groups that have so far been amassed in Belarus, near our northern borders, are now redeployed to eastern Ukraine. Moreover, the enemy now tries to identify the vulnerabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to launch a large-scale offensive and reinforce its success, primarily in the Donetsk operational area," Vadym Skibitsky, representative of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, said during the nationwide telethon.

Regarding the reports of the alleged decision of the occupiers to stop the assault on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, the Defense Ministry representative said that, according to military intelligence data, the Russian leadership was lying as always.

"According to the Chief Directorate of Intelligence data, the Russian leadership is lying as always. Yes, they may refuse to carry out a large-scale assault on this facility but, according to our data, they plan to involve the Russian Guard and other agencies, including the FSB, to continue to attack the Azovstal plant to destroy our resistance, Skibitsky commented.

On Friday, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk expressed hope that people from Mariupol would probably be able to evacuate on April 23.

Soldiers of the Azov Regiment, Marines and motorized riflemen continue to defend Mariupol.

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The Government of Canada has approved the delivery to Ukraine of a number of M777 howitzers to strengthen its positions on the battlefield with Russia.

That's according to a statement posted on the government's website, Ukrinform reports.

"As the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, committed earlier this week, Canada has provided heavy artillery to the Security Forces of Ukraine, as Ukraine has requested. To this end, Canada has now delivered a number of M777 howitzers and associated ammunition to the Security Forces of Ukraine, in conjunction with our American Allies," the statement read.

The M777 lightweight 155-mm towed howitzer is lighter and smaller, yet more powerful than any gun of its kind. The M777 provides indirect firepower capable of accurately hitting targets at a range of distances up to 30 kilometers.

Additionally, Canada has provided Ukraine with a significant number of additional Carl Gustaf anti-armor ammunition, as Ukraine has requested, and this capability will also be replenished.

Canada is also in the process of finalizing contracts for a number of commercial pattern armored vehicles, which will be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible, and a service contract for the maintenance and repair of specialized drone cameras that Canada has already supplied to Ukraine.

Since January 2022, Canada has committed over $118 million in military equipment to support Ukraine. In Budget 2022, Canada also allocated $500 million in additional military aid for Ukraine for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

"As Ukrainians fight to defend their sovereignty, freedom, and independence, Canada remains committed to continuing to provide Ukraine with the military equipment that it needs to fight and win this war," said Canada's Minister of National Defense Anita Anand.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has presented the Profile in Courage award to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for defending democracy abroad.

That's according to a statement posted on the institution's website, Ukrinform reports.

This year, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award honors five individuals -- President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona Representative Russell Rusty Bowers, and Wandrea Shaye Moss -- for the "courage they've shown protecting democracy in the United States and abroad."

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum said that one of the honorees, Volodymyr Zelensky, had courageously defended democratic ideals and political independence since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"In February 2022, as Russia mounted a massive, unprovoked military assault on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky marshaled the spirit, patriotism, and untiring sacrifice of the Ukrainian people in a life-or-death fight for their country - a struggle that endures to this day. From the first moment of the invasion, Zelensky and his family became targets for assassination by Russian forces. In the face of this constant danger, Zelensky has led a courageous defense of democratic ideals and political independence. With candor and clarity, he has focused the eyes of the world on the existential threat facing Ukraine, and on the need for robust, uncompromising international engagement and cooperation to safeguard all democratic societies. His principled leadership has strengthened the resolve of Ukrainians and people around the globe to protect and defend the fragile human right of self-determination," it said.

According to CNN, past recipients of the award include Presidents Barack Obama and George H. W Bush, Sens. Mitt Romney and the late John McCain, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the late US Rep. John Lewis.
The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warns that the enemy is running a psy-op on the issue of a possible use in Ukraine of weapons of mass destruction.

The Center issued the relevant report on Telegram, as seen by Ukrinform.

Today, the Russian Defense Ministry said that "the United States is plotting provocations to accuse the Russian military of using chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine."

According to the Russian military, "the most likely option is provocation" at chemical and biological facilities in Kharkiv and Kyiv, at Zaporizhzhya NPP, and the radioactive waste storage facility in Kamyanske.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims this is "confirmed" by the alleged deliveries to Ukraine of antidotes to toxic substances.

"Such spins are part of the information and psychological operation run by the Russian Federation, aimed at instilling panic among Ukrainians, as well as exerting pressure on the international community to curb support for Ukraine," the Center said.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have destroyed a command operations center of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces, eliminating two enemy generals.

The relevant statement was made by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

On April 22, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine landed a devastating blow on the forward command operations center of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Russian occupation forces, which, in defiance of combat instructions and common sense, was located a short distance from the combat line in Kherson Region, the report states.

As a result, the command operations center was destroyed; two Russian generals were eliminated; one more enemy general was seriously injured and evacuated in critical condition. The personal data are yet to be reported.

The military intelligence continues to seek the important targets to inflict maximum damage to the occupiers on our Ukrainian land, the Main Intelligence Directorate noted.

A reminder that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has obtained the list of war criminals from Russia's 117th Separate Regiment of Marines of the Caspian Flotilla, who are murdering and torturing civilians in the direction of Zaporizhzhia and Mariupol.

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Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has discussed with Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Energy David Turk the challenges in the energy sector.

"I informed our partners that, despite the war, we managed to synchronize the Ukrainian energy system with the European ENTSO-E network. We have already started exporting the first 200 MW and we will develop this cooperation with the European Union to further increase the volume of electricity exports," Shmyhal wrote in Telegram channel.

The prime minister also informed Turk about the threat that Russian troops pose to nuclear power plants in Ukraine, and therefore to the whole world.

In this context, the parties discussed the possibility of increasing the supply of nuclear fuel from the United States and an embargo on Russian nuclear fuel, as well as oil and gas.

"I told about the plan for the restoration of Ukraine, which will be based on the principles of a green economy. I called on the United States to join its development, especially in terms of developing the energy sector based on modern technologies. I also invited them to participate in gas exploration and production projects in Ukraine," Shmyhal wrote.
President Volodymyr Zelensky notes that the liberation of Ukrainian territories captured by Russian troops will depend on the pace of necessary arms supplies to Ukraine from its Western partners.

"The enemy almost reached Kyiv and fierce battles took place there. But nevertheless, we de-occupied this territory. My personal position is simple: we will retake everything they break through and everything they occupy. And it will be a matter not of 10-20 years, not of the 8-year war that has been going on since 2014. This issue will be resolved very quickly, but only if we have enough weapons. As soon as we have enough weapons, we will immediately retake this or that temporarily occupied territory," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference on April 23, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to him, such a war is currently going on in Ukraine, and this is exactly the situation in the east. "Perhaps, every day we may, unfortunately, give up some territories to Russia due to the power of certain units, but we regain these cities at night or the next day and move forward. We do not move forward in the areas we cannot do that, where there is no support which we have been talking about in public with our partners for a long time," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he noted that the pace of arms supplies needed by Ukraine had accelerated significantly recently. Therefore, there is every chance to de-occupy the territories faster.

"Now we see changes in the attitude of our partners, especially I see changes in the speed of arms supply, especially from the United States. And if this speed will increase as promised, if the steps coincide with the words, I'm sure we will retake our territories faster," the President emphasized.

On February 24, Russian president Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure facilities and residential buildings.

Part of Ukraine's territory in the east and south was captured by Russian troops during hostilities. However, the Armed Forces liberate towns and villages every day.

Photo credit: Presidents Office

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President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that Ukraine must use every opportunity to negotiate with the Russian Federation until the war ends.

"This is a question for Vladimir Putin. And the meeting of our negotiating groups in Turkey depends on his desire... But I believe that we must speak until the war ends. We must cling to every such moment, every opportunity to avoid the deaths of children like we have today in Odesa," Zelensky said at a press conference when asked whether negotiations with the Russian side will continue in Turkey, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

As reported, the last face-to-face talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in Istanbul. The Ukrainian delegation put forward a number of proposals to end the war, including the signing of an international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for defense support and macro-financial assistance.

According to Ukrinform, the head of state reported this on Twitter.

"Continued dialogue with British PM Boris Johnson. Spoke about the opposition to Russia's aggression, situation in Mariupol. Thanked for the defense support & macro-financial aid," Zelensky said.

He added that the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine was also raised during the talks. "We appreciate the leadership of Boris Johnson and the United Kingdom in supporting Ukraine," Zelensky tweeted.

Zelensky said earlier that he had discussed with the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan their mediation role in the talks between Ukraine and Russia.

He also said that Ukraine should use every opportunity to hold talks with Russia until the war is over.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk discussed the energy challenges caused by the war.

"I discussed energy challenges with U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk. I told our partners that we managed to synchronize Ukraine's energy system with the ENTSO-E European network despite the war. We already started exporting the first 200 MW and will continue to work with the European Union to further increase electricity exports," Shmyhal posted on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

Ukraines PM also informed Turk about the threat that Russian troops pose to Ukraine's nuclear power plants, and therefore to the world. In this context, Ukrainian and U.S. officials discussed the possibility of increasing U.S. nuclear fuel supplies and imposing an embargo on Russian nuclear fuel, oil, and gas. Shmyhal thanked the United States for its decisive stance on this issue.

In addition, the Prime Minister of Ukraine told the U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary about the plan to restore Ukraine, underpinned by the green economy principles. He called on the United States to participate in its drafting, in particular in the development of the energy sector based on modern technologies, and invited to join projects to explore and produce gas in Ukraine.

As reported, the Ukrainian government delegation led by PM Shmyhal makes a visit to Washington and holds meetings with the representatives of the IMF, the World Bank, other organizations, and U.S. government agencies.

Photo credit: press service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

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Russian troops continue to attack the Mariupol-based Azovstal plant despite Putins order to cease fire. Either the President of Russia has lost control over his army, or he is making another attempt to deceive everyone.

The relevant statement was made by Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on April 22, 2022.

According to Tsymbaliuk, despite the Kremlins plans, the Ukrainian military continue to fight in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Putin described Russias actions in Mariupol as success. This success means the city leveled to the ground, thousands of civilians killed and tortured to death. Recently, the satellite imagery has revealed a 300-meter mass grave in Manhush, near Mariupol, Tsymbaliuk stressed.

Tsymbaliuk also showed two completely different photographs: Donetsk, which has been under fire over the past eight years', according to the lies spread by Russian diplomats; and Mariupol, which has been completely destroyed by Russian troops over the past eight weeks.

In order to save Ukrainian cities, namely Mariupol, Russia must face increased international sanctions and further isolation, Tsymbaliuk noted.

A reminder that the Russian armed aggression has caused one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the city of Mariupol. Russian troops are bombarding unarmed civilians and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid. About 120,000 civilians are remaining trapped in the city. The Ukrainian side is making every effort to evacuate people.

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Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has said that Ukraine's place is in the European Union.

That's according to The Sofia Globe, Ukrinform reports.

"Ukraine's place is in the EU. This is their security," Petkov said.

He said that his government had made it clear many times that it condemns Russia's aggression.

Petkov noted that as an individual, not as prime minister, he believes that sending military aid to Ukraine is the right decision.

"As Kiril Petkov, not as Prime Minister, for me military aid is the absolutely right thing to do. But in this case, I am the Prime Minister, I have coalition partners who have clear 'red lines' and my task is not to pretend to be the bravest," Petkov said.

He confirmed that he had asked his coalition partners to accompany him to Kyiv next week "because one cannot have a more informed solution than when one is there."

Bulgaria earlier condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, voted in favor of EU sanctions against Russia, and took in more than 90,000 Ukrainian refugees. But there is no consensus in the four-party ruling coalition on whether to send weapons and ammunition to Kyiv. It is expected that next week the Bulgarian parliament will discuss how to further support Ukraine

A few days ago, during his visit to Bulgaria, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that with each refusal to hand over military aid to Ukraine, Russia gets more opportunities to kill Ukrainians.
Ukraine's Ambassador to Kenya Andriy Pravednyk has presented his credentials to Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Embassy in Kenya, the official ceremony took place at the Office of the President in Kigali on April 22.

During the meeting, the President of Rwanda expressed his solidarity with Ukraine in its fight against Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He also extended his condolences to the Ukrainian people and personally to President Volodymyr Zelensky for crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.

Pravednyk noted that there is a high potential for the development and further deepening of relations between Ukraine and Rwanda in many areas.

Both parties agreed to begin work on creating the legal framework.

On October 6, 2021, Zelensky appointed Pravednyk as Ukraine's ambassador to Rwanda.
The Czech Republic has put forward the initiative to replace Russia in the UN Human Rights Council, submitting the relevant application.

This was announced by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

"Russia must be held accountable for aggression, human suffering, and destruction in Ukraine. That is why the country's membership in the UN Human Rights Council has been suspended. The Czech Republic seeks to replace Russia in the Council, while support for human rights is a priority for the Czech government, the Foreign Ministry wrote.

Russia's membership in the UNHRC was suspended on April 7 in connection with reports of Russian atrocities committed against civilians in Ukraine.

Read also: Heads of Czech Republic and Poland parliaments visit liberated towns in Kyiv region

The new member to replace Russia in the Council will be voted in within weeks. The procedure will have been completed before the Councils June session. It is expected that Russia will be replaced by one of the Eastern European nations.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been destroying Ukrainian infrastructure, massively shelling residential areas, brutally torturing, raping, and killing civilians.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine discussed with U.S. President's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan the issues of support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

Thats according to a report on Shmyhals Telegram channel, seen by Ukrinrofm.

During a fruitful meeting, the parties "coordinated positions on key issues: strengthening Ukraine, help for Ukrainians, and sanctions."

"These are the areas in which we will work together with our partners to win," said the head of the Ukrainian government.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Shmyhal is on a working visit to the United States. On Thursday, he was received by President Joe Biden at the White House. The talks were followed by multiple meetings of the Ukrainian delegation with international partners.
The head of the Crimean Tatar People's Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, appealed to young conscripts and reserve officers to dodge Russian military draft not to become murderers.

The official addressed the issue in his Facebook post, Ukrinform reports.

Residents of the occupied Crimea are conscripts and reserve servicemen! It is up to you not to become a murderer and not to be killed!Chubarov wrote.

He recommended that his compatriots tell draft officers in the occupied Crimea the same that the Ukrainian border guards told the Russian warship.

In addition, the Speaker of the Mejlis reminded the Crimean people that "in case of threat of forcible conscription into the Russian occupation army, immediately leave for Ukraine via third countries."

Earlier, the Office of the President of Ukraine for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has drafted detailed instructions on how Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied Crimea can avoid mobilization for war and how they can save their lives if they have already been forced to take part in hostilities.

As reported, on February 24, Russia launched a new phase of its war against Ukraine  a full-scale invasion. The enemy has been massively shelling and bombing peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns, resorting to mass terror in the temporarily occupied territories.

The Ukrainian military is repelling the onslaught, inflicting heavy losses on the Russian forces. As of April 22, the enemy death toll stands at nearly 21,200.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva have discussed the issues of further assistance to Ukraine in the short term and the issues of long-term recovery.

"We highly appreciate the decision to create a special IMF Administered Account to provide additional assistance to Ukraine from the fund's member states on a bilateral basis," Shmyhal said following the meeting.

The prime minister also thanked Georgieva for the IMF's position regarding the fact that assistance to Ukraine to finance the budget deficit should be predominantly grants, not loans.

"Honored to host Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The international community's support for Ukraine must match the scale of the challenge it faces, during the war and after. May peace come quicklyand with it reconstruction and recovery," Georgieva said on Twitter.

At meetings in Washington, Ukraine announced the need to find financial support for the budget deficit for the next two to three months in the amount of about $5 billion a month. Georgieva supported this request and urged countries to provide such support primarily through grants.
Turkey sent yet another humanitarian aid batch  medicines, food, household chemicals  to Ukraine.

"Turkey delivered yet another batch of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. In particular, we received backpacks with first aid kits: bandage, band-aid, splint, scissors, antiseptics; emergency situation set: flashlight, raincoat, radio; personal hygiene products. They will be handed out to civilians and the military," the Coordination Center of Crimean Tatars Mejlis in Lviv posted on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

Turkey also sent blankets, medicines, household chemicals, and long-term storage food.

"They will be handed out to IDPs and our defenders who hold the sky and bring the victory closer step by step," the Mejlis informs.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the partners of the country who are handing over the weapons "that we asked for" to us.

"Like every morning, like every day, like every evening, today we paid maximum attention to providing our military with all the necessary weapons. This is the number one task for our state," he said in a video message on Friday evening.

"And I am grateful to all our partners who finally heard us, who give us exactly what we asked for. For we know for sure that with these weapons we will be able to save the lives of thousands of people. And we can show the occupiers that the day when they will be forced to leave Ukraine is approaching," the president said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that every citizen of Ukraine should work for the defense of the state and for the sake of victory, even abroad.

According to him, the return of Ukraine to the de-occupied cities and communities means the return of life there.

"I believe that such a return will take place both in the south of our state and in the east of Ukraine. In all areas where degradation, destruction and death have been brought under the flag of Russia. But it depends on how united we all will be in countering the Russian invasion. I emphasize once again: at every opportunity, every citizen must resist the occupation. Ignore the occupiers. Do not cooperate with them. Do not help them. Neutralize the collaborators," Zelensky said in a video message on Friday evening.

He noted that in addition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, the National Guard, territorial defense, police, border guards, who brilliantly perform their tasks, every citizen of Ukraine must work for victory.

"If you are abroad, support Ukraine. If you are engaged in ordinary economic activities, do everything so that Ukraine can benefit as much as possible. If you find yourself in a temporarily occupied territory, try to make the occupiers more problems. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are our foundation. But on this foundation must always stand the fortress of our national unity. The unity of all Ukrainians who are fighting for life and against death. Against the Russian invasion," the president said
Brussels, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2022 ) :The European Union early Saturday finalised new legislation to require Big Tech to remove harmful content, the bloc's latest move to rein in the world's online giants.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) -- the second part of a massive project to regulate tech companies -- aims to ensure tougher consequences for platforms and websites that host a long list of banned content ranging from hate speech to disinformation and child sexual abuse images.

EU officials and parliamentarians finally reached agreement at talks in Brussels early Saturday on the legislation, which has been in the works since 2020.

"Yes, we have a deal!," European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton tweeted.

"With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are 'too big to care' is coming to an end. A major milestone for EU citizens," said Breton, who has previously described the internet as the "Wild West".

"Today's agreement on DSA is historic," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

"Our new rules will protect users online, ensure freedom of expression and opportunities for businesses. What is illegal offline will effectively be illegal online in the EU." The regulation is the companion to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targeted anti-competitive practices among tech behemoths such as Google and Facebook and was concluded in late March.

The legislation had faced lobbying from the tech companies and intense debate over the extent of freedom of speech.

Tech giants have been repeatedly called out for failing to police their platforms -- a New Zealand terrorist attack that was live-streamed on Facebook in 2019 caused global outrage, and the chaotic insurrection in the US last year was promoted online.

The dark side of the internet also includes e-commerce platforms filled with counterfeit or defective products.

The regulation will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Social networks would have to suspend users who frequently breach the law.

The DSA will force e-commerce sites to verify the identity of suppliers before proposing their products.

While many of the DSA's stipulations cover all companies, it lays out special obligations for "very large platforms", defined as those with more than 45 million active users in the European Union.

The list of companies has not yet been released but will include giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and microsoft, as well as Twitter and probably the likes of TikTok, Zalando and Booking.com.

These players will be obliged to assess the risks associated with the use of their services and remove illegal content.

They will also be required to be more transparent about their data and algorithms.

The European Commission will oversee yearly audits and be able to impose fines of up to six percent of their annual sales for repeated infringements.

Among the practices expected to be outlawed is the use of data on religion or political views for targeted advertising.

Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen caused a huge stir last year when she accused her former bosses of prioritising profits over the welfare of users.

She hailed in November the "enormous potential" of the European regulation project, which could become a "reference" for other countries, including the United States.

However, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) fears the text does not go far enough.

It wants a ban on all advertising based on the surveillance of internet users, and random checks on online vendors' products.
(@Abdulla99267510)

The Sources say the PM has suggested the President office to appoint Chairman Senate as his representative to administer oath to Hamza Shehbaz, the Punjab CM-elect.

LAHORE: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-April 23rd, 2022) Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani is likely to administer oath to newly-elwcted Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz today, the sources say.

They say the oath-taking ceremony of Punjab CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz will be held later today at the Governor House. PM Shehbaz Sharif is also expected to attend the ceremony.

The development has taken place a day after the Lahore High Court issued directives to President Arif Alvi to nominate a representative for the purpose.

The sources say that following the LHC verdict, the presidency sought advice from the PM Office on the subject matter.

They say the prime minister suggested appointing Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani as a representative to administer the oath to Hamza Shehbaz.

Earlier, Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema refused to asminist oath to Hamza Shehbaz and said that nobody could pressurize him to commit violation of the Constitution.

The latest reports say that Punjab Governor Sarfaraz Cheema has been shifted to the Services Hospital in Lahore after his health condition started deteriorating at Sehri. Cheema, at the moment, is undergoing various diagnostic tests at the hospital.
The China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station has successfully tracked and received the downlink data from a Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2022 ) :The China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station has successfully tracked and received the downlink data from a Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese academy of Sciences.

The data was received by the branch stations in Beijing and Hainan in three parts on Thursday, with a total size of 133 GB.

All data was processed normally, said the institute.

The atmospheric environment monitoring satellite was launched on April 16. It can comprehensively monitor atmospheric fine particles, polluting emissions, greenhouse gases, clouds and aerosols, land surface, water and other environmental elements, achieving continuous, dynamic performance.

The satellite will further enhance China's remote sensing application capacity in the comprehensive monitoring of global climate change, crop yields and agricultural disasters.
Rescuers in Japan were searching Saturday for a sightseeing boat carrying 26 people after it sent a distress signal warning it was sinking, the coastguard and local media said

Tokyo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2022 ) :Rescuers in Japan were searching Saturday for a sightseeing boat carrying 26 people after it sent a distress signal warning it was sinking, the coastguard and local media said.

The "Kazu 1" was sailing in the cold and rough waters off the northern tip of Japan's Hokkaido prefecture when it sent a signal to the coastguard saying it was taking on water and sinking, national broadcaster NHK said.

A local coastguard official confirmed to AFP that rescuers had "set up a task force to tackle the incident" and look for the missing, but declined to confirm any other details of the reported accident.

As of 9:30 pm (1230GMT), some eight hours after the initial distress call, officials said the search was ongoing.

Local media reported that 24 passengers were on board the boat, including two children, as well as two crew members.

Everyone on the boat was wearing a life jacket, but the distress call said the vessel was "tilting about 30 degrees", NHK said.
(@iemziishan)

Sri Lanka's beleaguered prime minister came under increased pressure to step down on Saturday, as staunch allies broke ranks and backed street protests calling for resignations over a worsening economic crisis

Colombo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Apr, 2022 ) :Sri Lanka's beleaguered prime minister came under increased pressure to step down on Saturday, as staunch allies broke ranks and backed street protests calling for resignations over a worsening economic crisis.

Media minister Nalaka Godahewa announced his support for the thousands outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office who are demanding he and other members of his family relinquish power.

Sri Lanka is suffering its most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948, with months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and other essentials.

The crisis has sparked nationwide protests, with angry demonstrators camped outside Rajapaksa's office for more than two weeks.

Under pressure, the president dropped two of his brothers -- Chamal and Basil -- and nephew Namal from the cabinet this month, but protesters rejected the changes as cosmetic.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, UN Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko said Friday

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Apr, 2022 ) :United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, UN Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko said Friday.

"The Secretary-General will visit Moscow, Russian Federation, where, on 26 April, he will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and will be received by President Vladimir Putin," she said in a brief announcement at the regular noon briefing at UN Headquarters in New York The UN chief on Wednesday separately asked Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to receive him to discuss steps to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Replying to a question, Kaneko said the UN was in touch with the Ukrainian government for a potential Guterres' trip to Ukraine.

She gave no further details.

Letters containing Guterres' request to meet Putin and Zelenskiy were handed over to the countries' UN Missions in New York on Tuesday.

"The Secretary-General said, at this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring peace in Ukraine and the future of multilateralism based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

"He noted that both Ukraine and the Russian Federation are founding members of the United Nations and have always been strong supporters of this Organization."The announcement came a day after the UN chief called for a humanitarian pause in Ukraine ahead of Orthodox Christian Easter this weekend, but it has not materialized.
Guterres will come to Kyiv after visit to Moscow - UN

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will pay a visit to Kyiv next week, the press service of the organization reports.

"On April 28, he will have a working meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and then he will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky," the UN said in a statement.

In addition, as noted, Guterres in Ukraine will meet with employees of various UN agencies and discuss with them the issue of increasing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

Earlier it was reported that on April 26, Guterres will hold talks with the Russian leadership in Moscow.
Ethiopias Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew, C.M., the Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa, in his capacity as President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia, has urged all people of goodwill to pray for peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia.

Habtamu Abrdew Beture - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Cardinal Berhaneyesus made the remarks in his official message delivered to all public and private media ahead of the Ethiopian Easter.

Ethiopian Easter: 24 April 2022

Ethiopia, like Eastern Orthodox believers, follow the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian, secular, calendar. Therefore for Ethiopia, this year, Easter falls on Sunday, 24 April 2022.

When Abel died, his blood cried out to God. That incident has a powerful message: The death of an innocent victim is brought to Gods notice. In particular, the blood of an innocent person is significant. Christs resurrection, then, is the answer to all of Abels cries, said the prelate of Addis.

Overcome hatred with love

The resurrection of Christ gives every Christian the power to overcome all evil and sin. Today, through the Cross of Christ, we can overcome hatred with love, revenge with forgiveness, sorrow with joy, conflict with dialogue, endurance with perseverance and Christian hope, Cardinal Berhaneyesus said.

According to the Cardinal, the Ethiopian Catholic Bishops Conference invites the faithful to implore the King of Peace, "Our Lord, and Saviour Jesus Christ," to grant true peace to Ethiopia. They urge all people of goodwill to pray together for all persons severely suffering because of the war.

Mercy, reconciliation and peace

The Bishop entrusts all Catholics to plead for mercy, reconciliation, and peace for the beloved motherland of Ethiopia.

May Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the God of peace, grant us peace in our land. In the name of the resurrected Jesus Christ, we implore concerned (authorities) to facilitate access so that emergency humanitarian aid can reach the people who currently need it the most. And may the resurrected Christ receive, in his kingdom, all those who have died in the war. May he also comfort those who mourn, the Cardinal said.

(Amecea)
As Vatican Radio and the rest of the world mark the 31st International Marconi Day this 23 April, we take a look at the inventors connection to Ireland and at a historic event that took place 120 years ago at Malin Head in the north of the country.

By Lydia OKane

Malin Head is the most northerly point on the island of Ireland, located on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. Its known for its distinct shorelines and beautiful beaches and has had a long history of communication with ships. In fact, weather reports were first recorded at Malin Head in 1884.

This northern beauty spot can also claim strong links to the famed Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, considered the father of modern radio, who helped set up Vatican Radio in 1931.

As the world marks International Marconi day this 23rd of April, the occasion offers an opportunity to delve deeper into the work of Marconi and his historic connection to Ireland.

Read also 24/04/2021 Vatican Radio celebrates 30th International Marconi Day The Dicastery for Communication marks the 30th International Marconi Day with a celebration at Vatican Radios historic broadcast station outside Rome.

Guglielmo Marconi was no stranger to Ireland and its people. His mother was an Irish woman, Annie Jameson, granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of the Dublin-based whiskey distillers Jameson & Son, and although he was born in Bologna, he is believed to have made frequent visits to Ireland in his youth.

History in the making

In 1805, Lloyds of London built a signal tower in an area now known as Banba's Crown. Nearly one hundred years later, Malin Head Radio Station was established in January 1902. It was a simple enough technical operation. The stations radio was a battery-powered spark transmitter connected to a 120-foot aerial provided by the Marconi Radio Company.

But the chance to make history was only months away when on 3rd April 1902, the Marconi Company succeeded in sending the first commercial message by wireless from Malin Head to the ship S.S. Lake Ontario with the words Malin Head calling.

This groundbreaking event was to put Malin Head firmly on the map as an important hub for trans-Atlantic communication.

Brendan Whelan is a tour guide for the Irish tourism board, (Bord Failte) and as a mountaineering instructor, he knows the area of Malin Head like the back of his hand. Speaking to Vatican Radio, he said Marconi had been building up to this historic moment for a number of years.

In 1899 he had sent his signal across the Atlantic from Cornwall to Newfoundland, but he kept pushing that because that was land to land, and the big commercial element he could realise profit from, was making land-to-ship connections.

The Malin Head period

It was at that time that Marconi moved to Northern Ireland, travelling to Ballycastle and then on to Malin Head in 1902, remaining there until 1913.

What Gugliemo Marconi was able to do, explained Mr. Whelan, was to take work done by other people such as Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code, and refine it in order to create radio communications on a grand scale.

Youre looking at the work of Morse but youre looking at it in a way that didnt involve the wires, but it was wirelessand that work was really finalized at this time at Malin Head.

Listen to the interview

Key events

During that period at Malin Head, the Italian inventor won the Nobel Prize for Physics, while his wireless station was witness to one of the worst shipping disasters in maritime history.

His communication devices were aboard the Titanic which had been built in Belfast, and its first ship to shore communication was relayed back to Malin Head and to Marconis equipment.

It was also Marconis equipment that was used during the Titanics sinking, and according to Whelan, it was this equipment that was used to try and get distress signals out.

On 18 June 1912, Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic, and he spoke about the marine telegraphy's functions and the procedures for emergencies at sea. Britain's Postmaster General discussing the Titanic disaster said, "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi ... and his marvelous invention."

Communication hub

This period for Malin Head signified a golden era for the area, with Mr. Whelan describing Irelands most northerly point, especially after the arrival of Marconi, as a hub for communication.

You have to think of back then when Marconi arrived, and even before that, somewhere like Malin Head was like the Instagram or Twitter or the Facebook of the world.

Marconis Irish legacy

So what is Guglielmo Marconis legacy in Ireland as the world observes International Marconi Day?

Brendan Whelan underlined that the father of modern radio is well remembered at Irelands most northerly point.

He also cited the many buildings named after the inventor around Ireland, adding that if visitors come to Malin Head today they can see for themselves Marconis great achievements.
Music Time in Africa is VOAs longest running English language program. Since 1965, this award-winning program has featured pan African music that spans all genres and generations. Ethnomusicologist and Host Heather Maxwell keeps you up to date on whats happening in African music with exclusive interviews, cultural information, and of course, great music -- including rare recordings from the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music.
Devastating floods in South Africa this week, as well as other extreme weather events across the continent linked to human-caused climate change, are putting marine and terrestrial wildlife species at risk, according to biodiversity experts.

Africa has already faced several climate-related woes in the past year: the ongoing fatal floods follow unrelenting cyclones in the south, extreme temperatures in western and northern regions, and a debilitating drought which is currently afflicting eastern, central and the Horn of Africa.

Conservation and wildlife groups say it's critical to protect species from these climate change-related weather events.

"Climate change is disrupting ecosystems and affecting the survival and suitability of species to live in their usual habitats," said Shyla Raghav, who heads the climate change division at Conservation International. "Massive disruption to ecological stability will occur if adequate adaptation and mitigation measures are not implemented. There is need to incorporate climate proofing of our protected areas. That way we boost nature's ability for resilience."

Multiple species, including Africa's famed "big-five" land animals and other terrestrial and marine life, are vulnerable to significant population loss. Ornithologist Paul Matiku, who heads the biodiversity watch group Nature Kenya, says shifting rainfall patterns and increased temperatures are having serious consequences for bird populations.

"Climate change causes seasonal variability in rainfall, temperature and food for birds. As such breeding aborts and bird populations automatically reduce over time," Matiku said. "Wetland birds are affected by reducing water levels due to droughts. The Sahara Desert gets hotter, and some migratory birds die along their migratory routes due to high temperatures and dehydration." He added that some birds are so weak from taxing migratory journeys that they are no longer breeding.

Ecosystems that thrive along Africa's popular white sandy beaches are also particularly vulnerable, according to Ibidun Adelekan, a geography professor at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Africa's coasts are at risk of coral reef ecosystem collapse due to bleaching, potential saltwater intrusion on freshwater aquifers, and more intense tropical cyclones.

Adelekan warned that greater damage to Africa's coastal biodiversity will also have considerable consequences for populations in towns and cities along its shores. "Persistent deprivation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems by human actions is leading to increased vulnerability of coastal and island communities to climate impacts," she told the Associated Press.

Her concerns are echoed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who earlier this year cautioned that African coasts with "high proportion of informal settlements and small island states are exposed and highly vulnerable to climate change."

But scientists are hopeful that improved coastal management of marine protected areas and better restrictions on the fishing industry will curb impacts on marine biodiversity.

"Our research indicates that the future of coral reefs will be much better if fisheries restrictions and protected areas are applied effectively throughout the region," said Tim McClanahan, a senior conservation zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who studied over 100 locations in the western Indian Ocean.

"While climate change may be outside of local control, the bad outcomes will be reduced if fisheries manage to reduce detrimental impacts on the coral reefs."


A two-month cease-fire has given aid groups a chance to step up aid to Yemen's hungry millions, but malnutrition ravaging children is projected to worsen if fighting returns or humanitarian funding does not pick up.

"The benefits of the first weeks of truce are already significant," said Erin Hutchinson, Yemen Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The group has been able to give aid to 12,000 people in one district of Hajjah province that has not been reached for more than three years.

More than seven years of conflict in Yemen have devastated the economy, displaced millions and pushed food prices out of the reach of many. Spiking global grain and commodity prices are adding further strain.

"Tens of millions of people in Yemen are living hand-to-mouth," said Richard Ragan of the World Food Program (WFP), which is trying to feed half of Yemen's 30 million people in one of its largest ever programs.

Stunted and weakened by severe malnourishment, 1-year-old Jiad Jalal's skin is dry and wrinkled over his protruding skull, limbs and stomach.

Living in a makeshift displacement camp in Khadish, Hajjah, one of Yemen's poorest regions, Jalal is one of 2.2 million children under 5  including 538,000 severely malnourished  who will suffer acute malnutrition this year, according to pre-cease-fire U.N. estimates.

"We eat only what we can get from aid agencies. Wheat, beans and such items. If we don't receive food, then some days we eat and other days we go hungry," said his grandmother Zahra Ahmed.

"We are trapped between hunger and exhaustion. Look at the children," she added, gesturing to tiny Jalal who they cannot afford to take to the capital Sanaa for treatment.

Hunger and malnutrition have worsened this year, the U.N.'s March data showed, and the body projected that between June and December those unable to secure minimum nutrition will hit a new high of 19 million, up from 17.4 million currently.

The number facing famine-like conditions could increase from 31,000 to 161,000 people, the U.N.'s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis said.

'I barely eat'

In al-Mahra, in Yemen's east, women in a displacement camp of tattered shelters built outdoor fires to fry dough balls that children munch on, and pat bread into hot mud ovens.

"We adults, we have to be patient and go hungry to feed the children. If only you could see how sick I am, because I only feed my children," said Fatima Qayed, who has 10 children.

She said they only get aid once a year during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and they buy food by collecting and selling plastic cans, rarely seeing meat.

Unable to obtain milk, mother-of-four Seham Abdelhakim feeds her young children sugar and water.

"When I'm pregnant I barely eat, just tea and bread. ... After I give birth it's the same thing; we have no chicken or anything. All I pray for is to hug my child after giving birth," said Abdelhakim, 36.

U.N. Yemen Envoy Hans Grundberg this week said the two-month truce, which began April 2 to coincide with Ramadan, was broadly holding with a "significant reduction of violence and civilian casualties."

The truce, the first nationwide cessation of hostilities since 2016, includes a halt to offensive military operations, and allows fuel imports into areas controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group and some commercial flights to operate from Houthi-held Sanaa.

Yemen Airways this week said it would start operating return flights between Sanaa and Amman, Jordan, beginning Sunday.

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in March 2015 supporting Yemen's government against the Houthis, controls Yemen's seas and air space.

The cease-fire has allowed the WFP and commercial partners to increase milling and distribution work, the WFP's Ragan said.

"(The truce) is good for Yemen but it's also good for the humanitarian operations that are so desperately needed to get up and running," he said, adding that WFP operations are 60-75 days behind schedule due to a previous escalation in fighting.

Should peace not allow Yemen's economy to rebuild, at least 80% of the country will continue to rely on humanitarian assistance.

But in March, the United Nations received only $1.3 billion for 2022, well short of the planned $4.27 billion. Additional pledges have since come from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the EU, but funding remains precarious.

The WFP has since January reduced rations for 8 million of the 13 million people it feeds a month due to funding shortages.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Iran on Saturday to release an American citizen he said has been held for years as a "political pawn," as the nations inch toward restoration of a nuclear deal.

Emad Sharghi was sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges, Iranian media reported in January 2021, saying he was detained trying to flee the country.

Blinken said the Iranian American venture capitalist has been held for four years, and that the "family has waited anxiously for the Iranian government to release Emad.

"Like too many other families, their loved one has been treated as a political pawn," the top U.S. diplomat said in a post on Twitter. "We call on Iran to stop this inhumane practice and release Emad."

Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, said on Saturday that Sharghi was arrested exactly four years ago.

"He was cleared of all charges, but then convicted in absentia, rearrested, and has now spent over 500 days in Evin Prison," Malley said. "Emad, the Namazis, and Morad Tahbaz must all be allowed to come home now."

More than a dozen citizens of Western countries are being held in Iran, even after Tehran allowed two British citizens to return home last month after years of detention and another to leave prison.

Those who remain behind bars, under house arrest or unable to leave Iran face an agonizing wait to see if a possible deal on the Iranian nuclear program will help their prospects.

In 2015, Washington and five other world powers inked a landmark agreement with Tehran to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States quit the deal in 2018 and reinstated economic sanctions against Tehran, which in response shrugged off restrictions imposed on its nuclear efforts.

Months of negotiations in the Austrian capital Vienna aim to return Washington to the deal, including through the lifting of sanctions, and to ensure Tehran's full compliance with its commitments.

Negotiators say they are close to a conclusion but have yet to finalize all points.
For many students, Confucius Institutes are places where they can learn about Chinese culture and language. However, critics warn that these programs are a soft power play by Beijing to gain influence in schools where they operate.

In Latin America, Confucius Institutes have been expanding since 2006. They have a presence in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some countries have more than one, with most located on university campuses. The Institutes teach Mandarin, finance summer camps in China, support cultural events and grant scholarships to study in the communist-ruled Asian nation.

"I have the possibility of going abroad, specifically to China, to pursue a master's degree," said Anthony Trujillo, an international relations student who has been learning Mandarin for two years at the Confucius Institute at San Francisco de Quito University in Ecuador.

Since the opening of the Confucius Center on campus in 2010, enrollment in Mandarin classes has grown from 40 to 300 active students.

"We Hispanics look for job offers abroad, and although the difficulty of learning Chinese is quite a challenge, it is worth doing," said Daniela Jimenez, a 19-year-old computer science student.

"The Chinese government provides the instructors the study material, and then offers the option of scholarships in China to those who achieve proficiency in the language," explained Jake Gilstrap, author of the academic paper "Confucius Institutes of China in Latin America: Tools of Soft Power."

"Among them are students, professors and researchers," he said.

Concerns about academic freedom

Gilstrap told VOA that China is seeking to create a "generation of future leaders in Latin America, that through their close relationships and cultural understanding of China will come to view the world in a way that is more similar to China's worldview. And it may explicitly support many of China's foreign policy aims."

Parsifal D'Sola, director of the Andres Bello Foundation's China Latin American Research Center, fears for academic freedom. He worries that the growing presence of an institution financed by the Chinese government within universities in the region may lead to a decline in the production of content on topics considered sensitive to China, such as political freedom, censorship or the repression of the Uyghur population.

"While there is a greater participation of Latin American professors in research financed by some Chinese government entities, we will see less criticism within the universities, which is something that favors China in its international image," D'Sola said in an interview with VOA.

A 2019 Human Rights Watch report on China's threats to academic freedoms outside its borders said Chinese government officials "have sought to influence academic discussions, monitor overseas students from China, censor scholarly inquiry, or otherwise interfere with academic freedom."

The report also said, "Confucius Institutes are extensions of the Chinese government that censor certain topics and perspectives in course materials on political grounds, and use hiring practices that take political loyalty into consideration."

The difference between the Confucius Institutes and other language and culture teaching programs such as the Alliance Francaise or the British Institute is that those programs do not operate inside universities, Gilstrap said.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA that the institutes have strong ties to the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, which gathers intelligence on people and organizations internally and outside of China.

In 2009, four years after the institutes opened, Li Changchun, then-head of the Chinese Communist Party's ideology, said the institutes were "an important part of China's overseas propaganda setup."

History of the Confucius Institutes

Beijing created the Confucius Institutes in 2004. Since then, the government-funded initiative has expanded to 162 countries, with more than 500 institutes worldwide and more than 1,000 classrooms under the umbrella of Confucius Institutes in each country.

In a joint action plan agreed to in December by China and the countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, China has committed to opening more Confucius Institutes and providing "5,000 government scholarships and 3,000 training places in China" over the next three years.

In response to VOA's inquiries, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said "the Confucius Institutes or classrooms are open and transparent and come in strict compliance with the laws and regulations of the host institutions" with which they have an agreement.

Liu Pengyu, the Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, said the Confucius Institutes' "contributions have been widely applauded by universities, students and local communities in the United States."

Professor Norberto Consani has been the local director of the Confucius Institute at the National University of La Plata in Argentina since it was founded in 2009. He is also the director of the Institute of International Relations of the same university.

Consani does not believe the relationship of universities with the Confucius Institutes affects academic freedom. He said there are no censored topics in his university programs.

"We have had very critical opinions regarding human rights in China," he said.

But he acknowledged that Chinese teachers at the Confucius Institutes are more guarded in their classroom interactions.

Teachers are "very cautious.  They don't teach politics or economy. Zero. Only the language," Consani said.

Confucius Institutes and trade

The expansion of the Confucius Institutes has been faster in countries with which China has established a greater commercial exchange. Chile, whose main export destination is China, has two Confucius Institutes and five Confucius cultural halls. In Peru there are four institutes. Brazil has 10 Confucius Institutes and three Confucius cultural halls. China is Brazil and Peru's main export destination. Brazil exported 22.7% of its total products to China, and Peru exported 27.9% in 2020.

Argentina, a country that recently joined China's new Belt and Road Initiative, has three institutes.

Ecuador, a country that lists China as its second-ranked trading partner, has also seen an increase in student interest in Confucius Institutes.

Alexandra Velasco, director of Internationalization at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, explains that students' interest in Mandarin is driven by the possibility of participating in scholarships offered by China and the option of doing business with that country.

"It has a lot to do with imports. The people I know who have gone through scholarships to get their master's degrees there (China) have an interest in looking for, for example, a factory that helps them manufacture something they have in mind or import products directly from there or establish relationships to send shrimp.  However, they are interested in the academic part, as well," Velasco said.

The controversy surrounding Confucius Institutes continues with some academic institutions and students benefiting, while countries such as the U.S. warn the benefits may come at the cost of academic freedoms.
More than 595 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation, as of the morning of April 23, the official number of dead children has not changed - 208, the number of injured has increased - 387, the Office of the Prosecutor General reports.

These figures are not final, since work is underway to establish them in places of active hostilities, in temporarily occupied and liberated territories, the Telegram message says.

According to the data of juvenile prosecutors, children suffered the most in Donetsk region - 120, Kyiv region - 113, Kharkiv region - 91, Chernihiv region - 66, Kherson region - 44, Mykolaiv region - 41, Luhansk region - 37, Zaporizhia region - 25, Sumy region  17, Kyiv city - 16, Zhytomyr region - 15.

On April 20, as a result of shelling by the military of the aggressor country of civilian infrastructure facilities on the territory of the Polohy district of Zaporizhia region, a 5-year-old child was injured.

Due to the bombing and shelling by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, 1,500 educational institutions were damaged, of which 102 were completely destroyed.
Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against a prominent opposition activist and remanded him in pre-trial detention Friday for allegedly spreading false information about the countrys armed forces.

A court in Moscow ordered Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. held in detention until June 12.

Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told reporters that the false information case against Kara-Murza cited a March 15 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced the war in Ukraine, as the basis for the latest charges. The activist rejects the accusations.

Russian media reported that similar charges were being drawn up against outspoken tech executive Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher of Russia's top independent news site, Meduza. The moves against the two Kremlin critics are part of a widening crackdown against individuals speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading false information about its military shortly after its troops rolled into Ukraine in late February. The offense is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Human rights advocates so far have counted 32 cases targeting critics of the invasion.

Kara-Murza is a journalist and a former associate of late Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for years in Russia. Kara-Murza himself was hospitalized with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017.

Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers denounced the Russian government's moves against Kara-Murza.

I am deeply disturbed over news reports regarding the arrest and political persecution of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza," Bowers said in a statement. Dont forget about these freedom fighters, like Vladimir Kara-Murza. We must remember names!"

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted: Kara-Murzas brave opposition to Putin has inspired us all. Arizona will always stand for freedom. And we will support those like Kara-Murza who take a stand against oppression.

Krasilshchik, the tech executive who left Russia in early March, told Meduza that he had learnt about the case against him from news reports, which by Friday evening remained unconfirmed. Russian media have linked the charges to an Instagram post, featuring what Krasilshchik said was the photo of charred human remains in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

You cant recover after seeing the images from Bucha, the photo caption read. You feel that the army of this country of ours, its capable of anything  and so is the country. That were just an order away from mass executions.

Also Friday, veteran Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov said in an online statement that he was temporarily leaving the country.

Ponomaryov, a former State Duma lawmaker who had helped found Russias oldest human rights organization in the 1980s, has been a vocal opponent of Russias attack on Ukraine, and initiated multiple public petitions against it.

In his statement Friday, he claimed to be allowing himself to take a vacation to look after my health , but also think through the difficult situation in which we all find ourselves, and plan further (campaigning) activities, which we cannot stop by any means.

I doubt my time away will be long, he added.

In a separate move Friday, the Russian justice ministry added Kara-Murza and several other prominent Kremlin critics to the registry of foreign agents. The designation implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit those on the list.

The new additions to the registry included Leonid Volkov, top ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of Russia's oldest critical radio station, Ekho Moskvy. The station was taken off the airwaves shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

Recap of April 23

FIGHTING

* Russian troops attempt to storm steel mill in Mariupol, Ukranians say.

* Ukrainian forces retook three villages near the border with Russia after "fierce battles," according to the governor of Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region.

* Ukraine announces a countrywide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

* Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, according to city officials.

* Russia intensifying barrage on all cities in the Luhansk region as it presses its offensive in the east, the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region said.

* At least 21,600 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine, Ukraine's armed forces reported.



HUMANITARIAN

* Up to 5.2 million Ukrainians have left the country since Russia began a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, the U.N. refugee agency said.

DIPLOMACY

* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to "put an end to the war."

* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would meet with him in Kyiv on Sunday. The White House, State Department and Pentagon declined to comment.

ECONOMY

* Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement that would increase cooperation in the railway transport sector, helping Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries.



NUCLEAR

* Ukraine has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency for "a comprehensive list of equipment" it needs to operate nuclear power plants during the war with Russia.

The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

8:52 p.m.: As the battle for Mariupol continues, Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.

Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraines National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of around two dozen women and children, The Associated Press reported. Its contents could not be independently verified, but if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.

The video shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives havent seen neither the sky nor the sun since they left home Feb. 27.

7:24 p.m.: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered questions from the Ukrainian and international media during a rare live question and answer session in Kyiv. During the session, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens not only demonstrated great internal unity, but also managed to unite European countries and the whole world around them.

6:51 p.m.: IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Ukraine has asked his agency for "a comprehensive list of equipment" it needs to operate nuclear power plants during the war with Russia, Reuters reported on Saturday. The list includes radiation measurement devices, protective material, computer-related assistance, power supply systems and diesel generators, Grossi said, according to Reuters.

5:07 p.m.: President Vladimir Putin attended a midnight Easter mass conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly backed the Kremlin leader's "special military operation" in Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

4:23 p.m.: Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement that would increase cooperation in the railway transport sector that would help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries, The Associated Press reported. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki met in Krakow, Poland. The move would help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion is affecting its ports, the AP reported. 

3:15 p.m.: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for visiting Moscow on Tuesday before traveling to Kyiv on Thursday. There is "no justice and no logic" in Guterres visiting Russia first, Zelenskyy said. 

2:18 p.m.: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Kyiv on Sunday. "Tomorrow, the American officials are coming to visit us. I will meet the defense secretary [Lloyd Austin] and Antony Blinken," Zelenskyy told reporters Saturday, in what would be the first official visit by U.S. government officials since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA in an email on Saturday: "We decline comment." The Pentagon also could not confirm the information to VOA. The White House also declined to comment.

1:35 p.m.: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to "put an end to the war," Agence France-Presse reported. "I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelenskyy said at a news conference held at a metro station in the heart of Kyiv. He said that he was "not afraid to meet" with Putin if it would lead to a peace deal between their two countries.

12:59 p.m.: On the eve of the Orthodox Easter, Ukraine announced a nationwide curfew, The Associated Press reported.

12:57 p.m.: British officials said Saturday that Russians troops hadnt gained significant new ground despite announcing a renewed offensive along the eastern front, The Associated Press reported.

12:35 p.m.: Ukraine blamed Russian forces for obstructing its attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol. "The evacuation was thwarted," Mariupol city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, Reuters reported. He said that around 200 people gathered at the evacuation meeting point, but that Russian forces "dispersed" them. Other residents were reportedly told to board buses destined for Russian-controlled Dukuchayevsk, which is about 80 kilometers to the north.

11:36 a.m. At least 21,600 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion of its neighbor, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a Facebook post Saturday. According to the post, Russia also has lost 854 tanks, 2,205 armored personnel carriers, 1,543 vehicles, 403 artillery systems, 143 multiple launch rocket systems, 69 anti-aircraft defense systems, 154 helicopters, 177 aircraft, 76 fuel tanks, 182 unmanned aerial vehicles and 8 vessels.

11:19 a.m.: Russias standing in the G-20 is not likely to be threatened by its invasion of Ukraine, The Associated Press reports. Russia was kicked out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations (G-8) when it invaded Ukraine back in 2014. At the time, the G-8 renamed itself the G-7. But Russia remains a member of the G-20, which represents industrial and emerging-market countries. A consensus of member countries is required to boot Russia from the G-20, but several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have indicated that they support keeping Russia in the group.

10:27 a.m.: Agence France-Presse reports that at least five people are dead after a Russian strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, according to the office of Ukraine's president. Earlier on Saturday, city officials reported that a missile strike hit "infrastructure" in Odesa.

10:19 a.m.: Ukrainian forces retook three villages near the border with Russia after "fierce battles," according to the governor of Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region. "Our units kicked Russian troops out of the settlements of Bezruki, Slatine, Prudyanka," Oleg Sinegubov said on Telegram, adding that the Ukrainians "secured their positions," Agence France-Presse reported. Sinegubov said the battles occurred Friday morning.

9:45 a.m.: Up to 5.2 million people have left Ukraine since Russia invaded it on February 24, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse. The U.N. says 1,128,000 people have fled so far in April, while 3.4 million left in March. Poland, Romania and Russia have received the most Ukrainian refugees. Women and children account for 90% of those who left the country. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving as they might be called up for military service.

9:16 a.m.: Russian forces are attacking a steel mill that is the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol, according to an adviser to Ukraines presidential office. Oleksiy Arestovich said during a briefing on Saturday that Russian forces have resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal steel plant and are trying to storm it, The Associated Press reports. The Ukrainian statement came two days after Russia President Vladimir Putin declared that Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians. Putin had ordered his forces not to storm the plant but to block it off instead.

9:06 a.m.: On the eve of Orthodox Easter, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said he hoped Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine would end quickly, but he did not condemn it, Reuters reported. Patriarch Kirill is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has made statements in the past in support of Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine.

8:59 a.m.: A missile struck infrastructure in Odesa, a Ukrainian port city, on Saturday, according to local authorities in an online statement. Reuters reported that city officials gave no further details. "Odesa was hit by a missile strike. Infrastructure has been hit," the statement said.

7:57 a.m.: Russia is intensifying its barrage on all cities in the Luhansk region as it presses its offensive in the east, the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region said Saturday, according to Reuters. In televised remarks, Governor Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian forces are pulling back to new defensive lines to regroup and preserve units.

7:46 a.m.: Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, according to city officials, The Associated Press reported. The city council posted a satellite photo showing what it says is a mass grave that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 people. The mass grave is reportedly outside the village of Vynohradne, east of Mariupol. Earlier this week, satellite photos showed what appeared to be rows and rows of freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, west of Mariupol. The Russians have been accused of trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in Mariupol.

6:00 a.m.: The New York Times reports that Britain plans to reopen its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, for the first time since closing it in February. It's the 21st country to do so.

5:09 a.m.: The BBC reports that nearly 3 million people have fled to Poland from Ukraine since the Russian invasion began Feb. 24. But in recent weeks, more and more people are heading back to Ukraine. The Polish Border Guard said that on Friday, more people entered Ukraine from Poland than vice versa. Almost 24,000 entered Ukraine and about 17,700 entered Poland.

4:03 a.m.: Ukrainian officials say they'll attempt another evacuation from Mariupol on Saturday, CNN reports. There are about 100,000 people left in the besieged city.

3:09 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K.'s defense ministry says Russia has made no major gains in the past 24 hours. Additionally, it says, Russian air and sea forces have not been able to establish control in either domain.

2:18 a.m.: Al Jazeera, citing an update from the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, reports that Russians seek to "starve out" the civilians and soldiers in the Azovstal steel plant.

1:16 a.m.: The Telegraph reports that France and Germany evaded an arms embargo to sell weapons to Russia. They sent equipment, which included bombs, rockets, missiles and guns, to Moscow despite an EU-wide embargo on arms shipments to Russia, introduced in the wake of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the newspaper says.

12:01 a.m.: The Washington Post reports that a new website, Mariupol Life, aims to track the city's missing residents. The growing database includes the names, addresses, birth dates and sometimes last-known locations of the missing.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Members of Niger's parliament on Friday voted in favor of allowing the deployment of foreign forces fighting jihadists in the impoverished Sahel nation.

After several hours of debate, the MPs voted 131-31 for the proposal.

Some activists had been campaigning against the presence of foreign troops, branding them as occupiers who would threaten national sovereignty. The outcome of the vote was in little doubt, however, with the parliament in Niamey dominated by allies of President Mohamed Bazoum.

In its battle against al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked jihadists, Niger has the support of several Western countries, including the United States and France, which have military bases in the capital and the Agadez region in the north.

"Entering into new partnerships in no way calls into question our sovereignty over the national territory," said Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.

The agreed-upon text "unequivocally indicates the openness of our country to conclude alliances" against jihadists, he said.

Niger "is practically surrounded by armed terrorist groups," the head of government said.

He also referred to the ongoing withdrawal of the French anti-jihadist Barkhane force and the smaller Takuba force of European special forces from neighboring Mali.

Two jihadi insurgencies

The prime minister opened the door to increased collaboration with France, in particular.

According to the government document handed to MPs and seen by AFP, the current situation requires Niger and other countries to commit to "an effective fight against terrorism, in the framework of bilateral or multilateral cooperation, either current or in the future."

"The special forces of friendly countries will be deployed ... [and] installed on the territories of members of ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] facing the threat."

These include Benin, Ghana, Niger and Ivory Coast, the document stated.

U.S. and French special forces are already operational in Niger, which has declared itself ready to host more. But their possible deployment in the other countries has not been officially mentioned previously.

According to the document, in Niger, "which already houses foreign troops' bases, new sites will be set up nearer the theaters of operation" in Mali, where multiple jihadi groups operate.

"The locations and operational methods" of these forces will be discussed with Niger's military hierarchy, it stated.

There was opposition to the parliamentary vote on Friday, but it failed to carry the day.

"We cannot give the government a blank check," said opposition parliamentarian Soumana Sanda, while another mentioned "gray areas."

France is reconfiguring its anti-jihadi forces in the Sahel after its relationship with Mali broke down following a military coup in August 2020.

Germany, which runs a logistics outpost in Niamey, has set up a center close to the border with Mali to train Nigerien special forces. Italy and Canada are also involved in special forces training.

The poorest country in the world according to the benchmark U.N. Human Development Index, Niger is facing two jihadi insurgencies. One is unfurling in the southwest of the country, coming from neighboring Mali, while the other is in the southeast, from Nigeria.

Criticism of the presence of foreign forces prompted Bazoum to announce in February that he would ask parliament to agree on any new "arrangements" with foreign partners to tackle the jihadists.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Kyiv on Sunday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"Tomorrow, the American officials are coming to visit us. I will meet the defense secretary [Lloyd Austin] and Antony Blinken," Zelenskyy told reporters Saturday, in what would be the first official visit by U.S. government officials since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

A State Department spokesperson told VOA in an email on Saturday: "We decline comment." The Pentagon also could not confirm the information to VOA. The White House also declined to comment.

British officials said Saturday that Russian troops havent gained significant new ground despite announcing a renewed offensive along the eastern front, while Ukraine has declared a nationwide curfew ahead of Orthodox Easter on Sunday.

Ukraine said Russian forces obstructed attempts to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol.

"The evacuation was thwarted," Mariupol city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding that about 200 people gathered at the government-appointed evacuation meeting point, but that Russian forces "dispersed" them.

Other residents were told to board buses destined for Russian-controlled Dukuchayevsk, which is about 80 kilometers to the north, Andryushchenko said.

Russian forces tried to storm a steel plant in Mariupol, the last pocket of resistance in the besieged port city that is of high strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said. Gaining full control of Mariupol would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port, while giving Russia a land corridor with Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 201

Russia fired at least six cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Saturday, killing five people, Ukraine officials said. Russias defense ministry said its troops conducted a missile strike on a depot in Odesa that contained weapons sent to Ukrainian troops by the United States and European countries.

Ukraine officials said Saturday that 21,600 Russian troops have died in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy renewed his call for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to "put an end to the war."

I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelenskyy said Saturday at a news conference held at a metro station in the heart of Kyiv, adding that he was "not afraid to meet" with Putin if it would lead to a peace deal between their two countries.

European arms

France and Germany have armed Russia with nearly $300 million worth of military equipment that is likely being used in Ukraine, according to an exclusive report, based on European Commission data, in The Telegraph, a British newspaper.

The hardware was sent, the newspaper reports, despite a European Union-wide embargo on arms to Russia that was imposed following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Germany has defended the sales, saying the items were dual-use equipment and that Russia had said they were needed for civilian, not military use.

The newspaper said the equipment sent to Russia included bombs, rockets, missiles and guns. French firms also sent thermal imaging cameras for more than 1,000 Russian tanks as well as navigation systems for fighter jets and attack helicopters, The Telegraph reported.

At least 10 EU member states have sent almost $380 million worth of military equipment to Russia, The Telegraph reported, with 78% of that total coming from French and German companies.

Other European countries that sold arms to Russia include Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Italy, according to The Telegraph.

Cristian Terhes, a Romanian member of the European parliament shared with The Telegraph the EU analysis of the probe into what countries have sold military goods to Russia.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy on Friday seized on remarks by a Russian general as evidence that Moscow would invade other countries if it succeeded in Ukraine. The general had said Russia aimed to capture all of southern and eastern Ukraine and link it to a breakaway province in neighboring Moldova.

"This only confirms what I have already said multiple times: Russia's invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning," Zelenskyy said in his evening address Friday.

He said comments earlier Friday by Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia's central military district, show that Russia will not stop with Ukraine.

Russian state news agencies quoted Minnekayev as saying that Moscow wanted to seize Ukraine's entire eastern Donbas region, provide a land corridor to link with the Crimean Peninsula, and capture the country's entire south as far west as a Russian-occupied breakaway region of Moldova. That would mean carrying the offensive hundreds of miles past the current lines and to the border with Moldova.

Moldova summoned Russia's ambassador Friday to express "deep concern" over the general's comments.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined to comment on the Russian general's statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldova's sovereignty.

The U.N. has announced that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to the region next week, meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara Monday, Putin in Moscow Tuesday and Zelenskyy in Ukraine on Thursday.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday seized on remarks by a Russian general as evidence that Moscow would invade other countries if it succeeded in Ukraine. The general had said Russia aimed to capture all of southern and eastern Ukraine and link it to a breakaway province in neighboring Moldova.

"This only confirms what I have already said multiple times: Russia's invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning," Zelenskyy said in his evening address Friday.

He said comments earlier Friday by Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia's central military district, show that Russia will not stop with Ukraine.

Russian state news agencies quoted Minnekayev as saying that Moscow wanted to seize Ukraine's entire eastern Donbas region, provide a land corridor to link with the Crimean Peninsula, and capture the country's entire south as far west as a Russian-occupied breakaway region of Moldova. That would mean carrying the offensive hundreds of miles past the current lines and to the border with Moldova.

Moldova summoned Russia's ambassador Friday to express "deep concern" over the general's comments.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter declined to comment on the Russian general's statement but said Washington firmly supported Moldova's sovereignty.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said the comments by the Russian general showed that Russia's previous claims that it had no territorial ambitions were not true.

"They stopped hiding it," Ukraine's Defense Ministry said on Twitter, adding that Russia has "acknowledged that the goal of the 'second phase' of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is."

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said Russia had no intention of permanently occupying Ukranian cities. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move that was widely condemned by the international community.

Russian ship

Russia's Defense Ministry acknowledged Friday for the first time that the crew of the missile cruiser Moskva suffered casualties when it sank last week.

It said one serviceman died and 27 went missing.

Ukraine and the United States said the ship was hit by Ukrainian cruise missiles, while Russia blamed the sinking on a fire.

Following the incident, Russia said the entire crew of the ship had been rescued. Moscow said Friday that 396 crew members had been rescued.

Military meeting

The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would hold a meeting next week in Germany with defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraine's defense needs.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that about 40 nations were invited to the meeting and responses were still arriving.

He said the talks, which include both NATO and non-NATO countries, will be held Tuesday at Ramstein Air Base.

Zelenskyy said Friday that allies were finally delivering the weapons that Ukraine had sought to defend itself.

Canada announced Friday it had provided heavy artillery to Ukraine, following a pledge by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on Thursday, declaring it was necessary to help Kyiv's forces repel Russian fighters in the critical battles unfolding in the eastern region of the country.

Diplomatic efforts

In diplomatic activity Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington. The State Department said Blinken "reinforced our determination to help Ukraine successfully defend itself against Russia's brutal and unjustified war of aggression."

The U.N. announced Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. He'll also hold meetings and have a working lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Guterres will then travel on Thursday to Ukraine, where he will meet with Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. The U.N. said he would also meet with staff of U.N. agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians.

The U.N. chief wrote to Putin and Zelenskyy earlier in the week requesting meetings to discuss the next steps toward peace in Ukraine.

Guterres also appealed this week for a four-day humanitarian pause to coincide with Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated in Ukraine and Russia. So far, those efforts have failed.

At a Friday press conference in Moscow, Lavrov said talks to end the fighting in Ukraine are at a standstill because Kyiv has not responded to Moscow's latest set of proposals.

"Another proposal we passed on to Ukrainian negotiators about five days ago, which was drawn up with their comments taken into account; it remains without a response," Russia's top diplomat said.

However, Russia's lead negotiator at the talks with Ukraine, Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed that he had engaged in several lengthy conversations with the head of the Ukrainian delegation on Friday, The Associated Press reported.

Alleged war crimes

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said Friday there was growing evidence that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

"Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes," said Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The U.N. said it appeared that Ukraine had also used weapons with indiscriminate effects.

On Thursday, Putin declared the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol "liberated" after nearly two months of fighting, even though Russian forces have not been able to penetrate the city's massive Azovstal steel plant, which remains in the hands of Ukrainian fighters and civilians.

Russian forces control most of Mariupol, Zelenskyy said, but Ukrainian troops remain in part of the besieged city.

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
An Air Force major general in Ohio has been convicted by a military judge of one of three specifications of abusive sexual contact in the first-ever military trial of an Air Force general.

The charge faced by Maj. Gen. William Cooley during the weeklong court-martial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had three specifications, one alleging a forcible kiss and two alleging forcible touching in 2018. Cooley was convicted Saturday of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two.

Officials said the verdict marks the first court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the Air Force's 75-year history.

A former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Cooley was charged with abusive sexual contact in an encounter with a woman who gave him a ride after a backyard barbecue in New Mexico nearly four years ago. Officials said the woman is a civilian who is not a Department of Defense employee.

Cooley was to be sentenced Monday morning and could face as much as seven years in jail as well as loss of rank, pay and benefits.

Cooley had the option of a trial by court member jurors or by a military judge, and chose to have the case heard by the judge.

"Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer has been held responsible for his heinous actions," the woman's attorney Ryan Guilds, said in a statement, the Dayton Daily News reported. "... Hopefully, this will not be as difficult for the next survivor."

Cooley was fired from his research laboratory position in January 2020 after an Air Force investigation and has worked in an administrative job since then. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney Saturday.

"This case clearly demonstrates the commitment of Air Force leaders to fully investigate the facts and hold airmen of any rank accountable for their actions when they fail to uphold Air Force standards," Col. Eric Mejia, staff judge advocate for the Air Force Materiel Command, said in a statement.
Gunmen on Saturday attacked a police station in central Nigeria's Kogi state and killed three policemen, an official said, as the Islamic State claimed responsibility and gave a higher toll.

The attackers stormed the police station in Adavi town and a fierce gunbattle ensued, state police spokesman William Ovye Aya, told AFP.

"The (police) Command lost three of its officers during the gun duel," he said.

Aya said although the "hoodlums" escaped with gunshot wounds, efforts were under way "to apprehend and bring them to book."

He urged residents to report anyone with bullet wounds to the police.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility in a statement on Telegram.

"Soldiers of the Caliphate attacked a police station," it said, adding that five people were killed in the raid.

Criminal gangs and jihadists have staged repeated attacks in Kogi, breaking into jails to free detained colleagues and other inmates.

In February, police foiled an attack by gunmen on a police station in the town of Okene, killing one of them.

Last September, gunmen broke into a medium-security prison in Kabba, freeing more than 200 inmates, according to prison authorities.
Turkey has closed its airspace to Russian civilian and military planes flying to Syria, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying Saturday by local media.

The announcement marks one of the strongest responses to date by Turkey, which has cultivated close ties with Moscow despite being a member of the NATO defense alliance, to Russia's two-month military assault on Ukraine.

"We closed the airspace to Russia's military planes  and even civilian ones  flying to Syria. They had until April, and we asked in March," Turkish media quoted Cavusoglu as saying.

Cavusoglu said he conveyed the decision to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, who then relayed it to President Vladimir Putin.

"One or two days later, they said: Putin has issued an order, we will not fly anymore," Cavusoglu was quoted as telling Turkish reporters aboard his plane to Uruguay.

Cavusoglu added that the ban would stay in place for three months.

There was no immediate response to Turkey's announcement from Russia, which together with Iran has been a crucial supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the war-torn country's civil war.

Turkey has backed Syrian rebels during the conflict.

Ankara's relations with Moscow briefly imploded after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.

But they had been improving until Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Turkey views as an important trade partner and a diplomatic ally.

Turkey has been trying to mediate an end to the conflict, hosting meetings between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul, and another between Lavrov and Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya.

Ankara is now trying to arrange an Istanbul summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, although Cavusoglu conceded that the prospects of such talks at this point remain dim.

"If they want a deal, it's inevitable," Cavusoglu was quoted as saying. "It might not happen for a long time, but it can happen suddenly."
The long-running trial of Turkish activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala nears its end as he and seven other defendants delivered their final defense statements on Friday.

In the trial, known as the Gezi Park trial, Kavala and 15 other defendants face many accusations, including attempting to overthrow the government and organizing the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Kavala denies the charges.

The Gezi Park protests began as an environmental demonstration in an Istanbul park and then turned into nationwide anti-government unrest against then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Eight protesters were killed during the protests.

Kavala, 64, has been in jail for four and a half years without a conviction, and he spent 19 months of this time in pre-trial detention. If convicted, Kavala faces a life sentence.

Speaking to the court Friday by video link from prison, Kavala said, "It is evident that those who issued the indictment did not feel constrained by laws, considering that they will receive political support as they intended to prolong my detention."

ECHR ruling

In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a ruling in favor of an immediate release of Kavala, saying there is a lack of reasonable suspicion that he committed a crime. As a member state of the Council of Europe, Turkey is legally bound by ECHR rulings, but it has not complied in the Kavala case.

In February, the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers began proceedings against Turkey over its failure to respect the ECHR ruling. The proceedings mean that Ankara faces a suspension of its voting rights in the CoE.

Political case

Many human rights activists assert the case is politically motivated.

This case has been a political case from its very beginning, and it was shaped directly by the president, Mehmet Durakoglu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, told VOA.

As a lawyer who has followed all of the hearings in the Gezi Park trial, Durakoglu said the prosecution has not presented a case that would justify a conviction.

There is not even the slightest bit of evidence. Architects have been prosecuted for doing architecture, city planners for doing city planning and lawyers for practicing law. Under normal circumstances, no sentence should be delivered in this case, Durakoglu noted.

The court had been expected to reach a verdict on Friday, but it postponed the hearing until Monday to allow defense lawyers to finish their statements.

Prosecutor Edip Sahiner has asked for Kavala and architect Mucella Yapici to be convicted of attempting to overthrow the government through violence, which would carry a sentence of up to life in prison without parole.

The courtroom was packed with some 200 people, including opposition members, rights groups, and Western diplomats.

Soros allegations

The Gezi Park trial indictment alleges that Hungarian-born, U.S.-based financier George Soros and his Open Society Foundation were behind the protests, and that they acted through Kavala, a former member of Open Society's Turkey branch board.

Both Kavala and the Open Society Foundation deny these accusations. The foundation ceased its operations in Turkey in 2018, saying that it was no longer possible to work in the country.

The fact that no member of the Open Society Foundation board other than me was summoned to testify and that George Soros is not among the accused shows that people who wrote this indictment do not believe this scenario that Soros organized and financed the Gezi protests through me, Kavala said in his final defense statement.

Erdogan has publicly called Kavala Soros scum and domestic Soros.

Kavalas prolonged detention stirred a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the embassies of 10 Western countries, including the United States, Canada and Germany, last October.

In response to the embassies calling for Kavalas release in a letter, Erdogan threatened them to be persona non grata. The embassies responded with one-sentence public statements reiterating their compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The article regulates diplomatic norms against interference in the internal affairs of host states.

After the court hearing, Evren Isler, one of Kavalas lawyers, told reporters the judicial panels actions were detached from the facts.

Todays hearing has shown us once again how the judicial panel has lost touch with the facts. No matter what we said, the panel gave the impression that they did not care, Isler said.

One of the many violations, in this case, is the violation of the right to a fair trial. The judicial panel is obliged to give the impression that they protect the right to a fair trial, Isler underscored.

This story was originated in VOA's Turkish service. Some information in this report came from Reuters.
US Ambassador to OSCE Carpenter: Ukraine in dire need of weapons, ammunition to defend against atrocities like those in Bucha, Hostomel, Borodianka

Ukraine is in dire need of modern weapons and ammunition in order to be able to successfully resist Russian aggression and protect its citizens from atrocities like those in Bucha, Hostomel and Borodianka, U.S. Permanent Representative to the OSCE Michael Carpenter said.

"The Kremlin has openly declared its intention to conquer eastern Ukraine, and developments on the ground leave little doubt we are witnessing the beginning stages of a massive offensive by Russia's forces in the Donbas," he said at a meeting of the Special Permanent Council in Vienna.

"All indications are that the battlefield dynamics will soon shift from closer-range combat to longer-range fires where artillery and multiple launch rocket systems are critical," he said.

"Ukraine desperately needs modern weapons and ammunition to defend itself in this new and deadly phase of the conflict. It needs these weapons and ammunition now, as quickly as we can possibly get them there. Not long-term negotiated contracts to purchase weapons, but the immediate provision of advanced capabilities to protect its civilians from the horrors of this war. If ever there was a time to energize our support for Ukraine, it is now," he stressed.

"This is a war for sovereignty against subjugation, for independence against imperialism, for the principles of international law against the brute force of a predatory power. The task before us is to rise to the moment and provide Ukraine with the capabilities it requires. The stakes are high for Ukraine and for us all. I call upon all of us here today to urge our own governments to step up and deliver. There is no time to lose. We must move swiftly, together, to immediately provide Ukraine with capabilities to protect its civilians from the horrors of this war  from atrocities like those in Bucha, Hostomel, and Borodianka," he said.
The U.N. human rights office is calling for impartial independent investigations into weeks of escalating violence in Palestinian territory and Israel.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed or injured, and hundreds arrested by Israeli security forces over the past month. Escalating violence also has resulted in the deaths of 12 Israelis and two foreign nationals by Palestinians in the most serious attacks in Israel in many years.

U.N. human rights officials are expressing deep concern about the escalating violence and by what they deem an excessive use of force by Israeli security forces. For example, last weekend Israeli security forces injured about 180 Palestinians, including at least 27 children. The violence occurred during tensions in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews.

Human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said numerous videos taken at the time have raised serious concerns about the conduct of the Israelis, which some say is widespread, unnecessary, and indiscriminate.

A number of Palestinians, including elderly, women, children and at least one journalist, who did not appear to pose any threat to Israeli security forces, were beaten with batons and were shot with sponge-tipped bullets from close range, she said. Many sustained broken bones. Some were injured from stun grenades including some directly striking their heads.

Following the violence at the Al Aqsa Mosque, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza launched six rockets and one mortar shell toward Israel between April 18 and 21. Israel responded by striking militant sites across the Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported in either Israel or Gaza.

The U.N. human rights office echoed the call of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for calm and urged investigations where people have been killed or injured.

Shamdasani noted the concerns raised using excessive and deadly force by Israeli security forces are not new.

These are concerns we have been raising now with the Israeli authorities for many years now, she said. And they are concerns that have been mentioned in High Commissioner reports, in the human rights council, in procedures and statements. And in bi-lateral discussions with them.

Shamdasani said Israeli authorities reportedly have launched investigations in a couple of instances. She said she hopes they will not lack the transparency of previous inquiries. She warned further cycles of violence will continue if the investigations do not result in accountability and justice for the victims.
Mali's prime minister says Mali will renew the U.N. support mission in Mali, even as U.N. efforts to investigate alleged human rights abuses are being blocked by Mali's military government.



The town of Moura was the site of a military operation in which, witnesses say, the Malian army and foreign soldiers summarily executed hundreds of civilians.



Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga said he recognizes the hesitancy that some countries have expressed in continuing to contribute troops to the U.N mission in Mali. His speech was posted on state TV station ORTM's Facebook page.



He said the renewal of MINUSMAs mandate is expected in June 2022 and there should not be a significant change in the mandate even though some countries that are contributing troops suggest they will reassess their level of participation.



Several European military operations have been halted in Mali in recent months, including the Takuba Task Force, the European Union Training Mission, and Frances Operation Barkhane, following tensions with Malis government and accusations that Malis forces are working with Russian mercenaries employed by the Wagner Group. Several European countries contribute troops to MINUSMA.



The announcement comes as the U.N. has been continually denied access to investigate human rights abuse allegations in the village of Moura.

In March, there were several reports of Malian and foreign soldiers, presumed to have been Russian mercenaries, carrying out summary executions of civilians in Moura, in what Human Rights Watch called the worst single atrocity reported in Malis decade-long armed conflict.



Alioune Tine, an independent U.N. expert on human rights in Mali, released a statement calling for a prompt investigation. Communicating from Senegal, he expressed optimism at Maigas announcement, but said the tension between France and Russia playing out in Mali is not conducive to resolving Malis security crisis.



If we have, he said, a space of polarization, of tension between the big powers, I dont think this is good for Mali, not for all of the Sahel, not even for all Africans.



Andrew Lebovich, a Sahel analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, speaking from New York, said that MINUSMAs mission is conflicted.



Theres a possible contradiction here, where MINUSMA is supposed to be supporting the transitional government, supporting the state, but also potentially investigating the state and protecting civilians in some cases from the state, and this is something that the mission is going to struggle to deal with, frankly, especially if the current pattern of alleged human rights abuses continues, he said.



MINUSMA also expressed concern about recent human rights abuse allegations in Hombori, saying in a tweet that it has the intention of visiting the scene soon.



Both Tine and Lebovich say its rare or unheard of for the Malian government to refuse to grant U.N. investigators access to a site.
The number of women in Lebanon dying from pregnancy-related complications has nearly tripled amid a crushing three-year economic crisis that has seen doctors and midwives leave the country, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Wednesday.

The crisis is also affecting children, especially among Syrian refugees who have fled over the border into Lebanon.

UNICEF said a third of children could not access health care by October 2021, and the number of children who die within the first four weeks after birth "increased dramatically among refugees in four provinces assessed, from 65 neonatal deaths in the first quarter of 2020 to 137 in the third quarter."

Lebanon hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees, making up about a quarter of the population, according to official estimates.

"Repeatedly, anguished parents and families are unable to access basic health care for their children as many dedicated health workers struggle to keep operations running during the crisis," said Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Lebanon representative.

Some 40% of doctors, including those that work specifically with children and women, have left the country, as well as some 30% of midwives, UNICEF said, diminishing the quality of services in a country formerly seen as a regional health care hub.

"Lebanon had achieved remarkable success in reducing maternal deaths, but numbers rose again between 2019 and 2021, from 13.7 to 37 deaths per 100,000 live births," the agency said in a report. It did not give the raw numbers.

Faysal al-Kak, coordinator of Lebanon's National Committee on Safe Motherhood, said the number of maternal deaths had spiked largely due to the coronavirus delta variant in 2021 but said the crisis was also a factor.

"The Lebanese crisis is a strong variable -- maybe the mom is not visiting enough, afraid of going to the doctor because it costs money. It gave women a sense that 'I can't go to the doctor,'" he told Reuters.

"Delta and the low vaccination rate -- in addition to the compounded crisis that we live in -- could have affected indirectly the accessibility, cost, and transportation."

The rising cost of transportation and services due to the collapse of the country's currency and the removal of most subsidies on fuel and medicine has left healthcare out of reach for many, UNICEF said.

Childhood vaccination rates have declined, leaving hundreds of thousands of children vulnerable to preventable diseases such as measles and pneumonia.
U.S. and Cuban officials met in Washington this week to discuss a record number of Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and to determine whether Cuba is willing to start accepting Cuban deportees.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters the goal of the conversation was to promote safe and legal migration between the two countries, and to address the issue of returns and repatriation of citizens. U.S. officials released no further details.

Cubas foreign ministry released a statement reiterating Cuban concerns over U.S. measures that impede legal and orderly migration and insisting that the U.S. honor a commitment to issue 20,000 annual visas for Cubans to emigrate to the United States. That process was halted under the Trump administration.

Cuban officials said they emphasized there is no justification for the continued interruption of the visa service. Last month, the State Department said it would begin processing some visas for Cubans in Havana and start reducing the backlog created by a four-year hiatus.

Cuba has a history of not accepting people returned or deported from the United States, but Maria Cristina Garcia, migration analyst and professor at Cornell University, says the policy has shown a little flexibility over the years.

Youll recall that after the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, thousands of Cubans were detained indefinitely, across the United States, because Cuba refused to take them back. It wasnt until the early 1990s that the Castro regime began accepting a small number of these Cuban detainees.

Garcia said that in 2005, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the U.S. government had violated the law by indefinitely detaining "Mariel" Cubans who could not be deported because Cuba would not allow their return. More than 900 Mariel Cubans were released.

What is the deportation process?

During a process at an immigration court, deportation orders are usually issued after a foreign national violates the terms of their visa, is found to be undocumented or is convicted of a crime.

If the person is sentenced to prison for a crime, they may be deported after serving the sentence. If they are detained administratively for an immigration violation, they can be held for up to 180 days while federal officials try to obtain travel documents for deportation.

When the United States seeks to deport an immigrant, it generally follows a framework negotiated with the other nation; these are often detailed in writing, through a memorandum of understanding.

Countries that do not negotiate or do not follow these written agreements and refuse to accept their nationals back are deemed "recalcitrant" or "uncooperative."

Before the United States can deport someone, the other country must agree to receive the deportee. There must also be an administratively final order of removal, or deportation order, and the individual must have a travel document issued by a foreign government.

What happens when a country does not want to accept their citizens with a U.S. order of removal?

The way the law stands now, the State Department, which handles these things at this point, is supposed to continue its efforts to negotiate with either the country in question or a third country that might be willing to take some of these people off our hands, David Abraham, professor of law emeritus at the University of Miami School of Law, told VOA.

But if it is not possible to send someone back to their home country or a third country willing to take them, Abraham said, they sit in detention while waiting for a review of their case to determine whether they are a danger to the community. Such a review can be conducted every six months.

And if they are found not a danger to the community, they can be released with an ankle bracelet or other kind of monitoring device along with a financial bond which is usually paid by U.S. relatives.

Is Cuba on the U.S. recalcitrant countries list?

A country is placed in the uncooperative or recalcitrant countries list if it refuses to allow U.S. removal flights into the country, or because it denies or delays the issuance of travel documents, such as passports.

During former president Barack Obama's second term, 23 countries were categorized as "recalcitrant," or "uncooperative" with deportations. Under Trump, the number decreased to nine.

Cuba was still on that list as of 2020. VOA asked Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) for an updated list of recalcitrant countries under the Biden administration, and the current number of Cubans facing deportation orders. Officials did not reply before publication.

In 2020, ICE officials told VOA in an email that Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam were on the list of recalcitrant countries.

ICE said its assessment of a countrys cooperativeness is formally reviewed twice a year; however, it can be revisited at any time as conditions in that country or relations with that country evolve. As a result, this list is subject to change as countries become more or less cooperative.

How many Cubans are arriving at U.S. borders?

In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 32,396 encounters of Cuban migrants at the border. In October  the first month of fiscal year 2022  that number was 6,067.

Cubans, who often arrive in the U.S. by illegally crossing the southern border, face a lower risk of being deported or expelled under title 42 -- a public health authority that has been used to block asylum to thousands of migrants of other nationalities due to COVID-19.

According to CBP data, there were a total of 1,529 Cuban deportees in 2020. Of that number, 238 had criminal convictions and 1,291 were non-criminal.

Can Cubans with U.S. removal orders be dropped off at Cuban ports of entry?

No. In July 2016, former ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale explained to Congress a protocol must be followed to deport a foreign national.

What happens to those with deportation orders in the U.S. but who are released from immigration detention?

David Abraham, University of Miami professor of law emeritus, said the State Department is obligated to do its best to find somewhere to take [foreign nationals] either [to their] home country or another country that we can persuade.

If the issuance of travel documents fails and people are released from immigration detention, Abraham said that depending on the terms of someone's bond, they might be allowed to work.

[Or] you may find that you can only work in the shadow economy where no one is asking you for a social security number  But yes, it's a bad position to be in, he said.
The nighttime silence of a Washington, D.C., neighborhood was shattered by the sounds of rapid gunfire earlier this month. When police arrived on the scene, they discovered the lifeless body of an African American teenager, who had been shot and was lying in the street.

The April 11 killing of 15-year-old Malachi Jackson comes as many U.S. communities experience a wave of gun violence involving juveniles who are increasingly identified among the victims and the perpetrators.

D.C. Police say Jackson was the youngest victim and the third teen under age 18 to be killed by gunfire in the nations capital so far this year. His death has impacted many in the citys Columbia Heights neighborhood where the young teen was killed.

My son was not supposed to be murdered, Jacksons mother said in a television interview with NBC 4. It just makes me wonder, do people even value anything anymore?

No arrests have been made, but detectives believe the homicide may be the result of a neighborhood feud involving other young people.

It is very alarming, D.C. Police Third District Commander Han Kim said. Its very difficult for me to really express how concerning it is and how serious we take this.

Officials in Washington have recorded more than 46 gun deaths this year, including the killings of two 16-year-olds in February and March.

Gun violence here is out of control, said Mary Rogers, who lives in Columbia Heights. She believes Jacksons death was the third killing in the area involving a young person in the past six months.

We need to get guns out of the hands of teenagers, Rogers told VOA. When juveniles get caught shooting someone and convicted in court, they should be severely punished.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently launched several citywide programs aimed at reducing gun violence and has proposed hiring hundreds of additional police officers.

We need a 21st century model for police that seeks to prevent more crimes than just respond to them, said Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York.

Im talking about policing that seeks to understand what's driving gun crime or gang violence, Aborn told VOA. Police services need to ally with the community in getting government services into those neighborhoods throughout the country where it's most needed.

Mass shootings

The tragedies of everyday gun violence, which account for most U.S. shooting deaths, are often overshadowed by reports of mass shootings, defined as four or more people being shot.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two 17-year-olds were killed and several injured when officials said more than 90 shots were fired by multiple people inside a house party attended by 200 teenagers over the Easter holiday weekend.

Officials said one of the weapons used was an AR-15-style assault pistol.

There are more illegal guns out on the streets than I have even seen before and there are many guns in the hands of juveniles, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said in a CNN interview. Gun violence is a national issue.

According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, nearly 21,000 U.S. gun deaths were reported in 2021. There were 693 mass shootings, claiming 702 lives.

Mass shootings have put many communities on edge with residents demanding more be done to reverse the trend. Several lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to prevent mass shootings and help communities where the violence occurred, but the legislation has stalled on Capitol Hill.

Curbing gun violence

U.S. President Joe Biden has prioritized combating gun violence and continues to press lawmakers to pass new gun laws. The measures would require background checks for all weapons purchases, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and a repeal of gun manufacturers protection from liability in shootings.

Gun rights advocates have vowed to fight hard against all the proposals, maintaining the measures infringe on the constitutional rights of gun owners.

President Biden has also proposed federal measures to restrict so called ghost guns.

These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals, Biden said during a White House event earlier this month. Ghost guns are sold in kits that consumers can assemble themselves.

Law enforcement officials said these guns are popular because they lack serial numbers, making them difficult for police to trace when the weapons are used to commit a crime.

The new government regulations would make it illegal for businesses to manufacture such kits without a serial number and for a licensed gun dealer to sell them without a background check.

The Justice Department says that in 2021, law enforcement agencies recovered about 20,000 suspected ghost guns during criminal investigations, 10 times as many as police found in 2016.

Police and government officials in Washington support efforts to crack down on the distribution of ghost guns and other programs to reduce gun violence.

The crime we are grappling with now is the result of generations of hurtful policies that were perpetuated by racism and inequality, then exacerbated by insecurity caused by the pandemic and its aftereffects, D.C. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau said.

In May, local leaders plan to launch a violence prevention program called Cure the Streets in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. It would utilize people entrenched in the community to help mediate disputes before they escalate into violence.

The level of violence we have in this area is unacceptable to me and I will not rest until it subsides, Nadeau said.
The Horn of Africa is suffering a historic drought that the U.N. says could result in starvation for as many as 20 million people. In Ethiopia, more than seven million people are already short of something to eat, suffering compounded by the war in the north.

A fourth consecutive year of failed rains is causing the worst drought in the Horn of Africa since 1981. Meanwhile, the U.N.s World Food Program told VOA a combination of conflict in the north of Ethiopia and drought in the south, are set to be catastrophic for the country.

WFP spokesperson Clair Nevill said the worst effects could be averted if action is taken quickly, but that doesnt look likely.

In the 2016 to 2017 drought, this catastrophe was avoided through early action In 2022, due to a severe lack of resourcing, there are growing fears that it wont be possible to prevent the looming disaster, he said.

A policy adviser for a major humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, who declined to be named, told VOA that the governments focus was on the war and mobilization for it, so there was significant lag time in doing the assessments and putting in place the response mechanisms for the drought in the south. The adviser said the cost of that inattention was a huge loss of livelihoods, assets and livestock.

The adviser noted, however, that the regional and central governments have recently tried to pull together resources and are trying to address the needs in regions of the country like Somali and Oromia, particularly by rallying donors like the WFP.

Aid agencies in Africa have also complained the crisis in Ukraine is drawing attention and money away from countries on the Arican continent.

The policy adviser added the damage caused by the delayed response is irreversible and it could take years, if it happens at all, for those affected to recover.

Aside from drawing attention from the drought, Ethiopias civil war has itself been a major cause of humanitarian crisis. In March, the government said it had called a humanitarian cease-fire and would allow aid into the northern region of Tigray, where it is fighting separatist forces.

William Davison, a senior analyst covering Ethiopia for the International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based research group, says despite the humanitarian truce, there still seems to be around one convoy of aid reaching Tigray per week, so that is nothing like the unrestricted access for humanitarian agencies thats needed. We should also note that there has been no move by the federal government yet to restore vital public services to Tigray including banking, telecoms and electricity, he added.

The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the north, combined with those likely to be affected by the drought in the south, brings the total to almost 12.5 million Ethiopians in need of help, according to U.N. figures.

The National Disaster Risk Management Commission of Ethiopia, a branch of the Ethiopian government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The World Health Organization warns the health system in eastern Ukraine has all but collapsed, putting the lives of thousands of people trapped in Mariupol and other besieged areas at risk.

U.N. health officials say it is critical they be granted immediate access to Mariupol and other areas hardest hit by fighting in eastern Ukraine. They say they have received reports that nearly all health facilities and hospitals in areas like the Luhansk region either are damaged or destroyed.

The WHO is appealing for access to affected areas to assess health needs and to provide critical medical supplies to the sick and injured. Speaking from Lviv in western Ukraine, WHO spokesman Bhanu Bhatnagar said the WHO so far has not been able to enter Mariupol and does not know the health status of the besieged population.

Mariupol has been subjected to relentless bombing and shelling by Russian forces for the past two months. The city has been razed to the ground. Tens of thousands of people reportedly are living in underground bunkers, with limited food, water, and medical supplies.

Bhatnagar said the WHO is moving supplies it thinks are needed in Mariupol closer to the city. But he added it is essential that a safe passage is created quickly.

We need a cessation of fighting for at least two days in order to move vital supplies in, but also assess the health needs, he said. We anticipate the worst. A health system that has collapsed completely and that brings with it all kinds of knock-on effects. Of course, there are people with conflict-related injuries that need help.

Bhatnagar noted there also are people with chronic conditions and other health care needs that do not have access to vital medicine. He said the findings of a new WHO survey of 1,000 households across Ukraine show the devastating impact this war is having on access to health care.

Two out of five households have at least one member with a chronic illness, like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, he said. Of those, one in three is struggling to access healthcare for those chronic conditions. Our survey also finds that the war is affecting peoples health-seeking behavior, with less than a third of households saying they sought out health services recently.

Bhatnagar added that 39% of people say the security situation inhibits them from seeking care for their illness, while 27% say no health care services are available in their area.

The WHO has confirmed 162 attacks on health care facilities and personnel, with at least 73 people known to have been killed.
LONDON  The British government is facing strong backlash from opposition parties and human rights groups after announcing plans earlier this month to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing, in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.



The British government says the prospect of being sent to Rwanda will deter migrants from embarking on the treacherous journey.



Record numbers



More than 4,500 migrants have crossed the English Channel from France to Britain in small boats this year, four times more than the total this time last year. There have been dozens of fatalities, including 27 migrants who drowned when their boat capsized off the northern French coast in November.



There is broad political agreement that the dangerous treks must stop, along with bitter debate about how that can be accomplished.

Britains latest plan is to fly migrants more than 6,000 kilometers to Rwanda, where they will be put in holding centers while their asylum claims are processed. Britains home secretary, Priti Patel, signed the policy alongside Vincent Biruta, Rwanda's minister of foreign affairs, during a visit to Kigali earlier this month.



The persistent circumventing of our laws and immigration rules and the reality of a system that is open to gain and to criminal exploitation has eroded public support for Britain's asylum system and those who genuinely need access to it, Patel told reporters. Putting evil people, smugglers, out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our disposal and also to find new solutions.



Working together, the United Kingdom and Rwanda will help make the immigration system fairer, ensure that people are safe and enjoy new opportunities to flourish. We have agreed that people who enter the U.K. illegally will be considered for relocation to Rwanda to have their asylum claims decided and those who are resettled will be given the support, including up to five years of training, with the help of integration, accommodation, [and] health care so that they can resettle and thrive, the British home secretary said on April 14.



Britain has paid Rwanda an initial $156 million for a five-year trial plan. Britain will also pay Rwanda for each migrant the African nation accepts.



This [plan] will not only help them, but it will benefit Rwanda and Rwandans and help to advance our own development, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta told reporters.

Bitter backlash



The policy has prompted a furious response in Britain and elsewhere. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby  the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church  criticized the policy in his Easter sermon. Subcontracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well, like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God, Welby said.



Migrant support groups say Britain should not be outsourcing refugee processing to Rwanda, a country where London itself has flagged human rights concerns.



We think its inhumane, its going to be very expensive, and it wont be effective, James Wilson, deputy director of the group Detention Action, told VOA. The U.K. is a signatory to the refugee convention. We have a legal and moral obligation to be assessing any asylum claims to the U.K. in the U.K.

Wilson said the government should provide safe routes for refugees to reach Britain. A humanitarian visa system, so that those who have reached France and are looking to claim asylum in the U.K. and having some grounds for doing that would be able to apply for a visa to come to the U.K. to have their asylum claim considered. If we put that kind of scheme in place, which we think is entirely practicable, it would end the need for Channel crossings, he told VOA.



Patel says Rwanda is a safe and secure country with the respect for the rule of law and clearly a range of institutions that evolved and developed over time. She also said Rwanda already has resettled almost 130,000 refugees from multiple countries.

UN objections



Britain says asylum-seekers should apply for refugee status in the first safe country they arrive in, including France. The United Nations disagrees. There's nothing in international law that says you have to ask in the first country you encounter, said Larry Bottinick, a senior legal officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.



UNHCR understands the frustration of the U.K. government on that and is not in favor of Channel crossing, of course. We think there's more effective ways and more humane ways to address this, Bottinick told The Associated Press.

Australia lessons



Until 2014, Australia sent thousands of migrants to offshore processing centers in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru. Many asylum-seekers are still being held in these facilities. The policy failed to deter migrants, says analyst Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.



In the first year of offshore processing being in place, more people arrived in Australia by boat than at any other time in recorded history of asylum-seekers arriving that way, she said.



Gleeson says Britain has indicated that only some migrants will be sent to Rwanda, and they are likely to be single men.



If that is the case, what you might find is that the next boats coming across the Channel belonged to those groups which are not going to go to Rwanda  so you might see increased numbers of women and children coming on that boat," she said. "And the concern there is if those boats sink or if they run into trouble, youre likely to have a much higher human toll if there are more women and children on the boat.



There will be a cap on how many people can go to Rwanda. And so, the U.K. risks running into the problem we found here in Australia, which is very quickly  within 12 weeks of this policy starting  we had already maxed out the full capacity offshore, Gleeson told VOA.



There are further concerns the migrants sent to Rwanda will simply try again to reach Britain, thereby fueling the human trafficking gangs that operate from Africa to Europe and on toward the English Channel.
Community leaders in South Africas violence-prone Diepsloot township say foreigners were not involved in the shooting to death of two people in the area on Friday, almost two weeks after Zimbabwean domestic worker Elvis Nyathis was killed by a vigilante group.

In a statement, councilors Julius Maake of Ward 95 and Abraham Mabuke of Ward 113 said the two victims were shot by known assailants.

We can confirm that 3 people got shot by known people. 2 died on scene and the 3rd one sustained injuries. The third person was transported to hospital for treatment under police guard. It is important to inform the community that this incident has nothing to do with foreign nationals. Police are following positive leads that will end in arrests.

We are therefore appealing to our community members together with all leaders to give space law enforcement agencies to deal with this matter without any interference. In due course a report will be given. Working together we can build a better society.

Nyathi was abducted, tortured and murdered in cold blood by his assailants. Seven suspects appeared in court Friday facing charges of murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to cause bodily harm and abduction.

They are expected to appear in court on Monday.

Diepsloot has been recording serious cases of violence of late amid concerns that some are linked to Operation Dudula, an anti-immigration group, which is calling for the removal of all illegal immigrants from South Africa.

Operation Dudula claims that foreigners have grabbed most jobs and are committing serious crimes. But representatives of immigrants say not all Zimbabweans are committing crimes in South Africa.

A South African news outlet, eNCA, quoted a police spokesperson as saying the assailants fled on foot.
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US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine that includes heavy artillery, tactical vehicles and armed drones. He said the weapons will support the country's needs amid Russia's pivot to refocus the war on the Donbas region. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
The Ministry of Education and Science says that 1,138 educational institutions have been damaged or destroyed by Russian troops since the beginning of the war.

"Some 1,138 educational institutions suffered from bombing and shelling," according to the website of the Ministry of Education for monitoring the damage from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It is noted that 1,039 institutions were damaged, and 99 were completely destroyed.
One on One with Joe Korkowski, is heard Saturdays on KXRA-1490AM / 100.3fm/105.7fm (@7:40am) and KXRA-92.3FM (@7:00am), as well as each Sunday morning on KXRZ Z99.3fm (@10:15am).

The interview is also re-broadcast on Monday mornings on KX92 at 10:00am and on Z99 at 9:10am.
Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features

The Northman writer-director Robert Eggers is known as a particularly exacting filmmaker when it comes to historical accuracy. Eggers got his start as a production designer, and the sets for his films are built from scratch using historical methods. His scripts are just as dense, incorporating historical and literary sources on both a macro and a line-by-line basis.

Eggerss primary sources for The Northman were the Icelandic sagas, stories about the great families of medieval Iceland written by anonymous authors in the 13th and 14th centuries. Those tales are rich with detail, some of which may fly over the heads of viewers who arent familiar with Viking culture and beliefs. Some elements in the film look so wild  psychedelic visions, mummified heads, human sacrifice  that they may seem like fiction. But as youll learn, theyre all very much based in real history.

What year is it again?

The Northman opens in 895 before fast-forwarding a couple of decades as our hero, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard), matures from a frightened boy into a hardened warrior. In the year 914, Amleth boards a ship bound for Iceland, then a sparsely populated Viking settlement less than 50 years old.

And where are we exactly?

All over northern Europe. We begin in the fictional kingdom of Hrafnsey, which press notes for the film describe as located somewhere around the Orkney and Shetland Islands (i.e., off the northern coast of Scotland). Once we skip forward in time, The Northman shifts to two real-life locations: the Land of the Rus  which encompasses modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus  and Iceland, which was settled by Vikings in 870.

Why is the plot basically Hamlet?

The Northman is partially based on the tale of Amleth, which is told in books three and four of Historia Danica, a legendary history of the Danish people written by the scholar Saxo Grammaticus in the early 13th century. William Shakespeare took the premise  an exiled prince vows revenge after his uncle kills his father and marries his mother  and used it as the basis for Hamlet. (He also rearranged the letters in the main characters name.)

Interestingly, in the original story, Amleth is described as a fool, a detail that both Shakespeare and Eggers chose to set aside for their versions.

Whats up with Ethan Hawke getting on his knees and barking like a dog?

Norse paganism had a strong element of shamanism, which  to reduce a complex, ancient global practice to one single sentence  allows a worshiper to directly experience the spirit world rather than passively worship it. This communion is achieved primarily through trances, psychedelic and otherwise, that impart profound spiritual wisdom. In The Northman, Amleth and his father, King Aurvandil (Hawke), drink a potion given to them by their tribes shaman, Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe). The resulting hallucinatory experience reveals to the young Amleth the nature of the Viking cosmos and his place in it. The likely culprit here is Amanita muscaria (a.k.a. fly agaric), a mushroom native to the Northern Hemisphere with an eons-old connection to shamanic spirituality.

Aurvandil is known as the Raven King, and ravens follow Amleth throughout his quest to avenge his fathers death. (Ravens are also associated with Odin the Allfather, the king of the Norse gods.) But for his sons shamanic initiation, Aurvandil humbles himself by acting like a dog, connecting with the animal spirit that will guide them on their journey.

And Alexander Skarsgard howling and ripping a guys throat out with his teeth?

After leaving his homeland, Amleth joins up with the berserkers, a shamanic subset of Viking warriors from whom we get the English phrase going berserk. Berserkers were divided into two categories: the ones who wore bear pelts and the ones called Ulfhednar, who favored wolf pelts. Both were known to get themselves pumped up before a raid with ritualistic chanting, dances, and, more than likely, psychoactive potions. By the time they attacked a village, the berserkers often believed they had transcended their human bodies and become their totem animals (thus the ripping out of throats with bare teeth).

Whats the tree Amleth keeps hallucinating?

Thats the ash tree Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, the center of the Viking cosmos. Yggdrasil has three roots: One stretches to the well of Urd (more on that in a bit), the second to the realm of the frost giants, and the third to the world of men. The tree itself holds up the nine worlds of Viking mythology and connects all of them. Amleth sees his ancestors hanging from the tree when the mysteries of Viking shamanism are first revealed to him, and he has a vision of his children sprouting from Yggdrasil when he finds out Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) is pregnant.

Odin, the most shamanic of the Norse gods, hung upside down on Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, a trial that ended with Odin receiving the wisdom of the runes.

Does Willem Dafoes hair get you high when hes alive, or do you have to mummify his head first?

Its necromancy, so the latter. Necromancy, or communing with the dead, played a prominent role in Icelandic witchcraft and sorcery over the centuries. Perhaps its most ghastly manifestations were necropants, which were made by flaying the body of a man who had agreed to donate his skin to a wizard from the waist down  penis and scrotum included. The dead mans skin was then cured and fashioned into a pair of pants. The necromancer would tuck a coin into the scrotum before putting on the necropants, thus ensuring prosperity as long as they were worn. Historians are skeptical about whether anyone actually made necropants or if theyre simply a folk belief. But its a cool, gross idea.

Who are Fenrir and Freyr?

Who the characters in The Northman worship says a lot about their priorities. Amleth and his fellow berserkers invoke Fenrir (a.k.a. Fenriswolf)  a mythological wolf representing chaos  as they prepare to charge into battle in the Land of Rus. Son of the trickster Loki, Fenrir lies bound by a magical chain made by dwarves on the mythical island of Lyngvi in Lake Amsvartnir (Old Norse for pitch black). There, he awaits Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse. Thats when he will break free, swallow the sun, and kill Odin.

Meanwhile, Freyr (a.k.a. Frey), the god to whom Amleths uncle Fjolnir erects a temple at his settlement in Iceland, is a patron of fertility and agriculture. The brother of Freyja, the goddess of love and beauty, Freyr was widely worshiped in Norse society. But according to myth, Freyr gave up his sword to marry the giantess Gerd  an action the warlike Amleth would view with contempt.

Whats Bjorks role in all of this?

Shes one of the Norns, the female immortals who spun the threads of fate for every human being according to Norse belief. (In the film, Bjork holds a drop spindle in her hand.) If you had a successful life, it was because you were blessed with a benevolent Norn. If your luck kept going from bad to worse, an ill-tempered Norn was to blame.

The three primary Norns  similar to the three fates of Greek mythology  were named Urd (Became), Verdandi (Becoming), and Skuld (Will Become), and they dwelled in a magnificent hall under one of the three roots of Yggdrasil. The well of Urd is where unborn souls waited to be carried into the world by storks, which is where the idea of storks delivering babies comes from.

Did the Vikings really practice human sacrifice at funerals?

In short, yes. Peter Archers The Book of Viking Myths references a document from 921 in which an Arabic traveler named Ibn Fadlan wrote about the funeral of a Viking chieftain where a slave girl was killed and buried along with her master. Fadlan described the ritual leading up to the girls death, during which she was raised up three times before being strangled, like so: The first time they raised her she said, Behold, I see my father and mother. The second time she said, I see all my dead relatives seated. The third time she said, I see my master seated in Paradise and Paradise is beautiful and green  He calls me. Take me to him.

Did Valkyries really have tooth bling?

Not just Valkyries: Some mortal Vikings got decorative dental work as well. Grave sites have been found in Sweden, Denmark, and England with skulls whose teeth were filed into patterns of crescents and horizontal lines. Modern historians dont fully understand why this was done: It doesnt seem to be related to social status, nor does it appear to be an initiation rite. Maybe it just looked cool and scary?
Army planners and Columbia River sponsor ports are hosting five virtual information sessions April 26-28 to update the public on their 20-year plan for managing dredged material from the Lower Columbia River. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) policy requires all federally maintained navigation projects demonstrate there is sufficient dredged material placement capacity for a minimum of 20 years.

The Corps and sponsor ports are preparing a joint Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the plan, known as the Lower Columbia River Channel Maintenance Plan (LCR CMP) Dredged Material Maintenance Plan (DMMP).

The Corps and its sponsor ports (Longview, Kalama, Woodland, Vancouver, and Portland) began the public comment period for the EIS in 2017 and are ready to update the public on their current plans.

The Lower Columbia River is a very important channel, annually moving over 50 million tons of cargo worth $24 billion, internationally, said Sarah Knowles, project manager. The Columbia River is ranked number one in the U.S. for wheat exports and is the third largest exporter of grain in the world.

Knowles added that the plan will allow the Corps to continue to maintain the Federal Navigation Channel until 2044. The Corps and sponsor ports invite all affected federal, state, and local agencies; Tribal Nations; and other interested parties to participate in the open houses to learn more about the 20-year placement plan.

The Port of Portland, along with other Columbia River ports, depends on maintenance dredging to support our trade gateway, said Curtis Robinhold, Port of Portland executive director. Maintaining the river channel at its authorized depth and width is essential to sustaining the billions of dollars of commerce that flow through the Columbia River.

Open houses: Virtual open houses will be on WebEx and feature the same content. Several options are available:

Date Time More info:

Tuesday, April 26 1-2:15 p.m. WebEx link

Wednesday, April 27 1-2:15 p.m. WebEx link

Wednesday, April 27 6:30-7:45 p.m. WebEx link

Thursday, April 28 1-2:15 p.m. WebEx link

Thursday, April 28 6:30-7:45 p.m. WebEx link

Background: The Lower Columbia River Federal Navigation Channel project includes a main channel that is 43 feet deep and generally 600 feet wide, and that extends upstream of the Mouth of Columbia River (river mile (RM) 3) to Vancouver, WA (RM 105.5). The channel also extends into lower Oregon Slough and includes vessel turning basins at Astoria in Oregon, and at Longview, Kalama, and Vancouver in Washington. The Corps maintains the channel with a combination of dredging and pile dikes. For the past several years, the Corps has been dredging 6 to 8 million cubic yards of localized sand shoals to provide reliable service for deep-draft navigation on an annual basis. The scoping documents, Federal Register Notice of Intent, and background information are available on the project website. Presentation material will be added later. Project website: http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/lcrchannelmaintenance/.
Over 20 states to take part in consultative meeting in Germany to assess Ukrainian military's needs - media

More than 20 countries have expressed their desire to take part in a consultative meeting to be held at Ramstein Air Base in Germany next week, during which the issues of long-term military assistance that Western countries can provide to the Ukrainian army will be discussed, Washington Post reports, citing Pentagon Speaker John Kirby.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that more than 20 countries have agreed to take part in a "consultative" meeting next week at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Defense ministers and senior officers from the US and partner countries will discuss what long-term assistance Ukrainian military need to remain combat-ready, including after the war with Russia, the report says.

The report clarified that, according to Kirby, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has no concrete results from the meeting and is not going to participate in it with a preliminarily prepared list of what the United States can provide Ukraine with.

He (the US Secretary of Defense) wants to hear from allies and partners, as well as from the Ukrainians themselves, about what they are doing and what they will need in the future, Kirby said.

At the same time, he clarified that the meeting was not aimed at obtaining security guarantees for Ukraine.
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Many of the worlds employees have been separated from their workplace for a large chunk of the past two pandemic-disrupted years, and it seems most of us arent too keen to go back. Just 3% of white-collar workers want to return five days a week, one survey showed earlier this year. Were it possible, the idea of sending a doppelganger into the office to serve eight hours on our behalf would probably be quite appealing.

That may be one reason for the popularity of Severance, the Apple TV-plus drama that concluded its first season this month. The dystopian techno-fantasy concerns workers who have chosen voluntarily to have a brain implant that separates their workplace selves from their outside identities, so neither has any knowledge or memory of the other. Thats one way to deal with the pain of abandoning a comfortable work-from-home routine.

The surreal netherworld of Severance eerily captures the sense of fracturing and disconnection that has pervaded the Covid era. The office on the subterranean severed floor is cavernous, sparsely populated and surrounded by a warren of empty corridors lit with antiseptic bright lights. That will resonate with the small minority (such as this writer) who have made an early return to the office. There have been many walks around deserted corridors, and few people to congregate with at the water cooler.

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There are other reasons that Severance has struck a chord, though. It stirs up perennial issues of work-life balance, psychological boundaries and identity. Do the characters have the right to commit another part of their selves to perpetual sequestration in the workplace (particularly one as weird as that of Severance, where the in-office selves inexplicably perform meaningless tasks on 80s-style computers for trivial rewards). If the two come into conflict, which is the real self?

The show is an exaggerated metaphor for how we behave in real life. Most of us adopt different personas to some extent in our work and home settings. The pressures are different, clearly. In a professional milieu, the need to conform to others expectations is a determinant of survival and success. So, for example, an introvert may act as an extrovert in the office if thats what the job demands. Much psychological research has focused on the question of whether this out-of-character behavior is healthy and adaptive, or harmful.

Acting out of character for too long is draining, Lena Wang, a senior lecturer at RMIT University in Australia who researches workplace personality issues, said in an email. When people do this, they put on a facade and act to meet others expectation rather than out of ones free will  that deprived sense of autonomy, coupled with the less authentic self-expression, is hurtful for our functioning and wellbeing over the long run.

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In other words, its a question of degree. We can adopt the behaviors of people who arent like us  what the Canadian psychologist Brian Little terms free traits  as long as we dont feel we are straying too far from who we really are. Do that, and were likely to experience stress. The 19th century American psychologist William James used a German word to describe this state: zerrissenheit, literally torn-to-pieces-hood. (Of course, adopting unfamiliar behaviors to achieve an end with full knowledge and awareness is different from evolving distinct separate identities  then were into the realm of multiple personality disorder.)

Beyond this, Severance hints at deeper psychological truths. We all carry the sense that we are the same person from minute to minute, acting consistently with who we feel ourselves to be. The accuracy of this belief is open to question  and has been for more than 2,000 years. The self is an illusion, the Buddha taught. Its a position supported by modern neuroscience. The brain is less a unified organ than a series of separate structures laid on top of each other, like a house that has been repeatedly remodeled, Robert Ornstein wrote in Multimind. We wheel from part to part according to the discrete task that it evolved to handle.

Yet at the same time we have an inner compulsion toward unity and completeness. Thats also a notion with ancient roots, being a plank of Daoism that became a central theme of the work of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

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If theres a moral in Severance, its that separation doesnt work, in the end. Not surprisingly, the severed office selves become frustrated with their cloistered below-ground existence and plot to break through to the outside. (The psychoanalytical analogy is obvious: The unconscious will make itself felt, and the more its ignored, the harder it will knock.) The lesson for employees contemplating a forced end to their work-from-home sojourn is: Stay in touch with every part of yourself, and dont stray too far from whom you feel yourself to be in the pursuit of career success, if you want to avoid burnout and maladjustment.

We dont know where Severance is heading ultimately. That will be for Season 2. You might want to check it out. Just make sure you and your work face watch it together.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

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 Five Days a Week in the Office Is for the Best: Allison Schrager

 Return-to-Office Pitches Need Updating: Sarah Green Carmichael

 Why Revive the Commute When Gas Is So Pricey?: Brooke Sutherland

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Matthew Brooker is a columnist and editor with Bloomberg Opinion. He previously was a columnist, editor and bureau chief for Bloomberg News. Before joining Bloomberg, he worked for the South China Morning Post. He is a CFA charterholder.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Guard soldier drowns trying to save migrant Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A Texas National Guard soldier drowned early Friday in the Rio Grande while trying to rescue migrants struggling with swift currents as they crossed the border, according to state officials. Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the Guard member was part of the border security initiative Operation Lone Star, which was ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Olivarez said the Guard member was carried away by the current during the rescue attempt near Eagle Pass, Tex., a border city about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio.

Powerful river currents have resulted in at least 10 drownings this week alone, Olivarez said. Eagle Pass officials said that in recent weeks they have seen an increase in crossings from Piedras Negras, Mexico, the city on the opposite side of the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass.

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Officials have not recovered the soldiers body. The Texas Military Department confirmed a soldier disappeared but did not verify reports of a fatality, calling them false.

A Border Patrol dive team and state troopers are assisting in the search.

Jon Anfinsen, local president of the Border Patrol union in the Del Rio sector, said the young soldier reacted when he saw a woman in distress, according to calls he received from agents. The soldier pulled off his armor, put down his rifle and jumped into the river after her.

The woman survived, Anfinsen said. But the soldier has not been seen since.

 Arelis R. Hernandez

Ky. man gets life term in killing of deputy

A Kentucky man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the December shooting death of an Illinois sheriffs deputy was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

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Ray Tate, who was originally charged with 36 counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated vehicle hijacking and felony possession of a firearm, pleaded guilty to the one count of first-degree murder last month in the slaying of Wayne County Sheriffs Deputy Sean Riley. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped the other charges.

Riley had responded to a motorist assist call on Dec. 29 and was found dead a short time later by another officer who had arrived at the scene. Rileys squad car was later found abandoned on Interstate 64 in eastern Illinois.

Tate, 40, of Hopkinsville, Ky., was arrested that afternoon at a home in nearby Carlyle where Tate allegedly committed a home invasion and took the homeowner hostage.

Tate still faces charges in connection with various crimes he allegedly committed the same day in Missouri. He also could face charges in Jefferson and Wayne counties for allegedly trying to escape this month from the Jefferson County jail.

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Adriana Stacey and her children play at their home in Fayetteville, Ark. (Terra Fondriest for The Post)

The vast majority of teens and tweens today have smartphones. These parents said no.
Russian occupiers have begun forced mobilization, including doctors, in the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions, the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports.

"The occupiers are mobilizing Ukrainian doctors who remain in the occupied territories. In particular, in the city of Volchansk (Kharkiv region), in primary health care, junior medical personnel are forcibly sent to the front line to provide first aid to Russian wounded. In case of refusal, doctors are threatened with execution," the report states.

The department noted that mobilization activities have also begun against young people from the local population in the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions.

In order to ensure mobilization measures, the possibility of leaving Kherson region to the territories controlled by Ukraine was almost completely blocked. Significantly limited the ability to travel in the direction of the Russian Federation.

In Zaporizhia region, Russian servicemen and FSB officers are looking for people of military age. It is reported that they should replenish the composition of the combat units of the Russian Federation in the most problematic areas.

These events are held despite the predominantly pro-Ukrainian mood of the population of the regions and the general motivation to resist the Russian invaders.
Beaumont sets her task to explore why and how this happened. In charting the sources of resilience of communities, individuals and political structures, Beaumont delivers the most authoritative historical work on Australia and the Great Depression to date. The story is told with a balance of compassion and astute analytical power. Beaumont captures the breadth and depth of this traumatic event that remained indelibly etched on the memories of the generation of Australians who painfully endured it.

One striking and distinctive feature of this world crisis in Australia, notes Beaumont, was that Australias political system survived it. Notwithstanding the protests and unrest about the glaring inequalities in how different classes were affected, unlike other countries Australias democratic institutions remained intact.

Joan Beaumont begins her outstanding and meticulously researched book, Australias Great Depression, with a simple yet powerful observation. Some generations, she observes, are born unlucky. For the generation who survived the devastation of both world wars, the intervening years brought the Great Depression. It was the most severe and cataclysmic economic crisis the country had experienced. At its height in 1932 a third or more of the Australian workforce was unemployed. Thousands lost their homes, businesses, savings, and farms.

The narrative begins with the aftermath of the First World War and ends in 1937. What caused the Depression? Beaumont provides a forensic and compelling examination of Australias dependency on the international economic system. The Depression, Beaumont shows, begins well before the New York stock market crash in October 1929 as the Australian economy was before then on the brink of recession, a nation struggling to service its debts. The war itself did not create the Depression opines Beaumont, but it created structural weaknesses that exposed the economy to the vagaries of the international markets.

Australias Great Depression by Joan Beaumont.

Her astute observation that prime minister Stanley Bruces program of men, money, markets emerged from a vision of a better society brutalised by war points to the wars ever-present shadow. The heavy borrowing by federal and state governments from London and at times New York to finance public works, infrastructure, the manufacturing sector, sewerage, and roads exposed the Australian economy. After expansion in the early and mid 1920s, a decline set in by 1927.

Two years later, in 1929, the Australian economy moved from a recession into a depression. James Scullin, elected in 1929, was in the unenviable position of steering the country out of the crisis. As Beaumont aptly observes, few incoming prime ministers have had their agenda set by factors so much beyond their control. The political turmoil that beset the Bruce and Scullin governments and the state governments is covered with a sharp attention to detail of the political crisis that unfolded.

But this is not a history solely about the challenges that confronted politicians, economists, and bureaucrats. One of the enduring strengths of this work is how Beaumont captures the extraordinary impact of the Depression on a range of groups and communities.
He has a gift for the gothic. Whether you want to share in it is up to you and your nervous system. Hes relentless.

It was vigorously demonstrated in his first two features  The Witch (2015), a gruesomely persuasive tale about the workings of black magic on a family of puritans in 17th century New England, and The Lighthouse (2019), which puts Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in a lighthouse on a wintry stretch of the Nova Scotia coast and has them set about driving one another crazy.

His new film, The Northman, is his biggest yet. Its a 10th century Viking saga starring a bulked-up Alexander Skarsgard as Amleth, the Nordic warrior whose revenge legend was Shakespeares inspiration for Hamlet. But dont expect any of Hamlets doubting and dithering.

At the age of nine, Amleth watches his father being butchered by his brother and barely manages to escape with his life. From that moment, hes obsessed with the need to see his uncle die as painfully as possible.

He survives by finding a handy rowing boat and fetching up among a ferocious but understanding tribe who ensure that he acquires all the skills necessary for reaching adulthood. He can run, jump and hack somebody to death with a single stroke of his broadsword. What more can you ask?

As it happens, he does need one more attribute, and it doesnt come easily. He is forced to become acquainted with patience as well as having to feign humility since his only way of getting to his uncle, Fjolnir (Claes Bang), is to become a slave.
He didnt answer this question. He can do something about it  so why doesnt he? He said they had to get the assessments right. This is code for ignoring all the assessments and cutting funding with no justification. This is what happened to me and to so many others. I am feeling completely helpless and powerless because my beautiful son, who has already suffered so much in his 25 years, will suffer even more. For many, NDIS funding has been cut without explanation, leaving parents feeling powerless. Credit:Wade Laube Jonathans annual NDIS package ran out early. I was advised to book an early review of his funding plan, which we must do every year to get another year of funding, a tedious burden. For three months we waited for a result and then found out that instead of getting an increase to cover transport and the higher rates charged by his service providers, his funding was significantly reduced.

I requested a review and provided yet more evidence from his doctor and other specialists. Just before 5pm on the eve of the Easter break, I received an email saying the review had been conducted and the decision would not be changed. Reviewers did not contact me, as I had requested, even though I was assured this would happen. They did not look at the pictures showing the problems Jonathan had with his speech or his difficulty with everyday tasks. They dismissed the mass of evidence and reports we submitted and ignored the recommendations of our area co-ordinator, who has met Jonathan. They simply state there is not enough evidence that we need the same level of support as last year. Loading Despite a federal court ruling in March 2017 which found that if the National Disability Insurance Agency identified reasonable and necessary supports, then these must be fully funded, including transport to access them, Jonathans rate of transport funding does not cover the cost of getting him to activities. Faceless decision makers who have never spoken to or seen Jonathan have unilaterally decided that despite all the evidence to the contrary, Jonathan is well on the way to being perfectly fine. If only that were the case.

Our next stop is the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. But trying to manage full-time work and care for my son with less support is already overwhelming, without adding a legal fight. A favourable ruling at the AAT would only be a temporary solution anyway, as the funding must be renewed every one to two years. As Labors NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten said recently, the Coalition government is spending millions of dollars on lawyers to wear down and crush self-represented NDIS participants. It was also reported in February that the NDIA spent nearly $22 million on external legal fees in the past financial year. That money could have helped so many people. The NDIS may be expensive, but this money is not wasted. It is all spent on services provided by Australian businesses and local people and supports the employment of so many. Why is the government that is supposedly all about jobs jeopardising this? I am alternately gripped with rage, anxiety and despair. It is hard to sleep, to keep my thoughts straight and to go through the motions of life.

The truly heartbreaking thing is that I am not the only person in this position. This is happening to people with disabilities across Australia. Funding is being cut everywhere with no justification. Some people have had to leave their jobs to care for their children. The number of reviews and rejections has skyrocketed and the number of complaints about the scheme being heard by the AAT rose by more than 1000 in the past six months. Is this why the Coalition is stacking the tribunal with Liberal Party appointments? Loading The cruelty and lack of humanity in taking away the funding of the most vulnerable Australians and thereby ruining their lives is astounding. There was a handout for almost everyone else in the Coalitions budget but people with disabilities and their families were abandoned. People with disabilities are always either forgotten or put last in the queue, as was shown with the vaccination rollout in supported accommodation.
Amazonian Dystopia, Para, northern Brazil. Credit:Lalo de Almeida Amazonian Dystopia, Para, northern Brazil Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Members of the Munduruku community line up to board a plane to Brasilia on June 13, 2013, to protest the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, in northern Brazil. The Munduruku tribe inhabits the banks of another tributary of the Amazon, the Tapajos River, several hundred kilometres away, where the government has plans to build further hydroelectric projects. Despite opposition from several fronts, the Belo Monte project was completed in 2019. This image is part of a series documenting the social, political and environmental realities of life in Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro. The series won the World Press Photo

Long-Term Project Award. Lalo de Almeida, for Folha de Sao Paulo/Panos Pictures Endless War, north-east Srinagar, Kashmir. Credit:Dar Yasin Endless War, north-east Srinagar, Kashmir Kashmiri women cross a stone wall on December 14, 2021, to join the funeral of Constable Rameez Ahmad Baba who, according to Indian police, was on a bus that was attacked by militants in the Ganderbal district of Indian-administered Kashmir. At least 11 people were reported injured and three killed in the attack. Violence and unrest continues in Kashmir as a result of the dispute between India and Pakistan that dates back to independence from Britain and partition of the region in 1947.

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Dar Yasin, for The Associated Press The People Who Feed the United States, South Dakota, US. Credit:Ismail Ferdous The People Who Feed the United States, South Dakota, US Jose worked in a meatpacking plant until contracting COVID-19 in April 2020. He was in hospital on a ventilator for five months, and still uses an oxygen cylinder. Here, hes pictured at home on September 6, 2020, with his sister, Sara, who took care of him during his illness. Sara also worked at the factory; while meatpacking plants remained open during the pandemic, COVID spread quickly among its workers, more than a third of whom are immigrants. She left the industry to become a house cleaner. Ismail Ferdous, for Agence VU Evia Island Wildfire, Greece. Credit:Konstantinos Tsakalidis Evia Island Wildfire, Greece

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Evia Island resident Panayiota Kritsiopi, 81, cries out as a wildfire approaches her house on August 8, 2021, following the hottest weather Greece had experienced in 30 years. Konstantinos Tsakalidis, for Bloomberg News Ukraine Crisis, Mariupol, south-east Ukraine. Credit:Guillaume Herbaut Ukraine Crisis, Mariupol, south-east Ukraine Women make camouflage gear for snipers at the Novy Mariupol Centre, an organisation that collects equipment for Ukrainian soldiers, on September 26, 2014. This image is part of a project documenting almost eight years of the lead-up to the current war. Guillaume Herbaut, for Agence VU Kamloops Residential School, British Columbia, Canada (Winner: World Press Photo of 2022). Credit:Amber Bracken

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Kamloops Residential School, British Columbia, Canada (Winner: World Press Photo of 2022) Dresses hung on crosses along a roadside on June 19, 2021, commemorate children who died at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, an institution created to assimilate Indigenous children, who were frequently taken from their homes by force. More than 200 potential unmarked graves have been detected at the site of the school, which closed in 1978. Amber Bracken, for The New York Times Afraid To Go To School, Zamfara state, north-west Nigeria. Credit:Sodiq Adelakun Adekola Afraid To Go To School, Zamfara state, north-west Nigeria A mother cries at her home on February 27, 2021, the day after her two daughters were abducted from their high-school dormitory in the middle of the night. They were among 279 girls snatched by gunmen. The first mass school abduction in Nigeria took place in 2014, when members of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 girls from a government boarding school in the countrys north-east. The abductions  some conducted by jihadist groups to oppose Western secularism, others to gather ransoms or collect hostages to bargain for gang-member prisoner-swaps  have continued, and now extend to boys, too. Sodiq Adelakun Adekola, for Agence-France Presse

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As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia, Russia. Credit:Nanna Heitmann Loading As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia, Russia People walk along Russias Buluus glacier on June 16, 2021. The area is a popular retreat in summer, when temperatures in the regional capital can reach the high 30s. Permafrost beneath the glacier keeps at least part of it frozen through the hottest months, but local scientists have reportedly said that glacial melt in the region has sped up over the past decade. Nanna Heitmann, for Magnum Photos The World Press Photo Contest celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography each year. Mags King, photographic editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, was a member of the 2022 jury for the South-east Asia and Oceania region. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

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An Australian intelligence agency was involved in the last-ditch leak of a draft security pact between China and Solomon Islands after senior officials concluded the deal was likely to be signed despite diplomatic efforts.

Multiple government and security sources confirmed that the Australian government was aware of the contents of the document for days before it mysteriously appeared online on March 24. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have confirmed Australian intelligence services knew the secret deal had been in the works for months and decided to encourage a leak from within the Solomons as a last resort.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was unable to convince Manasseh Sogavare to not sign the agreement with Beijing. Credit:Nine

The decision was made in the hope of building domestic and international pressure to get the Solomons to change course, but it was not enough to convince Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to pull out of a deal that now threatens to shift the balance of power in the Pacific.

The draft security agreement revealed plans to allow Chinese armed forces to protect infrastructure less than 2000 kilometres off the Australian east coast and for a potential Chinese naval base in the Pacific.
If your staff say, I feel unsafe because this person is unvaccinated in my midst, they cant be ignored, he said. Former secondary school teacher Josh Russo, from Melbournes western suburbs, says he is expecting to be stood down in coming months once his temporary vaccination exemption following a COVID-19 infection expires. He has considered relocating to NSW, where unvaccinated teachers will be able to work again from mid-May, so he said he can stop feeling like a second-class citizen. Fruit and vegetable giant SPC was one of the first employers to require staff at its Shepparton factory to be vaccinated, even before the government enforced mandates, and plans to continue requiring staff to have had two-doses of the vaccine even after the government mandate is scrapped.

Loading Our employee base is vaccinated, and while we still had issues with COVID, we continued to operate, so I think were still convinced it was the right thing to do, chief executive Robert Giles told The Age. Staff at SPC need to have had a booster shot because they work with food, and a small number needed to be pushed to receive the third dose, Giles said. But he said a two-dose rule would be sufficient once the decision is back in the employers hands. Commonwealth Bank required staff working in offices and branches to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 last year, and this week confirmed its vaccination policy would remain, as did Coles and Woolworths supermarkets who said their workplace policies were not affected by changing health orders. Its a similar situation at Telstra, with a spokesman for the telco saying that all of its frontline staff will need to be vaccinated.

Telstras vaccination policy continues to apply to our frontline teams. Bunnings director of human resources Damian Zahra, said the hardware chain was reviewing recent changes to health rules in NSW, but added a vaccine requirement does not apply to most of our team members in the state. In his most recent publicly available advice to Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley on April 7, Sutton said he believed it was time to start winding back mandates for industries that only require two doses at the earliest reasonable juncture and move to being at the discretion of industry and individual workplaces. Bytheway said JobWatch was aware of several settlements over unfair dismissal claims linked to vaccine status between workers and their employers for undisclosed sums, the details of which were suppressed due to non-disclosure agreements.

Workplace law specialist Corrina Dowling said employers seeking to enforce a vaccine mandate in workplaces that were not frontline, or did not deal with vulnerable customers, could face a wave of fresh challenges. Loading She said many unvaccinated people had already sought to bring discrimination cases through the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission but that she was unaware of any that had been successful. She said many of her clients, businesses in Victoria, had voiced frustration that when government mandates were challenged by workers, it was them who shouldered the legal costs associated with defending them at tribunals and commissions. The Fair Work Commission has in recent months rejected dozens of challenges from workers who were sacked after refusing to disclose their coronavirus vaccination status or telling their employer they were not jabbed.

Employers brought before the commission included Virgin Australia, Jetstar, KFC, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, dairy maker Bulla, boot maker Baxter, Mercy Hospitals Victoria, St Vincents Hospital, McKenzie Aged Care Group, the Epworth Foundation, Anglicare Victoria, Eastern Health and many other small businesses. The Fair Work Commission in December approved resource giant BHPs vaccine mandate, following consultation with workers, in what was viewed as a test case, but will still require employers to consider their workplace circumstances. Shannon Martinez, owner of the Collingwood restaurant Smith & Daughters and its sister deli store, said she would start having conversations with her staff and be guided by them. I would seriously consider consulting all my staff to see how comfortable everyone else is with [working with an unvaccinated person], Martinez said.

Loading Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the industry body had strongly supported vaccine mandates to protect the economy and expected vaccination policies to eventually merge with current flu jab protocols. We expect that most businesses which are not considered high-risk settings will move to a more relaxed position on vaccination mandates as booster uptake continues, he said. Business NSW chief executive Daniel Hunter said he supported businesses being given discretion to implement mandates, provided they properly assess risks and consult workers. Victorias Premier on Friday said questions about Victorias COVID-19 restrictions were for Foley to answer, not him, after The Age reported 10 per cent of truck drivers had left the industry because of the mandates. The Victorian Transport Association said that was causing supply chain delays.

Loading We have seen significant pressure in the transport sector and I think that we all have to work as hard as we can to have more people working in that sector  but that specific issue has not been raised with me [by the industry], Andrews said. Weve made some very difficult decisions, theyre about making sure the place is safe, getting us open and keeping us open. Every rule will be there only for so long as it serves a purpose in keeping us safe. Andrews this week said he hoped he would not have to extend the pandemic declaration beyond July 12, when the powers are next due to expire.
As a result of missile attack on Odesa, military facility and two residential buildings damaged

Servicemen of anti-aircraft units in Odesa shot down two enemy cruise missiles and two operational-tactical drones, the South Air Command reports.

"During the conduct of hostilities, the soldiers of the anti-aircraft missile units destroyed two enemy cruise missiles (preliminarily X555 or X101), which carried out a strike on the city of Odesa and two drones of the operational-tactical level, which allegedly carried out correction of the flight of cruise missiles and put active obstacles to air defense systems of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the Facebook post reads.

It is noted that the missiles were launched by strategic aircraft TU-95 of Russia from the Caspian Sea.

"Unfortunately, two missiles hit a military facility and two residential buildings," the command said.

As reported, several rocket attacks were carried out on Odesa on the afternoon of April 23. Advisor to the Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko reported one dead.

There is no confirmation from the official authorities on the victims and injured yet, however, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko reported on Telegram about three people who died as a result of a missile attack on Odesa.
Kyiv: Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday while attempting to crush the last corner of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he would meet on Sunday with the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, and the US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin.

Speaking in a news conference, Zelensky gave little detail about the logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results  not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.

It would be the first high-level US trip to Kyiv since the war began on February 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the countrys foreign minister. Zelenskys last face-to-face meeting with a US leader was February 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The reported assault on the eve of Orthodox Easter came after the Kremlin claimed its military had seized all of the shattered city except for the Azovstal plant, and as Russian forces pounded other cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Washington: The US will expedite the opening of an embassy in Solomon Islands and has warned the Pacific nation that it will respond accordingly if steps are taken allowing China to establish a military base there.

Days after Solomon Islands sent shock waves across the Pacific by signing a security cooperation pact with Beijing, a high-level US delegation - led by National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator, Kurt Campbell, and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink - met with members of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavares government for 90 minutes on Friday to discuss their concerns.

Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands during a ceremony to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between Solomon Islands and China. Credit:AP Pool

American officials told Sogavare and members of his cabinet that while the US respected the rights of nations to make sovereign decisions in the best interest of their people, the pact between Solomon Islands and the Peoples Republic of China had security risks for the region, as well as the US, Australia and its allied partners.

The US delegation outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose, scope, and transparency of the agreement, the White House said in a statement on Saturday (AEST).
Kiribati is a case in point  the Micronesian country joined Solomon Islands in 2019 in switching recognition from Tapei to Beijing and signing onto Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Like Solomon Islands, Kiribati had been promised significant financial aid. China had also managed to secure the support of the countrys President, Taneti Maamau, just as it won the backing of Prime Minister Sogavare in the Solomons. News emerged last year that China was supporting the Kiribati government with a feasibility study for an airfield upgrade on remote Kanton atoll, at the strategic mid-point between the East Asian and American coastlines. The local opposition expressed alarm, and the Kiribati government insisted that this project aimed only to boost transport links and tourism. As in Solomon Islands, it is possible that the authorities genuinely believe that Beijing intentions are benign. Vanuatus debt Vanuatu, directly south of Solomon Islands in the Melanesian chain, is one of Beijings most significant debtors in the region. Concessional Chinese loans support transport and other infrastructure there. Vanuatu also has solid links with Australia, which remains the largest provider of grant aid, but there have been tense periods in the relationship over time. Ni-Vanuatu political figures can be very quick to rise if they feel that the nations sovereignty is being disrespected. Vanuatu attracted headlines in 2018 amidst speculation that a Chinese-funded wharf had been developed with the option of converting it to military use. More persistent concerns have been expressed about the local authorities willingness to follow Beijings lead in its approach to local media freedoms.

A Vanuatu-based journalist was barred from re-entering the country in 2019 after reporting on the secret deportation of Chinese citizens escorted by the Chinese police. Meanwhile, media executives and journalists are courted assiduously by the Chinese authorities, who put public outlets under significant pressure to carry content. This pattern is reproduced elsewhere in the region. The information war in the Pacific Loading The information war underway in the Pacific is essentially a battle between two value systems, and it deserves serious attention from any incoming Australian government.

China has reportedly spent about $9 billion since 2009 strengthening its worldwide media presence. It assumed control of Radio Australias Pacific shortwave frequencies when the ABC service was shut down in 2017. Chinas national television service is steadily expanding its broadcasting services across the region and Australias equivalent, the ABC Australia service, is described by many as a sadly depleted version of what it once was. Papua New Guineas Bougainville problem Papua New Guinea, the largest country in the region, has been heavy going for China. Its business interests have been frustrated as they have tried to build influence among the political elite, and Australia has managed to counter its campaign to control the sensitive telecommunications sector. China is a relatively small donor and lender in PNG. But the ever-widening expectation gap between the national government and the people of Bougainville about their troubled regions future status could lead to tensions that might be manipulated by China. A scenario in which Bougainville lost patience and declared independence could create significant opportunities. Australias rich network of links across the Pacific provide a firm basis to work on, but if there is one lesson from the agreement between Honiara and Beijing, it is to avoid becoming self-satisfied. Aid and influence

Until recently, there was almost a sense that Australias position in Solomon Islands was unassailable  it had, after all, led the highly successful regional assistance mission to stabilise the country following the conflict of the early 2000s, and was the first to be called on to help when violence returned to the country last year. The scale of Australias grant aid dwarfs that of any other, including Chinas  just as it does across the rest of the region. But aid programs do not buy influence  that comes only with the patient nurturing of relationships and trust. And to focus on the size of Australias development assistance is to ignore these countries aspirations. Most Pacific governments would rather focus on economic integration and market access in talking about the relationship with Australia  areas where they feel they can be on more of an equal footing. Loading Equally, Australia should not convince itself that, with the comparatively significant resources it deploys in the region, it should try to do this on its own. Success will require an even more integrated approach with like-minded allies including Japan, the United States and even France, and it will need to draw on the voices of the several Pacific countries that share Australias concerns. Many regional leaders understand that there are dangers for their fragile nations in Beijings hunger for resources, its growing military engagement across the region, and the scale of its lending patterns. In all this, Australia will also need to work harder to avoid the impression that its focus on the region has been motivated only by an impulse to counter Chinas reach. There have been some mis-steps here. Several regional figures expressed concern after the AUKUS announcement about what they saw as a lack of forewarning and the impact of growing strategic competition.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday that Morocco supports Egypt in all the measures it takes to protect its security and stability during a press conference with Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Rabat.
A roadside bomb wounded at least two children Thursday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, a police official said.

Kabul police spokesman, Khalid Zadran, said in a tweet that the explosives went off in the median strip of a road in a western area of Kabul in a mostly Shiite neighborhood. Two days earlier in the same area, multiple explosions targeting educational institutions killed at least six people, mostly children, and wounded 17 others.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's explosion.

Another explosion in northern Balkh province targeted a Shiite mosque, Zabihullah Noorani, the provincial information and culture department head told the Associated Press.

There were no immediate details on the number of casualties. Noorani said Taliban security forces had reached the area to investigate.

Advocates for the minority Hazaras called for a stop to the killings. Hazaras, who make up around 9% of the population of Afghanistan's 36 million people, stand alone in being targeted because of their ethnicity _ distinct from the other ethnic groups, such as Tajik and Uzbek and the Pashtun majority _ and their religion. Most Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, despised by Sunni Muslim radicals like the Islamic State group, and discriminated against by many in the Sunni-majority country.

The Islamic State affiliate known as IS in Khorasan Province, or IS-K, has previously targeted schools, particularly in the Shiite-dominated Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood. In May last year, months before the Taliban took power in Kabul, more than 60 children, mostly girls, were killed when two bombs were detonated outside their school, also in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood.

Dasht-e-Barchi and other parts of western Kabul are houses to the Shiite minorities of Afghanistan which have mostly been targeted by the Islamic State affiliate loyalists, however, no one has claimed credit for the recent explosions.

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When the National announced its intention to revive Emlyn Williams' 1938 play The Corn is Green, it seemed an odd decision. The play, about a young miner who wins a scholarship to Oxford under the wings of his inspirational teacher Miss Moffat, hasn't been seen in London since 1985. On the basis of the 1945 film, starring Bette Davis, it seemed like a historic potboiler, without much to say to our more knowing times.

But this revival is more like a resuscitation. In Dominic Cooke's pitch perfect production, with Nicola Walker as Miss Moffat, the piece becomes a paean to the power of imagination itself, to the way that learning and the thought of centuries, can unlock possibility and hope. It is a triumph, an evening full of humour, feeling and inspiration.

Cooke's inspired intervention is to make Williams (played with brooding intensity by Gareth David-Lloyd) the narrator of his own story, turning the semi-autobiographical piece into a memory play as he steps out of a glamorous 1920s party to remember his past. Summoned by a male voice choir of miners, singing in rich-toned harmony, he begins to evoke his setting, reading the stage directions on a bare stage.

At first the action is stylised; Christopher Shutt's sound design provides the noises of objects being arranged. There is no scenery, no props, as a remote Welsh village, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, gets ready to welcome a new inhabitant. But once the purposeful Miss Moffat arrives and announces her intention to set up a school for the children of the local mining community, in the face of the opposition of the Squire who thinks the working class are better left uneducated, the action takes on increasing reality.

By the second half, designer Ultz has built a fully-realised parlour, where the school now thrives and where the brilliant Morgan Evans sits his Oxford scholarship exam. But the male-voice choir remain on stage providing, in Will Stuart's score, the emotional tug that underpins Williams' recollections. He is there too; his stage directions are less frequent, but he still intervenes in the action, watching the characters closely, deciding the course of their lives.

Iwan Davies

 Johan Persson

This framing device is a stroke of brilliance. It would be easy to write The Corn is Green off as preposterous without this physical reminder that it is at least in part true; Williams did escape the valleys to become a successful playwright, director and actor. It takes away the sentiment and replaces it with honesty. It also smooths over the play's slightly awkward episodic structure, allowing its scenes to flow.

Within this careful setting, Cooke's direction is a masterpiece of quiet concentration, and stillness. There's something watchful about the whole thing  because both the choir and Williams are studying the characters, the force of their attention compels the same behaviour from the audience.

What performances they are! Walker has found such success on TV recently in series such as Unforgotten and The Split, yet her ability to convey thought and feeling by the smallest of gestures  a little motion of the mouth, or a quick turn on her heel  is just as effective on stage. The scene where she sets out to seduce the pompous Squire (a wonderfully bristling Rufus Wright) into believing he is the talented Evans' natural patron is a humorous delight; her final scene with her protege is a wonderful blend of pride and melancholy.

But she's good too on the bustling pride that nearly leads to her fall, and she's surrounded by carefully observed supporting characters from Alice Orr-Ewing's genteel Miss Ronberry, all fading hopes and constant checks in the mirror, to Jo McInnes's pragmatic Cockney housekeeper and Richard Lynch's sad-eyed schoolteacher, who are both "saved" but in different ways.

As Bessie, the disaffected teenager who nearly derails all Evans' hard work, Saffron Coomber finds just the right balance of sadness and calculation; you feel she, as much as Evans, needs to find a wall to climb over. And as Evans himself, Iwan Davies, makes a professional stage debut of great force, charting the character's progress from cheeky chancing, through disillusion at being treated as his teacher's little pit pony, to finding his true voice, and the language to express his thoughts, with a channelled passion.

It's that sense of voice, of education unlocking an ability to speak, that makes The Corn is Green such a powerful story. This production reveals that truth under the melodramatic gesturing. As Noel Coward said of cheap music, it is extraordinary how potent it is.
Reflecting the vote's wide international influence, the centrist Macron received support Thursday from the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal, who urged French voters to choose him over the nationalist Le Pen. Their appeals came only a day after imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny also spoke up about the French vote, alleging that Le Pen is too closely linked to Russian authorities to become France's next president amid Russia's war on Ukraine.

Macron, who led the first round of voting on April 10 that eliminated 10 other candidates, said he was taking nothing for granted and was seeking broader support.

``Nothing is final until the last minute,'' Macron said Thursday, as recent opinion polls show a stabilized lead against his rival.

He said he chose to make one of his last campaign stops in a place that ``is facing many difficulties'' in the poorest region of mainland France, the Seine-Saint-Denis, where many residents are immigrants or have immigrant roots.

His visit came after the two rivals clashed bitterly in a televised debate Wednesday, with Macron saying that Le Pen's plan to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger ``civil war'' in the country, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

``We must not get used to the rise of far-right ideas,`` Macron said Thursday in front of an ethnically diverse crowd in Saint-Denis.

Le Pen, meanwhile, used her last big campaign rally to accuse Macron of ``unlimited arrogance'' in the debate and in his presidency.

``I've had enough, like you, of this permanent disrespect,'' she told voters in the northern city of Arras, in the struggling former industrial heartland of France where she enjoys broad support among working-class voters.

She framed Macron as soft on immigration and security and called his economic record _ hurt by the pandemic and Ukraine war _ ``catastrophic.''

Macron did not have an easy task in Saint-Denis, where an overwhelming majority of voters had supported far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came in third in the first round of voting and did not make the runoff. One woman told the 44-year-old leader that the presidential runoff, to her, amounting to choosing between ``plague and cholera.''

Macron answered that he was ready change his platform to meet the needs of French voters, ``including of people who did not vote for me'' in the first round.

Pierre Flament, 75-year-old leftist voter, said he will pick Macron's ballot Sunday ``with no pleasure.''

Calling Macron ``the president of the rich,'' he said he initially planned to vote blank. But he changed his mind in face of the ``enormous risk'' that Le Pen may win. Polls show the far-right figure has significantly narrowed the gap with Macron compared to their previous faceoff five years ago.

``If I vote Macron, I hope that we can start demonstrating the following day. We will have to take to the streets because Macron's measures will be bad. But if Marine Le Pen wins, we might not even be allowed to demonstrate at all,'' he said.

The Socialist mayor of Saint-Denis, along with 14 leftist mayors and the head of the Seine-Saint-Denis region, called this week for people to back Macron in the runoff.

``With Marine Le Pen as president of the Republic, Seine-Saint-Denis residents will be the first victims of discrimination,'' they wrote, calling her platform ``racist'' and ``a negation of democracy.''

Le Pen has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging prices amid the fallout of Russia's war in Ukraine. She says bringing down the cost of living would be her priority if elected.

But she has faced scrutiny over a 9 million euro ($9.7 million) loan that her party received in 2014 from the First Czech-Russian Bank and her 2017 visit to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the French presidential runoff that year.

In a column published Thursday in several European newspapers, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa wrote that Sunday's vote is ``critical for France and all and every one of us in Europe.''

``It's the election between a democratic candidate who believes that France's strength broadens in a powerful and autonomous European Union and an extreme-right candidate who openly sides with those who attack our freedom and democracy, values based on the French ideas of Enlightenment,'' the joint comment said without mentioning Macron or Le Pen by name.

Social Democrat Scholz and Socialists Sanchez and Costa wrote that Europe ``is facing a change of era'' due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that ``populists and the extreme right'' are viewing Putin ``as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.''

``They have echoed his attacks on minorities and diversity and his goal of nationalist uniformity,'' they said. ``We must not forget that, no matter how much those politicians are now trying to distance themselves from the Russian aggressor.``

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Satellite photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of freshly dug mass graves on the outskirts of Mariupol brought the horrors of the war increasingly into focus, as Russia pounded away Friday at Ukrainian holdouts in the city's steel mill and other targets in a drive to seize the country's industrial east.

"Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal," Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor, said of the besieged steelworks. "Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.''

Cities elsewhere in the Donbas also came under Russian fire overnight, and the attacks interfered with attempts to evacuate civilians.

The region, home to coal mines, metal plants and heavy-equipment factories, is bracing for what could be a decisive campaign as Russian President Vladimir Putin attempts to salvage a victory from the 8-week-old war widely seen as a blunder and a humanitarian disaster.

On Thursday, Putin claimed victory in the battle for the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, even though an estimated 2,000 Ukrainians remained holed up at the sprawling steelworks, which have bombarded for weeks. Putin ordered his troops not to storm the stronghold but to seal it off.

At the same time, Maxar Technologies released new satellite images that it said showed more than 200 graves in a town near Mariupol, and Andryushchenko accused Russia of burying thousands of civilians there.

"The graves have been dug up and corpses are still being dumped there," he said. Initial estimates from the Ukrainians said the apparent mass graves could hold 9,000 bodies, but Andryushenko said there could be more.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said no humanitarian corridors for civilian evacuations would be open in Ukraine on Friday because it was too dangerous. She urged civilians to "be patient'' and "hang in there.''

"The Russians refuse to open a corridor for civilians, cynically pretending that they do not understand the difference between a corridor for the military to surrender and a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the civilians,'' Vereshchuk said.

Days into the Russian offensive to take the east, the campaign has yet to become a full-out assault, with military analysts saying Moscow's forces are still ramping up. Scattered towns in the east have experienced the thud of incoming shells that drive citizens out in panic.

Slovyansk, a city of about 100,000 in eastern Ukraine, came under fire during the night, according to Mayor Vadym Lyakh, who said no injuries were reported. But he urged residents to leave and said a convoy of buses would be organized. In Rubizhne, Russian fire prevented attempts to bring buses in, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said.

Intensive shelling was also heard overnight in Kharkiv, a northeastern city that lies outside of the Donbas but is seen one of the gateways the Russians intend to use to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Donbas from the north, the south and the east.

If successful, the campaign would give Putin a vital piece of the country and a badly needed victory to show the Russian people amid the war's mounting casualties and the economic hardship caused by Western sanctions.

But analysts say Russian forces have yet to have any major breakthroughs in the Donbas. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessment, said the Ukrainians were hindering the Russian effort to push south from Izyum, which lies outside of the Donbas.

"Russian forces continued offensive operations in eastern Ukraine but made only marginal gains,'' according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

On Friday, Rustam Minnekayev, a senior Russian military official, outlined Russian war aims that appeared to be wider than what the Kremlin has disclosed in recent weeks. He said Russia's forces aim to take full control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern too.

He said such a move would open the way to the nation of Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria. Moldovan officials are warily watching Putin's actions in Ukraine.

The battle for Mariupol has been seen as key to the eastern assault. Its capture would free up Russian forces to take part in the larger campaign in the east. But the institute said that Russian troops in the city were probably heavily damaged and that Moscow would struggle to redeploy them quickly.

Mariupol has seen some of the worst suffering of the war, and the satellite images released Thursday hinted at even more.

In the images, long rows of dirt mounds stretch away from an existing cemetery in Manhush, outside Mariupol. Local officials accused Russia of using the graves to try to conceal the slaughter taking place in the city.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin on the satellite pictures. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were discovered in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv after Russian troops retreated three weeks ago, Russian officials denied their soldiers killed any civilians there and falsely accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities.

The U.N. Human Rights office again condemned the Russian invasion.

"Over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside,'' U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

People fleeing Mariupol have described being trapped in horrible conditions. Yuriy and Polina Lulac said they spent nearly two months living in a basement with at least a dozen other people with no running water and little food.

"What was happening there was so horrible that you can't describe it,'' said Yuriy Lulac, who used a derogatory word for the Russian troops, saying they were "killing people for nothing.''

"Mariupol is gone. In the courtyards there are just graves and crosses,'' he said.

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DALLAS (AP)  Airlines say they are offering options  including refunds in some cases  for people worried about flying now that other passengers arent required to wear face masks.

A traveler rests in a waiting area at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Providence, R.I., Tuesday, April 19, 2022. A federal judge's decision to strike down a national mask mandate was met with cheers on some airplanes but also concern about whether it's really time to end one of the most visible vestiges of the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

DALLAS (AP)  Airlines say they are offering options  including refunds in some cases  for people worried about flying now that other passengers arent required to wear face masks.

However, the airlines arent providing many details. Customers could find themselves at the mercy of workers at airline customer-service centers.

Many people who will be flying in the next few weeks bought their tickets before a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the requirement to wear a mask in airports and during flights. That requirement, designed to limit the spread of COVID-19, was due to expire anyway on May 3.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said his airline will be flexible with people who have a weak immune system or are concerned about mask-optional flying for any other reason.

We are working with those customers ... to find another option, give them a credit, or if they just dont ever want to fly again, (we are) actually willing to give them a refund, Kirby told NBC.

A United spokesman said customers except those on the lowest-priced basic economy fares can delay their travel plans for any reason with no extra fee. He said passengers with special circumstances should call the airlines customer-service number.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Thursday that the airline hasnt fielded many refund requests yet.

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But like we do in all these events, we are taking a look at our policies and ... asking them to get in touch with our reservations office, and we will make sure that we accommodate them in an appropriate fashion, Isom said.

An American spokeswoman pointed to the airlines policy, which allows refunds for refundable tickets  those usually cost more  and credit for the value of unused non-refundable tickets. However, people who bought basic economy tickets since April 1 are not entitled to a refund or to change their ticket.

A Delta Air Lines spokesman said customers who wish to cancel a trip should contact the airline. Decisions about how to handle those requests are made on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier did not reply to inquiries.

On Thursday, the Justice Department said it would appeal the Florida judges ruling striking down the mask mandate, which was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and enforced by the Transportation Security Administration.

However, as of late Friday afternoon the administration still had not asked any court for an emergency stay of the Florida ruling. Legal experts said the White House appeared mostly interested in appealing the Florida ruling to prevent it from becoming a precedent that could limit the CDCs power to impose pandemic-related measures in the future.
Indigenous youth in Manitoba, who once might have thought theyd like to become a commercial airplane pilot but never imagined theyd have the chance, are now going to be able to pursue that dream.

Indigenous youth in Manitoba, who once might have thought theyd like to become a commercial airplane pilot but never imagined theyd have the chance, are now going to be able to pursue that dream.

Exchange Income Corp. (EIC), the Winnipeg-based company that owns Perimeter Aviation, Calm Air, Keewatin Air and other regional airlines, is launching an Indigenous pilot training program this spring in Thompson that will cover all the costs for participants, including room and board, an elder/mentor who will live with the students as well as free flights home on the weekend if needed.

The plan is to run an initial intake of 10-to-12 students starting this spring. EIC is in the process of bringing in training aircraft, flight instructors and maintenance staff into Thompson from Moncton Flight College in New Brunswick, an enterprise that EIC owns.

The program, to be called the Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway, is named after Timothy Atik "Tik" Mason from St. Theresa Point First Nation, who last year became Perimeters first Indigenous pilot from a northern First Nation that EICs airlines services.

Masons successful journey inspired many in EIC which has a good track record of employing Indigenous people but not in the high profile pilot positions.

Mike Pyle, CEO of Exchange Income Corp., says reconciliation has to be more than just acknowledging it. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

Mike Pyle, the chief executive officer of EIC, a $1.4 billion company that also owns many other companies across Canada and the U.S, said the program is very important to the company.

He said EIC tries to be socially responsible and invest in and help the First Nations it services  it is currently supporting development of a fish processing facility in St. Theresa Point  because it is such a big piece of its business.

The company was a big supporter of the Every Child Matters movement and last October flew 1,000 young people from Manitoba First Nations to Winnipeg to attend a CFL game between the Bombers and the Edmonton Elks to honour Canadas National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

But as much as that event might have got people talking about the issue  there was national television coverage with both teams wearing orange jerseys  Pyle like others, knows more needs to be done.

"Fixing the issue and reconciliation has to be more than just acknowledging it," Pyle said. "It has to be taking steps to make people lives better."

EIC staff has already met with several First Nation leaders and the program is being strongly endorsed by the Association of Manitoba Chiefs and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) the organization that represents northern First Nations who will help recruit and identify likely candidates.

Timothy Atik Tik Mason, from St. Theresa Point, became Perimeter Aviations first Indigenous pilot from a northern First Nation last year. (Supplied)

Garrison Settee, grand chief of MKO, said hes very excited about the program and wants to be involved as much as possible.

"I am really ecstatic that we have the opportunity to engage our young people in such a unique program," he said. "Allowing Indigenous people to be part of an aviation program like this is something that has never really been pursued to this magnitude. I think its huge. I want to get behind it."

He said its a great example of economic reconciliation, getting the Indigenous people access to those high profile positions that they are often excluded from.

"Historically it has been non-native people serving our North, not that theres anything wrong with that," Settee said. "But this is going to create role models. Also it really makes economic reconciliation a reality as opposed to rhetorical statements here and there."

Pyle and Settee do not believe there will be a problem recruiting candidates but provisions will be made to provide remedial support if necessary to allow selected candidates to check off all the academic prerequisites if needed.

The company is budgeting about $1 million per year for the program. At this point the idea would be that the trainees would get a pilot licence by the spring and then would need to go to Moncton to attain their commercial licence (EIC would also cover those costs).

Tik Mason and Richard Mlton, chief pilot at Perimeter Aviation. (Supplied)

Pyle said they are keen to see the program executed first but he said he would not be reticent to set up a more permanent training operation in Thompson.

Robin Jacuzzi, EICs director of aviation programs who, along with another colleague has been working full-time on the program, said staff in Moncton who already have experience operating in remote bases having previously done a similar program in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., are more than willing to train in northern Manitoba.

"At EIC and all our operations we have a tight connection to the northern communities that we serve," she said. "This is a step that further builds those relationships and takes steps toward reconciliation that everyone knows is important and needs to happen."

As word of the program started getting out it is already being heralded as a benchmark for Canadian businesses looking to satisfying the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canadas calls to action as it relates to "business and reconciliation."

Kaila Johnston, supervisor of education, outreach and public programming at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, said what EIC doing is exactly what the TRCs calls to action were looking for from businesses.

"I think it is a very good example of the corporate sector taking up the call to action," she said. "Number 92, which is specific to business, talks about ensuring Indigenous people have equitable access to jobs, training and education."

Garrison Settee, grand chief of MKO, is excited about the program and wants to be involved as much as possible, he says. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)

She said it is also noteworthy that the program will allow Indigenous candidates to stay close to home and family and their culture as well as considering what are often the prohibitive costs  about $100,000 for a pilot licence including room and board  for Indigenous youth getting involved in something like this.

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Johnston also acknowledged that while the corporation may also gain advantages even to their bottom line because of the goodwill, it is a good thing.

"We can see that beneficial reciprocal relationship at work which is that key piece to reconciliation," she said. "The double point is that once we have Indigenous youth seeing themselves in these positions it puts them on that path to say, "Yes. I can achieve that. Yes I can go be a pilot because I am seeing Indigenous pilots in my community," she said.

Tik Mason, 43, did not necessarily have that kind of role model, but he was more mature and experienced and he also received a scholarship from EIC and was mentored by Dave White, EICs executive vice-president of aviation.

Mason said he wanted to be involved in the program and the company wanted him to as well, but he was surprised and overwhelmed when he found out EIC was naming the program after him.

"The whole mission of getting people from northern communities to become pilots and serve their communities flying for the airlines coming in and out, thats the goal here," he said. "And that is what I wanted to do when I started on my journey. Its time to bring others."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
On Earth Day 2022 the province of Manitoba announced that it was increasing the size of the annual budget for its Conservation and Climate Fund by 50 per cent to $1.5 million.

On Earth Day 2022 the province of Manitoba announced that it was increasing the size of the annual budget for its Conservation and Climate Fund by 50 per cent to $1.5 million.

The fund provides grants of up to $150,0000 for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, address climate change and promote sustainable development.

martin cash / Winnipeg Free Press Environment, Climate and Parks minister, Jeff Wharton.

When the fund was launched in 2020 it was capitalized at $600,000 and provided funding to eight projects.

In 2021 the fund grew to $1 million, funding nine projects, including one at the University of Manitoba, where Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton made the announcement on Friday.

The U of M funding helped finance installation of four electric vehicle charging stations.

Wharton said the province is well aware that significantly more investment will be required from the province to meet the net zero targets.

Along with the $1.5 million for the Conservation and Climate Fund, the province in association with Efficiency Manitoba, invests about $70 million annually in support of retrofitting buildings making them more energy efficient. It has embarked on several other projects including $5.9 million for an efficient trucking program that also receives matching funding from the federal government.

In the meantime, Wharton said the province is heavily involved in designing an energy strategy in collaboration with Manitoba Hydro.

The provinces last two coal-fired generating stations in Brandon and Selkirk have not used coal for several years.

Wharton said the provinces electricity is essentially 99 per cent green referring to the provinces network of hydroelectric generating stations that use water rather than coal- or gas-fired operations that produce steam to turn turbines.

We are proud of the investments we have made already and we are going to continue to make as we develop that energy strategy with our stakeholders, he said. We are going to take the time to do it right.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report on Friday, called Manitobas Road to Resilience: Energy Solutions that shows that Manitoba can produce enough sustainable energy to heat all buildings and run all transportation without fossil fuels, a key step in the fight against climate change.

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The report argues the province should not build more hydro generating stations  which are multi-billion investments that cause significant environmental disruption in their own right.

The report indicates the province will need double the amount of electricity currently being produced in the province and argues for investment in significantly more wind and solar generating in the province to create the additional capacity that would be required.

Curt Hall, the reports lead author said in a statement, Seventy per cent of Manitobas energy use comes from fossil fuels via the gasoline in our cars and the natural gas that heats our buildings. Transitioning these two sectors will take a lot of work, but weve shown here that it is absolutely possible. In fact, the transition will be profitable for Manitobas economy.

Christie Nairn, the director of the Office of Sustainability at the University of Manitoba, said the four charging stations built at the U of Ms Fort Garry campus, that include a couple of heavy-duty level-two charging stations, currently meets the demands of the campus.

It may meet the demands now, but it might not be sufficient for the future, she said. Within the universitys climate action plan we are anticipating greater demand and we are assessing what that need will be on campus.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
EDMONTON - Police have charged seven youths with second-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy who was assaulted outside an Edmonton high school earlier this month.

An Edmonton Police Service logo is shown at a news conference in Edmonton on Oct. 2, 2017. Police in Edmonton have charged seven youths with second-degree murder in the death of a 16-yeatr-old boy who was assaulted outside a high school earlier this month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

EDMONTON - Police have charged seven youths with second-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy who was assaulted outside an Edmonton high school earlier this month.

The teen was stabbed in the chest and died a week later in hospital.

The youths who have been charged, six boys and one girl, are between the ages of 14 and 17. The girl is also charged with obstruction.

"We believe there were two groups that kind of had an ongoing bit of a rivalry or a feud between each other ... but it never escalated to violence in this fashion," Edmonton police Supt. Shane Perka told a news conference Friday.

"These were just high school youths that had a bit of a history of disagreeing with each other, but nothing to indicate this was gang-motivated or gang-related."

Perka wouldn't say if the two groups attended different schools.

Six of the youths were initially charged with attempted murder following the stabbing April 8. A warrant on the same charge was issued for the seventh youth.

Their charges were all upgraded after the teen died on April 15 and an autopsy was completed Wednesday.

Perka said the case is sensitive and complex and has affected people in the community as well as investigators.

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He said officers interviewed several witnesses and reviewed video footage. Five of the suspects were rearrested Thursday, a sixth on Friday morning and the final one turned himself into police an hour before the news conference.

They were all to remain in custody until their bail hearings.

Perka, calling it unimaginable and heartbreaking, said it's difficult to understand how a rivalry between two groups could escalate to violence.

"It was a senseless act that a lot of us are still trying to process."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2022.

 By Bill Graveland in Calgary
Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgogn  it is visible  is living up to its name by drawing applause from groups set on putting life back into downtown.

Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgogn  "it is visible"  is living up to its name by drawing applause from groups set on putting life back into downtown.

The Southern Chiefs Organization plans to transform the Hudsons Bay Co. building at Portage and Memorial into a place to live, grow, heal and govern.

Its an "exciting shift," said Kate Fenske, CEO of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ.

"Its about people, about community and its an important step towards reconciliation and building a more inclusive downtown that all Manitobans can be proud of," Fenske stated.

The plan to create 300 affordable housing units for members of southern Manitoba First Nations who need homes in Winnipeg is "an amazing step forward," said Christina Maes Nino, executive director of the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association.

"Its the biggest project thats been funded since the national housing strategy was launched in Manitoba," she said.

Its believed to be the first urban-Indigenous-led organization to access federal funding from the national housing co-investment fund.

Manitoba needs 300 affordable units per year to begin to fill the affordable housing gap, so this is a good start, says Christina Maes Nino, executive director of the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Manitoba needs 300 affordable units per year to begin to fill the affordable housing gap, totalling 3,000 new units over the next decade.

"We need a project like this every year for the next 10 years, so its an amazing project," Maes Nino said. "Im really excited to see what this is going to do for our downtown, because affordable housing has been shown to revitalize downtowns time and time again. But this cant be the only project that governments fund on an annual basis.

"If all 300 are affordable units, meaning affordable to those with the lowest incomes in the province, this will be a massive contribution."

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NDP Leader Wab Kinew said its one step along the journey of reconciliation.

"Im sure that Winnipeggers from all walks of life, no matter which community you come from, recognize that in terms of us building one community, this could be a positive step and hopefully it helps the downtown as well," Kinew said.

Garrison Settee, grand chief of northern Manitoba chiefs, applauded the historic transfer of ownership of the Bay building to First Nations and the creation of the mixed-use development.

"This initiative is truly reflective of what is possible when all levels of government work in co-operation to advance reconciliation," said Settee.

 With files from Danielle Da Silva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Brandon is buzzing over 80,000 new residents.

The university is hosting a pilot project in which two honeybee hives will be set up on its grounds this spring.

SUPPLIED Michael Clarks family has been running a bee farm near Brandon for more than a century. Clark has agreed to help tend Brandon Universitys urban beehives.

The hives will provide educational opportunities and pollinate Brandons urban flora, and promote healthy beekeeping, project lead Deanna Smid said.

I hope that this could be the start of something that will help beekeepers and also help the natural world, Smid said. We are certainly going in with a lot of optimism and maybe some idealism as well.

Smid, an associate professor at Brandon University, championed the project with a handful of her colleagues. While she has no experience beekeeping, she hopes to learn the tricks of the trade, she said.

Beekeeper Michael Clark will be there to help. Clarks family has been operating a bee farm near Brandon for more than a century.

Clark, 42, was born and raised in the business.

SUPPLIED When the new urban colonies peak in July, they could host anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 bees.

It is difficult to estimate how many bees the urban apiaries will support, but Clark estimates when the colonies peak in July, each hive could host from 40,000 to 80,000 bees.

Together, they have the potential to produce around 90 kg of honey by summers end. Thats enough to fill roughly 180 500-ml jars, most of which the university will donate to food banks.

The initiative, which staff have dubbed Bee U, comes at a time when Manitobas bee industry is facing a potential threat. Bee farmers across the country are suffering unprecedented losses this season and Manitoba is among the hardest hit, Clark said.

Depression has definitely set in, I will say that you could see that the sky is falling, and you dont know if you will survive, he said.

Many apiaries, including Clarks, have lost up to 70 per cent of their hives.

The provinces abundance of monocrop agriculture, coupled with a late killing frost last season, likely contributed, he said.

Clark knows many keepers who are leaving the business. The situation is so dire, he and his peers have petitioned the Manitoba Beekeepers Association to host an emergency meeting next week.

They are desperate for a financial intervention, he said.

Thats why Im also looking forward to the university, because I think it will take my mind to build something, instead of seeing what I am seeing here, he said.

The university will be the first location in Brandon to host urban bee colonies. It plans to install the hives atop Harvest Hall.

The one-storey building, which has a flat roof, will be low enough for the bees to forage for food while protecting the hives from vandalism.

The bees will remain there until August when staff move them to another location over winter.

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If successful, BU may expand the project.

Brandon bylaws dont allow for urban beekeeping, but Smid submitted a variance that was approved by the city April 19.

The planning commissions sentiment was that it made sense to do something to help with bee populations, senior planner Andrew Mok said Friday.

The variance will allow BU to host the hives for at least five years.

It is too early to say whether the city will amend the bylaw or open up beekeeping to others, but data from the university and public consultations could influence future policies, Mok said.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to meet Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to press for fighting to stop in Ukraine.

The U.N. chief will travel to Moscow for conversations with Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.N. spokesperson Eri Kaneko said Friday. She said discussions about a similar visit to Ukraine are under way.

"He wants to discuss with the leadership steps that can be taken right now in order to silence the guns, in order to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out'' to do so safely, she said.

Guterres asked to meet with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in their respective capitals. Ukraine has welcomed the idea.

Guterres had appealed for a four-day "humanitarian pause'' in fighting leading up to Sunday, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter.

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Alfred Jobses love for his family, friends, and community will continue to beat through Winnipegs veins.

Alfred Jobses love for his family, friends, and community will continue to beat through Winnipegs veins.

Theyve spearheaded a blood drive in honour of what would have been his 71st birthday, on April 22.

Jobse, who loved sailing and a good debate, died of cancer in September 2021 after spending most of his last hours alone in the ER at Health Sciences Centre. At the time, visiting hours were severely restricted due to the pandemic.

Inspired by the three blood transfusions Jobse was given during his medical treatments "not only as an attempt to save but prolong his life," the family says that while "there will never be closure," the blood drive is a step towards healing.

"My dad was a generous person, the epitome of an old gentle soul, and he wouldve done just about anything to help someone who needed it," said Alicia Thwaites.

"So, this is kind of a way that my sister and I thought we could honour him, just in the hopes that you know, maybe somebody else will be able to have the happy ending that we didnt get."

While Jobse has been especially missed in the weeks leading up to the blood drive and birthday, the family is holding on to memories of celebrations past.

SUPPLIED Theresa Jobse (second from right) with husband Alfred and daughters Alicia Thwaites (right) and Cindy McKague (left).

"Our kids still talk about him all the time," said Thwaites, who said Jobses grandchildren were everything to him. "But talking about lost loved ones and honouring them in any way that you can keeps them feeling as close as they can."

Jobses soulmate and partner, Theresa, remembered two years ago when "the girls for his birthday, put a ton of flamingos on our front lawn," in honour of their Transcona roots. Theresa then sequestered Jobse in the back of the house while Thwaites and Cindy McKague, Jobses other daughter, covered the front door with wrapping paper and got Jobses four grandchildren to ring the doorbell.

"He had to blast out the front door like Kool-Aid-man style and we then all sat on the front lawn and sang Happy Birthday," said Thwaites.

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Thwaites and McKague want to do the blood drive every year.

Its a way to honour a man "who cared so greatly about his family, friends, and his community."

"There isnt making any of this any better for us but it gives us a little bit of a sense of purpose," said Thwaites. "Unfortunately, our story doesnt have a happy ending but without blood donors, there wouldnt have even been the chance to try."

The familys donation team, called "Alfreds Legacy," works through Canadian Blood Services with the partner number ALFR0102643.

So far, dozens of people are taking part, but the family still needs more to accomplish their goal of 71 donors, for Jobses birthday.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
KRAKOW, Poland  When I first arrived in Poland a little more than three weeks ago, I began taking pictures of anything I saw on the streets that pledged solidarity for Ukraine. I gave up on this project, mostly, after my collection swelled to over 100 images taken in just one city and only a couple of days. A rain of pictures became a river, then a flood, then an ocean.

KRAKOW, Poland  When I first arrived in Poland a little more than three weeks ago, I began taking pictures of anything I saw on the streets that pledged solidarity for Ukraine. I gave up on this project, mostly, after my collection swelled to over 100 images taken in just one city and only a couple of days. A rain of pictures became a river, then a flood, then an ocean.

Ukrainian Refugee Crisis Winnipeg Free Press photojournalist Mikaela MacKenzie and writer Melissa Martin in Krakow, Poland. Posted: 4:13 PM Apr. 7, 2022 As the world watches in horror the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as Manitobans prepare to open their arms to refugees, the Free Press has sent writer Melissa Martin and photographer Mikaela MacKenzie to Poland to report on the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Read Full Story

Since Feb. 24, Poland has covered itself in yellow and blue. Theres hardly a store window that doesnt bear a Ukrainian flag, or a ribbon, or a yellow-and-blue heart drawn in sign paint. Bus-stop posters feature clasped hands, along with the ubiquitous slogan "jestesmy z wami"  we are with you. Even the flowers in sidewalk planters bloom in Ukrainian colours.

On a major road near Warsaws airport a giant billboard reads, in censored Ukrainian: "Putin, Go Fk Yourself." Near the Ukrainian border, a backyard billboard has the original slogan in uncensored Russian: "Russian warship, go fk yourself." These arent official efforts; some motivated citizen spent the money to erect them.

People with suitcases and bags on the walkway to the border crossing at Medyka on April 6. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

So this is the visual backdrop to what is, on the ground, a staggering achievement in humanitarian assistance. By early April, more than four million Ukrainians had fled; most of them came through Poland, and 2.5 million stayed. In one of his speeches, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was as if there was no border between them.

In Poland, Ukrainians have found an unparalleled welcome, one that sprung from the grassroots of the country with far less government intervention than one would expect. Every Ukrainian we meet speaks about this; each one tells a story about a Pole they met who offered them a place to stay, or bought their meal or, at least in one case, even paid for their contact lenses.

The top floor of a mall, which has been converted into a space to temporarily house Ukrainian refugees, in Rzeszow on April 5. The centre includes free essentials, like clothes, shoes, toiletries, and diapers. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Somewhere in the picturesque hills between Warsaw and Krakow, we toured a stately old chateau that had taken in several families. Just up the road, a neighbour had brought more than 30 Ukrainians to live at his estate. Hostels, hotels, shopping malls, new apartments, old apartments, even ordinary citizens spare bedrooms became homes for Ukrainians to stay.

Alexander Leontiev, a Ukrainian immigrant to Pinawa who is now helping here, told me that Polish people "help with their whole heart." Those were the same words used by Julia Khrystenok, who had fled from Kyiv and landed at a refugee centre in Rzeszow, where she stayed on as a volunteer, and other Ukrainians we met.

"Their whole heart," they said.

Billboards supporting Ukraine are everywhere in downtown Warsaw on March 30. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

How long can that last? Its been two months since the war started. Russian forces have pulled out of western Ukraine, and many people from those regions have started going home. Two weekends ago marked the first time since the invasion began that more people crossed the border going into Ukraine than leaving it. But in the south and east, the fighting is expected to last for months.

That means eventually the beautiful music for refugees in Poland may stop. This week, at a bar in Krakows old Jewish quarter, a Polish man who has been helping refugees from Mariupol and Kherson said, with some dejection, that he thought the harsh reality of long-term displacement was about to kick in: refugees wont be able to find work in Poland, he said.

"Especially, most are women with child," he said, miserably. "What will they do in Poland? It will be hard for them here."

But for now, at least, the breadth and depth and spirit of the Polish response will stand as one of the most remarkable our generation has witnessed. It was at times chaotic, sprouting in countless small efforts that grew into a messy sort of safety net; but it worked, and it saved lives, and its one of the most immediately beautiful things I have ever witnessed.

Every time I went to a train station in Poland, where volunteers care for refugees day and night, I wept.

Ukrainian flags for sale near the Centrum metro station in Warsaw on March 30. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

How did it happen? Michael Rubenfeld, a Winnipeg-raised actor and arts producer who has lived in Krakow for six years, told me he thought the recent history of mass protests against Polands hard-right government had built social frameworks that facilitated such a rapid response; over the last few years, he said, Poles have learned to organize quickly.

Still, even he was stunned by Polands rapidly evolving story about itself.

"That was a huge surprise, to see just how many people immediately jumped into action, and jumped into getting organized, and doing what they can to help," he said. "It was not government-oriented, it was just all civilians. That was pretty amazing, and then everyone was just like, Yes, we help. These are people and we help."

I wondered if any of this was self-conscious. Was there a sense that, with the war, Polands response was in the spotlight?

"I dont think anyone thought about the world watching," he said. "In a way, Poles were feeling proud of themselves, and proud of their country. It wasnt a political issue. It didnt matter who you supported. Everyone just understood now we help.

"In a weird way, there was almost a unification: We agree on something. We help now."

The central train station in Warsaw, where aid assistance for Ukrainian refugees is set up, on March 30. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

That this response is different than those experienced by waves of refugees that have fled to Europe (and North America) in recent years cannot be ignored. Partly, it was a matter of necessity; the sheer volume and suddenness of the flight from Ukraine meant that if the people here had done nothing, a humanitarian crisis would have become a staggering catastrophe in every city in Poland.

There are other factors. A certain neighbourly spirit. A pervasive anxiety that Poland could be next. Existing connections not dissimilar to those that brought me here for the Free Press.

Nearly one in five Manitobans is Ukrainian-Canadian; we dont often do international reporting trips, but Manitobans are here and I believed we should tell their stories ourself.

Kids wait on a bus at the border in Medyka on April 7. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Still, theres no question Ukrainian refugees have received a markedly warmer and less fraught embrace in Europe and North America than refugees from, for instance, Syria. Countries, including Canada, rushed to simplify entry requirements and open their doors to Ukrainians in ways many were reluctant, if not outright hostile, to do for others seeking safety.

Ukrainians havent been received with suspicion. They havent been leveraged as ammunition in political wars. There is no way to look at the responses and ignore the Islamophobia and racism that has animated the difference; we must name that to have any meaningful discussion about these issues.

On that note, theres one story I didnt get to tell here, that I wanted to, and its about the people at the Belarusian border.

That story begins, not in February 2022, but in the summer of 2021, when a surge of people seeking asylum in Europe began trying to cross into Poland from Belarus. That crisis is, like most, complicated at the top but simple at the bottom.

In May 2021, in response to proposed European Union sanctions on the country, Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko warned the EU that his nation would cease stopping "drugs and migrants" and allow the EU to "eat them and catch them yourselves." Within months, Belarus state tourism had begun advertising in countries including Iraq.

People came, and they headed to the border. But once there, the asylum-seekers and migrants found themselves caught in a nightmare. Poland pushed them back, but Belarus wouldnt let them stay, either. Humanitarian aid was denied, and asylum-seekers reported being beaten by Belarusian police. Poland and other countries accused Belarus of "hybrid warfare."

Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere gather at the checkpoint Kuznitsa at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, in November 2021. (Leonid Shcheglov / BelTA photo via The Associated Press files)

Whatever the truth of this, Polands government was quick to go along with treating people like weapons, and then hid them from view. It enforced a three-kilometre exclusion zone against the border, into which journalists, doctors and humanitarian aid workers were forbidden to enter. Its now building a border wall with Belarus, as is Lithuania.

Meanwhile, a few thousand people found themselves stuck in the forest between the two countries through winter. Their living conditions have been dire: caught between nations, sometimes rounded up into camps, sometimes simply huddled outside without food, medicine or shelter. By February, at least 19 people had died, including several children.

Some commentators have called it Polands "other" refugee crisis. I do not think they can be said to be wholly separate. They are the same, in the way that a flipped coin still has two faces; the one hidden when it lands was acted on by the same forces.

A detail of a banner at the border crossing at Medyka on April 6. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Refugees from Ukraine flee a war launched by Russia, an unprovoked invasion that has caused unimaginable destruction. At the border with Belarus, people come from Iraq, which was destabilized by the unprovoked 2003 American invasion and the ensuing civil war; and from Afghanistan, brutalized and toyed with for decades by more powerful nations.

They come from Yemen, where Canadian weapons sold to Saudi Arabia are among those wielded in a war that has killed more than 200,000 civilians and triggered mass starvation. And they come from Syria, where well, we dont have space to untangle all the forces that have combined to prosecute the sheer human trauma inflicted in that conflict.

In all of these events, the story in the broadest strokes is fundamentally the same: powerful forces unleash hell on a civilian population to shore up their own geopolitical aims. In all of these events, the wealthy stand to gain, and they convince their people to either support it or, at the very least, ignore their complicity in it. Those who suffer most have no say.

This is why the wildly divergent experiences of refugees in Poland must be seen together, and one shouldnt be told without the other, because they form a coherent story about how human beings must exist in a world battered by the use and misuse of power, and also offer a crystal-clear contrast study in how such crises of humanity can be handled.

Where there was support, when people fled to a country as if there was no border between them, then the mass movement of vulnerable human beings happened with relative grace. People flowed freely, able to get the things they needed and disperse to places of safety. They were able to find living arrangements that, for the most part, provided a dignified life.

But when barriers were introduced, when people were deemed unworthy of protection and even dangerous to a nation, when just a few thousand were said to be "destabilizing the border" even as millions of others came over, the cruelty, danger to life and insult to humanity escalated, until those people were left with no option but to die in the cold.

We should take note of this, because it isnt only Poland. In Greece, thousands of refugees from Syria and elsewhere live in camps; many there have gone hungry, including children. The United Kingdom has made moves to ease entry for refugees from Ukraine, but just this week announced a plan to relocate asylum-seekers from other countries to Rwanda.

Tourist shops sell wares related to the the war in the old town in Warsaw on March 31. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

I refuse to believe any of this is inevitable. If the flight of millions from Ukraine is the moment that turns peoples eyes back to the suffering inherent in forced migration, then let it be that moment. Let it do that work. Let it call us to remember that someday, this war will be over, but others are and will be still happening, and people will still need help.

All of us, right where we are, can give it. Poland has shown us what is possible when people rise up for each other.

Since coming to Poland, I tried to meet with several activist groups that are helping at the Belarusian border. It was hard to track them down and I played a lot of text tag. The language barrier and existing demands on their time were probably issues. I thought about going to the region myself, but without a guide, it didnt seem safe.

I wasnt inclined to end my trip in a Polish prison.

Still, I wish I could end with their voices here, because their work deserves attention. News, often, has an unfortunate way of flattening places and events into a narrow focus without nuance, without texture. In one such narrative, Poland becomes all good; in another, its treatment of largely Muslim asylum-seekers caught on the border, its all bad.

The reality is, of course, is that its neither.

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Yes, its in Poland where a border dispute has forced people to suffer in limbo, but its also in Poland where activists and aid groups risk everything to get food and warm clothes to the people huddled at the Belarusian border. Some have been caught by police and taken before a judge; still, their brave and ferociously loving work continues.

And it was in Poland where people living in villages by the border began sneaking into the woods to hang bundles of aid in the trees, under threat of being detained by police. One such resident told the New York Times that, though he couldnt fix the policies that left people stranded in the cold, "no one will die in my forest."

Reading that, I thought of the volunteers in Emerson over the winter of 2017, when an unprecedented wave of people walked north into Canada from the United States. Some volunteers were apprehensive about what was happening, but they went out on frigid nights anyway, trying to make sure nobody perished who might have found warmth.

The bad in the world, and in people, speaks in cruelty and destruction. But if you want to see the good in people, you will find it in the same place, and from there you can see the foundations of bridges that are waiting to be built. The lesson of Polands refugee crisis  not two, but one  is that the good is ever-present, waiting for an invitation to happen.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Winnipeg police have charged a man accused of sexually assaulting two children under the age of 10 in an unlicensed family daycare in the North End  and for allegedly making images of the abuse that were shared online.

Winnipeg police have charged a man accused of sexually assaulting two children under the age of 10 in an unlicensed family daycare in the North End  and for allegedly making images of the abuse that were shared online.

The Winnipeg Police Services child abuse unit began an investigation last September into a sexual assault by a "known adult." The alleged assault occurred between July and August last year in a home on the 400 block of Aberdeen Avenue, which also operated as a daycare.

The accused was not involved in the child-care operation, but both victims went to daycare in the home, Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon told reporters Friday.

"Anecdotally, often home daycares are run by maybe one or two family members, but theres also a number of other residents that will often live there and have access to the home," McKinnon said.

"The victims, survivors, their parents have, of course, been notified. As well, all the appropriate child agencies have been notified."

Robert Dale Prince, 36, was first charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in October. He was then released on conditions Oct. 7, a Free Press review of court records shows.

Then in January, the police services internet child exploitation unit was alerted to the sharing of child sex abuse images on a popular, commonly used social media site in April 2021.

The unit identified Prince as a suspect and seized an electronic device allegedly belonging to him that contained more than 150 photos and videos of child sexual abuse imagery, including of the two children who went to the daycare. One of the two kids in the images was the victim in the initial sexual assault investigation.

Police rearrested Prince on April 11 for a slew of child pornography-related charges. Some of the child pornography offences allegedly occurred in 2019 and 2020, court records show.

The provincial government does not monitor unlicensed private home daycares. Without a licence, a person can care for a maximum of four children under 12, and no more than two of them can be under age two. That number includes the care providers children and any others who live in the home.

McKinnon said parents who use unlicensed daycare providers should ask whether child abuse and criminal record checks are performed, who else resides or has access to the home and whether the providers have safety certification such as first-aid and CPR, among other questions.

"These are crimes of access and opportunity. The offenders in this type of situation, they dont hide behind the proverbial bushes. Theyre amongst us, theyre in the places, unfortunately, where some of our children may attend to," McKinnon said.

"Do your checks and balances. Its a good time to educate your children, and educate yourself on grooming, educate yourself (on) sexual exploitation images and what that realm entails."

Prince remains in custody; his next court date is May 9.

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Prior to the new charges but after the initial arrest, the courts had barred Prince from contacting, communicating or being in the presence of a youth under the age of 16 except in unavoidable public encounters; from going to any park or swimming area where youths could be reasonably expected to be present, including daycares, school grounds, playgrounds or community centres; and from seeking, obtaining or continuing a job or volunteer opportunity that would put him in a position of trust or authority over a youth.

He has no past criminal convictions in Manitoba.

The internet child exploitation unit is still investigating. Police ask anyone with information about the case to call them at 204-986-6172 or the child abuse unit at 204-986-3296.

"With situations like this there is always potential (other victims)," McKinnon said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a rainfall warning for Winnipeg, with 30 to 50 millimetres expected by Sunday and the heaviest to fall Saturday.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued a rainfall warning for Winnipeg, with 30 to 50 millimetres expected by Sunday and the heaviest to fall Saturday.

New warnings may also come as the rain turns to snow beginning Saturday evening near the Saskatchewan border. Depending on its severity, power outages may loom due to rain freezing on hydro lines.

The heavy rain pelting southern Manitoba had already made its mark on thousands of residents.

A power outage that affected around 13,000 people Friday morning was caused by a pole fire near Sanford, a spokesman for Manitoba Hydro told the Free Press.

It is what we tend to call pole fire season It doesnt know if its winter, it doesnt know if its spring, Bruce Owen said.

It comes when a winters worth of salt and grime caused by road traffic builds up on insulators that attach the power lines to wood poles. If theres a lot of moisture, like on Friday, it can cause a short circuit that can set a pole fire.

By mid-day, less than 200 customers were still affected by the outage, Owen said.

Be aware and patient, and if (people) have time, always prepare In the event that there is an extended outage this weekend, (theyre) prepared and have the right things that they need so they and their families are safe, he said.

A Colorado low moving through Manitoba brought the rain, resulting in the province issuing an overland flooding warning for much of its southern area.

It is the second low pressure system of its kind in the past 10 days, but instead of snow, it will be rain and cold temperatures that mark this one, warning preparedness meteorologist Natalie Hasell said.

A lot of hazards are expected associated to this system, and impacts potentially lasting a while after the system is gone, as it will take a while to clean all this stuff up.

Manitobans should take the rain seriously, Hasell said, encouraging people to stay home and, if they do leave, to tell loved ones where theyre headed.

Manitoba Infrastructures hydrologic forecast centre has warned some areas of southern Manitoba could receive more than 50 mm of a mix of rain and snow, with others receiving as much as 80 mm by mid-Monday.

With this, the province announced Thursday a risk of moderate-to-major flooding for the Red River Basin. Depending on how much rain comes on the weekend and how quickly remaining snow melts, a second crest is expected from late April to early May.

Overland flooding, too, becomes an issue, as the ground is still too cold to absorb all the extra precipitation.

(As well,) it will get mixed up with the snow that is still on the ground in some places, and then when temperatures cool, itll freeze and make that very difficult to clear, Hasell said.

This rings true for lawn care service business Sodfather owner Troy Schmid. He said after months of having more snow-clearing jobs than they could take on, his Winnipeg staff is now forced to the sidelines as spring cleaning projects get postponed even further by the rain.

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Right now, we have guys that are sitting around waiting to work, he said Friday. We lose a month, basically. Weve lost all of April, in which usually we can do spring cleanup Were usually cutting grass at the beginning of May, second week of May. So this puts us back weeks, if not a month.

Sodfather has a wait list of around 100 people waiting for spring cleaning services, and a backlog who were hoping for grass cutting or landscaping services around this time, Schmid said.

Its been a frustrating year to work in lawn care, he said, and the extra rain is only causing more problems for homeowners.

The yards that were already kind of weak will become weaker, they wont grow as fast, he said. Depending on the type of yard, you could end up with a little bit of mould, mushroom, yield, if we do get the right type of temperature.

Just overall, its not the greatest.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
When the Hudsons Bay Co. announced rather unexpectedly in November 2020 it was closing its flagship downtown store  three months earlier than expected  the chief operating officer at the Southern Chiefs Organization took immediate notice.

Opinion

When the Hudsons Bay Co. announced rather unexpectedly in November 2020 it was closing its flagship downtown store  three months earlier than expected  the chief operating officer at the Southern Chiefs Organization took immediate notice.

Jennifer Rattray, a former television anchor who is a member of the Peepeekisis First Nation, had an enduring interest in the downtown Bay building. Prior to working at SCO, Rattray spent a decade at the University of Winnipeg as a vice-president and right-hand woman to then-president Lloyd Axworthy.

In 2012, Rattray was part of a team assembled by Axworthy, former federal cabinet minister and longtime downtown advocate, that took a long, hard look at assuming ownership of the Bay building.

In 2010, owners of the Bay had offered Axworthy rent-free use of two upper floors of the store to establish a national centre of Indigenous study. Two years later, the Bay sweetened the deal: the U of W could take it over for free.

However, even at no cost, the university quickly realized it did not have the financial capacity to take on the acquisition, redevelopment and operation of what is, at 650,000 square feet, the largest commercial building downtown.

Fast-forward nearly 10 years and, with the store closing and the future of the building more uncertain than ever, Rattray and her team at SCO had a sense that now, the political tide had turned in their favour.

The country was focused on reconciliation in the wake of a commission of inquiry into both the residential schools system and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. As well, provincial and federal governments were looking for viable projects to promote affordable housing on a larger scale.

At the same time, HBC had admitted that based on the costs of redeveloping it for some other purpose, the building was valued at $0.

"It was really the right opportunity at the right time," Rattray said on Friday, moments after a deeply moving ceremony at the Bay downtown to mark the launch of the redevelopment of the building. "A lot of people had tried for a lot of years to make this work. Suddenly, we saw our chance."

"A lot of people had tried for a lot of years to make this work. Suddenly, we saw our chance." Jennifer Rattray

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS HBC governor Richard Baker accepts the gift of a beaver hat from traditional beader Joanne Soldier during the ceremony.

What unfolded after the SCO decided to go all in on the Bay building is nothing short of remarkable.

The SCO team began to take shape. Axworthy had maintained a very positive relationship with Richard Baker, the executive chairman of Hudsons Bay Co. who was involved in offering the building to the U of W in 2012. Former Assembly of First Nations grand chief Phil Fontaine joined Axworthy as senior consultants to the project.

Starting in early 2021, the SCO was able to secure a consensus from the chiefs of its 34 First Nations, assemble a team of technical experts, estimate project costs, secure private financing for its part of the cost and put together a business plan and architectural renderings that would ultimately win over politicians from all three levels of government.

"When they first came to us, it was like wow," said Liberal MP Jim Carr. "They had the whole thing there ready to go. It came together so quickly, but it was all there."

The details released on Friday show a $65-million contribution from Ottawa, directed at the creation of nearly 300 housing units. Manitoba is also a contributor, with a pledge for up to $35 million to support housing and heritage preservation. The City of Winnipeg is expected to provide tax relief, although the details havent been worked out. The remainder of the project cost, $30 million, is expected to be cobbled together from other program grants and loans, some connected to the cultural content of the development.

A project of this cost and complexity that involves First Nations, all three levels of government and the private sector typically takes years to bring to fruition, not months.

Given that type of gestation, projects such as this typically lurch from "the promising," to "the doomed," and back again. Political leaders come and go, governments are unseated, and not all pledges are honoured by those who take over.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The project is also remarkable because it represents an unprecedented gesture of positive karmic justice. A building established by HBC, the tip of the colonial spear wielded by the British, being transferred into the hands of a First Nations organization, at an Indigenous ceremony. It will take time to establish the viability of this project, but this is certainly a new and promising take on true reconciliation.

On that note, its important to remember the hill the SCO must climb to realize its dream is still very steep.

The complete project costs have not yet been entirely accounted for and the broad array of uses of this new and redeveloped building  affordable housing, assisted living for elders, child care, wellness, arts and culture and Indigenous-run commercial interests  is breathtaking to the point of being possibly unrealistic.

Still, this was the day when Indigenous people assumed ownership of an iconic building from a bygone era of colonial relations.

Everyone involved can be proud of that accomplishment.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com
Premier Heather Stefanson had her first in-person meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he paid a visit to the legislature Friday.

Premier Heather Stefanson had her first in-person meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he paid a visit to the legislature Friday.

In a statement, the premier said

It was opportunity to build on a more collaborative approach between our governments, Stefanson said in a statement issued by her office.

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She was referring to the adversarial relationship her predecessor Brian Pallister had with the prime minister. It may be a new approach, but premier had the same axe to grind when it comes to increased health care funding dished out by Ottawa to the provinces.

I stressed the current federal funding share of the Canada Health Transfer with provinces and territories is simply inadequate as the COVID-19 pandemic sadly proved. I reinforced premiers remain united in our call for the federal government to increase its share of the (transfer) to 35 per cent and to maintain it at this level over time.

As we emerge from the pandemic, I believe there is a generational opportunity to establish a renewed funding partnership that not only repairs the damage caused by COVID-19 but invests in our health systems to better meet the needs of Canadians now and well in the future.

Stefanson said the province recognizes the importance of demonstrating progress and patient outcomes and is willing to work with the federal government to do it.

On the subject of resettling refugees from Ukraine, she asked the prime minister for more information about the numbers and time of arrivals to Manitoba so the province can better plan to welcome them.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Some Manitobans treated themselves to a more costly staycation last year than anticipated.

Some Manitobans treated themselves to a more costly staycation last year than anticipated.

An announcement Friday by the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce on the second round of its tourism rebate incentive program isnt sitting well with some past participants who claim their promised compensation never materialized.

Program participants were eligible to receive $100 back on a hotel or motel stay, or 50 per cent off a visit to participating attractions. The refund amounts are the same this year.

Steinbach resident Shae-Lynne Desautels found out about the incentive last year from co-workers and via social media and decided to try it out.

"If Im getting a portion of it back, it makes you feel a bit better that youre spending that money, especially in (the) province," the 28-year-old correctional officer said.

"Support local, right?"

Desautels originally wanted to enjoy a hotel stay with her family, but couldnt book anything on her preferred date  a sign the rebate program was popular, she figured.

Instead, they drove to Winnipeg and bought tickets to the zoo.

Desautels submitted the zoo receipt online to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce that same day, following the proof-of-purchase requirement in order to receive the rebate.

She received a confirmation email advising her that the application had been received, she said.

"I kept checking my mailbox. Id check it every couple of days. I noticed nothing came in," she said.

Desautels was under the impression the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce would mail her a prepaid Mastercard once she submitted her receipt; however, when weeks went by and nothing arrived, she didnt pursue it.

The experience left her frustrated.

Nearly 25,000 Manitobans took part in the program last year. Participants could choose from a list of designated accommodations and attractions throughout the province. In total, $2.2 million in rebates were returned.

Chuck Davidson, president and CEO for the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, said theres no doubt the first round had its kinks, but the organization has listened to feedback and streamlined the repayment process.

"Im sure with any program there are people that always slip through the cracks for one reason or another," he said. "The fact we had 25,000 people with no problems whatsoever doing it is a good thing At the end of the day, we want all Manitobans to take advantage of this."

Last years funds were issued as a virtual prepaid Mastercard. This year, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce will issue cheques by mail. Participants will also have the option to receive a deposit through PayPal.

After some people complained about not having received the rebates, the organization discovered some refunds went unnoticed in participants junk-mail folders.

Desautels was among those who didnt look there previously, but was unable to find the email now. She said the program she uses may have deleted it automatically after a period of time.

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"As great as technology is, sometimes its a challenge, so were trying to take that out of the equation," Davidson said. "Throughout this entire process, we have tried to make it as easy as possible for people."

Desautels said she would give the program another shot if the available dates align with her schedule. She and her family are eyeing a stay at Lakeview Hotels and Resorts in Hecla, where they hope to do some hiking and fishing.

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce has set aside about $1.5 million for this years program, expecting about 14,000 people to take part.

The 2022 program runs May 6-16, and the window to submit receipts online closes one week later, at 11:59 p.m. on May 23.

A full list of participating accommodations and attractions is available on the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce website.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Celebrations no longer on pandemic pause              Sign up here if you would like to receive future editions of Passages Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Celebrations no longer on pandemic pause When Marc Rolland Desrochers died at only 22 years old, his family wrote in his obituary, we plan to gather and celebrate his life at a later date. What they didnt know was how much later the date would be. Marc died on March 14, 2020, just a day after his 22nd birthday and two days before Manitoba recorded its first positive case of COVID-19. Two weeks later, the first Manitoban died from the novel coronavirus and shortly after the province went into lockdown with gatherings, including funerals, prohibited. Even later in the pandemic, when funerals were allowed again, they were restricted to so few people that in many cases a persons entire immediate family couldnt attend. Many families opted to wait until they could hold larger celebrations for the life of their loved ones. It became almost a standard line at the end of many obituaries: We will hold the service and/or celebration at a later date. I often wondered, as weeks became months and months became years, whether those long-delayed celebrations would ever be held or whether families, at some point, would decide too much time had passed. I even recall one series of obituary notices for a Manitoban which said over the span of a few months that a celebration was going to go ahead, then it was cancelled, then it was scheduled again, put on hold a second time, and finally the family announced they were just going to go ahead, but with a Zoom session instead of an in-person event. Back to Marc: his family has announced a celebration of his life will happen on April 30. And his family is not the only one. After Virginia Andrew, a former high school math teacher, died on April 17, 2020, at age 93, the family said that cremation has taken place and a graveside service will be held at a later date at the Darlingford Cemetery. The service was finally held on April 12. It is wonderful that these two families were finally able to get together to remember Marc and Virginia, even if the ceremonies were delayed. I sometimes read obituaries in the Free Press in which families say the deceased person specifically requested no service be held. Of course, these people are entitled to request that, but I always wonder if they know who these events are intended to be for. Its not really for the person who has died; its for the family and friends they have left behind. Its at those gatherings that people shed a few tears, but also share laughs and memories. It helps those people who loved the person to be comforted by people around them while connecting with people they may not have seen for a long time. They may also meet for the first time people who only their loved one knew and hear new stories about them. For many people during the last two years, it wasnt a loved one who requested no service be held  COVID-19 demanded it. And it was one of the most cruel things to happen during the pandemic. Thankfully, these two families show that, even though some gatherings have been greatly delayed, they can still be held, no matter how long it takes to get there. Read more about Marc and Virginia. Kevin Rollason, Reporter How They Lived When Frances Lim was in medical school at Queens University there werent too many women with her in class. In fact, only two others were there. That didnt stop her. Frances, who was 83 when she died on April 7, then became one of an even smaller number of women who specialized in surgery. She went on to become an obstetrician and gynecologist in Winnipeg, bringing multiple generations into the world. Read more about Frances. At six-foot-six, Alan Philp stood tall in the legal profession  and not just because of his height. Alan, who died on April 12 at 91, graduated from law school in 1955 and practiced as a lawyer until 1973. Thats when he was appointed Chief Judge of the County Courts of Manitoba and then later a Justice on the provinces highest court, the Manitoba Court of Appeal. He sat on that court until he retired at age 75. Read more about Alan. Norma Coleman wanted to celebrate Steinbachs centennial with her own centennial project. Norma, who was 88 when she died on March 29, decided to put in 100 entries in that years competitions for baking, sewing, canning, produce growing and other skills. She fell short  she only got to 94  but it wasnt the only place her skills shone. She went on to help put together the Canadian Lutheran Ladies Cookbook with recipes from across the country. Read more about Norma. Dorothy Thom helped generations of girls promise to do their best. Dorothy, who died on March 28 at 90, was a Brownie leader for more than 50 years. Her contributions to the Girl Guides of Canada were recognized; she was honoured with the Queens Jubilee Medal in 2002. Read more about Dorothy. Wilf Finch was taught how to do wireless communication as part of his duties with the northern reaches of the Hudsons Bay Company. It turned out those skills would soon come in handy for his country. Wilf, who was 104 when he died on March 17, joined the war effort, answering the call for wireless operators. He first monitored Japanese naval radio traffic on the west coast before later monitoring submarines on the east coast, as well as serving on the HMCS Runnymede, helping escort convoys across the Atlantic Ocean. Read more about Wilf. Harold Cooks day job was working for flooring companies before owning his own. But Harold, who was 81 when he died on April 14, had a passion after hours for curling and, as the years went by, the new sport of stick curling. He went on to serve as president of both the Manitoba Stick Curling Association and its national counterpart. He played in his final tournament  winning gold  just two weeks before he died. Read more about Harold. A Lifes Story Every time you pay your Autopac bill or send in a cheque or transfer payment for you hydro or natural gas use, you should thank Gloria Desorcy. Gloria, who suddenly died on March 1 at age 62, was the longtime head of the Manitoba branch of the Consumers Association of Canada and led the fight against rate hikes by both bodies before the Public Utilities Board. Gloria Desorcy was the executive director at Consumers Association of Canada. She died in March at the age of 62. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) Every Manitoban owes a debt of gratitude to her, Jacquie Wasney, a member of the CAC board of directors in Winnipeg. Do you remember the rebate cheque you got from MPI or the fact that Hydro rates went up just three per cent instead of eight per cent or that gift card that has value past six months? Read more about Glorias life. Until next time I hope you continue to write your own lifes story. 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CAN we really blame Premier Heather Stefanson for dodging three recent question periods? Which of us would choose to attend a place where we would be taunted and belittled?

Opinion

CAN we really blame Premier Heather Stefanson for dodging three recent question periods? Which of us would choose to attend a place where we would be taunted and belittled?

Sadly, the important democratic tradition of question period occasionally descends into a fracas where the honourable members stoop to hollering and jeering of a type that would get school children sentenced to a timeout in the principals office.

Take, for example, the ruckus in the legislature on April 13 when the provincial budget was tabled. The heckling got so bad that Speaker Myrna Driedger was ignored as she called for order and repeatedly urged the MLAs to stop bickering. She might as well have told the wind to stop blowing.

Democracy will only happen if all of us respect each other in here and bring forward our ideas carefully and listen to them carefully, she reminded them. The MLAs then heckled the Speaker.

Im stunned that I hear somebody heckling when Im trying to deliver this message here, Driedger said.

Please ponder the import of this: people whom voters have entrusted to seats of privilege in Manitobas august legislative chamber were deriding the Speaker who is trying to stop their boorish behaviour.

Its true the ill will that periodically tarnishes such exchanges is not unique to Manitobas legislature. In democratic governments around the world, elected members disparage each other in ways that are well outside the boundaries of respectful debate. Its the nature of oppositional politics.

Should the premier, or anyone, have to put with it? Or when the Opposition goes low, is she justified in taking the high road out of there, scheduling press conferences at convenient times to let her escape the ordeal of question period?

Actually, yes, as a leader, the premier should have to attend question period. Its an important part of her job. And an implication of her decision to avoid those crucial legislative sessions is that her colleagues must take the flak in her stead. Her empty chair means the hostile questions are inflicted on Stefanson stand-ins such as Deputy Premier Cliff Cullen and Health Minister Audrey Gordon.

Also, Stefansons government gives as bad as it gets, which rules out any lofty notions she is dodging question period as a role model whos disinclined to engage in disrespectful verbal attacks.

Question period is a commendable concept, in theory. Opposition MLAs are permitted to hold the government to account, and are supposed to get serious answers to serious questions.

Ha! In reality, the questions are often devised by party strategists and loaded with scripted soundbites designed to grab media attention. The principle aim is to shame the government and thereby influence electors, which reduces question period to a forum for permanent electioneering.

For its part, the PC government tries to foil the Oppositions shots with empty eloquence that dodges direct questions, often resorting to blaming current problems on the previous NDP government, a strategy that increasingly wears thin since its been six years since the NDP was in power.

A certain amount of gamesmanship is inevitable in the rough-and-tumble world of oppositional politics, but the process goes too far when it includes yelling, interruptions and personal insults. If the MLAs would be embarrassed to have their children and grandchildren watching from the visitors gallery, thats an indication our elected representatives need to act more like grown-ups.

When the Speaker herself gets heckled, thats over the line. The Rules of Manitoba Assembly give the Speaker power to discipline MLAs who interrupt or use disrespectful or offensive language. Its up to Driedger to use her power to enforce a minimum level of decorum.

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In Australia, the Parliamentary Speaker can tell naughty MPs to leave the House and sit for an hour in something they call the sin bin so they can reflect on their bad behaviour. Their Speaker once sent three MPs to the penalty box in one session.

In Canada, Peter Milliken, a retired Liberal MP who was Speaker for 10 years, has said evicting badly behaved members isnt a deterrent because they could then get the attention they crave by holding a press conference outside the chamber. He favours hitting them in the wallet by docking them a days pay and expenses, such as travel and dinner.

If the Speaker would enforce better behavior from Manitoba MLAs, it might attract a better quality of political candidates. There are many reasons Manitobans of considerable competency wont let their names stand for office  including the financial impacts of leaving the private sector and a reluctance to endure the social-media attacks people in public life inevitably face  but one factor must surely be that theyre repelled by the goading and ridiculing that is commonplace within the bearpit of the Manitoba legislature.

If we want the best and brightest to serve in Manitobas elected chamber, the Speaker can help by using her power to ensure a respectful workplace.

carl.degurse@freepress.mb.ca

Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board.
In politics, when the going gets tough at home, politicians tend to get going on state visits to other countries. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is an excellent case in point.

In politics, when the going gets tough at home, politicians tend to get going on state visits to other countries. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is an excellent case in point.

Faced with the fallout from the ever-expanding "Partygate" scandal, Mr. Johnson jetted to India this week on a frantic trade and diplomatic mission. Earlier this month, he visited Kyiv to talk with besieged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in what his aides said was "a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people."

Although it has made for some interesting photos, Mr. Johnsons magical mystery tour of any place that is not the United Kingdom has done nothing to quiet the calls for his resignation.

In a nutshell, Mr. Johnson attended a number of social events with staff and supporters at various times in 2020 and 2021 while his country was in COVID-19 lockdown. Initially, when confronted about his participation in these illegal social gatherings, Mr. Johnson denied there were parties. Then after it was clear there were parties, he denied he had been present. When evidence was presented showing Mr. Johnson indeed was present for some of these gatherings, he claimed they were not actually illegal.

An independent investigation and the Metropolitan Police, which issued several dozen "fixed penalty notices" to Mr. Johnson and others at the parties, beg to differ.

This week, as Mr. Johnson toured India, members of his own government supported a motion in the House of Commons for a formal investigation to determine whether Mr. Johnson lied to Parliament, a finding that would require him to resign his post.

Political observers here in Canada may find all this to be somewhat of an overreaction, particularly if those Canadians do not believe the social and economic restrictions invoked during the pandemic were necessary or effective. But Britains political crisis is not really about restrictions; its about honesty.

Stefan Rousseau/Pool Photo via AP British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

More cynical observers might assume dishonesty is an inherent trait demonstrated by all politicians. Journalists who cover political beats will tell you, however, that the instances of out-and-out dishonesty on a Johnsonian level are quite rare. The British House of Commons is right to take offence at Mr. Johnsons estrangement from the truth and seek the most serious punishment available: a forced resignation from his position as first minister.

This is not an instance of a politician making a mistake and showing an unwillingness to apologize or make amends. Manitobans may remember former premier Brian Pallister as being estranged from political accountability, prone to breaking all the dishes in the figurative china shop and then refusing to admit what he had done.

Mr. Johnsons predicament is not that predicament.

Throughout Partygate, Mr. Johnson has demonstrated nothing but contempt for parliamentary privilege and procedure.

Throughout Partygate, Mr. Johnson has demonstrated nothing but contempt for parliamentary privilege and procedure. He has uttered shocking untruths in a desperate bid to defend his actions, and then refused to take responsibility for his actions when his lies were laid bare.

There is a price to be paid when a democracy does not demand accountability from its political leaders. One need only look to the United States, where a former president attempted to corrupt a general election and fomented a violent insurrection to stay in power after the result did not go his way. Americans and people around the world who have watched this toxic melodrama unfold have rightfully lost faith in the U.S. system of governance.

The British House of Commons must hold Mr. Johnson accountable for his crimes against honesty. Offering any lesser response would be to undermine the whole notion of democracy  a failure that would be felt both in Great Britain and around the world.
Israel said Saturday that it would close its crossing to thousands of Gaza workers after a series of rockets were fired from the territory ruled by the militant Hamas group in recent days.

The rocket fire came amid near-daily clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem over the past week, with Palestinians hurling stones and fireworks and Israeli police storming the compound and firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades.

The violence in Jerusalem, and a string of deadly attacks inside Israel and raids across the occupied West Bank, have raised fears of another war between Israel and Hamas like the one that broke out under similar circumstances last year.

Israel said Palestinian militants fired two rockets late Friday, with one landing in an open area inside Israel and the other falling inside Gaza. Palestinian media reported that two Gaza residents were wounded by the rocket that fell short. There was no immediate comment from health officials.

Another rocket was fired from Gaza early Saturday, but the military did not say where it landed. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The Israeli military body that coordinates civilian affairs in Gaza said the crossing used by workers would not be re-opened on Sunday, the start of the work week. ``The re-opening of the crossing will be decided accordingly with a security assessment,'' it said in a statement.

In recent months, Israel had issued thousands of work permits to Palestinians from Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces nearly 15 years ago.

Israel portrayed the move as a goodwill gesture in order to maintain calm, but the permits - which can be revoked at any time - also give it a strong form of leverage over Palestinians. Israel grants permits to some 12,000 Palestinians in Gaza and over 100,000 to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, mostly for work in construction and other menial jobs.

Israel captured east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, and has built Jewish settlements across the occupied West Bank that now house nearly 500,000 settlers alongside nearly 3 million Palestinians. There have been no substantive peace talks in more than a decade.

* This story was edited by Ahram Online

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last pocket of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Residents look at their house destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian forces in Ukraine tried to storm a steel plant housing soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol on Saturday in an attempt to crush the last pocket of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced he would meet Sunday in his nation's capital with the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the U.S. secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment.

Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy gave little detail about logistics of the encounter but said he expected concrete results  not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons.

It would be the first high-level U.S. trip to Kyiv since the war began Feb. 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country's foreign minister. Zelenskyys last face-to-face meeting with a U.S. leader was Feb. 19 with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.

People walk near an apartment on fire after it was hit during a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A 3-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at the Black Sea port city of Odesa, officials said. Zelenskyy said 18 more were wounded.

The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening? Zelenskyy said. They are just bastards. ... I dont have any other words for it, just bastards.

The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

Firefighters work inside a building destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The command post was hit on Friday, killing two generals and critically wounding another, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said in a statement. The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a Zelenskyy adviser, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command center when it was attacked.

The fate of the Ukrainians in the sprawling and besieged seaside steel mill in Mariupol, where Russia says its forces have taken the rest of the city, wasnt immediately clear. Earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian military unit released a video reportedly taken two days earlier in which women and children holed up underground, some for as long as two months, said they longed to see the sun.

A man wearing a gas mask helps firefighters extinguish a fire on a residential building following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, one woman in the video said. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.

Russia said it took control of several villages elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses. Russian attacks also struck populated areas.

Associated Press journalists observed shelling in residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; regional Gov. Oleh Sinehubov said three people were killed. In the Luhansk area of the Donbas, Gov. Serhiy Haidai said six people died during the shelling of a village, Gorskoi.

The gutted remains of a car in front of damaged trees following a battle between Russia and Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Chernihiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

In Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas, the AP witnessed two soldiers arriving at a hospital, one of them mortally wounded.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged Sloviansk apartment, Anna Direnskaya, 70, said, I want peace."

One of many native Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, Direnskaya said she wishes Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and that there should be no enmity between them.

A firefighter sits on a swing next to a building destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

"Why is this happening?" she said. I dont know.

While British officials said Russian forces had not gained significant new ground, Ukrainian officials announced a nationwide curfew ahead of Easter Sunday, a sign of the wars disruption and threat to the entire country.

Mariupol has been a key Russian objective and has taken on outsize importance in the war. Completing its capture would give Russia its biggest victory yet, after a nearly two-month siege reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin.

A Ukrainian soldier sits on tyres next to a building destroyed by Russian bombing in Chernihiv on Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

It would deprive Ukrainian of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere and establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014. Russia-backed separatists control parts of the Donbas.

An adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Russian forces resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal plant and were also trying to storm it, in an apparent reversal of tactics. Two days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had given an order not to send troops in but instead to blockade the plant.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.

Members of the congregation preform the procession of the Holy Shroud on Good Friday at Transfiguration Of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Shamokin, Pa., Friday, April 15, 2022. The Holy Shroud is taken outside around the church to symbolize the funeral procession of Christ to the grave. The Holy Shroud is a cloth depicting the Savior lying in the tomb. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraines National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of about two dozen women and children. Its contents could not be independently verified. But if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.

The video shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives havent seen neither the sky nor the sun since they left home Feb. 27.

The regiments deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told the AP the video was shot Thursday. The Azov Regiment has its roots in the Azov Battalion, which was formed by far-right activists in 2014 at the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and has elicited criticism for some of its tactics.

A girl looks at her mother while holding a candle during Good Friday service at St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, Friday, April 22, 2022, in Allentown, Pa.. While Easter is the most joyous of holy days on the church calendar, marking the day Christians believe Jesus triumphed over death, many members of Ukrainian Orthodox churches across the United States are finding it difficult to summon joy at a time of war. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

More than 100,000 people  down from a prewar population of about 430,000  are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat. Ukrainian authorities estimate that over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

Yet another attempt to evacuate women, children and older adults from Mariupol failed Saturday. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupols mayor, said Russian forces did not allow Ukrainian-organized buses to take residents to Zaporizhzhia, a city 227 kilometers (141 miles) to the northwest.

At 11 oclock, at least 200 Mariupol residents gathered near the Port City shopping center, waiting for evacuation, Andryushchenko posted on the Telegram messaging app. The Russian military drove up to the Mariupol residents and ordered them to disperse, because now there will be shelling.

Olena Koptyl, 63, takes out a Ukrainian traditional Easter bread, or Paska, from the oven at her home on the outskirts of Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

At the same time, he said, Russian buses assembled about 200 meters (yards) away. Residents who boarded those were told they were being taken to separatist-occupied territory and not allowed to disembark, Andryushchenko said. His account could not be independently verified.

In the attack on Odesa, Russian troops fired at least six missiles, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko said via Telegram. Residential buildings were hit. It is already known about one victim. He burned in his car in a courtyard of one of the buildings.

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Zelenskyy's news conference was held in a Kyiv subway station, where he paused at one point as a train noisily passed through. The subway system, which includes the worlds deepest station, attracted widespread attention early in the war when hordes of people took shelter there.

Regarding the expected visit Sunday by U.S. officials, Zelenskyy said: I believe that we will be able to get agreements from the United States or part of that package on arming Ukraine which we agreed on earlier. Besides, we have strategic questions about security guarantees, which it is time to discuss in detail, because the United States will be one of those leaders of security countries for our state.

___

Fisch reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Associated Press staff members around the world contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later.

People are reunited with family members at a library after being evacuated from the scene of a shooting Friday, April 22, 2022, in northwest Washington. Police say at least three people were injured in a shooting and city officials are warning people in the area to stay inside because of an "active threat." Dozens of law enforcement officers responded to the scene near Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later.

The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a "sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter.

Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been "linked to social media postings" that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood thats home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown.

Bibi Stewart of Anne Arundel, Maryland, was approaching the line to pick up her 12-year-old twins when she heard the gunfire ring out. She said it sounded like the shots were coming from above and at a distance.

"They did it right at dismissal," she said.

Stewart said she saw glass shattering in a bridge connecting different wings of the school and she saw the tires of cars in the pickup line shot out.

"Theyre just saying theyre OK" and hiding in the school with their friends and adults, she said of her children.

Police in tactical gear were seen escorting people  including college students from nearby campuses  out of apartment buildings in the area. Officers pointed their rifles upward toward other buildings and windows as the people moved quickly down the street with their hands raised above their heads.

"I had to look in parents eyes tonight who are terrified ... thinking of what might happen to their children," District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference. "And we have experienced this too much in our country. The epidemic of gun violence, the easy access to weapons, has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school."

Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

"We will get to the bottom of this. We will find what the motive is," Contee said. "His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community."

The gunman had posted a video of the shooting on 4chan, though police are still working to determine whether it was streamed live or recorded and then uploaded online, Contee said. The video shows people running frantically as rapid gunfire rains from above and the gunman seemingly following them through a sight as they flee for cover.

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The University of the District of Columbia, which is located nearby, went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place. In a tweet Friday, the college said there was an "active shooting incident near student housing."

Eduardo Bugay, a student at the college, said he was in his first-floor apartment in the AVA building  the building where the gunman was eventually found  when he heard the shots.

"At first I was confused," he said, not sure what he was hearing. Then, he said, he got scared.

Bugay said the university sent emails telling students to stay in place. About 30 to 40 minutes after he first heard the gunshots, police came knocking on his door to escort him and others from the building.

A slew of law enforcement officials and emergency crews were sent to the scene. Agents from the FBI arrived in an armored vehicle and the U.S. Secret Service said its officers were aiding police in the search and at the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also assisting in the investigation.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the U.S. Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man attempted to set himself on fire outside the building. The man was rushed by police helicopter to a local hospital and his condition wasn't immediately known.
A 23-year-old Mexican citizen living in Trempealeau County has been sentenced to 60 months in prison for distributing cocaine. Karlett Salazar Zagal pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court for her role in running a cocaine business in western Wisconsin.

According to federal prosecutors, law enforcement received information in August 2020 that cocaine was being sold in a barber shop and several taverns in Arcadia. Police narrowed the investigation to three people who received cocaine from Puerto Rico shipped a half-kilogram at a time.

The drugs were sent via U.S. Mail and were hidden inside radios, printers and bed sheets. In exchange for the cocaine, the Wisconsin-based traffickers sent money and guns to Puerto Rico.

Postal inspectors became involved and obtained the following search warrants:

May 5, 2021: A parcel sent from Puerto Rico to a residence in Winona, Minnesota, was found to contain 557 grams of cocaine hidden inside a Bluetooth speaker.

June 29, 2021: A parcel sent from Independence to Puerto Rico contained two Glock semi-automatic handguns.

July 13, 2021: A parcel sent from Puerto Rico to a residence in Independence contained 506 grams of cocaine.

Salazar Zagal was arrested the day after the July 13 warrant. She reportedly told prosecutors she knew what was going on because she helped run the cocaine business and the distribution of weapons.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma prosecuted the case.

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Andrew Teska, the director of operations at Winona Area Ambulance Service, Inc., recently took some time to participate in the Winona Daily News Get to Know series.

His full video can be found at winonadailynews.com. Here are just a few of his answers:

Q: What are your favorite hobbies?

A: I enjoy working out, doing stuff with my family, being outside.

Q: Who inspires you the most and why?

A: Im inspired by anybody that really genuinely cares about other people, that really puts forth effort to be a kind human being, to be just a compassionate person.

Q: What are some day to day tasks in your position?

A: A lot of it surrounds human resources aspects. Working with the people, making sure they meet all the requirements necessary. Meeting with other local first responder agencies, meeting with our hospital agencies and surrounding EMS agencies.

Q: Whats your favorite part of your job?

A: Knowing that the work that Im doing translates to great paramedics, great EMTs, and that were providing fantastic care to our community.

If your business or organizations leaders are interested in being involved in the weekly Get to Know series, reach out to rachel.mergen@lee.net for more details.

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The states new GOP-drawn legislative maps widen the partisan advantage in several districts, with nine in the Assembly and one in the Senate seeing their partisan lean increase into double-digit margins, making them far less competitive and more easily won by extreme partisans.

By moving district boundaries, Republicans were able to strengthen their margins in some districts by packing Democratic voters into other districts, including two in the Milwaukee suburbs that flipped blue in recent elections.

J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of the University of Virginia Center for Politics Sabatos Crystal Ball, said the GOP-drawn maps appear to symbolize Republicans cutting their losses with regard to recent Democratic gains among suburban voters, primarily women in the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington.

Theres not a single seat in Waukesha County that went to (President Joe Biden), Coleman said of the GOP-drawn maps. Thats probably the Republicans saying, This is our turf.

One of the biggest shifts in the state occurred in the 13th Assembly District, which moves from a near-even partisan split under previous maps to a 16-point GOP lean, according to an analysis of the maps by Marquette Law School that used the results of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and the 2018 gubernatorial election as a baseline.

Rep. Sara Rodriguez, D-Brookfield, flipped the seat in 2020 after narrowly defeating then-incumbent Rep. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield. Hutton had held the seat since 2013.

Rodriguez, who is running for lieutenant governor, leaving the seat open this fall, said the maps selected by the Wisconsin Supreme Court shield elected Republicans from public scrutiny for another decade.

As an elected official in a swing district, Ive enjoyed knowing that I would be held accountable by my constituents, Rodriguez said. I know that it made me a better representative.

The leans are based on a Marquette Law School Lubar Center analysis of how voters in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and 2018 gubernatorial election voted in the wards that constitute each district.

The 23rd and 24th Assembly districts, which are located north of Milwaukee and were decided by narrow margins in the 2020 election, also see larger partisan leans under the new maps, with the 23rd Districts Democratic lean growing from 5 points to 18 and the 24th moving from a 3-point GOP lean to an 18-point Republican advantage. In 2020, Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, ousted then-incumbent Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, in the 23rd, while incumbent Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, fended off a Democratic challenge to hold onto the 24th.

Andraca, who is seeking another term this fall, said reduced competition in any district ultimately hurts voters as candidates no longer need to listen to those with differing viewpoints.

Voters should be the ones who decide which legislators keep their jobs, not politicians, she said. If you think you have a safe seat, its a danger for democracy in Wisconsin.

The 14th Assembly District, which Rep. Robin Vining, D-Wauwatosa, successfully defended in 2020, more than doubles its Democratic lean from 6 points to 15. Republicans had viewed Vinings seat as one of their biggest targets in the state two years ago.

Reps. Mike Kuglitsch and Joe Sanfelippo, both R-New Berlin, now reside in the states new 15th Assembly District, but both lawmakers announced before the latest maps were adopted that they would not seek reelection this fall, leaving the seat open. The districts GOP lean moves from a 6-point advantage to 19.

Republican Reps. Ken Skowronski, of Franklin, and Chuck Wichgers, of Muskego, both reside in the new 82nd Assembly District, but Skowronski is not seeking another term this year. The district also shifts more Republican under new maps, from and 8-point lean to 16.

The 5th Senate District, held by Sen. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, moved from a 1-point Democratic lean to a 7-point GOP advantage, while the 8th Senate District, held by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, sees its GOP lean grow from 8 points to 13.

Kooyenga previously said he would not run if he and Darling were drawn into the same district, which was the case under Evers maps. Kooyengas office did not respond to a request for comment.
Decent Life Foundation (Hayah Karima in Arabic) announced on Saturday that it has distributed more than 850,000 Ramadan food boxes to the most needy in 24 governorates.

According to the Decent Life Foundation (DLF), the distribution of the food boxes to the needy comes as part of the Wassal El-Kheir (meaning Kindness has Arrived) per President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis directives.

The initiative, which is carried out by more than 9,000 volunteers working alongside NGOs across 24 governorates, hopes to distribute up to one million boxes by the end of the holy month.

In December, the DLF carried out a similar initiative to distribute food to the needy in Upper Egypt.

The DLF national project was initiated experimentally in 2019 by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and its first phase was officially launched in July 2021. The project aims to improve standards of living, infrastructure and basic services including health care across the countryside.

The project covers 4,658 villages across the country, home to 58 percent of Egypts 102 million population, with an estimated budget of EGP 700 billion (about $44.6 billion).

The first phase of the project, whose budget is estimated at EGP 250 billion and covers 1,500 villages, is due to be completed by the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year.

In October, Egypt launched an online platform for expats in the US to donate $1 million to the Decent Life project through an official website.

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Aerial photo taken on March 17, 2022 shows Lianghekou hydropower plant on the Yalong River in Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, southwest China's Sichuan Province. [Xinhua/Shen Bohan]

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua)  In speeches at international events, during inspection tours across the country or deliberation with fellow lawmakers in this year's "two sessions," President Xi Jinping has consistently signaled that the "dual carbon" goals are high on the policy agenda.

Joining discussions with fellow lawmakers from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in March, Xi said that China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals necessitated both active and prudent efforts.

While lowering carbon emissions, efforts should also be made to ensure security in energy, industrial and supply chains, and food sectors and support people's everyday lives, Xi said. The task ahead is colossal, and such an approach will ensure achievements are beneficial across the board.

"Green transition takes time and cannot be achieved overnight," Xi said in the discussions, cautioning against campaign-style carbon reductions and "a sudden brake."

Since announcing it would peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, China has made substantial efforts to pursue greener development, including starting a national carbon market and putting a stop to building new coal-fired power projects overseas.

Photo taken on Dec. 8, 2021 shows wind turbines at Changma wind farm in Yumen City, northwest China's Gansu Province. [Xinhua/Fan Peishen]

According to an action plan released last year, the country aims to increase the share of non-fossil energy consumption to around 25 percent by 2030 and lower the CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent in 2030 from the 2005 level.

However, the realization of these goals is by no means an easy task, especially considering the size of China's economy and its energy structure.

Understanding the strenuous efforts China needs to make to ensure energy security while carrying out a green energy revolution, Xi has given special attention to the energy sector.

In January, he inspected a thermal power plant during his trip to Shanxi Province, following a visit to the Shengli Oilfield in Shandong Province in October last year.

"Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality are not something asked of us, but something we are doing on our own initiative," Xi said during his January trip to Shanxi, adding that while the goals cannot be achieved easily, efforts must be made immediately.

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 16, 2022 shows a photovoltaic power station in Yongren County of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. [Xinhua/Chen Xinbo]

As a manufacturing powerhouse, China must enhance self-reliance in energy amid efforts to develop the real economy, Xi said during the inspection tour in Shandong.

He further elaborated on the importance of an energy revolution in achieving China's carbon goals while addressing a group study session of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in January.

The gradual exit of traditional energy sources should be based on the safe and reliable substitution of new energy sources, Xi noted.

"Achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is a broad and profound initiative and a long-term task, which should be advanced with unswerving efforts and in a scientific and orderly manner," Xi said during this year's "two sessions."

(Source: Xinhua)
BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua)  Friday marks the Earth Day 2022 with the theme of "Invest In Our Planet."

Not long ago, when planting trees in an annual activity in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China has adhered to the notion that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets to fully promote the development of ecological civilization, advance afforestation and improve the living environment in both urban and rural areas.

Under the guidance of Xi's Thought on Ecological Civilization, China has been advancing the green transition of its economy over the years, contributing to global environmental and climate governance.

On various occasions, Xi has expounded on his thought and called for concerted international efforts in global ecological governance. The following are some highlights of his remarks in this regard.

Oct. 12, 2021

When addressing the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Xi stressed the need to respect Nature, follow Nature's laws, protect Nature, and build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature.

The development of ecological civilization should be taken as a guide to coordinate the relationship between man and Nature, Xi stressed, adding that human activities need to be kept within the limits of the ecology and environment, and holistic conservation and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts need to be carried out.

Sept. 21, 2021

In his speech at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Xi said that China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

Xi stressed the importance of improving global environmental governance, actively responding to climate change and creating a community of life for man and Nature.

He also underlined accelerating transition to a green and low-carbon economy and achieving green recovery and development.

April 20, 2021

While delivering a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, Xi called for efforts to strengthen cooperation on green infrastructure, green energy and green finance.

Xi also called for improving the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition, the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road Development and other multilateral cooperation platforms "to make green a defining feature of Belt and Road cooperation."

Dec. 30, 2020

During a meeting with then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen via video link, Xi called for speeding up green development, urging China and the European Union to give full play to their high-level dialogue mechanism on environment and climate, and give mutual support to each other in hosting international conferences on biodiversity, climate change, and conservation of nature.

Sept. 30, 2020

When delivering a speech at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, Xi stressed upholding multilateralism and building synergy for global governance on the environment, noting that faced with global environmental risks, countries "share a common stake" and form "a community with a shared future."

"Unilateralism finds no support; cooperation is the right way forward," he said. "We must firmly safeguard the UN-centered international system and uphold the sanctity and authority of international rules so as to enhance global governance on the environment."

He also stressed upholding the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" for developed and developing countries in tackling the challenges to the environment.

April 28, 2019

Declaring the opening of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 Beijing, Xi expressed his hope that the green development concept embodied by the expo park would be spread to "every corner of the world."

"Only with concerted efforts can we effectively deal with global environmental issues such as climate change, marine pollution and biological protection and achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals," he said.

He put forward a five-point initiative: pursuing harmony between human and Nature, prosperity based on green development, a passion for nature-caring lifestyles, a scientific spirit in ecological governance and joint efforts to tackle environmental challenges.

(Source: Xinhua)
The hub of all things in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, is a culturally rich city and a charming one, blessed with a prime central location and housing more than 300 years of eventful and rich history. It has a fusion of the old and new and is a place that blends antiquity and the progressiveness of our modern world. Baton Rouge has played a significant role in the growth and development of the state and now serves as an economic hub and a political center, being the state's governing body and capital.

Geography And Climate Of Baton Rouge

Aerial view of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the Mississippi River.

Baton Rouge is a city located in Louisiana and is the state's capital. Baton Rouge is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, one of the eight parishes in southeast Louisiana, United States, also known as the Florida Parishes.

The city is situated on the banks of the Mississippi River in the southeastern-central part of Louisiana and strategically positioned on the first group of natural bluffs north of the coastal plains of the Mississippi River Delta, that at the Gulf of Mexico. Baton Rouge covers an area of 79.15 square miles, 2.2 square miles of which is water. It comes after New Orleans in area space and is considered the second-largest city in Louisiana.

The city serves as a transportation hub between several metropolitan areas such as Greater New Orleans, Greater Houston, and Greater Jackson due to its proximity to them. The city is almost 79 miles away from New Orleans and 56 miles from Lafayette.

According to the Koppen climate classification, Baton Rouge has a humid subtropical climate. Its winters are mild with rare freezing weather, and summers are hot and humid. The city's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico exposes it to hurricanes, as Hurricane Gustav, the city's worst-ever storm, struck the region back in 2008. However, it is protected from flooding due to its site on the bluffs and along the river, stretching a levee system that protects the riverfront and low-lying areas. After the hit of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and surrounding areas, Baton Rouge and its Greater Metroplex were sought as a shelter for many.

Demographics Of Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge's latest population record in 2020 by US Census was 227,420. The Metropolitan area of Baton Rouge saw an increase in population to be of 870,569 as a result of recent suburbanization.

The city of Baton Rouge has a similar trend as that of New Orleans in terms of racial and ethnic distribution. The racial makeup is 53.5% African Americans, 38.1% White, 3.7% Asian, and the rest of two or more races. As for religion, the predominant practiced religion in Baton Rouge is Christianity, with Catholicism and Baptism having the more significant influence.

The Rich History Of Baton Rouge

Louisiana Old State Capitol Building.

Baton Rouge owns a fascinating prehistory, with archaeological evidence of Paleo-Indians' habitation dating to 12,000 BC. Since the early European settlements, Baton Rouge has had seven flags flown over it, fighting for supremacy and control. The British, French, and Spanish all ruled in the colonial era of the region. The Spanish expedition traveled from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the area where it saw raids inland in the early 16th century.

In 1698, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a French explorer making his way upriver during a sighting, caught attention to a bloodied red pole used to mark the boundaries of tribal territories of Native Americans. He thus dubbed the area "Le Baton Rouge," French for "Red Stick." The French held the territory until 1762, when Baton Rouge was ceded to the British by the end of the French-Indian war, replacing it with the Crosses of England. During the American Revolution, the Spanish re-established control in 1779 when they laid siege to the fort previously built and garrisoned by the French, forcing the withdrawal and surrendering of the British.

The territory that compasses the Florida parishes, which Baton Rouge lies within, was not included in the Louisiana purchase in 1803 and therefore claimed by Spain along with the West Florida territory. The Spanish sustained dominance until 1810 when the colonists of the West Florida Republic unfurled the republic's flag after overthrowing the Spanish government by planning a rebellion to revolt against them.

Louisiana was admitted in 1812 as the 18th state of the US, and Baton Rouge became part of the state in the same year. It then saw its official incorporation by the United States of America in 1817 and became the capital of the Louisiana State in 1849.

Shortly prior to the outbreak of the American civil war, Louisiana joined the Confederacy in 1861. The city of Baton Rouge was in the midst of the conflict and was recaptured by the Union to be later readmitted to them in 1865. At the end of the war, Baton Rouge started a new era and a colorful history for the area.

Economy Of Baton Rouge

Skyline of Baton Rouge from Louisiana State Capitol.

Baton Rouge is a cultural and economic center of the metroplex of Greater Baton Rouge. It has been a major industrial area and a thriving spot for petrochemical production and manufacturing. It hosts the fourth-largest oil refinery complex in the country and the 10th largest globally.

The city attracted many other industries due to the proximity of the oil fields and abundance of natural resources such as gas and low-cost ocean and river transportation. The port is also considered a contributor to the economy of the city.

Some of the other industries that emerged were medical research, education, services sector, film, arts, and technology. Moreover, major companies take place in Baton Rouge and contribute heavily to its economy.

The Baton Rouge Experience

Baton Rouge offers a unique Louisiana experience and is a perfect city to be explored. The city boasts a basketful of historical and cultural attractions and highlights. Much of this can be learned from its history, seen through its architecture, tasted with its food, listening to its music, enjoyed in the outdoors, and experiencing its eclectic culture and heritage. It has notable historical landmarks such as the Louisiana State Capitol located in Baton Rouge, standing at 450 ft high and making it the tallest capitol in the US. Baton Rouge boasts colorful characters and personalities, projecting its southern charm, lifestyle, tradition, and romance.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has directed the construction of the Al-Hadara axis to serve as a new entrance to El-Mokattam hills and to link the suburb with the area of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in Cairo.

Related Accomplishing mission impossible on roads

The new axis will also pass through Cairos Ain Al-Sira area and link to the Nile Corniche area in El-Maadi district, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady explained. The axis will also intersect with a number of new transverse axes extending to East Cairo and New Cairo.

The president made the remarks on Saturday in a meeting with a number of engineering officials to follow up on the work flow of a number of the Armed Forces Engineering Authoritys projects nationwide, especially the axes in Greater Cairo.

El-Sisi also directed the authority to improve the efficiency of the old axis linking Salah Salem street with El-Mokattam and expand it to five lanes per each direction. This will help smoothly link the hills with the various districts of Cairo and allow easy movement of people, the spokesman said.

The president also followed up on efforts to improve the efficiency of South Sinai roads, especially those extending from Nuweiba and Taba, as well as the workflow to improve the roads of Upper Egypt.

In this regard, El-Sisi directed continued work on these new and important axes extending over the River Nile with the aim of easing citizens movement and serving development projects and the new urban communities.

The meeting followed up on efforts to upgrade the area where a monorail station is being established in Youssef Abbas Street in Nasr City as well as the area of Al-Shams Club and the surrounding lands.

The president was also briefed on the efforts to utilise the empty lands located on the sides of the axes and roads for the construction of alternative housing units and reviewed the executive position of the International Motor City.

The meeting followed up on national projects being implemented nationwide, especially El-Galala City, and the efforts to develop St. Catherine International Airport as part of the comprehensive development of the city to implement the mega spiritual and tourism project entitled The Greatest Transfiguration in the Land of Peace.

Announced by the state in 2020, the Great Transfiguration project in St Catherine seeks to turn the sacred mountainous area into a spiritual shrine and a destination for mountain, medical and environmental tourism.

The first phase of the project, worth EGP four billion (around $255 million), is scheduled to be inaugurated this year, according to Housing Minister Assem El-Gazzar in December.

During the Saturday meeting, the president also reviewed the workflow at the construction projects being established in the New Adminsitrative Capital.

The meeting was attended by Amir Sayed Ahmed, the presidents advisor for urban planning, and Ehab El-Far, head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority.

Also, Ashraf Al-Arabi, head of the consulting office of the engineering authority; Abdel-Aziz El-Feki, assistant to the head of the engineering authority for road designs; and Tarek Al-Khodairy, director of the marble and granite factory, attended the meeting.

El-Sisi launched the National Road Project in 2014 with the goal of developing and extending Egypts 23,500 km road network. Egypt has constructed and/or upgraded 7,000 km of highways as part of the project.

When it was launched, Egypt ranked 118th in terms of the quality of its road infrastructure in the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report. By 2019, it had climbed to 28th place.

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Clubbing returning to pre-pandemic normal, report by owners of Wrexham venue finds

A report by the owners of a Wrexham nightclub has found the late night leisure sector in the UK is back with a bang, with the publics appetite for nights out higher than ever.

The quarterly REKOM Night Index, commissioned by leading club and bar operator, REKOM UK, shows that despite the devastating impact of Covid-19, including the closure of nightclubs for 16 months, the average consumer spend, frequency and duration of nights out remains robust.

REKOM UK, which owns Atik on Brook Street, found that of those surveyed, just under half of 18-24 year olds felt they were unfairly restricted from going out during Covid-19, with 80% saying they are keen to go out more to those venues that were shut for a long period because of the pandemic.

The return of the night out signals a return to a normal social life. Spending time with friends (65%) was revealed to be the most popular reason for going on a night out, with the next being to relieve stress (23.6%) and to enjoy shared experiences (23.1%).

More than half of those surveyed (56.4%) agreeing that going to nightclubs is an integral part of growing up whilst two fifths (40.1%) said that going clubbing plays a crucial role in developing social skills as they move into adulthood.

More than a third of consumers polled (36.7%) said that going out to nightclubs is helpful in learning to socialise as an adult in a controlled environment.

When it comes to spending on a night out, Brits spend 68.03 (March 2019: 68.68), with the night lasting 4 hours and 17 minutes on average (March 2019: 4 hours 35 minutes).

REKOM UKs chairman, Peter Marks, commented: Were so pleased to be welcoming guests back to our venues and returning to what we do best.

Its fantastic to see such positive public perception around going out, something that is fully reflected by the strong business performance we have seen over the past few months.

People have clearly missed going out. Nightclubs are an important outlet for people to enjoy themselves, and we can see this with spend, frequency and duration of a night out all bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels or better.

What stood out to me more than anything is the strong positive reaction people have expressed to the night out  whether thats enthusiasm for returning to pre-pandemic social lives for the younger generation, or the sense of nostalgia from those that might not be going as frequently as they used to.

Theres no doubt that the late-night leisure sector is back in full force and people are ready to enjoy themselves.

The REKOM Night Index surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,358 18+ year olds including 506 18-21 olds from 15th- 21st March 2022.
Rhug Estate set to become largest private provider of Rapid Electric Vehicle Charging Points in Wales

Rhug Estate is set to become largest private provider of Rapid Electric Vehicle Charging Points in Wales.

The Corwen based organisation has partnered up with InstaVolt to install eight ultra-rapid EV charging stations, capable of adding 100 miles of range in just 15 minutes.

The installation of the eight new 120kW InstaVolt chargers are in addition to the existing Dual 7kW Type 2 PodPoint chargers located at the Rhug Estate farm shop car park, which were placed five years ago.

Lord Newborough, Owner of Rhug Estate said, Scottish Power and the Welsh Government, alongside chargepoint provider, InstaVolt, have enabled us to achieve this installation in a matter of weeks and they should be up and running by the end of the Easter holidays.

During periods of solar gain, the electricity supply for the new EV charging points will come directly from the solar panels located behind Rhug Estates farm buildings. This aspect makes it a truly green project and highly sustainable.

Drivers and passengers will be able to enjoy the facilities at Rhug while their car is charging.

Rhug Estate is perfectly situated on the A5, three miles west of Corwen, where traffic from Manchester and Chester meet the main A5 road from the Midlands before it separates again leading to the Llyn peninsular and the west Wales coast. This is an ideal place to break the journey and re-charge yourselves and the car.

InstaVolt was approached by Rhug Estate to provide the ultra-rapid service which it has deployed around the UK.

Adrian Keen, CEO of InstaVolt, said, We are thrilled to be bringing reliable, rapid and accessible charging to Wales at a location of such prominence and functionality for road users.

The widespread installation of EV charge points across our nation is encouraging the consumer uptake of EVs and providing them with the confidence to make those longer journeys, knowing that they have options for charging throughout the country.

Scottish Power, the owner and operator of the electricity network in north Wales, started work in March on installing the new electricity connections at Rhug Estate which is required for the installation of the new EV charging points.

Liam OSullivan, Scottish Power Manweb Licence Director, said: Its great to see shovels in the ground in our work to enable new vehicle charging points. This additional capacity will ensure people can travel and enjoy what Wales has to offer, with access to cleaner transport.

As well as unlocking low-carbon capacity, we hope the new infrastructure will help to drive footfall and tourism to the Rhug Estate  a valuable local business that is already a champion of high sustainability standards.

Were working closely with the Welsh Government to enable electric vehicle charging as we move forward with plans across many other sites. This important project will ensure the region is at the very heart of the UKs transition to a cleaner, greener future, and that this also brings with it economic prosperity for Wales.

Scottish Powers work at Rhug Estate is being delivered in partnership with the Welsh Government, which will see new capacity for vehicle charging delivered at 25 sites across Wales.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: We want to ensure all electric vehicle users in Wales can confidently access charging when and where they need to.

Were very pleased to see this start to take shape at the Rhug Estate and welcome their foresight in developing rapid charging infrastructure to complement their business.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sent a greeting message to Pope Tawadros II  head of the Coptic Orthodox Church  ahead of Easter Sunday, saying its coincidence with the holy month of Ramadan is a call for adherence to noble religious values.

Easters coincidence with the holy Ramadan month on the land of Egypt, the cradle of monotheistic religions, is a call for adherence to the noble religious values that call for strengthening cohesion and enhancing the spirit of solidarity and harmony, state news agency MENA cited El-Sisi as saying in the message.

The president also prayed to God during these blessed days in which the fasts and prayers of the masses of Muslim and Christian Egyptians converge to bring continued goodness and development to Egypt, protect the country and citizens, and perpetuate security and prosperity in Egypt.

The president also sent similar messages greeting Egyptian Copts abroad on Easter through the countrys embassies and consulates worldwide.

Pope Tawadros II arrived Saturday night at St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral to lead the Orthodox Easter Sunday Mass, which falls this year on 24 April. A large number of attendees are attending the mass amid strict coronavirus measures.

Last week, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb congratulated Pope Tawadros II and the Christian people in Egypt in a phone call, saying bonds between Muslim and Christian people in Egypt stem from the right understanding of religion.

During the phone call, Pope Tawadros also hailed the relations binding the leaders and people of the church with the scholars of Al-Azhar, saying that these relations are a reflection of cooperation and ties between the two ancient institutions in all fields.

The celebrations of Christian religious events of the Holy Week were disrupted over the past two years due to the pandemic, as attendance of masses was limited to Church officials in order to stem the spread of the virus in the country.

The Palm Sunday marks the first day of the Holy Week that also has Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which is Easters eve  when Copts usually go to church before gathering at night to celebrate and break their 55-day fast.

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On Friday, actor Johnny Depp underwent a fourth day on the witness stand as part of his defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, in a Fairfax County, Virginia courtroom.

Depp, 58, filed his lawsuit against Heard, 35, in 2019, seeking $50 million in damages and $350,000 in compensatory damages plus court costs. The suit is focused on Heards opinion piece published in the Washington Post in December 2018 (I spoke up against sexual violenceand faced our cultures wrath. That has to change), which became a centerpiece of the #MeToo campaign, and its consequences for Depps career.

Actor Johnny Depp testifies at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool Photo via AP)

In the self-aggrandizing column, Heard, while not mentioning Depp by name, asserted that two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our cultures wrath for women who speak out.

Heard wrote: Imagine a powerful man as a ship, like the Titanic. That ship is a huge enterprise. When it strikes an iceberg, there are a lot of people on board desperate to patch up holesnot because they believe in or even care about the ship, but because their own fates depend on the enterprise.

She went on, In recent years, the #MeToo movement has taught us about how power like this works, not just in Hollywood but in all kinds of institutionsworkplaces, places of worship or simply in particular communities. In every walk of life, women are confronting these men who are buoyed by social, economic and cultural power. And these institutions are beginning to change.

Depp, however, insists that Heards claim she was a victim of domestic abuse at his hands was a pack of lies. If proven, that would represent a significant blow to the #MeToo sexual witch-hunt.

When he was asked by his own lawyer on Wednesday what he lost after Heards accusations, Depp replied, Nothing less than everything. When the allegations were made, when the allegations were rapidly circling the globe, telling people that I was a drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat woman suddenly in my 50s, its over. He added, Youre done.

On Thursday, Heards lawyer Ben Rottenborn continued the cross-examination that began the previous afternoon following completion of Depps opening testimony where he denied ever physically abusing his wife. On Monday and Tuesday, Depp repeatedly stated he never struck Heard and added, nor have I ever struck any woman in my life.

Throughout the cross-examination, Rottenborn has challenged the actors account of events involving Heard. The lawyer focused on Depps history of drug and alcohol use, which the actor did not deny. In his earlier testimony, Depp freely described his battles with substance abuse and recounted his experiences as a child with an abusive mother.

Rottenborn read aloud text messages from Depp that referenced his drug use during the time he was in a relationship with Heard. Other text messages from Depp related to violent exchanges with Heard, although none of them substantiated claims that he struck or physically abused her.

Also on Thursday, jurors heard a videotaped deposition from Heards former personal assistant, Kate James. According to Fox News, James described Heard as extremely demanding, calling her at all hours and on weekends but refusing to pay her overtime. The assistant, wrote Fox, who worked for Heard from 2012 to 2015, said the Aquaman actress was verbally abusive to her, her late mother and her sister. Her mother was terrified of her, James recalled. Her poor sister was treated like a dog that you kick.

James testified that during one confrontation over her salary, Heard allegedly went berserk. She leapt up out of her chair, put her face approximately 4 inches from my face. She was spitting in my face, telling me how dare you ask me for the salary youre asking for, recalled the ex-staffer, who was later fired.

In May 2016, Depp and Heard went through a divorce initiated by the latter, in which she was granted $7 million by a judge in the settlement. Less than a week later, the actress began publicly accusing Depp of domestic violence.

As we have explained repeatedly, in the upside-down world of #MeToo, allegations of abuse are to be accepted uncritically, regardless of evidence to the contrary or even the reality that the only facts provided are from the accuser. In this witch-hunting atmosphere, unsubstantiated and salacious descriptions of sexual abuse or physical battery have been picked up by the celebrity gossip press and hysterical middle-class types and used to throw basic democratic rights, such as those protected by the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, out the window.

This campaign, which has been cultivated by the Democratic Party, along with the New York Times and Washington Post, encourages the preoccupation with race and gender within well-off sections of the upper middle class. It has resulted in the ruination of the careers of numerous artists, actors and others. The latest victim of this reactionary sexual misconduct targeting is veteran actor Frank Langella.

Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

The career damage suffered by Depp from Heards #MeToo allegations included being fired by Disney as the character Jack Sparrow in the planned sixth installment of the popular Pirates of the Caribbean series. And, as reported on the World Socialist Web Site, MGM used Heards claims in part to block the distribution and theatrical release of the important film Minamata, about the devastating impact of mercury poisoning in Japan in the 1970s, starring Depp as the remarkable photographer Eugene Smith.

In a statement to Variety on Thursday, Depp said, Two years have passed with constant talk around the world about me being a wife-beater. So, Im sure Disney was trying to cut ties to be safe. The #MeToo movement was in full swing at the time.

At the very least, Depps testimony in the trial calls into question the veracity of Heards charge of domestic abuse. They show her accusations to be either false or wild exaggerations. It may even be the case, as Depp has maintained, that he was the victim of physical abuse by Heard.

In one specific incident, for example, Depp testified in detail about how, in 2015, while in Australia for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean, Heard grabbed a large bottle of vodka that he had been pouring drinks from and threw it at him. The bottle struck his hand on the edge of the bar, he said, and severed the tip of his middle finger. I was looking directly at my bones sticking out, he explained.

The injury made headlines, was referred to as an off-set accident and forced a lengthy delay in the production of the fifth installment of the movie series. On the stand, Depp said he lied to doctors about what happened because he didnt want to disclose it.

Meanwhile, audio recordings that Depp made of arguments with Heard indicate that she may well have punched or slapped him on multiple occasions, including one incident where she is heard apologizing for having done so.

Caught up in the #MeToo world of unsubstantiated gossip and rumor, Depp faces a difficult situation. He has never been charged, much less convicted of any crime, but he has been subjected to a partial blacklist due to his ex-wifes comments. How does he, or anyone else, defend himself in this situation?

The trial has brought the couples lives, and the celebrity culture in general, into the light of day. As Depp admitted on the stand, he has significant emotional issues. At one point during the confrontational episode in Australia, he said it was the closest he had ever come to a mental breakdown. These things, along with his history of drug and alcohol abuse, are being used by Heards defense team to undermine Depps credibility and further demonize him publicly.

Whatever his personal flaws, Johnny Depp is an immensely gifted actor. His talent and significance as an artist have been demonstrated for more than three decades in films such as Cry-Baby (John Waters, 1990), Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998), The Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski, 1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Burton, 2005), Waiting for the Barbarians (Ciro Guerra, 2019) and Minamata (Andrew Levitas, 2020).

Meanwhile, there is widespread public sympathy for him. Numerous hashtags on Twitter such as #JohnnyDeppIsInnocent and #JohnnyDeppDeservesJustice have been tweeted over the past few days. One such message said, The thing is, Heards treatment of Depp HAS been known for years. Its just that sexism, the media, MeToo movement & mainstream journalists buried it. He waited years to tell his side & to be listened to.

Cross examination resumes on Monday. Amber Heard is scheduled to take the stand later in the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.
In the last 48 hours, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns have released previously unheard audio conversations confirming that immediately after then-President Donald Trumps failed coup, Republican lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, acknowledged Trumps culpability in the attack on the Capitol and discussed efforts to remove him from office.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Ive had it with this guy, the Times reported McCarthy telling Republicans in a January 10, 2021 phone call, four days after the Capitol was besieged by Trump supporters, far-right paramilitaries and Republican operatives in an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes for Joe Biden.



What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it, McCarthy added.



Senate Minority Leader McConnell expressed his hope that the Democrats would take care of the son of a bitch for us, according to an excerpt from the upcoming Burns and Martin book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future.



McConnell, speaking to two colleagues two days after the failed coup, added: If this isnt impeachable, I dont know what is. McConnell was one of 43 Republicans who voted against convicting Trump in the February 2021 Senate impeachment trial. He did so on the spurious grounds that since Trump was no longer president, the process was illegitimate.



In a January 10, 2021 House Republican leadership call, McCarthy, speaking to the third highest ranking Republican in the House at the time, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, discussed the possibility of the 25th Amendment being invoked against Trump. In the call, McCarthy insinuated that such a move might not be necessary because Trump might resign before then.



Are you hearing that he might resign? Is there any reason to think that might happen? Cheney asked McCarthy.



My gut tells me no, replied McCarthy, and then added, Im seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight.



After discussing the upcoming impeachment votes in the House and Senate, which McCarthy believed would pass, he told Cheney that the only discussion I would have with him [Trump] is that I think this [the impeachment vote] will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign. I mean, that would be my take, but I dont think he would take it. But I dont know.



The next day, McCarthy, speaking to the Republican House conference, left no doubt that he understood Trump was the architect of the attack on the Capitol, which led to at least five deaths and hundreds of injuries. McCarthy said that in a recent conversation he had held with Trump, the president had admitted he was responsible for some of what happened.



Let me be very clear to all of you, and I have been very clear to the president: he bears responsibility for his words and actions. No if, ands or buts, McCarthy told his Republican colleagues, the vast majority of whom had voted to overturn the election results hours after the siege of January 6.



McCarthy continued, I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened, and hed need to acknowledge that.



While the audio files show that leading Republicans were initially receptive to the idea of impeaching or removing Trump immediately after the failed coup, within three weeks they had shifted. On January 26, 45 of the 50 Republican senators, including McConnell, voted to quash the Senate impeachment trial on the legally false grounds that it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office, Biden having been inaugurated on January 20.



Roughly a year later, the Republican National Committee, which is chaired by Ronna Romney McDaniel, niece of former Republican presidential candidate and current Utah Senator Mitt Romney, not only endorsed Trumps failed coup as legitimate political discourse, it voted to censure Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

In the more than 15 months following the attack, Trump has never publicly acknowledged his role in the assault on Congress. Far from Biden and the Democrats holding him and his co-conspirators accountable, the aspiring dictator is laying the groundwork for his next coup attempt.



In campaign-style fascist rallies around the country, Republican lawmakers, attorneys general, governors and aspiring state and federal candidates have pledged their fealty to Trump. They have repeated his lies that the election was stolen and that Biden is an illegitimate usurper, and made clear that, if elected, they would, unlike Vice President Mike Pence, show strength and do their part to ensure Trumps victory in 2024, regardless of vote totals.



Trump and his Republican co-conspirators in Congress, such as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz and Arizonas Paul Gosar, none of whom have been charged for their role in the attack, have defended the QAnon, Oath Keeper and Proud Boy militia elements who sought to kidnap and possibly kill lawmakers on January 6 as patriots seeking to uphold election integrity.



The corporate press has presented the McCarthy and McConnell revelations as just another example of Republican hypocrisy. This superficial and selective analysis ignores the political responsibility of the Democratic Party in covering up the scope of the coup conspiracy and, in particular, the role of the Republican Party.



Before examining the roughly month-long period between the failed coup and the conclusion of the second impeachment trial, it is important to note that McCarthy and McConnell, along with then-Attorney General William Barr, provided political legitimacy to Trumps plotting in the months prior to the election.

They echoed Trumps bogus claims that mail-in ballots were inherently fraudulent. As the election drew closer, Trump, as he had in 2016, asserted that the only way he could lose was if the election were rigged. Among other things, he demanded that mail-in ballots not be counted after election day.



Following the election and Trumps clear defeat, McConnell defended Trumps refusal to accept the result and his flood of meritless lawsuits, all of which were rejected by the courts, thereby providing Trump with a cover to prepare his far-right supporters in Congress and his fascistic paramilitary backers for direct and violent action, should his pseudo-legal efforts to overturn the election fail.

Speaking on the Senate floor following Bidens victory in November 2020, McConnell said Trump was 100 percent within his rights to pursue any number of bogus recounts and litigation claims.

With the coup having failednot because of any serious opposition from the Democratsand the Republican Party in disarray, Biden played the key role in assuring the plotters that they would face no consequences from the Democratic Party.

On January 8, Biden declared, We need a Republican Party. We need an opposition thats principled and strong.



In his January 20 inauguration address, Biden repeated the theme of unity while refusing to name Trump or the political and social forces behind his coup.

At Trumps Senate impeachment trial in early February, Biden, seeking to cement ruling class unity with his Republican colleagues, intervened on behalf of Trump through his intermediary, Delaware Senator Chris Coons.



Biden, through Coons, urged the Democratic House impeachment managers to forgo calling witnesses. At the time, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (Republican, Washington state) had released a statement confirming that McCarthy spoke with Trump during the attack on the Capitol and that Trump expressed sympathy for the insurrectionists, telling McCarthy they cared more about the election than McCarthy did.



The Democrats cowardice, rooted in their fear that a full accounting of the fascistic threat from Trump and the Republican Party would trigger a mass response from the working class, has played the key role in strengthening Trump and facilitating the drive to dictatorship by the ruling class.

Just this past Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again urged Republicans to Take back your party, adding, The country needs a strong Republican Party.

Speaking at an event Thursday, Maryland Representative and Democratic member of the January 6 House Select Committee Jamie Raskin said the committee planned to hold public hearings on its findings to date in June and not release a report until the end of summer or early fall.



Since the committee was formed last year, it has held one public hearing and repeatedly delayed any further hearings. It has refused to subpoena any Republican lawmakers involved in the coup. Since a federal judge ruled last month that it was more likely than not that Trump attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress held to certify the election result, which is a felony, the committee has flip-flopped on sending a criminal referral to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

As of this writing, no hearings or business meetings are listed on the committees website.
On Thursday, the US Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of Puerto Ricos 3.2 million residents from the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) safety net program, which provides a monthly cash lifeline to children and people over 65 who are blind or disabled and have very low income.

In this Oct. 18, 2021 photo, the Supreme Court is seen in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

All but one of the courts nine justices supported the opinion authored by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees and part of the hard-right, five-justice majority. Two of the three Democratic-appointed justicesElena Kagan and Stephen Breyersigned onto the ruling. The only dissent came from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in the Caribbean colony seized by the United States in the 1898 Spanish American War.

The ruling is a vicious assertion of the prerogatives of US imperialism in the service of Wall Street banks and hedge fund speculators who hold tens of billions in Puerto Rican government debt. It reflects the American ruling class contempt for the impoverished population, whose workers and youth rose up in mass protests three years ago that toppled the Democratic Party-aligned governor.

The Biden administration supported the opinion. Its Justice Department joined the appeal originally lodged by the Trump administration of lower court rulings overturning the exclusion of SSI benefits for residents of the island. Under a 1952 law passed following the brutal suppression of a nationalist revolt, Washington granted residents of the colonial territory citizenship, but without voting representation in Congress or the right to vote in presidential elections.

The 1972 law that established the SSI program limited eligibility to US citizens in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands, while excluding citizens residing in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam.

The case, United States v. Vaello Madero, was brought by Jose Luis Vaello-Madero, who was born in Puerto Rico but lived in New York from 1985 to 2013. In 2012, he suffered a stroke and was found eligible for SSI disability benefits, which were deposited directly into his checking account.

In 2013 he moved back to Puerto Rico and continued to receive the monthly payments. When the Social Security Administration became aware that Vaello-Madero was no longer residing in one of the 50 US states, it cut off his benefits and ordered him to pay back $28,081.

Vaello-Madero sued, arguing that the exclusions violated the US Constitutions Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal treatment. In the spring of 2020, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, based in Boston, unanimously ruled for Vaello-Madero, declaring the that 1972 laws exclusion of US citizens who reside in territories violated the Fifth Amendment and did not pass muster as serving a rational purpose.

In his ruling, Kavanaugh argued that Congress had substantial discretion about how to structure federal tax and benefit programs for the territories. He noted that residents of Puerto Rico are exempt from the federal income tax, though they do pay other federal taxes such as Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes. He implied that denying SSI benefits to indigent, blind or disabled seniors on the island was a fair tradeoff for not paying income taxes.

Puerto Rico has its own separate aid program for the same categories of people, but its pitiful average monthly payment of $75 is far less than the already inadequate average SSI payment on the US mainland of $590.

Bidens deputy solicitor general, Curtis Gannon, offered essentially the same argument as Kavanaugh in his oral argument before the court, saying, Its always appropriate for Congress to take account of the general balance of benefits and burdens associated with a particular federal program.

The Biden administration, in a transparent attempt to provide political cover for itself, has called on Congress to amend the 1972 law so as to include Puerto Rico and the other territories. It knows full well, of course, that no such provision will be passed.

In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote: In my view, there is no rational basis for Congress to treat needy citizens living anywhere in the United States so differently from others. To hold otherwise, as the Court does, is irrational and antithetical to the very nature of the SSI program and the equal protection of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution.

She noted that the US Government Accountability Office estimates that over 300,000 Puerto Rico residents would have qualified for the SSI benefita staggering 10 percent of the islands population. She also pointed out that those receiving SSI benefits in the 50 states pay few if any taxes at all.

Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said the ruling was a big deal both for what it holds and for what it opens the door to.

The core holding, he noted, is that Congress is allowed to withhold certain federal benefits from Americans who live in territories like Puerto Rico so long as it has any rational basis for doing so, and that no special justification is required. That makes it far easier for Congress, a body in which the territories are not represented, to treat residents of those territories differently with those who live in the statesnot just for Supplemental Security Income, but for all federal benefit programs, like Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements funded at least in part by taxes paid by those living in those territories.

The legacy of 124 years of colonial-style plundering of Puerto Rico by US imperialism is mass poverty, indebtedness, high unemployment and a shrinking and increasingly elderly population. According to US government figures, median household income on the island is $21,058, per capita income is $13,318, and the share of the population that lives in poverty is 43.4 percent.

Fifty-seven percent of children are in poverty and one third of adults report food insecurity.

In September of 2017, Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, which destroyed its already crumbling social infrastructure, including the electrical grid. Virtually the entire island was without electrical power for weeks on end, crops were destroyed, clean water and food were in short supply, untold hundreds of people who depended on oxygen tanks or dialysis died. Damage was estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump called his administrations response to the catastrophe amazing and boasted that only 19 people had diedan obvious cover-up and lie. More realistic estimates put the death toll at more than 5,000.

The mayor of the capital, San Juan, called the impact of the storm, compounded by decades of debt payments to the banks and austerity policies, something close to a genocide.

One week after the hurricane struck, Trump took his first public notice of the disaster. He noted that much of the island was destroyed, but immediately added that the billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks had to be repaid.

And indeed, even as much of the territorys infrastructure continued to rot in disrepairwith only a trickle of federal aid coming from Washingtonthe Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR) established in 2016 under Obama developed its plan to place the full burden of debt repayment to the banks on the working class.

The mass protests that brought down Governor Ricardo Rosello in 2019 filled the ruling class with alarm, above all that the social unrest would spread to the mainland. Teachers had already struck in opposition to both the politicians and the unions in the US, part of a global wave of working class strikes and protests. But lacking a revolutionary and internationalist perspective and leadership, the revolt succeeded only in replacing one stooge of Wall Street and the Puerto Rican bourgeoisie with another.

Now the stage is set for new struggles, with social anger intensified by the pandemic and the let it rip response of the ruling elite.

In January of this year, a federal judge imposed the Puerto Rican debt restructuring plan proposed by the Financial Oversight Board over protests led by teachers, government employees, students and retirees. The plan guts workers retirement plans, replacing defined benefit pensions with 401K plans. The bankers dictatorship, in the form of the Financial Oversight Board, is to remain in control until four years have passed with the government budget in balance, i.e., indefinitely.
Next Wednesday, the main hearing against the right-wing radical professor Jorg Baberowski for causing bodily harm and damage to property will take place at the Tiergarten District Court in Berlin. On January 30, 2020, the professor had destroyed large amounts of student election campaign material at Humboldt University, physically assaulted Sven Wurm, an IYSSE member of the student parliament, knocking a mobile phone out of his hand and threatening him, saying, 'Do you want me to punch you in the face?'

Right-wing extremist professor Jorg Baberowski assaults left-wing student at Humboldt University

After Wurm filed a criminal complaint against the professor, the public prosecutor's office issued criminal charges in June last year for causing bodily harm and damage to property, because the facts were absolutely clear thanks to a video of the violent act. The accused then hired two lawyersincluding Joachim Steinhofel, who has defended those in the right-wing sceneand filed an appeal against the charges. The main public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, April 27, at 9:15 a.m. at the Tiergarten District Court in Room 862.

The trial has great political significance, Wurm told the WSWS. It is about whether students are allowed to objectively criticise their professors without facing massive threats and being physically attacked. As the university group of the IYSSE at Humboldt University in Berlin, we have criticised the trivialisation of Nazi crimes and Baberowskis radical right-wing positions. This is not only our right, but our duty as students of our university, said Wurm. Moreover, there was a clear encroachment on the autonomy of the constituent student body, because it involved obstructing our work for the Student Parliament (StuPa) elections.

Baberowski has long been known to threaten and intimidate dissenters. In 2019, the two student representatives to the university senate, Bafta Sarbo and Juliane Ziegler, had filed criminal charges against Baberowski because he had publicly defamed them as incredibly stupid and as radical left-wing fanatics for objectively criticising his planned Centre for Comparative Dictatorship Research.

Baberowski has also taken similarly aggressive action against his colleagues. When professors at Humboldt University sent a letter to the head of Lit-Verlag against Baberowskis signing of the xenophobic Declaration 2018, he insulted them as denunciators who were running a smear campaign. He tried to liken their behaviour to the Nazis boycott of Jews, saying he felt reminded of dark times and writing: Don't buy from the outcast! Finally, he threatened them by saying, 'The humiliated and excluded will remember who pilloried them.'

Several times previously, Baberowski had publicly slandered Wurm and the IYSSE university group to which he belongs as psychopaths, denunciators, fascists, criminals, lunatics and perpetrators of violence.

With the physical attack on Wurm, Baberowski followed up these slurs and threats with action. The video evidence shows the professor tearing down numerous election posters of the IYSSE university group from a board for student notices and destroying them. When he notices that Sven Wurm is filming this act of vandalism, he becomes physical and hits him. He hits his hand, thus knocking the mobile phone to the ground. He then exclaims, Do you want me to hit you in the face?

In this way, Baberowski tried to intimidate Wurm and the other members of the IYSSE, who have been represented in the student parliament for many years, and to prevent them from carrying out their political work. It is therefore also a serious encroachment on the autonomy of the constituent student body, which has been condemned in the strongest possible terms not only by the Humboldt University student parliament but also by numerous other student councils in Germany and Austria.

What is particularly concerning is that Baberowski teaches at the history department where Wurm is currently completing his Masters degree. So, the victim of the attack could therefore meet the violent professor again in an exam upon which his future path in life depends.

With his violent act, Baberowski is trying to suppress any criticism of his radical right-wing positions. He had already failed twice before in court in this regard. On June 1, 2017, the Higher Administrative Court of Cologne declared that Baberowski could legitimately be described as racist, radical right-wing and glorifying violence in view of his past statements, whereupon the professor withdrew his lawsuit against the Student Council of the University of Bremen.

The court based its decision on statements by Baberowksi that had previously been quoted by the Bremen Student Council. For example, regarding arson attacks on asylum shelters, Baberowski had stated: I think, in view of the problems we have in Germany with immigration, which is taking place right now, what we have is still rather harmless.

Referring to the war on terror, Baberowski had stated that it could only be won by means of terror. If you are not prepared to take hostages, burn villages and hang people and spread fear and terror, as the terrorists do, if you are not prepared to do that, you will not win such a confrontation. Then you should leave it alone.

In November 2017, Baberowski then tried to sue the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, Germany; SGP), of which the IYSSE is its youth organisation, for quoting a student who had accused Baberowski of falsifying history. The Hamburg Regional Court dismissed this case as well because it saw sufficient contributing factors for this designation in Baberowskis statements on Hitler alone.

In particular, the court cited a quote by Baberowski comparing Hitler to Stalin. Hitler was not a psychopath, he was not cruel. He didnt want people talking about the extermination of the Jews at his table. Stalin, on the other hand, added to and signed off on the death lists with gusto, he was vicious, he was a psychopath, Baberowski had declared in newsweekly Der Spiegel in 2014.

Similar trivialisations of the Nazis and their crimes run through Baberowskis entire work. In a 2007 text, for example, he declared that the Red Army was responsible for the atrocities of the Nazis war of extermination. Stalin and his generals imposed a new type of war on the Wehrmacht [Hitlers army] that no longer spared the civilian population, Baberowski wrote at the time.

This combination of downplaying Nazi crimes, agitating against refugees and drumming up support for brutal wars made Baberowski a central figure of the New Right. In 2015, the professor founded the Salon Baberowski (Die Zeit), where at least every six months, everyone that has standing and a name in the scene meets.

Now, Baberowski no longer acts only as a right-wing ideologue and Nazi apologist but directly as a right-wing extremist activist and perpetrator of violence. He wants to suppress and throw off campus anyone who criticises his radical right-wing agenda. That is why the trial against him is of great importance.
Pope Tawadros II, the pope of Alexandria and the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, led the Easter Sunday mass on Holy Saturday in St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya district in Cairo.

The pope entered the great hall of the cathedral, leading a procession that included a number of senior bishops, priests and deacons.

For the first time in two years, a huge number of Christians have been allowed to attend the mass amid strict coronavirus measures, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

Also, a large number of well-wishers, including senior statesmen, ministers, officials and public figures participated in the mass and others have sent cables to Pope Tawadros II.

Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Ahmed Morsy attended the mass on behalf of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine El-Qabbaj also attended.

Previously, Pope Tawadros II also led Good Friday mass at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district, attended by hundreds of worshipers and a host of bishops and priests.

The prayers began in the early hours of Friday morning and ended with the approach of sunset, and included six prayers from the first to twelve hours of Good Friday.

The celebrations of Christian religious events of the Holy Week were disrupted over the past two years due to the pandemic, as attendance of masses was limited to church officials in order to stem the spread of the virus in the country.

The Palm Sunday marks the first day of the Holy Week that also has Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which is Easters eve  when Copts usually go to church before gathering at night to celebrate and break their 55-day fast.

El-Sisi sent an Easter greeting message to Pope Tawadros II, saying that its coincidence with the holy month of Ramadan is a call for adherence to noble religious values, state news agency MENA reported on Saturday.

Easters coincidence with the holy Ramadan month on the land of Egypt, the cradle of monotheistic religions, is a call for adherence to the noble religious values that call for strengthening cohesion and linkage and enhancing the spirit of solidarity and harmony, El-Sisi stated.

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Egypt strongly condemned three terrorist bombings in Afghanistans capital Kabul, which took the lives of several innocent people and injured dozens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

Egypt extended its sincere condolences to Afghanistan, and the families of the victims of those brutal terrorist operations, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that Egypt reiterates the importance of concerted efforts to combat terrorism, violence and extremism in all its forms and manifestations.

The recent terrorist attack targetted educational facilities in Kabul, as well as a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif and another in Kunduz on Thursday, killing and wounding dozens of innocent people.

The latest attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Since Taliban fighters seized control of Afghanistan last year after ousting the US-backed government, the number of bombings has fallen but the IS group has continued attacks, often against Shia targets.

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Jennifer Morgan  Germanys state secretary and special envoy for international climate action  asserted in an interview with Ahram Online her government's keeness on collaboration with Egypt to ensure the success of the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in Novemeber.

Speaking to Ahram Online during her visit to Cairo last week  where she met with Egypts Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry  Morgan also stressed that the current Russian aggression in Ukraine reinforced the need in Germany and the EU to accelerate transition to renewable energy and phase out Russian fossil fuels.

Ahram Online (AO): Would you please brief us about the purpose of your visit?

Jennifer Morgan (JM): As you may know, the new German government considers climate action a high priority issue, and so we want to work in collaboration with Egypt to ensure the COP27s success.

Thats why I was keen to reach out proactively to the Egyptian government. I had meetings with Egyptian ministers to understand what they are trying to achieve and to discuss how we can help and work in partnership. I also met a range of very impressive climate activists from civil society organisations, academic institutions, and NGOs. There is a very rich culture here in Egypt regarding climate issues that will help the country as it moves towards the COP.

AO: What are the fields of coordination and collaboration between the German and Egyptian governments in this regard?

JM: Germany has been working in Egypt for 40 years, so there is a depth to our collaboration. Key focuses right now are working on scaling up renewable energy, urban development, income generation for small scale farmers, and youth employment.

As the latest IPCC WG3 report found, addressing the climate crisis goes hand in hand with increasing the well-being of people and is economically beneficial. That is the core of our work  improving the lives of people while keeping the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal within sight.

AO: With the ongoing war and energy crisis, what impact will they have on the COP27?

JM: I think crises reinforced the need to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and an efficient economy. That is certainly the big focus of Germany and the EU  to phase out Russian fossil fuels. And as we know from the science about climate change, we need to phase out all fossil fuels in the near future.

That is the spirit and the determination that we are bringing to the next G7 and the COP27. We also have to see the Paris Climate Accords as the vehicle for multilateral cooperation to solve this massive crisis that we have. We need to roll up our sleeves and work on implementation and building trust.

AO: Recently NOAA recorded an increase in methane and CO2 in 2021, how could governments empower net-zero initiatives?

JM: It is clear that emissions are going dramatically in the wrong direction. Governments must both implement policies to meet the targets they have set and increase their ambitions at the same time. With clear, long, loud, legal policies, the private sector can plan and invest in a zero-carbon economy.

AO: How can we build on the progress made in the COP26 in Glasgow in the COP27?

JM: Countries now have to deliver on what we committed to in the Glasgow Climate Pact. This means increasing our ambition further to close the gap and keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal alive.

It also means making major progress in the areas of adaptation, loss, and damage. These topics need to be discussed substantively, linking with the realities of climate impacts on the ground.

AO: Loss and damage were some of the issues that were postponed to the Sharm El-Sheikh Conference. Do you think there will be any progress in those topics?

JM: We need to discuss them; they cannot be postponed again. The world is beginning to feel the impact of climate change.

There is a need to make progress in this COP in terms of concrete initiatives and international cooperation. Developed countries have committed to doubling climate financing for adaptation from 2019 levels by 2025. We now have to deliver that and do it in a transparent way.

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Egypt recorded a daily average of 89 coronavirus infections and six deaths over the past week, as new cases continue their steep downward trajectory since the end of the fifth wave of the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health and Populations fourth weekly update on the coronavirus pandemic nationwide.

The drop in cases and deaths this week come on the heel of a daily average of 400 cases in the previous week - a number that was significantly lower than 559 a week aprior.

A daily average of 100 people were discharged from hospitals nationwide over the past seven days, bringing the total number of recoveries since the outbreak began in February 2020 reached 444,703.

More than 44.7 million people have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while more than 34 million have been fully vaccinated since the start of the country's mass vaccination campaign last year. Additionally, more than 2.4 million have received their booster shoot.

The ministry continued to urge residents in its weekly update to register on its website to receive the vaccine.

The ministry also continues to receive inquiries regarding the coronavirus via the 105 and 15335 hotlines as well as over WhatsApp on +20 155-310-5105.

Those who think they may have contracted the disease can also download the Android or iPhone versions of the Sehat Misr app for guidance regarding which hospitals to head to.

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Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Sea of Saint Mark, led Good Friday mass at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district, attended by hundreds of worshipers and a host of bishops and priests.

The prayers began in the early hours of Friday morning and ended with the approach of sunset, and included six prayers, which are the daily prayers, from the first to twelve hours of "Good Friday."

Pope Tawadros II pointed out that on this special occasion we celebrate the memory of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ as if we were at the time of the cross.

He explained the events of this day in the life of Christ and the journey of suffering in the life of mankind.

Good Friday, is one of the most important ecclesiastical occasions in the Coptic Orthodox Church.





Christians marked Good Friday in churches around the country only days after Palm Sunday.

The Palm Sunday marks the first day of the Holy Week that also has Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which is Easters eve  when Copts usually go to church before gathering at night to celebrate and break their 55-day fast.

The celebrations of Christian religious holy events were disrupted over the past two years due to the pandemic, as attendance of masses was limited to Church officials in order to stem the spread of the virus in the country.









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Al-Azhar condemned the heinous terrorist attack on a mosque in Mazar e Sharif in the Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, which left scores of people dead and injured.

In a statement released on Friday evening, Al-Azhar, the worlds leading Sunni Muslim institution, expressed its sincere condolences to the victims' families and the Afghan people, wishing a speedy recovery for the wounded.

The bombing at the mosque and religious school in northern Afghanistan killed at least 33 people and left dozens injured, including students of a religious school.

Earlier on Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned terrorist attacks by Afghanistan's Islamic State (IS) affiliate on a Shia mosque a day before, which killed 12 and injured dozens.

The IS has carried out a number of deadly attacks on Shia mosques and other civilian targets across Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power last year.

Egypt has repeatedly condemned all terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, reiterating the importance of concerted efforts to combat terrorism, violence and extremism in all its forms and manifestations.

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NEW YORK  The co-founder of the "We Build The Wall" project aimed at raising money for a border wall pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in a case that once included former President Donald Trump's adviser Steve Bannon.

Brian Kolfage admitted to pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars while promising all donations would pay for the wall. His plea came a month before a trial in a case that began in dramatic fashion in August 2020, when Bannon was pulled from a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut and arrested on allegations that he and three others ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall.

The private group build a $6 million section of wall close to the border by Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico, near El Paso.

"We Build the Wall" founder Brian Kolfage, who has pleaded guilty to federal fundraising fraud charges, speaks in 2019 during the "Symposium at the Wall" in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

More: Frozen bank accounts leave group's El Paso-area border wall with no lights, big tax bill

Bannon was pardoned by Trump just before he left office last year. Bannon had pleaded not guilty to charges he pocketed over $1 million, using some of the money to secretly pay Kolfage, a 39-year-old Air Force veteran who lost both legs in a mortar attack in Iraq.

A guilty plea Thursday by codefendant financier Andrew Badolato, 57, in the case during the same remotely conducted electronic hearing before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan meant that only one of the four defendants originally charged might go to trial in mid-May.

More: Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon among 4 indicted in alleged We Build the Wall fraud scheme

Plea agreements between the government and Kolfage and Badolato specified the defendants will not challenge sentences within an agreed-to guidelines range. For Kolfage, that range was four to five years. For Badolato, it was roughly 3 1/2 years to four years. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 6.

Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and tax charges brought originally in Florida. Badolato, of Sarasota, Florida, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. Without the plea deal, Kolfage could have faced up to 46 years in prison while Badolato faced a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

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The organizers of the "We Build The Wall" group raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors as they repeatedly pledged that every dollar would be used for the project.

Asked to describe his crimes by the judge, Kolfage said the group had originally intended for all the raised money to be used to build a wall, but it "soon became apparent" that the plan to donate the money to the U.S. government for the wall's construction was not possible.

More: Anger and death threats: How the GoFundMe border wall affected a small New Mexico town

At that point, he said, they "induced donors to opt in to the new project" to build a border wall on private land by falsely representing that none of the donations would be spent on salaries or compensation to the fundraisers.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong and a crime," he said.

After he spoke, Torres asked questions, including whether he had promised the public that "100 percent" of the money would go toward building the wall.

"That is correct," he answered.

"Despite your promise, you made an agreement with others to keep a large sum of money for yourself," the judge said.

"That is correct," Kolfage answered.

The border wall constructed by the "We Build the Wall" group is illuminated by lights on June 11, 2019, in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Electricity was since been disconnected to the site due to nonpayment of utility bills.

Badolato said he engaged in the conspiracy from 2018 to 2020, agreeing to assure donors that all the money would go toward building the wall when he knew the statements were false.

"I knew this was wrong and I'm terribly, terribly sorry for what I did and I humbly beg the court for mercy," he said.

When the judge asked Badolato if he was aware that Kolfage was going to get money from donations, he said: "Yes I did and I helped facilitate it."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said evidence against the men at trial would have included testimony from donors, along with transaction records following donations into the defendants' bank accounts, emails and text records, along with public statements made by the coconspirators that were false.

More: Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the We Build the Wall symposium in Sunland Park, New Mexico

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'We Build The Wall' co-founder Brian Kolfage pleads guilty to fraud
The entrance of a BNP Paribas bank in Paris pictured on April 14, 2012. Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images

Omar Alami was fired from BNP Paribas for alleged treatment of colleagues that included "emotional terrorism."

He denies the charges and says he was never "insulting or aggressive."

Alami is now suing the French bank for $4 million for wrongful dismissal.

A BNP Paribas manager who was fired after being accused of "emotional terrorism" by other employees is suing the French bank for $4 million for unfairly dismissing him, reports say.

Omar Alami was sacked in 2019 after he was accused of calling a trader "useless" and "incompetent" in front of colleagues over a potential $872,000 mistake, Bloomberg reported. The error that caused Alami's alleged outburst turned out to be a false alarm, BNP lawyer Aurelie Fournier told a tribunal, in Paris.

In an internal report, other employees accused Alami of "emotional terrorism" and behavior that left them with "a feeling of waterboarding," Fournier said at a hearing at the Paris employment tribunal last week, per Bloomberg.

He was then fired from his position as head of BNP's equity derivatives sales for Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, where he was earning $1.3 million a year, according to the outlet.

Alami admitted to the tribunal that his response to the trader "was lively," according to Bloomberg, but claimed: "I was never humiliating, I was never insulting or aggressive."

He added that the complaints about him in the internal report were anonymous and difficult for him to counter.

BNP lawyer Fournier said at the hearing that the bank had noticed issues about Alami's communication style and had paid for coaching lessons for him, Bloomberg reported.

However, she said that the bank had not realized the extent of the issue until people complained.

"It's quite rare for people on trading floors to speak up," Fournier said at the Paris employment tribunal, according to Bloomberg.

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She added that the trader who first alleged that Alami verbally attacked him had to be put on sick leave for two weeks after the incident and came into the office in tears.

Although Alami, who lives in Paris, found another job within a year of his dismissal, he said he earns 60% less and spends 60% less time with his family as the job is in Switzerland rather than France, per Bloomberg.

A BNP Paribas spokesman told The Telegraph that the bank "does not tolerate behavior contrary to the respect and dignity of the individual, at all levels of the organization."

A ruling in the case is expected on May 17.

Read the original article on Business Insider
It was two years before quill was even put to parchment for the Declaration of Independence when a militia known as the Kentish Guards was formed to protect East Greenwich from the Tories. It was 1774, and Guards' goal was to draw a Colonial line in the harbor and strongly urge the British to take a long swim across the Atlantic back to the crown.

Now, nearly 250 years later, the Kentish Guards remains an active militia unit under its charter with Rhode Island, having taken part in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Dorr Rebellion, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

"We've never been disbanded. We still hold the charter signed by Colonists," said Theo Aschman, the Kentish Guards' commandant, who holds the rank of colonel. "We are committed to the history to what people did to preserve our liberty."

Col. Theo Aschman, the Kentish Guards' commandant, with Line Capt. Lori Grenier, one of five women now serving with the historical militia in East Greenwich.

What's best about RI? Providence Journal's editor answers a Virginia student's letter

Now, instead of facing off against the redcoats, the Kentish Guards take part in ceremonial and historical duties, including as participants at every gubernatorial inauguration. Still, they train, they drill, maintain their armory in East Greenwich, conduct target practice with muskets, fly their colors at public celebrations  all the things that soldiers might do, except take part in combat.

"We won't be sent to Afghanistan," Aschman joked, pointing out that the Kentish Guards unit is technically part of the Rhode Island National Guard, and quickly adding, "I'm not even sure they know that."

A new chapter in their history book

But over the last two years there literally has been a changing of the guard.

One, the Kentish Guards now call themselves a historical militia because the word "militia" has taken on a political connotation that does not portray the unit's mission.

"We are non-political and apolitical," Aschman said, adding that the violence on Jan. 6 in Washington has usurped the historical definition of a militia summoned to protect patriots unwilling to bend to British rule.

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Ready to roll: Providence Journal editor pedals into the debate over e-bikes on streets, paths

Secondly, the Guards unit now has more women than at any other time in its history. Prior to 2018, there were none. Now there are five.

Lori Grenier, who holds the position of captain and is among the Guards highest-ranking women, approached the Kentish Guards two years ago. She first thought about joining the Fife and Drum Corps.

Grenier said her gun skills helped her earn her stripes with the Kentish Guards. "Women back then had to learn how to shoot to deal with predatory animals, she said, and predatory men.

But, as Grenier admitted, handling a musical instrument wasnt her most stellar audition. But," she was asked, "how are you with a gun?

Turns out, pretty good. Her former husband was a hunter and taught her the basics.

Id hang out duck hunting. I liked the idea of the patience it took and the pioneer spirit of it all. Women back then had to learn how to shoot to deal with predatory animals, she added with a laugh, and predatory men.

But I dont want to kill animals for food," she said. "I can go to Stop & Shop.

She took lessons on handling a musket and how to make ammunition. She learned how to fire a musket and eventually was promoted to captain.

Opinion/Ng: A New York murder in the news hits close to home and heart

The ripple effect of admitting women

Grenier's entry into the Guards was at the time, pun intended, revolutionary.

"Those early days weren't easy," she said, describing it as a bit "cantankerous."

Aschman said the original bylaws, written centuries ago, needed to be updated. Still, some older members of the Guards held on to the notion that the unit was supposed to be an all-male unit as a nod to history, and did not mean it as a challenge to women's rights.

"The original charter had the word 'men' in it. It was not anticipated that one day we would include women," Aschman said. "We changed the bylaws to admit men and women."

Guarding history: Westerly Armory has been reinvented as 'the People's Museum'

Aschman and Grenier at the Guards' armory in East Greenwich. The unit predates the Declaration of Independence.

Now, Grenier helps with recruiting more women into the ranks. Women currently serving with the Kentish Guards include a surgeon (who is a physician in real life), fifers and a clerk.

For Grenier, the ripple effect of women joining the ranks of the Kentish Guards can be seen on the streets of Rhode Island when she marches in full regalia and a young girl yells, "Mommy, look, its a girl. Its a girl," and Grenier realizes that the combined definition of women, soldier and history is being rewritten.

Fighting words for the Guards

If you come across a member of the Kentish Guards, unless you want to encounter a cold stare or the business end of a musket, avoid two words: costumes and reenactors.

"Don't call them costumes," Grenier pointedly told an interviewer. "They are uniforms." She explained that they are authentic replicas of the original Kentish Guards uniforms and are made from 100% wool. They are custom-made and, for the women, specially tailored.

"When they got their uniforms, they had to wear it year round, summer, winter, for as long as the war lasts or as long you lived," she added.

Also, Aschman explained that a reenactor is a civilian who takes part in restaging history, while the Kentish Guards, who take an oath as soldiers and are not actors, are history.

David Ng is executive editor of The Providence Journal. Email him at dng@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI's Kentish Guards militia: Women bring revolutionary change to group
The Tottenham boss signed the Denmark international for Inter Milan in 2020 (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte is looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Christian Eriksen at the weekend.

Conte signed the Denmark international from Spurs when he was in charge at Inter Milan in January 2020 and the pair won the Serie A title together the following season.

Eriksen is now at Brentford and enjoying a remarkable comeback from the cardiac arrest he suffered playing for his country in Euro 2020.

The 30-year-old comes up against his former club for the first time on Saturday as Spurs visit the Bees.

Conte, who admitted to meeting with Eriksen when the Dane returned to London in January, said: Im very happy to see him play football again.

In June it was terrible, those images were terrible for everybody. We suffered a lot for him and his family. To see him for a game will be a pleasure for me. Its incredible because not long ago what happened.

To see him playing again makes me very happy because I know football is life. To have this opportunity is great for him and his family because now they come back to have a normal life.

In June it was terrible, those images were terrible for everybody. We suffered a lot for him and his family

Antonio Conte

Spurs will visit west London needing to win after Arsenals impressive victory against Chelsea in midweek saw them move level on points.

The Gunners play again before Spurs at the weekend as the pressure cranks up in the final six games.

Conte said. Six games to go. We have to stay in this race. Now for sure, in this race I want to try to stay until the end. We know very well the difficulty to compete with other teams.

I dont think Chelsea is in this race. They are in this moment on a different level. They are there because they missed some games but they dont stay in this race.

We have to fight with Arsenal, they showed yesterday they are in good form, Man Utd, West Ham and Wolverhampton.

Now we have to fight until the end. The last second of the last game, we will see which will be our place in the table.

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Spurs handed Oliver Skipp a new contract on Wednesday and Conte says the youngster will be a big player for the future.

He has not featured for Spurs since January after an ongoing injury but the Italian is still thinking big things of his midfielder.

Im very happy for Skippy because we are talking about a good player, a young player from the academy, Conte said. We know very well a player who has developed. Hes not only a good player, we are talking about a fantastic guy.

Hes having a bit of problem with his injury. I know his frustration. I think his new contract shows we trust him a lot. Hell be very important for the present and future of Tottenham.
Pastor Dan Allan and Josh Wilson pose outside of Grace Church in Ashland on Thursday, April 14, 2022. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM

ASHLAND  The Rev. Dan Allan has exited center stage at Grace Church in Ashland after 32 years as its senior pastor, but he will remain in a supportive ministry role at the church alongside the newly installed pastor, Josh Wilson.

Allan hasn't retired, he said.

"I still feel like God has called me to do some things," he said. "I haven't gotten off the bus." Rather, "I have changed seats on the bus," he added.

More: Stone Lutheran Church supports completion of a new church building in Cuba

It's not the usual way a senior pastor steps out of the head leadership role, Allan acknowledged, but as he continues to minister and seeks "to make a smooth transition," he will "gradually exit the side door."

Throughout his ministry at Grace Church, which began as a youth pastor in 1984 and moved to senior pastor in 1990, his purpose has remained the same.

"I've never gotten over the fact that Jesus Christ saved me," he said, making his "joy, hope, meaning and purpose" for others to know it as well.

Called to be "a faithful shepherd," Allan said, his ministry is "about people finding life in Christ."

Led the congregation through a $1 million project called Grace Expansion

Revitalizing and expanding the physical structure itself to facilitate the programs and ministries of the church have been among Allan's priorities.

"Two years after Pastor Dans call as senior pastor he led the congregation through a $1 million project called Grace Expansion," said John Rowe, director of finances and facilities for Grace Church and Ashland Christian School, which encompassed a high school-sized gymnasium, locker rooms, a full commercial kitchen, nine classrooms and additional parking.

Remodeling Main Street in 1999 included replacing pews and upgrading entrances to the church.

A $3.5 million Stewardship of Life campaign focusing on "Time, Talent and Treasure" encouraged congregants "to spend an hour alone with God and be challenged by God in these areas," Rowe said.

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This endeavor expanded facilities at Grace with the addition of early childhood classrooms for nursery through fifth grade, a fellowship foyer called the Circle and an Ashland Christian School entrance upgrade.

Most recently, Refresh 21 and Refresh 22 are projects upgrading and updating the Worship Center and adjacent areas.

"Currently, by God's grace and the leadership of Dan Allan, the church is debt-free," Rowe said.

'Last two years have been the most difficult years to pastor a church'

Just as other professions have been challenged during the pandemic and social and political upheaval of recent years, Allan said, "These last two years have been the most difficult years to pastor a church in full-time ministry."

Rather than get into the fray, Allan's mission was to dive even more deeply into "what we do know is true" and on "what reality can I anchor my soul."

His answer in the chaos and confusion is this: "I want to tell you about Jesus. (He is) the Way, the Truth and the Life. That is the answer to everything."

One of the principles he has kept in mind throughout the years is his place in the ministry.

"This is not my church. This is not my agenda," he said, resisting "the pull from many agendas."

He is excited about going forward in a new role, but ready to leave behind "all the bucks stopping at my table," referring not just to being senior pastor, but to his leadership in Ashland Christian School and Grace College and multiple roles in the denomination on a national and global level.

"Leading a multi-generational church became more and more complicated," said Allan, while looking back over a string of objectives he has achieved, from "strategically preaching through the whole Bible" by January 2021 to "leading us out of COVID" and transitioning to another pastor.

Wilson became lead senior pastor for Grace Church in March

Josh Wilson, formerly the church's Next Generation pastor who took over the position of lead senior pastor in March, values what Allan will continue to contribute to the church's ministry as pastor of ministry development.

"It is extremely humbling and honoring to be called to be the senior pastor at Grace, especially considering the faithful legacy Dan Allan has left here for more than three decades," said Wilson, calling Allan "one of his most trusted mentors."

Like Allan, Wilson was educated at Grace College and Grace Seminary. Similarly, like Allan, he expressed love for the community of Ashland.

To continue to preach the Gospel and to "make a positive impact in our community in ever-increasing ways," Wilson said, with Allan "and the rest of the amazing staff, with the incredible people at Grace, in such a great community like Ashland, is a dream come true," Wilson said.

"I've always had a strong passion to see a healthy church," Allan said, developed with people "who really want to know God."

"I enjoyed every minute of it," he said.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Grace Church transitions from Allan to Wilson as senior pastor
ABC News

The Biden administration's stark warning last week that as many as 100 million Americans could be infected during a COVID-19 wave in the fall and winter came as a shock to many in the country. What's more, a recent CDC analysis estimated at least three out of every five Americans have antibodies that indicate being previously infected with COVID-19, meaning most people in the U.S. have natural immunity. Scientists and public health experts said the 100 million estimate -- based on mathematical models -- does not surprise them and that as immunity wanes and people move indoors due to cold weather, cases will inevitably rise.
Clare Smyth, chef, prepares a dish of 'Potato and Roe' at the Core by Clare Smyth restaurant in the Notting Hill district of London, U.K., on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019.

Miles Willis/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Michelin stars are the Holy Grail of the culinary world. There are currently only 136 restaurants in the world that have been awarded three Michelin stars, a distinction that, according to the guide, demonstrates "exceptional cuisine worth a special journey." So, for foodies willing to plan a trip to a far-flung locale just to score a reservation at one of these fine-dining establishments, a recent survey ranked the Michelin-starred restaurants with the best value (considering both reviews and the prices associated with Michelin three-star restaurants).

To do this, money.co.uk analyzed Tripadvisor reviews and set menu costs for all Michelin three-star restaurants to reveal which ones offer the best value in terms of price and overall dining experience.

The No. 1 spot goes to King's Joy in Beijing. The restaurant, which was first awarded the coveted three stars in 2021, not only had some of the best traveler reviews on Tripadvisor, but it also stood out with the cost of its food. A Michelin three-star meal there will set travelers back $110 per person. For comparison, the most expensive Michelin three-star eatery, Paris' Guy Savoy, will cost you $583 for a 13-course meal.

No. 2 on the list is Regis et Jacques Marcon in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, France. The restaurant, which treats its guests to extraordinary food and stunning views of the Ardeche and Mont du Velay valleys, had 96.6 percent good reviews. The cheapest set menu price there is $198 per person.

And chef Tetsuo Nakashima's Nakashima restaurant in Hiroshima, Japan, takes the No. 3 spot on money.co.uk's list for best-value Michelin-starred restaurants. Tripadvisor reviewers gave it 94.9 percent positive reviews, and the cheapest meal there costs $142.

No. 4 and No. 5 are France's Kei (meals from $187 per person) and Maison Lameloise (meals from $198 per person), respectively. Other notable inclusions on the list were London's Core by Clare Smyth and Cheval Blanc in Basel, Switzerland.

As mentioned, the list also ranks the most expensive Michelin three-star restaurants in the world. After Gordon Ramsey's Guy Savoy is Kitcho Arashiyama in Kyoto, which honors Japan's tea ceremony traditions. It will set you back $543 per person, including taxes. And the third most expensive Michelin three-star restaurant is chef Alain Passard's iconic L'Arpege in Paris. Chef Passard has maintained his restaurant's Michelin three-star status for more than two decades with a vegetable-based menu. A meal at the ultra-chic restaurant starts at $539.

You can read the complete survey and its findings here.
Louisville Metro Police officials are searching for a man accused of kidnapping a woman, who was later found safe.

LMPD had been searching for 32-year-old Shawntaya Snowden, department spokesman Aaron Ellis said in a Friday night news release. She was found Saturday, Ellis later confirmed.

The man accused in the case is 34-year-old Rodriquez C. Hall, Ellis said, who should be considered armed and dangerous. He has not yet been found, Ellis said Saturday.

Hall is wanted on charges of kidnapping and domestic violence assault, according to Ellis' release.

Anyone who has additional information is asked to call 911, or call LMPD's anonymous crime tip hotline at 502-574-5673.

More headlines: Owensboro judge ousted from office for multiple violations of judicial conduct rules

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD searches for man accused of kidnapping woman who is now safe
Metropolitan Police

WASHINGTON, D.C.A suspect in shootings that left four people wounded on Friday was found dead of suicide in an apartment, along with an arsenal of weapons, a sniper-style setup, and a large quantity of ammunition, authorities said.

It appears the suspected gunmanwhose name had not been officially released by authoritieslivestreamed the terrifying incident, filmed from his perspective, on social media.

His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said.

It just appears that this person was just shooting at anyone who was out there randomly.

Patricia Termini was at the nearby Edmund Burke School to pick up a student when she heard gunfire and jumped back into her car to avoid being shot. Still, she was grazed by a round as she sheltered inside the vehicle.

I was waiting in the alley, and all of a sudden there was a burst of what I thought were explosions, Termini, who is in her mid-60s, told NBC Washington. And then the second burst came, and I laid down in my car, and I called the people whose kid I was picking up, and I said, Theres some explosions or a bomb. I dont know if its shootings or what, she said. And at that point a bullet came from behind me and it grazed my shoulder, and I got up, and at that point I said to myself, I need to get out of here.

*PHOTOS* Multiple firearms and a large quantity of ammo were recovered inside the fifth floor apartment where the suspect was found deceased. pic.twitter.com/3mR2uoqFTM  DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) April 23, 2022

The terrifying drama unfolded Friday afternoon near the Edmund Burke private prep school and the University of the District of Columbia.

Police say two women, a man, and a 12-year-old were wounded by bullets. In the hours after, authorities said they were searching for a person of interest: Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax, Virginia.

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Three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation told The Washington Post on Friday night that investigators are analyzing online postings they believe Spencer may have left behind. A user with the same name had written on 4chan, Dear God please forgive me, followed by one after the shooting that said, Theyre in the wrong part of the building right now searching XD. A third and final message, posted at 3:36 p.m., read, Waiting for police to catch up with me.

Zachary Petrizzo

We believe that the suspect took his own life as MPD members were entering or breaching the apartment where the suspect was located, Contee said. The suspect was reportedly found dead in the bathroom of the apartment.

In a photo of the apartment released by the Metro PD, a picture can be seen on the wall of a figure that resembles Yakub, a mythical Black scientist popularized by Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and mockingly turned into a meme by 4chan denizens.

Metro PD

High school senior Emma Schultz told The Daily Beast she lives in the next apartment over from the shooter. When she heard the shots, she called her father, who was out for a walk, and he told her it was just construction noise.

And I said, No its not, Schultz recalled.

She said she rushed out to help and saw people on the ground.

Although Spencer lived in apartment 511 and Schultz lives in 512, she said she didnt know him at all.

I had no idea who that guy is, I dont remember seeing him around, ever, she said. Other people were saying theyve seen him before I guess hes always inside.

Schultz told The Daily Beast that the apartment next door where the shooter was had a camera on the left side of the door watching the hallway.

Another building resident who identified himself only as Kenya, lives on the second floor but wasnt home when the shots rang out.

I was scared for my roommate, Kenya told The Daily Beast, saying he was given the option to stay at a hotel this evening as law enforcement officials continue to scour the building for clues.

On Wikipedia, the Edmund Burke School page had been revised Friday afternoon by a user named Raymond Spencer, to read, A gunman shot at the school on April 22, 2022. The suspect is still at large. The revision linked to a profile for Spencer, describing him as proudly uncircumcised and an AR-15 aficionado.

At 11 p.m. Friday, blood could be seen on the street at the scene as investigators worked the area. Metro Police Lt. Jason Bagshaw declined to comment on the investigation when asked for details by The Daily Beast.

Zachary Petrizzo

Mayor Muriel Bowser, in a statement late Friday, said the city had suffered a heartbreaking day after a person who had no business having a gun got access to one and used it to terrorize a school community.

Unfortunately, tonight, I looked into the eyes of parents who were terrified, and they were terrified thinking of what might happen to their children, she said, adding that two other shootings had taken place in the city even as she met with families rocked by the violence near Edmund Burke School.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Editor's note: This story is part of the Missouri Gun Violence Project, a partnership of the Kansas City Star and Report for America.

Bryant Wilks was a bright and driven 17-year-old in Columbia. Already a manager at Dairy Queen, he was on track to graduate high school early and attend college to study business.

But he became one of 14 people killed in the city in 2020, a record year for homicides.

For many years, violent crime in Columbia was low  in 2002 and 2004, no gun homicides were recorded. By 2013, that number had ticked up to four and Columbias leaders formed a task force to address the rising level of community violence.

But since the citys initial action, little has been done.

The consequences have been deadly.

Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, president of the local organization Race Matters, Friends, stands outside Columbia City Hall. Wilson-Kleekamp is among many community members who have been calling for the city to take more action on Columbias gun violence problem.

Forty-eight people were fatally shot in homicides from 2016 to 2021, with totals reaching 12 in both 2019 and 2020.

Columbias rise in shootings reflects a statewide trend: Missouri has the fifth-highest gun homicide rate nationwide. In 2020, The Star began examining gun violence through a two-year, statewide reporting effort supported by nonprofits Report for America and the Missouri Foundation for Health. The project has looked at the impact of gun violence as well as prevention and solutions.

After Wilks died in October 2020, his mother Rochelle Hawkins co-founded a support group for moms who have lost children to violent crime in Columbia. She said the city has failed at taking gun violence prevention seriously.

Columbia needs to come together as a whole to solve this problem, the police are not going to fix this problem alone, Hawkins said. Everybody  the city, schools, the hospitals, churches  needs to get on board.

Pat Fowler, who represents the First Ward, Columbias central district that includes downtown and parts of the University of Missouri, said the city is at a standstill.

Those kinds of profound losses and other shootings that are happening all over our city are things that we are not moving forward to address as a community, she said.

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Fowler was the only city council member of six to respond to The Stars inquiries.

Former Columbia Mayor Brian Treece, who left office last week after holding the post since 2016, repeatedly declined to comment on violence in the city.

Jeff Pitts, the public information officer for the Columbia Police Department, said the department is concerned about gun violence and plans to continue working on resolving conflicts to prevent violence. But he would not comment further on those efforts. Columbia Police Chief Geoff Jones would not speak with The Star.

Community members say the city, which has a higher poverty rate than the rest of the state, needs to invest more in social services to address the root causes of violence like poverty and housing insecurity.

They point to the availability of federal dollars to address those issues and fund some of the recommendations put forward by a city task force on community violence.

Those recommendations were first published in 2014, but the city has yet to act on many of the initiatives, including creating a violence prevention program and treating the problem as a public health issue.

Community violence report

Officials in Columbia, a town of about 126,000 residents, sprung into action after four people were shot and killed from April to July 2013.

By August, then-Mayor Robert McDavid and the city council had requested a task force to explore crime reduction strategies and make recommendations.

The task forces final report was published in November 2014 and included 26 recommendations focused on intervening before a violent act occurs, building trust between the police and Black communities, and improving coordination between social service programs.

Its a community conversation, McDavid told the Columbia Missourian at the time. Were going to solve this as a community, or were going to fail as a community.

With a blueprint available, many like Fowler felt hopeful about Columbias efforts to combat violence.

I have watched (the city) discuss various strategies for years, said Fowler, who has represented the First Ward since 2020 and has had a presence in the citys council chamber for nearly 20 years.

We all had a lot of hope when the mayors task force on community violence published their report in 2014.

But for years, much of the report was ignored.

Neglecting solutions

While the city increased funding for after-school youth programs and launched a facility to provide services for people returning from prison, it sat on the majority of the recommendations.

In 2020, the city published an update on the 2014 report. Of the total 26 recommendations, 10 recommendations had been acted on to varying degrees.

According to the update, it did not create a violence prevention program in the community or a conflict mediation program in schools. It did not organize a forum with neighborhood organizations, churches, public schools and other stakeholders to address crime. It did not expand its neighborhood watch program.

The Columbia City Council commissioned the plan, the plan was written, and then it was put basically up on the shelf, said Kristin Bowen, who started Columbias Moms Demand Action chapter in 2015. Many of its measures that were recommended were not undertaken.

Meanwhile, Lawrence, Kansas, a college town similar in size to Columbia, experiences significantly lower levels of violence. In 2020, the city saw no homicides and it had one in 2019. However Springfield, a city slightly larger than Columbia, experienced 26 homicides in 2020.

We tell ourselves that we are a beloved college town. And its true, we have an incredible community, Bowen said. But there are also so many people, so many families whose lives are directly touched by gun violence. And we have to recognize that and address that.

Fowler said not enough has been done and points to a lack of political will as one of the primary reasons.

Theres just a lack of willingness to say we arent doing enough and we arent making enough of a difference, Fowler said.

That lack of political will is related to race, said Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, president of the local organization Race Matters, Friends.

About 11% of Columbias residents are Black, according to U.S. census data, and the majority of the citys homicide victims are young and Black.

We only talk about violence when it affects downtown and when I think of downtown, I think of white property interest, Wilson-Kleekamp said. But violence is perfectly fine as long as its confined to Black neighborhoods and impacting Black people.

She pointed to two recent shootings.

Last November, five people were injured in a shooting outside a nightclub frequented by Black people; the alleged shooter, a 30-year-old Black man, was killed by police. Then, on New Years Day, four people were shot outside a popular college bar.

Following the November shooting, Wilson-Kleekamp said, some of the blame for the shooting was directed toward the clubs Black owner. But that criticism was not put on the white bar owner after the January shooting, she said.

We can blame Black people for that shooting, but when it happened a few weeks later outside a bar that white people go to, theyre silent, Wilson-Kleekamp said.

Funding troubles

One of the task forces recommendations was to examine the citys social services program.

Social service funding in Columbia is less than $1 million a year, which comes out to about $7 a person, according to the citys recent budget. Thats in a city where over 20% of the residents live in poverty, which is higher than Missouris 12% poverty rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Public health services are severely underfunded in Columbia, Fowler said, which worsens conditions for the citys most vulnerable and exacerbates gun violence.

Problems like poverty, lack of housing and unemployment put people at a greater risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of gun violence, researchers have found.

Lynelle Phillips, a public health professor at MU, says the goal of public health is to keep communities healthy, and one way to do that is prevent gun violence.

Gun violence contributes to illness and death, so anything that contributes to illness and death and impacts the overall population health, falls in the realm of public health, Phillips said.

Public health officials work to change community conditions that lead to violence. To do that successfully, Phillips said, they need more funding.

But according to Fowler, Columbia lacks a sense of urgency addressing its public health failures.

The problem is that we have less than a million dollars that we devote to social services funding in the city of Columbia, she said. We have been at a standstill as far as applying new funds to deal with these particular problems. And then we dont have any coordination among these efforts.

Violence prevention strategy

Cure Violence, a popular violence prevention method, was specifically mentioned in the 2014 report as a viable strategy for Columbia. It has been implemented in 20 U.S. cities and 17 countries.

Much like public health officials treating a virus infecting a community, Cure Violence approaches violence as a contagion that can be spread and cause greater harm to the most vulnerable. To prevent shootings and retaliation, the program relies on conflict mediation conducted by trained staff who are rooted in neighborhoods struggling with high levels of gun violence.

Brent Decker, chief program officer for Cure Violence based in Chicago, said the organizations model has been successfully implemented in cities large and small. In order to launch a new program, the organization first assesses whether theres political will to do so.

Sometimes it stops right there, thats often the most challenging part, Decker said. Because for so long weve thought about this issue from a criminal justice lens and havent understood it from a health perspective.

The idea that gun violence is largely a public health crisis is nothing new, Decker says, but some cities are resistant to the idea that solutions can involve more than just law enforcement.

However, believing gun violence can only be solved solely from a law enforcement approach is outdated and reflects historical and systemic racism, Decker said.

I think its really just a dog whistle for the kind of racist ideology about this issue and about who this issue affects and what solutions are acceptable, Decker said.

For a city to really see success, Cure Violence should be one part of a larger effort, Decker said. A strategic plan for addressing violence should include wraparound services that deal with housing insecurity, poverty, unemployment and other public health factors, she said.

While it can vary based on the needs of a community, Decker estimated that starting a prevention program can cost a city of Columbias size between $350,000 to $500,000 a year.

In 2020, St. Louis launched its Cure Violence program with a $7 million investment in three neighborhoods. So far, health officials in the city say the neighborhoods are on track to see violent crime reduced by half.

Community calls for action

Community members appear to support the creation of a violence prevention program.

At a February Columbia City Council meeting, five people spoke during public comment, including Rose Metro, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action. She approached the dais and called for the city to create a violence prevention program alongside other efforts to address the root causes of violence, including poverty, homelessness and racial inequality.

Tonight ... Ill be acknowledging how gun violence is intertwined with other issues, specifically mental health, workforce development and the needs of the unhoused, Metro said before the council. I and others from Moms Demand have already given several public comments outlining the benefits of violence intervention programs, and the research that supports their use.

One option Columbia has for funding a violence prevention program is through federal dollars given to cities through the American Rescue Plan. The Biden administration directed these funds be spent on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and one eligible use is for violence prevention.

Under the rules set by the U.S. Treasury Department, cities can spend the federal dollars on evidence-based practices like focused deterrence, street outreach, violence interrupters and hospital-based violence intervention models.

In St. Louis, Mayor Tishuara Jones pledged to spend $11.5 million of the citys American Rescue Plan funds on violence prevention programs and youth programs. Other cities, like Akron, Ohio, and Atlanta, made similar plans.

Columbia was designated $25 million through the plan. The first payment of $12.5 million was sent to the city last year and the other half arrives this spring. The funds must be spent within the next four years.

Hsun-Ta Hsu, an associate professor at MU's School of Social Work, said the federal funding is an opportunity for the city to bolster public health services and create a violence prevention program.

There really needs to be a comprehensive plan, Hsu said. There are evidence-based, really effective models out there, and I am sure if Columbia moved resources to something along those lines, the city would see a change.

Once a program is in place, the city needs to continue funding it to see long-term impacts, said Hsu, whose current research is on gun violence impacting youth experiencing homelessness.

Last fall, the council directed city staff to look into using part of the American Rescue Plan money to fund four issues: a process to combat community violence, a resource center for homelessness and housing insecurity, a rapid access center for mental health resources and workforce development programs. But nothing has been made official yet.

At a recent council meeting, Fowler introduced a resolution to devote all of the citys American Rescue Plan funds toward systemic poverty, racial inequality and public health. The resolution failed on a 4-3 vote.

Wilson-Kleekamp with Race Matters, Friends said many in the community support these efforts, but the city council has yet to commit.

Theres a political battle right now to get that money and invest it in places where we can interrupt community violence and support public health, but I worry that it wont happen because people on council are against that, she said.

Heart of a Mother

Wilks homicide remains unsolved.

Rochelle Hawkins said her grief following his death was compounded by a lack of support in Columbias response to community violence.

She did not find the support groups for parents who have lost children helpful.

I just felt like I was not really able to express my feelings of loss due to the fear of stigma and assumptions, Hawkins said. So I knew I really wanted to find a group where I could freely express myself and feel like Im being validated and heard and understood.

Then Kerston Roberts, another mom in Columbia who lost her son, called with an idea to create Heart of a Mother, a support group for mothers in Columbia who have lost a child to violence. They had their first meeting in November.

Something has to be done about this, Roberts said. Lets stop talking and lets just try to do something. This violence is totally senseless.

So far this year, two Columbia high school students have died from gun violence.

In January, 18-year-old Roberto Lauer was killed in a shooting. Then in February, 15-year-old Audrey Doxley, who was friends with Wilks, was shot and killed. Arrests were made in both shootings.

The city is not offering any support or trauma informed care for these kids and these families, Hawkins said. They are hurting.

The whole community is broken.

The Stars Humera Lodhi contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia residents fed up with little action on gun violence
Fearing that Egypt's Coptic community may be at risk as sectarian tensions grow, Muslims plan to act as human shields during Easter prayers

Several Facebook groups and event invitations have been circulating calling on Muslims to head to churches on Saturday and Sunday to act as human shields for Coptic prayers during Easter holidays.

Considering the latest sectarian tensions and hate speech that have hit the country, especially after the mass demonstrations witnessed at Qena demanding the resignation of the governor for being a Christian, many fear that Egypts Coptic community may be at risk.

Muslims have before turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass, offering their bodies and lives as shields to protect Egypts Christian community following the terror attacks that struck the country on New Years Eve, targeting the Two Saints Church in Alexandria and leaving 21 dead.

Similarly, during Egypt's revolution, Christians in Tahrir Square acted as human shields to protect praying Muslims as the demonstrators were threatened by attacks from pro-regime thugs and snipers.

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Hail to the cat?

Jinx, a black cat with a massive social media following on TikTok, will serve as mayor of Hell, Michigan for one day on Sunday.

In Hell, located about 60 miles west of Detroit, people can request to serve as mayor of the town before being impeached at the end of the day. The experience costs $100, MLive reported.

Reverend Vonn, the official minister of Hell, Michigan, told USA TODAY that Jinx will be Hells first pet mayor.

We're so excited, she said. It's our first animal.

She added that Jinxs upcoming tenure has also inspired other pet owners to get their animals involved in politics.

I've gotten a lot of mayor inquiries, and somebody actually sent an inquiry saying That wont do. My dog is jealous, Vonn said. They want their dog to be mayor in a month or so.

Jinx, a black cat, will serve as mayor of Hell, Michigan for one day on Sunday.

World's oldest living dog: A chihuahua named TobyKeith, breaks Guinness World record

Guinea pigs, hamsters and more: What's your state's most popular pet (besides cats and dogs)?

Jinx is popular on Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms, with accounts featuring the black cat garnering hundreds of thousands of followers.

Jinx is not the only animal to serve as a mayor in the U.S. A dog named Parker was voted honorary mayor of Georgetown, Colorado, KKTV reported.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cat to rule Hell, Michigan: Jinx will become mayor of small town
As we reach the final weekend before the draft, lets start setting the table for the big dance with a quick three-round Cincinnati Bengals mock before we get to our final seven-round mock next week. Well be using The Draft Networks machine for this exercise.

No. 34 (trade with Detroit) - Kyler Gordon, CB, Washington

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

With a few options on the board, the Bengals decide to drop down a few spots, from 31 to 34, also sending a 2023 third-round pick to the Lions for a third this year (No. 97). After weighing the options, including another trade down, the Bengals settle on upgrading the corner position with Kyler Gordon, who will step right in and challenge Chidobe Awuzie and Eli Apple for a starting role.

No. 60 (trade with Tampa Bay) - Travis Jones, DT, Connecticut

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Bengals move up this time, swapping fourths and sending a seventh to Tampa to add some power on their defensive line with UConns Travis Jones, who really made a name for himself at the Senior Bowl.

No. 97 (trade with Detroit) - Alec Lindstrom, IOL, Boston College

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With the third-round pick acquired from Detroit to move out of the first round, the Bengals get their added depth on the offensive line with Lindstrom, who comes from a family of NFL players, including his father and his brother, Falcons OG Chris Lindstrom, a 2019 first-round pick.

No. 104 (trade with L.A. Rams) - Greg Dulcich, TE, UCLA

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Bengals traded down from 95 to 104, adding No. 253 to their haul, and grabbed Dulcich, who some have as TE1 in this class. The Bengals need a young pass-catching tight end and Dulcich would absolutely fill that role. Good value at the end of round three.

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Apr. 23Cowden-Herrick Beecher City athlete Jadon Robertson signed to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Wednesday.

Robertson becomes the second Bobcat athlete to sign to a Division I school, joining Daniel Lucas, who is heading to the University of Iowa.

"They called one day because I used to run for Vipers. They gave me a call, and after that, we set up a date; I went down there and liked it a lot," Robertson said. "Then, after that, she sent me a scholarship not long after that."

Robertson said that one reason the coaches liked him a lot was the fact that he could compete in multiple events. He has competed in the 400-meter dash, the 110-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles, the high jump, and the long jump this year. He is currently in a tie for 15th nationally in the high jump, according to the AthleticNet website, with a leap of 6-feet-10-inches, which he set at a meet with Brownstown St. Elmo, Altamont, Teutopolis, and Dieterich on April 12.

Robertson isn't the only one pleased with his decision to further his athletic career, though; his coaches are also in that same boat.

"Anytime you got a guy working hard, you want to see that," assistant track and field coach Andy Nohren said. "When you have seniors, sometimes they have to plateau and then learn to battle through where you get stuck doing the same thing. Right now, he's getting better and better, so that's exciting because it keeps you engaged."

Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 217-347-7151 ext. 124 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.
Over the past decade, a human infrastructure of hospitality and care has been built in New Hampshire and across the country. Faith leaders, civic groups and individual volunteers have organized to host asylum seekers in our communities  people arriving at the southern border, people coming out of detention centers, Afghan people and soon, Ukrainian people. We know our communities are safer and stronger when we take care of each other  regardless of what country we were born in.

From left, Maggie Fogarty and Grace Kindeke.

Unfortunately, Senator Maggie Hassan and Congressman Chris Pappas seem to disagree.

The Biden administration recently announced it will not renew a Trump-era policy called Title 42. Title 42 is ostensibly a public heath provision that allows the U.S. to expel asylum seekers without giving them any opportunity to make their asylum claim. Scores of public health officials and medical professionals have emphasized that there is no evidence that Title 42 prevents the spread of COVID-19, and multiple lawsuits are already challenging the policy in court for impeding peoples legal right to seek asylum. Devastatingly, approximately 1.7 million expulsions have already taken place under this policy since its implementation in March of 2020.

When the Biden Administration announced an end to Title 42, we celebrated. This immoral and likely illegal vestige of Trumps extreme anti-immigrant policies would finally be rescinded.

But some members of Congress have a different plan. They are attempting to add an amendment to prolong Title 42 to a bill that would provide much needed COVID-19 relief funding. Senator Hassan and Representative Pappas are among them. These lawmakers want us to believe that Title 42 is necessary to manage the increased numbers of people at the border. But to us, this looks more like a racist, xenophobic policy designed to enact hardship and violence on innocent people.

There is reason to be concerned about lack of capacity to meet the needs at the U.S.-Mexico border  thousands of people have waited years for an opportunity to exercise their right to asylum, and the U.S. government is notoriously bad at processing these claims. But theres a simple solution to this problem, and its not summarily deporting asylum seekers. Nor is it a bigger border wall, more surveillance, more armed enforcement agents, or more incarceration.

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What is needed is increased capacity for compassion and care, and adequate resources and policies that can receive people in an orderly and welcoming way. Asylum seekers may need support finding safety in the U.S. while their claims are processed. They may need information about the asylum process itself. They may even have loved ones already in the U.S. who are ready and waiting for the opportunity to support them. We need investments in shelters, case management, court personnel, asylum officers, legal representation, and transportation for people to get to communities where they will find welcome and accompaniment for their next steps.

In fact, investments in the immigration court system and in asylum processes and supportive services will bring many rewards for Senator Hassan and Congressman Pappas own constituents who have been waiting for years for their hearings, their visas, their work authorizations. And it will bring a huge amount of relief to the thousands of individuals and families whose lives have been put at risk simply because politicians want to score political points.

Senator Hassan and Congressman Pappas, you must withdraw your name from these amendments immediately. The people of New Hampshire need you to become champions for asylum seekers, for protections of their rights under U.S. and international law, and for community-based alternatives to detention. The welcoming networks weve built in New Hampshire are ready to help and could use your support.

All of this is long overdue, and it is the right thing to do. It is time to restore the rights of asylum seekers and invest resources into the processes and communities to welcome them.

Maggie Fogarty is the NH Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). She lives in Dover. Grace Kindeke is Program Coordinator for AFSC's New Hampshire program. She was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and raised in New Hampshire. She lives in Manchester.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: NH ready to welcome asylum seekers. Why not Hassan, Pappas?
AUSTIN  It might seem that when it comes to the economy, Texas is like the lucky gambler at the blackjack table who every hand is dealt a card face up and an ace down.

The most recent example came Wednesday when a Texas House committee was looking at what ramifications the state could expect as a result of U.S. sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. What members heard was that the related spike in oil prices means more tax revenue for Texas, and as well as more drilling, and drilling means more jobs and more opportunities to export elsewhere.

Were it not for the heartbreaking human suffering endured by the Ukrainian people brought on by Russia's aggression, it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if the committee members responded, "Keep those cards coming, dealer."

Moritz: Abbott's border initiative is dramatic, but don't lose sight of Guard troops' concerns

But the panel only heard a slice of the story when it comes to some of the forces at play in Texas' financial health. Ray Perryman, the renowned Texas economist who was among those who presented the rosy scenario regarding the sanctions, kept another card up his sleeve, to further torture the gambler metaphor.

Around the same time Perryman was testifying in Austin, his office in Waco posted a report on the economist's website that showed unsettling fallout on another front.

The weeklong delays at the Texas-Mexico border brought on by Gov. Greg Abbott's order that all trucks crossing into the state be stopped and given an extra inspection caused an estimated $10 billion in lost expenditures to Texas, the report said. That translates to a $2.6 billion loss in personal income and a drop of more than $4.2 billion in the value of total goods and services in the state.

Ray Perryman

The figures related to the border shutdown were not part of Perryman's presentation at the Capitol. But during his testimony, he did describe himself as an "equal-opportunity offender" regarding the partisan ramifications of his data-crunching, which, according to his website, has been used by about "half of the Fortune 100, the 12 largest technology firms in the world (and) 10 U.S. Cabinet Departments."

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Because Mexico is a top trading partner with Texas, any purposeful disruption of cross-border commerce is going to reverberate throughout the economy, Perryman said in his report.

"While border security is certainly an issue that must be addressed, introducing artificial inefficiencies into an important, capacity-constrained element of an already overly stressed national supply chain is a costly option," he wrote.

More: Why a Texas mayor who grew up in the GOP is now disillusioned with her political party

Aside from the scholarly prose, Perryman's observation pretty much echoes what Abbott's Democratic critics have said about the policy the governor implemented as part of his border security measures. Abbott has said he won't hesitate to reimpose them if conditions on the border don't improve.

But Abbott is not the only one whose policies might threaten the Texas economy's lucky streak, Perryman warned.

Even though the present Texas oil boom, which began well before Russia's military adventurism, is powering much of the post-COVID recovery, Democrats appear to be doing all they can to discourage the traditional energy sector, Perryman told the legislative panel.

More: Gas prices may be painful, but analysts say they are boosting energy production in Texas

He pointed to a report last month by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that showed that even with the current surge in renewables, "petroleum and natural gas (will) remain the most-consumed sources of energy in the United States through 2050."

"At the same time, they (the Democratic Biden administration) say we're not going to let you have pipeline permits, we're going to penalize you for exporting, we're going to make it very difficult for you to drill," Perryman said. "So that creates an (unfavorable) investment climate."

So far, the political pitfalls for the Texas economy that Perryman warned against appear to be comparatively shallow. Plus, it's election year, when each side plays to its base. So a change of course is probably not in the cards.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Economist Ray Perryman's warning for Texas Democrats, and Republicans
OK, Northern Michigan, its time to actually be spring cuz Im headed home and winter is not an option when I get there!

Spring has decidedly started here in the Sonoran desert with palo verde trees busting out with their bright yellow flowers (bringing with it, one might add, allergy issues). Some of the cacti are also blooming, predominantly pink and yellow and the pomegranates are budding out for this falls crop.

Kendall P. Stanley

The meteorologists are starting to wonder when the first 100-degree day will come down the pike but it has been plenty warm already  temperature 98, dew point -16, humidity 2 percent. If you have skin cream handy, use it!

Friends were down from Chandler and we decided to take the (long) drive up to the top of Mount Lemmon where the Ski Valley ski resort is the farthest south ski hill in the country.

The vistas and changing vegetation on the drive up is a sight to behold.

At the lower elevations saguaro dots the cliffs and valleys by the thousands. The cacti are an iconic part of the Sonoran desert which is the only desert in the world where they grow. As you head up the Catalina Highway they peter out by 4,000 feet above sea level to be replaced by evergreens and other trees.

More: Kendall Stanley: The horrors of Ukraine

More: Kendall Stanley: Driving on down the highway

More: Kendall Stanley: Where to from here

If you ever wondered how long the effects of a wildfire last you have only to pull into Summerhaven and look around.

The Aspen fire of 2003 ripped through about 85,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest in the Cataline Mountains destroying 350 buildings in Summerhaven.

The name of the town is instructive  it is a haven in the summer from the scorching temperatures in the desert down below.

But theres not much green around Summerhaven these days  denuded slopes, felled trees, signs of fire everywhere.

Yet cabins and homes have been rebuilt, preserving an oasis from summers heat. Or springs heat  it was in the mid-80s when we started up the mountain and 62 when we reached the top which was still warm enough to lunch outdoors.

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Its about 25 miles from the desert floor up to Ski Valley, and bicyclists ride to the top and then have a free, long downhill ride back toward Tucson. The motorcyclists like it too, but their ride up is a whole lot easier!

If you ever happen to get out Tucson way, head for the hills  its beautiful up there!

Members of the Arizona Education Association chant during a rally, Feb. 21, 2022, in the Senate building at the Arizona Capitol.

Say what?

As a journalist, clarity is a goal. The ideal is not to obfuscate what youre trying to share with your readers.

Then theres the Arizona Senate. Its not so much that some of the legislative bills are a word salad, but they are at best unclear.

The latest bill, passed 16-12 in the majority Republican Senate, would allow parents to sue teachers and other government officials if they usurp parents fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, health care and mental health of their children.

In a state where 2,000 classrooms are taught by someone who is not certified to teach, this would seem one more reason that educators will say a big no thank you to working here.

Sen. Christine Marsh, a teacher and one of the 12 Democrats who voted against the bill, put it succinctly.

That entire quotation is so incredibly vague that anything could potentially qualify for it, meaning that we might have a whole bunch of teachers going to court over this, she said.

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Of course its vague, thats the idea. How do you battle a statute so vague and innocent sounding?

Want another example? The Florida Department of Education banning 54 math books because they included critical race theory and other Republican bugaboos. Did the department provide examples? Well no, it didnt. Just trust that the department is looking out for the best interests of the parents of the state.

The bottom line? Get used to the idea there will be fewer and fewer teachers willing to double guess everything they do as an educator and will just leave the profession.

 Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Kendall Stanley: Spring better get its act together
Markreash Muldrow testifies at her husband, Kentay Thomas', sentencing before Judge Elizabeth Blackburn at the Justice Center in Daytona Beach, Friday, April 22, 2022.

A prosecutor said an Arizona man chose the wrong cause to support when he flew to Daytona Beach to raise money for the legal defense of Othal Wallace, who is accused of killing a Daytona Beach Police officer.

But where Kentay Thomas, 32, really went wrong was bringing along two firearms, body armor and ammunition and walking around with a concealed gun even though his Arizona concealed carry permit had been suspended, Assistant State Attorney Mark Interlicchio Jr. said.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn found Thomas actions concerning during a hearing on Friday when she adjudicated him guilty on two counts of carrying a concealed firearm and sentenced him to two years in prison followed by five years probation. He received credit for 289 days time served.

Wallace had pleaded no contest to both charges in an open plea to the court, meaning there was no agreement with prosecutors.

Each charge was a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Blackburn noted that Thomas had only a minor criminal record and that he was not charged with a violent act.

Although not violent in nature, they cause great concern for the safety of this community, Blackburn said.

The judge also ordered Thomas to forfeit the two guns and body armor that were seized during his arrest.

Kentay Thomas was sentenced to two years in prison Friday, April 22, 2022.

Blackburn said Thomas wife testified that he was a good husband and a good father to his three children.

'Cause hell': Arizona man held in Volusia said he was going to 'cause hell' for Daytona police, affidavit says

Wallace trial scheduled: Judge sets trial date of April 3, 2023, for Othal Wallace in killing of Daytona Beach policeman

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Thomas, who was wearing a face mask during the hearing, did not make any statements and only spoke to his lawyers. He appeared to look toward his wife sometimes as she sat in the gallery before testifying.

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Thomas was arrested on July 8, 2021, just 15 days after Othal Wallace was accused of gunning down Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor on June 23 in an apartment building parking lot, according to a charging affidavit.

Raynor died 55 days later. The community rallied around Raynor and his family, offering prayers and money to help pay for the fallen officers medical care.

Wallace is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail awaiting trial on a charge for first-degree murder. State Attorney R.J. Larizzas office is seeking the death penalty.

Kentay Thomas arrives in Florida

Thomas flew into Daytona Beach on July 4 with the firearms checked in his baggage. Thomas wrote on Instagram that he was going to "cause hell" at the Daytona Beach Police Department, according to a charging affidavit.

The charging affidavit also states that Thomas was affiliated with the same militia to which Wallace once belonged. Wallace had left the militia by the time he was accused of shooting Raynor. Thomas was affiliated with the New Black Panther Party and the Not F****** Around Coalition, or NFAC, according to the charging affidavit.

A detective on surveillance spotted Thomas on July 5 walking in the parking lot of the Winghouse at 2721 W. International Speedway Blvd., according to the affidavit. The detective said he recognized the imprint of a gun protruding from Thomas' green shirt on the back right side of his waistband.

Police checked with Arizona officials and learned that Thomas' concealed weapons carry license was suspended on Sept. 6, 2019.

On July 7, police saw an Instagram video of Thomas in which he said he had a video of a police car stalking his room, according to the affidavit. Thomas also said in a video that "if they ever decide to kick in my door, you all are in for some trouble," according to the affidavit.

Daytona Beach Police obtained an arrest warrant for Thomas and, along with Volusia County Sheriff's deputies, arrested him on July 8 as he walked in the parking lot of the BP gas station at 2980 W. International Speedway Blvd., according to a charging affidavit.

Thomas was carrying a concealed .45-caliber pistol in a holster on the front of his waistband, according to the affidavit.

Thomas also had some luggage, including a black rifle case. Inside the rifle case was an AR-15 pistol with three loaded magazines along with 100 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition and 34 rounds of .45-caliber ammunition, according to the affidavit.

One of Thomas defense attorneys, Channa Lloyd, said on Friday that he never received the document telling him his concealed carry permit was suspended.

Lloyd called Thomas wife to testify on Friday about Thomas character.

Markreach Muldrow, 31, said they had been together for 11 years and had three children, ages 8, 5 and 4.

He is the man any woman would want, Muldrow said. A family man. He takes care of our kids.

She said since his arrest, Thomas had missed his 8-year-old daughters first track meet, all three kids birthdays and Christmas. She said the children are sad and wonder when their father will be home again.

He was always there from day one in the home there with our kids raising them right, Muldrow said. Hes the type of person that will wake up and be like We are throwing a barbecue for the homeless today; get everything ready. Hes a people person. He helps. This is just crazy, this whole situation.

'He travels with that'

During cross examination, Assistant State Attorney Interlicchio asked her about the homeless comment.

Would you agree that theres a huge difference between say helping out the homeless and helping out somebody who in cold blood murdered a police officer? Interlicchio said.

Yeah, theres a huge difference, she said.

He asked her about whether she and Thomas had discussed him coming to Daytona Beach. She said they had.

And you thought it was a good idea, Interlicchio said.

What he was coming out here to do, yes, she said.

You think its a good idea to raise money for a cop killer? Interlicchio said.

Hmmm no, Muldrow said. I think its a good idea to raise money for someone to have a good lawyer to defend his case.

Somebody who murdered a cop, Interlicchio said.

Object, your honor, Thomas other defense attorney, Mike Mann said. Othal Wallace, he has not even been convicted.

Counsel rephrase, Blackburn instructed Interlicchio.

An alleged cop killer, Interlicchio said. You think thats a good cause for him to take up?"

I think its a good cause to raise money to get a good lawyer for somebody in court, Muldrow said.

Did you have any discussion why he needed body armor? Interlicchio asked.

No, she said.

So he took that on his own, he said.

Yes, he travels with that, she said.

An assault rifle? Interlicchio said.

He travels with that, she said

Hundreds of rounds of ammunition, he asked.

Shooting range, she said.

And another handgun? he asked.

Yeah, he travels with that, she said.

Under questioning by Lloyd, Muldrow said that Thomas knew Wallace through social media and had only met him in person once or twice.

During her argument, Lloyd told the judge that prosecutors had twice offered Thomas plea deals. Once they offered him a year and a day in prison, which he declined. Then, in March, they offered him time served, which they withdrew before he could accept, Lloyd said.

Lloyd argued that Thomas had a right to travel and pass out flyers expressing why he thought it was important to raise money for good legal representation.

In these times and this current day and age there are a number of protests that have happened and brought people from all kinds of locations, Lloyd said. This is not a unique or novel idea.

Interlicchio argued that Thomas was trying to do suicide by cop or bait law enforcement into a confrontation in which police officers would have died because Thomas was well-armed.

He says if they come through that door hes going to get a few shots off, Interlicchio said of Thomas social media posts.

Lloyd said Thomas did not do anything to bait police.

"He never tried to provoke law enforcement," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Arizona man who traveled to Daytona Beach with guns gets prison
An elephant. Illustrated | iStock

The party of "traditional values" seems to have lost track of what they are, and has decided to go about as low as you possibly can to retake the moral high ground. To make themselves feel better, Republicans have gone far beyond the traditional accusations of loose living and government sponging to calling Democrats pedophiles as well. At first the charge of pedophilia was limited to the more fetid swamps of QAnon, but recent, more mainstream, GOP talking points are all about "groomers"  predators who make nice to their young victims before striking.

But why this particular attack, and why now?

The answer to this question is readily apparent when you look at Republican leadership and the base itself. This is a party that sees itself as a moral majority, to steal the original Jerry Falwell's phrase, and will force all the facts to fit that narrative.

When I talk about morality here, I do not primarily have in mind the hot-button culture war issues of sex and gender that dominate the current discourse, but a broader set of what could be called socially conservative values. These include the importance of religious belief and observance, the importance of strong and intact families, a notion that the leaders of any organization should be beyond reproach, a dislike for vulgarity, both profane and sexual, opposition to drug use, and things like that. It strikes me now, as I write this list, how old-fashioned it seems.

Things have changed.

There is no understanding the Republican Party without understanding its leader and id, former President Donald Trump. His sins and crimes have been enumerated many times. But for the record, the man is a serial adulterer who brags about committing sexual assault with impunity, responsible for three cameo appearances in Playboy videos, dishonest in his business dealings, and needlessly callow and cruel. And, finally, he claims that he has never asked God for forgiveness for any of this.

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Trump's presidency would seem to have vindicated the Southern Baptist Convention's claim that "tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God's judgment." Of course, that was about former President Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Now, tolerating this sort of behavior in a leader is par for the Republican Party course.

And Trump seems to have set a kind of example for other stars of the MAGAverse: Rep. Matt Gaetz is under investigation for paying for sex with an underage girl and sex trafficking; former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who was forced to resign that post after accusations that he tried to use nude photos to blackmail a woman with whom he had an affair, has not let that stop him from running for the Senate; Rep. Madison Cawthorn has been accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct by women who were his classmates in college.

Democrats, of course, have their own fair share of scandals, criminals, and cads, and they see themselves as being on the moral side, too. But they're not running around championing those "traditional values."

Why do Republicans thrill to Trump and tolerate misbehavior which previous generations  maybe even the very same people, a few decades ago  would have viewed as immediately disqualifying? (A long time ago, Ronald Reagan being divorced and remarried was a serious problem for a small but noticeable group of voters.) Maybe it's because, while Trump is an extreme (and rich) example, in many ways he's not so different from his devotees.

Matthew Schmitz, now an editor at Compact, hit upon this a few years ago when trying to explain why elite conservatives he knew in New York City talked about Trump before the 2016 election very differently from people in Schmitz's hometown in Nebraska. Those in New York "stressed his infidelity while also objecting to his insults of women," while those in Nebraska "glossed over his infidelities." Why? Because those Nebraskans live the same way Trump does, Schmitz argues. "Unstable relationships are the norm, and fathers quickly end up out of the picture." And the disruption extends beyond mere absence; Schmitz also claims that people he knew in Nebraska, even those themselves from stable families, "were more likely than [his] acquaintances in New York to know someone who had a child out of wedlock or is subject to a restraining order."

And J.D. Vance, now a ferocious Trumpist (past comments aside), identified this same phenomenon while writing Hillbilly Elegy: "Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren't... His wife tells us that we shouldn't feed our children certain foods, and we hate her for it  not because we think she's wrong but because we know she's right." In other words, Obama is simply "better" at family values than a large portion of the GOP base, and they hate the cognitive dissonance it causes.

There are other examples of the GOP base falling apart on issues of marriage, sex, and family. Consider that Brandi Love, a "MAGA porn star," was invited to an event by Turning Point USA before backlash forced them to retract the invitation. But the failure even to try to live up to previous standards of morality extends beyond just those issues. A party which once claimed to be opposed to the coarsening of the public sphere is now infatuated with the illicit thrill of chanting "Let's go Brandon." Evangelicals are attending church less often, even as evangelicalism becomes more and more the Republican Party at prayer. Jerry Falwell Jr. was hardly unique in his combination of strongly professed evangelicalism while having little use for church, even if the specifics of the scandal that forced him to resign as president of Liberty probably aren't particularly common. Republicans have completely failed to uphold the standards they once championed.

I want to be clear that I am not suggesting the accusations of pedophilia are the result of projection. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's pedophilia scandals are not representative of Republicans. The right-wing media apparatus responsible for disseminating pedophilia accusations is not staffed by a bunch of Humbert Humberts. What's happening here is another attempt to cope with the cognitive dissonance Vance diagnosed.

How can Republicans maintain their self-image as the moral majority while completely neglecting the standards that have traditionally defined moral behavior? Sure, they could try self-improvement, holding each other to account, and refusing to support candidates and media personalities who fail to meet those standards  but that's hard.

Instead, they've chosen something much easier: calling their opponents pedophiles. And then, since they've set the bar so low, they can easily clear it and be the more moral side simply by not being pedophiles. I can't say that "just don't be a pedophile" is one of the more compelling accounts of human flourishing I've seen. But it's the only one Republicans can agree on, and it's the only standard they wish to be judged by. And, as long as they believe it makes the Democrats look like the bad guys, it will preserve the GOP's self-delusion of its own righteousness just fine.

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NEWMARKET  Three top school administrators have resigned in Newmarket's SAU 31, leaving the School Board scrambling to find an interim superintendent.

Superintendent Susan Givens, Assistant Superintendent Debra Black and Junior-Senior High School Assistant Principal Sheana Thorell each tendered their resignation according to an email from Givens to the School Board dated April 13.

Superintendent Susan Givens, Assistant Superintendent Debra Black and Junior-Senior High School Assistant Principal Sheana Thorell each tendered their resignation

Newmarket Junior-Senior High School Principal David Dalton also resigned in March, creating four major positions the School Board will have to fill this year.

The School Board held an emergency meeting April 15 to accept and discuss the resignations. The board released a statement Thursday announcing the resignations. The statement said the board is in the process of recruiting new administrators and that the board and administration had no additional comments at this time.

The School Board thanks them for their service to the school district, the statement read.

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Board Chairman Gary Swanson was reached by email Friday but declined to answer further questions, including what date the resignations were effective.

School Board member Amy Tilton was reached by phone Friday and declined to speak beyond the press release, although she said that Givens resignation was effective 120 days after she tendered it.

She said it was her understanding that David Dalton, who also resigned in March, is expected to be in his position as principal through the end of the school year.

Givens did not return a call seeking comment.

At Thursdays School Board meeting, she told board members it was district protocol to release written press releases when media outlets seek comment rather than speak on the phone. Board members then voted 4-1 to release the written statement, board member Phil Nazzaro voting against.

Superintendent Susan Givens

I dont think theres anything dramatic going on here, but I think language is powerful, Givens said. She also advised the board to respond in a way thats positive and puts all of us in a positive light.

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The board considered discussing the press release in a nonpublic session, though Nazzaro said doing so creates the appearance that theres something potentially here that is not.

More: Pamela Carr named Seacoast School of Technology principal

The board also met Thursday with the executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, Barrett Christina, to discuss the coming search for an interim superintendent, then a permanent superintendent. He said it was too late in the year to find a permanent superintendent and recommended a small committee to find an interim in time for August.

Were looking for somebody to sort of keep the lights on and pay the bills and just steady the ship for the next year, Christina said. He said the NHSBA recommends 14 to 16 weeks for a search for a permanent superintendent.

Board members discussed in the April 15 meeting whether to conduct exit interviews with Givens and Black, who were not present at that meeting due to prior commitments according to Swanson.

Givens normally conducts exit interviews and serves as the SAUs HR person, Swanson said. The board was advised by their legal counsel that boards are not normally involved in exit interviews. Tilton said she was unsure the board was entitled to exit interviews, but Nazzaro said, This is an abnormal situation.

Theres reasons behind this that Im not even entirely (indiscernible) to, Nazzaro said. Tilton agreed the information would be valuable.

How do we get that feedback? I feel like that feedback is lost between us and the superintendent, like why people are leaving, Tilton said. I just would always like to know, so things can be worked on.

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Givens was under fire in 2019 when a group of parents circulated a petition calling for a vote of no-confidence due to lack of communication in placing then Junior-Senior High School Principal Chris Mazzone on leave. Mazzone was later reassigned from his job to school facilities director in 2020, replaced by Dalton. The SAU 31 School Board defended Givens with a 5-0 vote rejecting the request for a vote of no-confidence, Chairman Mike Kenison saying he did not see any merit in the petition.

The resignations have raised concern with community members. Resident Anne Ellis of 8 Wiggin Drive said she had 17 years experience as a school administrator, and said she was concerned about the effect the resignations will have on the school district. She said her own child was struggling in fourth grade when, the next year, they found success with Thorell, then as his fifth-grade teacher.

I just cant imagine this district moving forward with this loss, Ellis said. She also said the community of public-school administrators is a tight one. She said while she had not spoken with any of the people resigning, resignation is often a last resort.

Sometimes the only way you have to stand up for something that youre being asked to do, that is morally, ethically wrong, or out of your compass in terms of what is right for your community and position, is to resign, she said.

These are extremely dedicated people, Ellis said. I cannot believe that they are leaving for any other reason than that is the only action they can take to stand up for themselves in that position.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Newmarket, NH school superintendent, administrators resigning
New Mexico State University students visited Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier this year as part of a fashion merchandising and design class taught by Kelley Coffeen. During the trip, the students attended the Magic Fashion Trade Show, visited NMSU alums working in luxury retail and met with representatives from Cirque du Soleil.

LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State University is far from the fashion meccas that appear in the pages of glossy magazines. But that hasnt deterred Kelley Coffeen from giving students at NMSU the chance to experience the fashion industry close up.

Coffeens mission as an assistant professor in NMSUs Family and Consumer Sciences Department is to prepare students majoring in fashion merchandising and design for careers in the fashion industry. To do that, Coffeen believes in venturing outside the classroom  and outside New Mexico.

Thats why in 2019, Coffeen organized a class trip to New York City to give her students an insiders glimpse into a thriving retail sector.

The whirlwind visit, which included tours of New Yorks most iconic luxury stores, was a hit with students, Coffeen said. But it also served a deeper purpose.

We need to make sure our students feel comfortable when theyre moving into the industry, she said. We do that through internships and encouraging them to work while theyre in school in areas that interest them. But we have to do some traveling, too.

Coffeen added: Our trip to New York City gave students the confidence that they could navigate city life, feel comfortable outside of New Mexico, and feel strongly enough to compete in those areas in their career.

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The New York trip was such a success that Coffeen decided to return the following year with a new group of students. But the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in those plans.

It wasnt until this year that Coffeen was able to travel with students after a two-year hiatus. But instead of New York, the group opted for a more regional destination: Las Vegas, Nevada.

In February, Coffeen and 13 students enrolled in an upper-division fashion course traveled to Las Vegas and spent three days exploring the citys retail industry. They also attended the Magic Fashion Trade Show and visited NMSU alums working for Cartier and Louis Vuitton.

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One of the main reasons we went in February was because of the Magic Fashion Trade Show, which is the largest trade show in North America for fashion apparel, Coffeen said. We watched independent boutique owners and store buyers buy directly from the market. That was great for my students interested in opening their own stores or working for an established brand.

At the MGM Grand, the students met with representatives from Cirque du Soleil, including Jack Ricks, the companys head of wardrobe.

They gave us two and a half hours of their time, brought out different pieces of wardrobe, and told us interesting stories, Coffeen said. But most importantly for my students, they shared their pathways of how they were able to get to where they are today.

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Kallan Lightfoot, a senior majoring in fashion merchandising and design, was part of the class that traveled to Las Vegas. The three-credit class  CTFM 377  focuses on international and domestic fashion designers, manufacturers, merchandisers and retailers.

Lightfoot, an aspiring clothing designer who wants to create a line of sneakers, said one of the trips highlights was visiting Briana Reyes and Melissa Urbina, both of whom graduated from the FMD program and now work in luxury retail.

They explained to us that they didnt know what they wanted to do after graduation, either, he said. They just took the risk and went for it. So, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable moving forward.

Lightfoot, who graduates in May, described the trip as an eye-opening experience and said he is now exploring possible careers in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas wasnt one of the places that Id considered going to, he said, but after this trip, I definitely think theres a lot of opportunities there.

Coffeen said shed like to offer at least one trip per year, and her goal is to keep traveling costs as low as possible. She said more students were able to participate in the Las Vegas trip because it was less expensive overall than traveling to New York. The three-day trip was less than $1,000 per student and sold out within two weeks.

Coffeen said students who travel and have immersive experiences in the fashion industry before graduating will be more prepared when entering the workforce.

Our students are top students and can compete with many other university students from around the country, she said. So, the more confidence and connections we give them, I think the better career start they will have.

Carlos Andres Lopez writes for New Mexico State University Marketing and Communications and can be reached at 575-646-1955 or by email at carlopez@nmsu.edu.

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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU students immerse themselves in the fashion industry
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi signalled the beginning of the wheat harvest season in Toshka's agricultural lands in the Upper Egypt governorate of Aswan on Thursday morning, the presidential spokesman said.

El-Sisi arrived in Aswan's South Valley to inspect lands in Toshka during a ceremony held to open the wheat harvest season.

The visit is part of the states efforts to establish integrated agricultural communities with great economic returns, help ensure food security, increase exports, make a breakthrough in agriculture, and generate thousands of job opportunities, read a statement by the presidential spokesman.

During the tour, El-Sisi was apprised of the different types of harvests and visited greenhouses, wheat, sesame, and palm farms.

The president was accompanied by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Agriculture El-Sayed El-Quseir, Supply Minister Ali Moselhi, and Armed Forces commanders.

The wheat harvest season in Egypt starts this year on 1 April, instead of 15 April, and will run through the end of August.

Egypt's Minister of Agriculture stated on Thursday that the countrys cultivated area of wheat in the 2021/2022 season is 3.65 million feddans, and the productivity is expected to hit 10 million tons, of which the country seeks to collect about 5-6 million tons from farmers.

Harvest rates are estimated to reach 17 percent in April and 75 percent in May, while the remaining will be harvested in June, El-Quseir said.

Egyptian officials have repeatedly offered assurances that after receiving local supplies from the current harvest season  which if reached six million tonnes would be up by 2.5 million tons than in 2021  Egypts needs of wheat would be met until almost the end of the year.

The increase, according to previous remarks by the Ministry of Agriculture, is the result of increasing the amount of land devoted to wheat cultivation by more than 400,000 feddans last year.

It also came as a result of El-Sisis directives to the government to provide farmers with incentives to sell more of their crop to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

The officials' assurances come despite the disruption of grain supplies from Black Sea ports to the Middle East and North Africa due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for nearly 30 percent of global wheat exports.

Egypt is the worlds top wheat importer. It receives around 80 percent of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.

The country is currently in talks with other markets, including non-European countries.

In mid-April, El-Quseir announced that India is the latest in the list of countries that will serve as an alternative source of wheat for Egypt.

During the ceremony on Thursday, El-Sisi inaugurated via video conference a number of new silos in Sharqiya, Giza, Qalioubiya, and Ismailia within the framework of the national silos project, reported the Egyptian State news agency MENA.

The project includes silos with a capacity of 90,000 tons in New Salhiya city in Sharqiya, a silos complex with a capacity of 90,000 tons in Arab El-Ulayqat city in Qalioubiya, a silos complex with a capacity of 60,000 tons in Beni Salama city in Giza, and a silo with a capacity of 30,000 tons in Abu Suwir in Ismailia.

In December 2021, El-Sisi inaugurated a number of land reclamation projects in Toshka, reportedly the largest of their kind in the Middle East. The projects are meant to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, an Egyptian staple.

The project was originally launched in 1997 during the tenure of late president Hosni Mubarak to reclaim and cultivate 540,000 feddans. It was originally scheduled for completion in 2017.

The project aims to increase habitable land from five to 25 percent, expand agricultural production, and create new job opportunities away from the dense arable lands of the Delta and Nile Valley.

Work at the Toshka project, widely deemed futile by experts who questioned its feasibility, stopped in 2008 before it was revived by El-Sisi in July 2020.

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World number one Ko Jin-young, seen here at last month's Chevron Championship, shot eight birdies on Friday at the Los Angeles Open (AFP/katelyn Mulcahy) (katelyn Mulcahy)

World number one Ko Jin-young fired eight birdies in a seven-under par 64 on Friday to grab a share of the second-round lead alongside Japan's Nasa Hataoka in the LPGA's Los Angeles Open.

Ko, aiming to bounce back from a disappointing finish in the first major of the year at Rancho Mirage two weeks ago, reeled off four birdies in a row from the 11th through the 14th at Wilshire Country Club to power up the leaderboard.

She shot a seven-under 135, tied with Hataoka, whose three-under 67 included birdies on her last three holes.

"My putting was so good today," Ko said. "I wasn't expecting to play really well today, because in the afternoon it's always hard to play this course. But my putting was good, so I'm happy with it."

Ko, who added her fifth back-nine birdie on the 17th, said she didn't even realize she'd played the back nine in five-under.

"I didnt know that, I was in the zone," she said.

The 26-year-old South Korean, who won five times last year and added her 13th LPGA title in Singapore last month, is coming off a disappointing share of 53rd at the Chevron Championship.

"I have two more rounds and nobody knows how it goes," she said. "So (I'm) working hard and focusing on it and go get it."

Hataoka, chasing her sixth LPGA title, said the breezy weather again made things tricky.

"The wind was pretty strong, she said. "The greens are pretty tight, narrow. So my plan was to hit the green, not try to be too aggressive.

"On the back nine, the wind kind of got weaker, so I was able to hit at the pin."

Australias Hannah Green was two strokes back after a 67 for five-under 137.

Fellow Australian Minjee Lee carded a 68 for a share of fourth on 138 alongside South Korea's Kang Hae-ji, who posted a 69.

Overnight leader Alison Lee carded a three-over 74 that dropped her into a tie for 10th.

Eighteen players were still on the course when darkness halted play. They will complete their rounds on Saturday.

Defending champion Brooke Henderson of Canada was in danger of missing the cut after following her first-round 76 with a one-over par 72.

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Weather Alert

...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 8 AM PDT TUESDAY... * WHAT...Overnight temperatures expected to drop into the low to mid 30s with sub-freezing temperatures as low as 30 to 32 in the cold prone areas of these zones. * WHERE...In Washington, Kittitas Valley and Yakima Valley. In Oregon, Foothills of the Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon and Foothills of the Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon. * WHEN...From 2 AM to 8 AM PDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Sensitive plants and vegetation should be protected. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above- ground pipes to protect them from freezing. &&
Explosives planted at a bar in northeast Nigeria injured 11 people, police said Saturday, the second attack in days targeting drinking spots in Taraba state and claimed by affiliates of the Islamic State group.

The blast went off at a moonshine bar in Nukkai, outside state capital Jalingo around 1900 GMT on Friday, police spokesman Usman Abdullahi, told AFP.

"The explosive concealed in a polythene bag was left at the bar by an unknown person during a power outage," he said.

"Eleven people were injured in the blast, including 10 men and a woman."

On Saturday, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility.

"The soldiers of the caliphate detonated an explosive device... inside a bar in Nukkai," the group said on Telegram, claiming the attack wounded 10 people.

On Tuesday, an explosion at a bar in the nearby town of Iware killed six people and injured 16 others, police said.

ISWAP claimed that blast in a statement posted on IS propaganda channels monitored by SITE Intelligence.

That was the first indication that ISWAP is operating in Taraba, outside its habitual area of operations in the Lake Chad region.

Taraba is one of several northern states where criminal gangs, branded bandits, raid villages, kill residents, loot and burn homes and kidnap for ransom.

There have been increasing concerns about growing ties between jihadists and bandits who are motivated by financial motives with no ideological leaning.

ISWAP and rival Boko Haram are known to step up attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On Wednesday, ISWAP killed 11 people, including nine, at a bar in northeast Nigeria's Yobe state.

A 13-year Islamist insurgency has killed 40,000 people and displaced two million in north-eastern Nigeria, according to the United Nations.

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The fresh newsletter for the International Community in Hungary - described by readers as a "Great read each week" - is now available for your interest and use via the link below.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Jammu and Kashmir to attend the National Panchayati Raj Day celebrations. PM Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for several development projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore during his visit. One of the multiple important projects to be inaugurated during this visit is the Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel.

Besides, other projects started after this visit, like three road packages of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, the Ratle and Kwar Hydroelectric project and the Kwar Hydroelectric Project. But here, we have focused specifically on the Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel and the amazing facts surrounding it. Here are all the facts you need to know about the Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel:

Also read: 2022 Nexa XL6 vs New Maruti Suzuki Ertiga spec comparison: Price, engine, features and more

-The Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel is constructed at the cost of over Rs 3,100 crore

-The Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel is a two-tube tunnel, one for each direction of travel, with a cross passage every 500 metres for maintenance and emergency evacuation.

-The 8.45-kilometre tunnel would shorten the distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 16 kilometres and cut travel time in half.

-The tunnel will aid in the establishment of an all-weather link between Jammu and Kashmir, bringing the two regions closer together.

-This project's goal was to create an all-weather route for traffic in the Union Territory, which would otherwise be impeded during the winter months due to snowfall and landslides.

-The tunnel, which is 5,800 feet above sea level, will take the place of the Jawahar tunnel as an all-weather, 24-hour traffic option.

-BuildOperateTransfer (BOT) was used to construct the Banihal-Qazigund tunnel. The BOT is a project delivery mechanism for large-scale infrastructure projects in which a private firm receives a concession from the public sector (or, on rare occasions, the private sector) to fund, design, construct, own, and operate a facility specified in the concession contract.

-The Banihal-Qazigund Road tunnel project proponent can recoup its investment, operating, and maintenance costs through this public-private collaboration.

With inputs from ANI

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Dubai's inaugural 'Most Noble Numbers' charity auction, which offered bids on special vehicle number plates and exclusive mobile phone numbers, set a record for the third-most-expensive plate number sold in the world. AA8, a single-digit number, earned Dh35 million (over Rs 70 crore) at the Dubai auction, following the Dh38 million (over Rs 79 crore) price of the AA9 plate number last year.

After fierce bidding, the auction raised Dh53 million in support of the '1 Billion Meals' campaign, which will provide food to vulnerable communities in over 50 countries. The auction was organised by Emirates Auction and Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai (RTA).

Among the items sold at the auction was a double-digit Dubai car number plate F55 that sold for Dh4 million (more than Rs 8.23 crore). Another car plate V66  also went for Dh4 million, while Y66 was sold for Dh3.8 million (more than Rs 7.91 crore).

Also read: Kia Carens vs Maruti Suzuki XL6 spec comparison: Engine, price, features and more

India

In a recent auction organised by the Chandigarh Registering and Licensing Authority, a Honda Activa owner in Chandigarh paid more than Rs 15 lakh to secure himself a super VIP '0001' number plate.

The Chandigarh Registration and Licensing Authority auctioned off 378 elegant registration numbers for Rs 1.5 crore, and the 'CH01-CJ-0001' was auctioned off at a starting price of Rs 500,000 and sold for Rs 15.44 lakh to Brij Mohan, who runs an advertising agency.

Mr Brij Mohan bought this number plate to reserve it for his future vehicle, which he plans to purchase during Diwali 2022. In the beginning, this number will appear on his Honda Activa, but it will eventually migrate to his new car.

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Since the day India has lifted its ban from international flight operations, there has been a constant increase in the air traffic. Around 1.06 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in March, approximately 38 per cent more than 76.96 lakh flyers in February, Indian aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated.

The passenger load factors (the occupancy rates) were above 80 per cent for all Indian private carriers in March, DGCA stated in its monthly statement. India resumed regular international passenger flight operations on March 27 after a two-year-long Covid-19 induced hiatus.

Here are the top 7 airlines which recorded an increase in the passenger load factor:

The load factors of SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 86.9 per cent, 81 per cent, 86.1 per cent, 81.4 per cent, 85 per cent and 81.3 per cent, respectively, in March 2022, it mentioned. Followed by the Centre-run regional carrier Alliance Air recorded a load factor of 74 per cent in March this year, it noted.

Also read: SpiceJet passenger tweets about dirty seats on flight, DGCA grounds plane

IndiGo

India's largest carrier -- carried 58.61 lakh passengers in March, a 54.8 percent share of the domestic market, the DGCA said. The DGCA data showed that in March, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 93.9 percent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

In a statement, an IndiGo spokesperson said, "The DGCA report is a testament to the IndiGo team's dedication to being true to its promise of on-time performance."

"IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 93.9 percent in March 2022. With the resumption of international operations, we will continue to provide affordable, on-time, safe and hassle-free travel experience to our customers onboard our lean clean flying machines," the spokesperson added.

Go First

Go First stood at number two position as it carried 10.44 lakh passengers in March and had 93 percent on-time performance at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

SpiceJet

SpiceJet flew 10.21 lakh passengers in March, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

AirIndia

Air India is the single largest international airline in India. However, domestic numbers are not so good and the airline flew 9.36 lakh passengers in March. With Tata Group taking over the control, these numbers are expected to go up.

Vistara

Vistara, Indias full carrier flew 8.9 lakh passengers with 91.9 percent on-time performance, as per the DGCA data.

AirAsia India

AirAsia India carried 6.98 lakh passengers in March, the data stated.

Alliance Air

Alliance Air, the remaining government airline with focus on UDAN network carried 1.45 lakh passengers.

(With inputs from PTI)

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The Iranian news website Nournews, considered to be close to the country's Supreme National Security Council, said a fifth round of talks was held in Baghdad. Ranking security officials from both sides as well as Iraqi and Omani officials, participated it said. It was not immediately clear when the talks took place. The fourth round took place in September.

Nournews reported a positive atmosphere permeated the talks increasing hopes for ``steps on the path of resumption of ties'' between the two nations, including a joint meeting of foreign ministers. Nournews also published a photo of two Iranian and Saudi officials standing at the side of Iraqi premier Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Iraq borders both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iran, the largest Shia Muslim country in the world, and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2016.

The Baghdad-mediated talks between the regional foes began quietly in Iraq's capital last year as Saudi Arabia sought a way to end the war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

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NEW DELHI: Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna recently jetted off to Manali to shoot for their upcoming film 'Animal'. The 'Rockstar' actor resumed work barely days after tying the knot with Alia Bhatt in an intimate ceremony in the presence of his close and dear ones. The wedding took place at actor's Mumbai residence 'Vastu'.

On Saturday, a video of 'Animal' lead star cast Ranbir and Rashmika was leaked from the shooting location in Manali. The actors were dressed up in ethnic attire and were seen guarded by security staff. While Ranbir was seen dressed in a white kurta set, Rashmika was seen in a red and white saree. Take a look:

A directorial venture of 'Kabir Singh' fame Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the film also stars Bobby Deol and Anil Kapoor. Ranbir and Rashmika were spotted on the first day of shoot by a fan and now their look is going viral on social media.

The Hindi-language crime drama is produced by Bhushan Kumar & Krishan Kumar's T-Series, Murad Khetani's Cine1 Studios and Pranay Reddy Vanga's Bhadrakali Pictures. 'Animal' is slated to be released on August 11, 2023.

For the unversed, actress Parineeti Chopra was the first choice as the leading lady for the film. However, the actress backed out of the project after which the makers roped in Rashmika Mandanna to take the role. Parineeti was supposed to play Ranbir's wife in the film. However, she exited the project to feature in Imtiaz Ali'snext titled 'Chamkila'.

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New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with World Bank President David Malpass in Washington on Friday and discussed several key economic issues including India`s continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict. They also discussed India`s upcoming G20 Presidency and World Bank leadership in India.

During the meeting, the Finance Minister stated that India`s pandemic response has focused on the twin goals of saving lives and livelihoods. India has been successfully running world`s 2nd largest vaccination programme, administering more than 1.85 billion doses of vaccines, she said.

The two discussed India`s continued recovery from COVID19, impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict, Single Borrower Limit and exploring the possibility of Guarantees from other G-7 nations, India`s G20 Presidency and @WorldBank leadership in India," the Finance Ministry tweeted.

The Finance Minister also suggested that multilateralism has become more critical as the world is undergoing a phase of exceptional uncertainty. "Finance Minister mentioned that India remains concerned about the risks to global recovery due to rising uncertainty amidst enhanced geopolitical tensions," the finance ministry said.

She also highlighted India`s roadmap for infrastructure development."Finance Minister Smt.@nsitharaman highlighted India`s roadmap for infrastructure development and look forward to @WorldBank `s continued support for financing #investments for the National Infrastructure Pipeline NIP and PMGatiShakti programme," the ministry said.

During the US visit, Sitharaman delivered remarks at the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) Development Committee Plenary.

She also held a series of bilateral meetings with her counterparts including ones from Indonesia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Sitharaman also met with senior officials of multilateral institutions including OECD, IMF, President CoP-26; and Vice Chair of Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.

She attended a FATF Ministerial Meeting and meeting with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Also Read: Garena Free Fire MAX redeem codes for today, April 23: Heres how to get free rewards

The Finance Minister also engaged the strategic community at Atlantic Council on India`s economic recovery, reforms and initiatives. Also Read: TCS Recruitment 2022: Graduates can apply for jobs under new hiring program, last date, registration details

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New Delhi: Days after a woman's message on a Rs 10 note went viral on Twitter, another photo has appeared which seems to be a reply to the woman -- Kusum's message. For the unversed, a few days ago, a Twitter user shared a picture of a Rs 10 mote which had a hand-written message on it for a man named Vishal written by his lover Kusum.

The woman who wrote it wanted to inform her lover Vishal that she was getting married on April 26 and wanted to run away with him before her wedding. The message read, "Vishal meri shaadi April 26 ko hai. Mujhe bhaga ke le jaana. I heart you. Tumhari Kusum (Vishal, I am getting married on April 26. Please take me with you. I love you. Yours, Kusum)"

Take a look at the picture:

A new photo has gone viral on social media which reportedly has Visha's response to Kusum's message. It read: "Mujhe tumhara message mil gaya hai. Main tumhe lene aaoonga. I love you, Tumhara Vishal (I have received your message. I will come to pick you up. Yours Vushal)"

This incident led to a meme fest on Twitter as when Kusum's message first went viral on social media, netizens urged each other to amplify the message so that it could reach Visha. One user wrote, "Twitter, show your power. Please amplify and tag all the Vishals that you know."

This new viral photo reminded netizens of the popular 'Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai' meme in 2016.
If you are an Indian student, staying in the country or settled abroad and making plans for abroad, make sure they dont involve going to Pakistan.

The University Grant Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have issued an advisory for Indian students asking them not to go to Pakistan for higher studies.

In n a joint notification, issued on Friday, the education bodies stated that those who pursue a degree from Pakistan will not be eligible for employment or higher studies in India thereafter.

The circular, however, makes an exception for Pakistani migrants who have been granted Indian citizenship.

All concerned are advised not to travel to Pakistan for pursuing Higher Education. Any Indian national/ Overseas Citizen of India who intends to take admitted to any degree college/ educational institution of Pakistan shall not be eligible for seeking employment or higher studies in India on the basis of such educational qualifications (in any subject) acquired in Pakistan, the notification read.

However, migrants and their children who have acquired higher education degrees in Pakistan and have been awarded citizenship by India would be eligible for seeking employment in India after obtaining Security Clearance from MHA, it added.

The latest educational advisory comes less than a month after the regulatory authorities asked Indian students not to opt for studies in China.

While the cause of Pakistan related circular is yet not known, the advisory against travelling to China for education came after the Chinese government denied visas to Indian students already pursuing degrees in Chinese universities.

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New Delhi: Amravati MP Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana were arrested on Saturday (April 23) from the Khar area over allegations of creating enmity between different groups. Khar police will present the couple in Bandra Holiday Court tomorrow, reported ANI.

Meanwhile, Police are collecting all the videos and press conference footage of the couple for analysis, Mumbai Police told ANI. The duo's arrest comes after they gave up their plan of reciting Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray's residence here, citing that they do not want to disturb the law and order situation in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city for an event.

#WATCH | Maharashtra: Amravati MP Navneet Rana & her husband MLA Ravi Rana arrested. The duo has given a written complaint to Mumbai Police, requesting to book CM Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena leaders Anil Parab, Sanjay Raut & all 700 people who were present outside their residence pic.twitter.com/HAIGfryYHC  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

The duo has given a written complaint to Mumbai Police, requesting to book CM Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena leaders Anil Parab, Sanjay Raut and all 700 people who were present outside their residence, reported ANI.

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Mumbai: Amid stiff resistance by the ruling Shiv Sena, independent MLA Ravi Rana and his wife MP Navneet Rana on Saturday gave up their plan of reciting Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray's residence here, citing that they do no want to disturb the law and order situation in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city for an event.

The Ranas announced the decision while speaking to reporters here in the afternoon at their residence in suburban Khar, outside which a large number of Shiv Sena workers were camping since morning, taking an aggressive stand that if the politician couple tries to go ahead with their plan, they would be taught a lesson.

The Rana couple had on Friday said that they were firm on their plan to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside 'Matoshree', the personal residence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra at 9 am on Saturday.

In the morning, Shiv Sena workers broke through the barricades and tried to enter the premises of their Khar residence. But the situation was brought under control by the police, who later asked the couple not to step out of their house as the situation may escalate due to the presence of a large number of Sena activists.

Addressing the press conference, Ravi Rana, who is an independent MLA from Badnera in Amravati district, said, "Leader of Opposition and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke to me and told me about Prime Minister Narendra Modi being honoured Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar award on Sunday. Therefore, in order to avoid any untoward incident a day before the programme today, we decided to withdraw our decision to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside the residence of CM Uddhav Thackeray."

"As a CM, Fadnavis has brought huge development to Maharashtra, whereas Uddhav Thackeray has not done anything in the last two and half years of his tenure. If there is an iota of late Balasaheb Thackeray's thoughts left in Uddhav Thackeray, he should not distance himself from the Hindutva ideology," he added.

PM Modi is scheduled to visit Mumbai on Sunday to accept the award, he said, adding that they did not want to create any situation that may would affect that event.

On Friday, Mumbai police had served a notice to the couple, asking them not to disturb the law and order situation in the city.

Rana had earlier told reporters here that he had demanded the chief minister read Hanuman Chalisa on Hanuman Jayanti "to rid Maharashtra of crises and attain peace for the state," but Thackeray had "refused" to do so.

Rana had supported the BJP-Sena government during 2014-19.

His demand followed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's 'ultimatum' to the state government to remove loudspeakers from mosques by May 3. He had threatened to play Hanuman Chalisa outside the mosques if the demand was not met. The BJP supported Raj's demand.

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Ahmedabad: Gujarat Congress Working President Hardik Patel on Friday said that he's quitting the party and joining the BJP amid the rumours of infighting is "out of question" in the present circumstances while also stating that he welcomes the political decisions taken by the saffron party recently.

"News of my leaving Congress and joining the BJP has been circulating in the news for a long time. But under the present circumstances, joining the BJP is out of the question. I`ve no plans to join BJP. I welcome the political decisions that have been taken by BJP recently," Patel said. "If any such decision has to be taken in the interest of the state and its people, I will speak out," he added.

The Congress leader said that he has expressed his concerns to Congress and hoped that the party high command will listen to his grievances.

ALSO READ: Prashant Kishor can revive Congress's fate in the 2024 elections? BJP, TMC say THIS

"The Opposition has to worry about the people. If we fail in the opposition, people are looking for alternatives. We have to think of changing our strategy, I will say on the day when the political decision is ready. I come from a Raghuvanshi family, I have Hindutva. We have been associated with Hindutva for thousands of years. I have spoken of my concerns to the party. I hope the High Command will listen to me," he said.

In a message to the Opposition, Patel said that they need to struggle against the government on the issues of the people. "The opposition has to fight and struggle against the government on the issues of the people. But we are unable to do so. So people will look for another option. The party is strong in Gujarat as they have leadership with decision-making abilities and it is the time to make the right decision," he said.

Clarifying his stand on the question of joining the BJP, Patel said that he has no plans to join the saffron party. "This is not even in my mind. The strength of the enemy should be acknowledged. It is powerful. And the enemy should never be underestimated," he said.

Lauding the BJP for revoking Article 370 and the construction of Ram Mandir, the Congress leader said that such decisions of the party should be commended. "I am not talking to BJP. I accept the good things of the BJP. BJP repealed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, and now good deeds like the construction of Ram Mandir should be commended," he said.

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Amid the ongoing loudspeaker and Azaan controversy, high drama unfolded in Maharashtra after MP Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, who is an independent MLA, announced that she will recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree (Uddhav Thackerays residence).

Soon after Ranas claim, Shiv Sena workers began protesting outside her residence following which security has been ramped up both at Matoshree and Ranas residence.

#WATCH Maharashtra | Shiv Sena workers protest outside the residence of Amravati MP Navneet Rana in Mumbai She along with her husband, Ravi Rana, an independent MLA from Badnera, plan to chant the Hanuman Chalisa outside 'Matoshree', the private residence of CM Uddhav Thackeray pic.twitter.com/Lm818pUWFd  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

The Maharashtra MP also claimed that she and her family are not being allowed to step outside the house on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays orders.

Maharashtra | Police aren't allowing us to step outside our house. Shiv Sena workers trying to attack our residence...We've always considered 'Matoshree' as a temple...Uddhav Thackeray only seeking political gains: MLA Ravi Rana in his social media post pic.twitter.com/jh3C4fJgvW  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

Police aren't allowing us to step outside our house. Shiv Sena workers trying to attack our residence...We've always considered 'Matoshree' as a temple...Uddhav Thackeray only seeking political gains, said MLA Ravi Rana in a social media post.

Maharashtra CM ordered Shiv Sena workers to heckle us. They're breaking the barricades. I'm reiterating that I'll go outside & will chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matroshree'. CM only knows how to throw people in jail, MP Navneet Rana told ANI.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leaders have alleged that both Navneet and Ravi Rana were prompted to do this and said they will protect Matoshree.

Uddhav Thackeray's close aide Sanjay Raut said Shiv Sainiks won't sit quietly if someone threatens to come at our residence and chant Hanuman Chalisa.

"Will Shiv Sainiks sit quietly if someone from outside says that they'll come &chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matoshree'? If you try to come to our residence, then we also have the right to answer in the same language. Don't give us threats of imposing President's Rule here," said Raut.

Will Shiv Sainiks sit quietly if someone from outside says that they'll come &chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matoshree'? If you try to come to our residence,then we also have the right to answer in the same language. Don't give us threats of imposing President's Rule here: Sanjay Raut pic.twitter.com/SLa1xZ4VUO  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

They (MLA Ravi Rana and MP Navneet Rana) have challenged the law and order situation. They were prompted to do this by someone. Shiv Sena workers are here to protect 'Matoshree'. Police are taking care of the situation, Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai told ANI.

Mumbai | They (MLA Ravi Rana and MP Navneet Rana) have challenged the law and order situation. They were prompted to do this by someone. Shiv Sena workers are here to protect 'Matoshree'. Police are taking care of the situation: Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai outside 'Matoshree' pic.twitter.com/AiqFVbxnCZ  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar also challenged the duo to come forward.

Maharashtra | We are waiting, we'll keep Hanuman Chalisa in front of us. We're waiting to teach them a lesson: Former Mumbai Mayor & Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar outside 'Matoshree' in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/HX4vcUIe9F  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

We are waiting, we'll keep Hanuman Chalisa in front of us. We're waiting to teach them a lesson, said Pednekar.

The controversy comes at a time when theres the situation of unrest in the state due to the Azaan row after MNS Chief Raj Thackeray said that he will play loudspeakers outside all mosques if Azaan noises are not toned down.

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Indore: Members of the legal wing of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) met the Indore Police Commissioner on Friday and thanked them for busting a gang of fraudsters that duped several US citizens.

According to commissioner Harinarayan Chari Mishra, the gang targeted senior citizens of the US and duped them by stealing their savings and post-retirement funds from their bank accounts. They used to take the victims into confidence by posing as US nationals with fake accents.

"We have booked all the accused. The investigation revealed that the accused used to con the citizens by accessing their social security numbers. The gang used to pretend to be a US-based caller with their accents and by using software for call spoofing," said Mishra.

Call spoofing is a practice by which the caller can disguise identity as the network transmits false information (about the name and location) to the receiver.

"The Indore Police busted this case by acting on a certain input, as no complaint about the fraud was lodged by the duped citizens," said the commissioner.

Further details into the matter are awaited.

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New Delhi: Delhi`s Rohini court on Saturday (April 23) sent five accused to police remand till May 1 and four accused to judicial custody in connection with the Jahangirpuri violence case. Recently, Delhi Police has invoked National Security Act (NSA) against the five accused who were further remanded today.

After taking note of the submissions, link judge Mayan Judge on Saturday said, granted eight-day custody of accused Ansar, Salim alias Chikna, Ahir, Dilshad and Sonu alias Imam to the police. Accused Aksar, Mohd. Ali, Gulam Rasul alias Gulli and Sheikh Hamid are sent to judicial custody and be produced on April 30, 2022, through video conferencing.

The Court also issued Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) against accused Sanwar Kalia, Saddam Khan, Anwar, Chand and Salman returnable for May 23, 2022.

Appearing for Delhi Police, Additional Public Prosecutor Advocate Ashish Kajal submitted that, all five accused-- Ansar, Salim, Ahir, Dilshad and Sonu-- are required for further interrogation, to confront all the co-accused persons with each other, linking the chain of the incident, to ascertain the role of each and every accused person properly.

The source of illegal weapons which are used in the alleged offence, for tracing the other accused persons involved in the case, sustained interrogation with all the accused person involved in the offence in the ongoing investigation into the Jahangirpuri violence case, Delhi police sources revealed Sonu alias Yunus, who allegedly fired shots during the clashes was planning to flee Delhi in a bid to evade arrest but he was caught 500 meters away from his house.

On April 19, the police had produced him before a concerned district court which sent him to four-day police remand. According to the Delhi police, Sonu was caught near his house when he came to collect money from someone so that he could use that money to abscond.

Violent clashes broke out in Delhi`s Jahangirpuri on April 16 between two groups during a Hanuman Jayanti procession that left nine people injured, including eight police personnel and a civilian. National Security Act (NSA) was imposed against five culprits involved in the clashes, top government officials said.

NSA has been also imposed against Ansar, Salim, Imam Sheikh alias Sonu, Dilshad and Ahir for their involvement in the Jahangirpuri violence.

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President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in France's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who decide to stay home.

A victory in Sunday's runoff vote would make Macron the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a victory for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist, yet the margin over his nationalist rival appears uncertain, varying from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll.

Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who either vote blank or stay at home and don't vote at all in this second and final round.

The April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates. Who becomes France's next leader will largely depend on what people who backed those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but don't want to see Le Pen in power either. A second term for Macron relies in part on their mobilization, prompting the French leader to issue multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days.

``Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trump's election happened: `I'm not going, what's the point?' I can tell you that they regretted it the next day,'' Macron warned this week on France 5 television.

``So if you want to avoid the unthinkable ... choose for yourself,'' he urged hesitant French voters.

The two rivals both appeared combative in the final days before Sunday's election, including clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pen's party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger ``civil war'' in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

``When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right,'' Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to ``do everything'' during his five-year term so that the French ``have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.''

Five years later, that challenge has not been met. Le Pen has consolidated her place on France's political scene, the result of a years-long effort to rebrand herself as less extreme.

Le Pen's campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russia's war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as France's first woman president.

She criticized Macron's ``calamitous'' presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

``I'm not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macron's policies ... his economic record is also catastrophic,'' she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, told the AP he thinks that Macron is going to win again. Le Pen ``has this lack of credibility,`` he said.

But if Macron is re-elected, ``there is a big problem,`` he added. ``A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.''

He said that means Macron will face a ``big level of mistrust'' in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while protecting social benefits at the same time. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise France's minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In an opinion piece Thursday in several European newspapers, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about ``populists and the extreme right'' who hold Putin ``as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.''

A Le Pen victory would be a ``traumatic moment, not only for France, but for European Union and for international relationships, especially with the USA,`` Lazar said, noting that Le Pen ``wants a distant relationship between France and the USA.''

In any case, Sunday's winner will soon face another obstacle to be able to govern France: A legislative election in June will decide who controls a majority of seats in France's National Assembly.

Already, the battles promise to be hard-fought.

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Srinagar: The security has been put on high alert ahead of PM Narendra Modi's first visit to the state of Jammu and Kashmir after scrapping Article 370. Multi-layer check points have been put in place at all sensitive and hypersensitive locations of the state. Besides this, surprise checking are being done on various parts of Kashmir for the past two days.

The security scenario has been further tightened following the sudden surge in militants attacks across Jammu and Kashmir in the past three days.

Senior police officials said that additional security forces have been deployed to ensure that no anti-national elements would come across to disrupt the peace atmosphere.

An aerial surveillance grid, drones and sharpshooters would be put in place around the radius of PM's rally venue.

The J&K Police and other security forces have managed to kill five terrorists in Baramulla and Jammu in the past two days in twin major operations.

These operations prove fruitful for forces as one of the longest surviving militant commanders Yousuf Kantroo was killed while Two JeM Fidayeens have been gunned down in the Sujwan area of Jammu.

PM to inaugurate, lay foundation stone of projects worth Rs 20k cr

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay foundation stone of development projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore in Jammu and Kashmir, including the opening of the Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel to establish all-weather connectivity between the two regions of the union territory.

Modi is travelling there to participate in the celebration for the National Panchayati Raj Day and address 'Gram Sabhas' across the country, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement. He will also visit Palli Panchayat in Samba district.

Seeking to develop and rejuvenate 75 water bodies in every district of the country, the prime minister will launch a new initiative named 'Amrit Sarovar', it said.

Modi is scheduled to attend the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Awards Ceremony in Mumbai later in the evening where he will receive the first Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award, the statement said.

The award has been instituted in the memory of Lata Mangeshkar and will be given every year to a person for exemplary contribution towards nation building, it noted.

In the statement on Modi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the PMO said the government has been focussed on bringing about wide ranging reforms to substantially improve governance and enhance ease of living for the people of the region at an unprecedented pace following the "constitutional reforms" of August 2019, a reference to the abrogation of Article 370 and making the erstwhile state into a union territory.

The projects being inaugurated or whose foundation stones will be laid in this visit will go a long way in facilitating basic amenities, ensuring ease of mobility and development of infrastructure in the region, it said.

Modi will inaugurate the Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel, built at a cost of over Rs 3,100 crore. The 8.45-km-long tunnel will reduce the road distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 16 km, and reduce journey time by around one and a half hours.

It is a twin tube tunnel, one for each direction of travel, and the tubes are interconnected by a cross passage every 500 m for maintenance and emergency evacuation. The tunnel will help establish all-weather connection between Jammu and Kashmir, and bring the two regions closer, the PMO said.

He will also lay the foundation stone of three road packages of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, being built at a cost of over Rs. 7,500 crore.

Among other projects, Modi will lay the foundation stone of Ratle and Kwar hydroelectric projects, a 850 MW facility to be constructed on Chenab river in

Kishtwar at a cost of around Rs 5,300 crore, and 540 MW Kwar hydroelectric project to be build in on the same river at a cost of over Rs 4,500 crore.

In order to further expand the network of 'Jan Aushadi Kendras' in Jammu and Kashmir, and to make good quality generic medicines at affordable prices available, 100 centres will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi. These centres are located in remote corners of the union territory.

Modi will also inaugurate a 500 KW solar power plant at Palli, which will make it the country's first panchayat to become carbon neutral, the PMO said.

During his visit, he will also hand over 'SVAMITVA' (survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas) cards to beneficiaries under the scheme. The cards will give villagers documentary proof of their ownership of properties so that they can use them for financial benefits if required.

He will also transfer award money to panchayats which are winners of awards given across different categories. The PMO noted that the 'Amrit Sarovar' project is part of the celebration of the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'.

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Srinagar: Two terrorists of Jaish were killed in an Encounter in the Mirhama area of Kulgam in South Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir Police said that going by the appearance of both the killed terrorists, they look like Pakistani terrorists however the identification is being ascertained.

A cordon and search operation was launched after receiving a specific input about the presence of terrorists in the Mirhama area of Kulgam by the Police and Army (09RR) in the area. During the search operation, as the search party proceeded towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the search party which was retaliated resulting in an encounter.

"In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of JeM outfit killed so far and their bodies have been retrieved from the encounter site. Based on the credible source report and as per physical appearance, both the killed terrorists seem to be Pakistani JeM terrorists however, their identification is being ascertained," said Vijay Kumar, IG Kashmir Police.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police also said that out of two local terrorists involved in the killing of two RPF jawans at Kakapora in South Kashmir one has been arrested while the other terrorist will be either arrested or killed soon.

The Police also recovered Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation.



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Terms like bulldozer and demolition have become a symbol of new political unrest in the country, especially after the Jahanguri encroachment drive. However, not all demolitions are about politics, some have a lot to do with illegal construction.

As Noida braces itself to see the demolition of the Supertech twin towers in Sector 93A, a densely populated area, on May 22, the local residents are worried about the approximately 40,000 tonnes of rubble that the demolition drive will leave behind.

In its August 31 judgment last year, the Supreme Court had ordered the demolition of the twin towers, Apex and Cayenne, with nearly 915 flats.

Edifice Engineering, a Mumbai-based demolition agency, has been tasked with bringing down both the towers in approximately "nine seconds".

What are those nine seconds will be like?

Those "nine seconds" are going to choke people, especially those who are already suffering from respiratory illnesses, in nearby societies and markets.

The residents of the two adjacent societies, ATS Green Village and Supertech Emerald Court, have already planned to move out during the demolition days, and some are even shifting out permanently, as the blast can weaken the foundation of their homes.

"It will lead to a lot of health complications due to the dust and debris. Imagine around 4,000 kg of explosives going off. The air around would be so toxic. As it is, the dust has been hanging around as parts of the walls are being demolished for many weeks now," author-journalist Ramesh Menon told IANS.

Clearing the debris of these two towers will also take a long time and while it continues, there will be dense dust around.

"It will certainly lead to respiratory irritation and those suffering from asthma will find it very difficult. The demolition may also damage the buildings nearby. No one knows how serious it would be as such a thing has never been done in an area where there are hundreds of flats in the vicinity," he lamented.

Supertech demolition: How many people are exposed to debris, rubble

Nearly 1,500 families live in the close vicinity of the towers which makes a rough estimate of around 6,000 people that will have to leave the area in advance for their safety and security.

According to Pratap Chakravarty, a resident of Supertech Emerald Court, the pre-demolition exercise involving 200 workers and heavy machinery "is leading to environmental concerns for Emerald Court and ATS Village and inhabited blocks near ground zero are facing the brunt."

"The RWAs of the two affected societies are helpless in mitigating the problem. Three Emerald Court towers are closest to the demolition site and many flat owners are now insuring their property," Chakravarty told IANS.

The residents have been told that there is going to be a five-six hour evacuation period. However, the real problem starts after the demolition.

Tentatively, around 3,000-4,000 kgs of explosives will be used for the demolition process.

(With inputs from IANS)

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New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, Pakistan`s role in using SIM cards of some arrested Gujarati fishermen to obtain information about Indian defence establishments, has come to the fore.

These Indian fishermen from Gujarat were arrested by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in 2020 when they were fishing on the high seas, according to a charge sheet submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a special court in Hyderabad in the Andhra Pradesh espionage case.

Naming two persons-- Altafhussen Ganchibhai alias Shakil,27, a resident of Gujarat, and Waseem, a Pakistani national-- the charge sheet mentions their involvement in conspiracy and espionage activities with an intention to wage war against India.

Ganchibhai and Waseem have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiracy to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66C of the Information Technology Act.

The case was originally registered on January 10 last year at the Counter Intelligence Cell police station in Andhra Pradesh`s Vijayawada district and was re-registered by the NIA on December 23 last year pertaining to criminal conspiracy to "carry out anti-national activities by Pakistani agents for obtaining crucial and sensitive information linked to Defense establishments from Indian Armed Forces personnel by engaging civilians as their agents using Social Media Platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram".

"Investigation has revealed that Ganchibhai, on directions of Pakistan based handlers had clandestinely activated WhatsApp by passing on OTPs received on Indian SIM numbers to his handlers in Pakistan for collection and transmission of sensitive information pertaining to Indian Defense forces and establishments," the charge sheet states.

As per the charge sheet, these SIM cards were subscribed in the name of the Indian fishermen from Gujarat. "Investigation established that these SIM cards were illegally routed back to India to the arrested accused Altafhusen Ganchibhai, who activated seven such SIM cards on directions of his handlers in Pakistan," reads the charge sheet.

Ganchibhai was arrested on October 25 last year in this case. However, the charge sheet states, Waseem had routed money clandestinely through online Cryptocurrency exchange platforms to Indian agents for eliciting sensitive and classified information pertaining to vital Indians Defense establishments. He is currently absconding.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of development projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday (April 24, 2022). Security arrangements have been strengthened ahead of PM Modi`s visit to Jammu and Kashmir`s Palli. Alert has been sounded along the border to thwart any attempts by the terrorist to create trouble.

The Jammu and Kashmir officials said a multi-tier security setup has been put in place as a part of foolproof security for PMs rally in Palli village of Samba district, where the prime minister is scheduled to address around 700 Panchayats across the country virtually.

The officials also added that the security arrangements were further tightened across the area after a failed fidayeen (suicide) attack near Sunjwan army installation in Jammu on Friday. Two terrorists and a CISF officer were killed in the security operation yesterday.

This will be PM Modis first visit to the union territory, other than his trip to the border posts, since the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.

PM Modi to address 30,000 Panchayati Raj Institution

The Prime Minister is scheduled to address panchayats across the country on `Panchayati Raj Diwas` tomorrow. Every year, April 24 is celebrated as the National Panchayati Raj Day.

The Prime minister will address a gathering including more than 30,000 Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) members of Jammu and Kashmir.

PM to inaugurate multiple projects

According to PMO, Prime Minister will inaugurate the Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel, built at a cost of over Rs 3100 crore. The 8.45 Km long tunnel would reduce the road distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 16 km, and reduce journey time by around one and a half hour. It is a twin tube tunnel  one for each direction of travel  with the twin tubes being interconnected by a cross passage every 500m, for maintenance and emergency evacuation. The tunnel would help establish an all weather connection between Jammu and Kashmir, and bring the two regions closer.

Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of three road packages of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, being built at a cost of over Rs. 7500 crore. They are for the construction of 4/6 lane access controlled Delhi-Katra-Amritsar Expressway from: Balsua on NH-44 to Gurha Baildaran, Hiranagar; Gurha Baildaran, Hiranagar to Jakh, Vijaypur; and Jakh, Vijaypur to Kunjwani, Jammu with spur connectivity to Jammu Airport, PMO said in a release.

PM Modi is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Ratle and Kwar Hydroelectric projects. The 850 MW Ratle Hydroelectric Project will be constructed on Chenab river in Kishtwar District at a cost of around Rs 5300 crore. The 540 MW Kwar Hydroelectric Project will also be built on Chenab river in Kishtwar District at a cost of over Rs. 4500 crore. Both the projects will help meet the power requirements of the region.

The release also stated that ibn order to further expand the network of Jan Aushadi Kendras in J&K and to make good quality generic medicines at affordable prices available, 100 Kendras have been made functional and will be dedicated to the nation by the PM Modi.

Prime Minister will hand over SVAMITVA cards to beneficiaries under the scheme. He will also transfer award money to Panchayats which are winners of awards given across different categories on National panchayati Raj Day for their achievements. Prime Minister will also visit the INTACH photo gallery which depicts the rural heritage of the region, and Nokia Smartpur, a rural entrepreneurship-based model designed to create ideal smart villages in India, PMO added.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The Congress panel set up by president Sonia Gandhi to work out a revival plan, as suggested by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, has submitted a report on its findings on Friday. Two members of the panel, KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met Sonia Gandhi at her residence to submit the report to her.

As per a Congress leader part of the panel, the committee went through Kishor`s proposals in detail and submitted its report to Sonia Gandhi. "Now, she will decide on Prashant Kishor`s role in the party," the leader told ANI. The group, comprising Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, and Mukul Wasnik, has submitted their opinion in a detailed report on Kishor`s suggestions.

According to sources, most of the suggestions have been found to be practical and useful. "As far as Prashant Kishor`s role is concerned, Gandhi will take the final call on it." Sources have also hinted that senior party leaders hold different views about Kishor and his role in the party.

ALSO READ: 'Have no plans to join BJP, but I welcome...': Gujarat Congress Working President Hardik Patel

"It looks like a strange equation. He is neither formally part of I-PAC nor does he hold any position in the organisation. Yet, they don`t function without him," a senior Congress leader said.

Ashok Gehlot has openly praised Prashant Kishor saying that he is a "brand" and Veerapa Moily has said that those opposing Kishor`s entry to the party are "anti-reformers". Some leaders have also said that Kishor`s relations with a few regional parties could benefit Congress if he formally joins the party.

Getting Kishor to join the Congress is a big challenge that the party will be facing, especially the decision of the capacity he`d be holding. Kishor`s proactive role can leave many leaders uncomfortable.

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A Sub Inspector with the Railway Protection Force died earlier this morning (Saturday), six days after he and a coworker were attacked by terrorists in Kakapora, Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. He and a colleague were killed by close range handgun shots.

RPF Sub-Inspector Dev Raj was admitted to SMHS Pulwama hospital after he and some of his colleagues, including Surinder Singh, were attacked near a tea stall.

While confirming the death of the RPF officer, a senior police official said, "We tried our best to help, but he had serious bullet wounds. It is very devastating that we lost him."

ALSO READ: PM Modi to embark on maiden visit to J&K since abrogation of Article 370 - Check his itinerary here

The terrorists participated in the shooting of the duo on April 18, evening, firing from behind and at point-blank range by pistol, killing one of them and critically injuring the other before fleeing the scene.

According to a senior police officer, police have registered a case and are conducting investigations.

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Amid the ongoing Hanuman Chalisa controversy in Mumbai, Shiv Sena leader and Uddhav Thackerays close aide Sanjay Raut warned that Shiv Sainiks wont sit quietly if someone from outside says that they'll come and chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matoshree.

Reacting to MP Navneet Kaur and her husband Ravi Ranas announcement that they will chant Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree, Uddhav Thackerays residence, Raut said, Will Shiv Sainiks sit quietly if someone from outside says that they'll come &chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matoshree'? If you try to come to our residence, then we also have the right to answer in the same language.

Will Shiv Sainiks sit quietly if someone from outside says that they'll come &chant Hanuman Chalisa at 'Matoshree'? If you try to come to our residence,then we also have the right to answer in the same language. Don't give us threats of imposing President's Rule here: Sanjay Raut pic.twitter.com/SLa1xZ4VUO  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2022

The Maharashtra minister also warned the Centre that his party is not afraid of Presidents rule in the state.

Don't give us threats of imposing President's Rule here, Raut added.

Amid the ongoing loudspeaker and Azaan controversy, high drama unfolded in Maharashtra after MP Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana, who is an independent MLA, announced that she will recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Matoshree

Soon after Ranas claim, Shiv Sena workers began protesting outside her residence following which security has been ramped up both at Matoshree and Ranas residence.

The Maharashtra MP also claimed that she and her family are not being allowed to step outside the house on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays orders.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leaders have alleged that both Navneet and Ravi Rana were prompted to do this and said they will protect Matoshree.

They (MLA Ravi Rana and MP Navneet Rana) have challenged the law and order situation. They were prompted to do this by someone. Shiv Sena workers are here to protect 'Matoshree'. Police are taking care of the situation, Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai told ANI.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India`s stand on the Russia-Ukraine war was predicated on the security challenges in its own neighbourhood and the US should understand that though it has a friend in India, that "friend can`t be a weak friend (and) the friend should be not weakened".

The Union Minister said she found that understanding in her interactions during her ongoing visit to the US for the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group.

She met many US officials on the sidelines, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials, over a dinner hosted by the Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

"India certainly wants to be a friend but if the US also wants a friend, the friend can`t be a weak friend, the friend should not be weakened," Sitharaman told reporters at a news conference concluding her visit.

She added: "So we are making decisions, we are taking calls, we are taking calibrated positions because we need to be strong where we are, given the geographical locational realities."

These neighbourhood challenges included, as she laid out "tension" along the northern border with China that continued despite the Covid-19 pandemic, a western border with Pakistan that is "constantly at odds", and the influx into India of military hardware sent to Afghanistan for counter-terrorism operations.

India has been under pressure from the US to take a more forceful position against Russia`s invasion of Ukraine and cease or curtail trading relations, especially energy imports. A senior US National Security Council official went as far as to threaten India with "consequences".

India has not condemned the invasion outrightly -- and abstained on two votes in the UN Security Council -- but it has made clear its disapproval of it.

New Delhi has called for the cessation of hostilities and for differences to be resolved through diplomatic channels. Further, it has invoked the UN Charter`s cardinal principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations in a thinly disguised criticism of Russian aggression and has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

India has condemned the massacre in Bucha though and supported a call for an independent investigation called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

India has also cited its long relationship with Russia going back decades to the erstwhile Soviet Union -- including its decisive intervention in 1971 to keep off the US -- and reliance on military hardware exports in support of its less-than-shrill condemnation of Russia.

Despite the threat of consequences, the Biden administration has acknowledged India`s reasons and assured Indian officials it understands but, as conceded by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his recent visit for the 2+2 meeting, India lacks the same level of understanding outside the circle of officials and policy experts.

"Your neighbourhood is what you have, as a given," Sitharaman said, adding, "You have to keep that in mind when you`re talking about relationships."

While the Russia-Ukraine war has brought India challenges -- such as dried up supplies of sunflower oil from Ukraine and fertilisers from Russia -- the Union Minister said it has also presented opportunities.

Sitharaman was most upbeat about the possibility of lifting of WTO (World Trade Organisation) restrictions on Indian exports of cereals.

"The DG WTO (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria) was also present," she said, adding, "She was gracious enough to say -- addressing me in the plenary -- that you raise this issue, but we are looking at it positively and hopefully sort it out."

Indian exports of foodgrains run into WTO regulations on state-subsidised products because of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) that the government offers to guarantee farmers an assured return on their produce. WTO rules tend to extend the same restrictions to agricultural produce outside the MSP programme.
New Delhi: Veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, on Saturday, met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and following their meeting, shared a social media post praising the PM's work for the country.

'The Kashmir Files' actor took to his Twitter handle and posted pictures from his meeting with PM Modi.

In the first image, both of them could be seen standing together while facing the camera, while in the second one, Kher presented a special gift to the PM on behalf of his mother Dulari.

Along with the image, he tweeted, "Respected Prime Minister @narendramodi Ji. It was a great pleasure to meet you today. The hard work you are doing day and night for the countrymen is inspiring! We will always remember the reverence with which you accepted the Rudraksha mala sent by my mother to protect you. Jai Ho. Jai Hind!"

PM Modi replied to the actor's social media post by tweeting, "Thank you very much @AnupamPKher Ji. It is the blessings of your respected Mataji and the countrymen, which keeps motivating me continuously for the service of Mother Bharati."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kher recently received a lot of appreciation for his powerful performance in `The Kashmir Files`, which revolves around the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley in the 1990s.
The Ministry of Environment participated in a celebration held at the Wadi Degla Protectorate, coinciding with the 52nd World Earth Day for 2022 that is being held this year under the slogan Invest in Our Planet.

The event aimed to emphasise that development does not counter environmental protection, but rather promotes it," a statement by the Ministry of Environment said on Saturday. It was held in cooperation with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), in the presence of different governors and representatives of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Egypt and the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, in addition to a number of ambassadors and investors in the eco-tourism sector.

World Earth Day urges citizens to enhance harmony with nature and the earth, stop the illegal trade in wildlife, confront climate change, clear forests, and preserve biological diversity, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad stressed in the statement.

World Earth Day, which falls on 22 April every year, is the world's largest environmental movement.

The event was first launched in 1970 after three million gallons of oil spilled off the coast of California the year before.

Several landmarks and buildings in Egypt, including Cairo University, lit up in green on Friday in celebration of the day.

The slogan Invest in Our Planet is pertinent since investing in the planet and protecting the environment and natural resources do not mean a decline in the economy of countries amid the current eglobal crisis, Fouad stressed.

Investment and environment are two sides of the same coin, Fouad added.

On the occasion of World Earth Day, Fouad called on everyone - especially industry, economy and investment people - to work hard and strive to save the planet by reducing the effects of climate change.

She also stressed the importance of supporting the state's ongoing efforts in transitioning the country towards a green economy.

The minister highlighted the importance of the optimal investment of natural resources to reduce the effects of climate change, as Egypt prepares to host the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

During its presidency of COP27, Egypt is adopting a comprehensive and environmentally-friendly approach, as the conference aims to support efforts to reduce emissions and provide funding for developing countries to deal with climate change.

And ahead of COP 27, Egypt launched major environmental projects and climate-focused programmes in its endeavor towards a green economy.

Sharm El-Sheikh and Alexandria have recently banned single-use plastic bags from their beaches and announced their plans to become green sustainable cities.

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New Delhi: After superstar Akshay Kumar publicly apologised for associating with tobacco brand Vimal Elaich, his celeb peers Juhi Chawla and Milind Soman supported him for his decision.

For the unversed, Akshay Kumar recently faced flak from fans after he was welcomed in the 'Vimal universe' in a Vimal Elaichi ad. Fans pointed out Akshay's earlier stance against tobacco products and called his association with the brand as hyprocritical.

Following this, the Bollywood superstar issued a statement on Twitter in which he said, "I am sorry. I would like to apologise to you, all my fans and well-wishers. Your reaction over the past few days has deeply affected me. While I have not and will not endorse tobacco, I respect the outpouring of your feelings in light of my association with Vimal Elaichi. With all humility, I step back."

He also announced that he would contribute the entire endorsement fee towards a worthy cause.

Responding to this apology, fitness enthusiast and model-actor Milind Soman said to Akshay: "You made the right choice, whatever the reason!".

@akshaykumar you made the right choice, whatever the reason !  Milind Usha Soman (@milindrunning) April 21, 2022

Actress Juhi Chawla also showered support on Akshay. Taking to Twitter, she wrote, "Respect."

Respect  Juhi Chawla (@iam_juhi) April 21, 2022

For the unversed, the controversy erupted after the actor was seen sharing screen space with other Bollywood superstars - Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan - for the popular elaichi pan masala commercial.

As soon as the commercial went viral, it evoked a sharp response from the netizens. While some heavily criticized the actor for sharing the screen space for the tobacco brand, some others were happy to see the three top stars together for one single ad.
New Delhi: With the rapid adoption of digital frauds, the number of bank account fraud cases is also on the rise. Scammers are using various modus operands to loot the bank accounts of innocuous customers. However, the good news is that you can get your money, lost in bank fraud, back by taking quick actions.

Speaking at ZeeMedia Learning XP, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Dr Pavan Duggal, said that victims losing money to bank frauds can get 90% of their money back in just 10 days. But it is important to take the right steps at the right time. Otherwise, you would lose the funds.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), even after any unauthorized transaction, customers can get a full refund. The Central Bank had pointed out earlier that by giving immediate information about any unauthorized transaction, you can avoid losses.

According to the RBI, 'If you have suffered a loss due to unauthorized electronic transactions, your liability may be limited, but also zero, if you notify your bank immediately.'

How to get money lost in an unauthorized transaction back?

Most banks have an insurance policy against unauthorized transactions. Raising a complaint on time will compensate for your loss. The bank provides a small window to customers during which they can raise their complaints and make a claim against their loss. Bank customers can also buy direct insurance policies against cyber fraud.

According to the guidelines, a bank customer has to report an unauthorized transaction within three days. If you miss the deadline, it would be difficult to get a refund of the lost money. The funds can be returned to the customers bank accounts within 10 days of informing the bank. Also Read: Elon Musk mocks Bill Gates with meme; Heres why the worlds richest man is furious with Microsoft founder

Further, bank customers would have to face a loss of up to Rs 25,000 for reporting the unauthorized transaction after 4 to 7 days of the incident. Also Read: Fraud Alert! SBI warns customers not to entertain THESE numbers, here's why

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New Delhi: The State Bank of India, or SBI, has issued a warning to its customers about an alleged phishing fraud that has been spreading across the country. The country's largest public sector bank has alerted its customers about an SBI phishing scam that uses the bank's name to defraud people of money via various channels including as tweets, SMSes, and emails. The bank has provided two phone numbers and has encouraged account holders not to answer calls from those numbers if they receive one.

The SBI has advised its customers not to accept calls from +91-8294710946 or +91-7362951973, as these look to be scam calls. CID Assam was the first to report the numbers, tweeting, "SBI Customers are getting calls from two nos. -+91-8294710946 & +91-7362951973 asking them to click on a phishing link for KYC update. All SBI customers are asked not to click on any such phishing/suspicious link."

Later, the bank confirmed this. "Do not engage with these numbers, and don't click on #phishing links for KYC updates as they aren't associated with SBI," SBI retweeted.

Customers have also been tweeting about the SBI scam, and the public sector lender has been responding to them. In response to one of these tweets, SBI stated, "We appreciate your attention and thank you for telling us. Our IT Security team will take the necessary steps. Furthermore, we encourage all of our clients not to respond to emails/ SMS/ calls/embedded links requesting personal or banking information such as user ID/ Password/ Debit Card number/ PIN/ CVV/ OTP, etc. These questions are never asked by a bank. Customers may report such Phishing/Smishing/Vishing attempts via email. To take action, send an email to phishing@sbi.co.in or call the hotline at 1930. They can also report these incidents to their local law enforcement."

In order to effectively combat fraud, the Reserve Bank of India released an educational brochure outlining how fraudsters and scammers operate and how to protect yourself from them.

"Fraudsters distribute fraudulent messages on attractive loans in instant messaging apps / SMS / social media platforms and use the logo of any known NBFC as a profile picture in the mobile number supplied by them to induce trust," the RBI stated. The scammers then call random persons and exchange bogus sanction letters, copies of fraudulent cheques, and so on, demanding a variety of fees. Once the borrowers pay these fees, the fraudsters take the money.

The RBI has advised clients to take numerous safeguards against these scammers, including not believing suspicious people or clicking on any link received by SMS or email. Customers have been subjected to numerous such incidents, including the recent SBI scam.

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New Delhi: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has re-clarified the story of the electric vehicle company`s early days to a Bengaluru-based man who tweeted that "Elon Musk was not the founder of Tesla. He acquired it".

The tech billionaire recently reiterated a few points about Tesla`s early days in a set of tweets following a post from Vaibhav Sisinty, the CEO and founder of GrowthSchool, reports Teslarati.

Sisinty posted a "reminder" that Musk was not the founder of Tesla, and he simply acquired the company.

It did not take long before the Tesla CEO decided to correct the narrative and provide some new insights on Tesla`s early days in the process.

"Not even close to that. It was a shell corp with no employees, no IP, no designs, no prototype, literally nothing but a (business) plan to commercialize AC Propulsion`s T-Zero car, which was introduced to me by JB Straubel, not Eberhard. Even (the) name `Tesla Motors` was owned by others!" Musk wrote on the microblogging platform.

Musk stated that if one were to follow the logic adopted in the narrative that paints Eberhard and Tarpenning as the founders of Tesla, then he would be the only "founder" of PayPal since he started the company that eventually became the online payments giant.

According to the report, during his TED 2022 appearance, Musk stated that his worst business decision was probably the fact that he did not just start Tesla with JB Straubel.

Musk stated that he did not invest in a company. Also Read: Nirmala Sitharamans US visit: FM meets World Bank President, interacts with top CEOs -- Key points

He, Straubel, and the other individuals listed as Tesla`s founders created a company, one that became the world`s most valuable automaker with a valuation of a trillion dollars. Also Read: Twitter bans misleading climate change ads that contradict scientific consensus
Kunduz: A bomb blast ripped through a mosque, killing 33 people including children, during Friday (April 22, 2022) prayers in northern Afghanistan a day after the ISIS group claimed two separate deadly attacks.

At least 43 others wounded after a blast rocked a mosque in Afghanistan`s northern province of Kunduz, Chief spokesman of the Taliban-led caretaker government Zabihullah Mujahid said.

"We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz province this afternoon. As a result 33 villagers, including several children, were killed and 43 were wounded," the spokesman wrote on social media.

Mujahid condemned the attack and stated that the culprits behind the attack will be brought to justice, Xinhua news agency reported.

ALSO READ | Afghanistan: Separate blasts at mosques kill 22, many wounded

The explosion occurred on Friday afternoon, nearly at 2:30 pm, in Mullah Sikandar mosque in Imam Sahib, a witness told Xinhua anonymously.

The incident came shortly after Friday prayers when a group of worshippers were ritualizing Zikr, a special religious practice, to celebrate holy month of Ramadan.

The nature of the blast that severely damaged the building was not immediately known. One side of the mosque was completely destroyed by the explosion.

Besides, at least one person was wounded in the country`s national capital Kabul in a roadside bomb blast which came hours after Kunduz explosion in Police District 7 of the city, according to a security source. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On Thursday, 34 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in multiple explosions, including a blast targeting a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif city, capital of northern Balkh province.

(With agency inputs)

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Beijing: China's ruling Communist Party has set the ball rolling for a rare third term for President Xi Jinping as he was unanimously elected as a delegate for the once-in-five-year party Congress to be held in the next few months which was widely expected to put a seal of approval for his continuation.

Xi, 68, was elected delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the party's Guangxi regional Congress by a unanimous vote on Friday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Xi was nominated by the CPC Central Committee as a candidate for delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress, scheduled to be held in the second half of 2022, the report said.

ALSO READ: 'Very clear' that we don't want India to rely on Russia, warns US amid Ukraine war

The CPC Congress of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was held on Thursday and Friday in the regional capital of Nanning.

The Congress, which is due to be held in November, has been preponed apparently as the leadership get-on with it early in view of the complex and fluid national and international situation starting from the relapse of COVID-19 virus in the country paralysing Shanghai and the deepening Russia-Ukraine war in which Beijing was caught in the middle with mounting US pressure to break off from close ally Moscow.

Ever since his first election in a similar CPC Congress towards the end of 2012, Xi heading the party, the powerful military and the presidency have consolidated his hold on power, highlighting the need for strong leadership to strengthen the stability of the party and the country in the face of international adversity building against the country on a host of issues.

With highly successful campaigns like the crackdown against corruption punishing over a million officials, including over 50 top Generals of the military, besides subduing massive anti-China agitation in Hong Kong with National Security Law and tiding over the international adversity generated by the emergence of the corona virus pandemic from Wuhan, Xi has emerged stronger every year.

He has emerged as a core leader on par with the party founder Mao Zedong, who remained in power until he died in 1976.

This year, Xi will be completing the 10-year tenure. All his predecessors retired after two five-year terms. By virtue of elevation to the status of a core leader, he will continue to remain in power for another five-year term and perhaps for life.

The plenum of the CPC held in November last year already paved the way for Xi's continuation by adopting a landmark resolution to cement his "core" status in the country's political history and cleared the decks for him to extend his rule for a record third term and beyond.

The Congress will usher in a completely new set of officials, including a new Premier as incumbent Li Keqiang, who has the status of number two after Xi, has already announced that he will be stepping down.

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New Delhi: Google on Saturday (April 23, 2022) celebrated Naziha Salim, one of Iraq's best-known artists, with a special doodle. On this day in 2020, Naziha Salim was spotlighted by the Barjeel Art Foundation in their collection of female artists.

"Todays Doodle artwork is an ode to Salim's painting style and a celebration of her long-standing contributions to the art world," Google said.

Born into a family of Iraqi artists in Turkey in 1927, Naziha Salim was a painter, professor and one of the most influential artists in Iraqs contemporary art scene.

Her father was a painter and her mother was a skilled embroidery artist. All three of her brothers worked in the arts, including Jawad, whos widely known as one of Iraqs most influential sculptors.

Todays #GoogleDoodle celebrates the artist Naziha Salim. The painter dipped her brush into Iraqi culture and spread it across world canvases Learn more about her story here https://t.co/gs3ZKUcFkq pic.twitter.com/wgVI3H87yj  Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) April 23, 2022

She was enrolled at the Baghdad Fine Arts Institute where she studied painting and graduated with distinction.

Naziha Salim, notably, was one of the first women awarded a scholarship to continue her education in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts.

After completing her graduation and spending several years abroad, Salim eventually returned to Baghdad to work at the Fine Arts Institute. She taught there until retirement.

Naziha Salims work depicts rural Iraqi women and peasant life through bold brush strokes and vivid colours. Her artwork hangs at the Sharjah Art Museum and the Modern Art Iraqi Archive and one can witness the magic she created from dripping brushes and brimmed canvases.

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Washington: The Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Friday (April 22, 2022) said United States discourages India to rely on Russia for its defence needs.

"We've been very clear with India as well as other nations that we don't want to see them rely on Russia for defence needs. We've been nothing but honest about that and discouraging that," Kirby told reporters at a news conference here.

"At the same time, we also value the defence partnership that we have with India. And as was evidenced a week ago, we're looking at ways to improve that going forward. That's going to continue because it matters and it's important, he said.

"India is a provider of security in the region and we value that, Kirby said.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in a daily news conference, had reiterated US's desire that New Delhi does not purchase oil from Russia amid American sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine.

We do not think India should accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities even as, obviously, those decisions are made by individual countries, she said.

And (the US is) also making clear that we stand ready to support India as in any efforts to diversify its imports and serve as a reliable supplier even as they're only importing about one to two per cent of their oil from Russia, she said in response to a question.

Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met European External Action Service Secretary General Stefano Sannino in Brussels. In the meeting, they underscored they will continue to urge China not to circumvent or undermine sanctions against Russia, and not to provide any form of support for Russia`s aggression against Ukraine, and reaffirmed that such support would have consequences for our respective relationships with China.

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Joining Tomaso Albinonis Adagio in G-minor and Sufi singing, the newly released music video Naeim Redak (The Blessing of Your Approval) is a unique collaboration between Basem Darwisch, his Egyptian-German band Cairo Steps and Sheikh Ehab Younis.

Released on Cairo Steps YouTube channel Thursday, the collaboration is a creative fusion between one of Western musics most iconic pieces and Sufi singing to the lyrics from old Sufi repertoire.

Besides Darwisch on oud and Sheikh Ehab Youniss vocals, the work also features a plethora of German musicians: Max Klaas on percussions, Jan Boshra on cello, Maria Voigt and Angelika Low-Beer on violins, Rageed William on duduk (a double reed woodwind instrument resembling a flute), Stefan Hergenroder on e-bass, Sebastian Mueller-Schrobsdorf on piano and Wolfgang Wittemann on soprano saxophone.

The video was created during Darwischs recent stay in Sinai. I did not really plan to create this video. I was in St. Catherine with two German videographers; we were shooting visuals for another piece from an album Mountain Melody.

Inspired by the beauty of Mount Sinai, Darwisch thought about capturing additional footage for Naeim Redak. Sherif El Alfie took footage of Sheikh Ehab on Kasr El Nil bridge at dawn hours and creation of a visual collage.

With music recorded in Egypt and Germany, mixing and mastering done by Bassem Sobhy from Egypt, the whole project became a real collaboration between two countries, said Darwisch, referring to Dream Studios-Mafdy Thabet in Cairo and Germanys Oberlin Studios.

The music video, which also incorporates a few shots from Egypts south, was directed by Mohamed El Alfie.

This is not the first collaboration between the Germany-based Egyptian musician and Sheikh Ehab. In 2016, Cairo Steps released their highly successful Yamaleka Al Qadri in which Sheikh Ehabs Sufi chant interweaves Erik Saties Gnossienne No 1. This was followed by another collaborative title, Malek Al Molk.

Albinonis Adagio which carries a lot of passion and sadness as Darwisch puts it, took two years to shape itself in the musicians mind who looked for a vocabulary that would express his own blended soul. Indeed, the Egyptian oud player, composer and music producer seats his work deeply in Middle Eastern ethos. At the same time, the years he spent in Germany has granted him an education and sensitivity that allow him to absorb other creative cultures. As a result, Darwisch and Cairo Steps, a band that he founded in 2002, are a reflection of his complexity as an artist and a human.

As for Adagio in G-minor, the composition has been attributed to the Venetian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni, giving it the weight of over three-centuries of musical history. However, some researchers claim it was composed by a 20th century cataloger and musicologist, Remo Giazotto. Regardless of its origin, Adagio in G-minor is a standard of Western music today that has made its way into many film scores and concert halls over the past decades. Adagios popularity however is a devil in disguise, a true blessing and a curse for the performers. The composition calls for unique creativity that could infuse this earworm-inducing melody with artistically novel and convincing concepts.

As the term indicates, an adagio is a slow piece of music, one characteristic of Albinonis Adagio in G-minor. Adagio Naeim Redak is faster, yet its pace  supported by Middle Eastern percussion  serves the conceptual purpose of the composition. As Darwisch explains Oriental cultures love rhythm. I opted for a compromise between the rhythm and the original work, trying to keep the authenticity of each.

The composer adds that Sheikh Ehab Younis, a blind Sufi chanter, is perfect for such musical procedures. I have known Sheikh Ehab since 2015. He has a great knowledge and a malleable musical sense. His affinity for the classical music allows him to incorporate this creative culture into his own. This is a very unique quality.

The final result is a melting pot of cultures, religions and musical traditions, in which Naeim Redak meets the expectations formulated by the experienced listeners and music afficionados alike.

Darwischs composition draws from Albinonis work its solemnity and an elegiac tone, and transcends itself beyond the material existence and into Sheikh Ehabs vocals, singing the old Sufi spiritual wording And if I obey  It is the bliss of your satisfaction  You created me and you created me  if it were not for you

As we walk on a soft contemplative carpet embroidered with gentle percussion, in the second half of the work the soprano saxophones reedy tonality delivers some awakening yet without deflecting our senses. By the time the warm line from the strings closes the composition, the listeners minds are already transformed. The silence that follows Naeim Redak is a moment of rumination about one self, cultures, religions and passage of time.

Besides its emotional charges, the decision to make Adagio in G-minor as lining for Naeim Redak carries technical responsibilities. The composition is not as easy as it may seem and according to Darwisch its delivery requires an impeccable intonation and sense especially in strings section, a quality he was happy to find in the musicians with whom he worked on the composition.

In our short conversation, the musician reiterates on multiple occasions his gratitude towards all the musicians and crew who contributed to Naeim Redaks output. It is a great and big team from Egypt and Germany behind this work. Without them it would not be so good and emotional, Darwisch concludes.

For the time being, listeners can enjoy Naeim Redak on Cairo Steps YouTube. Darwisch plans to perform the piece live in one of his upcoming concerts in Egypt for which we will have to wait until December 2022.

Founded in 2002 as a collaboration between Darwisch and German pianist Matthias Frey, Cairo Steps has performed extensively in Egypt and Germany, and on many other international stages.

The band brings together numerous music genres  traditional Egyptian and Oriental grooves, Sufi traditions, Western classical music, European ethnic music and jazz improvisation  into one melting pot. The final blend is a unique combination of compositions from Eastern and Western musical cultures.

In 2018, Darwischs Cairo Steps received the German Jazz Music Award for their album Flying Carpet, created with Quadro Nuevo. This collaboration also saw the participation of flutist Ines Abdel-Dayem, who is also Egypts culture minister.

In 2021, Basem Darwisch and the jazz music ensemble Quadro Nuevo were honored with a German Gold Award. The award was given for the album Mare by Quadro Nuevo, which includes Darwischs track Cafe Groppi, a composition inspired by the iconic coffee shop in downtown Cairo, as well as to Darwisch himself and the sound engineer.

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The Yemeni National Dialogue has succeeded in rehabilitating the nation-state in Yemen, but it will need to be built on to achieve lasting peace in the country.

The Yemeni National Dialogue, which convened in Riyadh from 29 March to 7 April, underscored the essence of the multifaceted Yemeni question: the need to restore the Yemeni nation-state. This had become an almost forgotten duty amidst the diverse agendas playing out in the country.

If the outputs of the dialogue appear to be largely tactical in nature, aimed as they are at paving the way to an end to the hostilities and a roadmap to a political solution to the conflict in the country, they nevertheless reflect the realisation that Yemen is fighting two battles at once: a military one and a battle for identity.

It is difficult to separate the two, and no political settlement of the armed conflict can achieve lasting results unless the battle of identity is also resolved. If this does not take place, identity-based ideologies that clash with the nation-state will continue to seethe beneath the surface and jeopardise stability.

This also applies to the regional dimension of the identity question, since it would be misleading to reduce the Yemeni crisis to the conflict against the north of the country controlled by the Houthi rebels.

The collapse of the regime led by former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 precipitated a resurgence of historic rifts, the most obvious being the north-south divide, which today is being articulated by the Houthi Movement in the north harking back to the pre-modern Yemeni Imamate and the Southern Movement in the south harking back to the former independent state of South Yemen.

This broader context throws into relief a dangerous trend. One of the most frequently heard concerns voiced during the dialogue was that the Houthi project threatens to erode national identity in Yemen. But it has become all too obvious since the outbreak of the countrys Civil War that the concept of a culturally pluralist nation-state has never taken root in Yemen and that this problem is not limited to the Houthis.

The Houthi insurgency was just one of the natural outcomes of the collapse of central authority in Yemen, a dynamic that has had historical precedents in Yemen and elsewhere.

But Yemen faces the unprecedented situation where two projects have re-emerged at once to threaten the reconstitution of a single state: the Houthi revivalist project fighting within the geographical boundaries of the historical Mutawakkilite Imamate in the north and the Southern Movement project in the south, factions of which have taken up the banner of secession and the resurrection of South Yemen.

The battles fought by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), the dominant faction in the Southern Movement, whether against Houthi incursions towards the south or against forces allied with the internationally recognised Yemeni government, confirm this.

However, the Southern aspirations are probably more containable than those of the Houthis in the north, given the Riyadh Agreement signed between the STC and the Yemeni government in 2019 and one of the outputs of this months dialogue making the STC one of the main components of the new Yemeni Presidential Council that has replaced the government of former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Houthis defeated the Salafis in Yemen at the battle of Dammaj in 2013, and they defeated the Muslim Brotherhood in the north when they staged their coup in September 2014. The Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen is represented by the Al-Islah Party, which went on to become the dominant faction in pro-Yemeni government forces in the south. After the 2014 coup, the Houthis aligned with former president Ali Abdullah Salah, enabling them to inherit his remaining legacy.

However, the Houthis greatest challenge in their drive to ascendancy was to assert their control over the Zaydi sect in Yemen, this being their primary sociocultural base.

Some maintain that the Houthi Movement has already succeeded in this and that there is no longer any resistance of note from within the Zaydi community. This also has historical antecedents since it is found in the Harudi creed, said to have led to an ideological rebellion in the framework of the Zaydi Shia belief in the Hidden Imam and a line of hereditary succession that traces itself back to Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohamed.

According to some observers, the present-day Ansarullah Movement, led by the Houthis, espouses a concept of the enemies of the ummah rooted in the Harudi creed of persecution under the Ottomans, the former rulers of Yemen. The ideological use of victimhood also has a geopolitical history in the region that transcends Yemen, but the Houthis identification of the US and Israel as the enemies of the ummah naturally intersects with the outlook of Iran.

For such observers, this convergence of beliefs paved the way to the Iranian intervention in Yemen even before the countrys 2011 Revolution in the six flareups of conflict between 2004 and 2010 if not before in the framework of the Iranian campaign to expand its Islamic Revolution.

This has led to speculation about the nature of the Houthi project. Some have described it as an Iranian edition of the Harudi creed on the grounds that its incubator is Tehran and not the local Zaydi environment. If this is the case, it would be a weak point in the Houthi project, or at least in its current evolution, precisely because this dependency renders it captive to the Iran.

The manner in which the Houthi project has spread ideologically in areas under the groups control during the past eight years has led some Yemeni observers to speak of the ignorant Imamate. The project is inherently a totalitarian theocratic one, they say, and one that is in the hands of individuals from caves in Saada. They mean that the Houthi leaders have at best a modicum of traditional education and are unequipped to govern in the 21st century.

More than two million children of school age are now not in school due to the war in Yemen, according to recent UNICEF figures. These children are the perfect vehicles for the Houthi project, both as fodder for the military and clean slates to be indoctrinated in Houthi thinking. There is also little difference between them and children who do attend school since the curriculum reflects the same doctrine.

Schools in Yemen have become one of the sources for the military recruitment of both sexes, according to one source. Girls are enrolled into Daughters of Zeinab programmes, from which they graduate into the all-female armed brigades the Houthis have established.

While some universities have been shut down as potential trouble spots, others have been converted into recruitment and indoctrination centres. The current war has thus sacrificed the education of an entire generation, and this will have disastrous implications for the future, regardless of how soon the war ends.

There have been reports of growing sectarian intolerance in Sanaa and elsewhere in northern Yemen. The tarawih (a Ramadan evening prayer) has been banned in many mosques, and the Houthis have instructed mosque imams to delay the time of the sunset call to prayer until the last rays of red have vanished from the horizon.

These and other practices are associated with Shia Islam, although some have attributed this rigidity to the Mutawakkilite legacy and the influence of extremist Harudi thought.

The Houthi authorities have also imposed extra religious sermons, which are published daily in the media and aired over mosque loudspeakers. Such practices undoubtedly hamper the prospect of social peace and coexistence in Yemen, which was once seen as a model in which it was hard to distinguish between Sunni Shafie Islam and Zaydi Shia Islam.

If the Houthis represent one of the more extreme facets of the problem of establishing a modern nation-state in Yemen, the National Dialogue conference demonstrates its fuller scope. There, too, the mentality that holds that whoever holds power is the state has seemed to prevail over the modern concept of the institutionalised state based on equal citizenship.

If some at the dialogue saw the need for a republican system in Yemen, others proposed federal concepts, while others still voiced ideas that seemed geared to resurrecting the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime. This latter option is untenable, even if Salehs nephew and his allies will have a significant say in future arrangements. The old regime with it tribalistic support and various ills has been consigned to history.

Regardless of such confusion, however, the National Dialogue did succeed in rehabilitating the concept of the nation-state in Yemen. This is a positive first step that needs to be built on and amplified in a practical way so that it can compete effectively against other agendas.

The common denominator between the weak points of all the other projects is that they hark back to various historical eras and are not forward-looking. Some have described parts of the contention over the nation-state as it unfolded in the dialogue as a debate between rival histories and one that was only set aside, perhaps momentarily, when the new government authority was formed.

There are now committees of wise men and elders in Yemen, useful tools to achieve communal reconciliation. But so far there is still no real modern state-building project. This will need a broader vision, concrete mechanisms, and a different context.

It was the lack of these things that cast Yemen back to square one after the revolution in warfare and the clash between primary allegiances. This also explains why most of the forces that are now part of the new government still make it a priority to defeat the Houthis militarily, even though one of the main outputs of the dialogue was the emphasis on the need pursue political solutions to end the crisis.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 21 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be decided on the eastern front amid fears of a long war of attrition.

In a decisive battle that will determine the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russia has begun its long-feared full-scale offensive to take control of Ukraines eastern region.

Although Russia has called the invasion of Ukraine a special military operation, the second phase of the fighting, focused on the Donbas region, bears all the hallmarks of traditional regular wars between two armies.

Since the start of the operation on Monday night, Russia has resorted to extensive and intensive bombing of a large number of Ukrainian targets. To fend off the Russian forces, the Ukrainian government has asked the West to supply it with more heavy and advanced weapons to confront the Russian army in eastern Ukraine.

In response, Russias Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, has accused the US and its Western allies of doing everything to drag out Moscows military operation in Ukraine by supplying Kyiv with arms.

In a televised meeting with Russian military commanders on Tuesday, Shoigu referred to eastern Ukraines two self-proclaimed republics, which Moscow has recognised as independent states.

We are gradually implementing our plan to liberate the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics. We are taking measures to restore peaceful life, he said.

As evidence of the great strategic importance that Moscow gives to the second phase of the battle, Russias Defence Ministry confirmed that Russian missile and artillery forces had struck 1,260 targets in Ukraine overnight on Monday, and that anti-aircraft forces had downed a Ukrainian MiG-29 jet in the Donetsk region.

A senior US Defence Department official said in a statement that Russia has 76 tactical groups in the Donbas region, with 11 of these added over recent days.

In a sign of early success, Russian troops have reportedly captured the eastern Ukraine town of Kreminna, while the local authorities have urged residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to evacuate.

Currently, control over the city of Kreminna is lost, and street fighting is taking place, Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on his official Telegram channel on Monday night.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Moscow has started a new stage of its military operation in Ukraine, predicting it will be a significant development.

Another stage of this operation is beginning, and I am sure this will be a very important moment of this entire special operation, Lavrov said in an interview with the India Today TV channel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also confirmed the military action in the eastern region.

Now we can state that 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, he said in a video address.

No matter how many soldiers are driven there, we will defend ourselves. We will fight. We will not give up anything Ukrainian. he added.

Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of Zelenskys office, told the BBC that it was very important for Ukrainian forces to have heavy weaponry, including artillery systems, tanks, and armoured vehicles.

If Ukraine has these weapons, it will be able to withstand the Russian offensive and have victory in the eastern region, he argued, adding that arms shipments from the West were getting better.

The latest $800 million batch of US military aid included items we really need, he added.

In the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Russian-backed fighters are reportedly trying to storm an industrial complex where the last Ukrainian defenders are holed up, along with civilians. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russias Chechnya region and an ally of Moscow, said Russian forces would completely take over the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city on Tuesday.

Today, with the help of the Almighty, we will take over Azovstal completely, Kadyrov said in an audio message on his Telegram channel.

As the battles intensified in eastern Ukraine, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that the situation in Ukraine was perilous and that Russian President Vladimir Putin, angered by defeats, is determined to claim some sort of victory regardless of the human cost.

A senior UK national security adviser said that Putin was focused on the Donbas region and that the next phase of the war was likely to be an attritional conflict which could last several months.

After the military setbacks that Russia has suffered in the past weeks, including its failure to achieve military progress around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the failure to fully control the city of Mariupol, the bombing and sinking of the warship Moskva in the Black Sea, and the killing of many of its generals, Moscow now hopes to achieve its goals in controlling eastern Ukraine, even if there are fears of a long and painful battle.

An informed European diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that the next stage of the battle would be difficult for the Ukrainian forces after Moscow changed the head of its military operation in Ukraine.

There are Russian or pro-Russian forces in Donbas. Some segments of the population are also loyal to Moscow, and this constitutes a significant difference from the battles in the north and west of Ukraine, he said.

But he warned against expecting a quick or easy Russian victory because of the experience Ukrainian fighters have gained since 2014 and the advanced military supplies they have obtained from the West.

Jack Watling, of the UK defence and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said that this phase of the war would be different from that seen in recent weeks.

During their offensive on Kyiv, the Russians had advanced on two roads and struggled to get off those roads because of marshes and dense woodland, he told the BBC.

While their artillery was stuck a long way from the front in traffic jams, their forward units had been in the range of Ukrainian artillery. The meant they had suffered heavy casualties whenever they tried to move.

But the battle in the east, by contrast, is a fight over quite an open country, over a very wide area, and there are parts of it that are quite industrial and urbanised... the towns are smaller, he said.

This means that the Russian forces should be able to be less fixed, and there should be much more in the way of contact battles rather than ambushes, he predicted.

Because of the critical importance of the battle in eastern Ukraine, it is expected that Moscow and Kyiv will focus on the military rather than the diplomatic track. European diplomats say that because of the intensification of the fighting and the large-scale bombing, diplomatic efforts to find a solution through negotiations will suffer.

French diplomatic efforts have waned because of French President Emmanuel Macrons preoccupation with the second round of the French presidential elections scheduled for 24 April and as a result of pressures on France from Eastern European countries led by Poland that refuse to hold talks with the Russian president.

Macron confirmed on Monday that his dialogue with Putin had stalled after mass killings were discovered in Ukraine.

Since the massacres discovered in Bucha and other towns, the war has taken a different turn, so I did not speak to him again directly since then, but I dont rule out doing so in the future, Macron told the France 5 television station.

Russia has called the accusations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha while occupying the town a monstrous forgery aimed at denigrating the Russian army.

Asked why he had not followed the example of other European leaders and travelled to the Ukrainian capital, Macron said that a show of support was not needed after Russias invasion of Ukraine.

I will go back to Kyiv, but I will go there to bring something useful with me... because its obvious that I dont need to travel there to show support, Macron said, adding that he had spoken around 40 times since the start of the war to the Ukrainian president.

If I go to Kyiv, it will be to make a difference, he concluded.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 21 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The situation is very tense in occupied East Jerusalem due to repeated incursions by Israeli settlers, but efforts are underway to curb escalation in other Palestinian areas, writes Mohamed Abu Shaar in Gaza.

Sonic booms and tear gas ruined the spiritual atmosphere for worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose numbers notably increase during the holy month of Ramadan. Such Israeli escalation in the occupied city of Jerusalem had not been seen in years.

In the past few days, Israeli army and police have repeatedly stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in large numbers to evacuate it of Palestinians who are in seclusion there, making way for extremist settlers to enter the mosque as part of the Jewish celebrations of Passover on 15-25 April.

However, the entry of settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Talmudic prayers was not the most threatening acts against Palestinians. Radical Jewish groups called for slaughter sacrifices and sprinkling of blood in Al-Aqsa Mosque. The ritual revives an idea adopted by extremist Jewish groups that Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the ruins of Solomons Temple, and making a slaughter sacrifice would be the start of the temples return.

Nasser Al-Hadma, an expert on Jerusalem, explained that for radical Jews, a slaughter sacrifice in Al-Aqsa Mosque is the last step of moral preparation for rebuilding the temple on its ruins.

It has been 31 years since the holy month of Ramadan has coincided with both Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, but tensions in occupied Jerusalem have overshadowed the spiritual and festive atmosphere of these religious occasions.

Jerusalem activist Hanadi Halawani, who along with other Palestinian women habitually go into seclusion at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and prepare food for visitors to the Temple Mount, was dismayed that she could not reach the mosque this year when the Israeli authorities banned her from entry.

Halawani is one of 47 Palestinians who were recently banned from the mosque by Israel, which accuses them of inciting and instigating havoc. Most Palestinians who were banned try to reach the nearest point in the Old City in Jerusalem to pray and recite the Quran. This challenges Israel, which sends police to assault and disperse them.

The most violent confrontations at Al-Aqsa Mosque were on the second Friday of Ramadan, which marked the first day of Passover. Tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to pray and go into seclusion at Al-Aqsa Mosque to prevent any attempt of slaughter sacrifices by Jewish settlers.

However, Israeli police said that young Palestinians were armed with firecrackers and stones, and set up barriers and obstacles inside the mosque. In response, the police evacuated the mosque of worshippers, which set off clashes that injured dozens of Palestinians. Several hundred Palestinians were also arrested, some of whom were released and others prosecuted.

These Israeli measures reduced the number of Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque, at a time when Israel allows between 300 to 500 settlers to invade the mosques courtyards daily under heavy police protection.

The Israeli occupation continues its plot to control Al-Aqsa Mosque, declared the Mufti of Jerusalem Mohamed Hussein. Everything that is happening at Al-Aqsa Mosque is part of the plan of Judification of the holy city and making it the unified capital of Israel.

Talking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Hussein warned of Israel trying to change the status quo at Al-Aqsa, adding, Israel wants to impose a new reality at Al-Aqsa through force of arms.

Husseins statements reference warnings by the Palestinian Authority (PA) that Israel wants to impose a temporal and spatial division at Al-Aqsa Mosque, whereby it is entirely dedicated to Jews at certain times. Israel succeeded in imposing this scheme at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, which is shutdown for days at a time during Jewish holidays.

Successive developments on the ground in occupied Jerusalem and Israeli assaults on worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque area pose a threat to Israel beyond the city boundaries. Armed Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said they would not stand by and watch Israeli violations.

At the end of Ramadan last year, large-scale military confrontations erupted between Palestinian factions in Gaza and Israel due to similar events. The residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem were assaulted and hundreds of Israelis stormed Al-Buraq Wall area as part of the Flags Dance march.

Hamas said it views any attack on Jerusalem as one on Gaza, which puts it in a difficult position if it starts a new military confrontation with Israel. Palestinians are still counting their losses and trying to recover from the previous military confrontation.

Some believe that military confrontation with Israel should not be the first option for Palestinians, because of the high cost of successive wars suffered by the Gaza Strip. Palestinian writer and political analyst Jamil Abdel-Nabi argued that Palestinian factions are paying a high price for limiting their activity to military resistance, while neglecting other aspects of popular resistance that would inspire wide popular participation at a lower cost.

I understand the indecision, the dilemma of the reisistance, said Abdel-Nabi. If it is silent, then it is staying out of the conflict in Palestine. This alone is a disaster. Meanwhile, participation in the only way it knows will force it into a war that no one wants.

He said Palestinians were resisting without fearing the price they might pay, because it was within tolerable limits. However, after the resistance became paramilitarised and Israel started attacking as if it were fighting an equal power, the price is too high.

Egypt exerted much effort to prevent escalation between Palestinian factions and Israel from spiralling into broad confrontations. However, since Israel continues to allow Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa courtyard, it is likely these mediation efforts will be met with Israeli intransigence. According to observers, this is due to a desire by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to prove himself as a right-wing leader, on the heels of opposition leader and Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bennetts intent on courting the right-wing bloc, from which he hails, puts the stability of his government in jeopardy. In fact, the United Arab List headed by Mansour Abbas, a partner in Israels coalition government, suspended its participation in the ruling coalition and Knesset for two weeks. The United List, which holds four out of 120 Knesset seats and is an Islamic Arab party in Israel, is facing immense pressure due to the events at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

This symbolic protest, which does not impact the coalition right now, may eventually lead to the collapse of the government and new elections in Israel if the Arab List withdraws permanently from the ruling coalition. This means Bennett must strike a delicate balance between appeasing the right and maintaining the stability of his government.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 21 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Ukrainian officials Saturday accused Russia of thwarting a fresh attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and killing six people in a strike on Odessa, all but burying hopes of a truce for Orthodox Easter.

With the war poised to enter its third month on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said "fierce battles" were raging in the east and the United Nations said nearly 5.2 million people had fled the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin "to end the war", which began with a full-scale Russian invasion on February 24.

"I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelensky said, adding he was "not afraid" to meet the Russian leader. But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in the besieged port city of Mariupol were killed.

Around 200 residents gathered at an evacuation meeting point announced by Kyiv in Mariupol on Saturday but they were "dispersed" by Russian forces, city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding: "The evacuation was thwarted."

He claimed others had been told to board buses headed to places controlled by Russia. The strategic city has been devastated by weeks of intense Russian bombardment.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had said earlier that Ukraine would try again to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the city -- pivotal to Russia's war plans, and which the Kremlin claims to have "liberated".

Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are holed up inside a sprawling steel plant in Mariupol, and Kyiv has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to allow civilians to exit safely.

But on Saturday a Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the factory.

Six dead in Odessa

"Our defenders hold on regardless of the very difficult situation and even carry out counter raids," he said.

Further west, Russia said it had targeted a major depot stocking foreign weapons near Odessa on the Black Sea coast.

"Russian armed forces today disabled with high-precision and long-range missiles a logistics terminal at the military airfield near Odessa where a large batch of foreign weapons delivered by the United States and European countries were stored," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Another strike on Odessa killed six people, including a three-month-old baby, Ukrainian officials said, upending the relative calm the city has enjoyed since the beginning of the war.

The country's emergency services said a missile struck a 15-storey residential building, sparking a fire that took 90 minutes to extinguish.

Odessa city hall said eight people were admitted to hospital.

"It was a terrifying night," said Yelena, with black bags under tear-reddened eyes in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, where residents said random Russian strikes could come at any hour, day or night.

"At 10:00 pm it all started, everything shook," she recalled. "There were two strikes, later there were more, we were no longer able to sleep and spent all night in the corridor.

The governor of Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Ukranian forces had retaken three villages near the Russian border after "fierce battles" in which two people had been killed.

'Evacuate if you can'

In nearby Lugansk, governor Sergiy Gaiday said shelling was "round the clock" and urged people near the front to "evacuate if you have the chance".

The latest fighting comes a day after a senior Russian military officer said "the second phase of the special operation" had begun.

"One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine," Major General Rustam Minnekaev said.

Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the north of Ukraine after being frustrated in their attempts to take the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the south.

Minnekaev said the focus was to "provide a land corridor to Crimea," which Russia annexed in 2014, and towards a breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova, Transnistria, where the general claimed Russian-speaking people were "being oppressed".

Ukrainian authorities have vowed to fight on and drive the Russian troops from their land, but they also sought an Easter pause.

"Unfortunately, Russia rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce," Zelensky said earlier this week.

'End badly'

Ukrainian authorities urged those celebrating Orthodox Easter to follow religious services online and to respect curfews in place across the country.

"Support the defenders of Ukraine and stay at home for our security and yours," said Kyrylo Timoshenko from the president's office.

Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, said on Telegram that a Russian border post had been hit by Ukranian mortar fire, although there were no casualties.

Near the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, the hamlet of Lysychansk has largely turned into a ghost town but a small market is still operating, providing food and other supplies after the town's other market was bombed.

"This is going to end badly," said an elderly woman in line for vegetables, fearing a targeted strike by Russian forces similar to a deadly train station rocket attack in the nearby town of Kramatorsk on April 8 that killed at least 52 people.

Russia's change of strategic focus to southern and eastern Ukraine saw invading forces leave behind a trail of indiscriminate destruction and civilian bodies around Kyiv, including in the commuter town of Bucha.

A United Nations mission to Bucha documented "the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians there", the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Russian forces had "indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes".

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The United States unleashed some of its toughest actions against Russian President Vladimir Putin right after he rolled his troops into Ukraine. Polls in the U.S. find that people want Washington to do more. So what's left, financially, diplomatically and militarily, to step up the pressure?

The U.S. could get strong results from any number of next steps, economists and current and former U.S. officials say. It could simply persist in pouring cash and potent weaponry into Ukraine - a likely course. It could even commit to shutting down some of the inroads the Kremlin has made into U.S. political and financial systems, also conceivable.

But the mightiest trigger the West can pull now on Russia, many experts agree, is the one on a gas pump nozzle. Cutting off Russian profits from oil and natural gas sales has become a main topic among world leaders looking at what else they can do to force Putin to end his invasion.

``It would be very useful to try to devise a way to reduce proceeds from those sales and that really is the proper objective, I think, of a ban,'' Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a meeting of world finance leaders Thursday.

``But if we can think of a way to do that without harming the entire world from higher energy prices, that would be ideal,`` Yellen said.

President Joe Biden already has ended the relatively minor U.S. imports of Russian oil and other fossil fuel products. But the U.S. would be central if allies move to cut the global flow of Russian fuel and punish nations and businesses that fail to comply.

Global purchases of Russian oil and gas production account for at least 40% of government revenue for Moscow. Exports are keeping Russia's economy afloat despite the sanctions enacted so far and financing the war.

Cutting back further on Russian petroleum to the market would make a global supply crunch even worse, increasing prices for everyone, including in the United States.

Republicans already are making gas price increases that stem in part from Russia's war a top campaign point against Biden.

``Everybody wants a pain-free option, right?'' asked Daniel Fried, a former assistant U.S. secretary of state for Europe, and one of many urging the U.S. to take tougher action as Russia builds forces for a new phase of attacks in Ukraine. ``Yeah, they seldom exist.''

``If anybody writes they can do this thing without some effect on gas prices, you know, without taking a hit _ you're crazy, because you can't,'' Fried said.

The U.S. is already being asked to assure the world that U.S. producers can help make up for lost Russian supply, if Europe moves to cut the hose on Russian oil purchases quickly. The U.S. would likely be an administrator and enforcer in any secondary sanctions to penalize China or other nations or businesses if they buy from or enable Russia's oil and gas industry.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said European nations have considered diverting their payments for Russian oil and gas into escrow accounts, similar to deals forced on Iran and Iraq as part of sanctions.

A poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that more than half of respondents want Biden to be tougher on Putin.

People in the U.S. may just be coming around to accepting that doing that could mean financial hardships for them. By 51% to 45%, respondents in the AP-NORC poll said the U.S. should focus on sanctioning Russia as effectively as possible more than on limiting damage to the U.S. economy.

But ask Alan Gold of Potomac, Maryland, if he's willing to pay more for gasoline as part of any global move to starve Russia of money for the Ukraine war, and the answer you get is a growl.

``I'm paying $5 a gallon now,'' Gold said this past week at a strip mall gas station, jerking his head at the price tally rolling upward as he pumped gas into his vehicle.

Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist of the Institute of International Finance, said Russia's war is boosting the price it gets for its oil and gas, driving the surplus in Russia's current accounts to nearly $60 billion, a recent high despite all the West's sanctions.

Economists and policymakers have to decide next steps as part of the larger context of militaries at war, the risks of nuclear war and the cost of Ukrainian lives, Ribakova told an online panel with Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance this past week. ``This is the cost we're thinking about when we think about sanctions ... not just about economics.''

Barring major shifts, the financial realm is the one where the next major U.S. actions against Russia will come from.

Militarily, the U.S. is unlikely to send in many new, complex weapons systems, like U.S. tanks or fighter or bomber jets. Doing so would tie up Ukrainian fighters in training on unfamiliar weapons when they're needed for fighting, by the Pentagon's reasoning.

Instead, the U.S. is expected to keep doing what it's doing militarily, only more so, pumping in more cash and basic battlefield weapons and resupplies. On Thursday Biden pledged an additional $1.3 billion for heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and other aid.

Further boosting U.S. intelligence-sharing to help Ukraine in the fight is an option.

On the diplomatic front, the U.S. and likeminded nations are exploring ways Russia could be further isolated. Russia has already been suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council and is facing a push at the world body's educational, scientific and cultural organization to strip it of its UNESCO presidency and bar it from hosting a June meeting of its World Heritage Committee.

Russia is unlikely to be suspended from the International Civil Aviation Organization, World Health Organization or Food and Agriculture Organization, however. Any attempt to remove it from the world body's most powerful grouping - the U.N. Security Council - would fail on a Russian and likely Chinese veto.

Talk of the U.S. officially designating Russia or Russian mercenaries as terrorists or supporters of terrorism hasn't gained traction.

There is another big step the U.S. and its democratic allies should take, that doesn't get as much attention, argues Alex Finley, a former officer of the CIA's directorate of operations: Clean up their own act.

``We need to examine our own role,'' said Finley, who tracks seizures of Russian yachts and other Western penalties on Putin. She and others say lax regulation and enforcement in the West have allowed Putin and Russia to influence U.S. elections, park cash from corrupt enterprises in shell companies and offshore tax havens, and buy visas and passports to Western countries.

It's all served to erode transparency and the rule of law in Western democracies, as Putin intended, said Finley.

The West got lax because ``we made money with it,'' Finley said. ``But we did it in a way that we sold ... part of the soul of democracy.''

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Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a persons DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably

Scientists have analyzed the full genetic blueprints of more than 18,000 cancer samples, finding new patterns of mutations that could help doctors provide better, more personalized treatment.

Their study, published in the journal Science, isnt the first to do such comprehensive whole genome analyses of cancer samples. But no one has ever done so many.

This is the largest cohort in the world. It is extraordinary, said Serena Nik-Zainal of the University of Cambridge, who was part of the team.

Just over 12,200 surgical specimens came from patients recruited from the U.K. National Health Service as part of a project to study whole genomes from people with common cancers and rare diseases. The rest came from existing cancer data sets.

Researchers were able to analyze such a large number because of the same improvements in genetic sequencing technology that recently allowed scientists to finally finish decoding the entire human genome  more capable, accurate machines.

We can really begin to tease out the underpinnings of the erosive sort of forces that go to sort of generate cancer, said Andrew Futreal, a genomic medicine expert at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who was not involved in the study.

Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a persons DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. In 2020, there were about 19 million new cancer cases worldwide.

For the study, researchers looked at 19 different types  breast, colorectal, prostate, brain and others  and identified 58 new clues to the causes of cancer called mutational signatures that contribute to the development of the disease. They also confirmed 51 of more than 70 previously reported mutation patterns, Nik-Zainal said.

Some arise because of problems within a persons cells; others are sparked by environmental exposures such as ultraviolet radiation, tobacco smoke or chemicals.

Knowing more of them helps us to understand each persons cancer more precisely, which can help guide treatment, Nik-Zainal said.

Genetic sequencing is already being woven into cancer care as part of the growing trend of personalized medicine, or care based on a patients genes and specific disease. Now doctors will have much more information to draw from when they look at individual cancers.

To help doctors use this information, researchers developed a computer algorithm that will allow them to find common mutation patterns and seek out rare ones. Based on a particular pattern, Nik-Zainal said a doctor may suggest a certain course of action, such as getting immunotherapy.

Futreal said the data can also show doctors what tends to happen over time when a patient develops a cancer with a certain mutation pattern  helping them intervene earlier and hopefully stop the developing disease in its tracks.

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Turkey has closed its airspace to Russian civilian and military planes flying to Syria, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying Saturday by local media.

The announcement marks one of the strongest responses to date by Turkey, which has cultivated close ties with Moscow despite being a member of the NATO defence alliance, to Russia's two-month military assault on Ukraine.

"We closed the airspace to Russia's military planes -- and even civilian ones -- flying to Syria. They had until April, and we asked in March," Turkish media quoted Cavusoglu as saying.

Cavusoglu said he conveyed the decision to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who then relayed it to President Vladimir Putin.

"One or two days later, they said: Putin has issued an order, we will not fly anymore," Cavusoglu was quoted as telling Turkish reporters aboard his plane to Uruguay.

Cavusoglu added that the ban would stay in place for three months.

There was no immediate response to Turkey's announcement from Russia, which together with Iran has been a crucial supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the war-torn country's civil war.

Turkey has backed Syrian rebels during the conflict.

Ankara's relations with Moscow briefly imploded after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.

But they had been improving until Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Turkey views as an important trade partner and diplomatic ally.

Turkey has been trying to mediate an end to the conflict, hosting meetings between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul, and another between Lavrov and Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya.

Ankara is now trying to arrange an Istanbul summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, although Cavusoglu conceded that the prospects of such talks at this point remain dim.

"If they want a deal, it's inevitable," Cavusoglu was quoted as saying. "It might not happen for a long time, but it can happen suddenly."

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Sol Kyung-gu and Chun Woo-hee are starring in a film about school bullying, "I Want to Know Your Parents" set for release next week.

The film is based on a Japanese play about a school bullying incident and is told from the perspective of the perpetrators' parents when an eighth-grader kills himself after writing down the names of his classmates who tormented him.

The two stars attended a press event early this week and shared thoughts about their roles.

Sol plays the father of the perpetrator, a lawyer. "I approached my character from the perspective that he trusts or wants to trust his son all the way," Sol said. "If I was put in that position, I think I'd have conflicting emotions. I really don't know what I would do."

"I think school bullying goes on even now, and it makes me sad that it will continue. I think we need to keep focusing on this subject," he added.


KYODO NEWS - Apr 23, 2022 - 09:00 | All, World

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has pledged to strengthen his country's deterrence and defense posture on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, saying the country stands on the "front line" of the war in Ukraine.

In a written interview with Kyodo News, Ciuca thanked Japan for a total of $200 million in emergency humanitarian aid for displaced people in Ukraine as well as Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic following "Russia's brutal, unjustified and unlawful invasion of Ukraine."

Ciuca hailed NATO's recent decision to deploy four new combat units in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia as part of efforts to bolster security on the eastern border of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

"We are an ally situated on the front line of this crisis," he said. "Romania is deeply concerned about the continuous Russian military aggression against Ukraine, with severe consequences for regional, European and international security."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent troops into Ukraine in what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" the country, a claim dismissed by the United States and other Western countries as a pretext for waging war.

After failing to take the capital Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities, Russia has shifted its forces to a battle focused on southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, including the key port city of Mariupol.

Ciuca expressed hope that he, U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders will shape a "coherent, efficient and well-balanced" deterrence and defense posture on the eastern flank for the long term when they gather for a summit in Madrid in June.

He condemned Russian attacks on nuclear power facilities in Ukraine and Putin's earlier announcement that he was placing his nuclear forces into "special combat readiness."

"Russia must understand that threats to use nonconventional weapons will not yield any positive result," Ciuca said. "To the contrary, its international position will be further diminished, and the international community will continue to condemn such threats, no matter the disinformation spun by the Kremlin and the Russian state media."

"No propaganda can justify such threats or their materialization," he said.

Since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, more than 640,000 Ukrainians, including many children, have entered Romania, and the government and local people have provided food, shelter and social services such as access to education, according to the prime minister.

"We have been monitoring the situation very carefully and have taken several measures to manage the massive inflow of people, in coordination with our neighbors and partners," he said. "We are facilitating the entry of all Ukrainian citizens that need protection."

Ciuca said most of the Ukrainians who entered Romania did not apply for asylum in the country because they were in transit to other European states where they have relatives.

"The numbers are fluctuating daily and it is difficult to estimate, at this point, how future inflows will look like," he said.
By Peter Masheter, KYODO NEWS - Apr 23, 2022 - 10:02 | Feature, All, World, Japan

After years of warning the world of the Russian threat to her homeland Ukraine and beyond, an activist and content creator found her worst prophecies fulfilled when she was forced to flee the country for an uncertain life as an evacuee in Japan.

But Lilia Tiazhka, 35, who has run a nonprofit English-language news website to combat what she says is Russian misinformation since its 2014 takeover of Crimea, is undeterred. Even now from Yokohama, near Tokyo, she works across time zones to expose the disastrous effects of the ongoing Russian invasion, all while striving to rebuild her and her teenage son's life thousands of miles from home.

"The world has to know how Russia kills Ukrainian civilians," Tiazhka told Kyodo News in a recent interview, describing the mission of UAposition, the volunteer-run news site that she set up with help from her IT engineer husband.

UAposition runs without advertisements and explicitly identifies its articles' sources of information to ensure transparency. Tiazhka works remotely with volunteers to report on the latest developments in Ukraine, including releasing statements by organizations and world leaders and the harrowing images captured on the ground.

Its reports on the downing in 2014 of the Malaysian Airways plane MH17 by a rocket over an area controlled by pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and Russia's involvement in backing separatists there have previously been picked up and shared by figures including Eliot Higgins, who founded the open-source journalism collective Bellingcat, and former Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko.

It also translated into English the entire contents of what Ukrainian authorities said was a transcript of phone calls in 2016 by Sergey Glazyev, then-adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, showing how Moscow took steps to create a false impression of widespread support in Crimea for joining Russia.

Before the invasion, Tiazhka neither imagined nor hoped she would leave Ukraine. She and her husband owned their home and managed websites for corporate clients in addition to UAposition. One of her other sites, Etnocook, showcases recipes and information on traditional Ukrainian cuisine, while another, also in English, raises awareness of the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine during the Soviet era that Ukraine has recognized as a genocide upon its people since 2006.

Earlier this month, Tiazhka said, she had been working late to post images coming out of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's official Telegram account and other sources that showed the April 8 attack on Kramatorsk railway station that claimed 50 lives. After confirming the images, she quickly uploaded the news on UAposition's website and social media feeds.

She aims to move people across the world to support Ukraine. "We have to spread the information. We have to show the cruelty of Russian aggression, and to show the real face of Russia," she said.

Her journey to Japan began on Feb. 24, when the war overturned Ukrainian lives. She awoke to black smoke rising from where missiles had struck the airport outside her hometown of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine.

Her husband immediately volunteered in the Ukrainian military and now serves in the country's northeast. They agreed they would only discuss the specifics of his service upon his return -- for the nation's sake and his own safety. Now, she only knows he's safe when he calls. "We do everything with Ukraine in our heart," she said.

Tiazhka says her decision to leave Ukraine with her 14-year-old son came from fears of an impending nuclear disaster after reports of the Russian seizure of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and attacks on nuclear facilities.

Her son was initially resistant to leave and had to be talked around. Like his father, he wanted to stay and fight. The pair's trek to safety involved walking more than 10 hours in freezing conditions across the border to Poland -- at one point, advancing only about one or two paces every 15 minutes. Upon arriving in Poland, Tiazhka went straight to the Japanese Embassy to arrange the visas. She currently lives at the home of a Japanese family friend who acted as a guarantor for her and her son.

A total of 661 Ukrainian evacuees are known as of April 17 to have been permitted into Japan since the conflict began -- a significant proportion relative to the reported 1,865 Ukrainian residents of Japan as of December 2020.

The country's welcoming stance was telegraphed by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi's April 5 flight from a G-7 summit in Poland with 20 evacuees. Support appears to be strong among the public, too, with the government's top spokesperson recently reporting it had received nearly 1,200 applications to provide aid from local governments and private businesses.

"I can help Ukraine here, and I have to build my life here. I have to do everything for Ukraine from where I am," Tiazhka said. While she is determined to learn the language and lead a new life, her homeland's pull is undeniable. She says she will return to Ukraine any way she can.

A Razumkov Centre survey of evacuees from Ukraine in countries around the world between March 15 and April 1 suggests Tiazhka is far from alone in her desire. Almost 80 percent of respondents said they would return after the war.

But for now, people like her and her son are forced to rely on the kindness of institutions and individuals to recreate a version of their lives in unfamiliar surroundings. In Tiazhka's case, her daily efforts to convey the conflict's reality only compound how suddenly home has become a distant place.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 23, 2022 - 20:55 | All, Japan

Japan is keeping a close eye on China's behavior concerning Pacific island nations, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday after meeting with his Tuvalu counterpart.

The recent signing of a security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands has sparked regional concerns about Beijing's outreach, as the agreement reportedly enables Chinese troops to be deployed to the Pacific nation.

"We exchanged views on recent developments concerning China in the Pacific island region," Kishida told reporters in the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto, without giving further details.

"We are closely following what China does in the Pacific island region with interest," he said.

The United States has warned the Solomon Islands against any possible moves toward inviting a Chinese military presence while other nations in the Pacific, such as Australia and New Zealand, have also expressed concern.

In his meeting with Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano, the two agreed to aim for a "free and open" Indo-Pacific region where an assertive China is expanding its influence.

The meeting took place on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Water Summit being held in Kumamoto, where Kishida pledged around 500 billion yen ($3.9 billion) over the next five years to address water-related challenges such as disaster prevention.

He also held talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh, respectively, and agreed with them to coordinate their responses to the crisis in Ukraine, Kishida told reporters.

In his meeting with Hun Sen, Kishida expressed his appreciation for Cambodia's support, as one of the co-sponsors of a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's aggression in Ukraine in March, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Japan has been stepping up its diplomacy to strengthen coordination with other nations in the Indo-Pacific region, repeatedly saying that what is happening in Ukraine should never be tolerated there or anywhere else.

China continues to send ships to waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The islets are administered by Japan but claimed by China as Diaoyu. In the South China Sea, some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have territorial disputes with China.

Kishida discussed developments in the South China Sea and the situation in Myanmar with Hun Sen, as Cambodia is the chair of ASEAN this year. Kishida made a visit to Cambodia last month, where they urged Russia to immediately end the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Japan and Laos agreed to coordinate closely to support Cambodia's efforts as ASEAN chair to improve the situation in Myanmar where the military seized power in a coup last year.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 23, 2022 - 13:14 | All, Japan, World

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has said it is important to accept people of different sexual orientation and will attend Sunday's Rainbow Parade in Tokyo to drive home the point.

The ambassador, who has also worked to promote marriage equality in his own country, said that gays and lesbians should be acknowledged as part of an inclusive society.

"Our goal is building a society where everybody feels valued, everybody feels like they count, everybody feels like they can be a responsible member of the community," he said, as the world faces other issues such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and income inequality.

"You have two people who love each other, two people who are ready to make a commitment to create a home of love," he told Kyodo News on Friday. "I think that is a very traditional value. It's not radical."

Emanuel said there are many people in the LGBTQ community who are family members and contribute to society in various roles, noting that "sexual orientation is just part of their identity."

By speaking at the march as an ambassador, Emanuel said he wants to stress what the U.S. values -- "the values of inclusion, and creating a larger family and a sense of community. Everyone has something to contribute."

Japan has not permitted marriage equality yet, but more than 140 municipal governments have introduced a system to recognize same-sex partnerships to reverse discrimination on issues such as social benefits.

Emanuel welcomed this, saying that although the pace is different than in the United States, the trajectory toward same-sex recognition and equality is the same.

Similar to the United States, he expects there will be a bottom-up change in politics, with local governments taking the first step toward same-sex recognition.

"Japan is at the stage of doing that bottom-up political change...and it will be felt nationally," he said.

While the envoy was mayor of Chicago, he pushed to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of Illinois in 2013. It became the law of the land when the Supreme Court ruled it a constitutional right in 2015.

Gay rights are not only a professional matter to him, but also personal. The former congressman from Illinois and former President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff had a cousin who was gay. His best man when he married his wife Amy in 1994 was also gay.

"I envision a day in which we don't talk about gay marriage and straight marriage," he said. "There's marriage. And that's sufficient."

Emanuel's defense of gay rights overseas is in line with President Joe Biden's fierce support for the LGBTQ community.

On his first day as president in January last year, Biden signed an executive order protecting LGBTQ people against discrimination in schools, health care, the workplace and other sectors.

A new State Department post of Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons was also created.
KYODO NEWS - Apr 23, 2022 - 21:48 | All, Japan

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Saturday demonstrated the two nations' solid alliance, as they embarked together on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier after its military drill in waters near Japan earlier this month.

At a press conference held in the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, Hayashi said that the vessel's activities in the region "embody a resolution of the United States to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific" region, where security concerns have been growing over activities by China and North Korea.

Hayashi and Emanuel were observing the U.S. carrier, whose strike group conducted a 10-day joint naval exercise through April 17 involving vessels and fighter jets of Japan's Self-Defense Forces in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

The drill came as Russia's invasion of Ukraine fuels fears China could be emboldened to intensify its military activities in the Indo-Pacific region, while North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile testing has also put a renewed focus on threats from the country.

"Aggressors in the region are acting in bad faith and threatening peace and stability, as well as the values we, the United States and Japan, hold," Emanuel told the news conference. "We are uniting like never before with our partners and allies around the globe, to speak out against war and stand up for peace."

During the ship observation, Hayashi also held talks with Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, and exchanged views with the carrier's crew, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Related coverage:

U.S. carrier, Japan defense force vessels conduct drills in Sea of Japan
An event was held at a bookstore in Moscow on Wednesday to launch two new books about China, in celebration of the United Nations Chinese Language Day.





The two books are "The Magic of Chinese Paper-cutting" and "The Wisdom of Chinese Characters."





Zhang Hanhui, the Chinese ambassador to Russia, congratulated the event through a video, saying he hoped the language learning could open a window for the people of China and Russia to enhance understanding and deepen friendship, and make greater contributions to promoting cultural exchanges between the two nations.





The author of the book on paper-cutting, Irina Zakharova, shared her experience of visiting folk artists in northern China.





Since 2010, the UN has marked Chinese Language Day on April 20 over the language's contribution to the world while encouraging more people to learn it.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service








Security officers arrive at the site of an attack in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 22, 2022. A junior-level paramilitary officer and two militants were killed Friday in an attack and the subsequent gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. The attack took place near a military cantonment at Sunjwan in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. (Str/Xinhua)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A junior-level paramilitary officer and two militants were killed Friday in an attack and the subsequent gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The attack took place near a military cantonment at Sunjwan in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The police cordoned off the area on specific intelligence information about the presence of militants earlier. However, in a pre-dawn attack, militants attacked a bus carrying paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), killing an assistant sub-inspector and wounding two others.

Following the attack, government forces targetted the area and engaged the militants in a gunfight.

"So far two militants have been killed," a police officer said. "A CISF assistant sub-inspector was killed and two of his colleagues wounded. Besides this, two police personnel were also wounded fighting militants."

The attack in Jammu comes two days ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city.

Senior police official in Jammu Mukesh Singh said the slain militants were part of a suicide squad, and the police said they suspected the presence of a third militant in the area.

"The operation is underway," Singh said.

Meanwhile, four militants, including a commander, were killed in an ongoing gunfight in Baramulla district. Four troopers and a policeman were also wounded in the standoff.

There has been a spurt in militant incidents in the region since last month.

A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the region since 1989. 

Security officers arrive at the site of an attack in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 22, 2022.

A junior-level paramilitary officer and two militants were killed Friday in an attack and the subsequent gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The attack took place near a military cantonment at Sunjwan in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. (Str/Xinhua)

Security personnel carry the body of a militant killed in an attack in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 22, 2022.

A junior-level paramilitary officer and two militants were killed Friday in an attack and the subsequent gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The attack took place near a military cantonment at Sunjwan in Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. (Str/Xinhua)
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- When the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) launched a reading campaign in April 2020, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), president of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave instructions and stressed the importance of such campaign.

Through reading, members can gain more knowledge and wisdom, improve their capacity, and thus acquire a better understanding of the CPPCC and make themselves more competent at consultation and deliberation on state affairs. This is not only an inherent requirement for the members to perform their duties in the new era, but also an important measure to uphold and advance the system of the CPPCC.

Xi hoped that the reading campaign will be fully used to encourage political advisors to improve their reading abilities and read more good books, so as to enhance their theoretical and professional competence. He also hoped they would set examples and encourage more people to read.

Over the past two years, the CPPCC National Committee has fully implemented Xi's important instructions and actively organized reading activities among its members. A total of 96 reading groups have been established, and 2,104 members from 34 sectors have been reading and exchanging ideas via the CPPCC National Committee Academy online, which has so far received more than 2.62 million visits and 470,000 comments.

The CPPCC National Committee held a forum on Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi's Important Instructions and Advancing the Reading Campaign on Friday in Beijing.

Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and chairperson of the CPPCC National Committee, addressed the forum. Wang said, Xi's instructions answered a series of important questions as follows: Why is reading important for CPPCC National Committee members? How to organize reading activities? What to expect from reading?

Xi's instructions, which are insightful, instrumental and targeted, have pointed the direction and injected strong momentum for the reading campaign. CPPCC National Committee members should further enhance political awareness, have a deep understanding of the essence of Xi's instructions and the significance of the reading campaign, sum up experience, know the rules, and increase effectiveness to advance the reading campaign.

Wang noted that, over the past two years, reading activities among CPPCC National Committee members have developed with constant exploration and innovation, and achieved considerably. They have become an important avenue for members to acquire more knowledge, wisdom and competence, a major platform to enhance theoretical and political awareness and build consensus, and a top brand with distinctive CPPCC features.

Wang stressed the need to make the best use of reading activities among members. It requires efforts to maintain the correct political direction, leverage the CPPCC's unique strength, give full play to the members' principal role, focus on helping them to perform duties more effectively, and further apply the results of reading activities.

It is essential to provide better support to build a strong smart reading platform and take multiple measures to mobilize members' enthusiasm for reading. A "reading plus" model should be promoted to integrate reading activities with performance of duties and thus create a synergy to enable members to transform what they have learned from reading into duty-performance abilities and outcomes in their work.

It is also important to follow an incremental and persistent approach in fostering a culture of reading among CPPCC members, who can thus achieve common progress intellectually through consultation, discussion and mutual learning.

Wang also called for efforts to fully leverage the CPPCC's strengths in gathering talent, pooling wisdom, and reaching out to the general public to create more fine works and exert a ripple effect. In this way, reading activities will become an effective channel for members to contact with the people and help foster a culture of reading both within the CPPCC and in society at large.

Vice chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee attended the forum. Representatives of national and provincial committee members also gave speeches. The forum was held via video link, with the main venue set at the National Committee's general office and other venues at general offices of provincial committees. 
Photo taken on June 2, 2021 shows the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. (Xinhua/Zhang Yue)

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef which stretches about 2,300 km along the coast of the Australian state of Queensland, remains the "planet's most beautiful marine environment."



A global effort is called to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century in a bid to curb the world's temperature from increasing by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.



SYDNEY, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Mention the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) nowadays and many people assume the vibrantly colored corals have already been bleached by climate change, however, one of the reef's most enthusiastic custodians has a far more hopeful vision.

Andy Ridley, the chief executive of Citizens of the GBR, believes the world's largest reef, which stretches about 2,300 km along the coast of the Australian state of Queensland, remains the "planet's most beautiful marine environment."

"A lot of people believe the Great Barrier Reef has already gone, but it actually hasn't -- it's still extraordinary," Ridley told Xinhua in an interview to mark the Earth Day on Friday.

"Climate change is definitely kicking this year, and we've had a bleaching, but it's also important to know that it doesn't mean the whole of the reef is bleached."

Spending most of his time in Cairns, the gateway to the GBR, Ridley said "it's quite difficult not to fall in love with the actual sight here." He said the GBR Marine Park is massive, and it contains about 3,000 coral reefs consisting of a variety of coral in myriad shapes, sizes, and colors.

A tourist snorkels in the waters near the Whitsunday Islands, part of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, on Feb. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Justin Qian)

For example, the three kinds of coral the group is trying to detect now are "very common." "We have Plate coral, which looks like a kind of plate in practice, we also have Branching corals, lots of branches, and so on, they are all very common."

"That's why we're so passionate about it. We want people to get involved and to help us protect and conserve it," Ridley said. "You can still go there today and be blown away by how amazing it is."

Among his group's main conservation projects are two Great Reef Census for which volunteers in a flotilla of tourism boats, yachts and fishing vessels have captured more than 42,000 images taken throughout the GBR.

Ridley said the enormous task of analyzing the images would begin within the next few months, so more volunteer "citizen scientists" would be most welcome to help collate the vital data.

"You can help, if you're OK to spend a bit of time looking at images and verifying them online," he said. "It's not complicated, but really important for everybody to get involved."

A tourist takes photos of Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands, part of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, on Feb. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Justin Qian)

Despite his inherent optimism, Ridley concedes the big issue of climate change needs to be confronted on the global stage, a message he shares with organizers of Earth Day.

Earth Day is held annually to heighten awareness of environmental issues with this year's theme being "Invest in our planet."

Organizers are calling on a global effort to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century in a bid to curb the world's temperature from increasing by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"If you have the chance to get out there in nature, then get out there and breathe in nature and find your inspiration in this amazing planet," Ridley said. 
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has encouraged the whole Chinese society to read more to foster a good reading environment, in a congratulatory letter sent on the occasion of the country's first national reading campaign that opened on Saturday.

In the letter, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said reading is an important channel for people to acquire knowledge, gain wisdom and raise their moral standards, adding that reading has been encouraged by the Chinese nation since ancient times and it has helped shape the Chinese people's confident and self-strengthening characters.

Xi expressed the hope that Party members and cadres can take the lead in reading and encouraged children to develop a habit of reading. 
by Xinhua writers Li Rui, Tian Ye, Xia Chen

CAIRO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- It was 37 years ago when Wang Youyong, now a Chinese-Arabic translator, first noticed some "strange inscriptions" on the tombstone of Puhaddin, a 16th generation descendant of Prophet Mohammad, in the city of Yangzhou in eastern China. He was eager to decode them.

The inscriptions turned out to be Arabic script, and then Wang decided to study Arabic language and literature at university. Three decades later, Wang becomes one of the most prolific Chinese translators devoted to rendering Chinese classics into Arabic.

Thanks to his efforts, more Chinese classic books have reached Arab readers ahead of this year's World Book Day on April 23. Among them are Xunzi, written by the renowned Chinese philosopher Xunzi, Liezi, a Taoist classic, and Caigen Tan, or Cabbage Roots Talk, a popular Confucianism book.

The Arabic edition of Caigen Tan "will definitely be welcomed by Arab readers and make new contributions to deepening mutual understanding between the two peoples," said Ge Tieying, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Wang was not alone in introducing Chinese books and culture to Arab readers. In Egypt, Mohsen Fergani, a renowned professor of Chinese literature at the Ain Shams University in Cairo, has also translated several Chinese classics, including The Analects of Confucius, The Book of Poetry and Tao Te Ching, into Arabic.

Fergani told Xinhua that nowadays, more and more Arabic books are directly translated from Chinese ones, which have brought Arab readers into a world of Chinese classics brimming with "wisdom, creativity and culture," while in the past, more Chinese works were translated into Arabic through English and French as intermediaries, which made the works lose their original brilliance.

In 2013, Fergani was awarded the Special Book Award of China for his distinguished contribution to promoting China-Arab cultural exchanges. He was the first Arab to receive the honor.

The Chinese government has attached great importance to enhancing China-Arab cultural exchanges and promoting their traditionally friendly ties.

In January 2016, a project called "Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents," aimed at enhancing the China-Arab friendship, was launched at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. Under the project, China launched the "Silk Road Book Translation" program for the translation of 100 Chinese and Arab classics.

Hi-tech has also facilitated the project, which is popular among publishing houses which have introduced both printed copies and ebooks of Chinese and Arab classics, said Dong Yu, director of the digital publishing department at the book publishing center under the China Intercontinental Press.

"That's Books," a digital reading platform containing more than 100 ebooks and audio books from China and Arab countries, has topped the rankings of Arab digital reading platforms. The platform has been hailed by many Arab ebook lovers as "a Chinese gift for Arab readers."

Ebooks, which offer readers faster access to the latest publications and enable them to use more reading tools, have enriched the content of the World Book Day, Dong told Xinhua.

It's fascinating to watch how the digital world, such as ebooks, has aided a number of translators in conveying messages from one culture to another, said Yang Xue, deputy director of the international cooperation department at the book publishing center under the China Intercontinental Press.

"In our case, ebooks are helping China and the Arab countries to carry out dialogues in a spirit of inclusiveness and mutual learning, and we are happy to see this," she told Xinhua.

Echoing Yang's remarks, Egyptian writer and novelist Saeed Noah said, "Communication between two cultures creates new thoughts, and I certainly encourage cultural communication between the two very glorious civilizations (China and Egypt)." Enditem

(Yao Bing and Mahmoud Fouly in Cairo also contributed to the story.)
VIENNA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday its expert mission would travel to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26 to help ensure the facility's safety.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will head the mission to "deliver vital equipment and conduct radiological and other assessments" at the Chernobyl plant, according to the agency's statement.

The IAEA experts will also repair remote safeguards monitoring systems at the plant, which have not been transmitting data to the agency's headquarters in Vienna since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

"The IAEA's presence at Chernobyl will be of paramount importance for our activities to support Ukraine as it seeks to restore regulatory control of the plant and ensure its safe and secure operation," Grossi said, adding that the agency will send more missions to Chernobyl and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Russian forces had been in control of the Chernobyl plant for five weeks before withdrawing on March 31, according to the IAEA statement.

The Chernobyl plant, some 110 km north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, suffered one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986. 
BRASILIA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga signed a decree on Friday ending the COVID-19 public health emergency, effective 30 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

In its decision to lift the emergency, which has been in force since February 2020, the Health Ministry took into account the national public health system's response capacity, the improved epidemiological situation and the wide vaccination coverage against the virus, the ministry said in a statement.

"Brazil has registered an 80 percent decrease in the moving average of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to the peak from the Omicron variant earlier this year," the statement said.

In addition, almost 74 percent of the Brazilian population are fully immunized, while 81 percent have receive a first vaccine dose and over 74 million people have been given a booster dose, the ministry said.

However, the Health Ministry emphasized the importance of the vaccination campaign, even after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. It added that immunization against COVID-19 is essential to maintain transmission control and that Brazilians must complete the vaccination schedule with both doses and a booster dose.

The South American country has registered more than 30.3 million COVID-19 cases and 662,500 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. 
NEW DELHI, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Indian government Saturday expressed serious concern about private TV news channels airing content involving violence in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The government has issued an advisory to these channels against airing "unauthentic, misleading, sensational and provocative content."

"The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today advised private TV news channels against making false claims and using scandalous headlines," an official statement said.

"The ministry has found that in the recent past several satellite TV channels have carried out coverage of events and incidents in a manner which appears to be unauthentic, misleading, sensational and using socially unacceptable language and remarks," said the statement.

The advisory also cited the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the incidence in North-West Delhi, where TV news content and debates "have been found in violation of program code."

"In case of Delhi violence, certain channels have aired news items with provocative headlines and videos of violence that may incite communal hatred among the communities and disrupt peace and law and order," the statement further said.

Last week, communal violence broke out in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area after a Hindu religious procession brandishing swords, country-made weapons and sticks entered the Muslim localities, which triggered clashes between them. 
The Philippines yearns for foreign tourists as the country reverted to pre-pandemic entry rules for fully vaccinated foreign nationals from visa-required countries. #GLOBALink
* The Communist Party of China, the world's largest governing party, will convene its 20th national congress in the second half of the year.

* The quinquennial event will review the work of the past five years, chart the course for the future, and elect new central leadership.

* A total of 2,300 delegates will be elected from over 95 million Party members to attend the upcoming national congress.

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC), the world's largest governing party, will convene its 20th national congress in the second half of the year.

The quinquennial event will review the work of the past five years, chart the course for the future, and elect new central leadership.

The Party is in the process of electing delegates to the congress, which started in November 2021.

Here is a closer look at how the Party elects 2,300 delegates from its over 95 million members.

WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE

The delegates are elected from 38 electoral units, including provincial-level regions, central authorities, the central financial sector, and Beijing-based centrally-administered state-owned enterprises.

The whole procedure generally consists of five parts: the nomination of candidates by Party members; a nominee review; public notification of the candidates for feedback; candidate shortlists; and the final vote in each electoral unit.

The elected delegates will be vetted by a qualification review committee before the national congress.

For example, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region elected by secret ballot 48 delegates to attend the 20th national congress at a two-day CPC Guangxi regional congress closed Friday.

The final vote took place following a meeting of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC on April 17, which came up with a 55-people list of preparatory candidates for the CPC National Congress delegates.

The process has engaged 100 percent of Guangxi's primary-level Party organizations and 99.15 percent of Party members, said local authorities, adding that Party members working on the frontline accounted for more than 70 percent of all the nominees.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

The delegates should be exemplary members of the Party and meet stringent criteria. Political integrity is put first in the assessment. According to the Party leadership, the candidates should first and foremost have solid ideals and convictions and high moral standards.

Members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) review the Party admission oath at the memorial of the first National Congress of the CPC in east China's Shanghai, June 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

Qualified delegates must be clean and honest. Corrupt officials will be banned from being nominated. In Guizhou Province, a negative list has been established to disqualify those who violate political discipline and rules or have problems with integrity, among others, for nomination as delegates.

Different electoral units have their specific requirements for selecting candidates. Nominees in Tibet must have a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and take a clear-cut stand against separatism.

"The candidates' overall performance and qualifications were taken into careful consideration when I made my recommendations," said Zhao Dianbang, a veteran CPC member from Qinghai Province who has been a Party member for more than 50 years.

HOW SEATS ARE ALLOCATED

The 2,300 delegates are elected by 38 electoral units. The seats in the 20th CPC National Congress are allocated mainly based on the number of Party organizations and Party members of each electoral unit.

The quotas for delegates to previous CPC national congresses are also taken into account when it comes to the allocation of seats to different electoral units.

According to the allocation formula, the number of delegates to the 20th CPC National Congress for each electoral unit is basically the same as the 19th national congress.

By convention, some retired Party officials will be invited to attend the 20th national congress.

HOW TO ENSURE A BROAD SPECTRUM

As the delegates are to represent 95 million CPC members, their spectrum is carefully designed. They will come from all walks of society, different regions of the country, and various demographic groups, including both genders and ethnic minorities.

Grass-roots members will account for a significant proportion of the delegates. Party members working on the frontline should have at least one-third of the total seats, while those for officials will not exceed two-thirds. Excellent members among farmers, workers, and technicians will be priorities.

Different professions, ranging from business people, scientists to doctors, as well as different levels of administrative units, from provinces, metropolises to villages, will all be represented.

The Party authorities in Nanchang, the capital city of east China's Jiangxi Province, distributed a list of 133 local grass-roots role models to its 260,000 members as a candidate reference.

In southwest China's Yunnan Province, home to various ethnic minority groups, delegate seats are properly distributed among them.

Photo taken on June 22, 2021 shows an exterior view of the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

HOW TO HAVE A CLEAN ELECTION

Canvassing and buying votes are strictly prohibited.

Party disciplinary agencies and organization departments nationwide have been gearing up for the election, with tip-off hotlines operating round the clock to process people's complaints.

Large-scale awareness campaigns have been unfurled, using previous election scandals as examples to warn Party members of malpractice and deter potential offenders.

All steps of the election procedure are under close supervision, and those who violate Party disciplinary rules and election protocols will not be tolerated.

(Video editors: Wu Yao, Zhu Jianhui)
The Turkish occupation state, with the participation of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, is launching a massive genocidal attack against the Medya legitimate defense zones, while this attack elicits popular and regional discontent, especially among the political and intellectual elites, academics and democrats.

For its part, an elite of Arab academics, intellectuals and politicians condemned the attack, explaining in a statement that "the Kurdish forces that provide assistance to the Turkish army in occupying areas of the Kurdistan region, are nothing but Erdogan's wilds and mercenaries who have no goal other than to eliminate the gains of the Kurdish people for personal familial and narrow partisanship interests.

Among the signatories to the statement was the Lebanese writer and journalist Hamo Moskovian, who spoke to our agency about the danger of the Turkish plan, and said: "In these difficult times, and because of the war in Ukraine, and the military and political tensions that the world is witnessing, Turkey is seeking to take advantage of this situation, and is planning new genocide, crimes, and new displacement against the peoples of the Middle East and the Caucasus as well.

'Turkey is a machine of destruction, displacement and extermination'

He pointed out that Erdogan shows himself as a dove of peace, but in fact he is a "war devil." The role he plays in the negotiations on the Ukraine war.

Stressing that all freedom fighters, writers, journalists, intellectuals and academics in the Middle East and the world condemn Turkish crimes against the peoples of the region, and its attempts to annex northern and eastern Syria and southern Kurdistan to it, and stated: "Turkey cannot be a dove of peace, Turkey is a machine of destruction, displacement and extermination. It is funny some European countries are promoting that Erdogan is carrying the torch of peace.

Moskovian stressed the need for all democratic forces to unify their ranks to stop Erdogan and the Turkish state on its own, and said: "There are some traitors among the Kurdish people who cooperate with Turkey in order to implement its plans, and these must be put to an end."

A

ANHA
Garment workers make clothes at a factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Changwei)

The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's secretary of state Sim Sokheng said that RCEP, a free trade pact, and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) have given Cambodia larger market access and will play an important role in attracting more foreign investors, especially Chinese ones, to the country.



PHNOM PENH, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade pact, and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) are the catalysts for economic growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, officials and academics said on Friday.

Both RCEP and the CCFTA entered into force on Jan. 1, 2022. RCEP comprises 15 Asia-Pacific countries including the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their five trading partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking at a hybrid international conference on RCEP and the CCFTA, the Cambodian government's senior advisor Sok Siphana said both pacts are crucial to help recover the pandemic-hit economies in Cambodia and in the region.

"I think the two free trade agreements would be a big boost to our economies, although the effect will not be tomorrow," he said.

Photo released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Cambodia on Jan. 14, 2021 shows workers processing fresh cassava root at a factory in Battambang province, Cambodia. (UNDP-Cambodia/Handout via Xinhua)

The Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's secretary of state Sim Sokheng said the two deals have given Cambodia larger market access and will play an important role in attracting more foreign investors, especially Chinese ones, to the country.

"The two agreements have opened a new chapter of cooperation for prosperity and development between Cambodia and China in particular and between Cambodia and other RCEP members in general," he said.

"RCEP not only promotes the regional economic integration, but also underscores the commitment of all member countries towards multilateralism in the face of rising protectionism," he added.

Being the world's largest trade bloc, RCEP has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 26.2 trillion U.S. dollars, representing around 30 percent of global GDP, 28 percent of global trade, and 32.5 percent of global investment, he said.

Sokheng said under the RCEP pact, Cambodia is expected to see a year's export growth at 9.4 percent to 18 percent, which will contribute to the national economic growth from 2 percent to 3.8 percent.

For the CCFTA, he said the deal is projected to raise Cambodia's annual export to China by 25 percent.

Garment workers make clothes at a factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Changwei)

Wu Guoquan, the economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, said both agreements have laid a strong foundation for China and Cambodia to boost economic and trade relations.

"Under RCEP and the CCFTA, I believe that the cooperation between China and Cambodia in jointly building the 'Belt and Road' will be accelerated and the quality of the cooperation will be higher," he said.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at the Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Security and International Studies in Thailand, said RCEP is pivotal in three areas of global trade, namely rule-based trade, huge market access and economic cooperation.

"RCEP is a major catalyst to open up the domestic market, enlarge huge resources for trade and investment, and connect regional and global value chain activities," he said.

Kavi said RCEP has provided golden opportunities to Cambodia and facilitates its post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery through huge market access and market diversification.

"All countries benefit from RCEP due to huge market access, but Cambodia, the young and dynamic 'little tiger' economy will benefit more," he said. 
TEHRAN, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday condemned the bomb attacks in Afghanistan and Israeli police's recent raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, according to the Iranian presidency's website.

The Iranian president told a religious ceremony that protecting Afghan people's lives, including the country's Shiite Muslims, is a responsibility of the Taliban-led caretaker government, urging the country's rulers to fulfill their responsibility and take action against the perpetrators of such crimes against Afghan Muslims, who are fasting, in mosques.

Later in the day, in a message in reaction to and condemnation of the recurring attacks on Afghan schools and mosques, Raisi warned against the increasing threats against Afghan people and regional nations.

He also noted that Iran is prepared to help treat those injured in the attacks. 
An Indian student of Chinese language course reads a book on Chinese literature in New Delhi, India, April 20, 2022. (Photo by Javed Dar/Xinhua)

While the World Book and Copyright Day falls on Saturday, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts, people were once again reminded to pick up the classics and found inspiration.



by Xinhua writers Bai Xu, Wang Aona, Ye Shan

CANBERRA/JAKARTA/TOKYO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- French Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus might have never imagined that his book, The Plague, could become popular again among readers nowadays, who found their own life during the COVID-19 pandemic mirrored in the classic novel of mid-19th century.

"I bought this book during the COVID-19 pandemic, and found its plot highly identical to what is happening now in the world," said a Chinese netizen nicknamed Mengzhentanxiaoxiong, or Detective Bear, on the online shopping platform Dangdang.com.

"I know that the pandemic will not end soon, but as I learned from the book, the way to combat the disease is to do your job well. I think I will be inspired by it until the end of COVID-19," he wrote.

While the World Book and Copyright Day falls on Saturday, people were once again reminded to pick up the classics and found inspiration from them.

Travelers arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang of Selangor, Malaysia, April 1, 2022. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

The Plague tells the story of a plague that swept the French Algerian city of Oran, with snapshots of life of different people. They were separated from their loved ones. Some people had tried to escape while some decided to help. There were lives lost, but there were also efforts to combat the disease and bring hope to others.

"I love old literature. I think that we can look to old literature to see what happened in the past, in terms of how society is dealt with and lived with infectious diseases," said Nancy Baxter, a leading Australian epidemiologist who heads the University of Melbourne's School of Population and Global Health.

The world has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years, with half a billion cases reported so far and more than 6 million deaths.

It is not the first pandemic to hit the world, and could hardly be the last as well.

According to Camus, everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; "yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky." There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.

Professor Baxter noted that as science moved on, people could improve how they manage diseases, but not just through things like vaccines.

She gave an example of cholera, the controlling of which requires sanitation. Therefore, she said that investment in public health and infrastructure would be equally important.

"We can use those (old literature) to say, how do we do better than previous generations in terms of actually managing this both from a scientific perspective in terms of treatments and vaccines, but also from a public health perspective, in terms of improving our conditions so that pandemic is hard to transmit," said the epidemiologist.

If pandemic is a symbolic war, the real warfare on the planet, in spite of peace in most parts, could also invoke people's thoughts.

Rod Campbell, research director in the Australia Institute, told Xinhua that one of his favorites was Catch 22 by U.S. writer Joseph Heller. "It's actually quite a funny book, even though it is all about the madness of war," he said.

Flowers offered by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach are seen at Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima, Japan, July 16, 2021. (Tokyo 2020/Handout via Xinhua)

Campbell said that he never thought that the war between Russia and Ukraine would break out. "Catch 22 shows you that it doesn't have to make sense, war can still happen."

The Last Train from Hiroshima, by American author Charles Pellegrino, is about the cruelty of war, documenting life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the time immediately preceding, during and following the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan in World War II.

The depiction of the bombing is vivid enough to arouse people's fear of war. But what's more valuable in the book was its reflection of shifting roles of "persecutor" and "victim".

Japan was an invader in WWII. According to Pellegrino, before the atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, some schools in Hiroshima were changed into makeshift military plants, while teenagers were learning how to become suicide bombers.

Decades later, flames and ashes were gone from Hiroshima, but the ghost of war has never left. The previous persecutor, the United States, and the previous victim, Japan, are now alliance in the Quad, while the U.S. is still upgrading its nuclear weapons.

"This book warned against militarism brainwashing, and tolled an alarm of the disastrous consequences of war," said Mao Danqing, professor at Kobe International University in Japan.

No matter war or pandemic, or other problems including education, housing, employment and so on, readers also tend to seek for solution from some new books.

Photo taken on June 29, 2020 shows the third volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in both Chinese and English. (Xinhua/Li He)

Bambang Suryono, chairman of Indonesia's think tank Asia Innovation Study Center, told Xinhua that for scholars and politicians, The Governance of China by Chinese President Xi Jinping would be inspirational, as many of the problems that many developing countries could have were discussed in the book, and the "Chinese solution" was valuable.

Suryono said what impressed him in the book was the view of putting the people first. "The government could win the hearts of its people only after it takes practical measures to crack down on corruption, lift people out of poverty, and improve medical service and infrastructure," he said.

He also liked the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which he thought would be from the traditional Chinese philosophy of great harmony in the world.

"The idea is very important for today's world, where there are conflicts and uncertainty," said the scholar. "It means that in spite of differences, countries could still cooperate and coexist." 
Medical workers prepare medicine at the emergency room of Minhang Hospital affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai, east China, April 20, 2022.

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Friday reported 2,971 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 2,736 were in Shanghai, according to the National Health Commission's report Saturday.

Apart from Shanghai, 16 other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new local COVID-19 cases, including 136 in the northeastern province of Jilin, and six in Beijing.

Shanghai also reported 20,634 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections of the novel coronavirus Friday, out of a total of 21,355 local asymptomatic carriers newly identified on the mainland.

Following the recovery of 3,127 COVID-19 patients on Friday, there were 30,662 confirmed COVID-19 cases undergoing treatment in hospitals across the country.

Friday saw 12 deaths from COVID-19, all in Shanghai, bringing the mainland's total COVID-19 deaths to 4,686. 
DAR ES SALAAM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian health authorities said on Saturday 10,313,887 children aged below five years will be vaccinated against polio between April 28 and May 1 in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

A statement by the Ministry of Health said the vaccination will be conducted after neighboring Malawi reported an outbreak of the disease on Feb. 17 when a three-year-old child was diagnosed with polio.

Children in four regions of Mbeya, Songwe, Ruvuma and Njombe neighboring Malawi have already been vaccinated against polio, said the statement without mentioning the number of children vaccinated in the four regions.

The statement said the Ministry of Health will undertake the vaccination in collaboration with the President's Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and development partners.

The statement signed by the Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Aifello Sichalwe, urged district and regional commissioners across the country to oversee the vaccination.

The statement said the last polio case in Tanzania was reported in 1996 in Mtwara region, adding that in 2020 polio was declared eliminated in the African region.

According to the statement, polio is still prevalent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
Turkey has said that the recent attacks in its northwestern province of Bursa and the city of Istanbul were carried out by militia groups related to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday proposed a Global Security Initiative to promote security for all in the world, further enriching the global security governance with Chinese wisdom.

In a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022, Xi called for staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work together to maintain world peace and security.

Xi has put forward his thoughts and vision on security governance on multiple occasions, some of which were reflected in the set of books "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

As the world is marking the World Book Day 2022 on Saturday, it is of special significance to refer to the classic set of books and review the highlights of Xi's thoughts in this regard.

On Jan. 28, 2013

"The Chinese nation loves peace," Xi said at the third group study session of the Political Bureau of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

"To abolish war and achieve peace has been the most pressing and profound aspiration of the Chinese people since the advent of modern times," he said, adding that "what we abhor is turbulence, what we want is stability and what we hope to see is world peace."

"Whether we will succeed in our pursuit of peaceful development to a large extent hinges on whether we can turn opportunities in the rest of the world into China's opportunities and China's opportunities into those for the rest of the world so that China and other countries can engage in sound interactions and make mutually beneficial progress," he said.

On March 24, 2014

In a speech at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Xi said, "We must follow the approach of enhancing security for the sake of development and promoting development by upholding security, and bring the goals of development and security in alignment with each other."

"We need to foster a peaceful and stable international environment, encourage harmonious and friendly relations between countries, and conduct exchanges among different civilizations in an amicable and open-minded manner," he said.

On May 19, 2014

"Seeking political solutions is the right path to address the seemingly endless sequence of international flashpoints," Xi said in talks with then United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"Exerting pressure won't work, and external military intervention will make things worse," noted the Chinese president, stressing that both the UN and the rest of the international community should adhere to political solutions to all conflicts.

Jan. 17, 2017

"Today, mankind has become a close-knit community of shared future. Countries have extensive converging interests and are mutually dependent. All countries have the right to development. At the same time, they should view their own interests in a broader context and refrain from pursuing their interests at the expense of others," Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos.

"Countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are all equal members of the international community. As such, they are entitled to participate in decision-making, enjoy rights, and fulfill obligations on an equal basis," Xi said, noting that "emerging markets and developing countries deserve greater representation and voice."

Jan. 18, 2017

In a speech at the UN office at Geneva, Xi pointed out, "Sovereign equality has been the most important norm governing state-to-state relations over the past centuries, and the cardinal principle observed by the United Nations and its agencies and institutions."

"The essence of sovereign equality is that the sovereignty and dignity of all countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, must be respected; their internal affairs brook no interference, and they have the right to independently choose their social system and development path."

"When we have sincerity, goodwill, and political wisdom, no conflict is too big to settle and no ice is too thick to break," Xi noted. 
PHNOM PENH, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Ninety-three percent of the people in Cambodia, aged 3 years old and over, have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, Health Ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said on Saturday.

The southeast Asian nation launched a national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in February 2021, with China being the key vaccine supplier.

"Some 93.01 percent, or 14.88 million of the country's total population of 16 million, have taken at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines," Vandine said in a report, adding that 88.3 percent of them, or 14.14 million, have been fully inoculated with two required doses.

Also, some 8.2 million, or 51 percent, have got a third dose, and 1.3 million, or 8 percent, have had a fourth dose, she said.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said vaccines have protected people's lives, stabilized the health system and helped restore the kingdom's economy.

"The royal government of Cambodia has made the correct decision to choose China as a strategic supplier of COVID-19 vaccines and that's why Cambodia has enough vaccines for its people," he told Xinhua.

Phea said Chinese vaccines have enabled Cambodia to fully resume socio-economic activities and to reopen its borders to vaccinated travelers without quarantine since last November.

Cambodia reported 28 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday with new zero fatalities, bringing the kingdom's total caseload to 136,200, including 3,056 deaths. 
CAIRO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- As the world is marking World Book Day, Egyptian writers, intellectuals, and cultural officials wish for more popularity of the occasion that highlights the value of books, writers and reading as well as the significance of preserving copyrights.

Short for World Book and Copyright Day, it is an annual celebration on April 23 to promote reading, publishing, and copyright.

"Book is something basic and essential. Its popularity reflects the extent of a nation's progress and its ability to be a future civilization maker," said Egyptian novelist Youssef al-Qaeed.

World Book Day is significant because it promotes intellectual property rights "not only for writers and publishers but for the reader as well," said al-Qaeed.

Authors' rights are no small matter in terms of protecting one's original thinking and creativity as well as preserving history, Fathy Abdel-Wahab, head of Egypt's Cultural Development Fund, told Xinhua on Saturday.

"A writer's creativity is from his inner self, personal experience, and culture, among many other things," Abdel-Wahab added, stressing the need to raise public awareness.

"Writings do not perish by the death of their owners," he noted, citing the works of late Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel laureate in 1988, whose depiction of Egyptian neighborhoods and alleys has remained unique and influential for decades.

Abdel-Wahab is also in charge of the Naguib Mahfouz Museum and Creativity Center, which was opened by the culture ministry in 2019 in the heart of Cairo, featuring his books, handwritten drafts, and other personal belongings, as well as the texts commemorating his life and works.

Echoing al-Qaeed's opinion, Egyptian award-winning novelist Saeed Noah said World Book Day "is a day of festivity for any writer, reader and librarian," and Egypt should do more to raise its visibility to the general public. 
BAGHDAD, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Saturday launched an operation to hunt down the Islamic State (IS) militants in the western part of the country, the Iraqi military said.

The Iraqi army, border guards, and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces, backed by Iraqi aircraft, carried out the operation in the early morning with the aim of clearing IS hideouts in the vast desert areas in western the country, according to a statement by the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, also commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, arrived at the headquarters of the Border Guard forces in Anbar Province, and met with military commanders who briefed him on the operations, said the statement.

"You (IS) have no choice but to die, and we will not rest until we crush you," al-Kadhimi was quoted as saying during the meeting.

Based on the intelligence reports, airborne forces carried out raids on specific targets, and set up ambushes for the IS militants deep in the desert, the statement said.

The operation came as other Iraqi forces are carrying out separate operations against the IS hideouts in the provinces of Diyala, Salahudin, and Kirkuk, the statement added.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the Iraqi forces defeated the IS in 2017. However, IS remnants have since melted into urban centers, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. 
An ambulance transports a survivor to a hospital from the port of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on April 23, 2022. The Lebanese army on Saturday rescued 30 out of 60 people who were on board a boat that sank in the waters off Tripoli, a Lebanese security source told Xinhua. (Photo by Khaled Habashiti/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army on Saturday rescued 30 out of 60 people who were on board a boat that sank in the waters off Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security source told Xinhua.

The army also recovered the bodies of a woman and a child, the source added.

The Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross are still searching for the rest of the people who were on board the boat.

Tripoli Port Director Ahmad Tamer was quoted by the Elnashra news website as saying that people on the boat were attempting to illegally escape from Lebanon to Cyprus.

Lebanon has been suffering from an unprecedented financial crisis, forcing Lebanese nationals and Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon to look for ways to escape the dire living conditions in the country. 

Families of the passengers on a sinking boat gather at the port of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on April 23, 2022. The Lebanese army on Saturday rescued 30 out of 60 people who were on board a boat that sank in the waters off Tripoli, a Lebanese security source told Xinhua. (Photo by Khaled Habashiti/Xinhua)

An ambulance transports a survivor to a hospital from the port of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on April 23, 2022. The Lebanese army on Saturday rescued 30 out of 60 people who were on board a boat that sank in the waters off Tripoli, a Lebanese security source told Xinhua. (Photo by Khaled Habashiti/Xinhua)
HARARE, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government said Tuesday that all visitors and returning residents are no longer required to provide a negative PCR certificate as long as they are fully vaccinated.

Addressing a media briefing after a cabinet meeting, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said a negative PCR certificate would only be required if the returning resident or visitor is not fully vaccinated.

Anyone entering the country must present proof of vaccination with a WHO-approved vaccine, Mutsvangwa said.

Zimbabwe's COVID-19 cases have significantly decreased over the past month, prompting the government to lift some restrictions. 
MOGADISHU, April 23 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and eight others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a popular beach restaurant in the Somali capital here on Friday evening.

Police spokesman Abdifitah Aden Hassan said the wounded were rushed to a hospital after the security forces controlled the new Pescatore Seafood restaurant, which recently opened on Lido Beach and is frequented by celebrities.

He said the security officers who rushed to the scene prevented other al-Shabab fighters who attempted to force their way into the restaurant after the blast, which happened at 8:40 p.m. (1740 GMT).

Aden told reporters that security forces rescued a police commissioner who was inside the restaurant for evening meals along with 11 members of the Somali Parliament. "An investigation is underway to establish the motive of the attack," he said.

However, medical charity Aamin Ambulance Service said six people have been killed and seven others wounded in the attack.

"We carried (away) six dead civilians and seven others wounded from the blast scene," Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Service, told reporters at the scene.

Al-Shabab, a Somalia-based jihadist group active in East Africa, has claimed responsibility for the latest attack in the capital, saying its fighters were targeting senior government officials. 
VIENTIANE, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Lao Ministry of Health reported 2,819 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily number since the outbreak of the disease in the country.

The previous record was 2,625 cases reported on Wednesday.

Deputy Director General of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology under the Ministry of Health Bouaphan Khamphaphongphan told a press conference in the capital Vientiane that the country reported 2,819 new infections over the past 24 hours, raising the total caseload to 161,866.

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said the cases included 2,776 locally transmitted cases and 43 imported cases.

Bouaphan said the capital Vientiane logged the highest number of infections at 1,086.

In light of the Omicron outbreak and the spiraling number of infections, the Ministry of Health is considering canceling Lao New Year festivities which fall in April.

As of Thursday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Laos reached 161,866 with 652 deaths.

Laos reported its first two confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 24, 2020. 
People receive food donated by China in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 23, 2022. The Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs distributed China-donated humanitarian assistance to 1,500 destitute people here on Saturday.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs distributed China-donated humanitarian assistance to 1,500 destitute people here on Saturday.

"Today we distributed the humanitarian assistance to 1,500 needy people and would continue to help needy families next week," Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani told reporters.

In the meantime, Spokesman for the ministry Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told Xinhua that each needy person received a 50 kg sack of rice donated by China in humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan.

"We are thankful to China for providing assistance to the people of Afghanistan at this critical stage," Haqqani told Xinhua.

The war-torn Afghanistan has been facing extreme economic problem since the defeat of the U.S.-led forces and their evacuation from Afghanistan last August. Washington has frozen more than 9.5 billion U.S. dollars of Afghanistan's asserts in U.S. banks that further worsened the country's fragile economy.

"I am grateful to China and other countries including the neighboring states for providing humanitarian assistance to us and hope such a cooperation will continue," an aid recipient Farid Ahmad, 35, who is also the head of a 10-member family, told Xinhua.

Welcoming the assistance, an aged widow only identified as Halima, 60, said, "I received a bag of rice and have to cook it without cooking oil to feed her three-member family."

The Chinese government announced last September that it has decided to provide food, winter supplies, COVID-19 vaccines, and medicines worth 200 million yuan (about 31.4 million U.S. dollars) in emergency humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

China has provided a total of 6,220 tons of food aid to Afghanistan. 

People receive food donated by China in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 23, 2022. The Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs distributed China-donated humanitarian assistance to 1,500 destitute people here on Saturday.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

People receive food donated by China in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 23, 2022. The Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs distributed China-donated humanitarian assistance to 1,500 destitute people here on Saturday.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

People receive food donated by China in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 23, 2022. The Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs distributed China-donated humanitarian assistance to 1,500 destitute people here on Saturday.(Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
ISLAMABAD, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a cross-border attack from Afghanistan, a Pakistani military statement said on Saturday.

Terrorists from inside Afghanistan across the international border opened fire on Pakistani troops in the North Waziristan district of the province, the Pakistani military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations said in the statement.

Pakistani troops responded in a befitting manner, causing heavy casualties to the terrorists, the statement added. 
WELLINGTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported its first case of Omicron XE variant at the border, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Saturday.

A person who has traveled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the XE variant of Omicron, said the ministry.

This is the first known detection of the Omicron XE variant in New Zealand, it said.

According to the ministry, the person, who is currently isolating at home, arrived in New Zealand on April 19 and was tested on April 20. The whole-genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the XE variant.

"XE has been spreading overseas, and its arrival in New Zealand is not unexpected," said the ministry.

Meanwhile, the country reported 19 deaths from COVID-19, with 7,930 community cases and 494 hospitalizations on Saturday.

In addition, 55 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.

New Zealand has reported 875,794 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

As the country is going through Anzac long weekend, the ministry has warned people to take health measures to protect themselves from the virus.

"Firstly, be up to date with vaccinations. Secondly, wear a mask. And thirdly, stay home and avoid others if you're unwell," said the ministry.

New Zealand is currently under the orange settings of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, where there is no limit for gatherings. 
COLOMBO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Remittances sent by Sri Lankans working abroad rose to 318 million U.S. dollars in March 2022, from 205 million dollars in February, according to a report issued by the central bank on Saturday.

The increase correlates with flexible foreign exchange rates introduced during the first week of March, said the report.

However, this is still a drop of 48 percent compared to March 2021, when Sri Lankans sent home 600 million dollars.

Between January and March of 2022 Sri Lankans have sent 782.5 million dollars as remittances, according to the report.

Remittances were recorded as 5.49 billion dollars in 2021, falling to their lowest level since 2012, said the report.

Sri Lanka has been facing forex shortage for the past months, which eroded its ability to import fuel, medicines and other items. 
ANKARA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish military on Saturday launched an operation against Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria in response to the killing of a Turkish police officer, Turkey's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

At least 50 YPG members were "neutralized" in the ongoing operations in the region so far, it said.

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralized" to imply "terrorists" killed, wounded, or captured in security operations.

Turkey has launched the operation after YPG attacked a police checkpoint in Mare settlement in the Operation Euphrates Shield area with anti-tank weapons and killed Turkish police officer Aytac Altinors on Friday, the statement said.

The YPG fired at Turkish military bases in northern Syria at the same time when the police checkpoint attack was launched, it said.

Turkey's forces and the YPG members often exchange fire on the Syrian border, and the tension has increased in the region since early January, after three Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb explosion on Turkey-Syria border.

The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria.

Turkish authorities say the operations aim to eliminate terror threats against Turkey and provide a safe zone that will facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
KIEV, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday that Kiev will complete the talks on security guarantees with partner countries within a week, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

"Weapons supplies, closure of the sky, military consultations and means for the rapid purchase of additional weapons are important for us. I think that these issues can be completed within a week," Podolyak said.

On April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Turkey showed their willingness to join the creation of a system of security guarantees for Ukraine.

The advisors to the leaders of Poland, Germany, France and Israel reportedly have expressed readiness to discuss a list of security guarantees for Ukraine, the report said.

At the peace talks with Russia in Istanbul, Turkey last month, Kiev proposed to sign a new international treaty on security guarantees, which enshrines obligations for the guarantor countries to provide Ukraine with military assistance in the event of an attack. 
MOSCOW, April 22 (Xinhua) -- One soldier died and 27 other crew members went missing when they were fighting for the survival of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva that sank in the Black Sea last week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

The remaining 396 crew members of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, were evacuated to other ships in the area and delivered to Sevastopol, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry has provided all the necessary support and assistance to the families and friends of the deceased and missing, it added.

According to a survey, the vast majority of the Moskva crew members want to continue to serve in the Black Sea Fleet.

The Moskva was "seriously damaged" by the detonation of ammunition onboard as a result of a fire on April 13 and a day later it sank in stormy seas when it was being tugged to a port, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The Ukrainian side said that its border guards used Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles to deliver "very serious damage" to the Moskva. 
LONDON, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 600 people were killed by police in the United States during traffic stops since 2017, with the deaths continuing apace this year, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

A review of national police violence data showed that encounters with police during traffic stops, including minor infractions, disproportionately harm people of color, the report said.

"Black drivers make up 28 percent of those killed in traffic stops, while accounting for only 13 percent of the population," it said, using data collected by Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group.

The group also found that black and brown drivers are more likely to be stopped, searched and subjected to force. 
GUWAHATI: A panel set up by Assam's Himanta Biswa Sarma government to identify Asmiya Muslims has submitted its report. It recommended that a notification be passed to identify 'Assamese Muslims' as a special group in the state so that they can be separated from Muslims who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh.

The panel was formed last year by the state's Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after a meeting among members of the Assamese Muslim community from various places to discuss the socio-economic problems of the group. Now in its report, the panel has recommended that the native Muslims of Assam should be given an ID card or a certificate for their special identification. It has also been recommended that the state government should pass a law similar to Article 333 of the Constitution to identify them as well as to ensure their opportunity to be represented in the Census and the Parliament and State Assembly of India.

Let me tell you that, the panel formed by the Assam government was divided into seven sub-committees. They were asked to make recommendations on matters such as politics, culture, education, health, skill development and curbing the growing population. The report, released on Thursday (April 22, 2022), included Assamese Muslim journalists, intellectuals, lawyers, activists and academics in the panel to prepare the same.

'Ashok Gehlot acted like Aurangzeb..', Congress surrounded all round after breaking 300 year old temple

CM Nitish's big statement on joining RJD's Iftar party, said this

Mayawati in action after losing UP polls, three big leaders expelled from BSP
Ramgarh: A dangerous collision took place between a bus and a truck in Ramgarh, Jharkhand on Friday. 19 passengers on the bus got injured in this horrific accident. The incident took place in Kejiaghati of Rajrappa police station when the passengers were going to Nepal on religious pilgrimage. This bus belongs to Lalita Travels which was going from Bolangir district of Odisha to Deoghar and Nepal. All the devotees in the bus were residents of Odisha. Due to this the truck was moving ahead in Kejiaghati. The bus was coming from Ranchi side. Due to this, it had a dangerous collision with the truck.

As soon as the collision happened, there was chaos all around. About 17 passengers aboard the bus suffered minor injuries. Two persons have suffered serious injuries. Villagers including Dulmi's Bisutri President Sudhir Manglesh reached on the news of the matter. The injured persons were taken out of the bus and sent for first aid.

On the other hand, another incident has come to light in which a minor girl from Jharkhand was found at the house of AIIMS employee. This girl was locked in the house for the last 6 days. The family of the AIIMS employee had locked him up and went to Ranchi. Police said that the girl's medical test has been done and she has been sent to the one stop centre. Further action will be taken after the return of AIIMS employee.

Girl who vanished found dead in swimming pool

11-year-old boy kills 4-year-old boy, secret opened due to dogs

Anwar and Sarwar picked up Hindu girl from market, tried to forcibly get married
Assam: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit Guwahati to attend an award ceremony at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra on Saturday.

The award ceremony was arranged by the Assam government to honour the sacrifices of soldiers who fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The presentation will feature Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his cabinet members, and senior government officials.

The Union Defence Minister to be in Guwahati for attending the 7th India Industrial Fair (UDYAM 2022), which will be held at the veterinary field in Khanapara. Security has been tightened in Guwahati ahead of the visit of the Defence Minister.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reach Assam's Dibrugarh on April 28, where he will inaugurate the Assam Medical College as well as seven cancer centres throughout the state.

Later in the day, he would address the public gathering at the Khanikar police reserve field. PM Modi's most recent visit to Assam was in March 2021, when he campaigned for the BJP in advance of the Assam Assembly elections.

India, US having great Convergence of Strategic Interests: Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh shouts from US soil, says 'if India is teased, we will not spare anyone'

Defense Minister visits US Indo-Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S Jaishankar on Saturday, April 23, met the Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, who is on an 8-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral relationship, in New Delhi.

The Prime Minister of Mauritius is in India for an eight-day visit. The Prime Minister offered prayer at Varanasi's Kashi Vishwanath Temple on Thursday. On Saturday, the Prime Minister of Mauritius met with Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

"In a meeting I had this morning with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri @myogiadityanath, we explored ways to build greater cultural relations and ties of brotherhood between Mauritius and Uttar Pradesh," the Mauritius PM stated on Twitter.

In the presence of the Mauritius Prime Minister and Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar earlier on Wednesday (WHO).

Following the inauguration of the Global Ayush Summit, PM Modi met with the Prime Minister of Mauritius in a bilateral discussion to discuss the ongoing development partnership and defence cooperation.

Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said PM Modi and the Prime Minister of Mauritius discussed the progress of the Metro Express Project and the proposal for an AYUSH Centre of Excellence in Mauritius.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with Mauritius' Secretary to the Cabinet, NK Ballah, in New Delhi last week, and claimed the two nations' bilateral relationship was "progressing from strength to strength."

America was giving knowledge on 'Human Rights' to India, S. Jaishankar gave such an answer that it is being praised everywhere

EAM responds to buying oil from Russia, Shiv Sena MPs also started praising

Cooperation in higher education between India and US help take bilateral ties forward
AHMEDABAD: A large quantity of heroin has once again been recovered in Kutch, Gujrat. The heroin was recovered from the containers kept in the container freight station near the Gandhidham area. It is being told that these containers were kept there for the last 8 months and so far 300 kg of heroin has been recovered. Its value in the international market has been estimated at Rs.2100 crores.

According to information, a joint team of the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Team (ATS) has carried out the operation at a container freight station near Gandhidham in Kutch. Officials said the heroin in containers was imported from Iran. He said another 17 containers kept in the station are also being searched. In which the cooperation of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is also being taken. In such a situation, the number of seizures may also increase.

According to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, it has so far been revealed in the investigation that these containers had arrived in India from Iran in September 2020. It was also reported that it is gypsum powder. The agencies believe that the consignment was to be transported to various states of north India. The name of the importer of the containers kept in the container freight station is said to be Balaji Traders.

Dangerous collision in bus-truck, this is the condition of passengers

Girl who vanished found dead in swimming pool

11-year-old boy kills 4-year-old boy, secret opened due to dogs
Baghdad: Marriage is like a beautiful dream for many, while for some it is just a way to carry forward the lineage. Usually, people do a marriage. Many times tales of more than one marriage are also seen. In the last stage of age, a person rarely thinks about getting married. However, an Iraqi man, Haji Mukhlif Farhoud al-Mansouri, has a different view. Al-Mansoori, who lives in Iraq, recently married at the age of 103 for the third time with a 37-year-old woman. Al-Mansoori's 15 children and more than 100 grandchildren attended the wedding ceremony. Let us tell you that Al-Mansoori is married for the third time due to "the desire for more children."

According to the information, Al-Mansoori lives in a city called Al-Diwaniyah in Iraq. Born in 1919, Mansoori married a 37-year-old woman from the Somar area last week. He did this a few months after leaving his second wife. Al-Mansoori's son Abdul Salam told the Rudow media network that '23 years after my mother's death, my father married a second time. Marg, his second wife left home this year and went to her relatives. My father waited for a few months for her, but when she did not return, he asked us to find a third wife. He asked to find a third wife who can give birth to more children.

Explaining further, Abdul Salam said, 'We found a good woman, who was born in 1985. We got both engaged and then both of them got married.' In the third marriage of the father, both his children and grandchildren attended. Al-Mansoori, speaking to Rudow, said that his wife was young and that she wanted to have more children. But, you will be surprised to know that in the matter of marriage and children, the eldest son of Al-Mansoori is two steps ahead of him. He is 72 years old and has done 9 marriages. He has 16 daughters and 17 sons from 9 wives. At present his eldest son Kadheme has four wives.

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GAZA: A third rocket was shot into Israel from the Gaza Strip in less than 24 hours on Saturday, following two rockets fired from the Hamas-run enclave the night before.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the rocket fell in open territory with no damage or injuries. Israel reportedly announced the temporary closure of the only pedestrian crossing from Gaza to the Jewish state in reaction to multiple missiles fired into Israel in the previous week after several months of calm. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans walk into Israel every day to make a life.

In a statement, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said, "The decision to reopen the crossing to employees and merchants will be reviewed in accordance with the evaluation of the situation."

Since Hamas gained control of Gaza in 2007, Israel has imposed a harsh siege on the territory. Since then, the Islamist group, which does not recognise Israel, has launched thousands of missiles at Israel in an attempt to break the blockade.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have risen in recent weeks as a result of their periodic conflicts in Jerusalem.

Rocket fired from Gaza Strip into Israeli territory: Israeli army

Bodies of 1084 civilians found in Kiev region, over 300 have not been identified

US President recalls Xi Jinping once complained to him about Quad, and his response
Reading with Xi Jinping | What Is to Be Done?

08:30, April 23, 2022 By Deng Jie, Li Yan, Liu Ning, Yang Qian ( People's Daily Online

The highroad of history is not a sidewalk of the Nevsky Prospect. It passes all the way through open fields, dusty and muddy; at times it cuts across marshes or forests.

In 1861, Russian philosopher Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky wrote an open letter to strongly criticize the pro-protectionism American economist Henry Charles Carey. At the end of the letter, he wrote the abovementioned sentences, which effectively reveal the essence of the development of history: the evolution of human society will inevitably face setbacks and difficulties, but history always moves forward according to its own rules and nothing can stop that process.

Chernyshevsky was a great literary critic, philosopher, and revolutionary democrat of Russia in the 19th century. His works cover various topics, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, literature and sociology. What Is to Be Done?, as a representative work of Chernyshevsky, has enjoyed a positive worldwide reputation.

On the evening of March 23, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian sinologists, Chinese language students and media representatives in Moscow. Xi said that he was once inspired by Chernyshevskys work What Is to Be Done? when he was young, suggesting that given this reason it indicated the charm of an excellent culture.

In January 1969, 15-year-old Xi Jinping arrived in Liangjiahe, a village in Yanan city in northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province, having taken up work as a farmer in the locality. While living in a cave dwelling in Liangjiahe, Xi read the full-length novel What Is to Be Done? In order to strengthen his will, Rakhmetov, the leading character in the book, lives an ascetic life, even going so far as to sleep on a bed of nails, which left his body covered in blood.

Recalling his life in Liangjiahe, Xi said that he and his fellow compatriots thought that this was the right way to temper ones willpower. They then decided to remove their cotton-padded mattresses and instead just slept on the bare brick beds. On rainy daysthey would go outdoors to expose themselves to the rain; and on snowy days they went outside to rub snow onto themselves, taking cold showers beside the well all in an attempt to strengthen their willpower, which was all inspired by this book.

Xi has expressed his deep interest in Russian literature on many occasions. He has read a lot of works from Russian writers, such as Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Sholokhov. There are many wonderful chapters and episodes that he still remembers very clearly, Xi said.

Youre now engaged in a bad business because your environment demands it; but if we were to provide you with a different environment, youd gladly become harmless, even beneficial, because you don't want to do evil without financial reward, and if it were in your own interest, you'd do anything at all, you'd even act decently and nobly if necessary.

For Xi and other Chinese readers around his age at the time, famous Russian literary works were important reading materials.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Du Mingming)
ANKARA: At least 45 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed during Turkey's current land and air cross-border operation in northern Iraq, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The operation also killed three Turkish soldiers President said. Erdogan added that the "destruction of caves and other critical targets" in the region is still ongoing, with the hope that the operation will be "effectively finished with minimal casualties."

The Turkish military initiated Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq on Monday, targeting PKK strongholds, including shelters, caves, tunnels, and weapons stores, after the Defense Ministry alleged that the PKK was organising a large-scale strike in the country.

A bus explosion in Bursa, Turkey's northern region, killed one person, as did a stun grenade attack on the Turkey Youth Foundation's Istanbul headquarters, both allegedly carried out by PKK-affiliated terrorist groups.

Turkey has designated the PKK as a terrorist organisation, and it has been fighting the Ankara government for more than 30 years.

Turkey's FM summons Iraqi envoy to defend cross-border offensive

Iraq summons Turkey envoy in protest at Kurdistan over military offensive

Iraqi Presidency says Turkey's cross-border operation threatens security, sovereignty
New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have issued an advisory for students looking to go to Pakistan for higher education. It says that such a degree will not be recognised in India. The AICTE chief has said that there are many institutions which are not good. He also mentioned the situation in China and Ukraine.

A joint advisory has been issued that Indian nationals intending to take admission in any degree college or educational institution in Pakistan will not be eligible for employment or higher education in India on the basis of the qualification acquired in Pakistan. The UGC and AICTE have reported that "However, the immigrants and their children, who have received higher education in Pakistan and have been granted citizenship by India. Such persons will be eligible to seek employment in India after security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs."

AICTE chief Professor Anil D Sahasrabudhe has told the media that there are many institutions which are not good and the experience that has come with China and Ukraine after studying abroad, children get stuck in the middle of their education. He said that therefore it is necessary to warn the students and parents. AICTE further said that when students will not get the benefit of that degree when they return to India after completing half of their education, the parents' money will be wasted. "Our aim is to alert students.''

Girl found locked at AIIMS employee's house, innocent opens up big secret in interrogation

'Come to meet home, then let's talk...', the girlfriend's mother hung up phone, then this happened

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KIEV: Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak stated that Kiev will finalise talks on security guarantees with partner countries within a week, as per the Interfax-Ukraine news report.

"Weapons supply, sky closure, military discussions, and the ability to quickly purchase additional weapons are all crucial to us. I believe these concerns may be resolved in a week's time "On Friday, Podolyak added. As per Xinhua report, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on April 16 that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, and Turkey have expressed their willingness to join the formation of a system of security assurances for Ukraine.

The advisors to the leaders of Poland, Germany, France, and Israel have expressed willingness to consider a list of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Kiev suggested signing a new international treaty on security treaty with Russia in Istanbul, Turkey in March, which enshrines requirements for guarantor countries to support Ukraine with military aid in the case of an attack.

Guterres to meet with Putin, Zelenskyy to press for peace

UN rights office cites mounting evidence of war crimes in Ukraine

Authorities estimate 3000-9000 people buried in a mass grave at Mariupol
How Olaf Scholz became Germanys antihero, blocking the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine 23 April, 19:28 Story German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Photo:John MacDougall/Pool via REUTERS)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's vague stance on the supply of heavy weapons from Germany to Ukraine has already earned him a political reputation: even within Germany, the chancellor has been criticized by supporters, opponents, and the press, and of course, by increasing pressure from Ukrainian diplomats.

"Discussions about Germany's contribution to the Ukrainian army have recently gained momentum, as even representatives of the coalition parties (which formed Scholz's government) are increasingly expressing their dissatisfaction with the chancellor's course, the German news magazine Spiegel summed up in its April 21 article, which also looked into the new risks of a de facto vote of no confidence in Scholz.

 

At the same time, given Russia's new offensive, Ukraine's needs seem to be becoming more urgent.

NV looks back on the claims against Scholz in German political and social circles, how this may affect his career and the future of German arms supplies to Ukraine.

What is wrong with arms supplies from Germany to Ukraine? Didn't Germany promise EUR 2 billion aid package?

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared a "landmark" change in Germany's position on arms exports and defense spending on Feb. 27. Prior to that, Germany flatly refused to supply weapons to the Ukrainian side.

"But critics in Europe and at home say the Social Democrat chancellor has failed to follow up on his grand announcements with the firm steps required to send a message to the Kremlin and to reassure NATO allies that Germany has departed from its policy of rapprochement (with Russia)," the British newspaper The Guardian reported on April 14, a month and a half after Scholz's first promises to help Ukraine.

This impression of Germany's position is supported by a number of facts, most notably the contradictory position of the German government and its head.

In the first month of the invasion (as of the end of March), Germany provided Ukraine with arms and defense goods worth EUR 186 million. Among them were grenade launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, as well machine guns and ammunition, but there were no heavy weapons: no tanks and armored vehicles, no helicopters and fighter jets, no artillery. At the same time, Ukraine announced its readiness to purchase 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery units in Germany (equipped with a 155-mm cannon). It was assumed that in the event of such a purchase, the Bundeswehr would later replace this equipment for itself with new armored howitzers. Similarly, Ukraine expected to purchase German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicles directly from their manufacturer, the German company Rheinmetall.

However, the Scholz government has been cool to such ideas, voicing in recent weeks a number of reasons that allegedly hinder the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine:

 in the case of deliveries of a batch of Panzerhaubitze 2000 to Ukraine, the German Ministry of Defense will be able to fill this gap only in 2024;

 the German army itself needs Marder armored vehicles both on NATO's eastern flank and for training and military drills, as well as for the Alliance's Rapid Reaction Force  the German tabloid Bild reported this motivation for the de facto refusal;

 arms supplies to Ukraine should not jeopardize Germany's commitment to NATO in other regions, such as the Baltic States, Scholz said;

 Germany should not supply heavy weapons to Ukraine until NATO allies decide on it ("the Federal Government works in close coordination with our international partners. Germany should not take action alone," said Rolf Mutzenich, chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Scholz's party, in the German Bundestag. "We provide such military support in the same way and so that no one is in a hurry, including Germany," said Scholz himself);

 Germany's restraint is designed to prevent "greater evil" ("In everything we do, we are very careful not to take any ill-considered steps that could make Germany a target for Russia," German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said in early April, suggesting that Ukraine found German foot-dragging difficult to understand. "But there is no morally sound position in politics. But there are always thoughts of preventing greater evil.");

 arms deliveries to Ukraine have reached the limits of the Bundeswehr's resources (according to German Defense Minister Christian Lambrecht); Germany no longer has weapons that it can "deliver quickly and without delay right now." (This statement was made by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on April 20, who said that Berlin was instead ready to train the Ukrainian military to work with new types of weapons provided by other countries and to service newly-obtained equipment).

In addition, it was reported that Scholz personally delayed a final decision to provide Ukraine with Marder armored vehicles, which are equipped with anti-tank missiles, although that move was supported by several other top officials, U.S.-based political newspaper Politico reported, citing four people familiar with the deliberations.

On April 15, the international news agency Reuters reported that "German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to spend an additional EUR 2 billion ($2.16 billion) on new military equipment, mostly to help Ukraine." However, it soon became clear that in practice this decision was quite different: Ukraine would be allocated only EUR 1 billion, and the provision of weapons involved a complex scheme.

As Scholz explained, "we asked the German military industry to announce what it can deliver in the near future," and Kyiv was given the right to choose from this list.

"We are providing the funds needed for the purchase," the chancellor said on April 19 after a meeting with NATO leaders, though he avoided mentioning heavy weapons in his speech.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, quickly pointed out that the list provided (Ukraine received it a few weeks ago) had not included heavy weapons.

His words were actually confirmed by Bild in its April 20 article, Chancellor's Tank Bluff."

Bild journalists acquainted themselves with Kyivs list of requests, and its German "answer"  a list of weapons Germany is ready to provide Ukraine for procurement. Bild claims that "at the insistence of Scholz's office," the maximum possible list for Ukraine had been halved: from 48 to 24 pages. From the list of available weapons that Kyiv had asked for, "all the heavy weapons that German industry was ready to sell to Ukraine have disappeared."

"Melnyk's accusations that the alleged EUR 1 billion allocated by the federal government for military support cannot be spent at all seem to be true. The total cost of all 'consolidated' German weapons for Ukraine is only EUR 307 million," Bild reported.

Earlier, Ukraine requested Leopard tanks, Marder, Puma, GTK Boxer, and TPz 1 Fuchs armored vehicles from Germany, as well as multiple rocket launcher systems, anti-ship missiles, and Milan and Spike anti-tank systems. According to Bild, almost all of these weapons requested by Ukraine were on the list of possible supplies from German industry, including Leopard 2 tanks.

So far, Germany has only agreed to a compromise option: Slovenia will hand over several T-72 tanks to Ukraine, and Germany will provide Slovenia with more modern equipment, including Marder and Fuchs armored vehicles. Germany is also ready to teach the Ukrainian military to handle the German model of Panzerhaubitze 2000  the Netherlands may provide Ukraine with this weapon.

"Ukraine does not need money to win, but weapons": Scholz criticized by colleagues, opposition, and the German press

With many other NATO countries (from the Czech Republic to the United States) already agreeing to supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine, this refusenik position of Scholz's government has caused a wave of surprise and condemnation even among his coalition allies, which include the Green Party and the Free Democracts.

On April 18, the head of the Bundestag's defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (deputy chairman of the Free Democratic Party), criticized Scholz and said she expected more clarity from him on the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

"I just don't think we have time to discuss this," said Strack-Zimmermann, who recently visited the Ukrainian western city of Lviv as part of a delegation of German parliamentarians. She reminded that Ukraine does not need money to win, but weapons.

"I would like the chancellor to make it clear once again that there is money. And, on the other hand, Germany is ready to supply heavy weapons," she said.

Anton Hofreiter, a leading Green politicians, expressed this position in an interview with the Deutsche Welle newspaper: "We must finally start supplying Ukraine with what it needs, namely heavy weapons," Hofreiter said directly.

"I can only guess why the chancellor is putting pressure on the brakes. I see no reasonable reason for this. But the German chancellor's actions harm not only Ukraine, but also Germany's image in Europe and around the world, and very seriously. So I can only call on the Chancellor: stop finally putting the brakes on and give the green light."

Even German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Green Party) has recently spoken out in support of heavy arms supplies to Ukraine.

"We are taking care of this together with our European partners, she said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on April 11.

"Ukraine needs more military equipment, especially heavy weapons. Now is not the time for excuses, now is the time for creativity and pragmatism.

Scholz has even more sharply criticized by the largest political force in the parliamentary opposition, the Christian Democratic Union, which had previously formed Angela Merkel's government for 16 years. Its leader, Friedrich Merz, told the FAZ newspaper in an interview on April 16 that he agreed with Baerbock's position and that delays in supplies were "no longer excusable," although his political forces blame Berlin's long-standing attempts to find an agreement with Moscow.

"By his behavior, he (Scholz) threatens the cohesion of the entire (European) community of states towards Russia," Merz said.

"We want to know what is being supplied and, above all, why the German government does not want to supply what is available."

Separately, Merz criticized Scholz's repeated statements that, for security reasons, Berlin would not say exactly what weapons were being provided to Ukraine. The CDU leader said that Ukraine and the German public have a right to know what is being handed over to Kyiv, even if specific dates for the transfer of weapons and the place of production have not been announced. Instead, there is a "steady stream of speculation, allegations, rumors and demands," the CDU chairman said.

Merz reminded that Russia is capable of waging war for a long time, so Russian dictator Vladimir Putin must be stopped and pushed back now.

"We must assume that this war will last longer and that the Ukrainian army must be fully capable of regaining the conquered territory," the CDU leader said.

Supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine is generally supported even by the German public. A poll published in mid-April by the sociological company Infratest dimap found that 55% of Germans prefer to export heavy weapons to Ukraine rather than Russia's energy embargo, which could hit Germany's economy (by 37%). Obvious dissatisfaction with the idea of arms exports was recorded only among supporters of the far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party.

Meanwhile, Scholz's vague excuses and his reluctance to talk about heavy weapons for Ukraine have outraged even German journalists.

On April 20, Germany's public broadcaster ARD released a sharp column called "Scholz confused instead of answering." Its author complains that in most cases, the chancellor's answers to journalists' questions about the supply of weapons to Ukraine sound like a "smokescreen" and abound in vague and complex sentences. The journalist cites an example when, at a recent press conference after a 15-minute statement by Scholz, a reporter was forced to ask, "Is this how Germany supplies heavy weapons, or not?"

The author of a recent column published on ARD website pointed out that Scholz is able to speak simply and clearly  when he wants to, and that was seen during last year's election campaign. However, now the "Scholz method, when commenting on Ukraine, has surpassed his predecessor Angela Merkels most restrained statements of Merkel, the journalist concludes.

Citing Scholz's words, he highlighted the features of this "method":

 cascades of additional sentences instead of clear messages;

 avoidance of direct answers;

 a simulation of clarity when there is no clarity in the answer;

 an indulgent attitude toward journalists who ask questions.

And on Twitter, a selection of Scholz's contradictory statements over the past two months, each time contradicting the actions of other Western countries, whose support for Ukraine has proved stronger, has gathered more than 12,000 retweets.

Can Scholz really face a no confidence vote?

As the German weekly Spiegel reported on April 21, Merz now faces a "fundamental question": should members of the Bundestag from the CDU/CSU bloc submit to the German parliament an initiative to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine? The Bundestag will hold a plenary session next week, and the leader of the CDU faction in the Bundestag, Johann Wadephul, has already stated that his party is ready to take such a step "if Scholz continues to oppose the supply of heavy weapons."

This could be a "signal to overthrow the chancellor," explains Spiegel, saying that after the beginning of the Russian invasion in February, the CDU promised to support Scholz's course to help Ukraine and "not to cling to trifles."

However, that situation is now changing  especially "given Scholz's criticism from his own ranks (from coalition members). This means that the CDU's initiative to support Ukraine with heavy weaponry may even win a majority in the Bundestag, Spiegel said. Bild also describes possible procedural nuances in the German parliament, stating that one way or another Scholz may face a vote of no confidence in the government. In turn, this threatens Germany with a "significant state crisis  and in the midst of the largest foreign policy crisis in decades," Spiegel reported.

Ukraine's position in the Scholz scandal and supplies from Germany

Meanwhile, Ukrainian diplomats and officials in Kyiv have been urging Germany to give a green light to the supply or sale of heavy weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said Scholz's position was "very disappointing" for Kyiv. He called on the German government to "play with open cards on this very important issue, instead of giving us the go-around.

"It remains unclear whether the Bundeswehr can to supply anything to Ukraine," Melnyk said, adding that the German army has more than 400 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, of which only about a hundred are used only for training and military drills, and therefore, they could be transferred to Ukraine immediately.

"The supply of self-propelled howitzers (Panzerhaubitze 2000) could also be crucial, Ukraines ambassador to Germany stated, noting that Germany has about 120 long-range artillery weapons. In Melnyks opinion "every next delay (of weapons) will cost many lives."

On April 19, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also criticized Germany for not helping Ukraine.

"Germany can do much more, Kuleba began.

We expect the German government to make a decision that allows the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

The Foreign Minister urged Germany and France to follow the example of the United States, which has already announced several aid packages to Ukraine, including heavy artillery, helicopters, drones, armored vehicles, and other weapons.

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Putin's next move? 23 April, 18:31

It feels like Putin is going back to Plan B, or C, which is scaling back his ambitions for Ukraine, from taking the whole of the country, to taking Donbas, and securing a land bridge to Crimea  hence the importance of Mariupol, which is on the way.

This comes after huge military defeats in the Battle of Kyiv and the Battle of Snake Island, the latter of which saw the quite incredible sight of the sinking of Russias Black Sea Fleet Flagship, the Moskva. As one Twitter blogger put it, the Russian navy suffered the loss of its flagship by a country that in effect has no navy. It reminds me a bit of the Cod Wars  actually even worse, thats when Iceland beat the Royal Navy in the 1970s, albeit they never actually sunk a British ship.

 

Russia has still actually not taken the whole Mariupol, as Russian forces have not yet taken the Azovstal steel plant, with around 2,000 Ukrainian troops still holed up there. The Russian side seems to have decided to just steer around Azovstal for the time-being, sell it as though they have taken all of Mariupol, and then siege/bomb remaining Ukrainians forces out of Azovstal.

Russia will now aim to concentrate its forces on the Battle of Donbas, which could well prove to be the defining battle in this conflict, or at least one of them  the Battle of Kyiv was likely instrumental in ensuring that Putin could not take the whole of Ukraine. The Battle of Donbas will likely determine whether Russia can capture and hold significant additional elements of Ukrainian territory.

It seems that Putin is aiming to secure victory in the Battle of Donbas by the May 9 Day Parade in Moscow.

First things first, there is a big question whether Russian forces will be able to secure a win in Donbas by May 9. So far in terms of tactics, equipment and troop morale/fighting capability, Russia has massively underperformed  and Ukrainians outperformed in equal if not greater measure.

In Donbas though Russia is able to concentrate much greater weight of forces, and benefits from shorter supply lines. But it is ranged against the best of the Ukrainian armed forces  perhaps as many as 40,000 defenders in well prepared defensive positions.

And now the West is really stepping up arms deliveries. On this latter note, the rubicon has been crossed in terms of the Wests willingness to provide heavy weapons to Ukraine  with S300s, artillery, tanks, APCs, SAMs, and likely even Mig29s, now on their way to Ukraine  albeit the question is whether they can reach the Donbas theatre in time to make a difference.

Russia will likely try to deploy over-whelming firepower against Ukrainian forces in Donbas  huge artillery, and missile strikes against their positions, likely then followed by a largescale frontal advance to break their lines. Can they succeed? Will Ukrainian forces now get surrounded in a pincer move in Donbas? Time will tell. But recent experience suggests that the Ukrainian troops are no pushovers  just look at Azovstal.

Second, but lets just imagine that Putin now gets his wish, and that he wins the Battle of Donbas, so secures the bulk of Donbas, and also his land corridor thru to Crimea. He can sell this as some kind of win. He will argue that he has freed the Russian-inclined (not in reality if recent opinion polls are to be believed but that is the narrative being sold by Moscow) population in Donbas, secured supply routes to Crimea, and by taking the bulk of Ukrainian ports, he will have crippled the rest of Ukraine economically.



I guess if he quickly wins in Donbas (not a given) he could use the threat of further military advances, say back on to Kyiv from the South, to force concessions from Kyiv and then look to impose a peace treaty on the Zelensky government. But even then I do not see the above as much of a win because even if Ukraine loses the Battle of Donbas, it still has significant forces left to mount a spirited defense in a possible second Battle for Kyiv. And likely Russian forces will be significantly eroded again after any Battle in Donbas.

And ultimately, any such peace deal enforced after a Battle of Donbas, is unlikely to bring many real wins for Putin, indeed herein highlighting:

a) He might have secured most of Donbas, but most of the population will have left, and will be unlikely to return, while he will have devasted its economy, and the rebuild costs will be enormous while with Russia likely beset by sanctions for years to come Russia will be in no fit state to fund any such reconstruction.

b) It is hard to see Ukraine accepting any peace deal willingly which leaves Donbas and the land corridor in Russian hands. This likely will have more the feel of a temporary ceasefire, akin to Minsk 1 and Minsk 2. And given that any Russian gains will have been secured only by trampling over Ukrainian sovereignty, international law, and after committing large-scale war crimes, even genocide against Ukraine, I cannot see Western sanctions easily lifted. Indeed, most will remain in place.

Meanwhile, Russia has marked itself out as an enemy of the West, even a threat to the West, and absolutely an unreliable partner in trade, particularly in the sphere of energy and commodities. So whatever the outcome of this war, the West will continue to diversify trade away from Russia particularly in the sphere of energy. So the Russian economy will remain beset by sanctions, and trade ties and flows with the West will collapse. Its economy will stagnate, and its resources to rebuild Donbas et al will be limited. Russia will be in economic decline for decades to come.

c) Its tempting to view the Russo-Ukraine war in light of the Korean war  and indeed, any peace deal reached which sees Russia take large chunks of Ukrainian territory, will leave a sense of a divided country. Instead of a North and South Korea, there will be a West and East Ukraine. The West will be massively financed and armed by the West, and the east will be a proxy Russian state. Western or Free Ukraine could be hugely successful with a dynamism released/observed by the war, likely an EU accession angle and huge Western financing. It could be Ukraines South Korea or State of Israel moment.

But the government in Kyiv will be massively backed by the West as a bulwark against future Russian expansion. This means that it will get the best conventional military kit to be able to defend itself and the West in effect  Ukraine will be the new front line for the West in the battle with Russia. Unlike the Korean war though, Russia will end up in the position of North Korea  sanctioned and an international pariah.

I can see a good future for the rest of Ukraine, remaining under control of the Zelensky administration in Kyiv. But for territory in Russian control, and indeed Russia the outlook is bleak now for many generations to come.

d) Moscow sold the case for war as one to de-militarise Ukraine, but the end result will likely be a battle-hardened and confident Ukraine, knowing that it can defeat the Russian military in a fair fight, where it gets proper kit.

Russian intervention has hence achieved the very thing it aimed to avoid  a militarised and successful Ukraine, able to defend itself against Russian aggression.

And the result of this war will be that Ukraine does indeed get a decent kit to be able to defend itself. Whether or not Ukraine is a NATO member, or has a NATO membership perspective, will be irrelevant. It will be a NATO ally, and actually able to defend itself, against Russia.

e) It now seems almost inevitable that Sweden and Finland will join NATO, and that NATO will further forward deploy troops Eastwards to defend against the Russian threat. NATO will increase defense spending very significantly, and Russia will be forced into a new arms race with the West, which it simply can never win. Rather as the Reagan/Thatcher arms expansions in the early 1980s ultimately bankrupted the USSR, the same fate surely awaits Putins Russia. And Putins intervention in Ukraine will likely be akin to the Soviet Unions failed military intervention in Afghanistan in the late 1970s  again draining Moscows economic resources for little to no gain.

f) Russian military kit has performed so poorly in this war who is going to want to buy it? I would think that the likes of Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, China and India, who were previously lining up to buy Russian military kit, will now be having second thoughts. So this will be a disaster for Russias arms industry, exports and again the economy.

f) And therein, China surely now will be questioning the real value of the strategic relationship with Russia  Putin now seems more of a liability in Chinas relations with the West, than an asset. Indeed, herein, even look at how the Pakistan military seems to have quickly dumped Imran Khan as he made the strategic blunder of showing up in Moscow on February 24, and appearing too close to Putin. Putin is now an international pariah.

Net-net here, I can see a route to a potential peace deal, but it still requires Russia to win the Battle for Donbas, which is not a given. This war could still drag on for a very long time  and what is notable is that peace talks seem to be going nowhere. The West is just set on ensuring Putin loses which means continuing to arm/finance Ukraine.

I guess the question needs to be asked still what happens if Putin fails to win the Battle for Donbas, as all the above assumes he eventually does, and then a peace/ceasefire deal is eventually imposed. What happens if Putin loses again in Donbas? Does he then seek to escalate via chemical, biological or nuclear weapons? I guess FM Lavrov summed it up this week by saying Russia has no intention YET to use unconventional military options. Yet, being the operative word. But if Putin fails to win quickly in Donbas, I think he would resort to a battlefield nuclear weapon, and/or the bombing of Western arms convoys to Ukraine.

This column was first published by Substack. NV is republishing it with permission from the author.

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Home  Travel  Travellers  March records the highest number of foreign tourists in Nepal since the Covid outbreak

Kathmandu, April 4

March 2022 recorded the arrival of the highest number of foreign tourists in Nepal since the Covid outbreak in early 2020, according to the government.

The data recorded by the Department of Immigration show that 42,000 foreigners entered Nepal as tourists. This is the highest since March 2020 in terms of the monthly count of foreign tourists in Nepal.

Of them, 15,013 are Indians as the southern neighbour became the biggest source of foreign visitors in Nepal this time.

In 2021, November had received the highest number of tourists (26,135) as the country was trying to revive normality following the second Covid wave. However, the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in December had an adverse impact again.

Tourism entrepreneurs have expressed their happiness over the increasing numbers.
By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Friday joined a growing chorus of officials calling for reforms aimed at better equipping the World Bank to address mounting global challenges such as climate change and the changing nature of its clients.

"We cannot be using the same business-as-usual," Indrawati, a former managing director and chief operating officer of the multilateral development bank, told Reuters in an interview. "If you ask whether it needs change, yes."

Indrawati's comments came a day after both U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a top White House adviser called for major reforms at the World Bank, and major public and private groups also said urgent reforms were needed.

Yellen and the White House adviser argued that the seven-decade-old institution was not built to address multiple and overlapping global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, and climate change.

Indrawati on Friday noted that the World Bank faces far larger and more global challenges than it was created to address, and its client base has been changing to include more middle-income countries.

Civil society groups, developing countries and academics are also clamoring for an overhaul of the "Bretton Woods" institutions, a reference to the conference held in that New Hampshire town in 1941 that led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The public and private groups that called on Thursday for reforms, also said that the infusion of far more private capital was needed to address the multiple, overlapping crises now pushing 250 million people back into extreme poverty.

"In the past, the World Bank's strength has really been related to the country operations, but when you talk about global public problems, you cannot just talk with a client based on jurisdiction or sovereignty," Indrawati said.

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Indrawati, this year's chair of the Group of 20 finance officials, said changes were needed to ensure the World Bank has the scale and resources needed to address myriad global crises, and to respond more quickly when crises emerged.

The World Bank's lending totaled $99 billion in fiscal 2021, but experts estimate trillions of dollars are needed to help countries adapt to changing climate conditions, address rising poverty and prepare for future pandemics.

To help finance the work needed, it would be vital to leverage public resources and attract more private capital, Indrawati said, citing Indonesia's use of "blended finance" to bring together money from the government, multilateral institutions, bilateral lenders and the private sector. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)
SAN FRANCISCO, April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) announced that collaborators from the Cairo Laboratory at New York Medical College today presented data from several preclinical studies demonstrating the potential of NKTR-255 to enhance the anti-tumor activities of different CAR-T therapies in a variety of cancer preclinical models. Presentations include an oral presentation by Wen Luo, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at NYMC, on in vivo and in vitro efficacy of NKTR-255 combined with anti-MCAMa CARb modified Natural Killer (NK) cells in several tumor models, and a poster presentation by Yaya Chu, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at NYMC, presenting studies of NKTR-255 in combination with ex vivo expanded anti-CD19 CAR NK cells and anti-CD20 or anti-CD79 antibodies in models of Burkitt Lymphoma (BL).

"Our research builds on the body of knowledge for the role of an agent which activates the full IL-15 biology pathway in the field of cell therapy," said Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., director of the Cairo Laboratory, chief of pediatric hematology, oncology and stem cell transplantation, director of the Children and Adolescent Cancer and Blood Diseases Center, associate chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and professor of pediatrics, medicine, pathology, microbiology and immunology and cell biology and anatomy at NYMC. "My lab's findings show that NKTR-255's ability to expand and proliferate NK cells resulted in the enhancement of the efficacy of two different CAR therapies in our preclinical models."

The oral presentation will be virtually live streamed on Saturday April 23rd, 2022 at 3:00 PM MT and is accessible through the meeting organizer's website at https://www.astct.org/attend/tandem-meetings. These presentations are available for download at http://www.nektar.com/science/scientific-posters.

Key details and takeaways from the two collaborator presentations include:

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Abstract 27: "Targeting Ewing sarcoma, Osteosarcoma and Neuroblastoma with Anti-MCAM Chimeric Antigen Receptor Modified Natural Killer Cells" Luo, W., et al.

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Presenting Author: Wen Luo, Ph.D.

Session: Oral Abstract - Session C - Immune and Gene Therapy

Virtual Live Stream of the presentation will begin at 3:00 PM MT on Saturday April 23rd, 2022

NKTR-255 enhances expression of NK cell-activating receptors, stimulates NK cell proliferation and sustains NK cell expansion

NKTR-255 enhances anti-MCAM CAR NK cell cytotoxicity against Ewing sarcoma, osteosarcoma and neuroblastoma in vitro

Anti-MCAM CAR NK alone or in combination with NKTR-255 significantly decrease lung metastasis and prolong animal survival in an Ewing sarcoma orthotopic mouse model

Abstract 201: "Optimizing Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Engineered NK Cell- Mediated Cytotoxicity Combined with anti-CD20 or anti-CD79 Therapeutic Antibodies and NKTR-255 in Burkitt Lymphoma (BL)" Chu, Y., et al.

Presentation Type: Poster

NKTR-255 + obinutuzumab, a humanized type II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) glycoengineered to enhance Fc receptor affinity, significantly enhanced the in vitro cytotoxicity of anti-CD19 CAR NK compared to controls against multiple Burkitt lymphoma model (Raji) (p<0.0081) as well as release of perforin (p<0.05), IFN-g (p<0.001) and granzyme B (p<0.01)

These results were further confirmed utilizing Raji-2R and Raji-4RH cells

NKTR-255 + polatuzumab vedotin (PV), an anti-CD79 mAb glycoengineered to enhance Fc receptor affinity, significantly enhanced the in vitro cytotoxicity of anti-CD19 CAR NK cells compared to control groups such as expanded NK cells +NKTR-255 + PV against Raji (p<0.0001), Raji-2R (p<0.0003), and Raji-4RH (p<0.0311), as well as enhanced release of Interferon gamma (IFN-) and perforin

Posters will be on display Sunday, April 24, 2022 from 11:00 am to 7:15 pm; Monday, April 25, 2022 from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm; Tuesday, April 26, 2022 from 7:00 am to 12:00pm (all times MDT)

Poster Receptions are on Sunday, April 24, 2022 from 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm MDT

About NYMC

Founded in 1860, New York Medical College is one of the oldest and largest health sciences colleges in the country with nearly 1,500 students and 330 residents and clinical fellows, more than 2,600 faculty members and 23,200 living alumni. The College, which joined Touro University in 2011, is located in Westchester County, New York, and offers degrees from the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences, the School of Health Sciences and Practice, the Touro College of Dental Medicine at NYMC, and the Touro College School of Health Sciences' nursing program at NYMC. NYMC provides a wide variety of clinical training opportunities for students, residents, and practitioners. For more information, visit www.nymc.edu.

About NKTR-255

NKTR-255 is an investigational IL15 receptor agonist designed to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer. NKTR-255 increases the proliferation and survival of cancer-killing natural killer (NK) cells and memory CD8+ T cells. NKTR-255 engages the entire IL-15 receptor complex (IL15R/IL15R) to enhance the formation of long-term immunological memory, which may lead to sustained antitumor immune response.

NKTR-255 is specifically engineered using Nektar's expertise in polymer chemistry to mimic the natural biological activity of the body's own IL-15, resulting in optimal activation of the IL-15 pathway. NKTR-255 is uniquely designed to overcome the challenges of recombinant IL-15, which has to be given in high doses due to rapid clearance from the body, limiting its utility due to toxicity and lack of convenience and use.

About Nektar

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with a robust, wholly owned R&D pipeline of investigational medicines in oncology, immunology, and inflammatory diseases as well as a portfolio of approved partnered medicines. Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad, India. Further information about the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may be found online at http://www.nektar.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which can be identified by words such as: "will," "may," "design," "potential," "initiate," "plan," "advance" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding the future development plans and the timing of data readouts for bempegaldesleukin. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others: (i) our statements regarding the therapeutic potential of bempegaldesleukin are based on preclinical and clinical findings and observations and are subject to change as research and development continue; (ii) bempegaldesleukin is an investigational agent and continued research and development for this drug candidate is subject to substantial risks, including negative safety and efficacy findings in ongoing clinical studies (notwithstanding positive findings in earlier preclinical and clinical studies); (iii) bempegaldesleukin remains in clinical development and the risk of clinical failure is high and can unexpectedly occur at any stage prior to regulatory approval; (iv) the timing of the end of clinical trials and the availability of clinical data may be delayed or unsuccessful due; (v) patents may not issue from our patent applications for our drug candidates, patents that have issued may not be enforceable, or additional intellectual property licenses from third parties may be required; and (vi) certain other important risks and uncertainties set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2022. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Contact:

For Investors:

Vivian Wu of Nektar Therapeutics

628-895-0661

For Media:

Dan Budwick of 1AB

973-271-6085

dan@1abmedia.com

a) MCAM: Melanoma Cell Adhesion Molecule

b) CAR: Chimeric Antigen Receptor

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SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics
NEW YORK, April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This report offers detailed insights and analysis of the major cost drivers, volume drivers, top suppliers, most suitable supplier selection criteria, supplier evaluation metrics, SLA that buyers should consider and innovations of the Plastic Containers procurement and sourcing market, which the global suppliers have been leveraging to gain a competitive edge across regions.

Plastic Containers

The Plastic Containers procurement category is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.53% during the forecast period. This Plastic Containers procurement market report provides detailed analysis of procurement strategies deployed by major category end-users across several industries while sourcing for Plastic Containers requirements. In addition, most adopted and high potential pricing models considered by buyers have been analyzed in this report, which will help understand business scopes for revenue expansion. These data will assist buyers to realize cost savings and identify business strategies to improve sales.

Get a free sample of this data, download our sample report: https://spendedge.com/procurement-report/plastic-containers-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

Who are the Top Suppliers in the Plastic Containers Market?

The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several top suppliers. Some of the leading Plastic Containers suppliers profiled extensively in this report include:

Sonoco Products Co

Berry Global Inc

Silgan Holdings Inc

These are a few of the key suppliers in Plastic Containers market. Discover more about these vendors, including the detailed analysis of procurement strategies deployed by major category end-users across several industries while sourcing for Plastic Containers requirements.

Download a free sample of this report: https://spendedge.com/procurement-report/plastic-containers-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

What are the Most Adopted Procurement Strategies for the Plastic Containers Market?

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The research includes a complete analysis of the most commonly used procurement strategies by buyers across sectors, as well as an insight into these strategies' innovation, regulatory compliance, quality, supply, and cost. Adopting these procurement tactics would enable buyers to minimize category TCO and achieve cost savings while sourcing Plastic Containers.

What Are the Most Effective Price Strategy That a Vendor Can Adopt and What is The Forecasted Incremental Spend?

It is critical to monitor current and future pricing changes in order to maximize the value of the purchase. Price forecasts can assist in purchase planning, especially when combined with constant monitoring of price-influencing factors. The market expects an incremental spend of USD 20.89 billion over the forecast period as a result of several market drivers prevalent across multiple geographies. In addition, the sourcing and procurement report discusses different cost-cutting factors by analyzing the following criteria:

Identify favorable opportunities in Plastic Containers TCO (total cost of ownership)

Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes

Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities

Download the free sample report to get detailed insights into few more pricing strategies.

Which are the Key Regions for Plastic Containers Market?

The Plastic Containers market will register an incremental spend of about USD 20.89 billion during the forecast period. However, only a few regions will drive the majority of this growth. Moreover, on the supply side, North America, Europe, and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. The growth is expected to be primarily driven by increasing demand and adoption of the category across those few regions.

To get more information on the volume drivers that are driving the adoption of the category across regions, download our free sample report.

Smart Procurement Starts Here:

SpendEdge's procurement intelligence platform is the go-to tool for companies looking to access latest procurement research insights and supplier data on an easy to use platform:

Subscribe now for free, to get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment.

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

Contacts

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

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Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

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SOURCE SpendEdge
Duck Ledges Island off the coast of Maine. The 1.5-acre property is for sale for $339,000. (Dean Tyler Photography)

Billy Milliken warned his daughter's boyfriend that, if he wanted Milliken's blessing before proposing marriage, the couple would have to spend two days alone on his private island.

But Milliken's is not that kind of private island. Nestled off the Maine coast between Acadia National Park and the Canadian border, it has no white sand beaches, no palm trees and no cabana boy to fetch cocktails adorned with tiny umbrellas.

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Instead, there's an outdoor shower, a shanty of an outhouse and electricity produced by a "suitcase generator." And seals - lots and lots of barking seals.

Then there was Milliken's personal prohibition: No cellphones.

"They were going to spend some time out there on the island alone," he said. "It was either going to make them or break them."

His daughter and her boyfriend survived and, with Milliken's blessing, got married last year. He's expecting a grandchild in July.

Now, all 1 12 acres of the mettle-testing island can be yours. Milliken is selling Duck Ledges Island "in its entirety" for $339,000. It's a spit of land in Wohoa Bay topped with the 540-square-foot cottage that Milliken built and not much else. For 15 years, the island has served as refuge, sanctuary, vacation home, gathering place and recreation spot whenever he wanted to hop in his boat and escape his office or home in nearby Jonesport. He loves the island for the awe it inspired when he was alone and the community it helped create when he brought others with him. Over the last couple of years, however, Milliken hasn't gone there as much as he felt he should - "an injustice to the island" - and now wants to pass along its charms.

But not to just anyone, which is kind of how he came to own Duck Ledges Island in the first place.

Milliken bought it in 2007 almost by accident. As a real estate agent, he was actually trying to sell the island for the previous owner. While heading there with a prospective buyer on Milliken's boat - the only way to access the island - the guy started transferring a cache of weapons from one of two duffel bags he'd brought with him to an array of pockets on his person.

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Milliken peeked in the guy's second duffel bag while on the island - a sniper rifle. On the way back, the guy unloaded the weapons from his pockets to stash them back in the duffel, but not all of them. As they entered the marina, he bragged to Milliken that he could use one of his throwing stars to decapitate a duck that had come into view.

"He was just trying to be cool and liked," Milliken said.

The owner, afraid that throwing-star guy was buying the island to kill a bunch of wildlife, balked at selling to him, even though he offered to pay the list price.

Then he tossed out a suggestion to Milliken: Why don't you buy it?

He did - at a steal, Milliken noted, fully intending to flip the property for at least double what he paid. But then something happened that he did not expect. From 2007 to 2009, as he transformed a structure that had been moldering on the island for decades into the 540-square-foot cottage that stands today, Milliken fell in love with the island - with the solitude, the crashing waves, the barking seals, the water that stretched far away. And then there was the love it fostered when he brought people out for lobster bakes or campfire nights.

Money problems forced Milliken to sell the island after a couple of years. Like his predecessor, he rejected buyers whose intentions or attitudes he felt were unworthy of the island, like the man who made a respectable offer but complained about all the things it didn't have. The man who passed Milliken's test had spent time on a similar island as a kid and wanted give that experience to others.

"He shared the same passion for the island we did, and that was important to us," Milliken said.

The man rejected the traditional concept of a real estate purchase, opting instead to become "partners in ownership" with Milliken, who's continued maintaining the property for more than a decade.

"Through the years, we've shared the island with his friends, our friends, random people," Milliken said. "We've never taken a dime for it. It's really brought a lot of good for our hearts doing that."

In 2019, he bought the island back but continued the shared stewardship.

Milliken has since devoted his efforts to another island he owns, an 11-acre property in Maine where he hopes to build a home in which he can live year round - a project inspired by Duck Ledges. Since he no longer takes advantage of all the island has to offer, he wants to sell it to someone who can.

"I hope the future owner gets a fraction of the joy that I've had," he said.

But it's not for everybody, which is why, aside from paying him a few hundred thousand dollars, Milliken has another requirement for any would-be buyer: They have to stay at least one night on the island to see if they can hack it. That's held up any possible sale since no one can go to the island from the last week in October through late May, not unless you want to die by freezing or getting hurt where no one can hear you scream for help, Milliken said. "It's not going to be a good death."

So he's waiting until he can show people what they'd be getting into.

"Sometimes you think you're Davy Crockett, but you're really Betty Crocker," he said.

The rewards are worth it, Milliken said. There are few distractions for those who follow the Milliken rule and leave their cellphones on the mainland, 1 14 miles away. In today's world, there are so many "red herrings" that distract us, that keep us running from ourselves, he said.

"You will find yourself out there," he said, adding, "There's nowhere to hide."

Milliken tried to describe the experience for those who have never been: He's been out there in the dark, the waves crashing, seals barking and night sky stretching until it drooped and surrounded him. He was just a tiny man on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean.

"It makes you feel small," he said, "in the best kind of way."

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(Bloomberg) -- The worlds biggest technology companies could face billions of dollars in fines for breaches of new European Union legislation after lawmakers reached an agreement on its scope early Saturday.

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The landmark Digital Services Act is the EUs answer to what it sees as a failure by tech giants to combat illegal content on their platforms. Noncompliance could cost companies as much as 6% of global annual sales when the rules go into effect, in 2023 or 2024 depending on their size.

Failures could be extremely costly. Based on their reported 2021 annual sales, Amazon.com Inc, for instance, could face a theoretical fine of as much as 26 billion euros ($28 billion) for future noncompliance with the DSA. Repeat offenders could be barred from operating in the EU.

Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen said the DSA could represent a global gold standard for regulating social media companies. After more than a year of internal wrangling, key rules will include:

A ban on using sensitive data such as race or religion for targeting ads

A ban on targeting any ads to minors

A ban on so-called dark patterns, specifically tactics to push people into consenting to online tracking

All websites will be accountable to the DSA, but platforms with more than 45 million users in the EU will have to abide by stricter rules such as paying Brussels a supervisory fee of as much as 0.05% of their global annual revenue to enforce the law -- the figure was reduced in the final negotiations -- and providing regulators with annual reports about illegal and harmful content on their sites.

Will Europes Gold Standard Clean Up Social Media?: QuickTake

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With the DSA, we help create a safe and accountable online environment, Margrethe Vestager, the EUs competition chief, said in a statement on Saturday. With todays agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.

The deal still needs to be signed-off by parliamentarians and the 27 EU countries before being made official later this year. Large companies will then have four months to comply with the rules, and all other companies will have 15 months. Smaller companies can apply to be exempt from certain rules.

Google said it welcomed the DSAs goals and looked forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone.

The DSA is the second major piece of legislation in Brussels digital rulebook to be cemented in a month. On March 24, the EU finalized its Digital Markets Act, a related framework that requires gatekeepers to adhere to strict antitrust rules.

Read more: Big Tech Faces Crackdown as EU Negotiators Back Tough Law

Both laws were designed to address market dominance and internet safety. But while the previously-announced DMA targets about a dozen major, mostly U.S.-based tech companies, the DSA sets basic standards for all websites.

Large companies -- including the likes of TikTok Inc and Pornhub -- will face additional obligations including opening their algorithms to enforcers and designated researchers. Social media companies and search engines will also have to offer a product not based on profiling, while e-commerce sites will have to conduct random checks of products sold on their sites.

Theyll also have to explain to Brussels what they are doing to combat harmful content, such as propaganda or misinformation during emergencies, often seen during the Covid-19 pandemic and Russias war in Ukraine.

The EU could issue fines or require changes made to policies if companies cant show theyre doing enough to combat harmful content.

Read more: Algorithms Increasingly in Sights of Lawmakers

The new fines are in addition to penalties applicable under the DMA. Under that law, the worlds biggest tech companies face fines of as much as 10% of their global annual sales for an initial breach, rising to 20% for repeat infringements. Those routinely violating the rules could be temporarily banned from conducting mergers and acquisitions.

Still, its highly unlikely the EU would issue such massive fines. Its never applied the maximum penalties possible under its General Data Protection Regulation laws, for example. Those rules have been in force since 2018 and allow for fines of as much as 20 billion euros or 4% of a companys global sales. The largest issued to date was a 746 million-euro penalty handed to Amazon in July, which the company is appealing.

Amazon and Google have long been targets of antitrust investigations from Brussels, but these cases drag out for years in courts and have had little impact on behavior. Officials say they need tools like the DSA and DMA to break what the EU states is a stranglehold on digital ecosystems and platforms by a handful of giants.

But questions remain over how Brussels will enforce the two new laws, as both combined require over 200 people in the European Commission to oversee compliance. Its for this reason that companies with more than 45 million users will have to pay the annual supervisory fee.

If successful, the EUs rules could be a model for other countries to rein in tech platforms. Though Washington initially pushed back against the EUs plans to regulate big tech, some U.S. lawmakers now are looking to Brussels to enact similar restrictions. Former U.S. presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the DSA ahead of the final negotiations.

The U.K.s recently proposed Online Safety Bill goes even further by imposing bigger fines and possibly jail time for executives who fail to comply.

Read more: U.K. Sets Out Law to Prosecute Bosses in Big Tech Crackdown

(Updates with potential EU barring in third paragraph, timetable in seventh, more requirements in 11th.)

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Last month, unaffiliated voters eclipsed North Carolinas Democratic Party, becoming the states most dominant voter group. In Cumberland County, unaffiliated voters outnumber Republicans by 20,000 and trail Democrats by the same margin.

The independent voter shift has been gaining steam for decades. For various reasons, an increasing number of individuals reject both major-party labels. North Carolina initially saw an increase in unaffiliated voters in 1988, the year the Republican Party opened its primaries to unaffiliated voters. There was a similar uptick in 1996 when Democrats opened their primaries to unaffiliated independent voters.

Unaffiliated voters dont like the party labels. But in the end, they find themselves having to cast their votes for a member of one of two major parties, Democrat or Republican. In congressional and legislative assemblies, representatives caucus in groups to pursue common legislative objectives. Elected independents generally find it necessary to caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans. Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is an independent member of the U.S. Senate from Vermont who caucuses the Democratic Party. The U.S. Senates other independent member, Argus King from Maine, also caucuses with the Democratic Party. Unaffiliated elected officials have to cave into a semblance of partisan politics to get something done.

Troy Williams.

Running for elected office as an independent in a partisan race can become a challenging process. Unaffiliated candidates face an additional hurdle to getting on the ballot. Under North Carolina law, any candidate not affiliated with a political party must file a written petition supporting their candidacy for office, signed by a certain percentage of qualified voters. I tried gaining ballot access as an independent candidate for Cumberland County sheriff in 1994, two years before Democrats opened their primaries to unaffiliated voters, and it became a legal nightmare. My lawyer, Anita Earls, now an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, appealed my case to the State Board of Elections. I was denied ballot access supposedly on a technicality of the law. I eventually chose not to pursue the matter further in court. I ultimately filed a write-in campaign and received a respectable 12% of the vote as a commitment to my supporters.

MODEL OF GOVERNANCE: Troy Williams: Fayetteville has a strong mayor model of governance but it is not supposed to

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CURBING THE MURDER RATE: Troy Williams: How we all can help curb the Fayetteville murder rate

I have always been intrigued by independent politics. I was a guest member of the Reform Party National Convention in Atlanta in 1996. I was invited by New York political activist and reformer Dr. Lenora B. Fulani. The Reform Party was formed in 1995 by former presidential candidate Ross Perot. Perot received 18.9% of the popular vote as an independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, and he founded the Reform Party as a viable alternative to Democrats and Republicans. As the partys nominee, Perot won 8.4% of the popular vote in the 1996 presidential election. Perot did not receive a single electoral vote, and no other third-party candidate has since received such a significant share of the popular vote. The party has nominated other presidential candidates over the years, including Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, but none of the nominees has been able to garner 1% of the popular vote. The convention was quite an experience, but I left Georgia doubting Americas chances of creating a viable third party to challenge its two-party political system. Almost 30 years removed from those past experiences and an unprecedented surge of independent voters, I still dont believe America is ready to share political power with someone other than Democrats and Republicans.

The two-party system is here to stay. Some historians believe it promotes centrism and encourages political parties to find common positions, which appeals to the extended ends of the electorate, leading to political stability and, in turn, economic growth. In the end, politicians have power, and influential people will never willingly relinquish control. It has to be taken.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Unaffiliated voters increase, but two-party system seems entrenched
(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine wants to make sure governments that offered assistance this week during meetings in Washington follow through and turn their promises into real support, one of the nations top financial officials said.

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Ukraine needs $5 billion to $7 billion a month to fill a budget gap caused by Russias invasion, deputy central bank governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk said in an interview in Washington.

While pledges made at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings will help fill that deficit, the amount that the country can count on going forward is unclear, and translating words into actual funding will require more work, he said.

Nikolaychuk said it hasnt been clear over the few days the exact amount of all the pledges, since support could come in a variety of forms, including cash meant for governmental expenses, military backing, humanitarian support or aid for refugees in neighboring countries.

There are a lot of promises, there are a lot of pledges. But in order to transfer them into real financial support, definitely the huge homework should be done by our partners in different countries, as well as by the international financial institutions and Ukrainian authorities, he said.

Without estimating an amount of pledges so far, he said that they would likely be enough to cover a few months. But the longer the war lasts, the bigger will be our needs in order to sustain this combat.

Fully rebuilding and transforming Ukraine for the future following Russias invasion will cost $600 billion, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a World Bank event on Thursday, calling on members of the IMF to donate 10% of their reserves received from the institution to support the effort.

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The campaign to get countries to reallocate those assets, known as special drawing rights, or SDRs, for Ukraine is in the early stages, with Ukraine having begun discussions with representatives of other central banks, and some of them have restrictions on their ability to on-lend SDRs, Nikolaychuk said.

He added that frozen Russian wealth in the U.S., Canada and the European Union should be used to pay for rebuilding the property destroyed by Russia during the war.

World Bank President David Malpass said Thursday that the priority for financing should be on meeting Ukraines needs in a way that minimizes its future debt burden.

In approving a $1.4 billion emergency loan for Ukraine last month, the IMF said that the nations debt remains sustainable if theres a fast end to the war.

Definitely its clear that the war puts a sizable drag on our debt sustainability, Nikolaychuk said. The longer war lasts, the more difficult it is for us to be able to service our debt.

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Todays consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before  even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And theyre not even the worlds heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Apps arent just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

Google bans call-recording apps

Google updated its Play Store policies to ban third-party call-recording apps from the Play Store, effective as of May 11. Developers had been using the Accessibility API to enable remote call audio recording as a workaround to make these apps work after Google blocked call recording on Android 6 and via the microphone on Android 10. The change was announced alongside other updates on April 6, but a Reddit post drove new awareness of the crackdown. Google also livestreamed a policy update this week where it explained this was not actually a "new" policy, necessarily, but rather a clarification to an existing one. (The video is labeled April 2020 but this appears to be a mislabel, because YouTube shows it was streamed April 2022 -- and commenters are also noting the typo.) While that may be true, the company had not taken action on apps using the Accessibility API in this way.

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In the webinar, Moun Choi, who works on the Trust & Safety Play Regional Ops team for Google Play, explained the focus of the policy was directed toward third-party apps where the call recording was taking place without the other user's awareness. The default dialer on the phone would not be impacted by this, as it doesn't need the accessible capability to get access to the incoming audio stream, he said. The company didn't clarify if existing apps would be removed from the Play Store when the policy goes into effect, however.

BeReal: Hype or hit?

An app called BeReal, founded by former GoPro employee Alexis Barreyat along with Kevin Perreau, launched in December 2019 with the idea to ask users to post an unedited photo once per day after receiving a notification. The user then has up to 2 minutes to share what they're up to and see the photos their friends also posted. The app has recently gained a lot of attention amid rapid growth and a daily active user base that's now reached nearly 3 million, according to data from Apptopia. But when an app grows this quickly, there are usually some paid user acquisition efforts involved. This week, we took a look into how BeReal may be capitalizing on its newer features and college ambassador program to drive installs and its five-star reviews. The verdict: It's too soon to know if BeReal can self-sustain when the funds run out.

Musk secures his Twitter bid

Elon Musk this week secured $46.5 billion to acquire Twitter, per an SEC filing. The Telsa and SpaceX chief's offer for the social network includes $25.5 billion in debt financing from Morgan Stanley and other firms, including Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank and BNP Paribas. Musk said he's committed to about $21 billion in equity financing. Previously, Musk hadn't been specific about how he would pay for the investment, so these financial commitments make the deal more serious. The tech CEO hasn't yet said if he will make a tender offer, however. Twitter had already adopted a poison-pill defense of its equity as a result of Musks unsolicited bid.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

Apple is discontinuing its Fleetsmith device management service, acquired in 2020, after rolling out its new Apple Business Essentials service that effectively replaces it with expanded capabilities. The Jamf competitor had already lost support for distributing third-party apps following its acquisition. Apple said the service will be closed on April 21, 2022, at which point no news users can be added. It will fully shut down on October 21, 2022.

Apple is rolling out its "communication safety in Messages" child safety feature to users in the U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. This is the newly announced feature that allows parents to turn on warnings for their kids' iPhones and scans incoming and outgoing photos for nudity. If nudity is found in an incoming, the photo is blurred and the child is warned it contains sensitive content. When outgoing, the child is encouraged not to send the photo and to instead message a grown-up. The feature is designed to help protect children from predators and exploitation, Apple says.

Apple rolled out the second betas for iOS 15.5, iPadOS 15.5, tvOS 15.5 and watchOS 8.6. Developers discovered hints in the new release that Apple may rebrand the iTunes Pass card in favor of the "Apple Account Card" -- another attempt to move further away from the iTunes branding.

Platforms: Google

Google changed how new emojis will roll out to Android. Starting with Android 12, emoji are being decoupled from OS updates so they can arrive on the device at any time there's a new release.

Google's AirDrop competitor Nearby Share will be getting a new "self-share" mode that lets you send files between your own devices, users spotted.

A review of the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 found many of Android's most popular apps were missing, along with other compatibility issues making for an overall poor experience.

Google's Switch to Android app officially began to roll out to iOS users. The company said it expects this process to reach 10% of users by the end of the day on Tuesday, April 19, and 100% of users over the next couple of weeks.

E-commerce

Image Credits: Apptopia

Live shopping apps just had their best quarter, says Apptopia, in terms of new user acquisition. The top eight live shopping apps grew their installs 123% year-over-year in the first quarter, but their collective user base is still small considering the amount of VC investment they've seen. Combined, the apps have less than two million monthly active app users. The firm looked at apps like Whatnot, NTWRK, Popshop Live, ShopShops, likeQ, ShopThing, LIT Live and Drip Shop Live in its analysis.

Chinese social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu laid off 9% of staff amid China's regulatory crackdowns. The app had previously raised $500 million in November, valuing the business at $20 billion.

Augmented Reality

Image Credits: Disney

Snap and Disney teamed up to create an AR Cinderella Castle mural at Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park. Visitors can add to the mural using the My Disney Experience mobile app when theyre at the park by selecting Mural of Memories from the home screen then holding their phone up to Cinderella Castle. Through the app, you can see the available sections of the castle and choose where to pin your photo. The feature leverages Snap's CameraKit, which allows users to see everyone's pinned photos in an AR view.

Fintech

Plaid co-founder William Hockey launched his next project: a nationally chartered bank, Column, designed to power fintech apps. The bank is actually a rebranded community bank  Northern California National Bank, or NorCal  that the company purchased for $50 million last year.

PayPal and Venmo announced an increase in their instant transfer fees for both consumers and merchants in the United States. Personal accounts on PayPal and consumer and business profiles on Venmo will pay 1.75% of the transfer amount, with a minimum fee of $0.25 and a maximum fee of $25.

Robinhood is fighting for market share in Europe, The Information reports, suggesting the app may be too late to fend off the fierce competition.

WhatsApp is reportedly struggling to sign up local partners in Brazil for its business payments service as it waits for central bank approval.

Social

Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Twitter woos developers back with an app platform. The company began testing a new experience that will showcase third-party apps and services directly on Twitter's platform. Initially, it's pointing to various safety tools, like Block Party, but envisions a future where developers' apps are discovered throughout the experience, or possibly even in a marketplace setting.

TikTok announced the global launch of "Interactive Add-Ons," a new feature that allows brands to enhance their In-Feed Ads with popups, stickers and other visual elements. Brands can choose either Standard or Premium add-ons. The former focuses on driving clicks and conversions, while the latter is focused on upper-level goals, like brand awareness and community building.

Snap said it has begun testing mid-roll ads in Spotlight, the social app's TikTok-like short video feature. The test is still limited but is designed as another way for both Snap and creators to make money through the content, via a rev share. The company had already rolled out mid-roll ads inside Stories and noted those ads can be seamlessly transferred to Spotlight.

Snap-owned Zenly, a social maps app with now 35 million MAUs, rolled out its biggest redesign to date. The app's color scheme now features a black background, thinner fonts and yellow and orange tints. The update also introduces a new map; new search tools for finding friends, places and addresses; more automated check-ins; a new profile section called My world for showing off your hangouts; and more.

Instagram announced it would tweak its ranking system to highlight original content, as opposed to accounts that aggregate or repost from others, across both Reels and its Feed. It also added support for fundraisers in Reels.

Snap's Q1 2022 saw healthy user growth amid an earnings miss. Snap missed Wall Street expectations for profit and sales in the first quarter, pulling in a loss of 2 cents versus the expected 1 cent earnings, and revenue of $1.06 billion versus the $1.07 billion expected. But the app's bright spot was user growth, 332 million DAUs (up 18% YoY) versus 330 million expected. This follows five previous quarters of user growth north of 20%. But Snap is still adapting to the fallout from Apple's Privacy Changes. Though it's implemented new measurement solutions that better respect user privacy, Snap told investors the changes take time. "They put a serious onus on advertisers to adapt and reset their advertising campaigns across not just Snap, but all platforms. We empathize with them," says Snap Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman.

Open source Twitter alternative Mastodon arrived on Android . While Twitter is aiming to decentralize, Mastodon already has. And it now has 4.4 million users worldwide, per its website.

Instagram tricks users into clicking "Reels" by replacing the Recent tab on hashtag pages with a button for Reels in its latest test. That's not fair!

Instagram also launched product tagging to all U.S. users, as promised in March. The feature allows users to tags companies and brands in their posts, but not for monetization purposes.

Meta's NPE Team, its internal incubator, is hiring in Seoul, South Korea. The team will focus on developing technology specific to the needs of users in the country, which may include apps focused on jobs, gaming and other social needs.

Reverse engineers took a look at what Twitter has built so far for its in-app Edit button. The current development hints the Edit button would not actually correct or change the text in the original tweet  it would create a new tweet with the updated content.

Dating

Muslim dating app Muzmatch lost the right to use its brand name after a U.K. court ruled in favor of Match in a trademark dispute. Muzmatch said it would appeal the ruling.

Streaming & Entertainment

Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. The streaming app missed Wall Street estimates by a mile, as they were aiming for 2.5 million net new additions. It also brought in $7.8 billion in revenue versus $7.95 billion expected. Netflix said it will focus on quality, crack down on password sharing and try out an ad-supported model to regain growth.

Spotify closed down its yet-to-launch Greenroom Creator Fund with its shift in live audio strategy. The company recently announced that it would transition live audio content from its Greenroom app to its flagship streaming app while rebranding Greenroom as Spotify Live.

Apple Music launched DJ mixes in spatial audio with Dolby Atmos along with 15 Boiler Room mixes that were captured at nightclubs, festivals and raves and were newly mixed in spatial audio.

European music streaming company Deezer announced plans to go public via a French SPAC. The deal values Deezer at a pre-money equity valuation of 1.05 billion and at 1.08 billion in enterprise value terms.

CNN's mobile app saw its U.S. usage decline 11% in the three weeks following CNN+'s launch compared to the three weeks prior, according to Sensor Tower data. Warner Bros. Discovery announced this week it would shut down the new streaming service only a month after launch, citing a different set of priorities.

The AMC mobile app for its U.S. theaters now accepts Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and other cryptocurrencies to pay for movie tickets and snacks.

Gaming

Epic Games settled a lawsuit revolving around in-game purchases made by minors using their parents credit cards. Epic will pay out $26.5 million to be shared among those who brought the suit, plus 1,000 V bucks for in-game purchases.

Netflix said it will launch a new "Exploding Kittens" mobile game tied to an animated TV series. The game and show will be based on the popular Exploding Kittens card game. The mobile game will launch in May exclusively for Netflix members, along with two new cards for players. The TV series, which is produced by Greg Daniels and Mike Judge, will arrive in 2023.

Utilities

Apple Maps app rolled out updated maps to Singapore and Germany, featuring faster and more accurate navigation; comprehensive views of roads, buildings, parks and shopping centers; and 3D landmarks of locations like Gardens by the Bay and Tiong Bahru Market. It also added cycling directions in Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis.

Brave's browser is rolling out a "De-AMP" feature that will allow users to automatically bypass Googles Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) to instead take users directly to original websites. The feature is available on the desktop and Android.

Funding and M&A

 a16z-backed Levels, a company whose glucose monitors work with a paired app, raised $38 million in Series A funding, valuing the business at $300 million. The company had previously offered services to 25,000 beta testers but plans to expand internationally this year.

 A startup enabling no-code mobile app building, Glide, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark with participation from YC Continuity, First Round, SV Angel and others. The company says 500,000 users have built 1 million apps with its platform.

 Robinhood acquired crypto app Ziglu, a London-based app for trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The deal could help Robinhood gain growth in the competitive European market.

 Indian crypto exchange and mobile app CoinDCX raised $135 million in new funding, topping a $2.1 billion valuation. Steadview and existing backer Pantera co-led CoinDCXs Series D financing.

 Clipboard Health, an app-based marketplace that matches nurses with nearby open shifts, raised $50 million Series B and a $30 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation.
Three Philadelphia men were hammered with multiple life sentences Friday for their roles in a May 2019 triple slaying in Spotsylvania County.

Michael Coleman, 39, Rachel Ozuna, 34, and Kyrrus Ozuna, 14, were all killed on May 26, 2019, in their home at 8312 Arlene Acres Drive. All three were found a few days later with their throats slit and their arms and legs bound.

During a weeklong trial in Spotsylvania Circuit Court in January, prosecutors showed that a group of five came to Spotsylvania to rob Coleman, a drug dealer who was known to deal in large quantities of drugs and money.

The Philadelphia group, referred to as the Get Money Brothers, left Spotsylvania with drugs and about $100,000 in cash, according to evidence presented by the prosecution. A toddler and an infant were unattended in the home until May 29, when Kyrrus father came looking for his son and found the gruesome scene.

Three of the defendants, Montel J. Wilson, 29, Hugh C. Green, 33, and Jamal K. Bailey, 33, were all sentenced by Judge Ricardo Rigual on Friday to two life sentences plus at least 150 years. All were convicted by a jury of at least 18 offenses, including multiple counts of murder.

Wilsons brother, Durward Allen, 30, was ordered by Rigual to serve 18 years in prison. Allen had previously pleaded guilty to robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and a firearms offense.

Allen drove members of the group to the area of Colemans home, the evidence showed, but he did not participate directly in the slayings. Still, Riguals sentence exceeded the recommended state sentencing guidelines for Allen, which called for a maximum penalty of 14 and a half years.

The fifth member of the conspiracy, 37-year-old James C. Myers, testified for the prosecution during the trial. As part of a deal, Myers pleaded guilty to felony murder and conspiracy and will receive between 24 and 32 years when he is sentenced July 28.

Fridays sentencing hearings lasted all day and featured emotional testimony from the victims families, who spoke in detail about the devastating impact the killings have had on them.

Detectives collected mounds of cellphone data, bank records and pictures and videos that connected the defendants to the crime.

During the trial, Myers described how Wilson planned the robbery of Coleman and said that Green killed Coleman and Rachel Ozuna at Wilsons command. Myers said Green refused to kill the teenager, so Bailey stepped in and did it.

Defense attorneys repeatedly attacked Myers credibility, but were unable to sway the jury. Wilson testified that he did a lot of drug business with Coleman, who once lived in Philadelphia, and had no reason to cut off a profitable arrangement.

Bill Neely, who represented Green, again argued that Myers lied during his testimony and was likely the real killer. He also said Coleman had considerable fault in the deaths.

If Coleman hadnt been dealing kilos of cocaine, we wouldnt be here, Neely said.

Allens attorney, Chris Leibig, asked Rigual to sentence his client within the guidelines. He said Allen has no history of violence and did not participate in the slayings.

But prosecutor Jeff Adams said he deserved more than what the guidelines called for. He shuttled four guys with guns to knock off a cartel-level dealer, Adams said. What did he think was going to happen?

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OLD MEDICINE, SHARPS PICKED UP APRIL 30

Mary Washington Healthcare and Partners in Aging, along with local law enforcement, are offering Operation Medicine Cabinet on Saturday, April 30, when residents can dispose of expired or unused medication with no questions asked.

The agencies also will hold drop-off events in the fall.

Such initiatives protect the area from being contaminated with unused medications and sharps, said Cathy Yablonski, senior vice president and chief ambulatory operations officer at MWHC.

This year, the two groups will partner with the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board to provide the Rapid REVIVE training with Narcan at Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital, said Valerie HopsonBell, president of Partners in Aging.

People can dispose of medicine at 10 locations, including hospitals and several pharmacies, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A complete list is online.

More information is available by contacting police departments in Fredericksburg, Caroline County, Spotsylvania County, Stafford County and at the University of Mary Washington or by calling Health Link at 540/741-1404 during weekdays.

MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC TO RECEIVE GRANT

Fredericksburg Counseling Services Mental Health Clinic has received a $25,000 grant from the Joe and Mary Wilson Community Benefit Fund at Mary Washington Healthcare.

The grant will be used to help continue the clinics mission. Since 2000, university interns have gained hours toward their licensure while providing counseling for people who are uninsured and could not afford the services.

The FCS Free Mental Health Clinic is operated by part-time staff, interns and a board of directors at 305 Hansen Ave., Suite 140, Fredericksburg, and is solely supported by grants and donations.

SECOND CHIP SESSION SET MAY 3

The Rappahannock Area Health District and Mary Washington Healthcare invite the public to the next Community Health Improvement Plan, or CHIP, meeting on May 3.

The session will be held from noon to 2 p.m. at the Fick Conference Center on the campus of Mary Washington Hospital. Lunch will be provided.

During the first CHIP meeting held recently, community partners prioritized three issues to focus on: mental health, affordable housing and access to health care. At the May 3 session, the groups will continue to refine the priorities by discussing potential objectives and strategies in small groups, according to an RAHD press release.

Cathy Dyson
From the moment he stepped off the boat in 1884, Carl Laemmle did everything a good immigrant was supposed to do: worked hard, never took the public dime, and when the time came, swore allegiance to the United States. For two decades, he endured poverty and low wages, until he found his foothold in the nascent movie business. And in 1912 he founded Universal Pictures. Only in America could a poor German immigrant achieve such fortune, he proclaimed. He believed it was the greatest nation on earth until he saw its dark side.

When the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, Universalalong with other Hollywood studiosproduced patriotic films at the request of the U.S. government. Many of these movies depicted Germans as murderers and rapists. As a result, anti-German hysteria swept the nation. Mobs terrorized GermanAmerican communities. Parents raided classrooms and burned German books outside schools. And in one case in Iowa, salesman E.J. Kelly, overcome with rage at the image of the Kaiser, fired two shots at the screen in a crowded theater. Patriotism had morphed into violent nationalism.

After the war, Americans tended to forget these events. But Germany remembered. When Laemmle returned to his boyhood village, he found hunger, despair, and questions. Why had he portrayed Germans as monsters in his films? In turn, he helped rebuild towns and funded charity organizations for the German people. He urged Americans to help the suffering nation. And he made movies that promoted peace, including the 1930 anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, which told the story of the war from a German perspective.

Because of his activism, the Nazi party branded Laemmle an enemy of the state and coerced the German government to ban All Quiet for its anti-German sentiment. Nazi leaders had adopted a key tenet of U.S. war propaganda: The truth doesnt matter, as long as the message stokes enough rage. The Nazis went on to develop their own propaganda machine to a more devastating end.

In the final years of his life, realizing the existential threat of Hitler, Laemmle devoted himself to saving German Jews. He issued affidavits of sponsorship and secured them housing and employment. America, he believed, remained the city upon a hill, a refuge for huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But to his dismay, he discovered the State Department erecting bureaucratic barriers, or paper walls, to block German Jews from entering the country. At the time of his death in 1939, three weeks after the invasion of Poland, Laemmle had saved over 300 people from Nazi Germany. He could have saved thousands.

After a decade of researching the life and times of Carl Laemmle, from the origins of Hollywood to the rise of the Nazi regime, one might think Hitler would cast the longest shadow. But I am most haunted by that salesman, E.J. Kelly, gun in hand, firing at the screen and the police who declared him a true patriot. There, in that Iowa theater, was the warning sign of the madness to come, long before swastikas and concentration camps. I want to believe we would all condemn such fanaticism today, but many Americans have accepted threats and violence as legitimate political discourse. And the same media echo-chamber that stokes this violence is ready to justify it, distort it, normalize it.

Laemmle wasnt a good immigrant because he flew the flag and stood for the Star-Spangled Banner. He was a good American because he lived out the values that patriots had abandoned. The truth is we all have the potential to be that salesman in Iowa, running toward the screen, guns blazing, if we submerse ourselves in voices of bitterness and anger. There are real battles to fight, real injustices to address. But at the end of the day, I do not want to be like E.J. Kelly, two bullets lighter with a pat on the back for being a patriot. I want to be like Laemmle, perhaps having made some mistakes, but in the end fighting for something good, something real, something that gives people hope.

Cory MacLauchlin is an assistant professor of English at Germanna Community College.
IT TURNS OUT Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans werent alone in concluding that Donald Trumps campaign to overturn the 2020 election was illegitimate and dangerous. Two top Trump-supporting Republicans said as much in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021, according to newly revealed texts in possession of the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas both initially supported Trumps efforts to challenge Joe Bidens victory, but the texts make clear that both became disillusioned as evidence of fraud failed to materialize and Trump ramped up his baseless conspiracy theories.

Roy, as Trumpy a congressman as there was at the time, ultimately warned Trumps chief of staff that their efforts were driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic.

These texts should be required reading for those Trump supporters out there who still buy the lies.

The texts, obtained by CNN last week, were directed at Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. They show the progression of two true believers in Trumps election fraud lies, and how they gradually became convinced there was in fact no evidence.

The texts show Lee and Roy both were active participants early on in Trumps attempt to overturn the election. Lee specifically encouraged the Trump campaign to work with lawyer Sidney Powell, calling her a straight shooter, until her subsequent conspiracy theorizing led him to warn Meadows that Trump should disassociate himself from Powell because of potential defamation liability. (That was prescient, as it turns out. Powell is currently facing a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit from an election technology company she allegedly slandered while spreading lies for Trump.)

Roy seemed an even more enthusiastic backer of Trumps big lie, imploring Meadows shortly after the election: Dude, we need ammo. We need fraud examples.

Alas, no such examples were forthcomingfor the simple reason that there was no significant fraud in the election.

Days later, the texts show, Roy had grown alarmed at Trumps increasingly unhinged public comments about the election. We must urge the President to tone down the rhetoric, and approach the legal challenge firmly, intelligently and effectively, he wrote, without resorting to throwing wild desperate haymakers, or whipping his base into a conspiracy frenzy.

By Dec. 31, Roy was convinced it was over. The President should call everyone off  , he wrote to Meadows. If we substitute the will of states through electors with a vote by Congress every 4 years, we have destroyed the electoral college.

On Jan. 6, after Trump supporters whod been whipped into the aforementioned conspiracy frenzy attacked the Capitol, Roy and Lee both voted to certify Bidens victory. It will be up to their constituents, and history, to determine whether that was too little, too late for them to claim, as they both do now, that they stepped up to protect democracy.

St. Louis PostDispatch Editorial Board
If parents need help coming up with the most effective punishment for their naughty kids who love to read, the solution is simple: Just take away their books.

That was the worst punishment imaginable, said Jonis Agee, who will be at Keene Memorial Library at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 24. I had to behave so I could keep my books!

The public is invited to attend Agees author presentation and book signing. Her book, The Bones of Paradise was selected as the One Book Nebraska title for 2022.

Born in 1943, Agee grew up in the Midwest, but has lived on both coasts and several cities in between.

We lived in a rural farming area north of Omaha till I was 7, Agee said. We spent several years in Missouri before coming back.

While attending Central High School in Omaha, Agee was told by one of her teachers that her book reports could not be on any books she had previously read.

That was my introduction to classic literature, she said.

It was also during her years at Central High that Agee discovered her love of poetry.

I think I must have started life as a poet, she said.

Agees interest in writing fiction was slower in coming.

I thought it took too long, she said. I can write a poem and work on it for several months, but a novel takes years.

Despite the lengthy commitment required, Agee has written about a dozen books, several of which are collections of short stories.

I was 35 when my first collection of short fiction was published. I was 50 when I published my first novel, Sweet Eyes. It took me about 10 years to complete it, she said.

Two of Agees novels are set in the Nebraska Sandhills: Strange Angels and more recently, The Bones of Paradise, a multi-generational family saga and murder mystery published in 2016.

The following year Agee was presented with the Celebration of Nebraska Books 2017 Fiction Book of the Year as well as the High Plains Book Award.

The plains inspired me to begin writing fiction, Agee said. Around 1990 I did quite a bit of traveling in the Sandhills. When I visited Wounded Knee, I was so moved by what I saw there, that story stayed with me for a long time.

Another piece of history that helped to shape Agees writing was the way boys were inducted into the ranching business.

They were sent off to live with their grandfathers, who trained them to work the land that they would eventually inherit, she said.

The tough love inflicted upon the boys was one of the elements the author wanted to document in her novel.

It wasnt so much the grandfathers that these boys blamed for their suffering, Agee said. It was their mothers. They felt it was a mothers job to protect them.

Agees latest novel is this years read in the One Book One Nebraska program initiated by the Nebraska Center for the Book.

The objective for the communitywide reading program was to promote literacy and encourage people to interact with fellow readers. The first novel showcased by the One Book One Nebraska program, which began in 2005, was Willa Cathers My Antonia, published in 1918.

Cather is one of the Nebraska authors who have given Agee inspiration for her work.

I used her book, Song of the Lark, in one of my writing classes, she said. Ill be making a Zoom presentation for the people of Red Cloud for Willa Cather fans.

The other Nebraska author whose work has been a shining example for Agee is Mari Sandoz.

I grew up in a time when women writers were not celebrated the way they are now, Agee said. So having two female Nebraska authors as my trailblazers has meant a lot to me.

It was Sandozs biography of Crazy Horse that Agee found particularly impressive.

She shows such respect for Native Americans, Agee said.

Agee, who is an Adele Hall professor and chair for the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, began her college education at the University of Iowa, where she earned her bachelor of arts degree.

She went on to earn her master of arts degree and her doctorate in English from the State University of New York in Binghamton.

After returning to Nebraska, Agee was given a position in the English department at UNL.

In 2009, she was presented with the Nebraska Arts Council Distinguished Artist Award in Fiction as well as its Backwater Press Publication Award. That same year she received the Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to Midwestern Literature.

The following year, UNL presented Agee with its Outstanding Research and Creativity Award.

Research is one of the things that takes a lot of time, Agee said. Place is just as important to me as character. I need to be where the story takes place in order to write it well.

Agee was so impressed with the Nebraska Sandhills she decided to purchase land near Valentine.

I often go up there for inspiration as well as for some peace and quiet, she said.

Although Agee missed out on getting to travel when she was growing up, reading allowed her to see what she was missing.

My family didnt go on vacations very often, so reading was how I was able to learn about the world, she said.

Agees parents had urged her to attend college with the hope that she would teach high school English.

But Agees aim was higher.

I wanted to teach at the college level, she said. I wanted to be a professor.

One look at her accomplishments, and its easy to see that Jonis Agee took that ball and ran with it.

Agee and her husband, Brent Spencer, are the founders of Brighthorse Books, a literary press based in Omaha that publishes fiction and poetry. Although they are not currently accepting submissions, those interested can subscribe to the Brighthorse Books newsletter at https://www.brighthorsebooks.com/contact.

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Saturday

HomeStore open, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 701 E. Dodge St., Fremont. The HomeStore sells donated items at discounted prices. Proceeds support the mission of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity.

Old Poor Farm open house, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Old Poor Farm, 1777 County Road 23, Nickerson. The Old Poor Farm, a historical site and animal sanctuary, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this month. The admission free for entry on Saturday will be $5 per person or an item off the farms wish list per person.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous womens heart-to-heart group, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Fremont Eagles Club open, noon to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. Karaoke with Curtis will begin at 7 p.m.

Movie Day, 2:30-5 p.m., Keene Memorial Library, Fremont. A Journal for Jordan will be shown. Popcorn will be provided.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Spiritual 12-Step Recovery Program, 7 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Hair, 7:30 p.m., Kimmel Theater, Midland University campus, 900 N. Clarkson St., Fremont. Tickets range from $12 to $15 and can be purchased by phone at 402-941-6399 or online at midland.booktix.com.

Narcotics Anonymous The Lie is Dead meeting, 8 p.m., LifeHouse, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Sunday

Alcoholics Anonymous Happy Sober Sunday Group, 9 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Narcotics Anonymous Seekers of Serenity meeting, 10:30 a.m., LifeHouse, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont. The hotline number is 402-459-9511.

Fremont Eagles Club open, noon to 6 p.m., 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. A coin auction will begin at noon.

Hair, 2 p.m., Kimmel Theater, Midland University campus, 900 N. Clarkson St., Fremont. Tickets range from $12 to $15 and can be purchased by phone at 402-941-6399 or online at midland.booktix.com.

Presentation by Nebraska author Jonis Agee, 2 p.m., Keene Memorial Library, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont. Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. Agee will discuss her newest novel, The Bones of Paradise, a multi-generational saga set in the Nebraska Sandhills. Admission is free.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous Sunday speaker, 7:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Monday

TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), 9 a.m., First United Methodist Church, 850 N. Broad St., Fremont. Weigh-ins begin at 8 a.m. Visitors (preteens, teens and adults  male and female) are welcome. The first meeting is free. For more information, call Janet Bloemker at 402-721-8952.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Lightkeepers Womens Group, 10 a.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Fremont Eagles Club open, 3 p.m. to midnight, 649 N. Main St., Fremont. The club may stay open later or close early depending on business. A trustees meeting will begin at 4 p.m.

Digital Drop-In, 4-5 p.m., Keene Memorial Library, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont. Drop in at your convenience; no appointment is necessary.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Celebrate Recovery, 6:30 p.m., Fremont Church of the Nazarene, 960 Johnson Road.

Fresh Hope Mental Health Support Group, 7 p.m., Lighthouse, 84 W. Sixth St., Fremont.

Narcotics Anonymous Freedom Works Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont.

Alcoholics Anonymous 12x12 meeting, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

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The Indian Express

Faiz verses excluded from Class 10 textbook in latest CBSE tweak

The portion of the curriculum document, which lists the Social Science course content for Class 10, states that the segment on religion, communalism and politics will continue to be part of the course content  excluding image on page 46, 48, 49.

Written by Sourav Roy Barman , Sheetal Banchariya | New Delhi | Updated: April 23, 2022

We remain strangers even after so many meetings, blood stains remain even after so many rains.

Not enough to shed tears, to suffer anguish, not enough to nurse love in secret Today, walk in the public square fettered in chains.

FOR OVER a decade, CBSE students have read these translated excerpts from two poems in Urdu by Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the Religion, Communalism and Politics  Communalism, Secular State section of NCERTs Class 10 textbook Democratic Politics II. The verses have been excluded from CBSEs 2022-23 academic curriculum, which was released on Thursday.

The portion of the curriculum document, which lists the Social Science course content for Class 10, states that the segment on religion, communalism and politics will continue to be part of the course content  excluding image on page 46, 48, 49.

The images referred to are two posters and a political cartoon.

One of the posters, illustrated with Faizs verses, was issued by NGO ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), which has social activists Shabnam Hashmi and Harsh Mander among its co-founders.

The two posters and the cartoon are the only images to have been excluded from the course content. The CBSE did not respond to queries from The Indian Express on the reasons for the exclusion.

According to leading literary web portal Rekhta, the poem from which these verses were taken were composed by Faiz when he was being taken from a jail in Lahore, in chains, to a dentists office in a tonga through lanes that were familiar to him.

The second poster, with excerpts of the other Faiz poem, was issued by Voluntary Health Association of India, which describes itself as a federation of 27 state associations. Rekhta says Faiz had written this poem after his visit to Dhaka in 1974.

The cartoon by Ajith Ninan, which shows an empty chair adorned with religious symbols, was taken from The Times of India. It is accompanied by the caption: This chair is for the CM-designate to prove his secular credentialsThere will be plenty of rocking!

The textbook was developed by a committee chaired by the late Prof Hari Vasudevan of the University of Calcuttas Department of History following the revision of the National Curriculum Framework in 2005.

Also dropped from the course content in the book are chapters on democracy and diversity, which introduce students to the concept of social divisions and inequalities along the lines of race and caste across the world, including in India; popular struggle and movements with focus on Nepal and Bolivia; and, challenges to democracy on reforming democratic politics.

The How to use this book segment states that graphics, collages, photographs, posters and a wide range of political cartoons occupy a major portion.

These images provide visual relief and some fun. But you should not merely see these images and turn the page. You are expected to read the meaning of these images. Very often politics is carried out not through words but through images. The captions and questions that often accompany these images help you to read these images, it states.

Dont Miss |Explained: Gujarat govts control centre to monitor educational projects

Besides, a chapter on Central Islamic Lands is missing from the History course content for Class 11. It deals with the rise of Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories and its implications for economy and society, according to the curriculum for 2021-22.

Among other Social Science themes to have faced the axe this time include impact of globalization on agriculture from a chapter on Food Security in the Class 10 curriculum. A chapter on Cold war era and Non-aligned Movement has been dropped from the Class 12 Political Science curriculum.

These apart, a unit on mathematical reasoning has been dropped from the Class 11 curriculum. Composite functions, inverse of a function, elementary properties of inverse trigonometric functions, mathematical formulation of linear programming problems, and binomial probability distribution have also been kept out.

As part of its decision to rationalise syllabus, the CBSE had announced that chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism in the Class 11 Political Science textbook will not be considered while assessing students, triggering a major controversy. The topics were restored in the 2021-22 academic session and remain a part of the curriculum.

In 2012, the NCERT had agreed to drop six cartoons from the Political Science textbooks of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 following outrage over anti-political class content. In 2018, the NCERT had undertaken another round of revision of political commentary, including tweaking the captions under cartoons.

(The above article from The Indian Express is reproduced here for educational and non commercial use.)

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[SEE RELATED REPORTS:

CBSE Drops Democracy And Diversity, Mughal Courts, Poems By Faiz From Syllabus: Report https://t.co/ynt0JvSBE8 ]
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a number of people finding new hobbies they might not have picked up otherwise, and one of those interests is birding.

COVID forced many people into solitary pursuits, including nature-related or outdoor activities such as walking, noted author Marc Parnell, whose field guide on Nebraska birds will be released next week.

Birds are one of those things where its almost inevitable that you will have direct contact with them in some capacity when youre outdoors. A lot of people began to appreciate it in the same way that Ive grown to love birds, Parnell said. Even since the pandemic has ended, theyve continued with that passion. So I think birding as a pastime and as a study will continue to grow and flourish.

Parnell, who currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio, has been interested in ornithology for about 20 years. He said he got his start with a reptiles and amphibians field guide.

From there I was very excited about how many species I could find in my backyard, he said. I went to a number of nature camps and educational opportunities for the outdoors and for biology.

Parnell took courses in biology and biochemistry in college but found that birds were his true calling.

I was very captivated by their powers of flight, the fact that they can migrate to such an extent and you can see one bird in March but it wouldnt be there in May, he added. I was very excited about all the different interactions with each other certain birds, protecting others, attacking another species, all the different ecological relationships that are really interesting to observe once you sort of break beneath the surface of the every day.

For Fremont woman and longtime birding enthusiast Vicki Sorensen, she was surrounded by nature ever since she was young. Her dad always had the family outdoors, so her love of birding has been going strong for 60-plus years.

I like just discovering what birds Ive been seeing and kind of comparing to the birds that I know are here. When I see one thats unusual, figuring out with bird books what it is or what its doing here, Sorensen said.

When she sees a bird thats not common around this area, Sorensen added, she will research what its doing here, which could be due to something like habitat loss, an earlier spring or a later fall.

Sorensen said people often get into birding just by paying attention to their surroundings and noticing what birds are out there. Its a great hobby for kids and folks who cant really get outside too much and enjoy looking at nature through the window, she added.

If youre interested look online or get a bird book  or do both  get a pair of binoculars and just be ready that when you see something, you note it down. What time of year is it, even if its a migrating bird, or if you hear something, she said.

Parnell said he has quite a few family members that live throughout the Great Plains area. He said a lot of traveling and research went into his new book series, The Birding Pros Field Guides, each individual novel of which focuses on a different state.

Parnell will release Birds of Nebraska on April 26. It is available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. He said he wanted to create a field guide specifically for Nebraskans because there really isnt one for Nebraska birds.

A lot of the field guides in the market will have Florida birds, Maine birds, New Mexico birds thrown in there, but really you just want to know whats in your backyard or in your pond or fields and when its going to be there and some interesting facts about it, he said. I was just excited to do that for Nebraska.

Parnells book series features monthly birding forecast for every species. It shows readers month by month when a specific species is likely to be in the United States, he said.

Its been really well received by readers so far, so Im really looking forward to hearing Nebraskans feedback on that, Parnell said. Also its unique in that each species thats likely to visit feeders has detailed bird feeding information  which feeders, what kinds of food they prefer, in order to serve the needs of your everyday backyard birder.

Additionally, the field guide will have a birding by comparison approach. He said its a new method to bird identification that helps people identify new birds by comparing them to those they already know.

Its a really memorable visual identification exercise that allows people to go out in the field and quickly and accurately determine new bird species without a lot of difficulty in rigmarole that kind of comes with flipping through a 600-page field guide and trying to study it with the world in front of you, Parnell said.

Parnell noted the Fremont Lakes, which see quite a bit of bird activity.

All those little lakes and in transitional wetlands offer opportunities for Herons, egrets, eagles, shorebirds, blackbirds and lots of ducks to be easily found in the area. I really love the lakes region there, he said. The surrounding area has a lot of beautiful prairie and grassland which is which is great because youll have the dickcissel sort of coming through in a little bit and thats sort of a Meadowlark look alike.

Migratory waterfowl are finishing their journeys north right now; he said his favorites include the northern shoveler and blue-winged teal. American white pelicans have started to arrive on the Platte River, he added, and spring warblers are arriving.

Parnell said his readers report that bird feeder activity is picking up with the appearance of northward migrating songbirds.

Sorensens advice for birding newcomers who want to set up feeder(s) is to make sure you have a good source of water  clean water with a tank heater in the winter. There should be a pump thats running in the summertime so water doesnt get stagnant.

Do research on the bird seed you buy to make sure youre getting the kind that will attract the birds you want to see, and make sure you make the size of the seed to the openings in your feeder container.

She also suggests letting some leaves fall behind in the fall time because the insects in those leaves will attract birds.

Wildflowers are also a good option, but she suggests planting them in an open area near some rocks that are away from your home and doorway.

Sorensen noted the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge  located in Harrison County, Iowa  is only about 45 minutes away and is a great source of information. She also recently saw a big flock of pelicans on the Fremont Lakes just the other day, she added.

This is a worldwide spectacle in our backyards, which is so cool, Sorensen said. We have a number of people that are world renowned experts, or were who have since passed away, that have the stationed themselves here for years to watch the cranes and people that come from around the world every year to do the crane viewings. Its just fascinating to me.

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A friend of mine from back east once told me what he said was wrong with the country.

Readers are leaders, he said. Unfortunately, our leaders dont read.

I was reminded of that sharp-eyed observation this week after a federal judge in Florida struck down the CDCs widely hated mask mandate for travelers.

The reaction to the mandate reversal by the pro-mask zealots and their allies in the liberal national media was hysterical, angry and predictable.

You can bet the mask worshipers are rooting for the Department of Justices to successfully appeal the judges ruling and reinstate the CDCs rule.

But like most Americans, Im rooting and praying for the permanent death of the mask mandate, which should have happened a long time ago.

Im vaxxed and boosted. I dont care if youre wearing a mask or not, and you shouldnt worry about me.

If you still believe the myth that a cloth mask keeps you safe from a virus, be my guest  wear a pair of masks and a plastic helmet 24/7. Just dont treat me like Im a granny killer.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the CDC mask mandate because she concluded the public health bureaucracy had overstepped its legal authority by imposing it early last year.

Based on the misleading and biased coverage by the liberal media  which apparently didnt actually read her decision or ignored what it said  youd have thought the judge had ruled that wearing a mask is now illegal everywhere in the USA.

She didnt.

What she did was simply return the decision to wear or not wear a face mask to the individual, where it always belonged.

The opponents of recent bills passed in Texas and Florida have the same lazy reading habits as the mask worshipers.

They and their allies in the liberal media immediately railed in unison against the Texas bill, as if it outlawed all abortions in the state.

But if they had been honest, or had bothered to actually read the law, theyd know the bill prohibits abortions in the state only after 15 weeks and makes the usual allowances for cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Ditto regarding the misbehavior of the opponents of the newly passed bill in Florida, the so-called Dont Say Gay law.

The bill outlaws the teaching of what is essentially the elementary school equivalent of Sex & Gender Studies 101 to little kids in public schools.

If you read the law, it says, sensibly, that public school teachers are not allowed to teach kids from kindergarten to third grade that its OK for them to choose to be a boy or girl, whichever they want, or, if they arent sure, both.

Contrary to the claims of its opponents, the Florida bill does not prohibit teachers from saying the word gay.

What it does is leave it up to parents to teach their kids about gender and sexual orientation  not LGBTQ+ activists intent on indoctrinating children in their pet gender theories.

The far left dont care what the bills in Texas and Florida actually say.

They just spout their familiar claims of being discriminated against or victimized and their soulmates in the liberal media, as usual, let them get away with it.

The media, as they do so often, are failing the public in their coverage of the bills in Texas and Florida.

Not only are journalists picking sides, they are too much in bed with the left to point out that the opponents of the bills are misrepresenting, exaggerating or deliberately lying to the public about whats in them.

Its very hard for me to believe there are parents out there who really think its fine and dandy to teach their first graders that its OK to be bisexual if they want.

As far as Im concerned, the teachers who feed this poison to little kids are no better than child abusers. And the liberal media are complicit in their crime.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow @reaganworld on Twitter.

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More years ago than I really care to count, the childrens librarian in my little town in rural northwestern Connecticut, apparently tired of my endlessly renewing the same book over and over again, pressed a copy of The White Mountains by John Christopher into my eight-year-old hands.

Mrs. Bullock was her name. She was the mother of one of my schoolmates. Shed taken note of my reading habits, such as they were, and decided to take matters into her own hands. If I liked the book Id been endlessly renewing, she argued, Id love this one.

She was right. I read every volume in Christophers pulpy series, which followed the adventures of young people rebelling against alien overlords bent on keeping a servile population under their collective thumb with futuristic tech that suppressed their individuality and free will.

It was the start of my lifelong love of books and libraries. And viewed through the prism of 40-odd years, it was an oddly prescient choice.

Students and their teachers in schools across the country  and now public libraries  are waging a brave fight against the king of organized book- banning campaigns that once only seemed the province of the worst kind of totalitarian governments  or dystopian science fiction.

As Pennsylvania Capital-Star Washington Reporter Ariana Figueroa made astonishingly clear in a recent story, hundreds of books, across dozens of states, are being banned at alarming rates.

A majority of the bans were seeing across the country have targeted books written by authors who are people of color, LGBTQ+, Black and indigenous. The books feature characters, and deal with themes, that reflect the experiences of marginalized communities, Figueroa reported.

And while those behind these campaigns hide themselves behind the mask of parental control, what I think theyre really concealing is fear: Fear of a country and world thats changing around them. Fear of voices that were kept silent too long who are now speaking up and demanding their seat at the table of power. Perhaps most importantly, fear of the erosion of their own privilege.

Books are more than printed matter. Theyre conduits to an endless universe of knowledge. And they are the greatest democratizer weve ever invented.

Take one down off the shelf, read it, and finish it, and it will nudge you to another, and another. Before long, youre navigating the twists and turns of human experience, letting your own curiosity be your guide, allowing it to bring you to places youve never been, and to introduce you to people, places, and cultures you might never have met or experienced on your own.

And thats why, when theyve sought to erase people and cultures, every authoritarian from the beginning of time until now has destroyed their books and burned their libraries.

After the Romans tore down ancient Carthage, brick by brick, and sold its people into slavery in 146 B.C.E., they gave the Carthaginians books to the citys adversaries, who either destroyed or lost them, silencing them forever.

The Nazis held well-documented book burnings in 1933. And in a modern twist, Vladimir Putins Russia is struggling to keep the truth of its savage invasion of Ukraine from its own people.

Last year, students in a Pennsylvania school district about 40 minutes south of Harrisburg made nationwide headlines when they took on  and won a reversal of  a year-long ban on a list of anti-racism books and educational resources by or about people of color, including childrens books that dealt with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

The school boards president, Jane Johnson, told the Washington Post at the time that the board was trying to balance legitimate academic freedom with what could be literature/materials that are too activist in nature, and may lean more toward indoctrination rather than age-appropriate academic content.

Hear that? Indoctrination? Thats the voice of fear talking. Its a way to push back, without appearing to push back, against arguments that youre trying to silence or erase those whose voices badly need to be heard.

When a student  or anyone  picks up a book, its a moment of singular liberation. Its their first step down that hallway of knowledge. Its the start, rather than the end, of the adventure. And theres no telling where it might take them  perhaps even to the halls of power themselves.

And if theyre very lucky, they will have their own Mrs. Bullock to help guide them down those twisting and turning corridors, always nudging them along, gently prodding and testing them, but never, ever standing in their way or blocking the path.

Only the fearful do that.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.

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Health officials in Pakistan have announced the first new wild polio infection in that country in over a year, prompting newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to convene an emergency meeting of the national task force fighting the disease.

Authorities said a 15-month-old boy was paralyzed by the highly infectious virus in the northwestern district of North Waziristan.

It is the first confirmed new infection in 15 months in Pakistan, according to Shahzad Baig, a coordinator with the National Emergency Operations Center for Pakistan's polio-eradication program.

Baig said he was "deeply saddened" by the case.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world still listed as "affected" by the wild poliovirus, which is otherwise classified as eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Eradication efforts in both countries are hampered by local skepticism and deadly militant attacks on eradication teams, especially in rural areas.

Pakistan had never gone as long as a year without a new detection since eradication efforts began decades ago.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative lists the North Waziristan case as this year's third new infection, following another in Afghanistan and one in Malawi, in southeastern Africa.

Sharif's office said he'd preside over the polio-eradication task force's emergency meeting on April 25.

Based on reporting by AFP
Pakistan's army says that militants in Afghanistan fired heavy weapons and waged a firefight across the border overnight, killing three personnel at an army outpost in mountainous northwest Pakistan.

The April 23 statement said Pakistani troops had returned fire after the initial attack on the outpost, in the North Waziristan district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

It said an unspecified number of militants had been killed.

There was no way to immediately verify the report.

But that region of the Afghan-Pakistan border sees considerable activity by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has reportedly stepped up its attacks on Pakistani security targets.

And a brutal affiliate of the Islamic State militant group known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-K) has claimed responsibility for a number of recent attacks in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

Afghanistan has seen an increase in violence that is likely to increase domestic and international pressure on the Taliban-led government in Kabul that came to power in August 2021 as U.S.-led international forces withdrew and the Afghan government dissolved.

An explosion at a mosque and religious school in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz Province during Friday Prayers on April 22 killed at least 33 people, Taliban officials said.

Earlier this month, Pakistan retaliated to an ambush that killed seven of its troops by bombing targets inside Afghanistan.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that 20 children were killed in strikes in the Khost and Kunar provinces, and Afghan locals said the death toll was in the dozens.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Republican congressional candidate Brad Dempsey sued Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, to reverse a ruling that petitions he submitted for the 7th Congressional District primary were insufficient. Dempsey argues that a law allowing unaffiliated voters to vote in Colorado primaries means they should be able to sign nominating petitions.
Jameson has written six home and lifestyle books, including "What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want." Reach her at marnijameson.com.
Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan

Date: 22.04.2022

Press Release

Condemnation of the arrest of MLA Jignesh Mewani of Gujarat

Filing of criminal cases and his arrest illegal - plot to keep him out of Gujarat

Demands his immediate release

Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Rajasthan condemned the arrest of Jignesh Mewani, MLA Vadgaon, Gujarat and founder of the National Dalit Rights Forum by Assam Police. The release stated that it was clear that the BJP Government at the Centre and in the States criminalised those who dared to speak against hate, while not only not providing a free hand, but also protecting those who caused communal violence and spread hate.

PUCL in its press release said that Jignesh Mewani in his tweets made an appeal to the PM that in his forthcoming visit to Gujarat, he should urge the people of Gujarat to maintain peace and harmony, particulatly in those areas where communal violence happened over Ramnavmi celebrations.

The PUCL also added that to have taken exception to the line in the tweet, regarding Godse being venerated by the PM, was completely misplaced as the rightwing was often called out as being supporters of Godse. So there was nothing odd when Jignesh Mewani, MLA tweeted the same the release emphasised and if the Prime Minister had an issue with the tweet, then Mr.Narendra Modi should have filed a case of defamation rather than his tweet being used as a tool to criminalise Mewani, it added.

The PUCL further reiterated that nothing in the tweet warranted criminal charges. The application of Section 66 of the IT Act was misplaced, as this section only applied to acts related to hacking computers. It did not even come under the ambit of any other sections of the IPC applied for causing hate and disharmony leave alone those sections under which he has been framed viz 120(b), 153(a), 295 (a), 504, 505(1) (b) (c) (2) IPC.
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PRESS RELEASE

by Anhad

23rd April 2022 | Saturday

Condemning the increase in blatant misuse of the state power by BJP, unlawful- undemocratic arrest of Jignesh Mevani by Assam Police and harassment of his associates and their families by Gujarat Police.

Late-night on 20 April 2022, Jignesh Mevani, MLA from Vadgam Assembly Constituency, was arrested from the government circuit house in Palanpur, Banaskantha district, Gujarat, by Assam Police. The arrest was made on a complaint filed by Arup Kumar Dey, a BJP member from Khokrajar, Assam, who took offence to one of the tweets posted by him during the visit of PM Narendra Modi in Gujarat. In his tweet, Jignesh Mevani appealed to PM Narendra Modi to take out time and restore peace in Himmatnagar and Khambhat areas, where communal violence had recently occurred following Ram Navami processions, especially in residential areas with a sizable minority population.

Anhad believes that being one of the most vocal opposition leaders and an elected public representative, Jignesh Mevani was performing his duty to hold PM Narendra Modi accountable and asking him to speak up on the issue of rising communal violence in India, on which Narendra Modi is always found silent. It is important to note here that since Narendra Modi has come to power at the Centre, incidents of communal violence, according to Home Ministry have increased by 28% starting from 2014 till the end of 2017, with 822 incidents being recorded in 2017 alone. These incidents of communal violence did not stop in 2017, as according to the latest data on the Crime in India report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), despite lockdowns due to Covid-19, communal riots registered an increase of 96% in 2020 as compared to the previous year. Similarly, caste riots have increased close to 50%, agrarian riots have increase to 38% and riots during andolan/morcha have increased by 33% as mentioned in the same report brought out by the Modi government in 2021. These figures are alarming, but we are convinced that unreported incidents of riots would be far more than the reported ones.

Rather than doing anything to stop the communal violence in India and continuing not to speak on these glaring issues, the current BJP regime, with the help of Assam and Gujarat governments have orchestrated this frivolous case against Jignesh Mevani. On one hand, Assam Police has arrested and extradited Jignesh Mevani in the middle of the night like a criminal, whereas on the other hand, Gujarat Police has been intimidating and harassing members of Jigneshs family members and his associates in Rastriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM)

Some of the incidents of such harassment have been reported until now are that Gujarat Crime Branch has visited Rastriya Dalit Adhikar Manch office in Rakhiyal, Ahmedabad, and confiscated their office computers. Gujarat Police has visited the home of Kamlesh Katariya, who is an associate of Jignesh Mevani and confiscated his mobile. Gujarat Police has also visited Jignesh Mevanis MLA quarters and confiscated two more desktops, CPUs. Gujarat Police also went to the residence of Satish, Jignesh Mevanis personal assistant in Palanpur. As he was not there at his residence, they have seized mobile phones of his parents.Mobile phones of Jagdish Chavda and Amarnath, associates of Jignesh Mevani have been confiscated by the Gujarat Police. They have also searched Jignesh Mevanis home in Meghaninagar, Ahmedabad and confiscated some files in the presence of his father. Bhavesh, another associate of Jignesh Mevani has received a call from Gujarat Police and is being forced to appear in the Police Station. On asking if there was any legal notice against him, he was threatened by the policeman on the phone saying if he did not do what is told to him, he would be picked up from his village. Similar news from many other friends and associates of Jignesh Mevani are being received who are being called and harassed by the Gujarat Police.

Hence, this leaves no doubt that this arrest is a coordinated attack to silence Jignesh Mevani, who has been actively raising the issues of marginalized communities and firmly stood against destructive policies and actions of the current regime. The Bhartiya Janata Party is extremely vindictive against the opposition leaders who raise their voice against them.

Today, all Indian citizens are living in an undeclared emergency. If an elected political representative can be harassed by police of another state like this, just imagine what this authoritarian regime is capable of doing to ordinary citizens and organizations who dare to speak against them. With such actions people are being pushed to the brink of civil strife with large sections living in fear. Clearly generating this fear, the quasi-fascist regime wants to suppress all those who want to raise their voices against their ill-policies, actions, and governance.

Anhad strongly condemns such undemocratic and unlawful arrest of Jignesh Mevani by Assam Police and harassment of his family, friends, and associates by Gujarat Police. We demand that Jignesh Mevani should be immediately released, and harassment of his associates and their families should not be continued through this coordinated attack by both, Assam and Gujarat governments. Strongarming elected representatives and harassing their friends, associates and families is only a proof of how democratic India is currently, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We stand in solidarity with all individuals and organizations who have been harassed by the current regime through the blatant misuse of the state power.

Anhad Trustees 

1. Bhavna Sharma | 8860125558 2. Dev Desai | 9979704474

3. Leena Dabiru | 9811137421

4. Tarun Sagar | 8802161816
A firefighter knocks down flames coming up out of a ravine near InterQuest Parkway and Interstate 25 during a short-lived but dramatic fire Friday. The fire came to just across the road from houses, some still under construction in northern Colorado Springs. Homes were evacuated in the area because of winds gusting up to 50 mph.
The Colorado Houses vote on Friday to leave possession of the deadly opioid fentanyl a mere misdemeanor in our state was disgraceful.
NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 3:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, April 27, for launch of the agency's SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Teams decided to wave off a potential launch opportunity on April 26 until further into the week when space station positioning and orbital mechanics are more favorable. Crew-4 has another launch opportunity available Thursday, April 28, as weather continues to be a watch item heading into next week.

For a Crew-4 launch Wednesday, April 27, NASA will host a prelaunch news teleconference at approximately 9:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, with the following participants:

- Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy

- Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson

- Zeb Scoville, flight director, Flight Operations Directorate, Johnson

- Jessica Jensen, vice president, customer operations and integration, SpaceX

- Frank de Winne, manager, International Space Station Program, ESA

- Arlena Moses, launch weather officer, U.S. Space Force 45th Weather Squadron

Media may ask questions via phone only. The teleconference audio will stream on nasa.gov/live. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 8:30 p.m. on April 25 at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.

Additional adjustments to the Crew-4 launch date may be necessary in the event inclement weather prevents an on time splashdown of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) currently docked to the space station. Ax-1, the first all private astronaut mission to the station, now is targeted to undock from the orbital complex at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, April 23, and splashdown at 1:46 p.m. Sunday, April 24, off the coast of Florida. The Ax-1 crew and Dragon spacecraft remain healthy at station.

The Crew-4 flight will carry NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, mission commander, Robert Hines, pilot, and Jessica Watkins, mission specialist and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who will serve as a mission specialist, to the space station for a science expedition mission. The astronauts will fly a new Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom, atop a flight proven Falcon 9 rocket. Following docking of Crew-4, NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission is expected to complete an approximate five-day handover with Crew-4 before undocking from the space station and returning to Earth.

Learn more about Crew-4 by exploring the Commercial Crew Press Kit.





Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
The state leads the country in property crime rate increase between 2011 and 2020.
Two candidates in the race to become El Paso County's next top law enforcement official are billing themselves as "constitutional sheriffs" who would protect residents' constitutional rights and defend their civil liberties if elected.

But critics say the platform is an extremist anti-government movement that diverts focus from policy and leaves counties open to risk under such a sheriff. Some see the campaigns focused on constitutionality as a distraction from policy issues that the next sheriff will need to address, such as recruitment and retention.

Republican candidates Todd Watkins, an Army veteran and former U.S. Border Patrol agent, and Greg Maxwell, The Broadmoor's director of security, have said if elected they will not enforce what they call unconstitutional laws or mandates. That includes COVID-19-related mask or vaccine mandates and Colorado's "red-flag" law that allows family members and law enforcement officials to petition the court to confiscate guns from people considered a risk to themselves or others.

The constitutional sheriff movement, specifically the Arizona-based Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Officers Association founded by former Sheriff Richard Mack, "is a small anti-government extremist movement" that promotes the idea that a county sheriff can stop the enforcement of federal or state laws, regulations or court orders because they are elected, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.

The movement started around gun control and expanded to mask mandates, vaccinations and lockdowns. In February, Mack made a live video appearance in Colorado Springs to speak on the movement.

Several Republican sheriffs candidates have gravitated toward the concept.

Watkins has taken a hard-line approach to the idea, drawing the support of El Paso County Republican Party Chairwoman Vickie Tonkins and a nonprofit called Faith Education Commerce United that is closely aligned with her. Candidates associated with the group are proposing major reforms, such as a return to hand-counting ballots and "untangling" local law enforcement agencies from what they say is federal overreach.

"I want to be the people's sheriff," Watkins said during a February town hall event, where he appeared beside other favored GOP candidates. No other county sheriff's candidates were present. "I'm going to protect your rights and I'm going to ensure that the Sheriff's Office stays a local police agency, and it's not encumbered or entangled by larger echelons of government. ... Federal government is not in the business of protecting your rights. Certainly not anymore."

Watkins did not return The Gazette's request for an interview for this story.

Maxwell said in an email to The Gazette that, if elected, he would incorporate "extensive constitutional training" among his staff and will terminate law enforcement officials who "willfully violate citizens' rights."

"I have always upheld and defended the constitutional rights of the citizens of this county. I will continue to do that as sheriff," he said. However, when it comes to certain mandates  such as those for masks or vaccines  he would not enforce them because they are "unconstitutional" and those decisions are "personal choices."

But he also said it's the duty of law enforcement officers to enforce federal and state laws, which should be challenged in court if they are believed to be unconstitutional. This ensures no one person dictates what is and isn't constitutional and the people have the power to change the law with their vote, he said.

While law enforcement agencies can neglect enforcing certain laws to some degree, Pitcavage said, it's risky. For example, sheriffs who refuse to enforce Colorado's red-flag law could face jail time.

"If (sheriffs), on their own independent decision, could stop the enforcement of federal or state law just because they dont like them ... that totally subverts the rule of law," Pitcavage previously told a Gazette reporter in February.

However, it is much harder to hold sheriffs accountable than police chiefs, who answer to a city administration governed by a council.

In some cases, a governor might have to remove a sheriff, Pitcavage said Thursday. In others, the sheriff can be removed by a vote of the people, said Bill Ray, a spokesman for the County Sheriffs of Colorado, a nonprofit that advocates for sheriff's offices across the state.

Ray declined to answer The Gazette's questions about what authority county sheriffs have to refuse to enforce certain laws and what would happen if an El Paso County sheriff decided not to cooperate with federal agencies. The organization "does not engage in sheriff races or with candidates running for sheriff" and "does not have an official position on the constitutional sheriffs issue," he said.

Fellow sheriff candidates Joe Roybal, also a Republican, and John Foley, the Democrat in the race, say the idea of a constitutional sheriff is both redundant and a distraction from discussions on policy.

The man elected El Paso County's next sheriff will face an understaffed office, an agency that has been riddled by lawsuits and a time of shifting public opinion about law enforcement.

"I think it is just headline-capturing," said Roybal, El Paso County's undersheriff who has served the department for more than 26 years. "In my opinion, this is meant to not only confuse, but (also to) trick voters. As law enforcement officers, we all swear an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of state of Colorado. How does a constitutional sheriff affect policy? And what you're promising  is that even legal? Do you have the jurisdiction to do that?"

Foley, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantryman and worked in military intelligence, said the term implies other law enforcement and military officers "don't care about the Constitution."

"Go to the commander at Fort Carson and ask him, 'Are you a constitutional general?' Ask a private in the Army if they're a constitutional private. It makes no sense, because they're saying everyone who doesn't use that label is against the Constitution. That's not the case."

Constitutional sheriffs could particularly clash with federal law enforcement when it comes to immigration policy. On his campaign website, Watkins states a constitutional sheriff should require state or federal law enforcement agencies attempting to enforce law in El Paso County to first obtain the sheriff's consent.

This could include enforcing immigration policy. According to the Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Officers Association, military troops and armed drones should be placed at the United States' southern borders to "close off the flood" of immigrants coming into the country. The organization also calls for deporting foreign nationals living in the U.S. without official authorization.

In recent years El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, who is term-limited and cannot run for the office again, and Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell have had their enforcement of federal immigration policies challenged in state court.

In one instance, Mikesell argued an atypical funding scheme for the Teller County jail meant that on paper, no taxpayer dollars were used when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials trained three deputies to function as immigration officers per an agreement between the county and the federal agency. A state appeals court in December ruled against Mikesell and reinstated a lawsuit brought forth by six Teller County residents in the matter.

In El Paso County, Elder argued he could not be held liable for keeping Saul Cisneros jailed for nearly four months  far beyond the 48-hour time frame ICE says is the legal threshold  after he entered the El Paso County jail in November 2017. Though Cisneros' daughter posted bond four days later, the jail held him to comply with a 48-hour detention request from ICE. Elder claimed immunity through the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, claiming he could only be held liable for negligently violating a person's rights but not if he made the conscious decision to do so.

The Colorado Supreme Court in March ruled Elder could be held liable for Cisneros' extended incarceration.

But so far, a sheriff has not tried to keep federal agents out of a county, Pitcavage said.

"To date, there has been more posturing  often with an eye towards conservative voters  than active resistance against federal authority," he said. "But if (the constitutional sheriffs movement) keeps up, there is always the possibility of a hotheaded or rash sheriff deciding to attempt something more serious."

And there are other risks, he said.

"Sheriffs or others who buy into this notion can then become more receptive to other ideas and conspiracy theories of anti-government extremists. They can also become more sympathetic to them and more willing to look the other way when it comes to their activities."

The Gazette's Mary Shinn and Colorado Politics' Michael Karlik contributed to this report.
Florida native Angelina Perez made her way up to North Iowa four years ago, and hasn't looked back.

Just over a year before moving north, Perez was feeling stuck in corporate life, wishing for the fulfillment she got when helping others. Since moving to North Iowa, Perez has become an activist for many programs in the community.

Perez currently works at United Way of North Central Iowa (UWNCI), an organization built around helping community programs achieve goals aligned with their organization: education, financial stability and health.

"I would say that's probably the best thing that I like about what I do here, is knowing that my work is actually making a difference" Perez said. Her official title at United Way is Campaign and Marketing Director, but as the North Iowa chapter of United Way is relatively small, all three staff members work together to assist the community in whatever way they are needed.

At United Way, education has a sense of duality. Their impact goal is to assist children and youth in being able to learn and properly transition into adulthood. The other side of education comes with the work United Way does to educate the public on what the current needs of the community are.

"30% of female led house-holds in North Iowa live below the poverty line," said CEO Jen Arends of United Way, "and an additional 30% are what we call ALICE, which is asset limited income constrained employed."

Perez went on to say a key part of education for community members is showing the local statistics. In a bootstrap society, people often think that a person who needs something is out of work.

"The really disturbing part is that most of these people are working if not one but multiple jobs" Perez said of those who seek assistance.

"If you think about the amount of money (earned) per year (ALICE workers fall below a median of $23,000), and you think of what housing costs are here, like an apartment, gas, groceries and childcare, the math doesn't add up." Perez said. "It's like there's no way that they're able to make ends meet, and that additional funding has to come from somewhere."

UWNCI partners with community members and organizations to create this additional funding. Their programs and partners helped over 26,000 North Iowans in 2021. UWNCI funded 22 education, income, and health programs last year, and raised over $660,000 for vital health and human services in North Central Iowa.

UWNCI works with eight counties in North Iowa: Cerro Gordo, Franklin, Worth, Floyd, Winnebago, Kossuth and Hancock counties. All money donated to UWNCI stays within these counties.

Programs around North Iowa often go beyond simply giving money to help people pay bills. Many programs UWNCI works with help educate people how to manage money, working with food banks, and getting out of cycles that are unstable.

Perez talked about how times are truly different than they were 60 to 80 years ago  how much more difficult it is to save money, buy a home and find affordable quality child care. What a family used to be able to afford with just one working parent is simply impossible for many people to do with two parents working full-time today.

"If I can help people understand a little better where needs come from, I try my best to do that" Perez said.

She said she believes that helping parents is the way to help future generations.

"The only way that we're gonna continue on in existence is with the generation before us. And if we're not really caring for that generation, how are they supposed to be successful?"

Rae Burnette is a GA and Crime & Courts Reporter at the Globe Gazette. You can reach her by phone at 641.421.0523 or at Rae.Burnette@GlobeGazette.com

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A Mason City truck-washing business was caught by a state environmental officer illegally dumping diluted corn oil on the ground when the officer went to the site to follow up on the business illegal dumping of a green agricultural chemical the day before, according to a recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources administrative order that imposed a $10,000 fine on the company.

Those back-to-back violations followed the DNRs first investigation of Brookstone Specialty Services in December 2020, not long after it opened, when someone reported a petroleum smell in a nearby creek and dead fish.

Brookstone cleans large trucks and their trailers after they haul various items. A DNR investigation revealed the creek contamination was, in part, brown sludge left over from distilling grain that had been cleaned from one of the trucks. The business mistakenly allowed the material to drain into a basin that empties into Cheslea Creek, thinking that it went into the citys sewer system instead, the administrative order said.

A DNR environmental specialist evaluated the creek and found that a significant amount of livestock bedding had also been washed into the creek. Brookstone was required to hire someone to scoop the bedding from the creek, and that company hauled four truckloads of material from it, totaling about 12 cubic yards.

Then, in June 2021, someone reported the illegal dumping of a neon green liquid at the site.

We had a complaint that they were dumping this green stuff out back, said Jacob Donaghy, an environmental specialist for the DNR who investigated the complaint. We went there and sure enough, there was green stuff out back. It was just being dumped on the soil.

Workers had been transferring the chemical  which is used to keep nitrogen from leeching from farm fields  into a larger container, Donaghy said. Someone cleaned out the equipment used to transfer the chemical with about 1,000 gallons of water and then dumped that water. The company said it was a mistake by a new employee.

But when Donaghy followed up the next day, he arrived to find a trailer with a tank that was discharging a yellow liquid into the same area. This time, it was corn oil wash water.

We were very surprised because we had just been there the previous day, Donaghy said.

Brookstone agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to settle the matter, the maximum allowed under the departments administrative agreements. The company saved up to an estimated $11,000 by dumping the liquids rather than paying to dispose of them properly, the administrative order said.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.

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MEN'S MINISTRY CELEBRATION

The Men's Ministry of Cherrystone Association will celebrate its Annual Day at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Cherrystone Center with the Rev. Marlow Glass, pastor of the Guildfield Missionary Baptist Church, as speaker and music by Shockoe Male Ensemble.

ANNIVERSARY

The Rebecca Mullins Foreign Mission Clubs will celebrate its anniversary at 3 p.m. Sunday through phone with speaker elder Nancy Elder from Higher Heights, Lynchburg. Phone number for program is 425-436-6368, passcode is 243106.

PASTORAL ANNIVERSARY

Tarpley Chapel Baptist Church, 15156 Mount Cross Road, Dry Fork, will celebrate the 26th pastoral anniversary honoring pastor Robert Divens Jr. and lady Arleen Divens during the 11 a.m. Sunday worship service. Guest preacher will be pastor Donald Smith accompanied by the Saint Matthews Baptist Church of Danville. Guest psalmist will be Whitney Baize Miller of Eden, North Carolina.

INFORMAL CHURCH SERVICE

Trinity United Methodist Church, 409 Arnett Blvd., will hold an informal church service from 10:30 to 11 a.m. April 30.

FOOD AND CLOTHING MINISTRY

Union Hall Baptist Church Food and Clothing Ministry, 6861 Strawberry Road, will be open from 9 a.m. to noon May 7 with food and clothing of all types. For more information, call 434-724-4354 or 434-250-8964.

CONFIRMATION SERVICE

Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, Semora, North Carolina, will hold a deaconess confirmation service at 3 p.m. May 15 with guest speaker Dr. Angel Lea of High Street Baptist Church of Milton, North Carolina.

SERVICE CHANGE

Bennett Memorial Missionary Baptist Church will not hold parking lot services until further notice. Services can be heard by via conference call at 10 a.m. on Sundays and 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. Phone number is 1-774-220-4000, ID number 608-2009.

IN PERSON/ONLINE SERVICES

Ascension Lutheran Church, 314 West Main St., worships Sundays at 11 a.m. in the sanctuary and Live on Facebook, www.facebook/ascensionlutherandanville.

Mount Vernon United Methodist Church now offers in-person services at 10 a.m. each Sunday as well as online worship services every Sunday at mtvernonumc.org or www.facebook.com/MountVernonUMC. These will be held until further notice.

IN-PERSON SERVICES

Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 406 Gay St., has in-person services at 10 a.m. for their hour of power on the first and third Sundays.

North New Hope Baptist Church, 123 Old Piney Forest Road, has resumed in church worship services at 11 a.m. and Sunday school at 9:30 p.m.

Mount Sinai Glorious Church of God, 716 Jefferson St., will hold services in the sanctuary with Sunday school at 10 a.m. and morning worship at 10:30 a.m. Participants are asked to wear a mask and to practice social distancing. The service also will be streamed on Facebook.

Mount Freeman Baptist Church, 2100 Laniers Mill Road, will resume in-person service at 11 a.m. Sunday. There will be no Sunday school.

ONLINE WORSHIP SERVICES

Sacred Heart Catholic Church will livestream worship service at 9 a.m. Sundays in English and noon in Spanish at www.facebook.com/sheartchurch.

DRIVE-IN SERVICES

Staunton River Baptist Church, Long Island, will hold drive-in services at 10 a.m. each Sunday.

ONGOING SERVICES

Sacred Heart Catholic Church celebrates Mass every weekend with a vigil Mass at 5 p.m. Saturday and at 9 p.m. Sunday in English and noon in Spanish.

Watson Level Missionary Baptist Church holds Sunday worship services each week at 11 a.m. Because of COVID-19, a face mask is required for all attendees and social distancing is mandatory.

Calvary Church of the Nazarene, 2450 Franklin Turnpike, from 6 to 7 p.m. every Sunday, will hold Ladies Need Encouragement, an hour of worship and prayer. Participants are asked to bring a Bible and practice social distancing. The event is for ages 10 and up with adult supervision. For more information, call 540-907-8836.

Mount Zion Temple, now located at 503 Hughes St., presents The Word Homelitic Institute at 10 a.m. every Sunday. Transportation is provided by calling Bishop David K. Fuller at 434-429-8960.
By Trend

Azerbaijan's Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) continues to hold meetings with local and foreign entrepreneurs in order to expand ties and implement new business initiatives, the agency told Trend.

According to the statement, Chairman of the Board of the SMBDA Orkhan Mammadov met with the Philippine Ambassador to Azerbaijan Maria Elena Algabre.

The meeting discussed potential areas of cooperation between the two countries, establishing relations with the relevant SME agencies of the Philippines, as well as the experience of the country in providing support and services to business entities.

According to the State Customs Committee, the trade turnover with the Philippines exceeded $981,500 in the first quarter of 2022, while this figure amounted to $612,400 (an increase of 60.28 percent over the year) in the same period of 2021.
Virginia State Police seized 85 pounds of marijuana during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 85 in Mecklenburg, Va., according to department spokesperson Corinne Geller.

On April 13, 2022, a state trooper patrolling I-85 witnessed a Chevrolet Silverado headed south, driving recklessly. The trooper pulled the vehicle over near mile marker six and the driver consented to a vehicle search, Geller told the Times-Dispatch Friday.

During the course of the traffic stop, the trooper discovered approximately 85 pounds of packaged marijuana concealed inside the pickup.

The driver  Joseph F. Cruz, 40, of Rhode Island  faces a preliminary charge of one count of transporting five or more pounds of marijuana.

He is being held at the Meherrin River Regional Jail without bond.
MORRISVILLE  The new main runway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport will be longer than the one it replaces, though still not as long as the airport had once hoped.

The Federal Aviation Administration now says RDU can build a 10,639-foot runway to replace the aging 10,000-foot strip on the west side of the airfield in front of Terminal 2. That added length is important, said Michael Landguth, RDUs president and CEO.

Adding more than 600 feet of takeoff distance to RDUs future runway will allow existing airlines to carry more passengers and cargo, Landguth said in a written statement. It will also provide greater economic opportunities for Triangle-area businesses and communities.

RDU had once planned to replace its 10,000-foot main runway with one that is 11,500 feet long. That length would ensure that large jets loaded with passengers, luggage and fuel bound for Asia would have enough room to safely take off in all kinds of weather.

The sharp decline in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused RDU to scale back its ambitions. Replacing the planned runway with one the same size also would help get the work done faster and at lower cost, airport officials said a year ago.

But Alaska Airlines, which operates daily flights between RDU and Seattle, sought a longer runway to allow it to carry more passengers, cargo and fuel to the West Coast on its fleet of Boeing 737-900s. The FAA cited information provided by the airline in authorizing the extra 639 feet, according to RDU.

Business and community groups led by the Regional Transportation Alliance and North Carolinas U.S. senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, also lobbied the FAA.

RDU spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco said the planned length, down to the foot, came out of a complex FAA model that considers aircraft type and weight, the number of takeoffs and landings, the FAAs design criteria for runways and many other factors.

RDUs existing main runway was completed in 1986 and is nearing the end of its useful life. Contractors have replaced hundreds of slabs of crumbling concrete in recent years, working mostly at night when the runway isnt needed.

At 10,000 feet, the runway is long enough for the largest planes that land there, including cargo carriers, nonstop flights to Paris and London and the occasional visit from Air Force One and military aircraft. The airports other commercial runway, on the east side of the airfield, is 7,500 feet long, sufficient for most domestic flights.

RDU is still doing environmental studies for the new runway. Assuming the FAA and other agencies approve the project and the airport can put together the financing, RDU expects to begin construction in 2023 and open the new runway in 2027, Hawco said.
Not long ago, Kansas showed strong bipartisan support for vaccines as a tool to support a robust public health system.

But bills with language expanding religious exemptions for childhood vaccine requirements were passed by the state Senate in March and now face the House when the legislature reconvenes April 25.

They are among the more than 520 vaccine-related bills introduced in statehouses nationwide since Jan. 1, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those bills, 66 specifically relate to childhood vaccine requirements in 25 states.

In Missouri, for example, legislators are considering a measure exempting private school students from vaccine requirements. In Louisiana, a bill in the House would prohibit vaccinations on school property and at school-sponsored events.

Fewer than 10% of the bills will likely gain any traction, but the volume of attempts to roll back vaccine requirements is alarming, said Rekha Lakshmanan, director of advocacy and public policy at the Immunization Partnership, a vaccine education organization.

Those are all chipping away at one of the end goals for anti-vaccine activists, which is completely doing away with school requirements, said Lakshmanan. Thats what people need to be paying very close attention to.

All states require specific childhood vaccinations for illnesses such as polio, measles, and mumps, but exemptions vary. They all allow exemptions for people with medical concerns, 44 states allow religious exemptions, and 15 allow philosophical exemptions, according to 2021 data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Vaccinations are central to public health efforts at disease control and are foundational to the countrys social and economic system, said Brian Castrucci, CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a public health advocacy organization.

Politicians are poking holes in our public safety net, Castrucci said of the onslaught of anti-vaccine legislation. Vaccines, in and of themselves, are not medicine. Its all of us collectively protecting each other.

To be sure, anti-vaccine activists have existed as long as vaccines. And legislation to limit requirements to vaccinate against diseases such as polio, measles, and meningitis are not new. But, according to public health experts, the movement has gained momentum amid the coronavirus pandemic, boosting the reach of high-profile anti-vaccine activists.

If you had told me that a pandemic  and what I would consider a miraculous vaccine for that disease  would trigger an anti-vax surge, I would never have believed it, said Tracy Russell, executive director of Nurture KC, which works to improve childrens and family health in the Kansas City area of Missouri and Kansas. But thats exactly what happened.

One pending Kansas bill would mandate that vaccine exemption requests be accepted without scrutiny if based on religion or personal beliefs. Currently, the state leaves it to day care centers and school districts to accept requests for religious exemptions.

State Sen. Mark Steffen stands behind amendments he pushed nullifying Kansas childhood vaccine requirements. The Republican, who said he is not an anti-vaxxer in any shape or form, lamented mandates he said were a vestige of a kinder, gentler time and suggested that individual rights supersede mandates designed to protect public health.

Steffen, an anesthesiologist who said he is under investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for prescribing ivermectin to covid patients, said suggestions that a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases could occur if vaccination rates fall amount to fearmongering by people paid off by the pharmaceutical industry.

But Andy Marso, a Kansas vaccine advocate who launched a Facebook page to organize pro-vaccine Kansans, called such assertions insulting and said he doesnt take any money from drug companies. He contracted meningitis B in 2004 before vaccines against it were available. He was in a coma for three weeks and had parts of all four limbs amputated.

For me, this has been part of what helped me move on from that trauma, Marso said. I have a story that people need to know about.

The legislative efforts to nullify the requirements fly in the face of widespread public support for vaccines and vaccine mandates, nationally and in Kansas, said Russell. More than 9 in 10 Kansas voters believe wellness vaccines are safe and support vaccine requirements, according to a survey conducted this year for Nurture KC. Kansas voters overwhelmingly support religious exemptions, but a majority say they support tightening existing exemptions, according to the survey.

Before the pandemic, outbreaks of measles in Kansas, Minnesota, Washington, and other states, as well as outbreaks of pertussis, had reinforced the idea that preventing disease spread required consistently high vaccination rates. And mandates, in part, helped create the mechanism for public health authorities to make vaccines widely available and accessible, said Erica DeWald, spokesperson for Vaccinate Your Family, an advocacy organization.

Lost in what has become a political conversation around requirements is the danger of these vaccine-preventable diseases, said DeWald. All it takes is one case.

Previously, anti-vaccine activists relied on long-since-debunked narratives that vaccines cause autism, said Renee DiResta, the research manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, which studies cyber policies and how people use the internet. But in the years leading up to the pandemic, the movement began to shift its focus to align more with the populist ideology of individual freedoms put forward by Second Amendment advocates and the tea party.

Donald Trump expressed vaccine skepticism long before becoming president. But it was when the then-president was said to be considering naming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known anti-vaccine activist, to investigate vaccine safety that the movement found its footing, said Timothy Callaghan, assistant professor in the health policy and management department at Texas A&M University. The embrace of anti-vaccine messaging by prominent politicians  whether because they are true believers or just see it as political necessity  has lent legitimacy that the movement lacked before, Callaghan added.

The similarity of bills from state to state raises red flags to vaccine advocates because it suggests that a coordinated effort to dismantle vaccine requirements and public health infrastructure is underway.

Because the anti-vax movement is becoming aligned with the far right, I think those information-sharing channels are becoming more sophisticated, said Northe Saunders, executive director of the SAFE Communities Coalition, a pro-vaccine organization. Their ability to attract far-right politicians who see vaccines as a cause has grown. That gets them attention, if not votes.

Not all Republicans find common cause with anti-vaccine activists, said Kansas state Rep. John Eplee, a Republican and family physician. He said he voted against some covid-related restrictions, like a statewide mask mandate, because he believed doing so might help defuse pandemic tensions. But he advocates for all vaccines, including covid shots.

Enough others in the Kansas legislature agreed in the case of one bill: Language targeting vaccines, under the auspices of parental rights, was ultimately removed before it was passed. Some observers are cautiously optimistic the House wont pass the other bills as written.

While Eplee hopes the passions inflamed by covid die down with distance from the early days of the pandemic, hes concerned that voters have forgotten the damage done by vaccine-controllable diseases, making them susceptible to disinformation from determined anti-vaccine activists and the politicians among their ranks.

I hate to see human nature play out like that, said Eplee. But if people are vocal enough and loud enough, they can swing enough votes to change the world in a not-so-good way for public health and vaccinations.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. Subscribe to KHN's free Morning Briefing.

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TOWNSEND  A judge on Friday sentenced 66-year-old Lloyd Barrus to life without parole in the Montana State Prison for his role in the 2017 shooting death of Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore.

District Judge Kathy Seeley also gave Barrus two additional life sentences for a high-speed chase he and his son, Marshall Barrus, had with police that ended in a shootout 100 miles away in Missoula County. Marshall Barrus was mortally wounded in the shootout.

The three life sentences will run concurrently.

Several people, including Moores wife, Jodi, gave statements inside a packed courtroom in the Broadwater County Courthouse before Seeley imposed the sentence. Jodi Moore said her husband was executed at close range.

Execute. Thats what he did. Lets call it that, she said.

Please do not allow this man the opportunity or possibility to ever do this again to another family. He has proven by his past behavior that he will do this again and again.

Seeley said it was, indeed, an execution.

I dont know that there was a plan per se, but these two men with their extremist anti-government beliefs were both out of control, and they both made bad choices over and over that evening, Seeley said. I do not believe if he is out in the streets that the public will be safe.

Barrus showed little emotion during the hearing but did speak briefly.

I am truly sorry for the loss, uh, the Moore familys loss, he said, flanked by defense attorneys Craig Shannon and Greg Jackson. My son  I dont see how anybody could be more upset than I am for what happened here.

Prosecutors say Lloyd and Marshall Barrus held anti-law enforcement views and were on a suicide mission on May 16, 2017, when they provoked Deputy Moore shortly after 2 a.m. by passing him on U.S. 287 south of Townsend driving 100 mph. They were in a Chevy Suburban and Lloyd Barrus was driving.

They say Moore was struck in the face by a bullet through his windshield, his car stopped in the grass just south of Three Forks, and he was alive until the Suburban returned four minutes later and additional gunshots from a semi-automatic rifle ended his life. They say Marshall Barrus fired the mortal rounds.

Butte-Silver Bow police spotted the Suburban moving westbound on I-90 about an hour later and started a 90-mile chase, ending in a shootout in Missoula County. Bullets fired from the Suburban knocked two Butte patrol cars from the pursuit, but by then troopers and police from several counties were involved.

The Suburban came to a stop just inside Missoula County, its tires shredded by stop-sticks, and a firefight broke out. Marshall was hit and later died while Barrus escaped injury and was arrested.

In September, a jury in Butte found Barrus guilty of deliberate homicide by accountability in Moores death, and of two counts of attempted deliberate homicide for the high-speed chase and shootout.

Defense attorneys for Barrus argued Friday, as they have the past five years, that Barrus suffered from mental illness and severe delusional disorders. They wanted him to be sentenced to Montana State Hospital.

Who was driving that car? His delusional disorder was, Shannon told the judge.

But Seeley had already decided he was going to Montana State Prison so the only question was for how long.

Seeley ruled last month that even though Barrus was paranoid in the days leading up to Moores death, he understood the criminality and wrongfulness of his actions. Her ruling meant Barrus would be sent to state prison as prosecutors requested.

Moores brother, Nebraska Moore, told the judge Friday Barrus should never have been free to commit the crimes he did that night.

In March 2000, Lloyd Barrus, another son and a woman were arrested after a high-speed chase and armed standoff with police in Death Valley, California, that lasted more than 18 hours. They eventually exchanged gunfire with police and reportedly damaged a California Highway Patrol helicopter and forced it to land. Barrus was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was ultimately released.

The state of California, in its infinite wisdom, released the convicted individual from confinement to do what he said he was born to do  to attack and ultimately kill law enforcement officers, Nebraska Moore said.

That Barrus was not going to be executed by the state of Montana was an unwarranted mercy, he said.

The next time I make popcorn, I will regret that I am not eating it at his execution, he said. The next time I have a beer, I will take great satisfaction in knowing that while there is alcohol in prison, its usually fermented in a trash bag in somebodys toilet.

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty but dropped that because Barrus has had extensive mental health issues that could have been a significant mitigating circumstance for imposing death.

At one point after charges were filed, Seeley ordered Barrus be given antipsychotic medications via injection to render him competent to stand trial and aid his defense, since he refused to take the drugs orally. He was ultimately cleared to stand trial.

The case was prosecuted by Montana Department of Justice Attorneys Dan Guzynski and Stephanie Robles and Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson, with help from several others.

Guzynski said after Fridays hearing that under the circumstances, the sentence was the most severe allowed by law and he was pleased the judge imposed it.

It honors Deputy Moore, his family and all the law enforcement officers that were involved, he said.

Moore was 42 when he was killed. He left behind Jodi and their three children. Two of their sons, now 18, were also in the courtroom Friday.

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WARRENSBURG  There is a bright blue sign of things to come for those looking for something to eat in Warrensburg.

The sign reads Cancun Bar and Grill and it is on the outside of the former Subway restaurant along Illinois 121.

The renovations will take approximately two months, said Francisco Lopez, who owns a Mexican restaurant of the same name on North Main Street in Decatur.

The menu and decor will be similar to the Decatur restaurant. The hours, however, will be different, Lopez said. Well close here at 9 oclock, he said about the Decatur restaurant. On weekends, were going to leave that one (Warrensburg) open a little later.

The former Subway restaurant provides a drive-through option for their customers, a resource Lopez plans to keep. However, the rest of the building is being refurbished.

We are putting in a new kitchen, he said. Pretty much, were redoing everything.

Gary Haines, who owned the Subway restaurant, said he is glad the building has a new occupant that will put it to good use. He said COVID and the increasing costs of operating a Subway prompted him to close the location, as well as the restaurant he operated in downtown Decatur.

He said the downtown customers have at least three nearby choices to choose from to get their Subway fix, including the new location in the former Pizza Hut at 975 W. Eldorado St.

"It's a great store," Haines said of the West Eldorado location.

He is hopeful the downtown location will find a good tenant, hinting that a bagel/coffee shop or lunch place might be a good fit.

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DECATUR  Decatur resident Samantha Hendricks and her mother, Michelle Walters, were some of the first to stand in line at the Kona Ice Food Truck during Saturdays Food Truck Frenzy at Fairview Park.

We want to study menus, Walters said. To make a strategic route.

The Food Truck Frenzy was one of the first opportunities this season for local food trucks to serve the public. Six vendors served a variety of menu options, including burgers, shaved ice, barbecue and corn dogs. Other happenings included Scovill Zoos mobile unit, temporary tattoos, and superheroes and other characters roaming the park.

The mother-daughter duo credit the weather for starting with the shaved ice vendor. Its hot out, Hendricks said.

United Way of Decatur and Mid-Illinois hosted the second Food Truck Frenzy. According to Marketing Director Ryan Huffer, the 2021 event was a successful fundraiser for the agency.

People just love food trucks, he said.

As the event came to a close at 2 p.m., lines of people continued to wait to place orders at all six food trucks.

Huffer acknowledged the pandemic may have drawn people to last years event, providing an outdoor event for the public.

But I dont know how we got blessed with the very nice day today, he said about this years Food Truck Frenzy.

Pig Out Food Truck owner Matt Hauersperger has been traveling throughout Central Illinois serving up traditional fair food from his mobile unit for eight years. The truck was parked at the north side of Fairview Parks main pavilion during last years Food Truck Frenzy. Hauersperger was able to return to the same spot on Saturday.

This is where people come to gather, he said.

The first event was a positive experience for the food truck owners.

We had a better turnout than expected, Hauersperger said. But you never know what to expect when youre doing something new.

Although Saturdays event was the first gathering of food trucks for the year in Macon County, the owners now have opportunities throughout the year to serve food from their mobile units.

In December, the Macon County Board approved the resolution amending the Chapter 91 ordinance of the Macon County Code, or the food sanitation ordinance. The new ordinance allows the food trucks and mobile units to operate year-round. The previous seasonal permits allowed mobile facilities to operate from March 15 to Nov. 30.

Hauersperger said he didnt have a choice on his permit.

You either take the full-year permit or you dont get a permit, he said. Its not an option to do seasonal.

Saturdays event was the first Food Truck Frenzy for Springfield-based mobile unit Truckin Good Food. Ann Boucher waited on customers in her son Nicholas food truck while he prepared the food.

He just started the business last year, so were really trying to get it out there, Boucher said. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

According to the vendors, the weather was ideal for such an event.

We got lucky with the weather, Boucher said. Its a little breezy, but its warm and its not wet.

Shortly before the Saturday event opened to the public, Seth Black, co-owner of Notorious PIG, was still organizing the food truck, although the smell of pulled pork and brisket had already gathered a crowd.

Were excited to be back at it, to meet and see people, see old friends from last year, he said.

Notorious PIG returned to the Food Truck Frenzy after its successful inaugural year.

We made it a point to tell the United Way that their idea for this event was great, Black said. We put it on the calendar as soon as it ended last year.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
The 1960s were turbulent times and, in Europe, Catholics faced storms of radical change that left many weary or even cynical.

In 1969, one of Germany's rising theologians  a liberal priest at Vatican II who then became a conservative  was asked what he saw in the future.

"What St. Augustine said is still true  man is an abyss; what will rise out of these depths, no one can see in advance," said Father Joseph Ratzinger on German radio. "Whoever believes that the church is not only determined by the abyss that is man, but reaches down into the greater, infinite abyss that is God, will be the first to hesitate with his predictions."

Ratzinger's words grew in importance in 1977 when he became Archbishop of Munich and quickly became a cardinal. Then Pope John Paul II made him prefect of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where his orthodoxy led liberals to call him "God's Rottweiler." In 2005, he became Pope Benedict XVI.

Catholics continue to ponder his 1969 words: "From the crisis of today the church of tomorrow will emerge  a church that has lost much. ... As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members."

The future pope predicted a "crystallization" process creating a "more spiritual church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the left as with the right. ... It will make her poor and cause her to become the church of the meek."

The retired pope celebrated his 95th birthday on April 16  Holy Saturday. During an earlier meeting with Jesuits, Pope Francis called his predecessor "a prophet" and cited Benedict's predictions of a "poorer" and "more spiritual" church.

"Let us prepare ourselves to be a smaller church," said Francis, in remarks published in a Jesuit journal. "This is one of his most profound intuitions."

Truth be told, German ecclesiastical trends are sending shockwaves through Catholic life. Ratzinger's words have become a two-edged sword.

Catholic churches in Germany lost 221,000 members during 2021. But that pandemic fallout was actually an improvement over 2019, when a record 402,000 Catholics hit the exits.

Decline may be consistent with elements of Ratzinger's 1969 vision, but other German Catholic trends are more shocking. Consider these words from a recent "Out in Church" program hosted by the Diocese of Limburg  which is led by Bishop Georg Batzing, leader of the German Bishops' Conference.

In an online summary of the program, Catholic youth leader Eric Tilch said that the Catholic hierarchy remains obsessed with homosexuality and, instead, should move on to accepting trans and intersexual people and "other forms of love that are still in the dark."

"I worry that the church is too attached to a family photograph from the 1950s, i.e., father, mother, child," said Tilch. "There is so much more than that, for example hybrid families, changing relationships, polyamorous love."

Meanwhile, a recent "Synodal Way" gathering of German Catholic leaders overwhelmingly backed a document entitled "Blessing celebrations for couples who love each other" as well as a "Magisterial reassessment of homosexuality" text calling for the modernization of church teachings on chastity and LGBTQ issues.

This triggered a "Fraternal Letter of Concern" to German bishops from a coalition  from four continents  that, as of April 11, included 92 bishops, over a dozen archbishops and four cardinals. Many of the signees have strong ties to Benedict.

The synodal process, as it is unfolding in Germany, has already created confusion worldwide, creating the "potential for schism in the life of the Church," the letter said.

"The need for reform and renewal is as old as the Church herself. ... Yet Christian history is littered with well-intended efforts that lost their grounding in the Word of God, in a faithful encounter with Jesus Christ, in a true listening to the Holy Spirit, and in the submission of our wills to the will of the Father."

The vision emerging in Germany, the coalition said, could lead to "precisely such a dead end."

(Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.)
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora and Karabakh Revival Fund will sign a memorandum of cooperation in the coming days, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Fund Rahman Hajiyev said at the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha.

Currently, the Karabakh Revival Fund continues to provide support to numerous projects in Shusha. At the same time, around 30,000 trees will be planted in the regions. The tree planting has already started in Zangilan and us expected to continue in Aghdam.

There are many proposals and plans regarding the diaspora, he added.

Notably, Karabakh Revival Foundation was set up under the presidential decree in 2021 in order to ensure a modern and decent living conditions in the liberated territories, to carry out construction, restoration and landscaping work in all areas, as well as to support the continuous improvement of safe living, efficient activities and prosperity.

The Fund provides financial support and attracts investment to the activities towards the restoration and reconstruction of the liberated territories of Azerbaijan, the transformation of this region into a sustainable economy and a prosperous region while ensuring the development of public-private partnership in this area, as well as carrying out necessary awareness campaigns at home and abroad.

Karabakh Revival Foundation is financed through donations provided by individuals and legal entities, grants, as well as other sources not prohibited by law.

Earlier in April, Karabakh Revival Foundation and the Culture Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum covers the restoration, reconstruction and protection of the historical and cultural monuments in Azerbaijan's liberated territories. It also contributes to sustainable settlement in the liberated territories.

The document aims to create favorable living conditions, and develop and transform these territories into prosperous regions.

The 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha features panel sessions on the topics "Tasks facing the Azerbaijani Diaspora in the post-war period; action plan/road map", "Contributions of the Azerbaijani Diaspora to the restoration and reconstruction of Karabakh".

The two-day Congress brought together over 400 diaspora representatives and guests from 65 countries. The first Congress of World Azerbaijanis was held on the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev in 2001. The second, third and fourth congresses took place in accordance with the orders of President Ilham Aliyev in 2006, 2011 and 2016 respectively.
TAYLORSVILLE  The Alexander County Board of Commissioners recently held a public hearing to consider a county parks ordinance as well as rules and hours of operation at the new Courthouse Park and fees for rental of the park and performance stage. Alisha Stamey, Alexander County Park Ranger, presented the items for discussion.

She said the information was originally shared by County Manager Rick French at the boards March 7 meeting. The purpose of the parks ordinance is to establish and consolidate rules and regulations for all parks that are owned or operated by Alexander County Government and to maintain a clean and safe environment for all park visitors. These rules will apply to the following parks: Alexander County Courthouse Park, Bethlehem Park, Dusty Ridge Park, East Alexander Park, Jaycee Park, Rocky Face Park, and Wittenburg Access Area.

Stamey then presented the proposed rules and hours for Alexander County Courthouse Park and the associated splash pad. After reviewing the hours for 12 splash pads in the region, the proposed operating dates and hours for the splash pad are April 1 through Sept. 30 (seven days a week) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The splash pad would be closed from Oct. 1 through March 31. The hours for Courthouse Park and the parks restroom will be April 1 through Sept. 30 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Oct. 1-31 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Nov. 1 through Feb. 28 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and March 1-31 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. unless otherwise posted or a special event is planned.

Stamey also presented proposed daily fees for renting Courthouse Park and the Rotary Performance Stage. For local nonprofits and for-profits, there is no daily rental fee; however, the rental fee is $100 per day for nonprofits and $200 for for-profits located outside the county. Regardless of location, there will be a $150 daily maintenance/cleaning fee plus a $300 refundable security deposit. Stamey said that emergency medical personnel and/or law enforcement may be required based on the event size at a fee of $30 per hour per person with a three-hour minimum.

During the public hearing, there were no comments from the public. Commissioners unanimously approved the parks ordinance, Courthouse Park and splash pad rules and hours, and Courthouse Park and Rotary Performance Stage rental fees.

Stamey also encouraged the public to attend the opening dedication and ribbon cutting for Alexander County Courthouse Park on Sunday, May 15, at 3 p.m. followed by a concert at 4 p.m. featuring Ultimate Aldean. There will be food vendors and childrens activities.

The Alexander County Board of Commissioners typically meets on the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. in room 103 at the CVCC Alexander Center for Education. The next meeting is set for Monday, May 2, at 6 p.m. Regular meetings are recorded, and can be viewed on the countys Government Channel on Spectrum channel 192 or on the countys YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/alexandercountync. Meeting agendas, minutes, videos, and more are available on the countys website at www.alexandercountync.gov/commissioners.
A Hickory man was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual offenses involving a minor during Catawba County Superior Court on April 11.

Andrew John Kenneth Patrick, 45, was given an active prison term of 12 to 15 years after he pleaded guilty to first-degree statutory sex offenses that occurred with a minor between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, 1996, a news release from District Attorney Scott Reillys office said.

Patrick also will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life, the release said.

In October 2019, the male victim, now 31 years old, reported to the Catawba County Sheriffs Office that he was sexually molested by the defendant at various locations around Catawba County when he was a minor, the release said.

Superior Court Judge Nathaniel J. Poovey, from Catawba County, imposed the sentence for Patrick, who will serve his period of incarceration in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections, the release said.

The case was investigated by the Catawba County Sheriffs Office Special Crimes Unit. Assistant District Attorney Jessica Phillips handled prosecution for the State, the release said.

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As Americans across the country this year observed 4/20, a day that recognizes cannabis, North Carolina remained one of just 13 states that have not legalized medical marijuana.

That may not be the case for long.

A bill in the North Carolina Senate, the NC Compassionate Care Act, would make medical marijuana legal for a narrowly crafted group of people diagnosed with certain medical conditions.

That bill stalled in the Senate in summer 2021, and it has not yet come up for a vote again. It is backed by two powerful state Republicans, Sens. Bill Rabon, R-Southport, and Michael Lee, R-Wilmington, the primary sponsors of the bill.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill in 2022, during a short session set to begin May 18, after the statewide primary on May 17.

One of the bills sponsors, Sen. Wiley Nickel, D-Cary, said not to expect much news until the session starts, but he is optimistic that the bill will be passed, he told NC Health News.

This is a bill that is moving in the right direction, with lots of good, important support in a bipartisan manner, Nickel said. And I'm very hopeful that we will pass that bill when we return.

Liz Sharpe, a spokesperson for one of the bills primary sponsors, Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Winston Salem, said in an email that no action has been taken on the bill since August due to redistricting and the state budget, but we are hoping to get the bill moving!

The bill has support from the majority of North Carolinians, according to one poll by Raleigh's WRAL-Channel 5. The SurveyUSA poll found that 72% of North Carolinians supported medical marijuana legalization.

Support for medical marijuana is high across the political spectrum. The poll found that 64% of registered Republicans, 75% of registered Democrats and 78% of unaffiliated voters supported legalization.

Whats in the bill?

The Compassionate Care Act would make North Carolina the most conservative state of states with laws legalizing medical marijuana with a very, very narrowly tailored focus just on folks with chronic conditions, end-of-life care, Nickel said at a judiciary committee hearing on the bill last summer.

Rabon called the bill the most tightly regulated and controlled bill of its type, at a committee hearing.

Only people diagnosed by a doctor with a debilitating medical condition including cancer, epilepsy, positive HIV or AIDS status, or post traumatic stress disorder would qualify for a medical marijuana card, according to the bill.

If passed, the bill would also set up an advisory committee that would report on the effectiveness of the program annually and keep track of medical marijuana cards and physicians who issue the cards.

It would also establish a program in the UNC System to research cannabis as a medical product.

Marijuana as medicine

There are benefits and risks to medical marijuana as there are for most drugs, said Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, in a March webinar hosted by Attorney General Josh Steins office.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved cannabis for specific medical conditions, as it is still completing medical research studying the impact of cannabis for medical use.

However, one cannabis-derived product, Epidiolex, has been approved by the FDA, for some seizure disorders. Three synthetic cannabis-related products  Marinol, Syndros and Cesamet  have also been approved.

Humphreys predicted more medications made using cannabis will be made.

There's no reason to be afraid of cannabis-based medications, Humphreys said.

Does this mean recreational marijuana is going to be legalized?

Some people may be opposed to medical marijuana legalization because they dont want it to lead to recreational marijuana legalization.

Legalizing recreational use of marijuana received less support than medical marijuana from North Carolinians in the WRAL/Survey USA poll. Nonetheless, over half of North Carolinians surveyed  57%  agreed that recreational marijuana should be made legal.

Key legislators behind the bill have been clear they are not in favor of recreational marijuana legalization.

Recreational marijuana is not what we want in our state, Lee said at the judicial committee hearing.

As of November 2021, 18 states have taken measures to legalize recreational marijuana, less than half of the 37 states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Accessing THC in NC

At the same time as state legislators craft a narrowly tailored medical marijuana bill, North Carolinians can go to a store right now and buy products containing THC, the substance mostly responsible for marijuanas impact on a persons mental state.

Delta-8 THC, a hemp-derived product with a similar chemical structure to Delta-9 THC, the compound found in marijuana, is widely available across North Carolina, NC Health News previously reported.

The 2018 Farm Bill, passed by the U.S. Congress makes this possible by creating a loophole companies use to sell CBD-derived products containing less than 0.3% THC.

Delta-8 THC has psychoactive effects similar to Delta-9 THC, and it can have intoxicating effects, or make users high.

The FDA has not approved or evaluated Delta-8 THC products and cautions against using those products for medical use, especially because their production is unregulated and they could be manufactured in uncontrolled or unsanitary settings, according to the FDA.

Medical marijuana is also already legal on some tribal land in North Carolina.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, located in the westernmost part of North Carolina, legalized medical marijuana in August 2021, as well as possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on tribal lands.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. North Carolina Health News is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org.
CHARLESTON  Charleston Carnegie Public Library is joining libraries across the state of Illinois to host actor, author, and woodworker Nick Offerman in conversation with musician, author, and hiking buddy Jeff Tweedy, live from the wilderness.

The duo will discuss Offermans most recent book, "Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside." The event will be held virtually at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 27.

Offerman is best known for his breakout role as Ron Swanson in the hit TV series Parks and Recreation.

Born in Joliet, and raised in nearby Minooka, he now lives in L.A. with his wife and fellow actor Megan Mullally. In his spare time, he can be found at his L.A. woodshop building hand-crafted items from wood.

Joining him in conversation will be Jeff Tweedy, Tweedy is best known as the founding member and leader of the American rock band Wilco, Tweedy is an accomplished songwriter, musician, performer and author. He inspired Offerman to use their walks and conversations in nature for his book.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, visit www.charlestonlibrary.org. For more information, visit www.charlestonlibrary.org or call 217-345-4913.

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration of public libraries offering high-quality events.

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MATTOON  The Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System has become the first recipient of the inaugural Mattoon Chamber of Commerces Award of Excellence.

The Chamber presented this new award Friday evening during its annual dinner, where it also honored Cromwell Group, Inc. radio with its Small Business of the Year Award and posthumously honored local historian Steve Thompson with the Citizen of the Year Award.

Jamie Rieck, who was president of the Chamber board in 2021, said the new award celebrates Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System for being a healthcare provider and economic engine for the region since opening in May 1977 and for meeting the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years.

I would like to dedicate this award to every single Sarah Bush Lincoln employee who stood with us during the pandemic, said Kim Spencer Uphoff, vice president of operations at Sarah Bush Lincoln. Our employees did extraordinary things during an unprecedented and challenging time.

Sarah Dowell, membership and community programs director at the Mattoon Area Family YMCA, said the Small Business of the Year Award honors Cromwell radio for its support of the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital organization, the area One Stop Community Christmas, the YMCA and many other charitable causes.

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In a Triad banking market with trillion-dollar national and $500 billion-plus super-regional banks, Piedmont Federal Savings Bank surpassing the $1 billion asset threshold seems almost quaint.

In fact, its noteworthy that the nose-to-the-grindstone 119-year-old Winston-Salem bank is publicizing the accomplishment at all.

That it is serves as an indication that Piedmont, approaching three years with chief executive David Barksdale as chief executive, is confident of striking a balance between asset, retail and technology growth.

Piedmont was at $1.01 billion in total assets on March 31, up 4.6% from $966 million on Dec. 31.

Commercial banking has been the sparkplug for our growth, Barksdale said, citing doing $125 million in commercial outstanding loans since entering the sector in 2020 to complement its historic focus on residential mortgages.

Even in the era of megabanks, reaching $1 billion in total assets still places Piedmont in the top 20 percentile of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. institutions.

Barksdale said reaching $1 billion in total assets was intentional, led by the decisions to open business loan-focused offices in Greensboro and Lake Norman.

However, Barksdale said the growth also has been a byproduct of Piedmont remaining true to its mortgage-lending roots while limiting risks.

We set a goal with our latest strategic plan in 2021 of reaching $1 billion by the end of 2023, so were early about hitting that number, Barksdale said.

But we didnt want to grow for growths sake. We didnt want to get to a billion just to say we got to a billion.

Greensboro made sense from a loan-production perspective since Piedmont entered the High Point market in 2019 with a branch, and Barksdale was a top executive with Greensboros NewBridge Bancorp before it was bought by Yadkin Financial Corp.

If youre going to bank the Triad, you need to bank all three cities and the communities in-between them, Barksdale said.

Lake Norman makes sense because it is a good housing market and a good commercial market. It is a competitive market, but it is ripe for expansion and we think we can carve out our niche.

We found a banker in the market who was ready to make a move because he was going through a merger, so we chose to put the loan office there with the focus on the commercial sector, he said.

Barksdale said opening a branch in both markets is on the radar screen, but cautioned it takes time to find the right land to purchase or lease, staff it and then get the brand known in the markets for retail.

Piedmont will take an old-fashioned approach to marketing in the two new markets, Barksdale said, such as being at commerce and community events, and sponsoring and assisting community nonprofits.

Just being on the street, knocking on doors and talking to people, starting with the business community and expanding it to consumers, Barksdale said.

Its certainly harder during COVID, but weve been able to do and it will get easier as more restrictions are eased.

Upgrading Piedmont

Barksdale said competing in an increasingly digital technology-driven banking marketplace requires the need for larger economies of scale.

Scale does matter, Barksdale said, citing Piedmont is purchasing some of the same digital and mobile technologies as Wells Fargo & Co., Truist Financial Corp. and other super-regional and regional bank competitors.

As such, Piedmont is preparing to launch its digital and mobile banking platform updates.

The cost of digital technologies is really increasing at a fairly rapid pace, and scale helps you spread those costs out over a larger footprint, Barksdale said.

Banking is much different than it was five years ago, and COVID helped accelerate that. It will be more different five years from now.

Weve got to keep up with that technology and show that were relevant, and growth is one way to show that.

Other changes

Barksdale said surpassing $1 billion brings with additional regulatory scrutiny, which the bank is prepared to handle.

However, getting to $1 billion isnt the only reason that Piedmont was willing to absorb a new level of regulations.

In February, Piedmonts board of directors announced plans to shift the organization from a mutual savings bank to a mutual holding company in order to gain more marketplace flexibility.

The bank is requesting approval of shareholders and the Federal Reserve Board to make the transition. Barksdale said the bank expects regulatory approvals in May.

A mutual holding company is akin to a corporate holding company, otherwise known as a parent company that can have multiple subsidiaries.

This reorganization would mean that depositors and some grandfathered loan customers would be the owners of the holding company, which would in turn be the 100% owner of Piedmont Federal Savings Bank, Barksdale said.

There is no public stock offering. Our board of directors and bank leadership are committed to the mutual structure because it best protects our customers  who are our owners. This structure helps protect the mutual status.

In March, Piedmont launched an insurance agency with Insuritas, a full-service digital insurance agency platform, through a joint venture with Community Insurance Services LLC. The combination also involves the N.C. Bankers Association.

The agency offers a full suite of home, auto and small business insurance products to their customers. The insurance agency will offer more than 40 carrier partners.

Barksdale said Piedmont is interested in fintech partnerships and workplace banking.

Another factor in Piedmont gaining relevancy at $1 billion, Barksdale said, is that it enables us to attract top talent and create more local jobs.

Barksdale also pointed to new downtown Winston-Salem branch in the ROAR mixed-use complex at 633 N. Liberty St. as another example of its growth evolution.

Barksdale said the complex fits perfectly with Piedmont Federals commitment to downtown Winston-Salem dating back to our founding here in 1903.

You can see where we believe the future of branches is going. Its about 1,100 to 1,200 square feet, rather than two floors with eight teller counters and private offices.

We will continue to refine our branch network, and we are happy with the branches we have now.

But future branches will be smaller because customers arent frequenting them as much as traditionally.

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Q: Someone told me that during World War II there was a POW camp here in Winston-Salem. Is that true? If so, why were they brought here?

J.N.

Answer: Yes there was a POW camp here. It was open for about 16 months. Heres its story:

During World War II, there were POW camps set up in North Carolina, including ones at Fort Bragg and Camp Butner, in Granville County, about 14 miles northeast of Durham.

According to newspaper accounts of the POWs coming here, they were being sent here to work in tobacco plants to alleviate the manpower shortage because so many of the tobacco workers were in the U.S. military.

Local historian Fam Brownlee said, As the POW population grew, Butner became the main camp and was expanded by opening branches in other locations. That included the one here.

The Winston-Salem facility opened on Oct. 24, 1944, when 210 German POWs were transferred here from Butner; 24 more arrived two days later.

They were housed in the National Guard Armory on Patterson Avenue at West Ninth Street, Brownlee said. The building was originally the second North Winston Grade School, which was converted for use as an armory in 1935. Most of the POWs were young enlisted men, and most were put to work at the No. 2 leaf house of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

City officials asked residents to stay away from the area near the armory.

After some time, Reynolds housed some of the prisoners working for the company in downtown buildings the company owned and also in a building at Indiana Avenue and 30th Street, near where the former Whitaker Park production plant would later be built.

There was one escape, but there is no information about it, Brownlee said, because local and federal authorities kept a tight lid on information about escapes.

When SAM has written about this facility in the past, we have heard from some readers sharing their memories of it, including a woman who recalled as a teen girl getting whistled at by POWs from their windows as she walked past. Some of the POWs formed friendships with people here, and even came back in later years to visit.

The camp was deactivated in February 1946. You can read more about the POW camp in a blog post by Brownlee at

Follow upsAfter the question-and-answer recently about getting a REAL ID driver license, K.F. told SAM they went to the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles office in Yadkin County last summer to renew their license.

I decided to make it a Real ID. Took all those documents with me to the Yadkin County DMV and was told all I needed was a valid passport. Apparently, if you have a valid passport, it covers all the requirements.

According to flyfrompri.com, the website for Piedmont Triad International Airport:

Your U.S. passport will work in place of your driver license, but it may still be beneficial to get your N.C. REAL ID just in case you choose to travel domestically without your passport.

Blue Plate MayoAfter the question Friday about Blue Plate Mayo, M.W. let us know that they like it also, and get it at the Food Lion in Walkertown and said that the Food Lion in King carries it as well.

Email: AskSAM@wsjournal.com Write: Ask SAM, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101

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U.S. Rep. Ted Budd and former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory are leading in the latest polls among Republican candidates hoping to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

Attack ads from both camps and deep-pocketed political action committees have made the May 17 GOP primary feel more like a general election.

But as often is the case in primaries, the sniping candidates actually are largely aligned on most issues.

While were not likely to hear them mention it  in the primary, at least  climate change is one of the areas where Budd and McCrory find common ground.

In email responses through spokesmen, both candidates suggested it is unreasonable and would put the nations economy at risk for the U.S. to aggressively accelerate efforts to replace fossil fuels with clean-energy alternatives like wind and solar power, as climate activists insist.

Solutions to the impacts of climate change presented by the far-left would bankrupt the middle class and starve the poor, McCrory said. We need a comprehensive energy plan that considers the impact of climate change, but also the economy and quality of life of all income classes in North Carolina.

Eventually, the technology will be there to make alternative  clean  energy options efficient, reliable, and affordable enough to be viable options for North Carolinas working families, but we are not there yet, Budd added. We have to reject the one-size-fits-all-extremists on both sides of this important issue; continue to investigate human impact on climate; and develop, and be willing to update as needed, rational solutions via the private sector.

The campaigns of two other Republicans in the Senate race, U.S. Army combat veteran Marjorie Eastman and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, did not respond to multiple requests for their views on climate change.

In a poll released April 11 by Raleigh television station WRAL, Budd led the way among Republican Senate candidates with 33% support followed by McCrory at 23%, Walker with 7% and Eastman a distant fourth at 2%.

How fast?

Responses from Budd and McCrory came less than two weeks after the United Nations climate panel issued a dire warning that the world faces a now or never choice if it has any hope of limiting warming enough to prevent catastrophic consequences.

That would require limiting temperature increases this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote in its report.

Even if policies to cut carbon already in place internationally by the end of 2020 are fully implemented, the world will still warm by 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the IPCC concluded.

A temperature rise of that magnitude would lead to unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, and widespread water shortages, the report warned.

To limit increases to 1.5 degrees, greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, begin to steadily drop after that and reach net-zero by the middle of the century, according to the IPCC.

But many conservatives, while agreeing a shift to clean energy is inevitable, continue to consider such assessments as unnecessarily alarmist.

Americans continue to be told, We must do something to save the planet this year, or all is lost, as if nothing has ever been done to curb emissions, said Donald Bryson, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions are down substantially over the past 20 years. This brinksmanship creates an all or nothing approach to energy and the environment policy conversations.

As one example, Bryson pointed out that many North Carolinians wont be in a position to buy electric vehicles until prices are competitive with gasoline-powered cars and trucks.

That, and a still-developing network of public chargers, could make meeting Democratic Gov. Roy Coopers goal of 1.25 million registered emission-free free vehicles in the state by the end of this decade a challenge. North Carolinians currently have about 38,000 electric vehicles.

Its been dangerous

Neither Budd nor McCrory list climate change among the issues he says hed address as senator (although Budds campaign website makes a reference to the Green New Deal as an example of how radical progressives are committed to implementing a costly socialist agenda that would break the free market system and eliminate the American Dream).

That doesnt surprise Bob Inglis, a Republican who served four terms in Congress representing the Greenville-Spartanburg area in South Carolina before founding the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University.

Its been dangerous to talk about climate change in a Republican primary, Inglis said. I have some experience with that.

Originally an opponent of policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, Inglis said he had a change of heart after interactions with scientists and encouragement from his five children. While the ranking member of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, Inglis began advocating for a carbon tax that would would charge companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions.

Its a strategy for which he and his organization continue to advocate. But at the time, his idea drew the ire of many Republicans  and a primary opponent who defeated him in 2010. He founded the Energy and Enterprise Initiative two years later and in 2015 was honored with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award.

Rock ... with a red hat

In this years Republican Senate primary in North Carolina, former President Donald Trumps endorsement of Budd could make climate change even more of a non-starter, Inglis suggested. Thats because Trump has been a consistent critic of clean-energy solutions such as wind power.

The river is flowing, but theres a rock in the river with a red hat on it, Inglis said, referring to Trumps trademark Make America Great Again cap. The candidates are sitting in the river, and one of them has the endorsement, and the other is trying to figure out how to get around that rock.

Other Republicans find themselves floating in that same metaphorical river, he added.

It dawned on (House Minority Leader) Kevin McCarthy and others that (Republicans will) never take the House and (McCarthy) will never be speaker by taking a retro position on climate change into the suburbs, Inglis noted. Trump can afford to take a short-term approach to climate change if hes just trying to eke out one more term. But (other Republicans) time window is longer and they know that river is going to flow. Theyre out there sitting in their kayaks trying to figure out how to get around that rock.

Blaring wakeup call

Many Republicans, including Budd, say uncertainty over global oil supplies tied to Russias invasion of Ukraine should be incentive to produce more fuel in the U.S. But some conservatives point out that a shift to clean energy will limit the nations dependence on fossil fuels  and anxiety over risks to oil supplies.

Whats happening overseas should be a loud, blaring wakeup call to the United States, including right here at home in North Carolina: we cannot transition to a clean, independent energy economy soon enough, Tommy Luckadoo, chair of the board of directors for Raleigh-based Conservatives for Clean Energy, wrote in a recent guest column in the Hickory Daily Record. The United States has the battery technology, the manufacturing prowess, and the natural resources  an abundance of sun and wind  to make the transition to clean energy sources happen very quickly.

But that stance remains well outside the GOP mainstream in North Carolina.

According to Polling in 2020 by Conservatives for Clean Energy, the lack of climate urgency voiced by Budd and McCrory dovetails with the views of North Carolina Republicans:

Just 10.4% of respondents who identified as Republicans agreed with the statement that Climate change has been established as a serious problem and immediate action is necessary, while more than one-third said concern about climate change has been greatly exaggerated. Nearly 59% of Democrats and 41.4% of unaffiliated voters agreed that climate change was worthy of immediate action.

Just one-third of Republican respondents said were already experiencing the effects of climate change compared to 78% of Democrats and 63.4% of unaffiliated voters.

About one-third of Republican respondents also agreed climate change is mainly the result of manmade pollution and more than half concluded it was caused mostly by natural factors. Nearly 77% of Democrats and 63.4% of unaffiliated respondents said climate change was mostly human-caused.

More nuanced

While avoiding climate change might be a winning strategy in the GOP primary, it likely will be less of an advantage  and possibly detrimental  in the general election.

In the CCE poll, nearly 63% of unaffiliated respondents said theyd be more likely to vote for a candidate who prefers to diversify the nations energy production over someone committed to oil, gas and coal. Nearly half of Republicans said theyd stick with a candidate who wants to stay with fossil fuels.

Unaffiliated voters make up the largest bloc of registrations in North Carolina.

Addressing climate change is more problematic for Republicans than Democrats, the organization noted among its key findings. However, failure to do so opens the door for Democrats to build their issue coalition with the unaffiliated voters.

Mark Fleming, the president and CEO at Conservatives for Clean Energy, suggested North Carolina voters arent as divided on climate change as they appear.

Conservatives might not be where climate liberals are (in terms of solutions), but its much more nuanced than that, he said.

Conservatives are more likely to support shifting to clean energy if it is presented as being good for the environment and public health generally, not in response to a threat, Fleming explained. Discussing wind and solar power from an economic-opportunity angle also is a plus, he added.

When you start talking about climate change, everybody goes to their corners, Fleming noted.

He pointed to North Carolinas landmark climate legislation that passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2021 as a sign of hope for collaborative action.

The centerpiece of House Bill 951 is a mandate that by 2030, power utilities in the state reduce carbon emissions 70% compared to 2005 levels. A draft of Duke Energys plan for meeting those requirements is due to the N.C. Utilities Commission next month.

It was one of the few areas where both sides came together to accomplish something, Fleming said.

More of that kind of cooperation will be needed in the future, added Inglis, the former congressman.

Climate experts say North Carolina can expect rising seas to put coastal communities increasingly at risk for catastrophic flooding while the whole state faces the likelihood of more-intense storms and damaging wildfires as warming continues.

Youd think that Senate candidates in North Carolina would want to be out front on climate change, Inglis said.

But a generational shift driven by Republicans who will have to live with the effects of climate change is pushing the party to address the issue while sticking to its economic principles, he added.

Theres going to be a real hunger among young Republicans for answers on how we can solve this and how the free enterprise system can help drive that, he concluded.

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

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Before starting the article, I want to call attention to this time of year when Christians, Jews, and Muslims celebrate their religion.

Each celebration brings the faithful together to praise God and to rededicate their lives. Christians started Lent on March 2, Ash Wednesday. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. (Acts 3:19) On April 17, Easter, Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Passover (Pesach) is the Jewish commemoration of the exodus from Egyptian slavery, which is recorded in Exodus 12. This year Passover began on April 15 and will end on April 23. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

The celebration of Ramadan started on April 1 and will end on Sunday evening of May 1. Ramadan is one of the doors of mercy flung wide open as an opportunity for soul cleansing. Ahmed Rehab. And whoever holds firmly to Allah (God) has (indeed) been guided to a straight path. (Quran 3:10)

Followers of the three religions consider Abraham to be the father of their religion. They believe in one God, but they uphold their different tenets of beliefs and practices. These three religions are held by 56.19% of the worlds population. Eighty-five percent of the worlds population identify with a religion. People of faith could be a powerful force by protesting violence and supporting peace.

From news reports, we are aware that people in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, to name a few places, suffer from political, social and religious conflicts. People face individual violent acts in malls, subways, schools, and places of worship in many cities across the world. Instead of solving conflicts with rational, humane exchanges, we know that the usage of powerful weapons is the method of communications for too many people. It is difficult to imagine how the Ukrainians can continue to cope with massive, horrific deaths, and devastation of homes and cities.

They are unable to provide burial spaces for many of their people, and they do not have time to mourn their losses. The overwhelming tragedies are begging people of the world to address these problems.

In addition to the power-induced sadistic acts of hatred, the world continues to suffer from the coronavirus disease pandemic. Scientists are working to control new cases and deaths, but the pandemic remains a serious threat. Studies reveal that 506 million cases of the virus and 6.2 million deaths have been reported worldwide. The United States reports 80.6 million cases.(https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/).

Facing and coping with deaths from violence and illness seem to be an appropriate topic this week. Even though we are not in a war-torn country, we need to express our empathy for all people who face death. Experiencing a personal loss teaches us that the loss of even one person can be devastating and life-changing. Grieving and mourning are important to healing. Grief is what we think and feel when someone we love dies. Mourning is the outward expression of grief which is usually observed by cultural and social beliefs and rituals. Many people prefer to work through grief in a solitary way. Other people need and seek help.

The state of grief usually take a long period of time and many changes. Most people experience loneliness, pain and anxiety. A longing to see, hear and hold the loved one remains a daily expression of grief. Mourning can be very difficult for those who feel the need to isolate their feelings. The outward expressions require perseverance and intentionality. Keeping the lost person in the survivors life enables a person to feel and treasure the memories of the loved one. Sharing the memories with supportive people increases the possibility that the love one remains integrated in ones life in a different, but meaningful, way. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

As a person who has experienced the loss of loved ones, I found it difficult to mourn with friends. Seeking isolation worked only for a brief period. Sharing the grief was my answer. As a minister, I found that it is hard to find supportive words. Each loss required direct attention to the reactions and feelings of the survivors. Prayers for guidance were helpful. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3)

Earl Crows column is published Saturdays in the Winston-Salem Journal. Email him at ecrow1@triad.rr.com.
By Azernews





By Sabina Mammadli

President Ilham Aliyev writes another great history by gathering representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Shusha, Karabakh war veteran and political expert Elshad Hasanov has said.

Speaking to Trend, Hasanov emphasized the symbolic significance of holding an event of this magnitude in Shusha and described the fifth Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha as a great historical event.

Hasanov stressed that the arrival of our compatriots from all over the world to Karabakh, the participation of representatives of the diaspora in the congress in Shusha pleases all Azerbaijanis.

Once again we are proud of our Victory. Today, the attention of the whole world is riveted to Karabakh, to Shusha, the center of our culture, the expert added.

Talking about the victory, he added that Azerbaijan has shown the whole world that it is a strong country and a heroic nation. He noted that the country has liberated its lands with its own forces.

Now the Azerbaijanis of the world have gathered in Karabakh, in Shusha. Azerbaijani President, Victorious Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev gave us this happy opportunity. He is the author of our victories. President Ilham Aliyev has exceptional merit to the state of Azerbaijan. Under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, we defeated the enemy on the battlefield, showed the world the true face of the Armenian diaspora," Hasanov said.

Furthermore, the veteran underlined the important role of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the formation of the Azerbaijani diaspora, as well as the diaspora's development and strengthening in recent years under President Aliyev's strict control, and the challenges it faces.

"The congress in Shusha sets new goals and defines new tasks. We must build our activities more dynamically. We must not allow the Armenian diaspora to raise its head again," Hasanov said.

The fifth Congress of World Azerbaijanis kicked off in the city of Shusha on April 22.

Some 400 diaspora representatives from 65 countries attend the conference.

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.
It was billed as a historical marker unveiling. However, it was really a family reunion with a historical marker unveiling.

The Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission unveiled a marker Saturday morning in front of the former Winston-Salem Rescue Squad building at 2955 N. Liberty St.

Before the program began, as with any reunion, there was a lot of catching up with old friends.

When did you get so old? What happened to your hair? Has it really been 40 years? Where has the time gone?

Remarks were made by Mayor Allen Joines and Winston-Salem City Council Members D.D. Adams, James Taylor, Kevin Mundy, and Barbara Burke.

Joines told the crowd of about 100 former squad members, friends and local officials that the marker would ensure that future generations would remember the rescue squad and its importance to the community.

The building will be torn down later this week and a new city fire station, to replace the fire station beside the squad building, will be built.

The squad disbanded in 2013.

Ed Hampton, a former member, told the crowd about the squads history.

The squad was the first rescue squad formed in North Carolina and the second in the country. The first was in Roanoke, Va. WSRS was founded in 1937 by Roy Kane and local businessman Thurmond Chatham. Kane had helped start the squad in Roanoke.

In 1938 they responded to a drowning on the Yadkin River, car wrecks, and transported patients to polio camps around the area, Hampton said.

They also provided training to local fire departments.

Another important service was providing such medical equipment as oxygen tanks and even an iron lung for people to use.

Hampton spoke about a man who had respiratory problems and needed home oxygen. The squad would provide oxygen tanks to him.

When we would take a big tank to his house, while we set it up, hed smoke two or three cigarettes, Hampton said.

Hampton also told the crowd that the squad was a family. They spent a lot of time together. There were meetings every Monday night, weekly stand-by, where they would respond to emergency medical calls in the community, and public standbys at such events as ballgames, the fair, and car races.

We were a family. We truly loved each other, he said.

Robert Myers, a former chief and president of the board, said that when he joined he planned to stay a couple of years.

I ended up staying 37 years, he said.

Myers told a story about a call at a local hotel. When they arrived, a woman was about to have a baby.

She told us, I just came from the doctor and he said go home, youre not ready. This is as far as I made it, he said. People talk about delivering a baby. I caught a baby.

Jeff Hinshaw, another former member, said that members came from all walks of life.

We had blue collar and white collar people, doctors, machinists, lawyers and police officers, he said.

Continuing the family theme of the program Hinshaw said that he considered several of the members to be father figures to him.

We looked up to our senior members for guidance, he said.

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Truliant Federal Credit Union plans to put the 51,000 square feet of rooftop on its yet-to-open Winston-Salem operations center to productive use.

The company said Thursday it will install an array of 880 solar panels on the three-story former Macys space at Hanes Mall that Truliant purchased in June 2018 and is repurposing to accommodate as many as 550 employees.

The 151,400-square-foot operations center, across Hanes Mall Boulevard from Truliants corporate headquarters, is scheduled to open late this year.

The panels will produce 474,000 kilowatt-hours of power in their first year, the company said. Thats enough to serve the equivalent of more than 44 average American homes.

Truliant said it expects to install the system this summer and activate it in the fall.

Outfitting our Operations Center with solar panels is a meaningful way to move Truliants corporate sustainability efforts forward, company president and CEO Todd Hall said in a statement. As we add facilities to support a growing workforce, we continue to examine ways to limit our carbon footprint and lead in our communities through action.

Any unused power from the system will be transferred to the electric grid, and Duke Energy will credit the company based on the amount.

Clean-energy advocates praised Truliants decision.

This is a great example of the strong corporate commitment weve seen to clean energy here within the state of North Carolina, said Matt Abele, director of marketing and communications at the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association. The financial sector has been quick to realize the benefits of clean energy, in terms of meeting their own (environmental, social and governance) goals, but also as a solid investment opportunity.

Tougher game

The solar project will be the first at the mall, although Kohls installed a slightly larger system at its nearby Hanes Mall Boulevard location.

Rooftop solar panels at Target on University Parkway produce more than 700,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power 56 homes for a year.

A report released in February by the Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group concluded that if all of North Carolinas nearly 3,700 large retail structures were equipped with rooftop solar arrays, they would generate enough energy to power more than 300,000 average American homes a year.

Progress like the Truliant Federal Credit Union solar project demonstrates Winston-Salems potential to grow solar within city lines, said Krista Early of the Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center. Local and state leaders should set their sights on helping solar power thrive in Winston-Salem and throughout North Carolina.

National retail chains that have made rooftop solar a priority in other states havent done so here, said Steve Kalland, executive director of the N.C. Clean Energy Center at N.C. State University.

Rooftop solar is a tougher game in North Carolina than it would be if we had a public policy goal to increase it, he explained.

For the most part, the states goals related to climate change deal broadly with targeted reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and not with potential clean-energy options for reaching them. One exception is the goal to have 1.25 million registered electric vehicles in the state by 2030.

Community-minded organizations and companies are more likely to go solar regardless of a states clean-energy policies, Kalland added.

Charlotte-based Renu Energy Solutions will handle the installation on the Truliant project.

The operations center will be Truliants second recent overhaul of a big-box store. In 2020, the company opened a training facility in a 28,000-square-foot former Office Depot, also on Hanes Mall Boulevard at the Pavilions Shopping Center.

Truliant, with $3.7 billion in assets, serves more than 280,000 members and has more than 30 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

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

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Prosecutors have upgraded the charge a Lincoln man is facing in connection to a fatal shooting in September.

Lendell Harris' attorney, Michael Fitzpatrick, unsuccessfully fought the move at a hearing this week.

"We have trial coming up presumably in the next couple of weeks, and now they want to bring this matter to the jury," he argued.

Fitzpatrick called it a tactic by the state to try to get Harris to enter a plea or to make it easier for it to get a conviction, "despite the fact that there's no real evidence that anything other than a manslaughter occurred."

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Julie Mruz said the state offered Harris a deal: plead to manslaughter and in exchange it would not proceed with a second-degree murder charge.

Harris declined.

At the hearing, Lincoln Police investigator Matt Franken testified that on the morning of Sept. 5, Alonzo Jones left for work at Spreetail, but got there only to be sent back home.

When he got to the apartment complex near 44th and R streets where he lived with the mother of his child, she was in the bathroom getting ready to smoke marijuana with Harris, who also had a relationship with her.

Harris was able to grab his gun (which he has a permit to carry concealed) before Jones grabbed him to take him to the door.

In the living room, Harris fired two shots, killing Jones, Franken said.

Fitzpatrick said at trial he would offer evidence that Jones was trying to take the gun from Harris when the shots were fired.

On the other side, Mruz said second-degree murder by statute involves a killing without premeditation and a lack of sudden quarrel. And, she said, there was no evidence of a physical fight or a violent struggle.

"The defendant is going to claim self-defense in this case, but I think that is a deciding factor for the jury," she said.

At the end of the hearing, Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong found probable cause to allow the charge to go forward.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger

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Zach Hammack K-12 education reporter Zach Hammack, a 2018 UNL graduate, has always called Lincoln home. He previously worked as a copy editor at the Journal Star and was a reporting intern in 2017. Now, he covers students, teachers and schools as the newspapers K-12 reporter. Follow Zach Hammack 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

For as long as officials can remember, the Friday before Easter  better known to Christians as Good Friday  has been a day off for students and teachers at Lincoln Public Schools.

But it's not called Good Friday on the LPS student calendar. That day is technically spring break, and the week that many consider spring break is actually defined as quarter break by school officials.

Confused yet?

Well, the district's calendar committee, which consists of teachers, administrators and community members, is beginning to raise questions about the longstanding practice.

LPS vacation days generally follow national holidays, including Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day. Good Friday, on which Christians commemorate the death of Jesus Christ, is inherently a religious holiday, however. Some on the committee, including board member Annie Mumgaard, questioned whether that sends a message to families that one religious group is being favored over another.

"It's a cultural thing we've always done," Mumgaard said.

John Neal, associate superintendent for governmental affairs and general administration, said there are two major parameters the board looks at in determining vacation days: What constitutes a major holiday and instructional efficiency  essentially, would it make sense to take the day off if teachers and students are going to take it off anyway?

The longstanding assumption has been that Good Friday would be a low-attendance day, but the district doesn't have any data to prove that, Neal said. It's been a vacation day going back as far as available records go.

Some years ago, the calendar committee looked at the major holidays of religions represented at LPS, such as the Jewish feast Yom Kippur, Mumgaard said. What it found was that the absentee rate wasn't higher than usual on those days.

Committee members discussed possibly substituting Good Friday with another holiday, such as Arbor Day, which falls on the last Friday in April and has Nebraska ties.

Because Easter moves on the calendar each year, the date for Good Friday can vary widely. That can cause instructional issues by falling too close to other scheduled vacation days, such as quarter break, according to Lincoln Education Association President Deb Rasmussen, who is on the calendar committee.

The committee met with the LPS Scholar Equity Cadre, which brought the Good Friday question forward. Teachers and parents were also surveyed but the results were split, Mumgaard said.

She would like the committee to rethink the survey and involve a broader swath of teachers and parents. Mumgaard said the fact that the committee is having the discussion doesn't mean the Good Friday practice shouldn't continue but said the question should be asked from an instructional and equity point of view.

"When you start looking at equity, you have to make hard decisions," she said. "If we didn't have that Friday off, it would be a cultural change."

Any change, however, would likely have to wait until at least the 2025-26 school year. The next two school calendars are already set. And under the proposal for the 2024-25 school year, which would run from Aug. 12 to May 22, April 18  Good Friday  is designated as spring break.

Custodian named finalist

Laurie Yard, a custodian at Weeping Water Public Schools, was named one of 12 national finalists in the Custodians are Key Campaign.

Finalists receive $500, with a chance to win $15,000  $10,000 of which goes to the winner's school. The winner of the contest will be announced in May. Tennant Co., which manufactures cleaning equipment, narrowed finalists from nearly 1,000 nominations from across the U.S. and Canada.

Yard was noted for creating relationships with students, who often keep in contact with her long after they graduate and affectionately call her "Grandma." She also created a program that rewards second graders for being good citizens.

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS

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During a typical farmers market season, all types of Lincoln residents and businesses come together.

Bands trill their tunes, artists display their designs, and children get sticky fingers from sweet treats. And that's not to mention all of the fresh produce changing hands.

Lincoln markets Sundays  Sunday Farmers Market at College View, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., opening Sunday. Saturdays  Haymarket Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-noon, opening May 7. Wednesdays  Denton Farmers Market, 4-7 p.m., opening May 11. Alternating Thursdays  Fallbrook Farmers Market, 4-7 p.m., opening June 9.

For the past two years, however, the spaces that typically occupy the community markets have been comparatively quiet. Some werent active at all.

But those toned-down market seasons have sparked excitement in vendors and residents for this year, said Jeff Cunningham, executive director of the Haymarket Farmers Market.

I think this is going to be the most normal season weve had since 2019, Cunningham said. Im excited to have everybody back and enjoying themselves.

Cunningham said the market lost several vendors during the pandemic, but many are returning this season and customers will be able to enjoy a larger roster of growers and businesses.

The Haymarket Farmers Market  Lincolns oldest and largest market  is held every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon starting May 7 and wrapping up Oct. 15.

The Sunday Farmers Market at College View opens this weekend. It runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday through Oct. 30. Organizers are anticipating a successful season, with special activities planned for opening day.

Local radio station KZUM will host live music and Sesame Streets Cookie Monster will make an appearance to hand out Open Harvest Bakery treats.

Opening day feels like a joyful return for Margaret Dentlinger, vice president of the market's board of directors.

She said this year's market will run at full capacity, and she's looking forward to the vibe that a lively market brings.

We have lots of interaction with the community to help entertain the patrons and keep them at the market a little longer, Dentlinger said.

One of College Views vendors, Lainey Johnson of Bright Hope Family Farm, is hoping to catch the community spirit again this year. One of her favorite aspects of market season is getting to interact with customers.

It's always great to be able to talk with your customer at the farmers market, because you don't get that shopping in a lot of other places, Johnson said.

Johnson said shes also looking forward to showcasing her expanded business, which offers more flowers and bouquets.

The Thursday Farmers Market in Fallbrook still has more than a month before its season begins, with opening day set for June 9 and markets continuing on alternating weeks from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. through Oct. 13.

Director Kelsie Jensen said the Fallbrook market is looking forward to putting on all the events it wasn't able to schedule the last two years.

Its our first year back in action, Jensen said. We have a lot of new vendors, and its awesome to see people get involved.

Just outside the city, residents of Denton can grab some fresh produce and share in the fun of a market this season.

The Denton Farmers Market, organized by Denton General Store owner Tina Jones, will host more than 20 vendors.

Jones said after sitting in on village board meetings, she began to hear a common theme among locals in the town southwest of Lincoln.

It just became a community push to get something going, Jones said.

So Jones partnered with Anchor Meadow Farm to create Dentons own market, which will kick off May 11 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and run every Wednesday through Aug. 31.

All of the market directors said they share an appreciation for the community aspect a farmers market can bring.

Dentlinger can't wait to be back in the middle of crowds on produce runs and listening to local bands.

"I do miss that community spirit that we have," she said. "I'm really looking forward to that."

Reach the writer at 402-473-7241 or jthompson@journalstar.com

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Only hours after many residents of Cambridge returned to their homes Saturday, they were told to leave once again as fire crews from across the region, with assistance from the Nebraska National Guard, worked to contain a wildfire whipped by howling winds.

Residents of Cambridge, Bartley, Indianola and Wilsonville, communities in Furnas and Red Willow counties, were first told to evacuate Friday evening after the fire spread north and eventually west over drought-stricken areas.

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, which is coordinating the state's response, reported one person had died and at least three firefighters had suffered injuries battling fires.

Although no details are available, it's believed the person died during evacuation efforts in Cambridge, a community of about 1,000 people in southwest Nebraska.

Evacuation orders were lifted for all towns at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. However, by 1:15 p.m., officials said the fire flared up again south of Cambridge and residents were told to be on standby for the evacuation order to be reinstated. They were told to leave a short time later.

Some roads are closed because of the fire, and where they are open, drivers are urged to use caution because of decreased visibility from smoke and blowing dust.

Anyone who is not a first responder is asked to stay away from the area.

The fire has blazed across an estimated 47,000 acres as of Saturday morning, starting near the Kansas state line and extending north to near the Harry Strunk Lake dam, the Valley Voice newspaper reported.

Fire departments from across the region are fighting the fire with assistance from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, which called in Nebraska National Guard units, including a hand crew, two Blackhawk helicopters, one Lakota helicopter and several ground support trucks.

Residents of surrounding communities  including people from Arapahoe, whose homes were threatened in a wildfire earlier this month  stepped in to provide food and shelter for those evacuating their homes.

Arapahoe Public Schools served as one location where evacuees were provided with food, water and cots to stay the night. Others headed west toward McCook, where facilities were set up in churches and gyms.

The evacuation orders were not limited to the fire in southwest Nebraska. Macy, in northeast Nebraska, was evacuated because of a fire burning in that area.

Many of those who evacuated were able to take only valuables as they fled their homes.

Steve Ervin, a longtime Cambridge resident, grabbed photos, prescriptions and a few antiques and other sentimental items.

Ervin evacuated his home west of Cambridge at about 6:15 p.m. Friday and headed to stay with his son and daughter-in-law.

He feared it would be the last time he would see his house, which sits across from a field enrolled in a federal land conservation program.

He returned home Saturday morning, however, to find his house still standing.

Emotions were high," Ervin told the Journal Star in a Facebook message. "You just kept wondering, Do we have a home? If not, how do you start over at 70 years old?"

The fire that burned Friday night was stopped just 20 feet from Ervin's house, but consumed a shed, vehicle and a shelter belt.

Losses, yes, we had losses of mainly woodworking tools," he said. "But we have a house to go back to. God is good.

Reach the writer at 402-473-2657 or jebbers@journalstar.com

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Three candidates are running to replace Sen. Adam Morfeld representing north-central Lincoln in the Legislature.

Morfeld, who was first elected to represent District 46 in 2014 and won reelection unopposed in 2018, will leave the Legislature because of term limits at the end of the year.

James Michael Bowers, Danielle Conrad and James Herrold are running to represent the district encompassing parts of north-central and northeast Lincoln when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Following the 2021 redistricting process, District 46 includes areas east of Interstate 180 and south of I-80, with Cornhusker Highway cutting across the district as it stretches all the way to 84th Street.

The district includes the University of Nebraska-Lincolns City and East campuses and the North Bottoms, Belmont and Havelock neighborhoods.

Voters will send two of the three candidates forward to the November general election.

James Michael Bowers

Bowers said his experiences on the Lincoln City Council and in Lincoln Public Schools have provided stark examples of how policy affects the lives of everyday Nebraskans.

Ive seen how bad policy can harm families, and how good policy can lift families out of poverty, protect children and create a more stable community, Bowers said.

Elected to the City Council in 2019, Bowers, a school social worker and therapist, said his work on the front lines has given him perspective to advocate for District 46 in the Legislature.

A 31-year-old registered Democrat, Bowers said he served the city during the coronavirus pandemic and racial justice protests, has seen the impact COVID-19 has had on schools, and survived a recall attempt.

I have stories and experiences I can draw on that touch on a lot of the work that the Legislature does, he said. I think people are genuinely surprised at what some of our residents in Nebraska go through.

If elected, Bowers said his focus in the Legislature would be improving access to health care. In the coming years, Lincoln will have more senior-aged residents than LPS students, which will require expanded capacity and resources.

Bowers said lawmakers should also increase funding for local health departments across the state, expand mental health resources in schools and target any future tax relief to help working families.

Voters in the district have told him they feel left behind in the tax cuts enacted by the Legislature, Bowers said.

We need to make sure when tax relief happens, it has to impact working families, he said.

Danielle Conrad

Danielle Conrad served two terms as District 46s state senator before term limits forced her out in 2015.

She said her experience, history of working to build consensus, and understanding of the legislative rules and process would make her a day one leader for both the district and the state as she seeks to return for a third term.

It takes a considerable amount of time to get up to speed and really forge those relationships that are requisite for sound policy-making and to have challenging debates and find common-ground solutions, Conrad said.

The former executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska and mother of two said she decided to jump into the race after watching the gubernatorial race play out this year.

I think that, in many ways, its illustrative of politics at its worst and what people are so frustrated about, she said. And I know having a strong, independent, experienced Legislature can check the worst abuses of a governors agenda.

Conrad, a 44-year-old registered Democrat, said she will focus on kitchen table issues such as paid family and medical leave, expanded child care options, and improving the quality of public education preschool through college.

She said economic development should be spurred by expanding the workforce and affordable housing, and ensuring infrastructure developments are spread equitably across urban and rural areas.

Im clear-eyed about the challenges of our public life, but Im always also optimistic, Conrad said. Each of us has a part to play.

James Herrold

James Herrold said he wants to give District 46 a real choice in this election.

The real estate agent and father of two said he has contrasting ideas from Conrad and Bowers and said there are more limited government-minded voters in the district than many believe.

I dont think District 46 has had a candidate that is a lower-tax, smaller-government, free-market person running in several election cycles, he said. And I think I have a different vision than other candidates.

Herrold, 36, who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 2019, said his top priority would be cutting taxes and reforming the states tax structure and eliminating unnecessary occupational licensing requirements in Nebraska.

Having grown up on a farm in Seward County, Herrold said he understands the role agriculture plays in the states economies, as well as the pressure property taxes have on producers.

A Libertarian, Herrold said he also understands the needs of business in urban areas of the state, and believes his voice can help bridge the urban-rural divide in the Legislature.

Herrold said he also believes the Legislature should do more to bolster the personal liberties we saw eroded the last couple of years, by curtailing the power of health directors and preventing vaccines from being mandated.

I think people see the government overreach of the last couple years and they want someone whos going to fight for their personal liberties, he said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Evacuation orders were issued for several communities in southwest Nebraska on Friday as wildfires pushed by strong winds threatened largely rural areas hit hard this spring by drought.

At 6:30 p.m., the Furnas County Sheriff's Office asked residents of Cambridge to evacuate. The community of nearly 1,000 people is located 15 minutes west of Arapahoe, where wildfires earlier this month burned nearly 35,000 acres.

At 7:15 p.m., evacuation orders were expanded to the west of Cambridge to include the communities of Bartley and Indianola.

There were no immediate reports Friday of homes or businesses destroyed, but radar returns shared by the National Weather Service and photos from the Nebraska State Patrol showed the fire fueled by high winds.

Roads in the area, including U.S. 6 between Cambridge and Indianola, are closed due to the fires and reduced visibilities caused by smoke and blowing dust.

The Nebraska State Patrol asked anyone who was not a first responder to stay away from those areas.

Much of central and western Nebraska is in a high wind warning, with wind gusts of over 50 mph expected across a wide area through the overnight hours.

Earlier on Friday, an evacuation was ordered for parts of Benkelman in extreme southwest Nebraska. The order was lifted Friday evening.

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Each year the Journal Star joins with partners to present the Inspire Awards, recognizing women who have excelled in their professional lives and emerged as leaders and role models in the Lincoln community.

 Executive Director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs since 1995;

 2021 Inspire Award for Excellence in Government Achievement;

 2021 Nominee for Woman of the Year, Inspire Award.

Higher Education:

 Doane University;

 Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Human Relations;

 Master of Arts in Management with emphasis in leadership.

Memberships and Community Service

 Enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska;

 Member of the Episcopal Church;

 Survivor Descendant of the Genoa Indian School;

 Co-chair of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project;

 Chair of the Nebraska U.S. Civil Rights Advisory;

 Omaha Mayors Native American Advisory;

 Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Hospital Renovation Project.

Awards

 Chancellors Fulfilling the Dream Award from the University of Nebraska, 2022;

 Laurie Smith Camp Integrity in Service Award, 2021;

 Sower Award, 2012;

 Nebraska Land Foundation, Distinguished Nebraskan, 2017.

Current Board and Advisory Service

 The Joslyn Art Museum;

 National Rails to Trails Advisory Board;

 MONA Bison Society;

 CEDARS Home for Kids;

 University of Nebraska Presidents Advisory Council;

 Northern Cheyenne Healing Trail Advisory.

Past Board Service

 United Way;

 Doane University Board of Trustees, 2012-2021;

 Lewis and Clark Commission Board, 2000-2008;

 Nebraska 150 Commission;

 President of the Governors Interstate Indian Council;

 UNMC Chancellors Community Advisory Board.

Who has inspired you?

First and foremost, my family is always the overarching inspiration in my life. In particular, I draw inspiration from the strong matriarchs in my family such as my mother, grandmother, sisters and now my two daughters. I also draw inspiration from my grandchildren  the next generation of strong Native leaders. Beyond my family, I look to other strong leaders such as Dr. Susan La Flesche, Chief Standing Bear, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Lela Shanks and Leola Bullock.

What book or podcast is currently inspiring you?

The works by Louise Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and an author of novels, poetry and children's books, always resonate with me as a Native woman. Im currently enjoying her most recent novel, The Sentence, featuring Native American characters and settings that bring Native issues into a modern and relatable context. I have also been turning to Joy Harjos anthology of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, in When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through. The broad range of emotions and experiences is particularly inspiring.

The Inspire Womens Leadership platform has launched Inspire Girls. What advice would you give them?

There are many lessons that I have learned through my career and personal life. What I try to emphasize to younger generations is that it is OK to ask for help and to look to others for guidance and support. There are so many role models and leaders, both Native and non-Native, who came before me that I learned from. What initially surprised me is that, in general, people want to help you and they want to give back. Take those opportunities to make connections, make new friends, think outside the box and be a good listener. Listening to what motivates others and what theyre passionate about allows you to find commonalities and allies. Then, think about how you can pay it forward to the next generation of young women to continue the cycle of support and encouragement.

How can we better inspire, include and invest in members of the community?

One of the biggest impediments to inclusion is not recognizing that the first step is inviting a wide array of community members to the table. As Native people, we are often an invisible people and as such, we are often left out of the room and not invited to the table. We need a vested stake in issues that affect our community and our tribal members. I challenge our community leaders to actively think about how you can invest in ALL members of the community, through listening and inclusion.

What does leadership mean to you?

As a leader, you inspire confidence in people who believe that you will get them to the finish line. Leadership is both innate and learned. My grandfather instilled in me the belief that I was a leader. I developed that belief by seeking opportunities like joining the debate and forensics teams, leadership education and building relationships with people who I could learn from. Leadership is an ever-evolving skill and calling that changes as you meet new people, make new goals and advocate for those most in need.

What is your favorite inspirational quote or motto?

It is difficult to pick my favorite inspirational quote, as I often turn to a specific quote depending on the situation that I find myself in. But over the years, a few quotes consistently come to mind when I find myself in a difficult situation or in need of encouragement:

Dr. Susan La Flesche: If I have to do it alone, I will.

Chief Standing Bear: I am a man. The same God made us both.

Maya Angelou: I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

The common thread between these quotes is that you have to believe in yourself, we are all human beings, and your actions and how you treat others will have long-lasting impacts.

How would you describe a great day?

For me, a great day usually includes a walk. Walking has been a part of my life since I was a child. It is a time to be outdoors with nature, to think clearly without distractions, to give thanks, to appreciate what we have and see things in a new light. While Im on my walks, I remind myself that every day we have an opportunity to start fresh. I also enjoy looking at the trees. They remind me that theyve been here so long, and through them I feel a connection to my ancestors.

What is the best advice you ever received?

The best professional advice I received was from my dear friend and mentor, Chuck Trimble, who said: Find something meaningful to do and do it well. Dont try to do everything. Focus on a specific goal and accomplish that, and things will grow. I have found that advice to be very true. For example, one of my goals was to share the Chief Standing Bear story. I wanted to lift up positive, truthful inspiring role models for our people and for non-Natives to learn about the positive contribution that Chief Standing Bear had on American history. We started out with our annual Standing Bear breakfast. The Standing Bear breakfast grew bigger and bigger, and expanded into other exciting projects and opportunities. Others learned about Chief Standing Bear, connected with the story and joined in, enjoyed it and were inspired by it.

What is the biggest adversity or challenge youve faced in your life  professionally or personally? How did you overcome it?

Native people are often thought about in the past tense or simply not thought about at all. The lack of representation and information about Native people has perpetuated damaging myths and stereotypes. As a Native woman, I personally know how that feels, and through my professional and personal life I strive to show people that Native people still exist and that we are worthy of respect. Its also very important to me to say that to be successful, we dont have to give up who we are. We are not willing to give up our sovereign identity as the First Peoples of America. Fighting for your identity, fighting for your remains, for your true story to be told, for your pride and self-respect and for your children is a sacred responsibility. This takes a lot out of you, but it is so important to carry the pain forward and to open the book up and tell the truth. In the end, thats what will set you free and thats what will heal America. Telling the whole truth.

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Forrest Cuch, an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah and former head of Indian Affairs for the State of Utah, will share his presentation A Native Way of Giving" Thursday, April 28, at 7 p.m. in Mayflower Hall at First-Plymouth Church, 2000 D St. Freewill donations will be collected at the door.

Cuch will make the case that contemporary Christians can, and should, learn a lot from Native Ways of Giving, the title of his recently published book. Despite a grim history of violence, seizure of lands and cultural destruction, often at the hands of Christians themselves, says Cuch.

Native communities have gifts to offer that are desperately needed, writes Cuch and his co-author, Episcopal priest Michael Carney. The life-giving cycle of gratitude, generosity and abundance stands in stark contrast to the arrogance, greed and destruction that are so widespread in modern-day life.

Such a spirit of abundance and generosity serve as antidotes to zero-sum beliefs, which have wrought unprecedented destruction to Gods creation, wealth gaps and political division in our national politics, Cuch says.

The lecture is free and open to the community to attend.

For more information, visit firstplymouth.org.

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By Trend





Turkic-speaking countries will be able to address future challenges and dangers only jointly, Aibek Osmonov, Kyrgyz MP, chairman of the commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries (TurkPA) on social, cultural and humanitarian issues, said, Trend reports.

Osmonov made the remark at the commissions ninth meeting held on April 22 in Azerbaijani parliament in Baku.

According to him, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected the well-being of the population of all countries.

"This is a problem for the whole world. We must work together to solve social and humanitarian issues and to improve the well-being of the population of our countries. I hope that our relations will develop in an upward direction," added the MP.
Youve no doubt heard the saying, They may talk the talk, but they dont walk the walk.

Well, theres just something about the people of Nebraska, especially those who grew up in smaller communities  they definitely walk the talk when it comes to being Nebraska Nice. Alisha Hanshaw grew up in Gothenburg and Joshua Hanshaw grew up in Beatrice, and as you get to know them in this article, I think youll agree with me, they ARE Nebraska Nice.

When we met, they both talked about their small-town values. In fact, Alisha commented that Lincoln is a bunch of small-town people living in a city. Josh quickly added that the people of Lincoln are very generous. Then he went on to note, Theres more opportunity here in Lincoln than people realize until they actually live here.

The two met in college at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. And it was at UNK that their life together began, a life that has blessed them with a little son and boy and girl twins. After a period in Kansas, they moved to Lincoln where Alisha accepted the position as assistant dean of the UNL Office of Graduate Studies and Josh became CEO of Habitat for Humanity. Like many couples, they plugged into our community and really discovered that Lincoln and Nebraska are almost like a hidden treasure.

Alisha commented on how warm and accepting the people of Lincoln are. Josh mirrored that comment and noted that its easy to back up the Chamber of Commerce claims you hear about Lincoln. In fact, as he was quick to point out, Habitat for Humanity, since 1988 with donations and volunteer hours from many Lincoln residents, has helped nearly 200 families acquire new or refurbished homes.

Alisha added how welcoming Lincoln is to the thousands of international graduate students who populate the UNL campus each year. We have many international students in engineering, education, agriculture, journalism and business, she noted. They add a wonderful flavor to the campus.

The two of them participated in the Leadership Lincoln Executive Series just a couple of years ago, and both expressed how it helped them gain a deeper appreciation for Lincoln.

You may think you know Lincoln, noted Josh, but through the Leadership Lincoln program, you really gain a much deeper understanding. Alisha added that as they participated in the monthly class that looked at Lincoln through some data and maps, I noticed that there are little pods of people that make up Lincoln, but somehow were all connected.

People in Lincoln and across Nebraska are always engaged in multiple ways. Alisha, for example, is involved in the Lincoln Public Schools Multicultural Diversity and Equity Cadre, she actively helps the international students enrolled in one of UNLs graduate programs, and, of course, shes very busy with their children.

Joshua is on the Give Nebraska Board, is involved in Lincolns affordable housing initiative, a member of Rotary 14 and does his fair share with their children. They split responsibilities with their children as parents who are no longer married. And, it was heartwarming to hear them talk and express how they still have a very close relationship following Joshs realization that he was gay.

It's always interesting to hear what people say when theyre asked what they would do as mayor. Both Alisha and Josh very quickly voiced support of current Mayor Leirion Gaylor-Baird, and then added that neither would want to hold that job. They did voice their support for the Climate Action Plan and affordable housing efforts. Both also said they appreciate elected officials who sacrifice to administer and manage the city, and that they hope Lincoln will seek to retain its small town Nebraska Nice charm as it grows.

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CALEDONIA  A Chicago man has been charged in connection with sexual assaults that occurred in 2015.

Devonja Rogers, 33, has been charged with two felony counts of second- degree sexual assault.

According to a criminal complaint:

On Jan. 9, 2015, an officer was sent to a residence on the 400 block of Three Mile Road for a sexual assault.

Upon arrival, the officer made contact with a woman who said she met the suspect, later identified as Rogers, on the Plenty of Fish dating site. The two had been talking for around a month before meeting. He said he was from Chicago, and on Jan. 4 the two met to have dinner at Applebees. They went to her apartment instead and watched TV. There, he allegedly groped her and sexually assaulted her twice.

She provided officers text conversation between the two that happened the following day. When she confronted Rogers about sexually assaulting her, he said you right I apologize for hurting you and not stopping when I should have I wont bother you again. Evidentiary swabs were taken and sent to the State Crime Lab for DNA testing.

On Feb. 18, 2022, a detective was advised about a potential hit from the DNA evidence taken from the 2015 sexual assault. It came back to Rogers, and the detective showed photos of Rogers to the woman who was sexually assaulted. She said she believed Rogers to be the man who she met from Plenty of Fish.

Rogers was given a $10,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Thursday. A preliminary hearing is on April 27 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.
BURLINGTON  A Delavan man has been accused of kicking a womans front door in and throwing a metal chair at her.

Gilbert Gonzalez, 44, has been charged with misdemeanor counts of battery, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.

According to a criminal complaint:

On Friday, an officer met with a woman who said she was assaulted by Gonzalez at her residence on South Perkins Boulevard in Burlington.

She said that Gonzalez came over that day and was complaining about his girlfriend. He was asked to leave, and then later that evening he came back, kicked her front door in and threw a metal chair at her chest. She told him to leave again, but he then allegedly picked her up and threw her on the ground. He knocked items off her vanity and broke other items.

He chased her around the house and broke a pantry door off its hinges. He eventually left. She reportedly had a red mark across her chest, multiple scratch marks, bruises on her legs and black and blue bruises on her arm.

Gonzalez was given a $750 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Friday. A status conference is on June 14 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.
Republicans could build on their decade-long hold over the Wisconsin Legislature under the states new 10-year political maps, though securing a veto-proof majority in both chambers may still be a stretch.

In a 4-3 decision on April 15, the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted legislative boundaries drawn by state Republicans, reversing the courts previous decision after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Those maps would have maintained, but reduced, GOP majorities in the Legislature.

A split ruling by the states high court last year established that the states next maps would need to be drawn with minimal changes to previous boundaries, which have afforded Republicans nearly unbreakable majorities in both chambers.

While some legislative districts become more competitive under the GOP-drawn maps, others see significant increases in their overall partisan lean, a shift that further insulates lawmakers from general election voters and can lead to more extremist candidates who appeal more to the fringe members of their base.

I think the maps as they currently exist will continue, in all likelihood, to promote further partisanship and polarization well into the next decade here in Wisconsin, said UW-La Crosse political science assistant professor Anthony Chergosky.

John Johnson, research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette Law School, said an analysis of the new maps  using the results of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and the 2018 gubernatorial election as a baseline  found that if half of voters statewide went for Democrats and the other half went for Republicans, Democratic candidates could expect to win just 36 of the Assemblys 99 seats and 10 of the Senates 33 seats.

Republicans would need a 7.2-point statewide advantage, or 53.6% of the vote, in order to have a chance of securing a two-thirds supermajority in the Assembly, Johnson added.

It would be a heavy lift, Johnson said. It would be the best sort of Republican year in quite some time, but its certainly also within reach. So its within reach, but youd have to stretch for it.

These maps do not make a Republican supermajority inevitable, but they make it more likely than even in 2020, Johnson added.

For Democratic candidates, the party would have to secure a 12.4-point statewide victory, or 56.2% of the vote, to have a shot at winning the 50 Assembly seats needed to hold a simple majority in the chamber, Johnson said. Democrats would need a 10.6-point statewide victory to secure a majority in the Senate.

Close calls

Such margins would be challenging for either party in Wisconsin, which is notorious for its razor-thin statewide elections. President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state by about 21,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. In 2016, Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by about 1 point, or fewer than 23,000 votes, and in 2018 Evers defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker by about 1 point, or fewer than 30,000 votes.

An analysis of the Legislatures maps by PlanScore, a program that predicts precinct-level votes for districts based on past election results and U.S. Census data led by the Campaign Legal Center, a national nonprofit that advocates for nonpartisan maps, found that, under a 48% Democratic versus 52% Republican vote share in a statewide election, Republicans would end up holding 66% of the states Assembly seats and 64% of the seats in the Senate.

These are just very tough maps for the Democrats, theres no two ways about it, said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of the University of Virginia Center for Politics Sabatos Crystal Ball.

A two-thirds majority in both chambers would give state Republicans enough votes to successfully overturn a governors veto  a prospect that would significantly limit Evers ability to block conservative policies. During his first three years in office, Evers has issued more than 120 vetoes  the most in modern history, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau  to strike down bills such as those aimed at creating additional legislative oversight for schools, limiting unemployment benefits and overhauling elections.

Supermajorities in both chambers become less significant to the party if a Republican defeats Evers this fall and conservatives take back control of all of state government.

Partisan districts

Among the 10 most competitive districts  seven in the Assembly and three in the Senate  eight will lean Republican and two will lean Democratic under the Legislatures maps. Four of those 10 seats are currently held by Democrats.

Whats more, the sitting incumbent in half of those 10 districts is not seeking reelection this fall. All told, 23 members of the Assembly and six state senators will be retiring or seeking other elected office later this year.

But while some districts maintain narrow margins or even grow more competitive under the new maps, nine in the Assembly and one in the Senate actually see their partisan lean increase into double-digit margins, making those seats far less competitive in general elections.

Candidates running for those seats representing uncompetitive districts end up aligning more with primary election voters, who tend to hold more extreme positions and a more negative view of the opposing party, Chergosky said.

There is both an ideological and a stylistic component to this lack of competition in general elections, Chergosky said. It pushes candidates to be more ideologically extreme and it rewards candidates who are more hostile in their rhetoric and their presentation of self toward the other party.

Chergosky and Matthew Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said fewer competitive districts may strengthen Republicans hold on the Legislature, but the rise of extremist candidates could also spell out challenges in future statewide elections.

Strategists have already pointed to the gubernatorial campaign launched earlier this year by Rep. Timothy Ramthun, who has called for the legally impossible task of decertifying the 2020 election, as potentially creating challenges for current frontrunner and former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is seeking to unseat Evers this fall.

While primary elections are often decided by the partys base, statewide candidates tend to shift back toward the more moderate ideals of general election voters in order to win in November. Moving too far toward the campaign talking points that invigorate primary voters could make that pivot challenging in the short time between the August primary and November election.

This hyper partisanship on the right, thats fostered by gerrymandering, may be a poison pill for Republicans in statewide elections, Rothschild said.

Final maps?

After initially selecting legislative maps drawn by Evers, the Wisconsin Supreme Court earlier this month reversed course and adopted boundaries drawn by state Republicans. The decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Democratic governors maps and kicked the matter back to the states highest court in March.

Atiba Ellis, professor of law at Marquette Law School, said its a near certainty that the Legislatures maps will remain in place for the upcoming Aug. 9 primary and Nov. 8 election.

Ellis said its possible, if not likely, that legal challenges are eventually filed against the state Supreme Courts April 15 decision, but any potential changes to the states legislative boundaries would almost certainly occur later.

Key questions over the districts could likely focus on whether the Legislatures maps conform to the Voting Rights Act, a topic that became the focal point of discussion surrounding the governors proposal. Evers maps increased the number of Black majority Assembly districts from six to seven, while Republican-drawn maps reduce the number of Black majority districts to five.

Given that those questions could arguably be seen as not adequately addressed based on the record before the state Supreme Court, it would seem likely that interested parties might want to sue in federal court, Ellis said.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not take up the state courts adoption of Evers congressional maps, leaving those boundaries in place. Those maps increase the number of competitive congressional seats from one to two  the 1st and 3rd. Five of the states eight congressional districts are currently held by Republicans.

The Legislature must redraw political lines every decade based on the latest population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2011, Republicans, working in secretive conditions, drew maps that packed Democratic voters into lopsided districts and spread out rural and suburban Republicans into districts with solid, but narrower, majorities. The maps allowed the GOP to hold more than 60% of legislative seats, even when Democrats won all statewide elections in 2018.

A Wisconsin State Journal analysis of Wisconsins 2020 legislative races showed that Democratic candidates received 46% of total votes cast in state Assembly races, but ended up with only 38 of 99 seats after winning two new districts. In state Senate races, Democratic candidates secured about 47% of total votes, but only picked up 38% of the seats on the ballot and controlled only 12 of 33 seats.

State Journal reporter Alex Shur contributed to this report.

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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.

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Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low around 75F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low around 75F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Top DPRK leader exchanges letters with S. Korean president

Xinhua) 16:41, April 22, 2022

PYONGYANG, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un exchanged personal letters with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.

The report said Kim sent his reply letter on Thursday after receiving a personal letter from Moon on Wednesday, and the two leaders exchanged best regards in the letters.

Moon said in his letter that he is willing to make the north-south joint declarations the foundation for the reunification even after his retirement, according to the KCNA.

In his reply, Kim appreciated the pains and efforts taken by Moon for the great cause of the nation until the last days of his term of office, and said the inter-Korean relations would improve and develop as desired and anticipated by the nation if both countries make tireless efforts with hope.

The exchange of the personal letters between the two leaders "is an expression of their deep trust," the report added.

Kim and Moon met three times in 2018 in a bid to improve bilateral ties. On Sept. 19 that year, the two leaders signed an agreement in Pyongyang which calls for a military agreement, civilian exchanges and cooperation in many areas.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
By Azernews





By Vugar Khalilov

The diaspora plays a significant role in the activities of modern states and international organizations.

In the face of rapid changes and diversification in the national ethnocultural and socio-cultural milieu, the diaspora strives to maintain its identity. This is demonstrated not only through the formation of global diaspora groups but also through their participation in international organizations.

Under the presidential decree signed on July 5, 2002, the State Committee for Work with Azerbaijanis living abroad was established and the committee began working with compatriots around the world as a state body.

The formation of the state committee has allowed crucial efforts to be taken to address current issues in this field and to focus the Azerbaijani Diaspora's actions on achieving the state's national objectives.

The state committee's major goal is to communicate Azerbaijan's realities to the rest of the world, to bring Azerbaijanis from all over the world closer together, and to win the information war.

Diaspora during 44-day war

The State Committee for Work with the Diaspora took an active part in conveying Azerbaijans just position to the world by holding rallies and actions uniting Azerbaijanis in many countries around the world during the 44-day war in 2020.

The committee has also done very important work in conveying the historical facts of the Second Karabakh War to the world community and the media.

The fact that congresses were held on March 16, 2006, July 5-6, 2011, and June 3-4, 2016, shows that diaspora development has long been a strategic goal of the state.

Looking back, the development path of Azerbaijani diaspora organizations should be applauded, and its critical role in defending national interests should be stressed.

Azerbaijanis worldwide have become more organized as a result of the state committee's improved activities, the development and implementation of a new "Strategic Road Map" adopted in 2018, and the application and development of information and communication technologies in the Diaspora.

The state committee plays a significant role in coordinating the activities of compatriots and organizations operating abroad, as well as in bringing the concept of national solidarity and unity to fruition.

The formation of 14 Coordinating Councils covering 31 countries and the establishment of 18 Azerbaijani Houses in 12 countries (Tallinn, Warsaw, Budapest, Brussels, Salzburg, Barcelona, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Kyiv, Odessa, Ankara, Igdir, Cairo, Thessaloniki, Tbilisi, Marneuli, and Gardabani) gave the impetus to unite compatriots around a common idea. This unity and solidarity were on display during Azerbaijan's 44-day war with Armenia, which ended with a historic victory.

During the 44-day war against Armenia's aggression and occupation policy, the diaspora held over 200 rallies in over 30 countries, with over 25,000 compatriots attending.

The statements and appeals of about 300 diaspora organizations operating in more than 50 countries to heads of state and government, members of parliament, and international organizations from various countries demonstrated to the entire world the political will and determination of the Azerbaijani people.

There are already approximately 500 diaspora organizations worldwide. The State Committee for Work with the Diaspora has been successful in adapting its activities to the new realities that Azerbaijan has created in the region following the 44-day war in 2020.

Shusha Congress

On April 22-23, the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis is being held in Shusha. The gathering of world Azerbaijanis in Shusha has a great historical, political and spiritual significance.

The decision to hold the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, coincides with a period of large-scale reconstruction in the liberated lands, and it has historical and symbolic importance. In this sense, the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis which is being held in Shusha will go down in history as the Victory Congress.

If previous congresses primarily focused on ending Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the fifth congress in Shusha will outline new goals for Azerbaijanis worldwide for the coming years.

The new objectives will center on expanding the information war by informing the world about Armenia's genocides and atrocities against innocent Azerbaijanis.

The congress will address issues such as the challenges confronting the Azerbaijani Diaspora in the post-war period, as well as its contributions to the restoration and reconstruction of Karabakh.

The Shusha-hosted event also has moral, historical and political significance.

Around 400 diaspora representatives from 65 countries are attending the congress, which allows participants to meet their compatriots working in other countries.

This is the first large gathering of the Azerbaijani Diaspora since the liberation of Karabakh, which has shown exceptional organization and unity in recent years and has played an important role in informing the international community about Azerbaijan's realities.

The main expectations from the 5th Congress are to bring compatriots from all over the world closer together around independent Azerbaijan and to keep them under the state's constant care and attention. Compatriots living away from home are expected to help Azerbaijan become a more prosperous country among the world's leading and developed nations.

The State Committee for Work with the Diaspora should also work to ensure that compatriots learn about Azerbaijani realities, national culture, music, art, folklore, and so on in their home country and support them in spreading these values.

Azerbaijan has created new realities in the region, and the Azerbaijani Diaspora must redefine its activities in light of these new realities. The Shusha Congress will allow participants to exchange ideas on how to organize diaspora activities in the postwar period, re-evaluate the work of both international and local organizations, the media, and other institutions in various countries, and implement events and projects based on new concepts in a collaborative manner.

The congress will place a special emphasis on the role of the Azerbaijani Diaspora in the restoration and reconstruction of Karabakh. Diaspora activists from different countries are interested in attracting potential investors to Azerbaijan, exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships, and expanding the scope of events to promote Azerbaijani culture.

Shortly after the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a peace initiative with concrete ideas for border delimitation and demarcation, communication opening, and the signing of a peace treaty.

Because Armenia accepted Azerbaijan's proposal based on five principles, the Armenian government has formally stated that it recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and that it has no territorial claims to Azerbaijan and will not do so in the future.

This is a crucial aspect to remember in the post-conflict period. These five principles will subsequently be used to conduct peace negotiations.

All activists, including Diaspora groups, must inform the international community about the new reality. Azerbaijanis residing in other countries have great opportunities to educate the public about the history of Karabakh, Zangazur, the essence of the Kurakchay, Gulustan, and Turkmenchay peace agreements, the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, and the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia in 1940-1950. They must convey to the world community Azerbaijan's reality, as well as the realities of the post-conflict era.

Diaspora groups working in other countries are in regular contact with Azerbaijan, and cooperation between them is growing. No matter where they live, Azerbaijanis must maintain ties to their motherland and remain committed to their culture. This goal is now being served by the establishment of Azerbaijani houses and schools in a variety of countries.
KEARNEY  Nebraskas best and brightest high school students recently competed at the Nebraska Future Business Leaders of America State Leadership Conference.

They showcased their talents as future business leaders and vied for the opportunity to represent Nebraska at the National Leadership Conference this summer in Chicago.

Nebraska Future Business Leaders of America held its State Leadership Conference April 11-13 in Kearney. Participants from across Nebraska attended the event to enhance their business skills, expand their networks and participate in more than 60 business and business-related competitive events.

The Kearney High School Chapter of FBLA was recognized for earning the Gold Seal Award of Merit and earning a Sweepstakes Award. The Gold Seal Award of Merit recognizes the top chapters within each state.

Kearney's chapter was also recognized for completing the Connect to Business project, Feed Nebraska project, Go Green project, iGive project, Seven Up and StepUp2Tech project. The chapter was recognized for contributing to March of Dimes and a VIP contribution to Nebraska FBLA Foundation Trust.

These awards and recognitions required all members to participate in some way throughout the year. There are 34 members in the KHS chapter this year.

The national qualifiers include:

- 1st Place Future Business Leader  Isabella Cao

- 1st Place Mobile App Development  Andy Vu

- 2nd Place Community Service Project  Isabella Cao

- 2nd Place Introduction to FBLA  Lincoln Sanny

- 2nd Place Job Interview  Isabella Cao

- 3rd Place Broadcast Journalism  Isabella Cao

- 3rd Place Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure  Lincoln Sanny

Individual and team awards include.

- 4th Place Health Care Administration  Joe Paysen

- 4th Place Impromptu Speaking  Isabella Cao

- 4th Place Job Interview  Shameel Aubeelauck

- 4th Place Marketing  Carson Nichols

- 4th Place Website Design  Jackson Bokenkamp

- 5th Place Business Management  Taylor Wickham

- 5th Place Introduction to Business Concepts  Lincoln Sanny

- 5th Place Political Science  Joe Paysen

- 6th Place Business Law  Winston Chu

- 6th Place Local Chapter Annual Business Report  Isabella Cao, Shameel Aubeelauck and Winston Chu

- 6th Public Service Announcement  Jackson Bokenkamp

- 7th Place Marketing  Winston Chu & Carter Cochran

- 8th Place Business Management  Brodie McConville & Lincoln Sanny

- 8th Place Computer Problem Solving  Andy Vu

- 8th Place Economics  Taylor Wickham

- Honorable Mention Economics  Isabella Cao

- Honorable Mention Health Care Administration  Lincoln Sanny

- Honorable Mention Introduction to FBLA  Olivia Paysen

- Honorable Mention Political Science  Taylor Wickham

- Semi-Finalist Job Interview  Shameel Aubeelauck, Isabella Cao, Taylor Wickham

- Whos Who in Nebraska FBLA  Isabella Cao and Shameel Aubeelauck

- All-State Quality Member Award  Shameel Aubeelauck, Isabella Cao and Andy Vu

Isabella Cao was recognized for completing her second term as the Nebraska FBLA State Parliamentarian. Tennille Allison was recognized for completing a three-year term on the Nebraska FBLA Board of Directors.

The awards are part of a comprehensive national competitive events program sponsored by FBLA-PBL that recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. For many students, the competitive events are the capstone activity of their academic careers.

In addition to the competitions, students attended educational workshops, networked with students from across the state and attended a motivational keynote.
KEARNEY  The public is invited to meet the leaders of the Flatwater Free Press, Nebraskas first statewide nonprofit news source, at two events Thursday.

Executive Director Matt Wynn and Editor Matt Hansen will greet the public 5-6 p.m. Thursday at the Kearney Chamber of Commerce at 1007 Second Ave. At 6:30 p.m., they will be at Thunderhead Brewing at 18 E. 21st St., where free drink tickets will be provided.

The pair are eager to meet people and discuss story ideas on this super-informal listening tour.

We wont come in with an agenda. We want to make ourselves as open and accessible as we can, Wynn said. Our mission is two-fold: to meet people in Kearney and get some of the best story ideas.

Wynn, a former investigative team editor for USA Today, said they especially want to hear good feature story ideas, stories that make Kearney Kearney, he said. Some of the best stories we get come from people who are not in positions of power.

The Flatwater Free Press was launched last September. The online publication comes out every Friday. It has four staff members. Its stories are written by contributing writers, including Lori Potter, a veteran Kearney Hub reporter who retired in March 2021.

Wynn describes the paper as the first independent, nonprofit, collaborative, purely investigative and enterprise news outlet serving the entire state of Nebraska.

Our staff of four is based in the easternmost section of the easternmost city in the state, Wynn said, referring to the publications Omaha office. This is our way to introduce ourselves and make sure were connected. We want to show up around the state and hear stories people want told.

The men will arrive around noon in Kearney and spend the afternoon meeting privately with 20 leaders of businesses and non-profits and government officials, including Mayor Stan Clouse. Meetings will continue through Friday morning.

The agenda was put together by Roger Jasnoch, executive director of the Kearney Visitors Bureau, and Judi Sickler, executive director and president of the Kearney Area Community Foundation.

Hansen and Wynn also have visited McCook, Norfolk and Nebraska City and plan future stops in Scottsbluff and Hastings. Both men are veteran Nebraska journalists.

During his time at USA Today, Wynns investigation into the proliferation of model bills in statehouses was awarded the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. He also has worked at the Omaha World-Herald and other newspapers.

Hansen, a Red Cloud native, was the 2015 Great Plains Writer of the Year. He has been a reporter at the Lincoln Journal Star and a reporter and metro columnist at the Omaha World-Herald. He has won multiple state, regional and national awards for investigative stories, feature stories and columns.

He and his wife Sarah Baker-Hansen, a longtime Nebraska food writer and restaurant critic, have written a book, The Better Half, examining Nebraskas finest road trips, restaurants and hidden stories.

People can email story ideas to the Flatwater Free Press at tips@flatwaterfreepress, or submit them anonymously through flatwaterfreepress.org/about-flatwater-free-press/contact-us.
A La Crosse man with three DUI charges in South Carolina appeared in La Crosse County Circuit Court Friday after being pulled over for driving while intoxicated and becoming hostile with officers.

Lavar Geathers, 36, was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence and operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration, both fourth offenses; resisting an officer; and disorderly conduct.

According to the criminal complaint, Geathers was seen driving the wrong way down Third St. in the early hours of April 22. The car was also observed swerving out of the lane.

The officer who pulled Geathers over smelled intoxicants and reported Geathers eyes were bloodshot and his speech slow. Several open containers of beer were in the car. Officers issued a field sobriety test but Geathers refused a preliminary breath test.

Given the results of the field sobriety test, a warrant was approved for a blood draw and Geathers was taken to the hospital. According to the criminal complaint, Geathers became physically resistant and told an officer he was going to beat him up and called him a derogatory term. Several officers were initially needed to hold down Geathers before he submitted to the legal blood draw.

Judge Elliot Levine set a $2,500 signature bond with conditions.

Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net.

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With Dane County seeing a medium level of COVID-19, due to increasing reports of new cases, health officials on Friday again urged residents to get booster shots and second boosters if they qualify and havent had the injections.

Reported case activity in the county has been increasing since late March, with a current seven-day average of 159 cases per day, up from about 60 in mid-March. However, COVID-19 hospitalizations have not risen, which officials attributed to the countys high vaccination rate, treatment options and natural immunity acquired by many people following the omicron variant surge in January.

While the recent increase in cases is a cause of concern and caution, it is not a cause for alarm, Janel Heinrich, director of Public Health Madison and Dane County, said in a statement. We have always been clear that this pandemic is not over; we expect to see peaks and valleys in the number of cases in our community.

Barron and Rusk counties also have medium COVID-19 community levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest analysis Thursday. The rest of Wisconsin has low levels.

The CDC levels are based on cases per 100,000 residents, new hospitalizations and hospital bed capacity over the past week.

Since many people have turned to home testing for COVID-19, for which results are typically not included in reported cases, health officials are also looking at virus levels in sewage as an indicator of community transmission. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the level of the coronavirus at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District has been steady recently, while Green Bay, Janesville, Kenosha, Milwaukee and Racine have seen major increases.

Other cities with major increases recently are Baraboo, Hudson, Marshfield, Platteville, Portage, Superior and Viroqua.

People age 12 and older should get a Pfizer booster five months after their second shot, with the cutoff at age 18 for the Moderna vaccine, the CDC says. People 50 and older can get second boosters four months after their first booster, with older adults and those at high risk of severe disease most in need of getting them, health officials say.

In Dane County, 20% of residents are eligible for booster shots but havent received them. Now is the time to get up to date, Heinrich said.

The countys medium level also means people who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease should talk to their health care providers about whether they should wear masks in public, health officials say.
A 42-year-old Kenosha man has been charged with first degree reckless homicide for allegedly knowingly supplying a local man with heroin laced with fentanyl that killed him.

Jeremy D. DeBartelo was charged in Kenosha County Circuit Court. He made his initial appearance at intake court Friday afternoon.

Court Commissioner Loren Keating set a cash bond of $100,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Kenosha Police responded to the 2000 block of 42nd Street on the night of March 22 for a report of a possible overdose. Upon arrival, officers spoke with a man who said he had walked into a bedroom that both he and another individual named Kenneth Reau shared. The man said he found Reau on a bed, and he appeared to have pale skin but was warm. The man said he attempted to administer a dose of Narcan and said he called 911 within five minutes after finding Reau on the bed.

The man reportedly told officers Reaus heroin dealer was DeBartelo, who had an active felony warrant through Wisconsin Community Corrections for felony larceny, according to the complaint. The man reportedly told officers Reau purchased the drugs from DeBartelo earlier that day.

Reau was pronounced dead by a medical examiner shortly after midnight on March 23.

When officers searched the residence they reportedly found a white plate that contained a Band-aid wrapper with a white clumpy substance that later field tested positive for the presence of fentanyl.

When interviewed by investigators, DeBartelo initially denied providing Reau with any drugs. However, according to the complaint, Debartelo then became emotional and ultimately admitted that he had sold Reau the heroin.

During their investigation, the complaint indicates officers spoke to others in the supply chain who confirmed the color of the heroin. An alleged supplier reportedly confirmed he had taken DeBartelo to Racine just days prior to Reaus death and knew that it was a new batch as everyone was falling out from it, the complaint states.

DeBartelo was represented by public defender Toni Young Friday at intake court. Attorney James Kraus appeared for the state.

The defendant does have a significant criminal record, including a felony theft from 2019, a failure to report to jail in 2018, and then a number of misdemeanors, including two counts of misdemeanor bail jumping in 2007, Krause told the court.

Reaus brother and daughter asked Keating for the highest bond possible.

I would like to ask for the highest amount of cash bond possible due to everything that happened, she said.

DeBartelo asked Young to tell the court he was friends with the alleged victim and was very disturbed.

Keating said DeBartelo faces a lengthy time in prison if convicted.

The court does believe there is a potential flight risk here and is going to impose a $100,000 cash bail.

Debartelos preliminary hearing was set for April 29.

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By Azernews





One person has been seriously injured as result of mine blast in Gubadli region.

The Gubadli Prosecutor's Office was informed that Beybala Nasibov (born in 1993) was blown up by a mine on April 22 at about 18:00 on the territory of the region.

Beybala Nasibov was blown up by an anti-personnel mine in Gubadli's Teymur Myuskanly village.

The Gubadli Prosecutor's Office continues investigation.

Despite the fact that about 18 months have passed since the 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the latter's land mines continue to endanger human lives in the liberated lands.

Armenia spared no effort to plant land mines on Azerbaijani territory, not only during the 30 years of occupation but also on the eve of their return following the trilateral statement, in order to cause human casualties.

Almost every day, there is news of civilians or military personnel being injured or killed as a result of mine explosions in Azerbaijan's liberated lands.

This fact demonstrates that Armenia is continuing its mine warfare against Azerbaijan's both civilian and military people. It should be noted that approximately 80 percent of the mine maps submitted by Armenia to Azerbaijan are incorrect.

Armenia appears to be committing war crimes by concealing the locations of landmines, allowing more innocent people to be killed.

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev earlier described as accurate only 25 percent of minefield maps provided by Armenia.

"They planted mines instead of trees in our territories. Both soldiers and civilians were killed and injured in the blasts. Unfortunately, only 25 percent of the mine maps provided by Armenia were useful," Hajiyev said.

The Azerbaijani regions liberated from Armenian occupation in the second Karabakh war in 2020 are the most mine-littered area in the world.

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.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement on November 10, 2020, to end 44 days of fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.




Climate activists are urging financial companies not to support a $5 billion oil pipeline project in East Africa.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline aims to transport oil from the Hoima oilfields in Uganda to the Tanzanian coastal city of Tanga.

The approval to start building the pipeline came in early February after a final agreement was reached between the projects major backers. But a growing list of financial supporters have decided to quit the project in recent weeks as public opposition grew.

The 1,443 kilometer oil project is being described as the longest heated pipeline in the world. The project is headed by the China National Oil Corporation and Frances energy company TotalEnergies. Major oil companies in Uganda and Tanzania are also supporting the pipeline, which is expected to start transporting oil in 2025.

Opponents of the project say the pipeline will displace thousands of families and threaten water resources in the Lake Victoria and River Nile basins. The environmental group 350.org has estimated the pipeline will produce about 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. That level of pollution, the group says, will fuel existing climate change.

The climate crisis is affecting many people in Africa, environmental activist Vanessa Nakate told a recent gathering in Mombasa, Kenya. There is no future in the fossil fuel industry, which has done more harm than good in much of Africa.

Nakate added: We cannot eat oil nor drink oil.

Growing pressure by numerous environmental groups has led a growing list of banks and insurance companies to pull out of the project. During the past week, major insurer Allianz Group withdrew its support.

So far, at least 15 banks and seven insurance companies  including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Swiss Re Group  have dropped financial support for the pipeline.

Omar Elmawi is a leader of #StopEACOP, a campaign to stop the pipeline. He told The Associated Press that by supporting the project, TotalEnergies is putting profits over people.

At a time when scientists call for the phasing out of fossil fuel projectsit is ill-advised and irresponsible to go ahead with this project, while ignoring the cries of those most affected, Elmawi said.

Environmental activist Hilda Nakabuye told Reuters the pipeline would be most harmful to women and children. Harm would result from spillage, pollution and displacement along the pipelines path, she said.

TotalEnergies has defended the pipeline and says the project does not violate any environmental laws in Uganda or Tanzania. An environmental impact study carried out by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment raised concerns about risks to wildlife in the area. The study warns of possible harms to chimpanzees in the Bugoma, Wambabya and Taala forest reserves in Uganda.

Supporters of the pipeline have pointed to oil export earnings estimated to bring in about $2 billion each year. In addition, they say the project would provide at least 12,000 new jobs and could draw more development to the continent.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

basin  n. a low area of land from which water flows into a river

emission  n. the act of producing or sending out something (such as energy or gas) from a source

fossil fuels  n. fuels such as coal, oil, or natural gas formed in the earth from dead plants or animals

insurance  n. an agreement in which you pay a company money and they pay your costs if you have an accident, injury, etc.

phase out  v. to gradually stop using something

impact  n. the effect that a person, event or situation has on someone or something

reserve  n. an area of land where animals and plants are protected
Activists held a series of climate change protests for Earth Day on Friday.

The groups demands included an immediate halt to European imports of Russian oil and gas and an end to building infrastructure that requires fossil fuel use.

Activists in major cities across Europe gathered outside German government or embassy buildings. Germany is one of several European Union members that opposes a ban, or embargo, on Russian oil and gas imports. Leaders fear such restriction would damage their national economies.

The demonstrators handed out Russian money that had been marked with red to represent blood. The activists say the oil and gas purchases from Russia fuel climate change and support Russia's war in Ukraine.

A small group of demonstrators gathered in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which was hit by Russian missiles earlier this week. Several people were killed in the strikes.

Natalia Gozak, chief of the group EcoAction, was among the activists in Lviv. She said, When Germany continues buying gas and oil from Russia, it means that they are paying their money to construct new military machines, new bombs, which are killing Ukrainians.

Gozak said politicians must choose between possible economic harm and continued killings of Ukrainians.

In the United States, activists protested in Washington, D.C. The protesters demanded climate action on Earth Day, April 22, when people worldwide celebrate the planet and work together to improve its health.

The worldwide protests come three weeks after a United Nations climate report warned there is little time left for reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Europe under pressure

Since Russias invasion of Ukraine in February, the European Union has spent more than $41.2 billion on Russian fossil fuel imports.

The EU's 27 countries have agreed to ban Russian coal imports beginning in August. Countries including Italy and Germany have said they can stop depending on Russian gas within a few years.

Some European companies are already rejecting Russian oil voluntarily to avoid public criticism or possible legal troubles.

But the 27 EU nations are divided over whether to put in place an immediate and full ban on Russian fuels. Leaders in Germany and Hungary say a full embargo would badly harm their economies. The EU gets 40 percent of its gas from Russia. The European Commission is examining the costs of replacing Russian oil with imports from other places.

Ukrainian non-governmental organizations planned to send a letter on Friday to Germany's parliament, demanding that the country stop buying Russian oil and gas.

"Germany is one of its main consumers and thus is the main sponsor of war in Ukraine," said the letter, seen by Reuters reporters. "You only need some political will and humaneness to impose a full embargo on Russian oil and gas," it added.

Im Ashley Thompson.

The Reuters news agency reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

infrastructure  n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country or region

hand out v. (phrasal) to give something to many people

construct - v. to build

emission  n. (often pl.) something that is sent out, given off or released

consumer n. a person, group or country that buys goods or services

sponsor n. a person or organization that pays the cost of an activity or event
By Trend





The design of the second "smart village" is underway in the village of Dovletyarly of the Fuzuli district, which is part of the Karabakh economic region, special representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories (except for Shusha) included in the Karabakh economic region Emin Huseynov told reporters, Trend reports.

According to him, jobs will also be created here.

"This village is expected to be larger than the village of Agali in Zangilan. There are about 1500 houses here. After the completion of the project, a corresponding tender for its implementation will be announced. We will inform the public in a timely manner," he said.
LEXINGTON  An Idaho man who fled law enforcement and was pursued for 12 hours near the Overton I-80 interchange has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Matthew B. Davis, 31, of Nampa, Idaho, had been initially charged with possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, a Class 3 felony, possession of a firearm while committing a felony, Class 2 felony, theft by receiving stolen property over $5,000, Class 2A felony and obstructing a peace officer, Class 1 misdemeanor.

Davis pleaded guilty to the charges of theft by receiving and obstructing a peace officer.

The Class 1D felony charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person was amended to attempt of a Class 1 felony and the Class 2 felony charge of possession of a firearm while committing a felony were dismissed by the court.

During the sentencing hearing on April 11, District Court Judge James Doyle sentenced Davis to 30 months for the first count, 30 months for the second count and 12 months for the third count. All will be served concurrently.

Davis was given credit for 219 days served in jail.

On Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, at 9:32 a.m., the Dawson County Sheriffs Office was notified of a stolen vehicle parked at the Jay Brothers parking lot, near the Overton I-80 interchange.

Deputies made contact with Davis, who was inside the vehicle, according to court documents.

When contact was made, Davis was asleep in the vehicle, but when he woke up, he exited the vehicle and ran south across the lanes of the interstate towards the Platte River, according to court documents.

The Nebraska State Patrol SWAT team was activated, as well as drones, air support and police service dogs. The Dawson County Sheriffs Office alerted people south of Overton to keep their homes and vehicles locked.

Chief Deputy Greg Gilg said Davis would go back and forth across the interstate, returning to the wooded area around the river to hide.

Toward the end of the search, Gilg said the NSPs aircraft located Davis and coordinated with law enforcement on the ground to close in on Davis.

The search lasted for 12 hours; Davis was located and apprehended north of the interstate near mile marker 246, a mile and a half west of where he first fled.
LEXINGTON  A Lexington man charged with possession of child pornography must register as a sex offender for 25 years, in addition to jail time.

Juan Martin-Tomas, now 23, pleaded no contest to possession of child pornography in January. A no contest plea is neither an admission nor denial of guilt, but the plea is treated the same as a guilty plea.

A sentencing hearing was held on April 11.

District Court Judge James Doyle sentenced Martin-Tomas to 48 months of probation, including serving 30 days in jail at the beginning of the start of probation. A further 55 days in jail at the end of probation may be waived by the court. Martin-Tomas was given credit for one day in jail.

Martin-Tomas must also register as a sex offender for 25 years.

According to the probable-cause affidavit, on Dec. 8, 2020, the Omaha Police Department began an investigation into the exploitation of a child. A 13-year-old girl had reported she was contacted on the Snapchat app by an unknown male with the username minutemen308.

The male had requested she send him sexually explicit videos or photos and threatened to expose her if she did not comply, according to the affidavit.

The 13-year-old admitted to the Omaha police that she had created the video, but stated she only sent it to another juvenile in the Omaha school system, according to the affidavit.

Through their investigation, Omaha police determined the unknown male was using an IP address assigned to a Washington Street address in Lexington and forwarded this information to the Lexington Police Department.

One detail in the photos was a red and white striped blanket in the background, according to the affidavit.

Lexington Police officers obtained a search warrant for the address and made contact with Martin-Tomas. They also seized several cellphones, a laptop and a red and white striped blanket from Martin-Tomas bedroom.

During an interview with officers, Martin-Tomas admitted to using the minutemen308 account and knowing the age of the 13-year-old, according to the affidavit.

He had told the 13-year-old female he was the same age, in order to get her to participate.
The primary elections in Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday stood as the first real test of former President Donald Trump's status as the Republican 
More than $1.1 million has been raised in the early months of the race for Nebraskas 1st Congressional District.

Republican Mike Flood, who for the first few months of his primary campaign was battling an incumbent, has outraised and outspent his likely Democratic opponent Patty Pansing Brooks.

Through March 31, Flood raised $652,815 and spent $522,754, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Flood also loaned his campaign $65,000.

Pansing Brooks raised $480,430 and spent $212,652.

Pansing Brooks had an edge in cash on hand with $267,778 to $195,061 for Flood.

Randall Adkins, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said Nebraskans can expect to see significant spending in the months ahead, not just by the candidates but also by outside groups.

Were entering a new era of congressional campaign finance in the 1st District because we have a competitive race for the first time since (Jeff) Fortenberry was (first) elected, he said. We really dont know how much money can be raised in that district.

Fortenberry, a Republican, was first elected in 2004 and was expected to win another term this year until a federal indictment cast a cloud over him and sent shock waves through the Nebraska political establishment. Fortenberry resigned in March after being found guilty of concealing illegal campaign contributions and lying to federal agents. Until Fortenberry resigned, he and Flood were in a battle for the Republican nomination.

Flood, of Norfolk, and Pansing Brooks, of Lincoln, both said they were grateful for the support.

I feel really honored, Pansing Brooks said. Im grateful people understand Ill provide something different from whats always been the case.

Said Flood: I am beyond grateful to the Nebraskans who have donated to my campaign getting us to a historic quarter fundraising total. I will continue to work hard to ensure this district has conservative leadership in Congress.

This was the last campaign finance report before the May primary and a June special election. The latter is to fill out the remainder of Fortenberrys current term.

Both state senators, Flood and Pansing Brooks are seen as the leading candidates in the May 10 primary. Three other people are running on the Republican side and one other person is running on the Democratic ticket.

The winner of each partys primary will advance to the November election to determine who will serve the two-year congressional term that starts in January.

Floods campaign report reflects his significant support from Nebraska business, Republican and industry leaders.

Floods list of donors includes numerous four-figure donations from the likes of Peter Kiewit Sons Inc. CEO Bruce Grewcock, Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz, Noddle Co. CEO Jay Noddle and HDR CEO Eric Keen, among others. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts  who endorsed Flood in the race even before Fortenberry abandoned his campaign  also donated.

Flood received four contributions from political action committees (PACs) during the cycle, including a $5,000 contribution from the Washington, D.C.-based Associated Builders & Contractors Inc. PAC and a $2,500 contribution from Energy Marketers of America, a PAC based in Arlington, Virginia.

He spent $458,102 with Ax Media, a business that specializes in media buys and is connected to the consulting firm Axiom Strategies.

Pansing Brooks took note of the small-dollar contributions she has received: 4,340 donations have averaged $125.

Thats grass-roots, thats people getting behind the campaign and getting excited, she said.

According to the campaign report, Pansing Brooks also received a sizable amount of money via ActBlue, a political action committee that, according to its website, serves as an online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates. As of March 31, Pansing Brooks campaign had received nearly $197,309 via ActBlue during the election cycle.

Much of Pansing Brooks expenditures appear to be for staff and consulting. She paid $67,671 during the cycle to BCom Solutions, a digital marketing agency based in Lincoln.

Also on Thursday, Democrat Ben Nelson, a former Nebraska governor and senator, endorsed Pansing Brooks, saying that she has demonstrated a strong work ethic and an ability to work across the aisle to get legislation passed.

She is the type of leader who knows how to get things done, he said.

Nebraskas 1st District encompasses Madison, Stanton, Cuming, Platte, Colfax, Dodge, Butler, Seward, Lancaster and Cass Counties, along with parts of Sarpy County (including La Vista and the bulk of Papillion) and northeastern Polk County.
By Trend





Armenia is most likely to benefit from concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, Associate Professor of the Faculty of History at Lomonosov Moscow State University Ismail Agakishiev told Trend.

According to him, it's not a secret that Armenia has been the most economically underdeveloped country for 30 years in the South Caucasus. On the other hand, the 30-year conflict has been a humanitarian tragedy for all countries in the region.

"Addressing this issue creates the opportunity for implementing transport, logistics, and energy projects, as well as restoration of human relations through the economy. That's why the establishment of long-term peace in the region is necessary. The peace treaty is significant not only for the countries of the region, but also for Russia, Turkey and Iran," Agakishiev said.

Speaking of the future tasks of the diaspora, he emphasized that the enemy destroyed Karabakh and did not leave a single piece of land without mines.

Several landmines have been placed at one point. Therefore, today everyone is tasked with the demining of the liberated territories and their restoration, added Agakishiev.
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North Lufkin leaders, residents express concerns over dwindling number of polling locations

As the Lufkin City Council election draws near, complaints about polling accessibility in county-run elections have come to the forefront for residents of Lufkins Ward 1.

The Lufkin City Council was approached Tuesday by Carlton Teal, a representative of the Lufkin NAACP chapter, and the Rev. Lynn Hargrow, a city council candidate. Their concerns were shared by Councilwoman Guessippina Bonner, who also noted the lack of polling locations in the ward despite it being the home of one of the council positions up for election.

Elections administrator Terri Jordan, who was hired just before the March primaries, was unavailable for comment in light of the pending elections.

In the 2000 United States presidential election, The Lufkin Daily News listed three polling locations in Ward 1: Box 5 on Old Mill Road, Box 20 on Williams Street and Box 18 on Leach Street.

Two of those boxes  the one at Shiloh Baptist Church on Williams Street and the other at Woods Memorial Baptist Church on Leach Street  were essential to most election outcomes, Bonner said.

Nobody who ran for election in Angelina County  let alone the city of Lufkin  nobody called those elections until those two boxes were counted, and (that was) because of the number of people that voted, she said. They pretty much determined  to a substantial degree  who was elected in Angelina County because of the large number of people that voted.

Ward 1, which Bonner represents, is roughly bordered by Raguet Street and Timberland Drive and is home to Lufkins downtown and some of the citys historic residences.

Its landmass grew in the redistricting process following the 2020 Census, though experts were concerned about an undercount in populations comprised mostly of minorities. And while Lufkin is not completely segregated, Ward 1s population is predominantly Black, Bonner said.

The Brandon Community Center, which is next door to Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, was the only polling location in the ward during the November 2020 election, county records show.

However, the county did utilize the Lufkin Parks & Recreation building on Montrose Street for early voting.

Hargrow agrees the city needs more voting facilities in Wards 1 and 2, both of which encompass North Lufkin, and does not know why the city does not have more. He said he hopes to learn how precincts are determined and whether polling locations need a certain amount of notice, incentives or space.

I see a lot of churches  the churches on the southside and in the suburbs  but we have just as many churches on the north side, he said. Are they interested in being a polling place? Are some being denied? What is the problem? What is keeping them from becoming (polling) places?

Approximately five years ago, the box at Woods Memorial Baptist Church was dissolved, Bonner said. All elections for Ward 2 were moved to Iglesia Bautista La Fe Bienvenidos, she said.

I said, The people are not going to cross Timberland to go over there to vote, and especially if theyre African American. Theyre not going to go to a Latino church, she said.

I said, We need to look at bringing that box back across Timberland, and that was when I recommended we use the gym at Dunbar, which is not something thats always been used.

Another box  at Mount Beulah Baptist Church  was then dissolved, and the number of people voting dwindled further, Bonner said.

Their normal voting place  the place they had been voting at for years and years  was gone, and they didnt want to go look for someplace else to vote, she said.

Which is almost what happened to Lufkin voter Lela Simmons.

Simmons started voting as soon as she turned 18 because she wanted to make sure the right people got elected, she said.

However, when confusion began to arise for Simmons around where she was supposed to vote, she almost gave it up entirely, she said.

I had just said, To heck with it  Im not gonna vote. And my mother, she says, Oh, no, youre not gonna do that. She said, You are better than that  if I vote, youre going, and my father did, too, she said. My fathers mother, when she lived here, she said, Youre gonna vote, no matter what. And it was hard, but I mind.

A lot of Simmons frustrations came from polling locations in North Lufkin constantly being moved around, she said.

I dont think thats right, I know its not right, she said. Its to me as if theyre saying, Well, I dont want you Blacks to vote because I want this person in and I know youre on his side and I want this particular person in this position.

The process became easier for Simmons once she started working at the polls, she said.

Once you know about what youre doing, its easier, but if you dont know and somebodys constantly confusing you, and we have a lot of older people, they read but they dont read enough to understand what theyre supposed to be doing, she said. Its discouraging.

The polling situation is difficult on the north side of Lufkin because the community is elderly and transportation is not as accessible for them, Hargrow said. Many do not drive and are reliant on friends, family or public transportation. And those options are not always available, he said.

I did speak with a couple of them last week who said, for one thing, the bus route goes the opposite way, he said. If they were to catch the bus to the Parks & Rec Center, they would actually have to go north and go all through the southside until it circled around.

Bonner agreed that there is not a good form of public transportation for older voters to get to the current polling locations.

Older voters are the ones that are most loyal to voting and to participating in the process, she said.

Bonner said she thinks the best solution would be for the dissolved boxes to be brought back to where they were.

The locations  especially for the November elections  that can be done now, she said.

If Bonner was in another city, she would think the lack of boxes in Black communities was a deliberate attempt at voter suppression, she said.

I dont think it was so much intentional, it just was not well thought out, and there was no communication with the people it may impact, not only the African American people in Lufkin, but the city itself, she said. Whatever communication that needs to improve, it needs to improve now.

Even though the situation does primarily affect the North Lufkin wards and those areas are predominantly occupied by Black and Hispanic residents, Hargrow didnt want to pull the race card, he said.

This is not a situation caused by the city but by the county, he said. And he does not think it is intentional. But he does want to see better cooperation between the city, school and county.

I dont see why they cant come together, he said.

Because of the work by the elections administration, Angelina County now has countywide polling. This means residents can vote at any polling location.

The measure was finalized in 2021.

Related
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)  John DiStaso, a veteran political reporter in New Hampshire who covered 11 first-in-the-nation presidential primaries, interviewing countless candidates and providing analysis on campaigns and elections, died Thursday after suffering a prolonged illness. He was 68.

DiStaso, who spent the last seven years as a political reporter for WMUR-TV, was known for doggedly pursuing stories and asking tough questions on the campaign trail. He was nicknamed the dean of the New Hampshire political press corps. The station announced his death Friday.

For many years, he was senior political reporter at the New Hampshire Union Leader, where his longtime column broke news on campaigns, in addition to public policy issues. At WMUR, he continued to write a New Hampshire Primary Source column.

He was a panel journalist in several nationally televised presidential primary debates and in many Granite State Debates aired on WMUR.

He was ferociously devoted to his work and we are all better for it, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, said in a statement. I cant imagine there is a New Hampshire primary candidate who ever made it out of the state without being grilled by John. He had Granite Staters trust, as he worked diligently to bring the most coveted and important news into their living rooms.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu tweeted, No one will ever replace John DiStaso, the top political reporter who always got the scoop.

DiStaso, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, graduated from Villanova University in 1975. He received his masters degree from William Paterson University in 1979.

He is survived by his wife, Diane, and sons, Dante and Nicholas.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
After years of declining revenue, one Madison information technology company is looking to make college more accessible internationally as its latest CEO prioritizes maximizing growth.

Founded in 1991, publicly traded Sonic Foundry first became known for its audio technology. The company then moved to video capturing and management tech, unveiling its Mediasite software that streams presentations and archives them on the internet. Sonic Foundry has a presence in 65 countries, as well as 220 employees globally, said CEO Joe Mozden.

Now, the company is moving to launch a program called the Global Learning Exchange, which aims to provide students in developing countries with access to localized higher education options. The programs announcement comes as Sonic Foundry actively works with government officials in the Bahamas to construct a brick-and-mortar hub to support learning. It also comes as Sonic Foundry recently received a $4.5 million retail investment, Mozden said.

The Exchange  once Sonic Foundry finalizes contracts with universities in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia in the next month  will specifically allow students to take their classes online without leaving home. Supporting that is the hub, slated for a July opening, which is expected to not only house space for in-person admissions and enrollment assistance, studying, and tutoring but offer reliable internet access, laptops and other infrastructure.

Attending college through the Exchange is also slated to be more cost effective for students, Mozden said, as their tuition costs are priced into the local markets of their nation  an average of $5,000 a year compared with the hundreds of thousands someone might pay to study abroad.

And the physical space is what separates the Exchange from other online university services, he said, adding that Sonic Foundry has partnered with the Bahamas Institute of Business and Technology to enroll students starting this summer.

Renderings of the hubs specific design are not available, the company said, also declining to share internal architectural drawings of the space citing privacy concerns.

Having dedicated my career to preparing Bahamians for success in the global marketplace, I am excited about the opportunity to partner with Global Learning Exchange, said BIBT president Deswell Forbes in a statement. Together we can make a significant impact on the future of our youth and our country by providing world-class, affordable online educational opportunities in a local environment with all of the necessary study support and resources.

This is a significant step toward enabling Bahamians to succeed personally and professionally at every conceivable level nationally and internationally, Forbes added. I have great confidence that this innovative educational model can disrupt barriers to achieving a fulfilling higher education experience for students.

More hubs eyed

More hubs in developing countries like the Bahamas are planned, Mozden said, adding that Africa and Eastern European nations are future target markets.

Thats because in countries like Nigeria and Uzbekistan, for which Sonic Foundry has conducted market research, there are a large number of prospective students who apply for college locally  but a majority are denied admission.

Analyzing data from Oxford University, as well as the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Sonic Foundry found that 2 million prospective students in Nigeria apply for roughly 500,000 university openings in an average year, so 75% are denied.

The company also found that 600,000 prospective Uzbekistani students apply for roughly 45,000 openings, so 93% are denied entry.

Three-step goal

The rollout of the Global Learning Exchange is part of what Mozden called a three-step growth plan for Sonic Foundry.

Mozden, who has held various leadership roles over the years and has a background in engineering, unveiled the strategy when he started his position as CEO a year and a half ago. The first phase of that plan was to stabilize and grow Sonics base business to regain profitability.

The next few phases involved turning up two new services, one of them being the Exchange. The other is Vidable, which is a tech that uses artificial intelligence to help people produce and organize video content. Sonic Foundry plans to launch that software this summer.

The company also expects to integrate the two services, as well as its flagship tech Mediasite, into what Mozden called a marketplace.

When asked about what growth might look like for Sonic Foundry over the next few years, Mozden said theres nowhere to go but up.

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When the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art unveils its latest show on Saturday, it will feature dozens of new artworks, but also one left undone: a mural by Madison artist Lilada Gee.

Gees work on the interior mural came to a halt in March, after an incident just outside the museum walls that she describes as traumatic.

The encounter resulted in the firing of an Overture Center employee and a sped-up timeline for more training on microaggressions and unconscious bias  but also should not detract from a groundbreaking and important artistic show at MMOCA, supporters say.

Gee is among 23 Black Wisconsin women artists invited to be part of the museums 2022 Wisconsin Triennial, titled Aint I A Woman? after a quote from the abolitionist and womens rights advocate Sojourner Truth and the classic book on Black feminism by author bell hooks.

If you go What: Opening celebration and reception for the 2022 Wisconsin Triennial, Aint I A Woman? Where: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St. When: 5-8 p.m. Saturday. Mix by DJ Femme Noir and cash bar. Presentations from 6-7 p.m. by artists Nakeysha Roberts Washington and Lilada Gee Gallery hours: MMOCA galleries are open 12-6 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Aint I A Woman? runs through Oct. 9 Admission: The museum and the opening celebration are free and open to the public. Website: mmoca.org

Aint I A Woman? marks a historic milestone: It is the first time the Triennial, one of the states most prestigious shows featuring contemporary Wisconsin artists, has been organized by a guest curator, Milwaukee gallery owner Fatima Laster.

Last month, Gee was at MMOCA working on her mural when she went outside to her car to get more art supplies. She called Annik Dupaty, the director of events and volunteers at the museum, to let her back into the building through locked glass doors along Henry Street. But before she could return, Gee was stopped by what she described as aggressive verbal and physical behavior.

A staff member from the adjacent Overture Center for the Arts, whose building shares the entrance with the art museum, happened to be standing in the entryway, Gee said.

When Dupaty arrived and opened the doors to greet Gee and let her into the building, the woman was right in my face yelling at me at the top of her lungs. What are you doing?!? You cant come in here! Youre not supposed to come in this door!, Gee told the nonprofit publication Madison 365, which first reported the incident.

The woman, a longtime Overture employee, then physically barred Gee from entering the door. The confrontation left Gee so shaken and confused that she was emotionally unable to return to her artwork, she said.

The incident traumatized me, Dupaty said in an email this week. Discussing it continues to be triggering.

When Overture learned of the incident, it conducted an investigation and the employee was terminated, said Ed Holmes, Overtures chief equity and innovation officer. Overture viewed footage of the incident taken by a security camera, he said.

The behavior of the former staff member, who is white, toward Gee and Dupaty, who are Black, didnt match any of our cultural values, our expectations about creating a more welcoming atmosphere of belonging, Holmes said.

Although the doorway where the incident happened is not an entrance typically open to the public, he said, theres an expectation that people are going to listen, be aware, and make good judgments, and that was just not the case in this situation.

Overture officials declined to provide the security camera footage or the former employees name due to confidential personnel or security matters.

Added training

Emily Leach, also an artist in the Aint I A Woman? exhibition, calls the incident horrible and something that should not have happened.

Leachs own artwork in the show is based on Black womens role in archiving and caring for family histories. But it also examines the uneasiness between visibility and invisibility, something that becomes more apparent after the confrontation Gee experienced, she said.

The show at MMOCA is such an exciting and historic moment, said Leach, and at the same time, I wish that I could say that I was surprised to hear that this happened.

Overture is now working to require additional training among staff and its nearly 500 volunteer ushers in looking at unconscious bias, macro- and microaggressions, what that means in terms of social and racial justice and equity, diversity and inclusion, Holmes said.

We all feel horrible that this situation has taken place, Holmes said. Overture had been discussing the additional trainings all along, he said, but the incident regarding Gee really made it a top priority, and has pushed the fast-forward button for us to really know that this is something we really need to address.

Healing process

Gee is the founder and president of Defending Black Girlhood and Black Women Heal, a Madison-based nonprofit created to support Black women and girls. She is also part of the team behind plans for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture, founded by her brother, the Rev. Alex Gee, to be constructed on Madisons South Side.

Gee said following the incident in March that she no longer wanted to deal with Overture directly, but would be represented by her brother. Holmes said that a handwritten letter of apology was sent to Gee via Alex Gee. Contacted this week through his office, Alex Gee declined to comment.

We cant begin to understand how someone is impacted by an incident like this, Holmes said. I do know that the healing process takes time, patience and understanding, and its up to the person whos impacted to determine what that looks like.

Gee said she has received support from friends and the art community.

One of the questions people kept asking me was whether I was going to finish the mural she was painting for Aint I A Woman?, she said.

No niceties

Gee turned to a longtime friend and elder, Pia Kinney James, who suggested the artwork would be more powerful if left undone.

This is trauma that women, especially African American women, experience every day, Kinney James said. Its not about the artist not completing (the work). Its about someone causing its non-completion.

Gee consulted with her brother, other family members, and some creatives that I trust after I spoke with Miss Pia, and they confirmed that this is what you need to do, she said.

I think there is this desire, this expectation, that when something like this happens  especially for Black women  (we should) push through, be strong, Gee said. But I think its important for us to understand that some things cannot be undone. The impact needs to be seen and understood. You cant just clean up everything and make it nice and pretty for people.

Reading planned

So Gee left the unfinished mural alone  and began to write an open letter instead. She plans to read that letter at the opening celebration for Aint I A Woman? Saturday evening at the museum.

Initially, I didnt know what I was going to do with it, she said of the letter. I just needed to write down what was evoked from me today  why did this trigger me? What was that trigger?

Citing the guest curators wish to keep the exhibition a surprise until the opening, MMOCA declined to provide images of the incomplete mural or to allow a photographer as the exhibition was being installed. Laster, the guest curator, also declined an interview and said through an MMOCA spokesperson that she did not want the incident involving Gee to detract from the artwork and historic nature of Aint I A Woman?

Gee credits Laster for letting her show the incomplete mural and present her open letter before the public. Dupaty, too, emphasized that Laster  and all of the artists in the show  deserve to be celebrated, respected and lauded.

The work is compelling, beautiful, and each artist has something unique to say, Dupaty said. I think people are going to enjoy spending time exploring this exhibition over and over again.

This show is a big deal, agreed Gee. Its historic, having a show like this in Madison, curated by a Black woman, full of Black women artists, pieces about Black womanhood. This is a historic event. For (Laster), I laud her courage for allowing me to express myself in this way.

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The 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis has ended in Shusha.

The two-day Congress brought together over 400 diaspora representatives and guests from 65 countries.

On the second day of the forum, head of the Department of Humanitarian Policy, Diaspora, Multiculturalism and Religious Issues Farah Aliyeva, presented orders and medals to the diaspora representatives, awarded in accordance with the presidential decree.

In her speech, Farah Aliyeva noted that she was glad to see representatives of the Diaspora in her native Shusha.

On belhalf of the State Committee of Azerbaijan for Work with Diaspora, she expressed expressed graditude to the state structures for their support in the high-level organization of the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha.

Special Representative of the President in Shusha Aydin Karimov stressed that the Azerbaijani diaspora can make a serious contribution to the restoration of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region.

Chairman of the Board of the Shusha City State Reserve Administration Maftun Abbasov proposed holding the next congress in the renovated and restored Shusha.

Then a group of diaspora activists was awarded medals "For merits in the diaspora activity".

The congress also adopted the following documents: a resolution, an appeal of the representatives of the V Congress of World Azerbaijanis to the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, an appeal of the representatives of the congress to the Azerbaijanis of the world, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP ), to the international community on the mine problem in the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from the Armenian occupation.

The forum approved the new composition of the Coordinating Council of World Azerbaijanis. President Ilham Aliyev was elected as chairman of the council, and Fuad Muradov, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Diaspora - as the councils executive secretary.

Speaking at the forum, Fuad Muradov noted the holding of fruitful discussions on the further activities of the diaspora during the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan`s cultural capital, the city of Shusha, and expressed gratitude to the forum participants.

Notably, the first Congress of World Azerbaijanis was held on the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev in 2001. The second, third and fourth congresses took place in accordance with the orders of President Ilham Aliyev in 2006, 2011 and 2016 respectively.
A jaunt through the woods can boost your fitness, your balance and your mood.

Walking is great exercise, but sometimes you need a break from your usual neighborhood loop or the monotony of the basement treadmill.

Head out for a hike instead. Its similar to walking but can give you a fitness boost along with a dose of novelty and adventure. And not only is hiking great exercise, its a COVID-safe activity that doesnt require much equipment.

Reaping physical benefits

Navigating a winding, wooded trail can help your body build endurance, strength and coordination, says Dr. Edward Phillips, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School.

Hiking over uneven terrain requires more energy than walking on a level surface, so it burns more calories. If you are hiking uphill, your body has to work even harder, he says. A rigorous hike may offer many of the same physical benefits as interval training, which alternates low- and high-intensity exercise to increase cardiovascular fitness. During a hike, your heart rate goes up as you move up an incline and drops when you head downhill.

Traversing an irregular landscape can also build strength.

You are using different muscles when you climb and descend, Phillips says.

If you havent gone for a hike lately, youll probably feel it in your hips and buttocks when you climb and in your thighs on the way down.

Descending works the muscles in the fronts of your thighs, which need to function like a brake to keep you stable, he says.

Finding your footing on a rutted trail can help you become steadier on your feet.

When you challenge your body, it will adapt. For example, if the terrain puts your balance to the test, it will push your internal balance system to improve, Phillips says.

Improving mind and mood

Hikings benefits arent only physical; theyre mental as well.

Humans thrive when they are out in a natural setting, Phillips says. Simply being among the trees may improve a number of health indicators. Research has shown that the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), which encourages a slow enjoyment of nature, produces measurable physical changes.

A 2019 study in the International Journal of Biometeorology found that the practice reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. A 2011 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology noted its beneficial effects on blood pressure and potentially blood sugar levels.

Being out in nature also exposes you to new sights and experiences. The view from the same trail changes throughout the year as the trees grow or shed their leaves.

The best thing about hiking is that it often doesnt feel like exercise.

Some people who eschew exercise will gladly go for a hike, Phillips says. And because they enjoy it, theyre more likely to stick with it.

Destination hikes even provide their own motivation to keep you going.

If you ever want to hook someone on hiking, go to Acadia National Park in Maine. An hourlong hike there can take you up 400 feet to a peak where you get a panoramic view of the ocean below, Phillips says.

How to get started

While hiking can be safely adapted to many fitness levels, there are some things you should do to prepare before you head out, Phillips says.

1. Start slowly.

If youve never hiked before, dont attempt to trek up a steep mountain. Flat trails provide a great starting place.

Look for local rail trails, which are level paths of stone dust or another soft surface. They run along old railway beds where tracks used to be. These are a great place for beginners that still get you out in nature.

You can also use a smartphone app or online trail guide to find local routes that suit your ability level.

2. Bring a buddy.

Its safer to hike with a friend, ideally someone who knows the area.

3. Do your research.

Plan your route and know what terrain to expect before you leave. Also, make sure your cellphone will work in the area you choose so you can get emergency help if you need it.

4. Stop halfway.

When youre hiking, go only about half as far as you want to hike. Dont forget, you still need to travel all the way back to your starting place.

5. Bring the right supplies.

In addition to sturdy footwear, bring a hat and sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun, enough water to stay well-hydrated, insect repellent and a small first-aid kit.

6. Be flexible.

Dont feel you need to achieve a certain speed or distance goal. Adapt for the conditions you encounter on the trail.

7. Bolster your balance.

If you need a little extra balance support, hiking poles can be a great solution, Phillips says. They can be found at most outdoor supply stores and can give your arms a mini-workout while you walk.

___
Madison police arrested two men this week in two commercial burglaries and are seeking another man in connection to a third burglary of a local business.

The three burglaries happened either last week or the week before, but Madison police Sgt. Scott Reitmeier announced in a Friday statement that some arrests have been made. The targeted businesses are a restaurant, a hair salon and a construction company.

A man was seen on surveillance video breaking into Capilia Hair Salon at 1334 Applegate Rd around 12:45 a.m. April 15 and stealing multiple items, Reitmeier said.

On Tuesday, Madison police arrested Fontaine Dillard, 35, for the burglary. Reitmeier did not say how Dillard was identified as the suspect.

Reitmeier said Dillard was out on bail after being charged in a series of burglaries in the same area  and the same business  from 2021 and early 2022.

Dillard was assigned a $750 cash bond on Thursday and was released from the Dane County Jail after posting, according to court records.

A second burglary suspect was arrested Monday for allegedly entering Sequoia restaurant at 1843 Monroe St. and stealing cash around 5:50 a.m. April 9, Reitmeier said.

The suspect was captured on video, and police identified him as Daniel Hynes, 49. Officers later arrested him, collected evidence related to the burglary from his home and took him to the Dane County Jail.

Hynes remained in jail on Friday on a probation hold, according to court records.

The third burglary also happened April 9, but at a construction site at 1859 Aberg Ave., Reitmeier said. A suspect stole tools, equipment and other items from the site.

Video surveillance showed the burglary as well as the suspect leaving the scene because he took the camera with him, Reitmeier said. The camera was wireless, so police have access to the footage.

Shane Manchester, 49, is being sought in connection to the burglary. Reitmeier did not say whether he is the suspect.

Police asked anyone with information to contact police at 608-255-2345, or Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014 or P3Tips.com.

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A private attorney with a deeply partisan history has emerged as a lead investigator in a Wisconsin taxpayer-funded investigation of the 2020 election.

Attorney Erick Kaardal of the Thomas More Society has collaborated with former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on the $676,000 investigation into alleged election fraud launched by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.

Although he lacks a contract or official role in Gablemans taxpayer-funded probe, Kaardal has become a de facto lead investigator.

A Wisconsin Watch analysis shows roughly half of the chapters in Gablemans 136-page interim report are based on Kaardals work.

Since September, the Minnesota attorney and the conservative Chicago law firm for which he works have subleased office space for about $3,000 a month directly from a company owned by Gableman.

Kaardals and Thomas More Societys connections to  and potential influence on  Gablemans investigation stretch beyond 2,100 square feet of office space. As a private attorney, Kaardal also represents people featured in Gablemans investigation  clients he charges are victims of voter abuse.

Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, a member of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, said he absolutely has concerns about the relationship between Kaardal, the Thomas More Society and Gableman.

Spreitzer also criticized the quality of the information Gableman has released so far, such as the suspiciously high voter turnout rates for nursing homes  claims that media organizations have debunked  calling it cherry-picked (data) at best, and simply wrong at worst.

Gablemans office did not return a message seeking comment, and neither did representatives for Vos or Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is suing Gableman and Vos, arguing they lack authority to force officials to participate in the investigation.

Gablemans original contract expired at the end of last year, but was extended through the end of this month. It now appears to be nearing a close. Gableman has said recently Vos intends to halt his investigation before the end of April.

Pro-family group shifts to elections

For nearly 25 years, the Thomas More Society was best known for filing anti-abortion and pro-family litigation, including representing a California baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couples wedding.

But in recent years, Kaardal and the Thomas More Society have become central figures in questioning the validity of the 2020 election  pushing theories that judges, audits and other reviews have rejected.

The societys funding has ballooned as it added election-related litigation to its focus areas. Its financial statement for the 2020 fiscal year, the most recent available, showed $17.4 million in revenue, up from $9.6 million the previous year.

That money has helped Thomas More file lawsuits in multiple states challenging how the 2020 election was administered, with a particular interest in the grant money to local municipalities from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a Mark Zuckerberg-funded charity.

Among Kaardals other election-related lawsuits is a 2020 case against then-Vice President Mike Pence, Congress and others seeking to stop the Electoral College count that was so filled with baseless fraud allegations and tenuous legal claims that the judge filed an ethics referral against him. Kaardal declined to comment on the matter, which is still pending.

Last month, as Gableman presented the findings in his interim report to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, he complimented Kaardal and the Thomas More Society, saying they had done very substantial and very wonderful work on behalf of the people of this state.

Unseemly relationship?

Much of what Gableman released last month repackaged previous work from Kaardal and the Thomas More Society, including video interviews with seven of Kaardals own clients.

Tom Brejcha, Thomas Mores president, said in an interview that he saw no conflicts of interest with the connections and communications between himself, his law firm and Gableman.

Gableman had shared information with them, he said, but nothing that was confidential.

At one point, Brejcha accused Wisconsin Watch of launching an attack on Gableman. I dont care to continue this anymore, he said, and eventually hung up.

Jeff Mandell, a Madison attorney who specializes in election law, said its an unseemly relationship between entities with different goals.

Theres certainly a blurring of lines, he said, between whats supposed to be an independent government investigation and private, partisan actors.

Protect people from government

Kaardal has been a lawyer since the early 1990s and, in his own words, has made a career of suing to protect the people from the government.

As the 2020 election neared, Kaardal filed a flurry of lawsuits in multiple states.

He sued over masks mandated for in-person voting in Minnesota, which he lost. He represented Kanye West in his attempts to get on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin, and lost.

And in December 2020 he filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs including the Wisconsin Voters Alliance  part of a multistate election integrity watchdog alliance  to prevent Pence and Congress from counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, arguing that only state legislatures had the authority to certify the election. It was that lawsuit, which Kaardal withdrew the day after the election was certified, that prompted the ethics referral.

Election grants at heart of probe

In his March presentation to the committee, Gableman adopted the Thomas More Societys oft-repeated claim that officials in five Democratic-leaning cities  Green Bay, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison and Racine  committed election bribery by accepting $8.8 million in grants.

Gableman charges that officials in those Zuckerberg 5 cities used illegal grant money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life  which went to more than 200 Wisconsin municipalities  to facilitate voting. The money went toward training additional election workers, adding secure ballot drop boxes, conducting voter education campaigns and other tasks.

The state election bribery law bans anyone from giving money, employment or anything else of value to entice someone to vote or not vote, or to vote a particular way. Gableman devotes nearly half of his 136-page interim report to these grants.

Prior to the election, Kaardal filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin over the CTCL money, which a judge dismissed. After the election, he filed complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which were also thrown out.

We cant have third parties using private money to influence cities to do an illegal  election administration, Kaardal said. And so thats why were gonna win.

But so far, that hasnt happened.

He has filed state and federal lawsuits over the CTCL grant money in at least five states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Georgia. Kaardal lost all the lawsuits filed before the election. Some suits he filed after the election remain pending.

Atiba Ellis, a Marquette University Law School professor who specializes in election law, said grants to help municipalities run elections are accepted practice across the country.

Short of voters getting paid directly out of these grants, it seems difficult for me to make a connection between what the folks who are getting these grants are doing and credible claims of bribery, Ellis said.

He said labeling the grants as election bribery is a dangerous road to go down because local governments rely on grant money to carry out all sorts of basic functions.

Spreitzer said he asked the Legislative Council for any case law supporting Gablemans bribery claim. He said there was none.

Kaardals competency tests

A second major claim by Kaardal and the Thomas More Society that landed in Gablemans report: that nursing home residents who lacked mental capacity to vote had cast absentee votes  a practice they call voter abuse.

In four cases, Gableman alleged that residents who had been found legally incompetent to vote had cast ballots, which raises questions about the validity of those votes.

But in other cases, Gableman relied on Kaardals personal assessment to question a voters competence.

That is not how Wisconsin law works, however. Only a judge in the context of a guardianship proceeding can determine whether a person has the mental capacity to cast a ballot, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Gableman included videos of Kaardal interviewing nursing home residents along with their guardians  who are also Kaardals clients  in his presentation to the Assembly committee.

The befuddled residents often stumbled over their answers to Kaardals sometimes long-winded questions.

Gableman described Kaardals test as questions that are put out by the elections boards to help determine whether someone has the acuity to be able to make a knowing choice for voting. Hes not making these questions up. Theyre standardized questions to determine if a potential voter has the mental capacity to vote.

But Kaardal described them much differently. He told Wisconsin Watch he found the questions online in a law review or medical journal article. While on the phone with a reporter, Kaardal searched for the article and its questions online, but could not find them. He said he searched under competency assessment test for voting.

Barbara Beckert, of the advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin, criticized Kaardals competency exam.

Wisconsin does not require or allow voting tests that people must pass in order to vote  nor should they, Beckert said. No voter in Wisconsin has ever (been) asked this type of question, and voters are never asked to explain why they vote for a particular candidate.

After Gableman showed the videos during the March 1 hearing, Spreitzer said he submitted an open records request for the full, unedited version of the interviews. He was told Gableman didnt have them  raising yet more questions, Spreitzer said, about the role of Kaardal and the Thomas More Society in the investigation.

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Destructive fires in the U.S. Southwest have burned dozens of homes in northern Arizona and put numerous small villages in New Mexico in the path of danger, as wind-fueled flames chewed up wide swaths of tinder dry forest and grassland and plumes of smoke filled the sky.

It's a very chaotic situation out there, Stewart Turner, a fire behavior analyst, said during a briefing Friday night on the edge of the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico. We've had extreme fire behavior all day.

Firefighters working to keep more homes from burning on the edge of a mountain town in northern Arizona were helped by some snow, scattered showers and cooler temperatures early Friday. But the favorable weather did not last and more gusts were expected to batter parts of Arizona and all of New Mexico through the weekend.

Crews were tackling more than a dozen large fires Friday nationwide, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 1,600 firefighters were battling six blazes in New Mexico and three in Arizona that have consumed more than 100 square miles (258 square kilometers) of timber and brush.

By Friday afternoon winds were howling across New Mexico,, gusting up to 75 mph (120 kph) near the Colorado line, shrouding the Rio Grande Valley with dust and pushing flames through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the north. Fire officials expected one blaze northeast of Santa Fe to overrun several communities before Saturday.

A wall of smoke stretched from wilderness just east of Santa Fe some 50 miles (80 km) to the northeast where ranchers and other rural inhabitants were abruptly told to leave by law enforcement.

Maggie Mulligan, 68, of Ledoux, a dog breeder, and her husband, Brad Gombas, 67, left with nine dogs and five puppies packed into an SUV and an old blue Cadillac.

She said her dog Liam was a nervous wreck, when a sheriff came to their house Friday afternoon and told them to leave.

They agonized over having to leave their horses behind as they drove 40 miles (65 km) north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, to a middle school turned into a Red Cross shelter.

We don't know what's next. We don't know if we can go back to the horses, Mulligan said. Theres water in their pasture and theres hay so well see what happens.

With no air support or crews working directly on the fire lines, there was explosive growth in a number of fires. San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Lopez warned the situation very dangerous.

Lena Atencio and her husband, whose family has lived in the nearby Rociada area for five generations, got out Friday as winds kicked up. She said people were taking the threat seriously.

As a community, as a whole, everybody is just pulling together to support each other and just take care of the things we need to now. And then at that point, its in Gods hands, she said as the wind howled miles away in the community of Las Vegas, where evacuees were gathering.

Another wind-whipped fire in northeastern New Mexico also was forcing evacuations while the town of Cimarron and the headquarters of the Philmont Scout Ranch, owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America, were preparing to flee if necessary. The scout ranch attracts thousands of summer visitors, but officials said no scouts were on the property.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed emergency declarations for four counties over the fires.

In Arizona, flames had raced through rural neighborhoods outside Flagstaff just days earlier. A break in the weather Thursday allowed helicopters to drop water on the blaze and authorities to survey the damage.

They found 30 homes and numerous other buildings were destroyed, with sheriff's officials saying over 100 properties were affected. That fire has burned close to 32 square miles (83 square kilometers) and forced evacuations of 765 homes after starting last Sunday.

Authorities used alarms overnight Thursday to warn residents to flee evacuation areas, said sheriff's spokesman Jon Paxton. Howling winds muffled the alarms.

Kelly Morgan is among neighbors at the edge of the evacuation zone who did not leave. She and her husband have lived through wildfires before, she said, and they're prepared if winds shift and flames race toward the home they moved into three years ago.

Unfortunately, it's not something new to us ... but I hate seeing it when people are affected the way they are right now," she said. "It's sad. It's a very sad time, but as a community, we've really come together.

Wildfire has become a year-round threat in the West given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall, scientist have said. The problems have been exacerbated by decades of fire suppression and poor management along with a more than 20-year megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.

Fire danger in the Denver area on Friday was the highest it had been in over a decade, according to the National Weather Service, because of unseasonable temperatures in the 80s combined with strong winds and very dry conditions. New evacuations were ordered Friday west of Colorado Springs but there were no immediate reports of structures lost.

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press writers Cedar Attanasio in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Paul Davenport in Phoenix, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The last time Russia invaded Ukraine, in 2014, outraged world leaders booted Russia out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, which quickly rebranded itself the Group of Seven.

Eight years later, the G-7 is still holding at seven  a collection of countries that meet to talk through big issues like trade, economics and security.

This past week, as global leaders gathered in Washington for spring meetings involving officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, G-7 and the larger Group of 20, it quickly became apparent that despite Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine, its membership in the G-20 remains firmly intact.

While Russia has been rendered a pariah country by Western states, it will remain part of the G-20 and associated organizations unless member countries achieve a consensus that it should go. That appears less and less likely, as several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have made clear they will support Russia's membership in the G-20, which represents industrial and emerging-market countries.

Why would Russia want to stick around when its presence in the group is clearly unwelcome to many?

It has much to gain from disrupting events and sowing general discord between countries in the forums. A glimpse of this was seen this past week when Russia blocked the IMFs key advisory committee from issuing a communique condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

Faced with the questions over what to do about Russias membership in the organization, various world finance leaders at the meetings alternately squirmed, dodged, walked out in protest or stayed put.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, when asked about the prospect of kicking Russia out of the G-20, avoided calling for its ouster.

There are clearly very, very unsettling facts we have to deal with, she said of Russia's aggression. But then she pivoted to focusing on the need for cooperation to solve big world problems.

Make a list of questions that no country can solve on its own, she said, and its obvious that cooperation must continue.

Nadia Calvino, Spains economy minister and chair of the IMF advisory committee, lamented that the meeting had obviously not been business as usual.

Russias war against Ukraine has made it impossible to come to a consensus on a communique," she said, adding that the committee "has traditionally worked on the basis of consensus, so when one member breaks away, we cannot reach the agreement that the overwhelming majority of us would have wanted.

The World Bank said it stopped all of its programs in Russia and allied Belarus after the invasion in late February and has not approved any new investments in Russia since 2014 or in Belarus since mid-2020. The IMF said it hasn't loaned money to Russia in decades and supports no programs there.

The dispute at the IMF meeting highlighted the problems that government leaders are likely to face in Indonesia in November, when G-20 leaders are set to gather in Bali. President Joe Biden has called for Russia to be kicked out of the group, but the U.S. has not said whether Biden would boycott the gathering if Russia participates.

The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. Spain is invited as a permanent guest.

The U.S. and Canada have been the biggest critics of Russia's membership.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland were among a number of officials who walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday when Russias representative started talking.

Freeland later tweeted: This weeks meetings in Washington are about supporting the world economy  and Russias illegal invasion of Ukraine is a grave threat to the global economy. Russia should not be participating or included in these meetings.

But several countries, including China, Brazil and South Africa, have been vocal about rejecting measures to remove Russia. They've argued that engagement is more important than isolation in troubled times.

To expel Russia would only isolate it and make it more difficult to achieve constructive engagement,' said Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation. "South Africa believes it is more useful to keep Russia in and to engage with it to find the lasting peace that we are all yearning for.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told a news conference in Brasilia that excluding Russia doesnt help us find a solution to the immediate problem that we have, which is the need to cease hostilities and have Russia and Ukraine negotiate a lasting peace.

Stewart Patrick, director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said boycotting the G-20 would be a mistake on the part of the U.S. Rather, he said, the U.S. should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians and others should take every opportunity to hammer the Russians, during the meetings later this year.

Boycotting is not sustainable, he said. There should be efforts to try to shame Russia. It would be a mistake for the U.S. to take its ball and go elsewhere, because we would leave a hole in the G-20 to be controlled by China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last month Russia remains an important member of the G-20 and no member has the right to expel another.

The G-20 should practice genuine multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and work together to address outstanding challenges in the areas of economics, finance and sustainable development, Wang said.

Adam Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Councils GeoEconomics Center, said Russia has the most to gain from the discord that comes from the U.S. calling for its removal.

By showing up they're potentially derailing the whole G-20," he said of the Russians. Thats giving them more control than they should have. If the U.S. boycotts, then the G-20 falls apart and thats to Russias benefit.

Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report. Alvares reported from Brasilia and Meldrum from Johannesburg.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP)  Maggie Mulligan said her dogs could sense the panic while she and her husband packed them up, agonized over having to leave horses behind and fled a fast-moving wildfire barreling toward their home in northeast New Mexico.

"We don't know what's next," she said. "We don't know if we can go back to the horses."

Mulligan and her husband, Bill Gombas, 67, were among the anxious residents who hurriedly packed up and evacuated their homes Friday ahead of ominous Western wildfires fueled by tinder-dry conditions and ferocious winds.

Keep scrolling for a collection of images from the western wildfires

Over a dozen sizable fires were burning in Arizona and New Mexico, destroying dozens of homes and as of Saturday burning more than 174 square miles (451 square kilometers).

Winds that howled Friday remained a concern on Saturday in northern New Mexico where two fires merged and quadrupled in size to a combined 66 square miles (171 square kilometers) in mountains and grassland northwest of Las Vegas.

The merged fires burned some structures but no figures were available, said fire information officer Mike Johnson. "They were able to save some structures and we know we lost other structures that we weren't able to defend."

Wind-blown clouds of dust and plumes of smoke obscured the skies near the fires, said Jesus Romero, assistant county manager for San Miguel County. "All the ugliness that spring in New Mexico brings  that's what they're dealing in."

An estimated 500 homes in San Miguel were in rural areas of Mora and San Miguel counties covered by evacuation orders or warning notices, Romero said.

Dangerous wildfire spread rapidly across areas of southern Nebraska for a second time this month, scorching thousands of acres and prompting forced evacuations from several towns. The latest fire blazed across an estimated 47,000 acres, starting near the Kansas state line and extending north to near the Harry Strunk Lake dam, the Valley Voice newspaper said. Full coverage here:

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PHOTO GALLERY

Davenport reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report. Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
And theyre off, as the callers of horse races say, but in this case, it means the government will no longer enforce mask mandates on airplanes, trains, buses, subways and other forms of public transportation.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Florida said the rule exceeded the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Transportation Security Agency. To complete the analogy, perhaps we can say that the government behaved like a horses patootie.

Videos of airline passengers ripping off their masks and cheering appeared on websites as flight attendants made the announcement. The attendants, too, must feel relief as too many suffered abuse while telling passengers to wear masks or to wear them properly.

As people began to grow tired of what many believed to be this arbitrary and ineffective mandate, growing numbers of airline passengers (me included) took advantage of the option to lower their masks while drinking and eating the snacks airlines offer these days. Some prolonged their munching and sipping to extend the time they could remain unmasked. Did anyone believe that if the virus were on a plane, it would suspend infecting people while they ate and drank with their masks down?

Airlines had touted the air filtration systems they had installed near the start of the pandemic as state of the art. The International Air Transport Association said, The risk of catching an infection on an aircraft is typically lower than in a shopping center or office environment.

It didnt matter to the federal government, which seems to seize any opportunity to limit our freedoms and ability to make our own choices. The conflicting information coming from the CDC added to widespread confusion and contributed to the distrust and animus many felt toward Washington. The Justice Department has just announced that it intends to appeal Mizelles decision if the CDC thinks mask mandates are still needed.

What should concern all of us is how easily freedom can be lost. Too many Americans behaved like sheep, abiding by what they were told by so-called experts. These scientists claimed divine-like wisdom. Dr. Anthony Fauci went so far as to proclaim that attacks on him were actually criticizing science. Objections to Faucis pronouncements were not treated seriously. Gods are not to be doubted. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a book questioning the efficacy of vaccines and the motives of the pharmaceutical companies, he was immediately cast out among the anti-vaxxers rather than having his concerns addressed.

This is what freedom looks like: If you want to wear a mask, wear one. If you dont want to wear a mask, dont wear one.

Ive seen people driving alone in their car with a mask on. It makes me laugh, but its their choice.

The government hates giving up power over its citizens. Thats probably why the CDC tried to extend the mask mandate for public transportation an additional 15 days.

I know people who have been vaccinated three times, but still became infected with the current COVID-19 variant, which appears to be the least harmful of them all when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths. As with the flu and common cold, people can take precautions, but decide for themselves what those precautions should be.

Many will wonder what the reaction will be the next time the federal government tries to adopt one-size-fits-all mandates. Will we again resemble sheep, or will we have learned some lessons this time around? Will we, as they said in the 60s, be more aggressive to question authority?

By the way, Judge Mizelle was appointed by former President Trump. Elections have consequences, and in this case the consequences are good for travelers.

Thomas can be reached at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
MOBILE, Ala.  Kay Ivey was serving as lieutenant governor of Alabama in 2017 when Robert Bentley, then the governor, resigned following revelations of an extramarital affair with an aide. When Ivey took office as the accidental governor, she hewed closely to the contours of her partys right-wing politics, and that was enough to get her elected to a full term in 2018.

Alabama Republicans have dominated state politics for years now, and Ivey was expected to continue its traditions of thinly veiled bigotry, contempt for the poor and ostentatious religious piety.

But Ivey didnt pander to the paranoid or play the role of the Mad Hatter for those ultraconservatives who have adopted lunacy and lying as political fundamentals. Last year, she kept a mask mandate in place longer than some of her fellow Southern Republican governors. She also urged Alabama residents to get vaccinated in a July press conference, blurting out her frustration with those who refused as COVID deaths rose in her state.

Folks (are) supposed to have common sense, but its time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. Its the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down, she said at the time.

That was then. A 77-year-old lung cancer survivor, Ivey is campaigning for reelection, and she is desperate to win. So she has thrown aside decency, ethics and even truth to embrace the lies, the bigotry and the antidemocratic tendencies that are now hallmarks of the Republican Party. Winning is everything, apparently. If you have to abandon reason, champion falsehoods and wallow in racism to succeed, well, so be it.

She is hardly the only Republican who has decided to follow the well-trod road of political expediency, to cast aside reason and morality, to value victory over all else. The party of Lincoln is unrecognizable  a mendacious Trumpist cult that no longer even pretends to champion democracy.

Just take a look at the all-out effort by party leaders to ostracize and defeat Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The family is well-known for its steadfast conservatism, but the congresswoman simply will not embrace the big lie, the outrageous notion that President Joe Biden stole the election. She has also joined Democratic efforts to investigate the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. For that, she is a party pariah.

By contrast, party leaders have had little to say about the racist antics and paranoid lies of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Greene has praised Vladimir Putin, quoted Q-Anon nonsense and had her Twitter account suspended for spreading COVID vaccine disinformation. She has also enthusiastically endorsed Trumps Big Lie about election fraud. She drew mild criticism from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for speaking to a white nationalist group in March, but she barely noticed.

Ivey, for her part, began to move further rightward as soon as she announced her reelection campaign. She made TV commercials denouncing Bidens vaccine mandates, and she joined other Republican governors suing to overturn them.

Ivey had resisted the big lie until recently, when, perhaps, one of her challengers, Lynda Blanchard, began to get a bit too close in the polls. (Ivey faces eight challengers in the May Republican primary, but the only one of any note is Blanchard, who served under Trump as U.S. ambassador to Slovenia.) Blanchard is running a well-funded campaign that began with an embrace of Trumps lie about election fraud. She also criticized Ivey as welcoming Joe Biden with open arms. Ivey had done no such thing, but she also had not yet drunk the big lie Kool-Aid.

Now she has. One of Iveys ads claims, The fake news, big tech and blue-state liberals stole the election from President Trump, but here in Alabama, we are making sure that never happens. She also has an awful ad denouncing immigrants that ends with No way, Jose.

Many people Iveys age start to think about what sort of legacy they will leave. If the governor has thought about it, she clearly wants hers to be a record of winning at any cost. It doesnt matter if she has to channel George Wallace to do it.

Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007: cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed the law on approval of the memorandum of mutual understanding between Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian governments on "Caucasian Eagle" Special Forces exercises.

According to the document, the memorandum of mutual understanding between Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian governments on "Caucasian Eagle" Special Forces exercises, signed on October 10, 2019 in Baku, was approved.
Close your eyes and let your imagination transport you back to the ninth-grade. Do you remember a teacher standing at the front of a classroom explaining the three branches of government? Division of power? Checks and balances?

Me too. But Im increasingly concerned that many of our elected officials have no memory of basic high-school-level civics.

The Houses Congressional Progressive Caucus, which consists of nearly 100 representatives and Sen. Bernie Sanders, recently released what it is calling an Executive Action Agenda. The agenda calls on President Biden to issue executive orders lowering health care costs, canceling federal student loan debt, expanding worker power and raising wages, advancing immigrants rights, delivering on the promise of equal justice under law, combating the climate crisis and reducing fossil fuel dependence, investing in care economy jobs and standards, and regulating for economic and tax fairness.

Those are stunningly huge issues for the president to be tackling unilaterally. According to my own ninth-grade civics teacher, only Congress can make laws.

Its disturbing enough that over the last decade presidents have decided to bypass Congress and use their executive power to legislate. It is loads more disturbing to see members of Congress demanding that the president bypass them on major issues. Members of Congress should not be eager to surrender the institution over to the president. The term danger to democracy has become a cringeworthy cliche over the last few years, but its a perfect phrase to describe Congress encouraging the president to usurp their legislative authority.

How broken is Congress when its own members are trying to surrender to the executive branch? How did we get here? The answer is simple. The Senates legislative filibuster is to blame. Senators constantly defend the filibuster claiming that it encourages unity, bipartisanship and compromise, but take an honest look at the national mood and the current functionality of our government. Does it seem like unity, bipartisanship and compromise are winning the day in America thanks to the Senate?

What the legislative filibuster actually encourages is the opposite of its stated goals. It encourages partisanship, obstruction and political chicanery  tricks that lead to inferior legislation being passed or Congress being bypassed altogether.

Requiring a consensus of three-fifths of senators to pass simple legislation is anti-constitutional. The Constitution creates several supermajority requirements for the sole purpose of making things difficult. It requires two-thirds of senators to remove an impeached official from office, two-thirds from the House or Senate to expel one of their members, two-thirds of the Senate to approve a treaty, two-thirds of both houses to propose a constitutional amendment, three-fourths of states to ratify a constitutional amendment, and two-thirds of both houses to override a presidential veto. Those extraordinary thresholds are there to make those actions extremely difficult.

The framers chose not to place an extraordinary threshold on passing simple legislation because its already difficult. For a bill to become a law, an identical version has to pass through both houses of Congress, where it is approved by the peoples representatives and the states representatives. Then, it has to be signed into law by the executive. Thats difficult enough. Requiring 60 votes in the Senate to be able to pass legislation makes Congress basic function of lawmaking nearly impossible. Why should it be?

It stands to reason that if people vote to put one party in charge of the White House, the House and the Senate, that they want that party to govern. Why is it the Senates job to stop from governing?

Because of the legislative filibuster, we now live in an era of inferior legislation being passed through Congress because senators are forced to misuse the reconciliation process or presidents decide to misuse their executive power to legislate. Now, the CPCs Executive Action Agenda makes it appear that weve reached the point where a substantial segment of Congress actually wants the president to legislate unilaterally.

The Senates legislative filibuster gives the minority party in Congress a veto power that is anti-democratic and anti-constitutional. As executive power continues to grow, we need a Congress that provides a strong check over the executive and insists on controlling the countrys legislative destiny.

Democrats should nuke the legislative filibuster today. If they dont, then whichever party wins the majority in 2022 should make it their first order of business.

Zipperer is an assistant professor of political science at Georgia Military College. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
As we continue to feel the effects of a global pandemic and our planet sits precariously on the edge of another world war, some people are asking this important question: Why does an Oreo cookies cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?

MIT wants to solve the mystery. No, not a rapper known as The Notorious MIT. And no, not Mitt Romney, who enters the initials MIT into the Donkey Kong machine each time he gets a high score in the GOP game room.

The actual Massachusetts Institute Technology, a school I could not attend even if I earned 1,000 extra SAT points for spelling my name correctly, turned its collective brainpower toward Oreo cookies.

According to an April 19, 2022, news release, the research was supported in part by the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program, which makes we wonder if the Russians are secretly working on advanced cookie technology we need to counter.

From the news release:

When you twist open an Oreo cookie to get to the creamy center, youre mimicking a standard test in rheology  the study of how a non-Newtonian material flows when twisted, pressed, or otherwise stressed. MIT engineers have now subjected the sandwich cookie to rigorous materials tests to get to the center of a tantalizing question: Why does the cookies cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?

In reality, this isnt much different than other conversations that go on at many colleges and universities across the nation.

Dude, you know this Dorito is made up of molecules and stuff. What if each of those molecules was an individual universe with its own planets and junk. And if our universe was part of a grand Dorito  hey, thats the RA! Dude, I told you to put a towel under the door!

Back at MIT, the serious students were getting down to cookie business.

Theres the fascinating problem of trying to get the cream to distribute evenly between the two wafers, which turns out to be really hard, said Max Fan, an undergraduate in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering.

You know what else is really hard? Realizing that when Max graduates he will immediately make twice as much money as I do because he went to freakin MIT and studied Oreos.

Way to go, Max! You made the right choice. Youre going to keggers, chasing brainy coeds and shoving free Oreos down your goozle while I m in the twilight of a doomed career in the dying newspaper industry with nothing but a cabinet full of stale knock-off Hydrox cream-filled wafers

Um, Im sorry, Max. Nothing personal, kid. Its just been a bad week.

Back to important Oreo research. Why does the cookies cream stick to one side rather than splitting evenly between both? The manufacturing process may hold the answer, according to the news release.

Videos of the manufacturing process show that they put the first wafer down, then dispense a ball of cream onto that wafer before putting the second wafer on top, said Crystal Owens, an MIT mechanical engineering PhD candidate who studies the properties of complex fluids and will also makes twice as much money as I do. Apparently that little time delay may make the cream stick better to the first wafer.

And there you have it. Another of lifes mysteries solved, thanks to the smart folks at MIT.

Scientifically, sandwich cookies present a paradigmatic model of parallel plate rheometry in which a fluid sample, the cream, is held between two parallel plates, the wafers, Owens said. When the wafers are counter-rotated, the cream deforms, flows, and ultimately fractures, leading to separation of the cookie into two pieces.

Yep, twice as much money.

Scott Hollifield is editor of The McDowell News and a humor columnist. Contact him at rhollifield@mcdowellnews.com.
To the editor:

Across the country, school districts, school boards, administrators, parents, teachers and politicians have been engaged in battles over what to teach, what texts to use, when to teach and even who should do the teaching. The third week of April presented this country with a prime example of how divided we are on these questions and how innocent children can become the collateral damage from our struggles, as adults, to work together.

On April 18, Michigan Republican Sen. Lana Theis called out her Democratic colleague, Mallory McMurrow, in an e-mail accusing her and other Democrats of wanting to indoctrinate/groom and sexualize kindergarteners. Theis wrote: These are the people we are up against. Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow who are outraged they cant teach cant groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.

McMurrow responded with a speech on the Senate floor that went viral: Senator Lana Theis accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an attempt to marginalize me for standing up against her marginalizing the LGBTQ community...in a fundraising email, for herself. Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't.  you cant claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of parental rights if another parent is standing up to say no.

This third week of April has shown us the challenges that we all face in trying to provide the very best education for our children. In the end, public education must serve all children regardless of their differences in capacities: physical and mental, socio-economic backgrounds, cultures, and now gender identities. Likewise, a viable education system cannot be static in its curricula; it must be evolving to best prepare each child for a future in an ever-changing world.

Carol Meyer

Ridgeway

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Maverick Philosopher doesn't celebrate anything as politically correct as Earth Day. Maverick Philosopher celebrates critical thinking. So I refer you to William Cronon's The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. A rich and subtle essay. Excerpt:

Many environmentalists who reject traditional notions of the Godhead and who regard themselves as agnostics or even atheists nonetheless express feelings tantamount to religious awe when in the presence of wildernessa fact that testifies to the success of the romantic project. Those who have no difficulty seeing God as the expression of our human dreams and desires nonetheless have trouble recognizing that in a secular age Nature can offer precisely the same sort of mirror.

To put (roughly the same) point with Maverickian aphoristic pithiness: Nature for the idolaters of the earth is just as much an unconscious anthropomorphic projection as the God of the Feuerbachians.

Thus it is that wilderness serves as the unexamined foundation on which so many of the quasi-religious values of modern environmentalism rest. The critique of modernity that is one of environmentalisms most important contributions to the moral and political discourse of our time more often than not appeals, explicitly or implicitly, to wilderness as the standard against which to measure the failings of our human world. Wilderness is the natural, unfallen antithesis of an unnatural civilization that has lost its soul. It is a place of freedom in which we can recover the true selves we have lost to the corrupting influences of our artificial lives. Most of all, it is the ultimate landscape of authenticity. Combining the sacred grandeur of the sublime with the primitive simplicity of the frontier, it is the place where we can see the world as it really is, and so know ourselves as we really areor ought to be.

Related: Timothy Treadwell and Nature Idolatry. (Treadwell was the romantic fool who camped without protection among grizzlies in Alaska, thought it acceptable to end up bear scat, and did, along with his girl friend.)
People register for COVID-19 tests at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing.

City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results on Friday. The Chinese capital also reported four other confirmed cases that day that were counted separately.

Mainland China reported 24,326 new community-transmitted infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict "zero-COVID" strategy has drawn global attention.

China has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible omicron variant. The zero-COVID policy warded off many deaths and widespread outbreaks when faced with less transmissible variants through mass testing and strict lockdowns where people could not leave their homes.

But recent developments in Shanghai have led some to question whether the strategy is worth the tradeoffs. Many residents in the city have struggled to get adequate food supplies during a lockdown this month, while some were also unable to get drugs or medical attention. Some elderly people died after an outbreak at an hospital led medical staff to be quarantined.

People stand in line for COVID-19 tests at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

A worker in a protective takes a swab for a COVID-19 test at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

A worker in a protective takes a swab for a COVID-19 test at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

People stand in line for COVID-19 tests at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Commuters wearing face masks walk in a subway station in Beijing, Friday, April 22, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File

People stand in line for COVID-19 tests at a coronavirus testing facility in Beijing, Saturday, April 23, 2022. Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

The country is now facing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan.

Local media reported that in Beijing's Chaoyang district, the government ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities and classes. The city government is now conducting a round of mass testing to look for more cases.

In Shanghai, city officials reported 12 new deaths Saturday, all elderly patients with underlying illnesses.

Explore further Shanghai reports seven more COVID deaths since start of lockdown

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This microscope image made available by the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research in 2015 shows human colon cancer cells with the nuclei stained red. Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a persons DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. Credit: NCI Center for Cancer Research via AP

Scientists have analyzed the full genetic blueprints of more than 18,000 cancer samples, finding new patterns of mutations that could help doctors provide better, more personalized treatment.

Their study, published Thursday in the journal Science, isn't the first to do such comprehensive "whole genome" analyses of cancer samples. But no one has ever done so many.

"This is the largest cohort in the world. It is extraordinary," said Serena Nik-Zainal of the University of Cambridge, who was part of the team.

Just over 12,200 surgical specimens came from patients recruited from the U.K. National Health Service as part of a project to study whole genomes from people with common cancers and rare diseases. The rest came from existing cancer data sets.

Researchers were able to analyze such a large number because of the same improvements in genetic sequencing technology that recently allowed scientists to finally finish decoding the entire human genomemore capable, accurate machines.

"We can really begin to tease out the underpinnings of the erosive sort of forces that go to sort of generate cancer," said Andrew Futreal, a genomic medicine expert at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who was not involved in the study.

Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a person's DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. In 2020, there were about 19 million new cancer cases worldwide.

For the study, researchers looked at 19 different typesbreast, colorectal, prostate, brain and othersand identified 58 new clues to the causes of cancer called "mutational signatures" that contribute to the development of the disease. They also confirmed 51 of more than 70 previously reported mutation patterns, Nik-Zainal said.

Some arise because of problems within a person's cells; others are sparked by environmental exposures such as ultraviolet radiation, tobacco smoke or chemicals.

Knowing more of them "helps us to understand each person's cancer more precisely," which can help guide treatment, Nik-Zainal said.

Genetic sequencing is already being woven into cancer care as part of the growing trend of personalized medicine, or care based on a patient's genes and specific disease. Now doctors will have much more information to draw from when they look at individual cancers.

To help doctors use this information, researchers developed a computer algorithm that will allow them to find common mutation patterns and seek out rare ones. Based on a particular pattern, Nik-Zainal said a doctor may suggest a certain course of action, such as getting immunotherapy.

Futreal said the data can also show doctors what tends to happen over time when a patient develops a cancer with a certain mutation patternhelping them intervene earlier and hopefully stop the developing disease in its tracks.

More information: Andrea Degasperi et al, Substitution mutational signatures in whole-genome-sequenced cancers of the UK national health service, Science (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl9283 Andrea Degasperi et al, Substitution mutational signatures in whole-genome-sequenced cancers of the UK national health service,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abl9283 David Szuts, A fresh look at somatic mutations in cancer, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo7425 , www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo7425 Journal information: Science

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Arts Missoula announced its new executive director on Friday.

Heather Adams, the founder and director of the nonprofit Downtown Dance Collective, will lead the citys arts agency starting June 1.

Shes taking over for Tom Bensen, whos retiring from the organization hes led since 2004.

I am looking forward to putting arts advocacy to work to enrich the lives of all Missoulians," she said in a news release.

The announcement cited her experience as an artist and administrator, running the DDC, which held dance, theater and musical performances, classes and workshops. The organization, which won an award from Arts Missoula back in 2015 for supporting the arts, lost its studio space on West Main Street in early 2020 when the property was sold.

In addition to the DDC, Adams long career has included teaching with SPARK! Arts Ignite Learning, which brings arts education into Missoula K-12 schools, and she has performed, choreographed and directed with the University of Montana and Missoula Childrens Theatre and groups outside of Missoula.

John Calsbeek, the board president, lauded the experience she brings during a time of quick development.

In hiring Heather as the next executive director, Arts Missoula is beginning a new phase and I am excited for the organizations potential," Calsbeek said. "It is crucial that the arts sector in Missoula keeps pace with the rapid rate of commercial growth we are seeing. Heather is committed to the arts and to Missoula, and I am eager for Heathers creative leadership and vision to guide Arts Missoula forward."

Bensen will stay on through June 30 for a transition.

Among its activities, Arts Missoula administers the SPARK! Program, a Kennedy Center Initiative and community-wide partnership; handles Missoulas sister-city relationships with Palmerston-North, New Zealand and Neckargemund, Germany; produces a First Friday gallery guide and events newsletters, and has acted as fiscal sponsor for organizations like the annual Montana Book Festival.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will return to the House chamber Sunday to deliver his annual State of the State address in front of lawmakers at the Capitol for the first time since the COVID-19 began.

The Democratic governor's address will be the last of his first term before facing a stiff challenge from Republicans in the November election. He's expected to use the address to thank a whole lot of Minnesotans for braving the worst of the pandemic before highlighting his budget plans and calling for compromise in the divided Legislature to end the session.

In 2020, Walz taped a shortened version of his annual address from the governor's mansion in St. Paul. He delivered the 2021 address from a classroom at Mankato West High School, where he was a teacher before being elected to the U.S House.

The governor is expected to highlight his proposed supplemental budget plan, which includes direct payments, dubbed Walz checks, of $500 to single filers and $1,000 to joint filers. His proposal also includes a $2.7 billion infrastructure package, in addition to tax, education and public safety spending.

The address comes as lawmakers head into the home stretch of the legislative session, where they must figure out how to use the state's $9.25 billion budget surplus and more than $1 billion in federal pandemic funds. The divided chambers remain far apart on spending and policy items weeks before the May 23 adjournment. The GOP-controlled Senate is pushing for permanent income tax cuts, while House Democrats are seeking targeted tax credits and increases in spending.

Legislative leaders also remain deadlocked on whether to replenish the state's unemployment insurance trust fund and pay back the federal government for jobless aid during the pandemic, causing an automatic tax increase on employers statewide after lawmakers missed a March 15 deadline. Senate Republicans want to use $2.7 billion to refill the trust fund. But House Democrats have tied that to a $1 billion proposal for $1,500 checks to front-line workers who braved the pandemic, up from $250 million agreed to by both sides last year that wasn't doled out.

Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, told reporters Thursday that legislative leaders expect to resume negotiations Monday. Shes optimistic they can reach a deal by April 30, which is tax payments are due for employers.

Walz has criticized the Legislature for not yet reaching an agreement and said he will provide a path forward during his address.

Im going to call for us to get that done, Walz told reporters Wednesday. Because the deadline is truly upon us, and its simply fiscally irresponsible not to deal with it.

A spokeswoman for Senate Republicans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Across Yellowstone National Park more than 26,000 light fixtures will be converted to LED bulbs, part of a parkwide effort to meet sustainability efforts.

The Park Service announced the initiative on Friday to celebrate Earth Day. The work will be done in conjunction with Yellowstone Forever and corporate partners.

"With their support, we look forward to continuing to make progress on a wide range of important Yellowstone sustainability goals," said superintendent Cam Sholly in a statement.

These projects are aimed at mitigating climate change by conserving resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting Yellowstones resources.

The work will include:

 Commission all buildings with automated systems and implement smart building controls and technology;

 Identify and mitigate water loss from old and inefficient infrastructure;

 Assess and install EV charging infrastructure to support electric fleet vehicles.

As the worlds first national park, Yellowstone has been a leader in resource stewardship, said Lisa Diekmann, President & CEO of Yellowstone Forever. "As we look forward to the next 150 years of Yellowstone we are committed to ensuring that Yellowstone remains protected for future generations."

Corporate partners include ConocoPhillips Inc., Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. and Toyota Motor North America, Inc.

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By Trend

Modern five-star hotels, tourist centers, and catering facilities will start operating in the Azerbaijani Shusha's Dashalti village in the near future, Trend reports.

This was discussed at the closing ceremony of the 5th Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Shusha.

"Given the picturesque nature, charming landscapes, and tourism opportunities of Karabakh, our compatriots can take an active part in attracting foreign tourists to this region," the Congress participants said.

Over 400 representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora and guests from 65 countries attended the Victory Congress in Shusha.

The 1st Congress of World Azerbaijanis was held on the initiative of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev in 2001, the 2nd Congress was held following the Order of President Ilham Aliyev in 2006, the 3rd Congress - in 2011, and the 4th Congress - in 2016.
Here are some of the entertainers, leaders, athletes and other notable people we've lost so far this year.
A high-speed chase that involved Butte police officers and troopers from the Montana Highway Patrol ended with the arrest of Dominic Joseph LaForge, 30, of Gallatin Gateway.

At about 2:20 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a call from a woman who reported that a man in another car was chasing her near the 500 block of South Montana Street. This led to a pursuit that went south on Montana Street and then east on I-15 and I-90.

On Homestake Pass, the suspects car crashed into a guard rail, but he was able to turn it around and headed west once more.

A tire deflation device was quickly deployed, flattening two of LaForges tires and a MHP trooper was able to push the suspects vehicle into the median.

LaForge then allegedly attempted to push the MHP vehicle, but was unsuccessful. Officers were then able to take LaForge into custody.

He was taken to the Butte Detention Center where he was jailed for felony criminal endangerment and parole violation, and the misdemeanor offenses of obstructing a peace officer, reckless driving, and fleeing from police.

During the pursuit, a MHP vehicle was damaged, along with a Butte police car, when it collided with the suspects vehicle. No one was injured.

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Taken into custody

Two Butte people, Blaize Andrew McGlynn, 23, and Hannah Lynn Griffin, 19, were taken into custody early Thursday morning as they sat in a Toyota pickup parked outside a residence in the 2400 block of St. Ann Street.

McGlynn was arrested for misdemeanor driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol (first offense). Griffin was jailed for the misdemeanor offenses of criminal contempt warrant and possession of alcohol.

Road rage

Late Wednesday night a woman called 911 to report a road rage incident that had just occurred on Harrison Avenue that involved her and a man driving a Dodge pickup. He reportedly pointed a firearm at her and her passenger.

The woman also reported that the angry driver accelerated his truck in front of her, emitting a lot of black smoke, and yelled at her.

She was able to give a detailed description of the man, the truck and his gun, and officers were able to pull over Erick Lat Bailey, 34, of Butte. A silver hand gun was recovered from the truck.

Bailey was jailed for two felony offenses of assault with a weapon.

Several offenses

At around 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jason Michael Cuchine, 41, of Butte was seen by an officer driving a vehicle in the 2900 block of Edwards that had previously been reported stolen.

He was arrested for the felony offenses of possession of dangerous drugs (suspected methamphetamine) and buying or possessing stolen property and the misdemeanor offenses of possession of drug paraphernalia and out-of-jurisdiction warrant

Items stolen

At around 6 a.m. Wednesday it was discovered that an electric guitar and chainsaw were taken from a car parked near Santa Claus Road.

A backpack, spotting scope, Buck knife and other miscellaneous items were taken from a car Wednesday morning parked in the 1900 block of Dewey Boulevard.

Heated debate

On Wednesday morning, a man and woman staying at the Quality Inn & Suites, 2100 Cornell Ave., got into a heated debate about a cell phone. When police arrived, they had it all sorted out and were headed to Washington State

Wednesday break-ins

It was reported at around 10 a.m. Wednesday a trailer parked on Liberty Lane had been broken into.

It was discovered early Wednesday evening a flat screen TV had been taken from a residence in the 2900 block of Oregon Avenue. In addition, the back door was damaged.

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Public defenders in Montana will be getting raises after their union and state officials struck a deal, just a day after the public defenders' office said it would boost pay to help recruitment and retention efforts.

The pay hike is "front loaded," Timm Twardoski said Friday, meaning the biggest raises are going to attorneys who are newer to the job. Twardoski is the executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 9.

Entry-level attorneys who were making roughly $65,000 a year will now make more than $76,000, while attorneys in their third year are seeing a raise from about $84,000 to more than $89,000.

AFSCME Montana Council 9 and Local 3448 negotiations teams met with representatives from the Office of the State Public Defender for the talks Friday.

Twardoski said the union has essentially been in constant talks with the agency and the Legislature since the state took over running public defender operations from the counties in the 2000s. The new agreement comes as the Office of the State Public Defender has for months been making its case to state lawmakers for the need to raise pay for public defenders, who could earn more doing legal work for other state agencies. On Thursday OPD announced it had support from Gov. Greg Gianforte and the state budget office to open negotiations with the union to boost pay.

"Weve been in communication  the union and OPD  for a long time and a lot of years and of course nobody really knew where we were going to end today, but we knew recruitment and retention were an issue and this helps us all," Twardoski said.

The agency has 132 attorneys statewide, and only nine will see the smallest raise of roughly 50 cents an hour, Twardoski said.

"Those nine folks at the end, we're going to try to do something for them in the future," he said. "But if we can help 123, or 132 attorneys, that just makes sense."

The Office of the State Public Defender announced on Thursday it was immediately raising rates for its contract attorneys from $56 to $71. The higher rate had already been established in the agency's region around Yellowstone County, where the office had been struggling to assign attorneys to indigent clients due to workforce retention issues.

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Authorities say a Davenport man on methamphetamine "frantically" stole and crashed an SUV into the Mississippi River while a disabled, elderly man was inside the vehicle, killing him.

Joshua Scott Peters, 36, was arrested and charged Friday by the Muscatine County Sheriff's Office with homicide by vehicle - operating under the influence, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Peters was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison; first-degree theft, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and driving while barred.

Peters was being held Friday in the Muscatine County Jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond.

According to a criminal complaint and arrest affidavit, deputies were called at just after midnight on Friday to the Fairport State Recreation Area at 3284 Highway 22 in Muscatine for a report of a missing person and a stolen vehicle.

Deputies had previously been dispatched to the campground about an hour prior at around 11 p.m. Thursday on a report of a disturbance but did not locate any subject or vehicle involved in the incident.

Muscatine County Sheriff's deputies met with the wife and daughter of William A. Talbot, 71, of Davenport. The pair told deputies their blue 2016 Chevrolet Equinox had been stolen from the campground while they were setting up their tent and that Talbot was inside the vehicle.

According to the complaint, the wife and daughter told deputies they did not know who had stolen the vehicle.

"This was later found to be untrue," the complaint states.

A follow-up news release issued Saturday by the Muscatine County Sheriff's Office states Peters and Talbot knew each other through a family member of Talbot's.

During their investigation, deputies determined Peters, Talbot, Talbot's wife and Talbot's daughter arrived at the campground at about 8 p.m. Thursday and that Peters ingested meth roughly an hour later at about 9 p.m. At 11 p.m. an alleged altercation occurred between Peters and several unidentified individuals, court records state.

"Peters frantically got into the driver's side seat of the vehicle and fled the scene with (Talbot) in the passenger seat," according to the criminal complaint. "Witnesses advised (Talbot) attempted to get out of the vehicle and was unable to do so."

The complaint alleges Peters stole the vehicle and fled the scene without permission from either registered owner of the vehicle.

Peters turned west onto Highway 22 as he fled the campground and was driving erratically  braking, swerving and accelerating in an aggressive manner as he drove  witnesses told authorities. At some point, Peters made a U-turn on Highway 22. While traveling eastbound on the highway Peters lost control, left the roadway and entered a south ditch, authorities allege. He then struck a road sign and drove about 255 feet before reaching Tombstone Trail in Montpelier at Clark's Ferry Recreation Area, according to the criminal complaint.

Peters then turned south and drove the vehicle into the Mississippi River. He was able to escape as the vehicle began to submerge, leaving Talbot inside, authorities allege.

The vehicle sank to the bottom of the river and was located and recovered late Friday morning by Muscatine County Search and Rescue with Talbot's body inside. The Iowa State Patrol, Midtown Towing and Muscatine County Medical Examiner's Office also assisted.

While speaking with Talbot's wife and daughter, deputies were called to a report of homeowners holding at gunpoint a man "completely soaked in water and acting very strange" who had shown up at their home in Montpelier, courts records state.

The homeowners told authorities the man, later identified as Peters, stated he believed he was in a car crash and was trying to get a ride to Davenport.

"Peters exhibited signs of impairment to include the inability to sit still and provide consistent statements about the incident," Muscatine County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Walker wrote in the signed criminal complaint and arrest affidavit.

Walker wrote that Peters admitted to using methamphetamine in a post-Miranda interview. Peters also failed a field sobriety test and a sample of his blood was taken "to determine the drug content."

Peters made an initial appearance Friday morning in Muscatine County District Court and was granted a court-appointed attorney from the Public Defender's Office.

He is next scheduled to appear in court on May 2 at the Muscatine County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing.

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Russia continue the second stage of warfare with an offensive in Donbas. Yet, there are no major advances so far. As Ukraine and Russia exchange control over minor settlements, the world's countries step up in slowly but surely increasing military aid supplies to Ukraine. Mariupol remains in a dire situation where thousands of civilians and servicemen are locked in the siege of the Azovstal steel plant

Brief facts:

The United States will provide Ukraine with additional direct financial aid in the amount of $500 million

Shmyhal invites International Finance Corporation to help rebuild Ukrainian cities

Army kills up to 130 Russian invaders in eastern Ukraine in past day

The Kremlin's 'second phase' goal is to take over southern Ukraine and Donbas

Bombing, execution and torture: UN says evidence of Russian war crimes growing

Side note: news are marked in accordance with the Kyiv time zone: Eastern European Time (EET), GMT/UTC+2

Last News

10:43 Daily update on registered investigations on Russian military's war crimes:

Infographics: Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine

10:19 General Staff released an update on Russian combat losses from 24.02 to 23.04 (approx.):

Personnel  about 21600 people

Tanks  854 units

Armored Personnel Vehicles  2205 units

Artillery systems  403 units

Multiple Launch Rocket Systems  143 units

Anti-aircraft warfare systems  69 units

Aircraft / helicopters  177 / 154 units

Vehicles  1543 units

Boats / cutters  8 units

Fuel tanks  76 units

UAV operational-tactical level  182 units

Special equipment  27 units

Mobile SRBM system  4 units

09:55 General Staff: operational information regarding the Russian invasion as of 06:00, 23.04.2022. Key points of the report:

The greatest activity of Russians is observed in Slobozhansky and Donetsk directions (Eastern Ukraine). Units of Russian occupiers are regrouping.

In the northeast, the occupiers are carrying out reconnaissance using UAVs. There is a threat of "false flag" provocations by Russian forces in Glushkovo, Russia, at the Ukraine-Russia border.

The occupiers have deployed an S-300VM battery to bolster their air defense near the city of Skadovsk, Southern Ukraine. They try to create favorable conditions for advance

There are indications that units of the 64th Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, which took an active part in the mass killings, torture and rape of civilians in Bucha city, are now operating in the area of Izyum and have already suffered casualties.

Russian private military company "Wagner" has trained up to 200 people to replenish the reserves. The advanced group of the mercenaries was transferred to the Novobakhmutivka district to reconnoiter the area and clarify the order of actions. The information is being clarified.

09:12 Canada Delivered M777 Howitzers and Carl Gustaf missiles in military aid to Ukraine

"The M777 lightweight 155-mm towed howitzer is lighter and smaller, yet more powerful than any gun of its kind," the National Defence department wrote in a statement. "The M777 provides indirect firepower capable of accurately hitting targets at a range of distances up to 30km."

In addition to the howitzers, Canada provided more ammunition for Carl Gustaf ATGMs.

More details in the story from Defense Express:

Illustraticve photo: U.S. Marine Corps attach a M777 howitzer to a helicopter during a training in April 2017 / Photo credit: Vertical Flight Society

07:14 SSSCIP of Ukraine has revealed the list of five hackers groups that attack Ukraine on cyberfront

State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine reports 802 cyberattacks on critical infrastructure in the first quarter of the year 2022. For comparison, last year, during the same period 362 attacks were detected.

Together with the state cybersecurity company CERT-UA, SSSCIP outlined five key hacking groups connected mostly with Russia or Belarus:

UAC-0010 aka Armageddon (GammaLoad, GammaDrop, HarvesterX): the so-called advanced persistent threat (APT) group of the FSB of the Russian Federation UAC-0041 (AgentTesla, XLoader): hacktivists from Russia UAC-0056 (Pandora hVNC, RemoteUtilities, GrimPlant, GraphSteel): Russian hacktivists-cyberspies UAC-0051 a.k,a, UNC1151: another APT-group with links to Belarus UAC-0028 a.k.a. APT28: APT-,     . APT-group connected with Russian intelligence

SSSCIP believes there is close contact and information sharing between those hackers and Russian intelligence.

05:30 Spain provided 200 tons of ammunition and dozens of vehicles to Ukraine

"I want to announce that a new batch of weapons has been sent to Ukraine. Spanish ship Isabel, which today departed from a Spanish port for Poland, carries 200 tonnes of ammunition and other materials, 30 trucks loaded with military supplies, and 20 armored vehicles," said Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain following the meeting with his Dutch counterpart Mette Frederiksen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukrinform reports.

More details in Defense Express coverage:

Auxiliary cargo ship of the Spanish Navy, Ysabel / Illustrative photo from open sources

05:19 The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will pay a visit to Ukraine. He will meet with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 28. Guterres will also meet with staff of UN agencies to discuss the humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine, goes the statement from his secretary Stephane Dujarric.

02:16 The UK is considering sending tanks to Poland to further provide Ukraine with Soviet-era tanks

Tanks would be sent to "backfill" in Poland so Warsaw can send to Kyiv the T-72 tanks  which Ukrainian troops are familiar with. Prime Minister of UK Boris Johnson mentioned the potential plan when speaking in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

Challenger II battle tanks could potentially replace the Soviet-era T-72s at Polish current disposal.

He said it is essential to step up immediate military support to Kyiv, warning there is a "realistic possibility" the conflict could drag on for a "long period". More details here:

Polish T-72 / Open source photo

01:23 Eight attacks of the Russian invaders were repulsed by the Ukrainian military in Donbas on April 22.

9 tanks, 3 artillery systems, 18 units of armored vehicles, 1 armored combat vehicle, 13 units of motor vehicles, and 1 tanker of the Russian forces were eliminated as well as four UAVs.

More details and footage in a publication from Defense Express:

01:00 According to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who delivered a video address to the nation on Friday, April 23, russias plans to seize the southern part of Ukraine to gain a corridor to the border with Moldova only confirm the assumption that invading Ukraine was Russias first step on the path of capturing other countries.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

Today, with reference to the Russian military, the news was spread that their task now is allegedly to establish control over the south of Ukraine and reach the Moldovan border. And allegedly there, in Moldova, the rights of Russian-speakers are violated.() Well, this only confirms what I have said many times: the Russian invasion of Ukraine was intended only as a beginning, then they want to capture other countries, said Zelensky.

Read also: The losses of the Russian army in Ukraine exceeded 21,000 soldiers - the General Staff

Russia has officially acknowledged that it wants to seize both the east and the south of Ukraine
Napa County recently passed a law allowing micro-wineries, paving the way for family farms and small-scale growers to build their brands and sell their wine without making overwhelming infrastructure investments. But behind the years of discussion and legislative jargon making up the ordinance, though, are also the farmers and their families tending to the relevant properties.

To them, this ordinance is more than just a set of rules and regulations for them to operate under: It is also a chance to hold off on buyouts and keep their family farm actually in the family.

We are most excited for the opportunity to have direct-to-consumer sales, and to be able to bring people out to our vineyard and our home to share that with them and be able to pour wine, said Hannah Rahn, who grew up on her familys Howell Mountain estate alongside her brother, Dylan. It really is a game-changer for our family.

As small producers of wine, distributors dont really work for us, so being able to have the public here and sell directly to them is the only way that we can really make a wine program for our small label viable, she said.

As per the ordinance, producers like the Rahn Estate have a series of criteria they must fit  they must produce between 201 and 5,000 gallons of wine a year, cap their physical space at 5,000 square-feet and limit visits to ten round trips a day  and go through a permitting process, which requires a slew of impact studies, code inspections and the like.

Regardless of the rules, the Rahns are excited they can start making some type of headway.

I honestly thought the opportunity for us to do this was gone, said Hannahs father, Bryan Rahn. The families that do this, once it is in your blood it never leaves you. So for those of us that are left, it gives us a chance  not a guarantee  that we can continue.

In addition to the revenue generated from hosting visitors on-site, the Rahns also said that if all goes well in these future tasting rooms, building a more expansive wine club and consumer base could lead to greater autonomy for them and other small-scale vintners.

Growers really rely on the sale of your grapes to make a profit, and some years it is more challenging than others and you kind of are at the mercy of the people who are going to be purchasing your fruit, said Hannah Rahn. This kind of helps take that pressure off. If it is going to be a harder year to sell, we can put it into the wine program, and we can profit off that because we will have an avenue to sell it.

in the greater scheme of things, this ordinance doesnt really change much other than decreasing the administrative burden. In simple terms, no new parcels are being created, and everyone now eligible under the micro-winery law was already previously eligible to apply for a larger-scale winery permit.

According to Elise Nerlove of Elkhorn Peak Cellars, The only difference between the micro-winery application and the traditional winery application is that micro-wineries will go through the zoning administrator for approval, as opposed to the planning commission.

Alongside her duties as second-generation winemaker, Nerlove has been spearheading the Save the Family Farms movement, lobbying for micro-winery legislation at the county-level and initiating a whole lot of conversations with government officials over the last four years. As a lifelong Napan, she understands why folks clench up when they hear that a new winery law is being proposed, and thus has been trying to share that the STFF mission is not to commercialize the valley, but to empower existing, small-scale wineries that dont want to launch massive operations.

Some community members are still hesitant about the idea of micro-wineries, though, with citizens and government officials expressing concerns over corporate takeovers, traffic issues and water-use violations. But over the course of the proposals life, it has morphed into its current form, which includes the conditions that micro-wineries have to grow at least 75% of their fruit on-site and ferment at least 201 gallons at their own location each year in hopes of avoiding brands that rely heavily on custom-crush facilities.

As a result, on March 10 the Napa Valley Vintners issued a letter to Napa Countys planning, building and environmental services director David Morrison, and essentially stated that given these clarifications, the trade group publicly supports the proposal.

We have had robust discussions on this issue within a dedicated working group, with our community and industry issues committee and within the NVV board of directors, board chair Jack Bittner wrote in the letter. It is our hope that the micro-winery use permit pathway will provide real benefits and lessen the administrative burden on small family farms  We also hope that anyone who might seek to abuse the provisions of this ordinance will refrain from doing anything that could jeopardize broad industry, community and political support for this program in the future.

Similarly, Nerlove, the Rahns and others in a similar situation hope that local growers will benevolently use the ordinance to their advantage, and are optimistic about the future outcome. There is a whole lot of time and energy that will be required to pull off this micro-winery scheme.

Nerlove says they have the same building code standards, septic requirements and the like as any other winery  so despite the perception that micro-wineries can just skip to the front of the line  she said the opposite is true.

She added the ordinance still only applies to properties 10 acres or larger, noting this minimum parcel rule has been in place since 1990.

A lot of people also misunderstand that the process is still quite lengthy, she said. You have to have the water  which likely means you have to put in a new septic system  and you have to have the roads, and those are both significant investments.

So while the repercussions of this ordinance wont likely be felt for years, the gears are starting to shift for the valleys small-scale producers.

I am ready for the work, said Nerlove. I know it is going to be difficult, I know it is going to be costly, but I am just one generation in hopefully a long lineage of farmers and grape growers in Napa County.

And for the Rahn family, they dont see there being another choice.

If we sold this place, I would never be able to drive by this piece of land and not get emotional about it. Dylan and I grew up here, said Hannah Rahn. We did not purchase this vineyard  we purchased the property and developed this vineyard as kids  There is just such an emotional tie, and I dont think anyone else can treat it as right as we are.

You can reach Sam Jones at 707-256-2221 and sjones@napanews.com.

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A plan to dredge the Napa River later this year could bring up to 100 daily truck trips to South Jefferson Street for the purpose of depositing 40,000 cubic yards of dirt in an area planned to eventually become a city of Napa park.

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Thats according to a town hall meeting focused on telling community members about the plan held Thursday by representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

About 20 Napa residents attended the meeting, and some shared concerns about traffic, safety and the current condition of South Jefferson Street.

In total, 52,000 cubic yards of dredged material is anticipated to be pulled out of the Napa River from August to December this year for the purpose of keeping much of the Napa River channel at around 10 feet of depth.

Al Paniccia, San Francisco District navigation program manager for the corps, said the larger point of the dredging projects is to maintain waterways, particularly those with a high or moderate level of commercial use.

He said the corps dredges the Napa River  covering an area from the city of Napas Third Street Bridge all the way down to near Vallejo  about every six years, though the actual frequency depends on federal funding. The most recent Napa River dredging project was in 2016, he said.

Richard Thomasser, manager of the flood district, said the dredging is planned to start near the Third Street Bridge to Riverside Drive, which is where about half the planned dredged material is located. Much of the rest of the material is located from an area near the Napa Valley Yacht Club to the Imola Bridge.

Around 5,000 cubic yards of planned dredging material is located south of the bridge, Thomasser said. The corps will be limiting working hours for areas immediately adjacent to buildings  covering most of the work area  to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, he added.

The actual dredging, unlike in past years, will be carried out using a clamshell method, which involves digging out the sediment with a large bucket. Thats because the sediment thats planned for dredging is too big for the previous hydraulic pumping method, Thomasser said.

The type of material were seeing in the predominately shoaled areas this year is really a sandy gravely material, its not typical bay mud or anything like that, its actually fairly coarse-grained, Thomasser said. Thats difficult for the hydraulic dredging approach and thus is why the clamshell approach is being used.

But as a result of switching up the dredging method, he said, the corps wont be able to use the former homeless encampment known as The Bowl. It will instead be dumped on flood district property on South Coombs Street, adjacent to the Wine Valley Lodge, and then trucked to Imola Avenue beyond the southern end of South Jefferson Street.

Andrew Butler, flood control project manager for the dredging project, said the trucking will generally occur at the same time as the dredging. Not all of the 52,000 is planned to go to the South Jefferson site, he said, because some of it will be spread around the drop-off point on Coombs Street.

Butler said there will be about 4,000 round truck trips, with a potential 100 trips a day. But he added that its difficult to predict exactly how the trucking situation will play out.

Were really just going to be trying to keep up with the soil as its coming in, Butler said. Obviously were going to be on top of any safety concerns.

Some community members asked questions about the fecal matter content of the dredged material. Thomasser responded that the dredged sediment isnt really going to contain much and that trucking the material doesnt present a route of exposure to be concerned about.

Community members also brought up safety concerns related to how traffic in the area would be affected by the truck trips. And several spoke to the poor condition of South Jefferson Street and asked whether there was a paving plan.

Thomasser said one possibility that could help with traffic is that the flood district could stockpile the dirt and spread the truck trips out over time.

He added that the district will be carrying a reconstruction survey of South Jefferson Street and, if the damage is caused to the road, the district will either fix it themselves or make an arrangement with the city to pave the street.

Julie Lucido, the citys public works director, said the city will be determining after the dredging work is done what will be the best way to proceed with South Jefferson Street. For now, she said, repaving the street isnt going to happen this year or next year.

Plans for a South Jefferson Park  which will be enabled, to some degree, by the dredging project  are also a long way off, Lucido said, given that the project isnt funded yet and planning on the park hasnt happened in years.

You can reach Edward Booth at 707-256-2213.

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President of the European Council Charles Michel made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on April 23.

During the telephone conversation, the sides touched upon the trilateral meeting held at the initiative and with the participation of European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels on 6 April, and stressed the importance of tangible and results-oriented work in accordance with the agreements reached.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked President of the European Council Charles Michel for his support and continuous attention to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the demarcation and delimitation of borders, preparation of a peace agreement between the two countries and the opening of transport and communication lines.

The President of Azerbaijan noted that according to the results of the Brussels meeting, the Azerbaijani side had determined the composition of the national commission for the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and a delegation to draft the peace agreement between the two countries, adding that Azerbaijan was ready for negotiations with Armenia in the Baku-Yerevan format. President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of taking into account the five principles presented by Azerbaijan for negotiations on a peace agreement.

President Charles Michel said he would continue his efforts to normalize the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and contribute to a lasting peace in the South Caucasus region.

The intention of the European Union to support Azerbaijan in its mine-clearance efforts and the determination of the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who have been missing since the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war was praised during the conversation.

The sides also exchanged views on prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union, as well as other issues of mutual interest.
Before April 9, the chances of the Edwards family of St. Helena meeting the Romanchenko family of Odesa, Ukraine would have been slim to none.

Neither knew the other existed. Today, not only have they met, but the Edwards are now hosting the Romanchenko family at their St. Helena property and are effectively sponsoring them for up to six months.

It was a leap of faith for us, and it was a leap of faith for them, said Jane Edwards.

Is like a miracle from God for us, said Igor Romanchenko.

The steps to this international "matchmaking" started in Odesa, where until early April, three generations of the Romanchenko family lived.

Igor Romanchenko, 31, and Anastasiia Romanchenko, 25, are parents of Emma Romanchenko, who just turned 4. Then theres Igor Romanchenkos mother, Svitlana Romanchenko, who is 54. At the head of the family is grandmother and great-grandmother Larysa Berezovska, who is 81.

Igor Romanchenko is a university-trained seaman, who is usually away at sea for extended periods of time, he said in practiced English. When the Russians started attacking Ukraine in late February, he was working on a ship near Dubai.

As the days of the invasion passed, the family became quite alarmed. Odesa has a huge seaport, explained Romanchenko. From our windows, [they] can see warships and missiles, being launched. It was so scary.

The family lived in three separate apartments near a military base, another target of the Russian army.

All houses around this military base is in danger, said Romanchenko. At least three times a day, sirens would sound and everyone would rush to underground bomb shelters.

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The family had another very good reason to be worried. Anastasiia Romanchenko is eight months pregnant. Their baby boy is due May 20.

For us, it was not an option to remain there, said Igor Romanchenko. They did not want to deliver their baby in a bomb shelter during a war.

By this time, he was able to make his way to Poland. Now he had to get the rest of the family out of the country.

Even though many Ukrainian bank accounts were frozen, Romanchenko was able to access some funds to hire a car to take his family to a border crossing at Budomierz, Poland.

'We left everything'

Besides what they could fit in two suitcases, We left everything, behind, he said. Its so sad, especially for his grandmother, said Igor Romanchenko. All her life; everything she left. And for an elderly person is quite hard, he said. For me and my wife, is traumatic but for her is so traumatic.

After a driver dropped them off as close to the border as possible, the women walked all night and morning to cross into Poland and the family was finally reunited.

It was a turning point in their evacuation, said Romanchenko. When we meet together, we can breathe more slowly."

Unfortunately, Poland has been overwhelmed with Ukrainian refugees. We have zero options in Poland, he realized.

Then the family heard about a church organization that had some connection to California. Try and get to California, and youll find assistance, is the advice he was given.

By this time Svitlana Romanchenko, who had left Ukraine separately, was able to enter the U.S. She also headed to California  Sacramento, to be exact. The plan was to reunite in the capital city.

Using savings, the rest of the Romanchenkos flew to Toronto, Canada.

Then, they literally walked to the Canada/U.S. border at Niagara Falls.

It was called the Rainbow Bridge, Anastasiia Romanchenko recalled.

By this time, they were all extremely nervous, said Igor Romanchenko. His grandmother was praying nonstop.

Napan supports Ukrainian family and friends from afar Napan Thomas Ault lives part time in Ukraine. He's now helping coordinate war relief efforts.

What if the U.S. immigration officers would not admit them? What if they had to turn around?

However, a very nice immigration officer met them at the boundary. We showed him our passports and he started a little bit crying, after realizing they were Ukrainian war refugees, he said.

There was yet one more obstacle to entering the U.S.

Igor Romanchenko had managed to get a tourist visa to enter the country. But because the rest of the family had not, they were required to pay a fee of $585 per person for a visa waiver.

For Ukraine, [this is] quite a lot of money, he said.

After seeing that such an amount was beyond their means, the one officer consulted another.

The fee would be waived, he informed them, writing Unforeseen Emergency Waiver in pen inside the blue entry stamp in their passports.

Welcome to the U.S.A., said the officer to the family.

In a daze, the Romanchenkos cried and hugged each other.

We were so happy, Igor Romanchenko said. We are in the U.S. We are on safe side. Yes, its like a movie, he admitted, but real life.

It was really God give us chance to escape, he said.

Of course, their journey to California wasnt over yet. The family spent the night in a hotel in Buffalo. To try and find cheaper airfare, they were able to rent a car and drive to Toledo, Ohio. A local family took them in, and even helped pay for plane tickets to the West Coast.

An April 14 flight took them to Salt Lake City and then, finally, Sacramento, where Bob Edwards was waiting.

All Americans are lucky, and weve been luckier than most, said Edwards, a retired insurance company executive. He said he knew his family wanted to do something to support Ukrainian refugees.

We can easily afford to provide a safe haven for a Ukrainian family so why not help a family in every way possible?

From researching aid organizations, the Ukraine consulate in San Francisco referred him to ukrainetakeshelter.com.

Little did he know that Anastasiia Romanchenko had been using the same website, desperately looking for anyone who would take them in  hopefully in California.

Emails were quickly exchanged and Edwards said he'd pick them up at the Sacramento airport.

He was first California person who we meet, said Igor Romanchenko. Was hard to believe we meet this kind of person that was so open; is hard to believe he is real.

He then drove the Romanchenkos to their new home, a guest house on his property in the hills above Lake Hennessey.

'Everyone is stepping up'

Shortly after that, Edwards placed an ad in the Napa Valley Register hoping to find permanent housing for the Romanchenkos. (Before this emergency, the Edwards family had already initiated plans to sell the guest house property, but the Romanchenkos can stay for the meantime.)

Napa Valley native becomes Ukrainian refugee When war broke out in Ukraine, this Napa Valley man (and his Ukrainian girlfriend) became refugees. This is their story.

He also took the family shopping for clothes, food and other necessities. Other neighbors pitched in, one loaning an extra car. The UpValley Family Centers provided aid. The family is eligible for care from OLE Health; including the new baby arriving in May. A GoFundMe account was started.

Everyone is stepping up, said Bob Edwards.

To see the immediate struggles and worries of a lovely young family subside, has certainly added joy to their lives, he said.

But probably our greatest surprise was to learn what a strong safety net exists in Napa Valley, in part due to established organizations and in part to generous citizens, including UpValley Family Centers, Community Health Initiative, the St. Helena Food Bank, and OLE Health.

What an exceptional community we live in, said Edwards.

To help the Romanchenkos A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Romanchenko family who fled the war in Ukraine and are now living in St. Helena. https://gofund.me/73ef618d

Romanchenko said after their son is born, he plans to look for work in either Napa Valley or possibly at a port in the Bay Area.

There was more good news. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Ukrainian nationals who arrived in the U.S. since April 11 can apply for 18 months of Temporary Protected Status. This means the family can breathe a little easier about their immigration status.

This new St. Helenan said he never imagined hed live in the United States. Maybe it was a dream, like something youd see on TV. But we never think this dream become so true.

The Edwards not only gave them a house but in his mind, they give us permission to enter his family, said Romanchenko.

Thank you so much for people of United States; for Bob and Jean to meet us, he said. Thank you that we are safe.

You can reach reporter Jennifer Huffman at 707-256-2218 or jhuffman@napanews.com

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Residents of several residence halls at the Yountville Veterans Home have been told this week to isolate themselves in their rooms to mitigate the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak among residents and staff members.

One of the isolated residents who asked not to be identified said the isolation started April 20, when management delivered guidelines to the doors of residents who might have been exposed. The guidelines ask the residents to stay in their rooms until theyre cleared by three negative tests spread out over the next two weeks, as first reported by the Yountville Sun.

Meals are being delivered to the isolated residents, according to the guidelines. Residents are being asked to wear provided N-95 masks whenever they leave their room, and they're also being asked to not go to the main common areas, that medications will be delivered to their rooms, and that staff will be checking in to make sure the residents don't have COVID-19 symptoms.

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Napa County has reported 16 COVID-19 cases since April 15 among residents and staff at the home. The Yountville Veterans Home information officer, Joshua Kiser, said there are now fewer than 11 positive cases

Overall, Napa County reported 163 new cases this week, a 73% increase over the 93 identified last week, but well below the thousands of cases that were being reported each week in January.

Kiser said he couldn't give any additional details.

"When positives occur, the Home follows all infection control protocols including, proactive testing, contact tracing and isolation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19," Kiser said. "Isolation protocols vary depending on: level of care, number of potential exposures, size and occupancy of the residential buildings, etc. All of which is in collaboration with state and county health officials."

You can reach Edward Booth at 707-256-2213.

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EU considers additional funds for eastern countries for a deal to ban Russian oil

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The traditional torchlight processionon the eve of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocidewill get underway soon from the Republic Square of Yerevan (PHOTOS).

The annual torchlight procession dedicated to the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide this year has the slogan "Wake up, Lao."

Second President Robert Kocharyan and third President Serzh Sargsyan also will take part in this procession.

And Artur Vanetsyanthe leader of the opposition "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly (NA) and chairman of the opposition Homeland party of Armenia, who has been on a sit-in for already a week now at Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan, and his supporters will join this torchlight procession from the aforesaid square.

Ishkhan Saghatelyanthe NA deputy speaker from the opposition "Armenia" Faction and a representative of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party Supreme Bodystated earlier today there is a need to show and prove the whole world that "we are the masters of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), we are the masters of our statehood, and we are the masters of the future of the Armenian people for which we are ready to fight, and as of April 25 uninterrupted protests, steps and actions will start all over Armenia."

The torchlight procession will go to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.

Along with the torchlight procession in Yerevan, there will be a similar procession in the Artsakh capital Stepanakert.

A torchlight processions have been held every year in both Yerevan and Stepanakert. But this year these processions are more crucial amid the current crisis in the Artsakh issue.
The traditional torchlight processionon the eve of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocidehas kicked off from the Republic Square, and its participants are marching through the streets of downtown Yerevan (PHOTOS).

The procession is jam-packed.

Second and third Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan are also taking part in this march.

The clergy are marching in front of the procession.

At Republic Square, the participants of the march set the flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey on fire, and the torches were lit from that fire.

Before the start of the torchlight procession, Ishkhan Saghatelyanthe National Assembly deputy speaker from the opposition "Armenia" Faction and a representative of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party Supreme Bodydelivered an address, noting that this procession, which has been held every year since 1999, has received a new meaning this year, as Armenians are now facing existential dangers.

"This is a decisive march of resistance," Saghatelyan said.

Also, he appealed to the Armenians living in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and the diaspora, calling for a united struggle.
EU agrees deal to tame internet 'Wild West'

The regulations will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Photo: Shutterstock

The European Union early on Saturday finalised new legislation to require Big Tech to remove harmful content, the bloc's latest move to rein in the world's online giants.



The Digital Services Act (DSA)  the second part of a massive project to regulate tech companies  aims to ensure tougher consequences for platforms and websites that host a long list of banned content ranging from hate speech to disinformation and child sexual abuse images.



EU officials and parliamentarians finally reached agreement at talks in Brussels early on Saturday on the legislation, which has been in the works since 2020.



"Yes, we have a deal!," European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton tweeted.



"With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are 'too big to care' is coming to an end. A major milestone for EU citizens," said Breton, who has previously described the internet as the "Wild West".



"Today's agreement on DSA is historic," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.



"Our new rules will protect users online, ensure freedom of expression and opportunities for businesses. What is illegal offline will effectively be illegal online in the EU."



The regulation is the companion to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targeted anti-competitive practices among tech behemoths such as Google and Facebook and was concluded in late March.



The legislation had faced lobbying from the tech companies and intense debate over the extent of freedom of speech.



Tech giants have been repeatedly called out for failing to police their platforms  a New Zealand terrorist attack that was live-streamed on Facebook in 2019 caused global outrage, and the chaotic insurrection in the US last year was promoted online.



The dark side of the internet also includes e-commerce platforms filled with counterfeit or defective products.



The regulation will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Social networks would have to suspend users who frequently breach the law.



The DSA will force e-commerce sites to verify the identity of suppliers before proposing their products.



While many of the DSA's stipulations cover all companies, it lays out special obligations for "very large platforms", defined as those with more than 45 million active users in the European Union.



The list of companies has not yet been released but will include giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as Twitter and probably the likes of TikTok, Zalando and Booking.com.



These players will be obliged to assess the risks associated with the use of their services and remove illegal content.



They will also be required to be more transparent about their data and algorithms.



The European Commission will oversee yearly audits and be able to impose fines of up to six percent of their annual sales for repeated infringements.



Among the practices expected to be outlawed is the use of data on religion or political views for targeted advertising.



Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen caused a huge stir last year when she accused her former bosses of prioritising profits over the welfare of users.



She hailed in November the "enormous potential" of the European regulation project, which could become a "reference" for other countries, including the United States.



However, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) fears the text does not go far enough.



It wants a ban on all advertising based on the surveillance of internet users, and random checks on online vendors' products. (AFP)
After Moscow visit, UN chief to meet Zelenskyy

Antonio Guterres plans to meet Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to make an urgent, face-to-face plea for peace in Ukraine. Photo: AP

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with President Vladimir Putin about the war, the UN said on Friday.



Guterres will see Zelenskyy and Ukraine's foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow, the United Nations said in a statement.



The Kremlin confirmed on Friday that Putin would meet Guterres on Tuesday.



Guterres sent letters this week requesting these in-person meetings to try to regain the initiative for the UN, which has been largely marginalised from the crisis since Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24.



In part this is because the war has divided the UN Security Council permanent members: the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia.



With the letters he sent on Tuesday, Guterres sought to spur dialogue to end the war.



"At this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week.



Guterres has had little contact with Zelenskyy since the war began, speaking with him just once by telephone, on March 26.



Putin has not taken Guterres's phone calls, or had any contact with him, since the UN chief stated that the offensive violated the UN charter. (AFP)
Health authorities on Saturday reported 523 new Covid-19 infections, down by about 50 cases from the day before.About half of the cases were identified through rapid antigen tests, while the rest were confirmed by laboratories.Officials said they are closely monitoring the Covid figures for these two weeks to see if the easing of the outbreak can be sustained, noting that there was increased transmission risks from the Easter holidays and the resumption of face-to-face classes at schools."Overall, the epidemic situation is stable, and there's a trend of infections slowly dropping," said Dr Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection.Thirteen of the new cases were imported from countries such as Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore.An additional nine Covid patients died. They were aged between 66 and 102 years old.The latest deaths brought the death toll in the fifth wave to 9,023.______________________________General Covid-19 situation: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/ Covid-19 testing: https://www.communitytest.gov.hk/en/ Community testing notices: 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
By Trend

It took less than two months for Turkey to construct two fully equipped hospitals in Istanbul in response to the emergency stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Istanbul was a hot spot of the pandemic then with the highest number of cases. For hospitals, which gave a lifeline to the health care system in the city, the burden of treating coronavirus cases is now gradually easing, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Their administrators say that they could always function as emergency hospitals in case of a new surge in the pandemic or any other future situation but, in the meantime, they will mostly cater to patients suffering from other illnesses.

The hospitals, named after professors Murat Dilmener and Feriha Oz, two prominent physicians who succumbed to the coronavirus, were constructed in Yeshilkoy on Istanbuls European side and Sancaktepe on the Asian side.

Professor Gokhan Tolga Adash, chief physician of Professor Murat Dilmener Emergency Hospital, says they provide health care services to people suffering from other illnesses and conditions nowadays but there are plans in place that can convert the hospital into an emergency hospital in just a few hours in the event of a new pandemic or disaster.

The two hospitals have served more than 1 million outpatients and over 50,000 patients who needed hospitalization, including some 9,000 patients in need of intensive care, since they opened two years ago. Today, there are less than 50 COVID-19 patients in both hospitals while the number of people in intensive care due to the coronavirus is around 20. Intensive care units, the main components of the hospitals in the early days of the pandemic since the initial strain required intensive care, are now open to other patients. Surgery rooms have also been opened.

Health authorities hope that they will add to the capacity of hospitals in Istanbul, especially at a time when hospitals are expecting an influx in light of decreasing coronavirus cases. Authorities and experts say most people avoided visiting hospitals over the two years of the pandemic and some even delayed their surgeries throughout this period. With a drop in the cases, hospitals are again viewed as safe and more patients are expected to apply, putting a strain on the health care sector whose members worked long hours and mentally suffered during the tough times of the pandemic.

Though they are informally dubbed pandemic hospitals, the two facilities are more than that, with wards and surgery rooms for different branches, from internal medicine to maternity wards and interventional radiology. In Murat Dilmener hospital, the number of non-COVID-19 admissions has already risen to around 800 daily.
The security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have eliminated two Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists belonging to a suicide squad, who could be a part of a "big conspiracy" to sabotage Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the union territory, J-K Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said on Friday. The joint operation was led by the Civil Society Forum (CSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and the Indian Army in the Sunjwan on Thursday night. "The operation was carried out the entire night in which two Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists were eliminated. The two terrorists were part of JEM's suicide squad, launched from Pakistan. They came wearing suicide vests." " Terrorists were tasked with targeting a camp of the security forces or engaging... to inflict a lot of casualties," the director-general of police told media persons. According to the police, the terrorists killed were planning a suicide attack in any area with heavily deployed security. "Acting on a specific tip, a joint operation was launched by the CSF, CRPF, and the Indian Army during the night. As the firing continued during the search, some of the security personnel deployed at the outer cordon were injured, while one CSF Assistant of sub-inspector (ASI) SP Patel got martyred," he added. "It is very unfortunate that the incident took place right before the Prime Minister's visit. It is a part of some huge conspiracy to disturb the peace and harmony of Jammu. It could also be a part of a greater conspiracy to sabotage the PM's visit," he said further. However, DGP denied terrorists planning to target PM Modi's rally. He further said a huge cache of weapons including numerous grenades were recovered including medicines and eatables. PM Modi's visit to Jammu's Samba is scheduled on Sunday (April 24), on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Diwas, to address the panchayats of the country from Palli, Jammu and Kashmir. He also stated, "the sudden launch of terrorists in the area and their immediate action for the task assigned, makes it appear like a fresh infiltration, as they were no terrorism background found." The DGP also mentioned that three arms, several grenades, energy drinks, and medicines (often carried by the Fidayeens) were recovered from their possession. (ANI)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday said that his government would set up 600 'village secretariats' in the state to help implement its schemes in rural areas. Speaking in the Assembly, he noted that these village secretariats would have internet connections, room for Panchayat Presidents, Secretaries, and village administrative officers, as well as meeting halls and facilities for basic amenities. The village secretariats will be constructed at a cost of Rs 40 lakh each and would also coordinate efforts to implement schemes operated by the Departments of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Revenue, Social Welfare, and Farmers Welfare. The Chief Minister also said that Gram Sabha meetings will be held six times a year instead of the present four times a year. Presently, these are held on Republic Day (January 26), Independence Day (August 15), Labour Day ( May 1), and the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (October 2). Grama sabhas will now also meet on World Water Day (March 22) and Local Governance Day (November 1). Stalin also said that the sitting fee for the elected representatives of the district panchayats and the panchayat unions will be increased by ten times on the day when the meetings are held. The sitting fee of the Presidents and members of Village panchayats will be increased by five times on the day of the sitting. This was following several representations from the members of the district panchayats, panchayat unions, and village panchayats, he said. He also said that vehicles will be provided to the presidents of the panchayat unions. Stalin said that the then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi had in 2008 granted vehicles for the presidents of 385 panchayat unions but they were not purchased in the past ten years. He said that the vehicles for panchayat presidents would be purchased immediately. The Chief Minister said that his government would resume conferring the Uthamar Gandhi Village Panchayat Award to the best performing village panchayat on 10 parameters. The award will carry a cash component of Rs 10 lakh and one village panchayat will be selected from the 37 districts of the state. He also said that the AIADMK government that succeeded the previous DMK government had discontinued the award that was instituted by the DMK government in 2006. --IANS aal/vd ( 393 Words) 2022-04-22-20:12:03 (IANS)
In a shocking incident, a 12-year-old boy was arrested by the Tanjavur All Women Police after a 17-year-old girl gave birth to a girl after being raped by the boy. He was held under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (Pocso) Act. However, when contacted, the police at Tanjavur All Women Police station told IANS that even though the girl had named the 12-year-old boy, the police are investigating whether anyone else was involved in it. The police said that the girl was admitted to Raja Mirasudar government hospital on April 16 after she complained of stomach pain. Doctors examining her found that she was nine months pregnant and she delivered a baby girl the same day. The hospital authorities informed the Tanjavur All Women Police station and questioned the girl. She named a 12-year-old boy who lived in the same neighbourhood. The Tanjavur All Women Police arrested the boy under the Pocso Act Section 5(1) and 5 (j)(ii). The boy has been sent to a juvenile home in Tanjavur. The police said that they are conducting a DNA test on the boy to ascertain his age and to find out whether he is the biological father of the child. Tanjavur All Women Police inspector, Ravimathi told IANS that the police are conducting a detailed investigation and have questioned the parents of the girl. --IANS aal/bg ( 244 Words) 2022-04-22-20:34:05 (IANS)
Two non-local labrouers were injured at Nowgam in Srinagar district on Friday after terrorists fired upon them, officials said. The victims, both from West Bengal, were rushed to the SMHS hospital in Srinagar, where the condition of one is stated to be critical while the other is stable. "Terrorists fired upon two non-local labourers in the Nowgam area on the outskirts of Srinagar. The area has been cordoned off and a search operation is underway to nab the miscreants," the police said. --IANS zi/sq/arm ( 95 Words) 2022-04-22-20:42:02 (IANS)
The Congress dissident group 'G-23' is preparing for another round of face-off with the party leadership as it waits for the outcome of the top brass meet with political strategist Prashant Kish or. Sources in the group say that party leadership is overlooking and ignoring in-house talents and relying on somebody who is not loyal to the party and is a professional consultant. They say that what all PK, as Kishor is popularly known, is telling the Congress leadership have been raised by the group in their letter to interim President Sonia Gandhi and in subsequent meetings. PK is suggesting a non-Gandhi President, revival of parliamentary board, end of nepotism, and turning party into an election machine - all these issues have been raised by the group and this can happen only when the party goes for election from the grass root level to the CWC level, said a source. The Congress leaders may disagree to the suggestions of some outside the Gandhi family leading the party but sources indicate that Kishor has suggested a massive revamp of the party. The final decision is likely to be taken by Sonia Gandhi, after she goes through the report submitted by the sub-group she set up to examine his recommendations. However, the G-23 is upset at not being consulted for the ongoing discussions on the proposals given by Kishor as roadmap for the 2024 general elections. On Wednesday, two Congress CMs, Ashok Gehlot from Rajasthan and Bhupesh Baghel from Chhattisgarh, were called to Delhi to discuss the proposals. While a host of Congress leaders were present for the discussions, ever since the formal consultations began on the proposals, G-23 leaders were not made party to them, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is one of the seniormost party leaders. However, Veerappa Moily, who was one of the signatories of the letter written to Sonia Gandhi by the G-23, has welcomed the move to rope in Kishor. The Congress is now more focused on Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, which will go to the polls later this year, as success in state polls will be crucial going to the general elections in 2024. In total, there are six big state Assembly elections ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. --IANS miz/vd ( 387 Words) 2022-04-22-20:44:01 (IANS)
Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has snubbed UK Labour Party MP Naz Shah, asking her not to convert her prejudiced agenda of 'India Phobia' into 'Islamophobia'. "Please, don't convert your prejudiced agenda of 'India Phobia' into 'Islamophobia'. Every Indian citizen including Minorities is safe and secure in India. 'Co-existence' is our commitment and 'Inclusivity' is our culture," Naqvi said in a tweet tagging Naz Shah. Naqvi's remarks came in response to a tweet by Naz Shah that said: "My message to @BorisJohnson on his visit to India is that our nation's foreign relations must not just be based on trade & internationalism but also on human rights. My plea to the @10DowningStreet is to raise the growing issue of Islamophobia with the Modi Government." "The rising tide of everyday hate & mob lynching against Muslims in India is becoming worrying," Shah had said. Earlier on Thursday, India had strongly condemned the visit of US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on April 20. Responding to a question in the weekly media briefing, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, had said that New Delhi has taken note of her visit to a part of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is currently illegally occupied by Pakistan. "If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that may be her business. But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty in its pursuit makes it ours. This visit is condemnable," Bagchi said while briefing the media. --IANS san/arm ( 263 Words) 2022-04-22-22:30:07 (IANS)
The court noted that the NIA had successfully proved its case before sending Abi Mohammed Ansari to jail.

The case pertains to the seizure of fake Indian currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination having face value of Rs 49,88,000 by the DRI from the IGI airport in Delhi in 2014.

Later, the NIA had taken over the probe.

A chargesheet was filed against two accused persons in 2015, and subsequently a supplementary chargesheet was filed against three accused persons in 2017.

Earlier this year, the NIA special court had convicted one accused in the case.

--IANS atk/arm

( 142 Words)

2022-04-22-22:45:38 (IANS)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who on Friday walked over to the neighbouring bungalow of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi for her iftar party, came close to the RJD to an extent that has not been seen in the last 5 years. Now, the key questions that this has evoked is what exactly happened between him and the top leadership of ally BJP in the last few weeks. The political pundits of Bihar believe that Nitish Kumar does not do anything without any motive. His move to come closer to Tejashwi Yadav and the RJD just before the visit of BJP's number 2 leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has a big political message which he is trying to convey to the BJP leadership. To understand the motive of Nitish Kumar in attending to the Iftar party at Rabri Devi residence, we have to understand his USP. His biggest motive is to create fear among the BJP's top leadership that he may go again with the RJD to form the government in Bihar. Amit Shah, who is coming to Bihar on April 23 for the celebration of the anniversary of 1857 freedom fighter Babu Veer Kunwar Singh in Jagdishpur in Bhojpur district, is coming to the state for the first time after the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar in 2020. However, as per his schedule, he will participate in the BJP programme but not meet Nitish Kumar. Political experts believe that Nitish Kumar considers himself as a leader in the rank of PM Narendra Modi and if Amit Shah is coming to Bihar but not meeting him, he will take that as a political insult to him. However, BJP sources believe that the political status of Nitish Kumar has reduced after the 2020 Assembly election when his JD-U managed to win only 43 seats. Still, the BJP gave the post of Chief Minister to him as they feared his volatility, and he could approach the RJD camp any time. BJP's top leadership knew that Bihar is an important state in the context of 2024 Lok Sabha elections - with 40 seats, which may be vital then. At present, the BJP is holding power in big states like Uttar Pradesh (80 Lok Sabha seats), Madhya Pradesh (29), Karnataka (28), Gujarat (26), while among the others, Assam has 14, Haryana 10, and Uttarakhand 5. Hence, the BJP cannot afford to lose a major state to fall in a tight situation where the magical figure of 272 in Lok Sabha becomes a distant dream for it in 2024. At current positions, the BJP would not reach even the 200 figure mark on the basis of states where it is in power. Of the opposition-ruled states, West Bengal is having 42 Lok Sabha seats, Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have 25 and 11, respectively, Maharashtra 48, Jharkhand 14, Kerala 20, Telangana 17, Tamil Nadu 39, Punjab 13, and Andhra Pradesh 25. So the opposition parties rule bigger states where BJP leaders cannot influence the government machinery for the political benefits during Lok Sabha election 2024. Then, political strategist Prashant Kishor seems to be associating with the Congress. On the other hand, he has good relations with Nitish Kumar as well as his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, Telangana's K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and others, and if he could bring these leaders on one platform, they could easily challenge the BJP in 2024. Nitish Kumar, probably, knows that BJP is currently under huge pressure which may be an ideal time for him to open his cards. He is not pleased with the recent aggression against a particular community in BJP-ruled states and Delhi where the state police is in the control of the Union Home Minister. Hence, he has organised an Iftar party at his residence and also visited the residence of Rabri Devi to give a clear message that he will stand with the minority community. He publicly said that he does not allow aggression against any community in Bihar. With these developments, there is buzz of "Khela Hobe" by Nitish Kumar but will he go with the RJD is the million dollar question. Sources have said that a section of JD-U is in touch with Tejashwi Yadav. Even Nitish Kumar reportedly sent messages to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav but the latter did not agree to his proposal. The RJD was wanting the CM post for Tejashwi Yadav while Nitish Kumar was wanting the support of the RJD but he wanted to retain the Chief Minister's post for himself. --IANS ajk/vd ( 770 Words) 2022-04-22-22:50:02 (IANS)
The court awarded the jail term to Sidhikhul Aslam alias Abu Sireen, a resident of Kerala, and also slapped a fine of Rs 60,000 on him.

Aslam was convicted on April 20 by the court under the relevant sections of IPC and UAPA.

The case was registered suo-motu by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on October 1, 2016, based on information regarding the conspiracy and formation of the ISIS Daish-inspired terrorist module, Ansarul Khilafa-KL, by the youth from southern India with the intention of furthering the objectives of ISIS.

After investigation, the NIA had filed chargesheets against 10 accused persons.

Earlier, six accused were convicted in 2019 and one accused was convicted on 2020 in this case.

--IANS atk/arm

( 157 Words)

2022-04-22-23:10:04 (IANS)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will ramp up his mediation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war by going to Moscow for a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 26, the UN announced on Friday. Guterres' associate spokesperson Eri Kaneko said that he will "be received by Putin" and "will have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov". "He (Guterres) wants to discuss with the leadership what steps can be taken right now in order to silence the guns to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out and have safe passage," Kaneko said. Guterres had written to both Russia and Ukraine, asking to visit their countries in an effort to end the conflict. Kaneko said that the UN is still working with Ukraine on scheduling his visit there. Guterres cancelled a planned trip to Nigeria next week to visit Russia. His visit to Moscow comes as Russia has intensified its assault in the face of stiff resistance by Ukraine. His call for an Easter ceasefire this weekend has been rejected by Moscow. (Some of the Orthodox Christian churches celebrate Easter on Sunday as they follow a separate calendar from the Western churches which observed the feast last Sunday) Kaneko said, "The Secretary-General is not so much disappointed that his own personal call was unheeded, but more that there has been no truce, that civilians cannot leave besieged areas and that the aid that the UN and our partners are ready to deliver to these besieged areas cannot go in." But she left open a window of optimism, saying: "We operate with the currency of hope." Guterres had appointed Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths as his mediator who had visited both Moscow and Kiev. However, he tested positive for Covid-19 this week ahead of a scheduled trip to Turkey to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is hosting talks between Russia and Ukraine. Kaneko said that Guterres hoped to further the discussions Griffiths and others have had. Representatives of the two countries have been holding talks in Belarus, Turkey and online. Russian news service Tass quoted Lavrov as saying on Friday that there was "slow progress in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations". The UN is deadlocked on the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of Moscow's veto powers in the Security Council. The General Assembly has condemned the invasion and demanded that Moscow end the conflict. But unlike the Council, the Assembly is powerless to implement its decisions. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis) --IANS al/arm ( 446 Words) 2022-04-22-23:08:01 (IANS)
A total of 22 leading utility developers are in the race for the Jubail-Buraydah Independent Water Transmission pipeline project in Saudi Arabia, which on completion, will have a 650,000 cu m per day transmission capacity.

Announcing the list of pre-qualified bidders, the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) said it includes top international players such as Spanish infrastructure major Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios; Japan's Marubeni Corporation; Italy's Sicim; Hong Kong's CNIC Corporation as well as Chinese groups - Gezhouba Group Overseas Investment Company; Harbour Engineering Company; Railway Construction Corporation and State Construction Engineering Corporation and Norinco.

In addition to these, there are a few regional firms in the fray including Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa); Kuwait's Gulf Investment Corporation and Bahrain-based energy investment company Lamar Holding.

SWPC said that in December last year, a total of 32 companies had expressed their interest in the project, of which 14 were Saudi firms.

The big local firms which have now been prequalified are Abdul Aziz Al Ajlan Sons; Abdullah Ibrahim Al Sayegh & Sons; AliShar Contracting Company; Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies; Al Sharif Group; Bin Omairah Contracting; Mowah; Mutlaq Al Ghowairi; Nesma and Vision International Invest Company.

SWPC in an earlier notification said it will be conducting a competitive process to select a developer/developer consortium for the 603-km-long pipeline project which will be implemented on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

As per a deal inked with SWPC, the successful bidder will provide the entire transmission capacity to the Saudi utility company under a 35-year water transmission agreement, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Tim Younkin, left, joins the Beehan family of Oak Ridge, from left, Soly, Michael holding Gus, Lissie, and Lissies father Roberto Meza at an earlier race supporting Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville. The group ran and walked in honor of Gus and the Beehans' cousin Luke.

Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville will host the 16th annual Breakthrough Run/Walk for Autism on Saturday, April 30. The race will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Regal Cinemas Pinnacle Stadium 18, 11240 Parkside Drive in Turkey Creek, Knoxville.

The run, held each April during National Autism Acceptance Month, supports Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide services that enable adults with autism in East Tennessee to lead purposeful lives, according to a news release.

Individuals, teams, and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities are invited to participate in either the 5K run or a one-mile fun walk. Community, corporate and school teams are welcome, and many teams are organized in support of an individual on the autism spectrum. Race registration is $30 for adults in person from 7 to 7:30 a.m. on race day.

If you cant make it to the race, there is a sleeping,but supporting option on the website for $25. Donations are always accepted, and its an easy way to show your support without leaving the comfort of your home.

Looking to volunteer? There are positions still available for registration volunteers, Breakthrough Buddy volunteers, and course monitors. Registration and course monitor volunteers arrive at 7 a.m. and finish at 9 a.m. Breakthrough Buddy volunteers will walk or run the 5K or one-mile fun run with a Breakthrough Buddy and arrive at 7:30 a.m.

Any individual with a disability may register to run or walk as a Breakthrough Buddy. A Buddy may request to participate with a volunteer, who will run or walk the course with the Buddy. Breakthrough Buddies receive special recognition during the award ceremony.

Autism spectrum disorder, a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, is estimated to affect more than 2,000 individuals of all ages in Knox County.

Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville provides a variety of services, including community living, independent living, employment services, respite and recreation, and much more.

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Sign up today to improve the lives of adults with autism! Proceeds go to Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville in support of its mission.

To register: https://runsignup.com/Race/TN/Knoxville/BreakthroughRunforAutism. For more information: https://breakthroughknoxville.org/.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: 16th Annual Run/Walk for Autism on April 30
An extra-alarm fire erupted early Saturday at an auto-repair business in the Ravenswood neighborhood on the North Side causing extensive damage to three buildings, Chicago Fire Department officials said.

Shortly after 5 a.m., firefighters were called to the scene in the 5000 block of North Clark Street, said Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Walter Schroeder.

At some point, the blaze began to spread to adjacent buildings, causing the alarm to be elevated to a 3-11, which brought more equipment and firefighters to the scene, the chief said.

When the roof of one building collapsed, power and gas lines were shut down while firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, Chief Schroeder said.

As of Saturday at noon, firefighters had finished addressing hot spots, and firefighters had left the scene after they completed an extensive overhaul of the structures.

The American Red Cross helped those who live in above apartments that may have experienced smoke and water damage.

It wasnt clear if anyone was displaced.

Traffic in the area was earlierl shut down and at least one person who was affected by high CO readings and smoke was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital, he said.

The cause of the massive fire was under investigation.
jacoblund / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Are you familiar with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program? Federal Student Aid, an office of the United States Department of Education, said on its website that the PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan.

See: 22 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job

Related: The Minimum Salary You Need To Be Happy in Every State

Those eligible for the PSLF Program must work full time for a qualifying employer. Let's look at the types of organizations and jobs that qualify for PSLF for student debt relief.

kate_sept2004 / Getty Images

Attorney

Individuals working as attorneys may be eligible for loan forgiveness through the Department of Justice Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program (ASLRP). Any Justice employee serving in or hired to serve in an attorney position is eligible for ASLRP consideration. Each spring, new attorneys are selected by The United States Department of Justice during the annual open season for participation on a competitive basis.

Attorneys who qualify for ASLRP benefits must qualify as an attorney with a three-year service obligation to Justice, have qualifying student loans and meet all statutory requirements. Individual attorneys do not receive ASLRP benefits as these benefits are paid directly to the loan holder.

Take the GOBankingRates' Poll: How Much Do You Expect Your Tax Refund To Be This Year?

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Veterinarian

Veterinarians working in public health, public service or private nonprofits may qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Beyond PSLF, there are additional financial resources available for veterinarians. Qualified student loans of eligible veterinarians may receive up to $25,000 a year from the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). These veterinarians must work in areas designated by the federal government as having veterinary shortages and serve in these areas for at least three years.

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Doctor

Doctors who work for a qualifying nonprofit or public hospital for 10 or more years are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Additionally, doctors may review a wide range of medical school loan forgiveness programs. Qualifying doctors who work in underserved areas and specialize in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics and gynecology may be eligible for $50,000 in tax-free student loan repayments from the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program. Doctors who have worked at least three years in substance abuse treatment at an approved site may be eligible for up to $75,000 in student loan repayments from the National Health Service Corps Substance Use Disorder Workforce Loan Repayment Program. There are also National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Programs available for eligible doctors in biomedical or biobehavioral research careers that offer up to $50,000 in student loan repayments.

bluecinema / iStock.com

Nurse

Nurses have several student loan forgiveness programs options besides Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Two popular options include the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program and the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.

The Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program (NCLRP) accepts applications once a year from registered nurses who work in underserved communities and at critical shortage facilities. Up to 85% of unpaid nursing education debt may be paid by the NCLRP. Eligible nurses who work at a qualified facility may get 60% of their student loans paid off over two years of employment. The National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, also available to doctors, may be offered to eligible nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and other types of primary care clinicians who work at least two years in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA).

pixelfit / Getty Images

Dentist

Dentists, dental hygienists and allied dental providers are eligible for a wide range of state and federal loan forgiveness programs. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) provides an interactive chart of all eligible programs on its website for dentists to explore. Programs will vary due to state legislation so review the map to learn more about the programs where you may be eligible.

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Teacher

Certain teachers are eligible for student debt forgiveness. Teachers who teach full time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income school or educational service agency may be eligible for forgiveness up to $17,500 on Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans as well as Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans under the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program.

Eligibility requirements include being a full-time, qualified teacher. Qualified teachers have attained at least a bachelor's degree and received full state certification. Teachers interested in the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program must have been employed at an elementary school, secondary school or educational service agency that serves low-income students. Loan(s) in which teachers seek forgiveness must have been made before the end of the teacher's five academic years of qualifying teaching service.

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Federal Agency Employee

Employees who are employed by federal agencies, including civilians who work in government jobs like law enforcement, public health and science and engineering, may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Learn more about the PSLF form process and how to submit your PSLF form by visiting the Federal Student Aid website.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: These 7 Professions Will Forgive Your Student Debt
CAIRO (AP)  Tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudans war-ravaged Darfur region killed at least 8 people including a woman and a child, an aid worker and activists said Saturday.

The clashes erupted Thursday with the killing of two people by an unknown assailant around the Kreinik area of West Darfur province, said Adam Regal, the spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur charity.

The following day, militias known as janjaweed attacked a camp for displaced people just to the south of Kreinik, burning down dozens of houses and forcing large numbers of people to flee.

The violence, which lasted till late Friday, also wounded 16 others, including three in critical condition, he said.

Sudans Darfur region has seen bouts of deadly clashes between rival tribes in recent months as the country remains mired in a wider crisis following last years coup, when top generals overthrew a civilian-led government.

In December, tribal clashes in Kreinik killed 88 people. Most recently, at least 45 people were killed in intercommunal violence in South Darfur province.

The yearslong Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territorys ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in the capital, Khartoum.

The government of now-deposed strongman Omar al-Bashir responded with a campaign of aerial bombings and raids by the janjaweed, which have been accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes in Darfur over the years.
The write-off is expected to cost the company $802 million. Jan Woitas/picture alliance via Getty Images

A US aircraft-leasing company is set to write off the value of 27 of its jets stuck in Russia.

The write-off is expected to cost the company $802 million, according to a Reuters report.

Air-leasing companies have been facing a hard time over new Russian legislation and EU sanctions.

An American aircraft-leasing company said it will write off the value of dozens of its jets stuck in Russia, per Reuters.

According to the outlet, Air Lease Corporation had 27 jets stranded in Russia after Western-imposed sanctions kicked in, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The write-off is expected to cost the company $802 million.

"It is unlikely that the company will regain possession of the aircraft that have not been returned and that remain in Russia," Air Lease said in a statement, per the outlet.

Air Lease Corporation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

The aviation industry has been hit hard ever since Russia's war with Ukraine began. Air-leasing companies, especially, have borne the brunt of these sanctions, forcing them to cut their contracts with Russian airlines.

On February 27, the European Union the EU banned "any plane owned, chartered or otherwise controlled by a Russian legal or natural person," as part of its sanctions on Russia.

Officials gave lessors 30 days to retrieve their fleets, meaning some $12 billion worth of planes needed to be flown out of Russia and returned to their owners by the deadline, according to consultancy firm Ishka.

Airspace bans in Russia, Europe, and the US, however, have created complications for air-leasing companies in getting to Russia to repossess planes.

Just last month, Russia also signed a new law authorizing the seizure of hundreds of Western-built aircraft operated by Russian airlines. The jets  originally owned by international aircraft lessors  will be added to the country's aircraft register to be deployed on domestic routes, per Reuters.

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Air Lease is not the only company to face struggles. The world's biggest aircraft leasing firm, AerCap, has more than 100 jets stuck in Russia and subsequently submitted an insurance claim for approximately $3.5 billion for the loss of assets.

According to Reuters, Air Lease will let go of 21 company-owned jets and six planes in its management fleet. It told the outlet it will pursue insurance claims to recover losses of its jets stuck in Russia.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Anthony Deutsch

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Amsterdam's Schiphol airport urged travellers to stay away for several hours on Saturday as a strike by ground personnel at the start of a school holiday caused chaos at Europe's third-busiest airport.

"The terminal is too full at the moment ... Schiphol is calling on travellers not to come to the airport anymore," airport authorities said in a statement issued shortly before noon (1000 GMT).

Almost three hours later the airport said passengers were welcome again but would still face long waiting times and possible delays or cancellations.

Police closed down highway exits to the airport briefly on Saturday afternoon as lines at departure gates stretched out of the airport buildings.

A Schiphol spokesperson said the temporary closure was necessary to guarantee safety and to get as many as possible of the thousands of frustrated passengers aboard their often-delayed flights.

Baggage handlers for KLM, the Dutch arm of airline Air France-KLM, had early on Saturday gone on a previously unannounced strike to press demands for higher pay and better working conditions.

KLM ground staff handle about half of all luggage coming through Schiphol, Europe's third busiest airport after Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow.

Labour union FNV said the walkout had ended around noon.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Writing by Bart Meijer; Editing by David Holmes)
Mother nature has dished out weather from every season so far this month, from snow to severe weather. AccuWeather meteorologists say that more of the same can be expected for the final week of April.

Widespread temperatures in the 80s occurred over the weekend in cities from the Great Lakes to the mid-Atlantic I-95 corridor, while temperatures soared well into the 70s as far north as northern New York. Temperatures of this level are akin to late May or even June, and for some, were the highest temperatures recorded since last fall.

However, a change in the weather pattern is expected to bring an end to the abnormal warmth, and leaving residents wondering what month it is.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

A southward dip in the jet stream will be the main weather driver for a new wave of colder air expected by AccuWeather meteorologists in the coming days. This dip will first begin in the northern Plains and the Midwest on Monday, where cold air will filter in behind a potent storm bringing yet another round of snow to some of the region.

On Monday, temperatures across the area are expected to drop more than 25 F degrees. A high temperature of 82 F in Chicago on Saturday is likely to drop to the middle 50s on Monday, while a high of 73 F on Saturday in Minneapolis is expected to fall to only around 40 on Monday.

Low temperatures in these cities are forecast to drop near or below freezing by Monday night.

As the week progresses, this cool air is expected to shift eastward, bringing a noticeable drop in temperature across the Ohio Valley and the Northeast.

"Residents in the Northeast shouldn't put those winter jackets away just yet," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Jessica Storm.

On Wednesday, temperatures are likely to struggle to reach the middle 50s F in places like Columbus, Ohio, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and land solidly in the 40s from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Syracuse, New York.

Temperatures are likely to drop the most across the Northeast on Wednesday night when readings are forecast to fall below freezing for places like Binghamton, New York, and Pittsburgh. Farther south, in Maryland, Baltimore could challenge a daily record low temperature Thursday morning, with temperatures falling into the upper 30s.

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In addition to the temperature swing being stark change for residents across the region, the temperatures expected across the Northeast midweek are more normal of late March for most. However, temperatures are not expected to return to mid-winter levels.

Even in some cities along the Northeast coast that are likely to miss out on the summertime warmth over the weekend, afternoon temperatures are expected to fluctuate as the week progresses, including some of the I-95 corridor.

"Places like Boston and Hartford, Connecticut, can expect temperatures to bounce around from 60 F to perhaps only the upper 40s," explained Storm. The temperatures in New York City will likely have a similar fate, fluctuating in and around 60 degrees through midweek.

In Philadelphia, the temperature fluctuations will be more extreme, with temperatures spiking to over 70 F on Tuesday before temperatures come crashing down into the 50s Wednesday and Thursday.

Farther south, across portions of the Tennessee Valley and the mid-Atlantic, the drop in temperature will also be noticeable, although not likely quite as extreme. By Tuesday and Wednesday, temperatures in cities like Nashville, Tennessee, and Raleigh, North Carolina, are expected to drop into the 60s, a level more normal of early April.

The wave of cooler air is also expected to bring some wet weather.

"Rain showers are forecast to push across the Great Lakes and Northeast Tuesday and Tuesday night, with another round on Wednesday," explained Storm.

The brisk, cold air pushing across the Great Lakes will also allow for snow to mix in with the rain as well, including in cities like Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo and Syracuse, New York.

Snow is likely to be more prevalent in the higher elevations of northern New York and New England, according to Storm, including the Adirondack Mountains and in the Green and White Mountains.

Farther south across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and in southern New England, rain showers will spread across the region through Wednesday.

For those unimpressed by the return of the winter-like feel, a warmup is to return for the Midwest and the Northeast come early May. However, like previous warmups so far this spring, any surge of warm air is likely to be brief.

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.
Ice-cream brand Baskin-Robbins is getting a major rebrand with a new logo and tagline. Baskin-Robbins

Ice-cream brand Baskin-Robbins is getting a major rebrand with a new logo and tagline.

The 77-year-old multinational is releasing its first-ever merchandise, including a $520 bike and a $335 skateboard.

Three new ice-cream flavors are available in the US, too.

Baskin-Robbins is getting a major rebrand. The multinational ice cream brand is ditching the blue in its logo in favor of brown and opting for a simpler font, with the company's name fully capitalized, and a dot standing in for the hyphen.

Baskin-Robbins' new logo. Baskin-Robbins

The company is also rolling out new packaging.

Baskin-Robbins shakes. Baskin-Robbins

Some of the packaging and branding will still have traces of the chain's blue color scheme, though.

Baskin-Robbins ice-cream. Baskin-Robbins

A company spokesperson told Insider that the new branding is currently only being rolled out in the US and Canada, and that stores would be updated to reflect this on a rolling basis. Baskin-Robbins has more than 7,700 stores in 52 countries, including over 2,400 in the US, and is part of Dunkin' Brands, which was bought by Inspire brands in 2020 for around $11.3 billion. The pandemic, a fragmented market, and changing consumer tastes have forced fast food chains to adopt new strategies to buoy growth.

The interior of a Baskin-Robbins store in San Ramon, California on January 16, 2020. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The company has introduced three new flavors at its US stores, too: Mint Chocochunk, a non-dairy ice-cream with a coconut base and fudge swirls; Totally Unwrapped, which features peanut butter and chocolate ice-cream, fudge-covered pretzels, fudge and caramel covered peanuts, and a salted caramel swirl; and Ube Coconut Swirl, which is made with ube from the Philippines. Also known as purple yam, the vegetable has been used in donuts, ice-cream, and other desserts to turn food purple.

Baskin-Robbins new ice-cream flavors. Baskin-Robbins

Baskin-Robbins says it's sold more than 1,400 ice-cream flavors in its history. Now it is introducing what it says will be its first-ever branded merchandise in the company's 77-year history. This includes two $19 caps ...

Baskin-Robbins caps. Baskin-Robbins

... clothing ...

Baskin-Robbins apparel and accessories. Baskin-Robbins

... and even a Baskin-Robbins branded beach towel, $335 skateboard, and $520 bike. The limited-edition merchandise will be available from April 18 and will ship to US and Canadian addresses only between May and June, the company said.

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Baskin-Robbins bike and beach towel. Baskin-Robbins

A Baskin-Robbins spokesperson told Insider that the new logo paid homage to its early beginnings, and its original 1947 logo, which "featured circus-inspired typography in pink and brown." While they're still using the familiar pink of logos past, they "have updated the palette with a classic-meets-modern twist with a new blue tone and rich, indulgent browns."

Baskin-Robbins ice-cream. Baskin-Robbins

The company's original slogan, "31 flavors," referred to the option it gave customers to try a different flavor every day. The number is highlighted in pink in the new logo. As part of its rebranding Baskin-Robbins is also adopting the new tagline "seizing the yay," which it says is about "appreciating every moment, no matter how big or small."

Baskin-Robbins' new logo. Baskin-Robbins

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Joe Biden is giving lots of love to Mickey Mouse while trashing the GOP at the same time.

The president told a Democratic fundraiser that the Republican Party has swung so far to the right that its even attacking Disney because the family-friendly media company stood up for LGBTQ rights.

This is not your fathers Republican Party, Biden said at a Seattle fundraiser Thursday night. The White House released a transcript Friday. The far-right has taken over the party.

Its not even conservative in a traditional sense of conservatism. Its mean, its ugly, he said. Look at whats happening in Florida: Christ, theyre going after Mickey Mouse.

Biden was referring to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plan to retaliate against Disney, the biggest employer in the state, for the companys opposition to his so-called Dont Say Gay law that allows schools to restrict discussion of gender identity and sexuality.

Stung by the stand by the firm known in its Orlando home base as The Mouse, DeSantis is pushing to revoke a state edict passed in 1967 that effectively lets Disney run and fund its own local government.

Theres nothing conservative about deciding youre going to throw Disney out of its present posture because ... you think we should not be able to say, you know, gay, he said.

Riling up big Democratic donors, Biden told a later event in Portland that he thinks the party could flip two Republican-held Senate seats in the midterms, a feat that would defy most political prognostications.

He said the GOP was shooting itself in the foot by putting its radical conservative base ahead of the moderate voters that determine elections.

This is a MAGA party now, he said. These guys are a different breed of cat.
Federal prosecutors have accused a California man of targeting the oldest dictionary publisher in the US with violent, anti-LGBT+ threats that reportedly forced the companys offices to close for five days.

A criminal complaint issued in US District Court in Massachusetts alleges that 34-year-old Jeremy David Hanson wrote threatening comments through Merriam-Websters website and in the comments section for entries related to woman and female, including suggesting the authors should be hunted down and shot and wishing employees should all be killed.

There is no such thing as gender identity, he wrote in 2021 under the entry for female, according to prosecutors. The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.

A message Mr Hanson reportedly sent through the websites contact us page said the companys headquarters should be shot up and bombed.

It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of female as part of the Lefts efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality, Mr Hanson wrote, according to the criminal complaint. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.

The messages forced the company to close its offices in Springfield, Massachusetts and New York City for approximately five business days, according to prosecutors.

US attorneys said the investigation also identified numerous related threats to the American Civil Liberties Union, the toy company Hasbro Inc, butter producer Land OLakes, university professors and a rabbi in New York City, among others.

Mr Hanson was arrested on 20 April. He faces one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence, which could include a five-year prison sentence and fine of $250,000, if convicted.

He is set to appear in federal court in California on 29 April.

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Hate-filled threats and intimidations have no place in our society, US attorney Rachael S Rollins said in a statement. We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division.

The FBIs Boston division special agent in charge Joseph R Bonavolonta said everyone has a right to express their opinion, but repeatedly threatening to kill people, as has been alleged, takes it to a new level.

Threats to life are most certainly not protected speech and they cause real fear in victims, he said.
Rare bird photographed in Yunnan's nature reserve

Xinhua) 16:46, April 22, 2022

KUNMING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- An image of a rare bird was captured by a photographer recently in Napahai Lake Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, southwest China.

The bird has been identified as a yellow-breasted bunting, which is under first-class national protection, according to the reserve's management and protection bureau.

After referring to the archives and speaking with Liu Qiang, an associate professor at the national plateau wetland research center of Southwest Forestry University, the bureau confirmed that this was the first sighting of the bird in the Napahai Lake area.

The bird's most distinctive feature is a plume of bright yellow feathers on its chest. Native to northeast China and Siberia, Russia, its population was not under threat in 2000, but numbers have decreased sharply in recent years.

The yellow-breasted bunting was rated "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2017 and listed as a national top-level protected wildlife in China in 2021.

Napahai Lake Nature Reserve is in the resort city of Shangri-La and is an important ecological barrier of the Yangtze River basin. It is also one of the world's most important wetlands.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
India's top retailer Reliance has called off its Rs24,713-crore ($3.4 billion) deal with Future Group, saying it "cannot be implemented" after Future's secured creditors voted against it. In August 2020, Future Group had announced plans to sell 19 companies to Reliance Retail Ventures.

The deal was at the centre of legal battles since 2020 after Future's partner Amazon legally blocked it, citing violation of certain contracts. Future denied any wrongdoing, reported Press Trust of India.

In a regulatory filing, Reliance said Future Group companies comprising Future Retail Limited (FRL) and other listed companies involved in the scheme have intimated the results of the voting on the scheme of arrangement by their shareholders and creditors at their respective meetings.

In August 2020, Future Group announced the Rs24,713-crore deal to sell 19 companies to Reliance Retail Ventures, stated the PTI report

"The secured creditors of FRL have voted against the scheme. In view thereof, the subject scheme of arrangement cannot be implemented," said RIL, while updating on the scheme of arrangement for the transfer of retail and wholesale business and the logistics and warehousing business of Future Group to its subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures and Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle.

RRVL is the holding company of all the retail companies under the RIL Group.
COUNTY GOVERNMENT FOR ONLINE

Cascade County Commissioners and Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelly, a member of the Board of Health, interviewed three candidates for the Public Health Officer position at the City-County Health Department on Friday.

Applicants include Abigail Hill, a public health nurse with CCHD; Kendal Nagel, a nurse with the Great Falls Public Schools District, and Isabella Boroje, an epidemiologist with experience working with the Center for Epidemiology and Environmental Health in Washington, D.C.

During a Board of Health meeting earlier this month, Chair Dr. Matt Martin said there were eight applicants for the position. County Commissioner Joe Briggs said that the top three applicants would advance to interviews.

Hill was interviewed first and talked about studying Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University and what she learned there.

Health is more than just our body. It's our education, our income, and there's so many variables that influence health, she said.

She currently works as a public health nurse with CCHD in the Family Health Services division. She said Trisha Gardner, the previous Health Officer at CCHD, asked her if she would be interested in applying for the position. Hill said after giving it some thought she decided to apply.

Hill said she has not had extensive experience in managing at this scale, but spoke to wanting to promote a work environment with open communication among staff. She said the pandemic required a lot of people in the department to work positions that werent originally in their job description and wanted to realign staff with their strengths.

At the end of the interview, Hill asked if the governing body that will eventually oversee the Board of Health would impact her work if she were selected. Briggs responded that most of her interface would be with the county commission, which oversees the CCHD.

A governing body is required to oversee the Board of Health following the passage of HB 121 in the 2021 legislative session. The city and county have until June to determine what the makeup of the final body will be, according to the terms of their interim agreement.

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Nagel, who works as a nurse at Riverview Elementary, said she wanted to revive a department she said felt empty.

Nagel said she was given a tour of CCHD by Interim Health Officer Bowen Trystianson after expressing interest in the position.

It felt like employees were exhausted, Nagel said, empathizing with the work that went into contact tracing during COVID-19. I think there may have been a mass exodus due to that, which is understandable.

Briggs responded to this later in the interview, saying that he viewed this time as an opportunity to rebuild, if it's appropriate.

What I view as a very critical function of a Public Health Officer, is to look at the current environment and look at how we should restructure. Do we have the right programs, do we have the right training for our staff and those kinds of things, Briggs said.

Commissioner Don Ryan added that he knew that COVID put a huge strain on staff, but that one of the lessons from this needed to be for the department to become pandemic prepared and make sure theres a long range plan.

Ryan added that he wants to make sure theres consistency with services at CCHD and with Alluvion Health, which rolled back services but commissioners said will be coming back.

Nagel asked if there were any red flags or things that needed improvement at CCHD.

I wouldn't say that there's any red flag, but the reality is post COVID I don't think everything is as good as it used to be, Briggs said. The other reality is that during COVID, there was a tremendous flow of additional funding, through existing grant programs and new ones that were stood up, that funding is all about to go away.

Briggs said one of the big challenges will be figuring out core services and have funded grants, as grants represent more than 50% of CCHDs funding.

Nagel said in closing that she would bring a fresh perspective to the department as she comes from the outside. Before working with the school district, she worked as a critical care nurse at Benefis Health System. During her interview she talked about the aftermath of the explosion at Calumet Refinery in 2019 and how stakeholders from the police and fire department came together to help train for trauma involving hazardous materials.

Boroje had the last interview of the day and joined via Zoom, saying she was currently in Virginia.

When asked what motivated her to apply for the position, Boroje said she started looking at jobs in Montana after a vacation to the state where she enjoyed the beautiful landscapes and visited Great Falls among other destinations.

Boroje talked about working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a Lead Poisoning Protection Program and talked about the budget management involved in that.

We had extra, we didn't spend everything, so we had to find ways to spend the leftovers of that budget, she said. Otherwise, CDC would not allow us to have the same amount of money for the next year. So we hired some subcontractors to help us over the messaging parents to test their children. We sent some staff for education, and that's how we fixed that.

She said her priorities would be to address the issues outlined in the Community Health Improvement Plan, involving access to care, substance abuse and child neglect/abuse.

Boroje said she would be in Europe next week visiting her mother. She said during the interview that she is an immigrant, adding, my thoughts and my writing and my documents are flawless.

Briggs said that Board of Health members either watched live or will view videos of the interviews and will be moving forward next week.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Candidates for Public Health Officer interviewed, selection next week
Miami Herald

The great thing about going out on the town in Miami? If you dont know what to wear, you can opt for nothing at all.
The Daily Beast

Lauderdale County SheriffLoved-up prison guard Vicky White and her jailhouse beau Casey White have been caught after an extraordinary 11 days on the run, officials in Indiana and Florida confirmed Monday evening.Weve captured them, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding told WAAY 31, adding that they were involved in a crash after a police pursuit.Vicky White, 56, was taken to a hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, while 38-year-old Casey White, no relation, surrendered and was take
Cristina Velazquez says she never played outside as a kid because it was too hot and the parks were too dangerous.

Velazquez, 24, grew up in Westlake, a densely populated area in Central Los Angeles that like many inner-city areas had little trees or green space. The community is mostly Latino and more than 20 percent of its residents live in poverty. When she took bus rides to the other side of the city, she remembers seeing children playing together under the shade of trees.

When you watch TV and you see a program that has little kids playing on the streets, that is not something that I had ever experienced, said Velazquez, who was part of Los Angeles Tree Ambassador Program, which recruits people directly from communities that need more trees to do environmental outreach within their own neighborhoods. It is a massive difference. Like you can really tell just how different even like a few trees can make in terms of your childhood.

Many major American cities, including Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago and Boston are working to bridge the equity gap in major tree canopy coverage through volunteer tree-planting events, community partnerships and green job programs.

But those efforts face challenges, including several physical, social and financial barriers that stand in the way of making tree canopy coverage equitable.

Physical barriers tend to be the trickiest and priciest obstacle. City planners and urban foresters have to navigate the built infrastructure to make room for trees. Sometimes this involves cutting into pavement, which is more expensive than planting trees where there is readily available green space.

Generally, it can cost around $300 to pull up enough concrete for a single tree, according to Ian Leahy, vice president of urban forestry at American Forests, a nonprofit group dedicated to conserving forests in the United States.

Its great to plant trees in a big open field, but a lot of times where the trees are needed most, its like a building, a sidewalk, a road, like theres just not a lot of space, he said.

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Extreme heat in cities is a major issue around the world, and underserved urban communities like Westlake can be at particular risk because of urban heat island effect, which is when an area traps more heat due to the lack of green space and a higher density of pavement and buildings. Its a growing problem in a warming world  extreme heat is already the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S.

This has brought renewed scrutiny to the lack of green space in many poor urban areas. Research shows that historically redlined communities, which are Black and brown communities that recieved little investment due to discriminatory practices, face more extreme heat threats largely due to the lack of tree canopy.

One solution may seem simple: plant more trees.

Juan Sosof plants a tree in Miami (Joe Raedle / Getty Images file)

Tree canopy coverage can significantly decrease temperatures, sometimes by almost 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which can help in Westlake where the average temperature is close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summertime. A recent study from the International Journal of Biometeorology found that 1 in 4 lives in Los Angeles could be saved during extreme heat events when there is more tree canopy, as well as other cooling methods in place.

But planting trees in cities is not as easy as it seems.

Urban foresters have to get creative with the space available, but urban forestry is an underresourced industry, many times with one or two people working on intricate plans in city governments, and major labor shortages occurring at the tree maintenance level. In some smaller cities, like Jackson, Mississippi, nonprofit groups have to fill in the gaps. Overall, its difficult for cities to maintain already existing trees, let alone add more.

One of our biggest hurdles, people just dont know our field exists, Leahy said.

There are efforts in place across the nation to recruit more diverse workers into the field. Denver will pilot a pre-apprenticeship program this summer to train formerly incarcerated people in urban forestry jobs. This spring, Los Angeles graduated the first class of its Tree Ambassador Program that recruits people directly from the communities that need more trees.

Velazquez is one of the new graduates. During the program, she went door to door in her neighborhood asking residents if they would water a newly planted tree in the area, many of whom answered no. This is not an uncommon response, especially in historically disadvantaged communities.

She said that in her neighborhood, some residents believe it would be too much of an expense, others simply dont have the time between work and taking care of their households. But many have a distrust of the citys ability to take care of the trees properly as they grow. She said many of the older trees that are in the neighborhood are not maintained.

Its a very old neighborhood. Basically, all the trees that we have have been there for decades, Velazquez said. But its also an underresourced neighborhood, so the city has basically not taken care of them. So, we have a lot of massive trees that interfere with power lines, trees that are dying or are already dead, trees with limbs that are nearly touching apartment buildings or overhanging on the streets.

Taking care of the already existing trees is on Los Angeles City Forester Rachel Malarichs agenda. While tree planting has slowed down since the beginning of the pandemic, shes looking for sustainable solutions to the citys tree canopy inequities.

The important thing to note when were thinking about tree canopy equity also is that it cannot just be tree planting, she said. I have continued to remind folks that without good tree preservation policies and good maintenance practices, we will lose canopy while were trying to add it through tree planting.

On the opposite coast, New York Citys borough presidents are looking to increase tree canopy coverage with a Million More Trees campaign. Between the Bloomberg and the de Blasio administrations, the city planted 1 million trees  a goal borough presidents want to repeat. Mayor Eric Adams has not yet responded to the proposed project.

The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit group, released a report in November that found that despite prior planting efforts, the tree canopy coverage remained inequitable in New York City.

Arif Ullah, executive director of South Bronx Unite, a community advocacy group, said he wants more trees to help ease major health inequities in the Bronx. The borough has the highest rates of child asthma and asthma morbidity in the country.

The air that we breathe is killing us, he said.

Heat-related illnesses and deaths are also a concern in New York Citys communities of color, as well as in cities across the country. Each year, heat puts 450 New Yorkers in the emergency room. From 2010 to 2019, overmore than 100 New Yorkers have suffered heat-exacerbated deaths, of which 43 percent were Black people.

In Los Angeles, there are overmore than 3,000 heat-related deaths in the same time frame, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.

Malarich said she works to shift the focus from trees in cities being a luxury to trees being necessary for a healthy life.

Trees are seen as a beautification, an amenity, that an affluent community might have. Oh, its nice to have. Malarich said. Trees are not a nice to have. Theyre a need to have.
A group of Georgia voters is hoping an arcane Constitutional law could knock U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off the ballot.

Greene, R-Ga., on Friday testified in an administrative hearing on a challenge to her candidacy for reelection, raised by a group of Georgia voters, who claim that the congresswoman helped facilitate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The riot stemmed from efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election win.

Under a rarely-used provision of the 14th Amendment, she could be disqualified from the ballot. Here's what you need to know about the provision and how its influencing the 2022 midterm elections.

Judge's ruling: Georgia voters can challenge Marjorie Taylor Greene's run on 14th Amendment grounds

History of the provision

The 14th Amendment, which is comprised of five sections, was ratified in 1868, shortly after the Civil War came to an end. It was meant to put the Union's idea of what it accomplished during the Civil War into the Constitution, said Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at Columbia University.

Part of that was ensuring that formerly enslaved people were extended the liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights. For example, the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" and cemented that no state could deprive any person of "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" nor deny anyone equal protection under the law.

But a lesser-known intention of the amendment was to encourage "loyal government" in the South.

"In other words, people holding office would not be former Confederates," Foner said. "(The North) didn't fight the Civil War in order to put Confederates back into power in the South."

The amendment's third section reads:

"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

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That means any former government official or military officer who promised to uphold the Constitution can't serve again if they engage in insurrection unless two-thirds of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate each votes to pardon them, said Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional law professor at Indiana University.

The provision, however, isn't a formal punishment, Foner said.

"It's not a crime; it's a qualification for office," he said. "It's like being 35 years old. If AOC decided right now to run for president, somebody could go to court and say she can't run because she's not 35 years old."

Has the provision been cited before?

Greene isn't the only lawmaker whose reelection bid has been questioned on the basis of the provision recently. North Carolina voters challenged Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn's candidacy, but that effort was struck down by a judge in early March. Indiana voters also sought to keep Republican Rep. Jim Banks off the ballot, an effort rejected by Indiana officials in February.

The rule was enforced in a number of cases during Reconstruction, removing office-holders for previously holding positions in the Confederacy. But since then, its use has been "very rare," according to Foner.

"If you walked into a law school today, you would be hard pressed to find anybody who knew anything about this section, even though it's been in the constitution for 150 years," Foner said.

Since Reconstruction, the provision has only been cited once.

Wisconsin Rep. Victor Berger, the first Socialist elected to Congress, was convicted under the Espionage Act in 1919 and subsequently barred from Congress after the Senate and House asserted he supported insurrection by opposing American participation in World War I. The Supreme Court in 1921 overturned Berger's conviction.

Victor Berger

"The court said, 'No, no, you can't kick the guy out for this, or, at least, you can't prosecute him for simply his opinion, that is the U.S. should not be in the war,'" Foner said. "So his conviction was overturned and then Congress said, 'Well, alright, I guess we have to let him back in.' "

Berger rejoined Congress in 1923 and served three additional terms, according to House archives.

Section 3 is regaining relevance in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"The January 6th Capitol riot is widely understood as an insurrection," Magliocca said. "As a result, those officials or former officials who engaged in that insurrection could be disqualified from further service."

What does that mean today?

Because the provision has rarely been used, its execution is uncharted territory, experts say.

Paul Campos, a constitutional law professor at University of Colorado-Boulder, said "these people can and should be barred from federal office via Section 3."

Greene is the only Congress member whose challenge has been allowed to proceed.

Magliocca said that the application of Section 3 will be determined by courts and that "at least one" of the challenges will likely succeed. State law largely determines who can bring a challenge, he added.

The challenge to Greene's candidacy will likely reach the Supreme Court, unless thrown out first, Foner said. But once there, it's hard to know how the Court will proceed.

Additional context: Georgia voters argue Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't eligible to be reelected

"The Supreme Court chose the president back in 2000 with Bush v. Gore; it seems like they're not modest about walking into things about candidates," Foner said. "But on the other hand, you never know. This is so unprecedented that you actually really can't predict what people on the Court would say in a case like this."

Alternatively, the challenge could skip the courts all together. Campos said that Congress can enforce the provision, both in terms of its own internal rules and by statute.

"Theoretically, the House in a majority vote could just say, 'Well, she's not qualified anymore,' " Foner said.

It's not likely discussion about the provision will soon cease. Though the rule could influence midterms now, it might also take center stage in the 2024 general election.

"If Donald Trump decides to run again for President, he will be subjected to a Section 3 challenge," Magliocca predicted.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marjorie Taylor Greene in court due to 14th Amendment provision
There is an incredible amount of support being shown for an employee at Pasta & Provisions.

The community has come together and raised thousands of dollars after a horrific accident left Thang Sum paralyzed on Easter Sunday.

You may not know his name or recognize his face. But chances are if youve eaten at Pasta & Provisions, Thang was the man behind your meal.

Thang is an essential part of the process. He is the assistant to Agosostino, who is our head pasta maker and has been for 28 years. Thang would have eventually moved into Agosostinos role, Kevin Sherrill said.

Sherrill said he started working with Thang in 2019 when he came from Myanmar as a refugee fleeing persecution in his home country.

Thang was then hired by the owners of Pasta & Provisions through the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency.

Channel 9s Genevieve Curtis learned that on Easter Sunday, Thang was jumping on a trampoline with his nieces and nephews when he broke his neck. It was an injury that would leave him paralyzed.

There are going to be extensive medical bills. We are talking right now 24/7 nursing care and I dont even know what those bills can be, Sherrill said.

ALSO READ: Im very blessed: Stranger starts fundraiser to help a family in need get a new home

The owners of Pasta & Provisions jumped into action to help Thang by starting a GoFundMe. They said they hope to raise $10,000 to help with the impending medical expenses that Thang will face.

In less than five days, the GoFundMe has raised over $50,000 due to regulars, community members, and those who were just touched by Thangs story.

It means the world. It really does. Its special to see everybody come out and support. It makes you feel good that you are part of a local, family-owned business in Charlotte that does that right thing, Sherrill said.

Pasta & Provisions said it has been feeding Charlotte for around 30 years.

The restaurant said if food is the love language it serves the community, then the donations pouring in certainly feed the soul.

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Miracles do happen and thats all thats we can wish for. Thats all we can ask for, Sherrill said.

On the GoFundMe, the owners posted an update, saying that Thang was in the hospital worried about his job.

They said that whenever he is ready, his job will be waiting for him.

(WATCH BELOW: Im very blessed: Stranger starts fundraiser to help a family in need get a new home)
Reuters

TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) -Firefighters in New Mexico begged holdout residents of a mountain village to evacuate on Sunday, before the United States' largest active wildfire races up a valley that is their only way out. Many have ignored requests to leave as they stayed on to defend centuries-old homes and ranches in Chacon, the village about 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Santa Fe, with a population of around 200. As the fire rapidly burned through forest 8 miles (13 km) away, firefighters and police warned people they would not be able to see or breathe once the blaze was upon them.
On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis traveled to South Florida to sign, among other things, the bill that set into motion the dismantling of Disneys 55-year-old Reedy Creek Improvement District.

During his victory lap, the Republican took a moment to remind the crowd gathered in front of him about the reason Floridas most powerful company found itself in the crosshairs a few days before.

Youre going to marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state, he said. We view that as a provocation, and were going to fight back against that.

READ: DeSantis signs bill to dissolve Disneys self-governing power

Elsewhere, the corporations lawyers may have been taking notes.

Since Tuesday, questions have swirled about whether or not the procedures used by the states Legislature to pass this bill were legal. Some parts of Floridas laws call for a vote to be held by residents within a district or its delegation. Lawyers who specialize in special districts agree that those sections of the law didnt apply to this case, and the government was on solid legal footing.

However, a different set of attorneys  focusing on constitutional law  believe the House of Mouse has an excellent shot at a First Amendment lawsuit, should it desire one.

READ: Disney World in Texas? Houston-area judge attempts to lure company from Florida to Lone Star State

Once the government provides a benefit, that benefit cant be taken away in a way that is unconstitutional, Lawrence Walters, managing partner of Longwood-based Walters Law Group said. In other words, the government cannot retaliate against the company in response to the exercise of the companys First Amendment rights.

: Theres a lot of misinformation and confusion about what the end of Disneys Reedy Creek district means for the company and for taxpayers.

Heres what I know, after talking to lobbyists, lawyers and tax officials: pic.twitter.com/gllnJVvKqL  Nick Papantonis WFTV (@NPapantonisWFTV) April 21, 2022

Two other attorneys agreed with Walters, with one adding that the states actions resembled the playbook of an authoritarian country like Russia.

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You have a government, with all the resources of a government, striking out  simply for exercising their right to have an opinion, Glen Torcivia, shareholder of West Palm-based Torcivia, Donlon, Goddeau & Rubin, explained.

READ: DeSantis takes on Disneys self-governance: Central Florida reacts

Some Republicans, including DeSantis, appeared to realize the danger their early statements put them in. Many interviews throughout the week steered heavily in the direction of good governance and proper oversight, which Torcivia and Walters said was the states best possible defense.

Stetson University Law Professor Paul Boudreaux added another advantage Florida would have: Disney would be challenging legislation voted on by a large group of people, each with their own motivations.

You have to prove the retaliation was done for this specific purpose, he said.

READ: Blatant attempt to rig districts: Black lawmakers condemn DeSantis-approved congressional map

However, Torcivia reckoned it would be difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube, especially when so many comments were made on camera.

Im fairly certain that Disney would have an excellent case, and a really great chance of winning a case, he said.

If the company did go down this path, an injunction against the law would be the first step sought, which Torcivia said would be granted in a matter of weeks.

READ: Disneys defense against Reedy Creek dissolution might not be easy

However, he, along with many others, theorized that Disney would likely pursue negotiations with lawmakers to alter the terms of the Reedy Creek district when the regular session resumes in March.

As of Friday afternoon, Disney had not commented on the law, or the companys future plans.

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Apr. 23LANSING  A three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected a Central Lake Township man's effort to reverse a trial judge's decision to dismiss an election-related lawsuit filed against Antrim County.

Individual voters do not have the authority to conduct their own election audits  that power rests with the Secretary of State, the judges ruled, in a decision published Thursday morning.

"The statutory language does not allow private citizens to conduct independent audits, and we are not permitted to read words into the plain language of a statute," the Court of Appeals panel wrote in its unanimous decision.

Bill Bailey, who sued Antrim County Nov. 23, 2020, contending fraud occurred in the county's presidential election, is represented by attorney Matthew DePerno, who is seeking the Republican nomination for state Attorney General, a decision set to be made Saturday during the party's convention in Grand Rapids.

Michigan's Bureau of Elections conducted a hand recount of the 2020 Presidential election in Antrim County, though DePerno argued during a COA hearing April 12, that Bailey was entitled to an audit which reviewed ballots, documents and procedures.

Erik Grill, an assistant state attorney general, who represented SOS Jocelyn Benson, an intervener in the case, presented rebuttal arguments.

While the COA panel did uphold 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer's dismissal, in its 12-page decision the judges also appeared to call into question whether Bailey should have been given the right to conduct a forensic exam of the county's voting equipment, as Elsenheimer allowed in a Dec. 5, 2020 order.

"Plaintiff alleged that this relief was proper in order to 'ensure the accuracy and integrity of the election,'" the written COA opinion states, of the forensic exam. "While (Article II, Section 4(2) is certainly aimed at preserving the 'purity of elections,' it does not provide plaintiff with a cause of action."

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Instead, the opinion states, this portion of Michigan's Constitution is actually a directive to the Legislature to create laws to do so.

The legality of the forensic exam was not an appeals issue, however. DePerno had focused his appeal arguments on whether Bailey's claims were moot, as Grill previously argued was the case, and Elsenheimer, in his dismissal, agreed.

Elsenheimer's order states Bailey had received all the claims he was entitled to.

Bailey, Elsenheimer said in his dismissal order, "does not get to choose his own audit criteria."

COA judges disagreed with Elesenheimer's interpretation of "moot," yet affirmed his ruling, saying the lawsuit still failed as a matter of law.

"Nonetheless, we will not reverse a trial court's decision when it reaches the right result, even if for the wrong reason," the opinion states.

The COA decision came just nine days after oral arguments, with a portion of that time taken up by a holiday weekend.

Bailey, a realtor and former member of the county's planning commission, sued the county after initial results of the presidential election there showed then Democratic challenger Joe Biden received more votes than former President Donald Trump in the traditionally conservative county.

County Clerk Sheryl Guy acknowledged human error by her office led to incorrect initial vote tallies. These were soon corrected and deemed accurate in the certified results, which showed Trump won the county by several thousand votes.

The results of the subsequent court-ordered forensic exam by Dallas-based-Allied Security Operations Group were later debunked by experts, including Chris Krebs, a former Trump appointee and cybersecurity director within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

COA judges Thomas C. Cameron, Mark J. Cavanaugh and Michael F. Gadola made up the panel, with Cameron and Gadola asking whether DePerno was arguing individual voters had an individual right to conduct an audit.

When Elsenheimer dismissed Bailey's lawsuit, he also stayed  or paused  other matters in the case; DePerno previously said in media appearances he would take the case to the state Supreme Court.

The stayed matters include whether DePerno can add Guy as a named defendant in Bailey's lawsuit, and whether court-protected images from Antrim County's Dominion voting equipment were shared during an August "cyber symposium" hosted by Donald Trump supporter and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, as suggested in court filings by Benson.

Dominion previously issued a lengthy statement in response to the reported public release of court-protected images, stating the company reported the incident to the proper authorities, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Bailey has 42 days from the date of the COA decision to apply for leave to the state Supreme Court.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis accused Disney of trying to commandeer our democratic process, while touting a new bill to strip the company of its autonomous governing status during a Friday interview on Fox Newss Tucker Carlson Tonight.

They pledged themselves to mobilize their considerable corporate resources out of the coffers of this Burbank, California, based corporation to overturn the rights of parents in the state of Floridaeffectively commandeer our democratic process, DeSantis added. That obviously is something we very much objected to.

DeSantis signed a bill earlier on Friday dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the autonomous zone outside of Orlando where Disney established Walt Disney World. The district, created in 1967, allowed Disney to act as a self-governing body with its own municipal services and building codes.

This company had a deal unlike any company or individual in all of the state of Florida, probably anywhere in the United States. They were self-governing, they had extraordinary powers, they could build nuclear power plants, they didnt have to go through permitting processes and obviously a lot of tax benefits. And thats just inappropriate, DeSantis told Carlson.

Gov. Ron DeSantis tells Tucker Carlson about Florida revoking Disneys special self-governing status. Read more: https://t.co/wlXgflZD8R pic.twitter.com/wRb8Zrw00Q  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 23, 2022



The Florida legislature passed the bill earlier this week, after Disney took a stance against another state law banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade, which opponents have termed the Dont Say Gay law. Disney CEO Bob Chapek wrote in a letter to employees in March that the company would suspend political donations in Florida over the law.

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Starting immediately, we are increasing our support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states, Chapek wrote in the letter. And today, we are pausing all political donations in the state of Florida pending this review.

Some segments of the left figured out that they can try to subcontract out their leftism to some of these corporations, DeSantis told Carlson in the Friday interview. Their hope was getting Disney involved in that would somehow get me to back down from signing the bill. Well, that was bad judgment on their part because of course we werent going to back down an inch.

More from National Review
US Rep. Charlie Crist criticizes Gov. Ron DeSantis as "un-American" for targeting Disney with special session bills on April 20, 2022, at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida. Phil Sears/AP

Rep. Charlie Crist said Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to be the "king of Florida" after targeting Disney.

DeSantis signed a bill on Friday stripping Disney of its self-governing status.

Crist, a Democrat in Congress and former Florida governor, is running for his old job against DeSantis.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to strip Disney of its self-governing status was slammed as a "boneheaded move" by a former Florida governor.

Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who served as Florida's governor from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican, criticized DeSantis in a tweet.

"Attacking Disney, threatening to harm our state's economic powerhouse that creates so many jobs and brings in so many tourism dollars is a boneheaded move however you look at it. Ron's a threat to our state's economy and he's gotta go in November," Crist said in the tweet on Friday.

In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday, Crist said DeSantis seems to want to be the "king of Florida," calling the sitting governor "an angry dude."

"What he's trying to do is have a one-man rule of this great state," Crist told the Sentinel. "This governor seems to really want to centralize all power in himself."

Crist is running for governor to unseat DeSantis. He was recently endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, The Hill's Max Greenwood reported.

DeSantis signed a bill on Friday to dissolve Walt Disney World of its self-governing capabilities by June 2023. It comes after Disney slammed Florida's controversial Parental Rights in Education legislation, dubbed by activists and critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

The LGBTQ legislation was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 28 and is set to take effect on July 1. It would, in general, ban discussions of sexuality and gender identity in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade and would allow parents to sue schools if staff members facilitate those conversations.

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The day DeSantis signed the bill into law, Disney issued a statement vowing to advocate for the law's repeal, saying it "should never have passed and should never have been signed into law."

On Thursday, Crist told the Sentinel that Disney was being "punished" by DeSantis.

"They're being punished for defying this governor and not living up to what he wanted them to do, to support this law that was so offensive to so many in our state. And this is how he responds?" Crist told the outlet. "That's not serving with a servant's heart. That's wanting to be the king of Florida. Well, he's not."

Florida's Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer told Insider that DeSantis' public dispute with Disney is shifting attention from other legislative items on DeSantis' agenda  namely, the new proposed redistricting map that would give the GOP an edge in the state at the expense of Black voters.

"Governor DeSantis' attack on Disney was designed to act as a smokescreen for the much more devious original and singular purpose of this special session, the passage of a racist and unconstitutional redistricting plan," Farmer said.

In a tweet on Thursday, Crist appeared to agree, saying DeSantis' redistricting plan "silenced Black and brown voices."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

The ongoing war in Syria was supposed to be a crucible for the modern Russian war machine, reforming its operational capabilities in preparation for future conflicts. Now that Russia is facing a test of those skills in Ukraine, it is turning into a disaster that should have been foreseen.

Moscow officially lost only 112 servicemen in six and a half years in Syria, compared to what it admits are 1,351 in a single month in Ukrainethe true numbers are likely to be far higher. Russia has been forced, humiliatingly, to withdraw some 40,000 troops from around Kyiv and Chernihiv, having failed to make any significant progress in those regionsfalling back to their old targets in eastern Ukraine. This raises the question of exactly what the Kremlin learned in Syria and, more importantly, what it should have learned but obviously has not.

Unlike Ukraine, Syrias cities would never be part of the Russian federation and could therefore be flattened. Meanwhile, its non-white population was framed as foreign terrorists. Jabhat al-Nusra fighters, ISIS, and hundreds of children were portrayed to the voters back home as equally fair targets. By contrast, Ukrainians are largely seen by the Russian public as Russians themselves or, at the very least, close cousins. These factors freed Russia up to use Syria as merely a means to an end, or more specifically, two ends.

First, it used Syria as a proving ground to enhance command-and-control coordination. Like its Soviet predecessor, Russias military is an artillery force with armored battalions and the ground-based nature of its power is not as fast nor flexible as air or naval forces, making such coordination critical. Not to mention, if such command coordination is achieved, then as the Institute for the Study of Wars lead Russia analyst, Mason Clark, wrote in a 2021 report, it will erode one of the United States and NATOs key technological advantages.

Second, Moscow declared a withdrawal from Syria in March 2016, then again in January 2017, and again in December of that year. This wasnt just a feint to get its enemies to lower their guard, it also helped prevent Russia from being pulled too deeply into the war, thus minimizing losses. But just as importantly, it broke the war into a series of campaigns, allowing Moscow to rotate its forces through Syria, giving them ample combat experience. As Michael Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), wrote in a 2020 report, The entire Russian military must now serve [in Syria] in order to progress in rank.

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According William Alberque, the director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), some of the lessons that were not learned well enough include use of drones for artillery spotting, the danger of MANPADS on the contested battlefield, and the need for secure supply lines. Each of these factors has proven devastating for Russian forces in Ukraine.

But the biggest lessons, he said, have been how to detect, disrupt, and destroy small groups of fighters, the importance of the destruction not just of suppression of enemy air defenses, the use of secure comms, the value of precision-guided missiles , and the benefit of drawing the enemy out rather than engaging in urban warfare.

Alberque added that Russia learned a few more things in Syria. Namely, how to destroy cities, terror tactics to make civilians flee, and the use of proxies as holding forces/cannon fodder.

So what went wrong? For one thing, Russia is one of the most corrupt nations in the world, and by far the most corrupt major power. Ruling a mafia state has its advantages if youre the Godfather, but its hard to know whom to trust. Moscow recently purged 150 Federal Security Service (FSB) agents and sent Sergei Beseda, the head of the FSBs 5th Service, which handles intelligence in Ukraine, to Lefortovo Prison, which was used under Stalin to conduct torture-based interrogations and mass executions. One theory says Beseda gave information to the CIA, but the official reason, which may very well be true, is that he lied to the state and stole funds meant for espionage activities in Ukraine. If true, this means Putins own spy chiefs not only let him bring a knife to a gun fightthey sold off the combat blade and bought a cheap butter spreader.

Another thing that led Putin astray was his own over-confidence. Since taking office in 2000, he has been involved in six warsChechnya, Georgia, the North Caucasus, Syria, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Ukraine. All but the last have been victorious. Syria and the CAR are ongoing, but the preservation of Bashar al-Assads regime and Faustin-Archange Touaderas administration represent strategic wins. Putin thought he couldnt lose.

Corruption and over-confidence prepared a path, but the biggest problem was Putins lack of experience in a war of this scale. Syria was a limited deployment in a far-off desert nation with minimal ground forces, Georgia only lasted 12 days, and Russia supported Touadera in the CAR from a distance with weapons, military instructors and Wagner mercenaries. Besides, even if Ukraine was the same game as Syria, and Russia could simply copy/paste its lessons, it still wouldnt help since Moscow has apparently forgotten those lessons.

Russia did apply its Syria lessons in Ukrainebut it did so in 2014, when it used Crimea to train a rapid-reaction professional force. Now, however, Moscow is running four combined arms headquarters independently with only partial management at the defense center in Moscow. Why? Partly because its not just propaganda when Putin talks about a special military operation. He truly believed the rest of Ukraine, like Crimea, would offer little resistance and that the war would only last a matter of days.

In Syria, says military historian Peter Caddick-Adams, They were not up against a peer adversaryin fact they have never been: Afghan, Chechnya, Georgia, Syriaunlike in Ukraine. Syria was predominantly an air war, with little threat, so Russian pilots treated it more as range practice, dumping munitions on preselected targets he told The Daily Beast.

Thus, what Russia did not learn from Syria was how to coordinate an all arms battle (artillery, armor, anti-tank, air defense, infantry, engineers, etc) at high tempo in complex terrain with aircraft of different types, helicopters, airborne and marine troops, with a well-balanced logistics and supply systemwhich is what they have needed for Ukraine.

He added, Russian communications are very lowbrow, and they are using unencrypted mobile phones in Ukraine, a bad habit picked up in Syria, where few opponents could understand Russian or had the technical competence to intercept.

Simply put, Russias PhD in desert warfare is making for a poor career in Ukraine. Indeed, few things have revolutionized the modern Russian military like the war in Syria, but nothing will affect it quite like Ukraine. One might even call this Russia's Vietnam moment. But one things for certain, Russia looked at Ukraine and mistook a tiger for a cat. Now even if it decides to cut its losses and completely withdraw, it may not be so easy. As the old Chinese saying goes, when youre riding a tiger, the hard part is getting off.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Washington family against the scenic background of the Golden Gate Bridge. From left to right: Wayne Washington II, Erica Anderson, Wayne Washington, Shelia Washington and Ashley Washington.

The old man seemed to need some help.

Using his wheelchair as a sort of walker, he had very slowly made his way onto the train with me, my family and others looking to go from the Bay Area Rapid Transit System's Powell Street Station in downtown San Francisco to San Francisco International Airport.

We had all briefly gotten on the wrong train and needed to exit and wait for the next one.

I thought to go to the man to help him because he was the last of us to get off the train.

I had no way of knowing that, in 20 minutes, I'd be calling for police to get this old man away from me and my family and to stop him from hurling racist invective at us.

A good place for a spring vacation

My wife, Shelia, and I spent the first three and half years of our marriage in California in the early 1990s. We moved there a day after our wedding, which was 10 days after I had graduated from college.

We both grew up in South Carolina and hadn't traveled extensively. California's mountains, its sunshine, diversity and expanse were a wonder.

Since those early days, California has held a special place in our hearts. We took our children, Ashley and Wayne, on a cross-country drive to California when they were teens. Years later, we talked up the state to our son's fiancee, Erica.

We wanted to show Erica the Bay Area, and so, with the coronavirus still limiting international travel, we chose it as a good place for a spring vacation.

I meticulously planned out our trip and the things we'd do: see the Golden Gate Bridge, hit Chinatown, ride on a cable car.

Erica wanted to see Highway 1 and the Bixby Creek Bridge, made famous by the HBO series "Big Little Lies," and so my plan included renting an SUV for a couple days so we could drive down the coast.

That's why we were heading to the airport. We were going to pick up the rental and head first to Watsonville, where an old friend and her husband had offered us a special, unplanned treat: an aerial view of the Monterey area in his small airplane.

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Flights: JetBlue nonstop flight between LAX and West Palm Beach to stop temporarily

An aerial view of Big Sur

When the BART train to the airport finally pulled into the Powell Street Station, we were eager to board, eager for the thrilling day ahead.

We got on the train and chose a section where we could all sit together. I sat next to my wife. My son sat across from us with Erica, and Ashley sat in a seat across the aisle from them.

The old man rolled his wheelchair onto the train and sat across from Ashley.

There were other places where he could have chosen to sit, but he came to the area where we were sitting.

Just before the doors closed, the man looked at us and chuckled.

"This must be the section for Blacks," he said.

I saw Ashley's eyebrows rise. We all looked at each other. I knew I wasn't the only one thinking: "Did he just say what it sounded like he said?"

Silently and collectively, we chose to ignore him.

The old man wasn't done.

"My skin is almost as dark as yours," he said.

I looked at the man and noticed then the bottle in his wheelchair basket, which he retrieved for a drink.

There was no questioning the man's racial animus now.

He was Asian American, diminutive, old, drunk. He wore a black and gold veteran's cap.

I caught my family's eye, cupped my right hand and surreptitiously tipped it a couple times to tell them that the man was drunk.

Ignoring the man wasn't working.

He raised his voice.

"Hey," he said. "Hey! What the f- are you doing in California?"

When we didn't answer, he answered his own question.

"Having a good time, I guess," he said.

He wouldn't stop. "Hey!" he snarled, challenging us. "What? What? Hey!"

Ashley turned her knees in our direction so her body faced us and not him. Erica shrank back toward the window, away from the direction of the man.

Perhaps sensing this, Wayne turned to face the man. I know my son, and I know when he's angry.

Erica knows him, too. She placed a restraining hand on his forearm and then patted him on his thigh. In unison, we all quietly said, "No, no."

Wayne looked up and took a deep breath before turning in Erica's direction and away from the old man.

Several stops later, after the old man had twice lost control of his wheelchair, the train stopped at a station and remained for a few minutes with its doors open.

I noticed two police officers on the platform. Getting their attention, I motioned them toward us and pointed to the old man.

As the officers came onboard, I told them the man had racially abused us, was drinking and had lost control of his wheelchair.

The officers rolled the man off the train, and, a minute or two later, it pulled away.

I looked at the stricken and angry faces of my family.

My planning had put us in California. My planning had put us on that train.

"I'm very sorry," I told them. "We didn't deserve that."

No one said anything for a while. Then, Wayne pointed to his heart and said: "Drunk or not, for him to say those things, they had to be in there."

"I agree," I said. "I completely agree."

We were mostly silent as we reached the airport station.

"Mr. Washington," Erica said. "Would it be OK if we didn't ride the train again? I don't feel safe on it."

"Of course," I said. "I understand."

A cloud that hangs overhead

As we walked toward the rental car counter, I admitted to my family: "I ain't gonna lie. It takes me a while to get past these things. I try to forget them, but it takes me a minute."

The old man had pulled a cloud over us.

To be Black is to know there's a chance that, on any given day, you'll be a receptacle for someone else's bigotry and bile. Just ... 'cause.

It doesn't happen every day. It doesn't happen most days. But it can happen on any day.

Politicians feed the racist beast, knocking the qualifications and credibility of even ridiculously qualified Black office-seekers or appointees and confirming for some white people that, no, their children really don't need to learn about the nation's history of racism if it'll make them even a little uncomfortable.

Being a bigot now isn't simply vile and uncouth; it's just a refusal to be "politically correct" or "woke."

There's a bigotry bash going on, and the price of admittance is the absence of Black skin.

In my mind, the old man on the BART train joined a list of louts who blithely add their rocks of racism to the pail of bigotry Black people are forced to tote.

There was the white, female teacher at my daughter's elementary school in Tampa who told us she was struggling in kindergarten because she was "culturally deprived."

When I asked her what she meant by that term, she said children can be culturally deprived if they live in a home where books and learning aren't or can't be the top priority.

I told the woman Ashley was simply very young and shy.

"I'm a journalist, and my wife works at a bank," I told her. "Our home is filled with books. I assure you, there's nothing about Ashley's culture that has deprived her."

Ashley now has a master's degree in clinical microbiology, and, somehow getting past all of that cultural deprivation, works as a laboratory scientist in a local hospital in West Palm Beach.

That teacher was later joined on the lout list by the old white man in South Carolina who stopped my son while he was riding his bike with his friend in our neighborhood to ask him if he lived there.

Wayne rode home instead of answering. When I went to the man and confronted him, he refused to apologize and eventually said there were "too many" of us living in the neighborhood.

When I contacted his boss, the man gave him a choice: apologize or quit. He quit.

Baptism of bigotry: Wellington confrontation renews memories of racist encounter

More: Five things I learned in my search for my roots

A white male newspaper editor, refusing to hire me for a job I sought, told me bluntly: "Your career has been turbo-charged by the dearth of African Americans in this business."

With that one statement, he not only declined to hire me, he sought to belittle the work I had done to prepare for a career in journalism and the work I had done once I entered the profession.

A young white man, seeing my family and me in a Walmart parking lot in Cheyenne, Wyoming, threw up a Nazi salute in our direction. He and the white guy he was with laughed as they walked to the store.

Then there was the time a young, white female security guard followed Wayne and me in a Las Vegas mall store so closely, so obviously and for such a long time, we wondered what was wrong.

Wayne, then 13, turned to the young woman.

"Why are you following us?" he asked. "Did we do something wrong?"

That question captures some of what happens to Black people when random racism rears its head. We actually wonder if we did something wrong. Could it not be racism and something else?

A stop on the northern California coast.

It shouldn't be on us

Contrary to the thinking of some, we don't always jump to racism. Often, we look to see if there is some other explanation for the treatment.

Sadly, infuriatingly, the answer to that question is: if it looks like racism, smells like racism, sounds like racism, it's a safe bet it's racism.

The old man on the BART train left me feeling powerless and angry. I reproached myself. Should I have punched him? Why did I let him curse like that in front of my family? Why didn't I move?

I know it shouldn't be on us to take action to avoid being the victims of racism.

If we hadn't stopped Wayne from responding  and if the man's provocations had led to a physical confrontation  what are the chances that Wayne would have been believed when he argued that the man was verbally abusing his family? Might Wayne have simply become yet another person participating in this wave of attacks on Asian Americans?

My family and I know it would have been dangerous to bet that we'd be believed.

We worked to get past the ugliness of the old man on the train.

Wayne Washington II and Erica Anderson at the Bixby Creek Bridge near Big Sur.

California helped. Ashley and I accepted the offer of an aerial view of Monterey and were spellbound. Waves crashed into huge rocks. Mountains dove into the sea.

We all returned to Highway 1 the next day and took lots of tourist pictures of that fantastic stretch of coastline. Erica got her pictures near Bixby Creek Bridge.

I had forgotten how the Pacific Ocean roars. That majestic sound can drown out just about anything.

For a little while, anyway.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: California vacation was a family getaway until a racist rant began
The European Union (EU) on Thursday released a series of steps and actions citizens can take to reduce energy usage as part of an effort to support to support Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the European Commission, a branch of the EU, outlined several steps for the average citizen, including walking or biking instead of driving, reducing speeds on highways, working from home and using less air conditioning.

Using less energy is not only an immediate way for EU citizens to reduce their bills, but it also supports Ukraine by reducing the need for Russian oil and gas, thereby helping to reduce the revenue streams funding the invasion, the commission said.

The commission said Thursday the efforts would save enough oil to fill 120 super tankers and enough natural gas to heat almost 20 million homes if adopted by all EU citizens.

European Commission Director-General Juul Jrgensen said during a Thursday meeting on the energy-saving steps that Europeans should attempt to help Ukrainians in their daily life while saving money and helping the climate.

What can you and I and everyone individually do immediately to save energy? she asked. And theres a lot we can do that doesnt have to wait for the time it takes to regulate.

The Biden administration has banned all imports of Russian oil following the countrys invasion of Ukraine in late February. However, Russia is the single-largest supplier of fuel in European countries.

Jrgensen said in a statement that energy efficiency has the potential to be the most important policy initiative for reducing our dependence on Russian imports.

The European Commission and IEA said the simple steps Europeans can take will have a big effect. For example, the agencies said turning the thermostat just 1 degree Celsius would save 7 percent of the energy used for heating.

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The commission said Europeans who work from home three days a week would reduce household fuel bills by 35 euros a month.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, said during Thursdays meeting that he hopes Europeans will take the lead here and bring energy efficiency through these measures.

Put energy efficiency at the top of the policy agenda when we want to push Russian energy back out of Europe, Birol added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The claim: Congressional benefits include 'free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days'

As inflation spikes amid the invasion of Ukraine and the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic, families across the nation are struggling to make ends meet. But some social media users are sharing a claim that members of Congress are more well-off.

"Take a look at the Congressional benefits  free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days; now THAT'S welfare," reads text in a Facebook post shared over two years ago.

The post has generated over 700 shares since it was published Aug. 15, 2020, and it has recently regained traction on Facebook. Similar posts have spread widely on Facebook and Twitter.

But the claim is off the mark.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Experts told USA TODAY members of Congress do not receive free health care or 67 paid holidays. Their retirement plans are similar to what other federal employees receive. And members determine when to take vacation or sick days.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.

No free health care

Members of Congress do not receive free health care, as the post claims.

Instead, they are eligible to receive employer-sponsored health insurance coverage through DC Health Link, according to Damien Brady, director of research at the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative taxpayer advocacy group. The program was established in Washington under the Affordable Care Act.

Premium plan rates vary depending on an individual's age, tobacco usage, dependents and where they live, according to a 2017 Congressional Research Service report. The federal government contributes up to "72% of the weighted average" of all premium plans, "not to exceed 75% of any given plans premium," according to the report.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, watch as the casket of Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is carried down the steps of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 29, 2022.

The member is responsible for paying the difference through payroll deductions.

As of 2014, members of Congress were excluded from health coverage under the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, according to the report. But they can "purchase a FEHB plan upon retirement from the federal government" if they obtain coverage from DC Health Link.

Retirement similar to other federal employees

It is unclear what the post means by "outrageous retirement packages." However, members of Congress do not get any special retirement benefits.

Members of Congress, like other federal employees, can be covered with a retirement plan of their choice under the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employees' Retirement System, according to a 2019 Congressional Research Service report.

Eligibility for both programs is based on "age, the number of years served and other special requirements," according to benefits.gov.

Fact check: False claim that image shows salaries of government officials and service members

Members with at least five years of service, like other federal employees, can also receive pensions financed through "a combination of employee and employer contributions," the report states. The pension "may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary."

"The value of the benefit is determined by a formula based on the initial date of election to office, the length of service and the average of the three years of highest salary," Brady said.

Under the CSRS and FERS retirement systems, members that are 62 years old with five years of service can receive a pension, according to the report. Members who are 50 with 20 years of service or members who have served for 25 years are also eligible for the pension.

Members get 10 paid holidays

Members of Congress do not get 67 paid holidays, as the post claims. They are subject to 10 paid federal holidays, according to the 2022 legislative calendar  the same amount other federal employees received this year.

There is no designated limit on paid sick days or vacation.

Representatives serve for two years while senators serve for six years. They can choose to spend that time however they like, Mark Strand, director of research at the nonprofit Congressional Institute, a public policy research organization that has developed House Floor procedure manuals and funded retreats for Republican members, told USA TODAY in an email.

"Members work pretty hard when they are back home, including almost every weekend. Typically, members will take a weeks vacation in August, and usually they take some time right after an election," Strand said. "But how much time they take is an individual choice."

Fact check: Posts spur confusion about how much money US has 'printed'

When a member of the House misses a vote, they put a statement in the Congressional Record explaining how and why they would have voted if they had been present, Strand said.

"Ultimately, the voters are the bosses and get to judge whether they think a member is abusing their trust by being absent too often, taking too many 'junkets' or spending too much time on vacation," he said.

Our rating: Partly false

Based on our research, we rate PARTLY FALSE the claim that congressional benefits include "free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days." Members of Congress do not receive free health care or 67 paid holidays, and their retirement plans are similar to what other federal employees receive. Members determine when to take vacation or sick days.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Congressional health care, retirement benefits exaggerated
Florida Rep. Randy Fine threatened to interfere with state funding for the Special Olympics and the city of West Melbourne last week over a personal feud with Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins, according to a series of text messages obtained by FLORIDA TODAY.

A city leader said Fine later tried to block the release of the text messages through a public records request and wanted a city attorney who was overseeing the request to be fired.

Fine denied he threatened to get the funding pulled or that he ever spoke about firing the city attorney.

Fine vs. Jenkins: State Attorney declines to press charges against Rep. Randy Fine over Jenkins feud

Restraining order denied: Brevard judge dismisses Jennifer Jenkins' 'cyberstalking' case against Rep. Randy Fine

Who is Randy Fine? Republican lawmaker's fight with Disney is only his latest battle in culture wars

In the text messages between Fine and West Melbourne City Councilman John Dittmore, obtained late Friday through a public records request, Fine told Dittmore that funding requests for the charity and the city in a state budget recently submitted for approval to Gov. Ron DeSantis would be on the governor's chopping block.

The reason: city police officials had invited Jenkins to participate in a Special Olympics fundraising event by the West Melbourne Police Department, but had neglected to invite Fine.

"Jenkins just put your project and special Olympics funding on the veto list," Fine wrote.

Rep. Randy Fine listens to a speaker during a House Tourism, Infrastructure & Energy Subcommittee meeting Tuesday morning, Feb. 15, 2022.

As Dittmore tried to intervene, the text messages show, Fine again said the Special Olympics funding was "at risk," calling the move to invite Jenkins a "huge (expletive) by the bureaucrats."

"Smart move is to cancel with apology for wading into politics," he wrote.

Fine rejected Dittmore's subsequent invitation to attend the event, which took place Friday at a Chick-Fil-A restaurant on Palm Bay Road, calling Jenkins a "whore."

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"I'm not going to jack (expletive) where that whore is at," he wrote. "You guys will have to raise a lot of money given that's who you want to honor, not the person who got you money in the budget."

The $112.1 billion state budget, passed by the Florida Legislature and sent to the governor's desk last month, included $1 million in various appropriations for the Special Olympics and a $460,000 flood risk reduction project affecting about 500 homes in West Melbourne's Westbrooke neighborhood.

Dittmore told FLORIDA TODAY that, in a follow-up phone conversation with Fine, the State House representative objected when he found out the texts would be released by West Melbourne city attorney Morris Richardson as part of a public records request filed by Jenkins, and suggested Richardson should be fired.

"He was very displeased and frustrated with the fact that our city attorney made the decision that some of this stuff was going to be public," Dittmore said. "He made references to the fact that we should consider terminating his employment."

Read the entire exchange between Fine and Dittmore below. CONTENT WARNING: The following contains strong language. If you can't read the texts, click here.

Fine denied Saturday that conversation ever took place and said he never threatened to ask DeSantis to veto the items. He said the "veto list" comment was a remark about the "negative attention" brought to the event by Jenkins, who attempted to "politicize" it when she posted about the event on social media.

"When you have someone like Jennifer Jenkins come and politicize charity events, it creates problems," Fine told FLORIDA TODAY. "If you want to be in a charity event, fine. But when you go on Facebook and you politicize it, you put it at risk."

Fine did not answer further questions pressing him on the nature of the "risk" he referenced.

A review of Jenkins's Facebook account in the lead-up to the event shows several posts in which Jenkins touted the fundraiser with pictures of her in a mock jail uniform, holding a placard reading "#BailJenkins," a riff on Fine's "#JailJenkins" slogan he has often used in his own Facebook posts.

The fundraiser event was billed as participants "bailing out" various community leaders, who were "jailed" on the roof of Chick-Fil-A, according to ads posted by the West Melbourne Police Department.

While Fine said he did have the ability to ask DeSantis to veto line items in the state budget, he denied asking DeSantis to do so.

"If I (had the intention to do that), I would have. I haven't. Never planned to. Didn't do it," he said.

Messages seeking comment to DeSantis's press office were not immediately returned Saturday. FLORIDA TODAY has reached out to Special Olympics Florida.

Richardson said the city never intended to be caught in the crossfire of the fight between Jenkins and Fine. The invitation to attend the fundraiser was sent to the entire school board and to Brevard Superintendent Mark Mullins, he said. Only Jenkins responded that she would attend.

"In organizing this fundraiser for the Special Olympics, the City of West Melbourne certainly did not intend to become involved in an unrelated political dispute," Richardson said in an email. "I trust that better angels will prevail, and that our leaders will not allow this to impact worthy projects and causes."

Dittmore said a since-deleted Facebook post he made late last week attempting to apologize to Fine for Jenkins' involvement in the event was an attempt to "smooth over" the situation before it "got out of hand." He said he deleted the post when supporters of Fine and Jenkins began to argue in the comment section.

Dittmore said he was just looking out for city residents, who badly need the flood risk protection funding.

"My whole goal was not to let this politicization affect the City of West Melbourne," he said.

Why is Fine feuding with Brevard School Board member Jennifer Jenkins?

"I'm not surprised by it," Jenkins said of the incident Saturday, adding that she felt Fine had tried pulling similar attacks against her in the past.

"It's typical for someone to attack a woman with sexual innuendos when they are threatened by their strength," she said of Fine's "whore" comment. "I'm no stranger to these attacks from him. He has constantly gotten a pass for his defamation and libel, and he's just been emboldened by those who are supposed to be holding him accountable."

Jennifer Jenkins (right) poses with Stone Middle School principal Courtney Lundy. School board member Jenifer Jenkins participated in the Special Olympics Fundraiser at the Chick-fil-A on Palm Bay Road Friday night. Jenkins, along with school administrators and law enforcement officers were jailed on the roof of the Chick-fil-A and had to get people to donate to get them out of jail.

Fine and Jenkins have been embroiled in a public and increasingly rancorous feud in recent months, stemming from Fine's anger with Jenkins over her support last year of a mask mandate for Brevard Public Schools. The mandate, which was later revoked, bucked a state order from DeSantis banning such mandates.

That feud reached a climax in October when Jenkins filed for a restraining order against Fine, asking a Brevard County judge to prohibit Fine from posting about her on social media.

The case was tossed after the court agreed with Fine's attorneys that the Facebook posts  in which Fine called Jenkins "mentally ill" and a "child abuser" for her support of the mask mandate, and repeatedly suggested she had cheated on her husband  was protected political speech.

Criminal complaints made last year containing a host of allegations against Fine by Jenkins and Robert Burns, a Brevard County political consultant with whom Fine has also had a long-standing feud, were dismissed by the State Attorney's Office.

An investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found the complaints  which included allegations of corruption of a public servant by threat, cyberintimidation and stalking  arising from Fine's frequent Facebook posts about Jenkins and Burns either did not rise to the level of a crime or were permitted under Florida law.

Fine made national headlines this week with a bill he filed in the recent special legislative session that stripped the Walt Disney Co. of special self-governing rights it was granted over a 25,000-acre parcel in Central Florida that serves as home to its Florida theme parks.

The bill was approved by both the Florida House and Senate and signed Friday by DeSantis.

Ethics expert: This is what you would see in a dictatorship

The legality of Fine's threats was not clear Saturday. An expert in political ethics who spoke to FLORIDA TODAY said she wasn't sure if Fine had broken any laws.

However, Beth Rosenson, an associate professor in political science at the University of Florida, said it was certainly unethical.

"To threaten the city, that if they don't disinvite her and apologize that he's going to work to get the project vetoed, that's an ethical violation of what he's supposed to be doing in his job," said Rosenson, author of "The Shadowlands of Conduct: Ethics and State Politics."

"It sounds like a pretty egregious, sort of petty way to behave," she said. "That's not why people elect somebody."

Fine's efforts reminded her of the "personalized politics" often displayed by dictators, she said, where those seeking political favors are required to "bow down" and show fealty to leaders' demands.

"It's not how democracy is supposed to operate," she said. "So I think there's some pretty deep, profound implications of what he's doing."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida state rep threatened Special Olympics over personal spat
Apr. 23Local fire departments are warning of scams targeting their supporters.

Plymouth Fire Chief Bill Strubbe said multiple people reached out to him about messages claiming to have shirts for sale to raise funds for the Plymouth Township Fire Department.

"I knew there was some sort of scam going on," he said.

Strubbe said his son, who works for the department, told him a number of other departments have experienced the same issues.

"It sounds like what's taking place is kind of like a nationwide thing," Strubbe said. "Whoever's doing this must be going on fire department Facebook pages or websites, and they'll take a screenshot of their logo if it's on their sites."

Scammers are marketing the shirts as benefitting the local fire departments, Strubbe said.

"Obviously there's some sort of scam that's going on," he said.

Strubbe said he is unaware if anyone fell for the scam.

"If you get these emails, text messages, or however these folks contact you, don't fall for stuff," he said. "If it's something you randomly get out of the blue, and you're not really expecting it, then chances are it's probably not true."

Strubbe recommended reaching out to people directly to double check in situations like this.

Sheffield Fire Chief Claude Kobernik said firefighters in his department had alerted him to the scam, and posted on the department's social media accounts warning residents.

"We basically told our residents we weren't participating in this at all," he said. "This is a scam. Don't think it's coming from us."

Ashtabula County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Terry Moisio said the office takes reports on scams, and also directs people to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission.

Ashtabula County Prosecutor Colleen O'Toole said scams can be reported to the Ohio Attorney General's Consumer Protection division, at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/consumers.

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State and federal law enforcement agencies have more resources to go after scammers, O'Toole said.

"They also handle bulk," O'Toole said. "If they're doing it to people in Ashtabula [County], they're doing it to people all over the state, and it's not real practical to try to prosecute in Ashtabula and the prosecute it again in Cuyahoga, and then prosecute it again in Pike."

O'Toole recommended turning on alerts for credit card charges. She also recommended getting a call-back number from people calling to ask for money, then searching for information online to verify their claims.

"And if you don't recognize the number, let them leave a message, don't pick it up," O'Toole said.
Dana Hayes sharing his side Friday night with 11 News after he was fired by the Baltimore Police Department and publicly named as a person of interest in a homicide investigation. The former BPD civilian employee was hired on April 11 and fired after only a few days on the job as the chief of fiscal services, the third-highest rank in the department's fiscal division. Hayes told 11 News by telephone Friday night that he wants to clear his name.
"Everywhere Babies," a popular rhyming picture book, has been banned by a Florida school district.

The book's author speculates it was banned because of an image of one man embracing another in it.

The author added that "Everywhere Babies" had previously been featured by LGBTQ children's book sites.

A popular children's book with illustrations of sleeping and playing babies has been banned in a Florida school district.

The Washington Post on Friday reported that the Walton County School District banned "Everywhere Babies," a rhyming picture book published in 2001.

The book's author, Susan Meyers, was inspired to write the book five months after the birth of her first grandchild. Meyers told the Post she speculates that the book was banned because there is an image of one man embracing another in it.

"I think there's one illustration they don't like, where it's two men. But how do they see this, that any time a man puts his arm on another man's shoulder, it means they're gay? It doesn't seem obvious to me," she said.

Meyers added that "Everywhere Babies" had previously been featured on LGBTQ children's book sites.

"It seems odd to me that this is banned, because it's a preschool book, a family book," Meyers said. "You read it to kids when they're 2. But maybe they think we're trying to indoctrinate kids from the cradle on. I don't know. I mean, you can't figure out this mindset."

"Everywhere Babies" is part of a collection of 58 books that the Walton County School District removed from library shelves. Walton is the latest school district to impose a sweeping ban on books that are deemed inappropriate for children.

In the last nine months alone, nearly 1,600 books have been banned by school districts. Many of these books touch on themes of race, gender, and sexuality.

Walton did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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But in a statement to NBC affiliate WJHG-TV, Walton County School Superintendent Russell Hughes said "it was necessary in this moment for me to make that decision and I did it for just a welfare of all involved, including our constituents, our teachers, and our students."

"I'll continue to do those things and perhaps add some," Hughes said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos Courtesy of Forlini's Restaurant

When New Yorkers caught wind that Forlinis, a bustling Italian restaurant in Chinatown favored by downtown sophisticates, was permanently closing its doors in March, grieving patrons flooded their timelines with fond remembrances.

Plans to shutter had been in the works for years. The Forlini family bought 91-93 Baxter Street, the building that housed their restaurant, in the '60s. In 2020, 91-93 Baxter was listed at $15 million, and the restaurants owners said theyd close Forlinis in the event of a sale, which finally took place this year in a deal with an unnamed buyer. For Forlinis diehards, forewarning did little to soften the blow.

Now its art is up for sale: 32 artworks that once adorned the walls, including landscapes, provincial domestic scenes and a portrait of the Forlini brothers, are available for purchase on the restaurants website.

New York City Officially Reopened. It Was Quite a Dayand Night.

When a beloved, well-appointed New York dining institution closes down, auctions of the items held within are commonplace. After the 2019 curtain call for the iconic Four Seasons, whose interiors were handled by none other than legendary architect Philip Johnson, buyers snapped up custom-made Ludwig Mies van der Rohe barstools, serving carts by Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable and Hans J. Wegner chairs from the mezzanine of the Grill Room. All told, the auction, held in the Seagram Buildings iconic Pool Room, brought in $4,105,623.

Forlinis troves, fortunately, are much more budget-friendly. An oil painting of a fiddler and a pianist instructing a young child is listed at $5,000, as is the family group portrait and a likeness of a beautiful brunette. A still life featuring grapefruit and a broken wine glass will only set you back $3,500. And this is from the beloved Forlinis, so who knows what dedicated fans may be prepared to pay?

Courtesy Forlini's Restaurant

Forlinis occupies a special place in my heart and my stomach, New York Post senior writer Kirsten Fleming wrote in an Instagram eulogy. When the iconic, family run Chinatown joint abruptly announced it had closed, I was sad and also annoyed I didnt go more in the last two years, but thats life in the big city.

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Since the mid-50s, the old school red sauce joint served as a much-loved haunt for lawyers, prosecutors and legal aides weary from a day at work at the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building just down the street. Big political names like Michael Bloomberg and Eliot Spitzer hung out too.

The Forlini family make you feel as though youre a part of their family when you enter the restaurant, said Marc Scarpa, the founder of DeFiance Media. I grew up in New York City and Forlinis was a pinnacle location in the 1980s and 1990s, especially for Giuliani and the city when they were trying to curb street crime that was perpetuated by some bad actors in the Italian mafia. The restaurant was a neutral gathering place for the district attorneys, the feds, and the crime bosses.

At the same time at the restaurant, youd have a family that was just getting lunch, Scarpa said. Everyone was treated the same, there was no hierarchy or elitism.

Then came an unexpected twist. In recent years, the restaurant was enthusiastically adopted by a chic assemblage of fashion and art world professionals after Vogue chose Forlini's for a pre-Met Gala party, transforming the neighborhood standby into a bona fide hot spot.

NYC life expectations: galavanting around the east village, texting my friends I cant wait to meet them at Forlinis for drinks later

NYC life reality: random massive nosebleed at CVS on Nostrand Avenue while waiting for my bipolar disorder medications  Willem (@jil_slander) February 24, 2020

All the kids and art galleries were great to us, Derek Forlini, who ran the business with cousin Joe Forlini, told the New York Times. They filled our bar, and we dont have a bad word to say about them. Lots of them became our friends. (The Daily Beast reached out to Derek and Joe for comment.)

No matter who showed up, the restaurant's decor reflected the communal spirit of its clientele.

Nestled in pink banquettes, diners caught up over traditional meals lit by glowing chandeliers and took in the artwork adorning the walls, enjoying a heady ambiance reminiscent of Vesuvio, the fictional mob stronghold favored by Tony Soprano. In fact, the restaurant feels so genuinely authentic, it's fittingly served as a filming location for shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Blue Bloods.

But after the Met Gala party, a shift began to take place. When it first started happening, I noticed it on Instagram, Forlini fan Harrison Johnson told the New York Times. I began seeing the old paintings on their walls and their booth seats appearing in peoples pictures, and I was like, Are people starting to go to Forlinis?

Courtesy Forlini's Restaurant

Among the paintings for sale after its closure, theres a rendering of a bustling public square that particularly stands out. It could actually be worth more money than any of the others, Carol Krinsky, a professor of art history at NYU, said. Its not Italian, not at all. Its certainly Northern European, it could be a 17th-century or possibly 18th-century picture, and my guess is that it is a capital city. I dont know the Amsterdam city hall well enough to be sure, but it's certainly a large public square in Northern Europe.

It is commercial art, and it was probably intended by some of the artists to be what we could call fine art or elevated art in some way, said Krinsky of the collection as a whole. The artists for the most part I think were sincere craftsmen, but the results are entirely conventional.

In any case, for members of New Yorks savvy, well-heeled cabal of aesthetes, Forlinis souvenirs could quickly become must-haves.

These paintings have witnessed some of the most clandestine conversations of the past 25 years of New York, from private eyes gossiping about the philanderers theyre tailing to judges unwinding from a murder case over a chicken parm, Marcella Zimmermann, senior vice president at consultancy Cultural Counsel, told the Daily Beast. Whats that worth?

If people really like them a lot, enjoy the realism or enjoy the emotional feeling that they have, the paintings are worth paying for, Krinsky said. If people like landscapes, or if they like slender ladies with dark eyes that they think are expressive, well, I hope they enjoy having the picture. I might not pay anything for most of these pictures, because many of these subjects are familiar. But a person who wants a nice landscape? Gee, why not?

Courtesy Forlini's Restaurant

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The family of a missing 14-year-old girl from Fort Worth is asking the public for help locating their daughter.

Brooklyn Waters was last seen leaving her home in the 8900 block of Guard Hill Drive Thursday morning around 8:20 a.m. Her mother, Monica, said video footage showed the teen getting into a black Dodge Challenger wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and red Crocs.

Brooklyn Waters was last seen leaving her home in the 8900 block of Guard Hill Drive Thursday morning around 8:20 a.m.

Brooklyn is Black, with brown eyes and black hair, about 315 pounds and 5-foot-7-inches. She also goes by the name Jordan Renae.

Her family believes she may be in the Dallas area.

Anyone with information should contact her mother at 682-812-9744, her brother Christian Hunt at 682-812-9245, her grandmother Betty St. Romain at 682-812-9747 or the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-392-4200.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany must do everything in its power to help Ukraine win the war against Russia but without endangering its own security and NATO's defence capability, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Saturday.

"We must do everything in our power to help Ukraine win, but the limit of the ethical responsibility is endangering our own security and endangering the defence capability of NATO territory," Lindner said in a party conference speech in Berlin.

"But what is possible ... must be undertaken pragmatically and quickly, together with our European partners," he said.

Lindner said he was in favour of supporting Ukraine with heavy weapons, but that Germany must not become a party to the war.

"Ukraine needs military support, and in order to be victorious, it also needs heavy weapons," Lindner added.

He rejected criticism aimed at Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the government's apparent reluctance to deliver heavy battlefield weapons, such as tanks and howitzers.

"Olaf Scholz is a responsible leader who weighs things up carefully and makes decisions on this basis," Lindner said.

A day earlier, when asked about Germany's failure to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, Scholz said NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Alexander Ratz; Editing by Christina Fincher)
Nearly a year-and-a-half after gunfire left a man dead outside of a Memphis club, a man has been convicted of first-degree murder.

Cederick Ivory, 24, was found guilty on Friday, April 22.

Cederick Ivory, 24, has been found guilty of first-degree murder.

RELATED: 1 killed, 2 more hurt at Memphis lounge

On Dec. 11, 2019, Ivory got into an argument with someone inside James Lounge on Summer Ave., according to Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.

Weirich said that the fight spilled outside into the parking lot where Ivory pulled out a gun that witnesses referred to as a chopper and began shooting into a crowd of people. One of the people in that crowd was 27-year-old Anthony William Travis.

RELATED: Second man arrested for James Lounge shooting, police say

As Travis ran for cover, he was shot in the side of the chest, a bullet wound that left him dead at the scene in the James Lounge parking lot, Weirich said.

The deadly shooting was captured on surveillance video, according to Weirich.

Ivory was convicted of first-degree murder, a charge that carries a sentence of life in prison.

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Apr. 22Habitat for Humanity of Greater Dayton held a grand opening and ribbon cutting Friday for their new Springfield ReStore.

The new store is located at 2990 Derr Road, at the north corner of the Northland Plaza Shopping Center. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. There will also be more celebration of the opening from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday with food trucks.

"We're really excited because this is our grand opening celebration for our new ReStore in Springfield. It's our second Restore," said Norm Miozzi, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Dayton. "We've been looking forward to this and planning this for years. It's just really exciting and it's a beautiful store. We're pretty proud about ours because we think they look really nice, and some don't have the space that we do to hold some of the larger items."

The ReStore, a nonprofit home improvement store and donation center, is open to the public, and provides a variety of new and gently used products at a reduced price. The store has items to those similar at other home good stores, such as cabinets, furniture, appliances, paint and painting supplies, light fixtures, doors, windows, flooring, home decor, and more.

All proceeds from the Restore go back to Habitat to provide affordable housing to local families in the homeownership program and critical repairs for low-income Clark County residents.

Miozzi said this new store means two things for the Springfield community.

"(It gives) some opportunities for some great items for their homes at really affordable prices, but the other thing it does is the store generates revenue and with those revenues, what we do is we turn around and put that back into the community doing critical home repairs, building new homes, providing that homeownership opportunity, and then also we do renovations for the families that come to use for the opportunity to own a home," he said.

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Along with shopping at the ReStore, community members can also donate unwanted or gently used items. Smaller donations can be dropped off at the store during business hours, up to a half hour before the store closes. Larger donations can be picked up by the store free of charge by calling 937-222-2296.

The store runs with the help of 8-10 volunteers each day who help process donations, create displays, organize, clean and help with other tasks. To volunteer or apply for a program, visit the website at daytonhabitat.org.

Scott Withers, Springfield ReStore manager, said the store is going to be a "great asset" for the community.

"All of our profits are going to building homes in Dayton and in Springfield, and the Springfield donations come here. It all goes to help affordable housing in the community," he said. "I hope it's going to be like an institution in the city and do a lot of good... Everyone works so hard to make this happen and everybody deserves some credit."
Everyone will get a mail-in ballot this year. For those who do not wish to vote by mail, the polls open at 7 a.m. June 7 where voters can vote the old-fashioned way or drop-off their mail-in ballot.

Yard signs are out in force and election season has begun: The June 7 primary election is a chance to thin the herd, and in some cases, elect a representative outright. Here are the local races and faces that will be on the ballot.

Stockton City Council

Three seats are up for grabs on the Stockton City Council and will be on the ballot in the June 7 primary. Candidates will need a majority of the vote or 50%-plus-one vote to be elected outright. Otherwise, the top two vote getters in each district will move on to the November general election.

District 1 incumbent councilmember Sol Jobrack is seeking reelection. Prior to his election to District 1 seat, Jobrack served as a Stockton Planning Commissioner for four years. Social worker Felix Ogbah and educator Michele Padilla will also run for the District 1 seat.

In District 3, incumbent councilmember Paul Canepa has reached the two-term limit, opening up the seat to three new candidates. Business owner Michael Blower, businessman and engineer Shoua Lo and Lincoln Unified substitute teacher Bridget Hawley-Ortiz will run for Stockton City Councils District 3 seat.

Elected in 2014 after serving eight years as a Stockton Planning Commissioner, Vice Mayor Christina Fugazi is also terming out of her District 5 seat. San Joaquin Delta College and UC Berkeley student and Reinvent South Stockton Coalition member Jewelian Johnson will face off against current Stockton Planning Commissioner Brando Villapudua  brother of State Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua  for the District 5 opening.

San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors

The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors  elected officials tasked with decision-making at the county level  has two openings on the June 7 ballot.

The District 2 race will host a field of familiar faces with Supervisor Kathy Miller terming out. Current Stockton city councilmember Paul Canepa, business owner Dino Ballin, county Supervisor of Facilities Maintenance Bill Smith and retired criminal investigator Elbert Holman Jr. will all be vying for the seat.

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Current board chair and retired CHP officer Chuck Winn has reached his term limit, and six candidates will campaign for the District 4 seat. Former San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore, Lodi elementary school teacher Nancy G. St. Clair, retired probation officer Paul Brennan, current Lodi city councilmember Doug Kuehne, restaurant owner Steve Ding and business owner Steve Colangelo will all be on the ballot.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by June 7 at the latest and be received by the county Registrar of Voters within three days of the election. The county has 19 certified drop box locations, but voters can also simply stick their ballot in the mailbox.

San Joaquin County Sheriff

The San Joaquin County Sheriff, an elected official, has three main duties: to keep the peace, attend the courts and to operate the county jail. The sheriff holds a considerable amount of power  though not absolute  and current San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow will go unopposed this election cycle.

San Joaquin County District Attorney

The district attorney represents the people of San Joaquin County in superior court. When someone is accused of committing a crime, the DA has sole power to decide if criminal charges will be filed, and how severe those charges will be. The DA is also tasked with holding police officers accountable, including the sheriffs department.

Tori Verber Salazar is San Joaquin County District Attorney, elected in 2014 and again in 2018. One of her staff members, Deputy District Attorney Ron Frietas, will challenge Verber Salazar.

San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools

The county superintendent of schools is an elected position that serves as an intermediary between school districts and the California Department of Education.

Troy Brown, who was picked to replace the recently-retired Superintendent James A. Mousalimas, will be challenged by Brian Biedermann. Last year, Biedermann resigned from his post as interim superintendent of the Stockton Unified School district five months before his contract was set to expire, citing personal health reasons and wanting to spend more time with family.

San Joaquin County Auditor-Controller

The county auditor-controller is responsible for financial reporting and audits of certain agencies within the county.

Last year former San Joaquin County Auditor-Controller Jay Wilverding was selected by the Board of Supervisors on a 3-2 vote to permanently step into the role of county administrator, a staff position.

Acting San Joaquin County Auditor-Controller Jeffery Woltkamp will ask voters to elect him for a full term. Certified public accountant Shannon Esenwein will also run for the seat.

Those who miss the May 23 deadline to register to vote can still do so through Conditional Voter Registration  essentially no different than registering to vote before the deadline  at the county Registrar of Voters' office or at a polling location on Election Day.

Judge of the Superior Court

Though four San Joaquin County Superior Court benches are up for grabs, only office No. 4 has more than one candidate. Superior Court Commissioner Jonathan Fattarsi will run against attorney Lou Tovar for the office No. 4 bench.

California State Assembly

San Joaquin County is currently split between three Assembly districts. Last year the California Citizens Redistricting Commission redrew the maps to have the county split between two districts  District 9 and District 13  a preference for most polled San Joaquin County residents.

Heath Flora, who currently serves State Assembly District 12, is the sole candidate for the newly drawn District 9, which dips into some of Floras current constituency.

Three Democrats will face off to represent Stockton and Tracy in District 13, a territory largely unchanged by redistricting. Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, who currently represents District 13, will run to keep his seat in the State Assembly. Tracy Vice Mayor Veronica Vargas and Tracy city council member Mateo Bedolla will both challenge Villapudua.

United States Congress

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission has put almost all of San Joaquin County into Congressional District 9. A slew of candidates will take up a chunk of the June 7 ballot:

Democratic Representative Josh Harder, the Turlock native, Stanford grad who represents some of San Joaquin County in the 10th Congressional District, will run in the new 9th Congressional District. San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti is running on the Republican ticket to make the jump from the county dais to Washington, D.C.

Union organizer and Harpreet Singh Chima, Karena Apple Feng, Khalid Jeffrey Jafri  a registered Democrat who got a handful of write-in votes for State Assembly as a Republican in 2020  litigator and business owner Jonathan Madison, business owner Jim Shoemaker and business owner Mark Andrews will all be on the June 7 ballot for the 9th Congressional District.

Five candidates will run for the 13th Congressional District, which scrapes the southernmost portion of San Joaquin County into Lathrop.

Madera teacher and business owner David Giglio, Fresno business owner Phil Arballo, Assemblymember Adam Gray, Modesto farmer John Duarte and bail bond agent Diego Martinez will all run to represent the 13th Congressional District.

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: June 7 California Primary Election: San Joaquin County races and faces
Hollis Daniels is escorted out of the Lubbock County Courthouse Friday.

Hollis Daniels, the former Texas Tech University freshman accused in the shooting death of a campus police officer five years ago, appeared in court Friday for a scheduling conference in his capital murder case.

Daniels, 23, has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since his Oct. 10, 2017, arrest and is charged in the shooting death of Floyd East Jr. If convicted, Daniels faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The Lubbock County District Attorneys Office has said in previous hearings that it is seeking the death penalty in the case.

The scheduling conference on Friday was to determine future court dates leading up to a potential trial.

Previously: Trial date uncertain for man accused in Texas Tech police officer's fatal shooting

Floyd East and family

Daniels' attorney, Chip Lewis, told the court in a November 2020 hearing that he would have to hold off on engaging in another trial without the permission of the Los Angeles County Judge presiding over the trial his other client, billionaire Robert Durst.

Durst was arrested in 2015 in connection with the 2000 death of his friend, Susan Berman. He was convicted in September 2021 of shooting Berman at point-blank range in 2000 at her Los Angeles home.

He was sentenced to life Oct. 14. Two days later, he was hospitalized with COVID-19, according to USA Today reporting. Following his conviction, Durst was indicted in New York on a murder charge for his wife's 1982 death. Durst, 78, died in January of natural causes.

Police investigators in Lubbock believe Daniels, who is from Seguin, shot East on Oct. 9, 2017 as the police officer was filling out paperwork at the Tech PD headquarters for Daniels' arrest on an unrelated offense.

The two were the only ones in the room when a shot rang out, according to an arrest warrant. An officer who was in another room rushed in to find East on the floor suffering from a gunshot wound and Daniels was gone.

It is unclear how Daniels managed to possess a firearm at the police station.

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Daniels was arrested on campus after a two-hour manhunt. A .45 caliber pistol was found near him.

"Hollis Daniels stated to officers that he was the one that shot their friend," the warrant states.

A media gag order was issued shortly after his indictment, barring anyone involved in the case to speak to the media.

Texas 635: Organization supports officer, families during critical moments

Meanwhile, East's wife, Carmen filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Daniels in 2019. However, Hollis never filed a response despite records showing that he was served with the lawsuit at the jail and attorney James Frost sought a 30-day extension to file one.

In May 2020 Lubbock judge Ruben Reyes issued a default judgement in East's favor, finding that Hollis owed her $120 million in damages, according to court records.

The Easts lived in El Paso with their two daughters, but Floyd, who had recently taken the position in Lubbock with the Texas Tech Police Department, chose to travel each week instead of uprooting the entire family. He had hoped, eventually, to move back to El Paso to work as a police officer on the Texas Tech HSC campus there, according to Avalanche-Journal archives.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Hollis Daniels appears court for Texas Tech police capital murder case
Under the noonday sun on April 15, cinematographer Peng Wang, 29, was in the back of an off-road vehicle traversing Imperial County's sand dunes with three other filmmakers, working on a movie for the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts.

The otherworldly backdrop was the setting for a surreal short feature called "Finale," about a man who journeys to his death in the desert. Wang was a third-year graduate student at Chapman University's film school and had volunteered to help the USC crew complete their directing course project.

The team was running late and working on little sleep, having not reached their hotel until after midnight after a long drive from Los Angeles, said one crew member who declined to be named. They had just finished their first scene when the group went out to check the next location in the dunes. Minutes later, word came over the radio that the Can-Am Maverick had rolled over and Wang had been injured, the crew member said.

Despite emergency services' efforts to resuscitate Wang, he died at the scene among the dunes, about a mile from the nearest road. He was wearing a helmet but not a safety harness, said Arturo Platero Jr., a California Highway Patrol spokesperson. An investigation, which is not criminal in nature, is underway, he said.

A week later, the film schools are still trying to figure out what happened. The tragedy comes six months after the shocking death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the western movie "Rust," which renewed widespread calls for safety improvements in filmmaking. Wang's friends and classmates have been left devastated by the loss and questioned how the tragedy could have happened.

"He is a type of guy that is humble and traditional," said Oliver Li, a Chapman graduate student film editor and Wangs roommate, who found it difficult to imagine him flouting safety measures. "As long as he's informed of the possible hazard, I don't see a reason why they say he never had the seat belt. Why?"

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A devout Christian who prayed before eating lunch on set, the Sichuan province native saw helping Chinese independent filmmakers achieve their dreams, whether or not they could pay, as a type of vocation, Li said.

Hes not a guy who would search for fame or money, he added.

Wang's parents  a small-business owner and a factory worker in Chengdu  supported his dreams, his father said in a letter written after his death. But they could not underwrite his entire education. His financial straits became so difficult his second year at Chapman that he almost dropped out before the school came through with additional money, Li said.

Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, confirmed that the school had supported the student with grants and that he had already largely completed his coursework. It will award him his master of fine arts degree posthumously, he said.

Tears, horror and heartbreak are how Galloway described the reaction among the Orange County-based faculty to the loss of the popular student.

"This was the first and only serious incident involving any of our students in any of our memory," Galloway said in an interview.

The pressure on film students can be considerable.

"There's a lot of work if you're a student, and filming is psychologically and physically taxing and that's why you have to put very strict measures in place so that they are taught to keep themselves safe," Galloway said.

He added the school has a full-time safety officer whose only role is to focus on the safety of student productions. The school has yet to confirm the details of what happened, Galloway said.

However, Peng Wang, who also went by Aaron, was volunteering on a project for a different school.

The production was an authorized student project for an intermediate directing course at USC, according to interviews and a film school certificate seen by The Times. That document shows that a graduate student named Ting Su got USC approval on April 5 for a shoot with a cast and crew of 10 or more. Su is listed as the director and another USC student, Bingliang Li, as the producer.

Lawyers representing Su and Li said in a joint statement that the students were deeply saddened by the accident and were cooperating with the investigation. We think, before anybody makes any statements, that they should let the investigation play out, the representatives said.

Li was driving the off-road vehicle at the time of the crash and Su was one of the passengers, according to the CHP.

Another document dated April 12, stamped by USC's physical production department, was to allow the students to rent equipment. The haul included a generator, dolly, cables and a shelter tent with a replacement value of $20,000.

USC has not detailed publicly what information its student filmmakers disclosed to faculty and administrators about the production.

Reached by phone, the dean of the universitys School of Cinematic Arts, Elizabeth Daley, noted that there were legal issues here and declined to comment.

I am under instructions not to discuss this and I intend to follow those instructions, she said.

A subsequent statement from the university suggested the students had gone rogue in using an off-road vehicle and shooting in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a remote expanse of desert three hours and more than 230 miles from the USC campus.

The university said under policies governing all student productions at its School of Cinematic Arts, any shoot taking place more than 50 miles away from our campus, or involving the use of all-terrain vehicles, would have required very specific approvals from the school.

"We are unaware of any such approvals having been requested or provided in this tragic matter," the statement said.

It was unclear where the film crew rented the vehicle. Companies that rent similar vehicles said that no special permits or training are required for adults to operate the vehicles.

They drive just like a car, said Jason Davis, who owns an Arizona company that rents vehicles like the four-seater side by side that the crew was using. He and others said most rollovers occur when the driver makes a sharp turn.

We get our side by sides rolled all the time. Weve never had a death, never had a broken arm, Davis said.

The death has been a blow for Wang's university friends with whom he collaborated on various projects.

Xiaojun "Teddy" Jian, a roommate and friend of Wang, is a graduate student at Chapman focusing on cinematography and was one of at least two Chapman students Wang asked to work with him on the USC film shoot.

Before the shoot, the USC film production was notably disorganized, Jian said. The script changed repeatedly and the filmmakers seemed strapped for time to prepare but unwilling to cancel the shoot, he said.

Even with the uncertainty, Jian said that it was hard for aspiring filmmakers to turn away on-set work, even unpaid.

Cinematography students would love to shoot as many [films] as we can to get more experience and have more things to put on their resume or portfolio, he said.

Jian said that USC declined to insure the filmmakers because the reimbursement value of the cameras and other equipment was too high. The process of finding different insurance was time-consuming, delaying the crew even further as it prepared to leave for the shoot.

Jian had to drop out of the shoot because of a conflict and was at home the afternoon of April 15 when a crew member from Chapman called with news that Wang had been injured and asked him to look for his health insurance information.

Jian made a fruitless search and then called the classmate from Wangs bedroom to say he couldnt find a card.

She told me that he is dead already, Jian recalled.

The thing I felt was just empty and nothing, he said. I just lay down on his bed. I dont know how long.

The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles and Chapman students have been in contact with Wang's parents. His family wants to come to the U.S. to collect his body, which remains in a morgue in Imperial County pending an autopsy.

Chapman students are raising money to help the family pay for the trip, according to Patrick Skeyhill, student body president of the graduate film program. The university also plans to help cover costs, Galloway said.

Skeyhill shared the letter written by Wang's father. In it, Hualun Wang detailed how the family was already struggling because of the contributions they had made to their son's education and the serious illnesses of his grandmother and uncle, and described his admiration for his son.

"He was exemplary in both character and duty," Hualun Wang wrote, adding, "My son died pursuing what he loved."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Kyiv prepared on Saturday for its first wartime visit from two top US officials, as Ukraine accused Russia of killing six people in a strike on Odessa that all but buried hopes of a truce for Orthodox Easter.

The Sunday visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will come at a symbolic moment -- on the day the war enters its third month -- and with fierce battles continuing in the country's east.

It also comes as the situation in the shattered port city of Mariupol remains bleak. The latest of many attempts to evacuate civilians failed Saturday, and the situation facing an embattled unit of Ukrainian fighters sheltering in tunnels under a sprawling steel mill there appeared increasingly desperate.

A series of European leaders have already traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and underscore their support, but the United States -- a leading donor of finances and weaponry -- had yet to send any top officials.

Asked by AFP to comment on the highly sensitive trip by two of President Joe Biden's top cabinet members, the State Department declined.

Zelensky, who announced the visit, also issued a new call for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "to end the war."

"I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelensky said, adding he was "not afraid" to meet the Russian leader.

But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in Mariupol were killed.

Zelensky also criticized a decision by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to visit Moscow on Tuesday, before heading to Kyiv.

"There is no justice and no logic in this order," he said.

Around 200 residents gathered at a designated evacuation point in Mariupol on Saturday but were "dispersed" by Russian forces, city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding: "The evacuation was thwarted."

He claimed others had been told to board buses headed to places controlled by Russia.

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Mariupol, which the Kremlin claims to have "liberated", is pivotal to Russia's war plans to forge a land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea -- and possibly beyond as far as Moldova.

Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are holed up inside the Mariupol steel plant. Kyiv has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to allow civilians -- many barely surviving with little or no access to food or water -- to exit safely.

But on Saturday a Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the factory.

"Our defenders hold on regardless of the very difficult situation and even carry out counter-raids," he said.

- Eight dead in Odessa -

Further west, a missile struck a residential building in the Black Sea port of Odessa, killing eight people, including a three-month-old baby, and wounding at least 18, according to Zelensky.

And Russia's defence ministry also said it had targeted a major depot stocking foreign weapons near Odessa, attacks that upended the relative calm the city has enjoyed since the beginning of the war.

Moscow also accused Ukrainian special services in Odessa of preparing a "provocation with the use of toxic chemical substances" that could then be blamed on Russia.

Western powers have accused Russia in the past of making such accusations as a cover or diversion for attacks its own forces are planning.

There were new attacks overnight in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, in the northeast.

"It was a terrifying night," said Yelena, with black bags under tear-reddened eyes. Residents there said Russian strikes could come at any hour, day or night.

"Everything shook," she recalled. "There were two strikes, later there were more, we were no longer able to sleep and spent all night in the corridor."

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had retaken three villages near the Russian border after "fierce battles" in which two people had been killed.

- 'Evacuate if you can' -

In nearby Lugansk, governor Sergiy Gaiday said shelling was "round the clock" and urged people near the front to "evacuate if you have the chance".

The latest fighting comes a day after a senior Russian military officer announced the beginning of "the second phase of the special operation."

"One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine," Major General Rustam Minnekaev said.

Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the north of Ukraine after being frustrated in their attempts to take the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the south.

Minnekaev said the focus was to "provide a land corridor to Crimea," which Russia annexed in 2014, and possibly towards Transnistria, a breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova where the general claimed Russian-speaking people were "being oppressed".

- 'What could be worse' -

After changing their strategic focus to southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian forces left behind a trail of indiscriminate destruction around Kyiv, including in the commuter town of Bucha.

A United Nations mission to Bucha documented "the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians there", the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Russian forces had "indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes".

Tania Boikiv, 52, said Russian troops took her husband from their home in Bucha, held him for two weeks, then beat him to death as they retreated.

"The most terrible thing in my life is that my husband, my loved one, is gone," she told AFP. "I don't know what could be worse."

Also Saturday, Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, said on Telegram that a Russian border post had been hit by Ukrainian mortar fire, although there were no casualties.

burs-ds/jm/ach/jj/bbk/md
I love frying eggs so they have a crispy bottom and runny yolk. Alissa Fitzgerald

I'm a chef with 15 years of experience and this is my best way to make crispy fried eggs.

You only need eggs, olive oil, salt, a pan, and a spoon for this recipe.

Instead of attempting to flip the egg, you spoon olive oil over the yolk.

Eggs are a perfect food. They're high in protein and healthy fats and are the easiest breakfast, lunch, dinner, or quick snack.

As a chef with over 15 years of experience, one of my favorite ways to prepare them is frying them in olive oil.

For this recipe, you only need three ingredients. Alissa Fitzgerald

First off, the higher the quality and the fresher the egg, the better they taste.

It's good to pick up eggs from local farmers markets if you can, but look for ones that have been packed most recently if you're limited to supermarkets.

You also want a good amount of decent-quality olive oil, which will coat your pan and help you fry the egg into a frizzled, sizzled, crispy masterpiece with a yolk that's cooked to whatever temperature you'd like.

For this recipe, put your stovetop heat to medium and add a glug of olive oil to your pan. Wait for it to shimmer  that's how you know the oil is hot.

Be generous with the olive oil. Alissa Fitzgerald

Season the oil with a bit of salt and then crack the egg in. The white will splutter and bubble a bit in the oil.

There's no flipping required for this dish. Alissa Fitzgerald

Turn that heat down to medium-low. And, for the big trick, grab a spoon.

Simply spoon a bit of that oil over the yolk to gently cook the egg to whatever temperature you prefer. Because of the heat on the bottom, the egg will crisp up nicely.

I like to keep my yolk runny. Alissa Fitzgerald

By spooning the oil, you effectively poach the top portion of the egg. It's like two eggs in one  and who can resist a runny yolk?

Ingredients

Farm-fresh eggs (Mine are from Flatbrook Farm in New Jersey)

Olive oil

Pinch of salt

Instructions

Add a hearty glug of olive oil to a saute pan and heat to medium. Add a pinch of salt. After about a minute, the oil should shimmer slightly. Crack the egg into the pan  the white should bubble and pop a little. Reduce heat to medium-low. Spoon 1 tablespoon of oil over the top and cook for two to three minutes until the outside edges are crispy and golden brown and the yolk is cooked to your desired temperature. Serve on or with anything, from burgers to avocado toast.

Read the original article on Insider
DUBAI (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a senior Revolutionary Guards commander in restive southeastern Iran early on Saturday, killing a bodyguard, Iranian state media reported.

Brigadier General Hossein Almassi, a Guards commander in Sistan-Baluchistan province, was unhurt after the attack and the attackers were arrested, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Mahmoud Absalan, the bodyguard who was killed in the attack that occurred near a checkpoint in the provincial capital Zahedan, was the son of a senior Guards commander in the region, IRNA said.

The attack came on a night celebrated by many devout Iranians as Islam's holiest, which this year coincided with events marking the anniversary of the Revolutionary Guards' establishment after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The predominantly Sunni Muslim Sistan-Baluchistan province near the Pakistani and Afghan borders has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and Sunni Islamist militants fighting the country's Shiite authorities.

Many of Iran's Sunnis complain of discrimination, a charge denied by the state.

In 2009, a suicide bomber killed six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and more than 29 other people in Sistan-Baluchistan, in one of the boldest attacks on Iran's most powerful military institutions.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Sam Holmes)
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol asked a federal judge on Friday to enforce its subpoena of Mark Meadows, revealing new evidence that the former White House chief of staff had been warned of potential violence ahead of the riot.

Meadows has provided some documents to the committee, including text messages from a wide range of Republicans and even Fox News hosts that have since been made public in other actions taken and subpoenas filed by the committee.

But the latest filing asks the courts to reject the former White House chief of staffs legal challenges to the panels authority, outlining seven areas of inquiry where the committee argues Meadows could provide information despite his claims of executive privilege.

The court filing portrays Meadows as a key figure in former President Trumps efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. The document states that Meadows was involved in these efforts at both the state and national level  plans he continued with despite receiving intelligence there could be violence on Jan. 6.

The exhibits included in the filing also provide new details about the extent Republican lawmakers were involved in former President Trumps efforts to stay in power.

Those revelations came from testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to the president and Meadows.

We had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th, Hutchinson told the panel.

And Mr. Meadows said: All right. Lets talk about it.'

Hutchinson also laid out a wide array of GOP lawmakers who participated in meetings with Trump campaign lawyers alongside Meadows.

That group includes GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mo Brooks (Ala.) Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Scott Perry (Pa.) Jody Hice (Ga.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and Debbie Lesko (Ariz.).

They felt that he had the authority to  pardon me if my phrasing isnt correct on this, but  send votes back to the States or the electors back to the States, more along the lines of the Eastman theory, Hutchinson said, referring to John Eastman, who crafted two memos for the Trump campaign outlining how to challenge the election.

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I dont recall anybody speaking out and definitively expressing disagreement with that theory, she said of the lawmakers, adding that the vice presidents team appeared slightly skeptical.

While Meadows has passed along 2,319 of his text messages to the committee, he has withheld 1,000.

The committee outlines a number of arguments to push back on Meadows claims of executive privilege, arguing that much of his work went beyond communication with other White House staffers.

In other cases they say the information he could provide meets standards that require disclosure when Congress can demonstrate a profound and uniquely compelling interest.

The filing likewise seeks to confront Meadows effort to block Verizon from complying with a separate committee subpoena for remaining phone records.

Mr. Meadows participated, as a functionary of the Trump campaign, in activities intended to result in actions by state officials and legislatures to change the certified results of the election, the committee wrote in its filing, pointing to Trumps now-famous call in which the former president asked the Georgia Secretary of State to find more votes.

In addition, Mr. Meadows communicated repeatedly by text with Congressman Scott Perry regarding a plan to replace Department of Justice leadership in the days before Jan. 6, it adds.

The committee also says testimony with numerous White House staff indicates Meadows continued with efforts to keep Trump in power despite indications from White House counsel that such plans were illegal.

The Select Committee now has testimony from other White House staff that Mr. Meadows and certain congressmen were advised by White House Counsel that efforts to generate false certificates did not comply with the law, the committee states.

According to Hutchinson, that issue was raised by White House lawyers as early as mid-December, agreeing counsel had advised the plan was not legally sound.

Certain text communications with Members of Congress suggest that Mr. Meadows himself pushed for Vice President Pence to take unilateral action to reject the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6th, the committee said in its filing.

The filing from the committee comes well after a December vote to refer Meadows to the Department of Justice for contempt of Congress  a charge the DOJ has not yet acted on, despite accepting a similar referral for one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon.

While Meadows was slated to appear before the committees investigators on Dec. 8, he informed them Dec. 7 he would no longer be coming, instead filing a lawsuit challenging its subpoena for his testimony.

The Select Committees filing today urges the Court to reject Mark Meadowss baseless claims and put an end to his obstruction of our investigation. Mr. Meadows is hiding behind broad claims of executive privilege even though much of the information were seeking couldnt possibly be covered by privilege and courts have rejected similar claims because the committees interest in getting to the truth is so compelling, committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a joint statement.

Its essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadowss role in events before, on, and after January 6th. His attempt to use the courts to cover up that information must come to an end.

Meadows attorney did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Updated April 23, 12:54 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By David Dolan

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's coast guard used aircraft and patrol boats on Saturday to search for a tour boat with 26 people on board after it sent word it was in trouble off the northern island of Hokkaido, a coast guard official said.

The coast guard heard from the crew of the "Kazu I" at around 1:15 p.m. (0415 GMT) that water was flooding into the vessel, the official said. The boat had been on a sightseeing cruise around the Shiretoko Peninsula, which is famous for its wildlife and dramatic coastline.

The ship was last heard from at around 3 p.m. when it contacted its operating company to say it was keeling at a 30-degree angle, news agency Kyodo reported. The crew said those on board were wearing life jackets, public broadcaster NHK said.

There were 24 passengers including two children on board and two crew members, the official said.

No one answered calls to the office of the company that runs the Kazu I's sightseeing tours.

The coast guard had dispatched five patrol boats and two aircraft and was still searching late on Saturday, the official said.

Authorities had requested help from Japan's self-defence forces, media said, while Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave instructions to use all available means in the search, Kyodo said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Kishida will cut short his visit to the southern prefecture of Kumamoto, where he was attending the Asia-Pacific Water Summit, and return to Tokyo because of the issue, Kyodo said.

The government also set up a task force to deal with it.

The boat was believed to have been near the Kashinu Falls, a popular sightseeing spot for its natural beauty, when it got into difficulty.

The ship holds up to 65 people and tours around the Shiretoko area usually last around three hours, according to the tour company's website.

It left Utoro port around 10 a.m. on Saturday and was expected to return by 1 p.m., NHK said. Waves had been high and fishing boats in the area had returned to the port by mid-morning.

(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Christina Fincher and David Holmes)
Thousands on Saturday celebrated the traditional "Holy Fire" ceremony of blazing candles at Christianity's holiest site in Jerusalem to mark the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Tens of thousands of faithful have attended the ceremony in earlier years but coronavirus constraints severely limited attendance on the past two occasions.

This year, joyous, shouting faithful crowded together unmasked, holding aloft wads of thin candles bound together to produce thick orange flames that danced inside the darkened Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The church is built on the site where according to Christian tradition Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Israel's Foreign Ministry gave a crowd estimate of thousands, who celebrated in a tense Jerusalem after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the rest of the Old City lies in east Jerusalem, occupied and later annexed by Israel following the Six-Day War of 1967.

Worshippers had waited from the morning hours with candles in hand. They cheered with excitement and bells rang in the early afternoon when Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III exited the Edicule, traditionally believed to be Christ's burial place, holding burning candles.

The flames spread from believer to believer, filling the ancient church with light.

Anthony Botros, who came all the way from Canada, said that being able to participate in the ceremony was "honestly surreal."

"I would not have imagined I would ever be here. It's something you can't describe. You just have to be there and experience it. Just tears. So peaceful," the 25-year-old told AFP.

Church leaders had initially been at odds with Israel over the event's size, after authorities sought to limit the number of participants to ensure their safety.

On Thursday, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said it had rejected police limiting the numbers, which it considered an "infringement to the right to freedom of worship," noting the church's capacity of 11,000 people.

Story continues

The Patriarchate petitioned the police decision at the Supreme Court, with a compromise allowing 4,000 believers to attend the ceremony in the church and square outside, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Israel has tightened limitations on the number of celebrants at all religious festivals after a stampede at a Jewish festival last April caused the death of 45 men and boys.

The Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic denominations share custody of the church.

Christians made up more than 18 percent of the population of the Holy Land when Israel was founded in 1948, but now form less than two percent, mostly Orthodox.

jjm/it
A protester holds a sign during a rally outside the Alabama State House in March 2021. Julie Bennett/Getty Images

Parents of trans kids in Alabama are making frantic attempts to flee the state.

Anti-trans legislation that goes into effect May 8 bans doctors from providing gender-affirming healthcare, among other things.

Parents told Insider that their kids need access to gender-affirming healthcare.

Heather had a plan.

The 48-year-old mother moved from Pennsylvania to Alabama last July with her two sons to settle down, live a little closer to her extended family, and make sure  for the first time  that her eldest son, 15, would attend public school after a lifetime of home-schooling.

After making the journey down South, Heather enrolled her son, who is trans, at the Magic City Acceptance Academy  a charter school in Birmingham, Alabama, which prides itself on promoting an "LGBT-affirming learning environment."

Now, Heather has to reconsider life in Alabama.

Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed into law an anti-trans bill, known as SB 184, which criminalizes doctors for providing gender-affirming medical care to children. It is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The bill, which critics say also forces teachers to out trans kids, is planned to go into effect May 8. Two federal lawsuits have been filed against it.

But Heather said she's not waiting around for a judge to make a decision. She decided to uproot the life she's spent nine months building with her sons in Alabama in favor of safety elsewhere.

"I had planned to stay here the rest of my life," she said. "But knowing that the state of Alabama does not want us here, that pretty much made up my mind that we need to leave."

Heather and her son, like the other parents and youth who spoke to Insider for this article, asked to only be identified by their first name or initial  citing safety concerns and fear of retribution.

In a phone interview, her son, who asked to be identified as R, told Insider he was looking forward to attending Magic City. He said he had already made friends with students there by connecting with students on Discord. But now he has to look at potential schools elsewhere.

Story continues

"I kind of wish people would just imagine what it would be like to go through the wrong puberty, he said. "It doesn't make sense why so many people are so against people just trying to be themselves and live."

Heather set up a GoFundMe to cover moving expenses. So far, the family has raised a little over $8,000 out of a $30,000 goal.

She worries that if she stays in Alabama, she'll have to choose between making sure her kids can live happy, fulfilling lives and following the law.

"How long before they come for us? I could be charged with a felony," she said. "And my kids need me. I don't want to put them in a position where they don't have me."

In Alabama, hostility and fear force tough decisions for kids and parents

Kim, another Alabama parent, told Insider her 12-year-old daughter had just started hormone therapy in January.

When Ivey signed SB 184 into law, the family started a GoFundMe asking for donations to help them move to Massachusetts, where several hospitals offer gender-affirming care for her daughter. She has already surpassed her GoFundMe goal of $30,000.

Her daughter began transitioning when she was 6. At a school in New Hampshire, her daughter told her first-grade teacher at the time that "she wanted to die because she was tired of everybody calling her a boy," the 33-year-old mother said.

"We took her to her pediatrician and a psychologist and they all said, 'Follow her lead,'" Kim continued. "So we did."

Before she began transitioning, she told Kim she didn't want to cut her hair short and asked if she could wear sparkly shoes and dresses to school. Kids used to bully her for dressing up in girl clothes.

But, she became "exponentially happier" after transitioning, Kim said.

Now she attends school online, where nobody knows she's trans, Kim said. But she worries that SB 184, which will force teachers to out trans students to parents, will create a negative, anti-trans environment for her child in Alabama.

"She doesn't feel like she should have to hide it," Kim said. "But at the same time, she doesn't feel like she has to announce it to everybody."

"She has to live cautiously," Kim added.

Julian, a 17-year-old student in Alabama, told Insider only his dad is supportive of his trans identity. Now, his high school has become a potentially unsafe place for him.

After SB 184, teachers who know he's trans have been pulling him aside at school and asking if he's okay. One teacher told him she loves him and her other trans students and "just wants us to be OK," Julian wrote in an email to Insider.

He said he's been wondering which teacher will eventually inform his mom, who's not supportive of his trans identity. Julian has an appointment with an endocrinologist scheduled for December 2022. But now he's not sure whether he'll be able to go.

"School was once a safe place for me, but now I just feel paranoid," he said.

Other families are carefully evaluating the decision to flee. One GoFundMe user is asking for donations to help finance their healthcare costs and help them leave Alabama.

Jess Eisenberg, a 38-year-old parent of a 5-year-old gender-diverse child, also told Insider she has considered moving out of state.

"We've talked about moving to Seattle or back to Chicago," she told Insider. "Housing prices are insane right now, so we keep taking deep breaths to see if we can wait this out."

Read the original article on Insider
WASHINGTON (AP)  At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital, leading to lockdowns at several schools on Friday. The injured were expected to recover and the suspect was found dead hours later.

Police did not release the suspects name, pending notification to his family, after finding the suspect dead inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

Authorities had said earlier that they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest. The man had been linked to social media postings that emerged as part of the investigation, said Assistant Metropolitan Police Chief Stuart Emerman.

Police believe the man erected a sniper-type setup with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, said Saturday they had identified a residence tied to the suspected shooter and assisted District of Columbia officers in executing a search warrant. A Fairfax spokesman, 2nd Lt. Ian Yost, said his information indicated authorities did not find any family members there.

Separately on Friday, emergency medical crews were called to the Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m. after a man set himself on fire outside the building. Police said Saturday that the man, Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, had died.

The four shooting victims  a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm  were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned residents to stay inside their homes while they searched for the shooter.

The gunfire broke out shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The University of the District of Columbia went into lockdown, telling students and staff to shelter and stay in place.
A man suspected of armed robbery and carjacking in Thurston County was arrested Friday in Tacoma following a chase, police said.

Just before 2:30 p.m., Tacoma patrol officers were advised to be on the lookout for a gray 2022 Toyota pickup connected to a robbery and carjacking, according to a news release from Tacoma police. The pickup was stolen at gunpoint by a man suspected of robbing Buddies Grocery in Lacey, The Olympian reported Friday, and the man might have fired at Thurston County sheriffs deputies during his getaway.

Thurston County deputies asked Tacoma police to check for the pickup at an apartment complex in the 1600 block of East 68th Street. Tacoma officers spotted the truck there, and, while waiting for backup, watched it pull onto southbound Portland Avenue, the news release stated.

Officers attempted to pull over the pickup, but the driver took off at high speed.

The vehicle was located a few minutes later in the 9600 block of East B St., the news release stated. Officers observed the suspect running from the area and a foot pursuit ensued.

Police caught up to the man in the 9600 block of A Street and arrested him. A gun was found nearby, police said.

The 25-year-old man was taken to Thurston County where he is being investigated for three counts of first-degree robbery and three counts of first-degree assault.
Even diehard critics of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) were taken aback Friday by the overwhelming number of times she claimed she couldnt remember things that seemed startlingly memorable.

Vanity Fair jabbed that the last three years seem to be a blank for Greene. The New Yorker quipped in a parody that she claimed a Jewish spaceship  a reference to one of her wild theories  abducted her on Jan. 6, 2021. (That could explain the missing memories.)

Greene testified for about three hours in an Atlanta courtroom to defend herself against a constitutional challenge to her reelection campaign because of the so-called insurrection disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment. The challenge was brought by a group of Georgia voters and the nonpartisan voting rights group Free Speech for People.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars lawmakers who, after previously taking an oath to support the Constitution, then engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or gave aid or comfort to the enemies. The section was added after the Civil War to prohibit lawmakers from representing a government they had wanted toppled.

Greene has repeatedly referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists as patriots and has called those arrested in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol political prisoners. She has been recorded on video announcing her opposition to the peaceful transition of power to President Joe Biden after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. She called on Americans to converge on the Capitol that day for our 1776 moment, referring to the year when America declared independence from Britain.

Yet Greene couldnt seem to remember any of it. She couldnt recall if she discussed martial law with Trump. (Her attorney objected to the question because of executive privilege, which the judge shot down.)

She couldnt remember if she called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a traitor (she did). She amended her statement  saying: Oh, no. Wait ...   as Andrew Celli, attorney for the voters, was about to play a video of it.

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There were lots of videos to remind Greene of what she had said. Even then, though, she appeared skeptical.

At one point she denied shed supported QAnon, even though she has rigorously promoted QAnon conspiracy theories.

She even couldnt recall writing or supporting her own tweets  or choosing her own likes.

Question: "It's true, though, that you liked a post that suggested that 'a bullet to the head of Nancy Pelosi would be a quicker way to remove her as Speaker of the House than impeachment'"



Marjorie Taylor Greene: I have no idea who liked that comment pic.twitter.com/zgs5Ywpbuv  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2022

Twitter had some notes.

I was going to tweet something about Marjorie Taylor Greene but I dont remember what it was  Purl  (@freshwaterpurl) April 22, 2022

Marjorie Taylor Greenes lawyers mustve told her that using I cant recall and I dont remember can help avoid perjury charges.



It is beyond belief, though, that a newly elected Member of Congress forgot if she urged the President of the United States to impose martial law.  Dave Aronberg (@aronberg) April 23, 2022

Not long from now:



Question: Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene?



Anyone: I cant recall.  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) April 22, 2022

I dont care if Marjorie Taylor Greene doesnt remember what she did on January 6th, because I sure as hell do.  Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) April 22, 2022

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she can't recall if she made statements she's quoted in CNN as saying, claims CNN lies about her all the time.



Attorney then plays video of her saying those comments.



"Now that we've watched the video, I remember that."  Hayley Miller (@hayleymiller01) April 22, 2022

Here's the video Marjorie Taylor Greene said she can't recall posting on her Facebook. The "1776 Moment"

And if that's what she said, then "that's what I said." She is now throwing her staff under the bus, doesn't recall authorizing ithttps://t.co/p0HWdk7tgV  Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) April 22, 2022

Newsflash for Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene.



You can't deny something or say you "don't recall" something if we all have audio and video receipts.  Devin Duke (@sirDukeDevin) April 22, 2022

Vote for Marjorie Taylor Greene. She will fight for something she can't recall, she will make staments she can't remember, and she and her team, whoever they are, will perhaps say things, and perhaps not, but she will never, ever, know who says what, when or why.  Fraude101 (@Fraude_101) April 22, 2022

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember

Videos are doctored

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember

Many people post on my account

I don't remember

I don't remember

I don't remember  Just Me :-) (@HiDadMissYou) April 23, 2022

Hey @repmtg,

You do realize that it's a lie when you say, "I don't remember," when you actually DO remember, is it not?



Lying to the court is perjury.

And those of us watching, are witnessing your lies.#MarjorieTaylorGreene#MarjorieTaylorGreeneHearing  Angel Goulet *** ** (@AngelGoulet) April 22, 2022

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Ever since Christies blockbuster sale of the Al Thani collection of Mughal jewelry in 2019, Indian-inflected gems have been a hot commodity. That auction, which included exceptional Golconda diamonds and all manner of bejeweled objects from the Indian royal court, became the second highest-grossing sale of a private jewelry collection (bested by Elizabeth Taylors estate) and thrust the artistry of Eastern jewelry design into the spotlight. Now, to commemorate 10 years of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts reimagined Islamic galleries, the museums store is offering designs from some of Indias leading contemporary jewelers as well as a trove of collectible antiques.

Doubling down on its commitment to Islamic art, the museum tapped celebrated designer and textile connoisseur Madeline Weinrib to curate a selection of modern-day craftspeople from throughout the Islamic world. Weinrib, whos best known for her bygone carpet store and for reinvigorating Marrakechs luxurious El Fenn, has gathered a diverse range of makers who are carrying on the centuries-old artistry displayed in the Mets collection.

More from Robb Report

Enamel and gold earrings by Munnu Gem Palace and tableware by Good Earth. - Credit: The Metropolitan Museum, Stuart Tyson

The Metropolitan Museum, Stuart Tyson

There are hand-embroidered linens by Moroccos Al Nour, glassware by Lebanons Orient 499 and intricately embroidered Kashmiri style scarves among many other designs exclusive to the Met store (and, we might add, are prime for Mothers Day gifting). But, for collectors, its the jewelry on offer thats most enticing. Weinrib enlisted pieces from Jaipurs historic Munnu Gem Palace, which has been a jeweler to Indias maharajas since the 18th century; cult designer Hanut Singh, who renders traditional Indian motifs with graphic modernity; and Brazilian designer Silvia Furmanovichs collection of exquisite wood marquetry jewels drawing on Egyptian and Indian crafts.

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Earrings by Hanut Singh and a vintage carnelian and silver ring of Middle Eastern origin. - Credit: The Metropolitan Museum, Mahnaz Collection

The Metropolitan Museum, Mahnaz Collection

While a selection of the Heirloom Projects wares are available online, the really good stuff can only be found in store. And on April 22 and 23, jewelry dealer Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos will be hosting a trunk show with a range of rare vintage and antique jewels made in or inspired various Muslim cultures. I wouldnt call it Muslim jewelry, per se, Ispahani Bartos clarifies, but certainly, the designs and stones came from an era when Muslim rulers such as the Mughals or the Ottomans ruled and set the parameters for high culture. Her offering includes everything from silver talismans engraved with the elaborate designs of Berber, Tuareg and Turkmen peoples to a ruby and table-cut diamond ring set in typically Indian high-karat gold.

An Indian table-cut diamond cuff and ruby and diamond ring, offered by Mahnaz Collection. - Credit: Mahnaz Collection

Mahnaz Collection

Particularly collectible, Ispahani Bartos says, are works with Indian meenakari enamel work, like a particularly stunning table-cut diamond bracelet in her collection, and the spectacular interactions between Western jewelers such as Cartier and the great Muslim nawabs and maharajas of Indian.

In any iteration, bejeweled or not, the Heirloom Project offers a bevy of beautiful objects that bring a bit of Mughal magnificence to the everyday.

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Click here to read the full article.
Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett Sen. Tom Barrett

State Sen. Tom Barrett used a fake text for "gender reassignment surgery" to ask for funds, the Michigan Advance reported.

It linked to a donation site accusing Biden of "forcing 5-year-olds to learn about gender reassignment surgeries."

The site also said Democrats are "HELLBENT" on "removing God from the center of our nation."

Michigan state senator and GOP congressional candidate Tom Barrett used a fake text campaign for "your child's gender reassignment surgery" as a bid to get supporters to donate to his campaign, the Michigan Advance reported.

The text, stylized like a confirmation typically sent by doctor's offices for appointments, linked to a fundraising site.

"If you have any issues with this operation, please view the objectives of Biden's National Transgender Strategy here," the text read.

Screenshots obtained by the Michigan Advance showed a previous iteration of the text that prompted users to sign a petition that read: "If you would like to CANCEL this appointment because you do not believe in teaching young children about dangerous transgender ideologies, please sign your name NOW."

The fundraising site linked to in the text said Biden is "forcing 5-year-olds to learn about gender reassignment surgeries, gender identities, and other radical ideas."

It continues by calling such topics a "sick and twisted ideology."

"Democrats are HELLBENT on destroying our faith, removing God from the center of our nation, and pushing transgender ideology on young children," a plea for donations reads.

The site also shows a now-closed petition to remove "graphic transgender content" from school curricula.

The focus on transgender issues falls in line with a pattern of GOP members across the county targeting LGBTQ people, including an Alabama bill that criminalizes doctors providing gender-affirming healthcare to children and Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Story continues

Barrett is running for the Republican nomination in Michigan's 7th congressional district against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin.

Barrett and Slotkin did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio  A military judge convicted Maj. Gen. Bill Cooley of sexually assaulting his sister-in-law in 2018, closing out Saturday the historic first full court-martial of an Air Force general.

Col. Christina Jimenez, who is presiding over the bench trial, is expected to sentence the former Air Force Research Laboratory commander on Monday. He faces up to seven years in jail, dismissal from the Air Force and withholding of pay, and a possible spot in the national sex offender database.

After about five hours of deliberation Friday and an overnight break, Jimenez  the chief circuit military judge with the Air Force Trial Judiciary, Western Circuit, at Travis Air Force Base, California  ruled Cooley is guilty of forcibly kissing the woman, the first specification in a single charge of abusive sexual contact. He is not guilty of two other specifications of groping her and moving her hand to touch his genitals over his clothes, she said.

This is the first time a military court has issued a verdict in a case involving an Air Force general. Its also the first time sexual assault charges have led to criminal prosecution for someone so high up in the chain of command.

Sometimes family members are the abusers, Cooleys sister-in-law said in a statement read by Ryan Guilds, her pro bono victims advocate, after the verdict. The price for peace in my extended family was my silence. And that price was too high.

Air Force general's court-martial nears end as defense forgoes witnesses

Cooley pleaded not guilty to the abusive sexual contact charge for kissing the woman, and for allegedly touching her breast and genitals over her clothes while they were alone in her car in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also claims he moved her hand to touch his groin through his pants.

She agreed to be publicly identified by her relationship to the defendant, but not by name. Air Force Times does not publish the names of sexual assault victims without their permission to protect their privacy.

Story continues

The woman and her husband  an Air Force civilian employee  as well as Cooleys mother and several other family friends and expert witnesses testified in the trial, which began Monday. Those who the woman confided in after the alleged incident recounted that she was unlike herself, even shell-shocked, when discussing the alleged assault.

She was incredibly upset, teary, incredibly shaken, Rev. David Martin, an Episcopal deacon and close friend, testified Thursday.

'How is this possible?' Air Force general's brother testifies against him at court-martial

The defense acknowledged a kiss happened, but characterized the lawsuit as a setup by the sister-in-law to get revenge for a brief, consensual tryst  a description the woman denies.

The trial counsel in closing arguments Friday argued the defense took evidence out of context and twisted the alleged victims words so the two-star general could avoid responsibility.

[I] kissed you in an uninvited way  for my own selfish ego, Cooley said in a written apology from 2018 that the prosecution cited in court. Im stunned at my deplorable actions.

While the defendant told others he had made a pass at his sister-in-law that she invited, his privately drafted apologies expressed regret for objectifying the woman and said he sought help.

Air Force general's sister-in-law describes alleged sexual assault in day 2 of court-martial

Cooleys sister-in-law called the contents of a written apology from the general lie-filled, shameful  garbage in a September 2018 email. Defense lawyer Maj. Shea Hoxie argued the woman refuted her own claims as laid out in Cooleys apology, which his accusers forced him to say under threat of reporting the incident.

They kissed, he fantasized about a relationship, and then they spent 16 months talking past each other, Hoxie said in closing arguments Friday.

The prosecution said the woman felt Cooleys attempts at apology for the incident were disingenuous.

Lt. Col. Matthew Neil, the prosecutor, countered that while the general would have been worried about charges, that doesnt make the apology a false confession. He also pushed back on suggestions that the womans struggle to remember certain details, or her delay in telling her husband, mean shes lying.

Why didnt she yell for help? Hindsight is 20/20, Neil said in closing arguments. Its easy to judge her for that, but nobody knows how they are going to react.

A voicemail she left for Cooley, telling him his brother knows we kissed, conveyed nothing about consent, Neil said. The defense portrayed the voicemail as proof the general hadnt forced himself on her and that she wanted the kiss.

Two-star Air Force general faces judge, not jury, in sexual assault trial

Cooley entered active duty service in 1990 and has worked in a variety of military space, missile defense, research and other positions.

As the head of AFRL, he managed a $2.5 billion Air Force-led science and technology portfolio plus another $2.3 billion in research funded outside the military. He oversaw a workforce of around 6,000 people.

Cooley was removed from that job in January 2020 amid an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry and charged with violating Article 120 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, which forbids sexual assault.

Cases involving military personnel can be tried in either military or civilian court, or in both.

This is a case where the military has jurisdiction because of the status of the accused, Guilds, the plaintiffs legal advocate, said. That doesnt mean the case couldnt have been prosecuted on the civilian side, but the  investigation started within the military.

Two-star head of Air Force Research Laboratory fired, under OSI investigation

Cooley now serves as an assistant to Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold Bunch, advocating for the services science and technology plans.

Bunch said in a written statement released after the verdict that he trusts the military justice system and respects the judges decision. The service is committed to holding all airmen accountable for conduct that falls short of Air Force standards, he said.

The trial was impartial, fair and transparent, the four-star said. I appreciate everyone who supported this process for their due diligence in the pursuit of justice, and for doing everything possible to protect both the victims rights and the rights of the accused to a fair trial.

Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sexual assault victims that worked on the case, told Air Force Times Saturday that the conviction is a momentous occasion, even with a split verdict.

The outcome is a sign that general officers can be held accountable as well, said Christensen, a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force. The verdict itself is more important than the sentence, he added.

He doubts that Cooley will be dismissed from the Air Force. Instead, he expects the two-star will be demoted to brigadier general and allowed to retire.

The defense team declined to comment on the verdict Saturday.

In her statement delivered to reporters, Cooleys accuser invoked the spirit of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who told her mother she was being sexually harassed before she disappeared from Fort Hood, Texas, in April 2020. Her remains were found two months later.

Guillens ordeal sparked new calls to reform how the military handles sexual harassment and assault prevention, and how it prosecutes the accused.

While this process has been incredibly invasive, not only for me, but also my immediate family and closest friends, I know there are countless other people who have been silenced forever, like Vanessa, the victim in this case said. Staying silent was simply never an option.

She thanked her family, friends and legal counsel for believing and supporting her.

To my astounding husband, thank you for stepping into this horrific issue with me, she said. You are the best ally and advocate I could have ever asked to be on this journey with me.

Cooleys sister-in-law is expected to read a statement on Monday about the impact she feels the incident and court proceedings have had.

Guilds told reporters on Thursday the womans feelings about the outcome and how to move forward will surely evolve over time.

This is all part of a long journey, especially in such a difficult, complex case with such challenging family dynamics, he said.
Claims against ex-teacher Geraldine Cook include that she choked a Black boy and marched him to the principals office with his hands behind his back.

Settlements have reportedly been reached in two federal civil rights lawsuits accusing a former second grade teacher in Minnesota of physically assaulting and segregating Black students.

The Star Tribune reported that ex-Harambee Elementary School teacher Geraldine Cook, who is white, was first accused in a September 2020 lawsuit of choking a 7-year-old Black boy with learning disabilities and forcing him to hold his hands behind his back as though he were being arrested.

Google Maps Street View Image of Harambee Elementary School in Minnesota

The lawsuits additionally claim that Cook, now 58, assaulted at least two other Black students and segregated them from white classmates while treating them more harshly. The incidents were said to have happened in 2019. Cook resigned in December of the same year, per the Tribune.

Court records reviewed by the Tribune reportedly do not disclose the terms of the settlement reached for one of the lawsuits in August, or the terms of the settlement reached earlier in January for the other lawsuit.

According to the outlet, the suits claim that Delon Smith, principal of Harambee Elementary, knew about the choking incident but did nothing to address it and tried to prevent the mother of the boy from learning about it.

The accusations were filed in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota by Kristen Lindsey, a mother and volunteer at the school who reportedly first grew concerned after observing overwhelmed and erratic behavior from Cook when interacting with her Black students, per the Tribune.

Classroom Stock Image

Lindsey claims in the lawsuit that Cook, while gesturing toward about six Black children who she had forced to sit in a separate group from their white peers, told her that she was struggling with that particular group of students.

Per the Tribune, Lindseys son later said that Cook had grabbed his throat after he gargled water in class and forced him to march to the principals office while forcing him to hold his hands behind his back like a criminal defendant, as written in the suit.

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Smith asked the boy not to relay the incident to his mother, according to the suit. The boy was reportedly traumatized and eventually transferred to a different school district, the Tribune reported.

Cook was also accused of pulling a Black girls arm and ripping her shirt, assaulting another Black boy, pushing and grabbing Black students, as well as smooshing their faces.

In December 2019, the Ramsey County Attorneys Office declined to file felony charges against Cook, citing a lack of evidence that a crime occurred, according to Joe Steiner, a sergeant with the Maplewood Police Department.

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The post Minnesota school district settles lawsuit alleging elementary teacher physically assaulted, segregated Black students appeared first on TheGrio.
Trading in Russian stocks has calmed, but all isn't as it seems. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images

A strange calm seems to have settled over Russian markets. But scratch under the surface, and almost everything has changed.

The government is propping up the ruble and holding together Moscow's stock market, with foreign investors all but barred.

Iskander Lutsko, of Moscow broker ITI Capital, tells Insider what's going on in the "completely artificial" markets right now.

Almost two months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a strange calm appears to have descended on the country's financial markets.

Russia's ruble has now fully recovered from its dramatic crash in the days following the attack. The country's stocks remain deep in negative territory for the year, but the dramatic sell-offs seen in late February are a thing of the past.

Yet take a look under the surface, and you'll see the strong arm of the Russian state strenuously holding the markets together. The government has introduced strict capital controls that have boosted the ruble, and it has banned foreign investors from ditching domestic assets.

Iskander Lutsko is chief investment strategist at ITI Capital, a major financial broker in Russia. He's worked in financial markets for 15 years, including at Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender. He spoke to Insider this week about what's really going on in Russia's "completely artificial" markets right now.

Stocks don't reflect the 'unfortunate reality'

Moscow's Moex stock index has tumbled roughly 40% so far this year, but it has risen around 9% since bottoming in late February.

Lutsko believes its level should be considerably lower. "The Russian equity market doesn't reflect the unfortunate, true reality," he said. "Simply because non-residents are restricted from selling."

In 2021, foreigners owned about 80% of the tradable stocks on the Moscow exchange, worth about $200 billion.

"According to our estimates, at least $50 billion of equity exposure is still on funds' balances," Lutsko said. "Mostly US dedicated funds or European funds."

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A recent ruling by Moscow that instructed Russian companies to revoke any share listings they have abroad could trigger a wave of selling, he said, once those so-called depositary receipts are repatriated.

"According to our estimates, there is at least 900 billion rubles [$11 billion] worth of depositary receipts abroad of Russian stocks that could be sold by local investors on Moex," he said.

A lack of foreign players in the market has caused liquidity to dry up, making it harder to buy and sell assets. Retail investors  who have "little understanding and idea how to play the market"  now dominate trading, according to the Moscow broker.

Vultures are coming to play

Over in the bond market, the situation is even worse. Russia's government and many of its biggest companies are on the verge of default on their foreign debts, after US sanctions stymied their access to the global financial system. Bonds in many big companies, such as Gazprom, have plunged.

But Lutsko said the crash in prices has attracted bargain hunters, hoping to profit from a rebound in prices if the Ukraine picture clears. Although he avoids the term, such investors are typically referred to as "vultures".

"I know that many moderate sized hedge funds, and even many local brokers, are looking for opportunities to buy Russian eurobonds," he said.

ITI's Guernsey entity has been facilitating these trades, buying bonds at 20-30% of their face value. "There's been a very great interest," Lutsko noted.

The ruble is 'completely artificial'

The rapid rebound in the Russian ruble caused some analysts to ask whether Western sanctions were having the desired effect.

But Lutsko said it's not a reflection of the strength of the economy. The government has imposed tight capital controls that prevent rubles leaving the country, and has instructed exporters to convert 80% of their foreign earnings into the currency.

"The ruble is in a complete artificial environment, regulated by the central bank which makes sure that volatility remains limited," he said. "We have a bit of dissonance or dislocation in the assets."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Netflix viewers have heaped praise on the new series Heartstopper, comparing it to teen drama Skins and the Channel 4 show Its a Sin.

Adapted from a graphic novel by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper follows a teen romance between Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke), two students at a grammar school.

The series has earned a rare 100 per cent score on review aggragator site Rotten Tomatoes (at the time of writing), indicting a complete consensus of positive reviews.

Viewers have shared their praise for the series on social media, with particular enthusiasm being directed towards the two lead actors.

Just finished the Heartstopper live action Netflix show, one person wrote. ITS SO GOOD OMG THE CASTING IS PERFECT!!

Literally so good i binge watched all episodes in one go, wrote another, describing the series as a must watch.

Heartstopper is gonna be the END of me, wrote another viewer, while someone else claimed: I havent stopped sobbing since i finished the series is this why they call it Heartstopper?

The series can be streamed on Netflix now.

Heartstopper also featured a secret cameo from Oscar-winning The Favourite star Olivia Colman  prompting shocked reactions from viewers when they recognised her face.
A man set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night, a court spokesperson said, while emphasizing that there was no threat to public safety.

The Metropolitan Police Department identified the man as Wynn Bruce, of Boulder, Colorado. On Saturday, police said he died from his injuries.

According to the court spokesperson, the incident occurred at about 6:30 p.m. Minutes later, a medical helicopter landed and took the man to a local hospital.

No one else was injured, the spokesperson said.

The area was closed to the public after the Supreme Court Police, U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department responded at the scene.

"The area remains closed for further investigation, but this is not a public safety issue," the court spokesperson said in a statement.

The Supreme Court was not in session at the time, and Congress is in recess. The Capitol is directly across the street from the Supreme Court.

Capitol Police tweeted about the incident Friday night, saying the helicopter was responding to a medical emergency and that there was no threat to others.

NBC News has reached out to the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department for comment.

The Capitol was evacuated Wednesday night after the Federal Aviation Administration failed to alert Capitol Police of plans for the U.S. Armys Golden Knights to parachute from a plane into nearby Nationals Park for Military Appreciation Night. Police later said there was no threat to the Capitol building.

Earlier on Friday, D.C. was rattled by a shooting that wounded four people near two campuses in a residential part of the city.
Piers Morgan says Susanna Reid was sad to lose him. (ITV/Nicky Johnson)

Piers Morgan has claimed that Susanna Reid was sad when he left Good Morning Britain and that the show's ratings have "gone back to sleep" since his exit.

The journalist and broadcaster co-presented ITV's breakfast news show with Reid until March last year, when he sensationally stormed out of the studio in a row with weatherman Alex Beresford over Meghan Markle.

Read more: How to watch Piers Morgan Uncensored

Morgan was later forced to quit after refusing to apologise - but despite often clashing with Reid in his outspoken former role, he has insisted she was sad to lose him.

Talking to The Sun's TV Mag, Morgan said: "We both feel a sense of sadness that it was all brutally ended in a few hours."

Piers Morgan says he and Susanna Reid made each other better journalists. (ITV)

He explained that they had spent a long time getting to know each other, likening the relationship to "an arranged marriage", and claimed that they had both "improved each other as broadcasters and journalists".

Morgan added: "Everyone told us wed never beat the BBC, and then the great irony is that we beat the BBC on my final day!

"Now unfortunately the ratings have gone back to sleep, but thats ok."

Read more:

The controversial TV star is due to begin his new job, Piers Morgan Uncensored, at the launch of Rupert Murdoch's channel TalkTV on Monday.

Piers Morgan begins his new job on Monday. (Getty)

Uncensored has already hit headlines after Morgan shared a promo of his first interviewee Donald Trump apparently storming out of the chat in a row over who was more honest, although Trump has said that was not the case.

However, despite his kind words about Reid, Morgan told TV Mag he had not asked her to join him at TalkTV as he thought she was very happy at GMB.

Morgan has said he wants his new show to be "a platform for lively, vigorous debate, newsmaking interviews and that increasingly taboo three-letter word, fun."

He added: "I also want it to annoy all the right people."

Watch: Trump's team repeatedly ask Piers Morgan to wrap up interview in leaked audio clip
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert appeared at a news conference this morning with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to address juvenile gun violence.

The city launched a joint initiative with the ATF last year to track the origin of all guns found on juveniles. The results of the study confirmed what most in law enforcement had suspected. Half the guns were stolen, either from homes or cars. 13% were from straw purchases, where someone else purchased the gun, and 9% were privately made, or so-called ghost guns.

Juvenile gun crime being so prevalent, we wanted to determine where these young people were obtaining their firearms, said Matthew Varisco, special agent in charge of the ATF.

Authorities at the news conference urged legal gun owners to take extra steps to make sure their weapons are secured.

I cannot express how important responsible gun ownership is, and were calling on the public to make sure that they utilize common sense to secure their firearms in their homes and not to secure them in vehicles, said Varisco.

The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pa., Cindy Chung, echoed that plea for help.

A simple, effective and very important step is to simply secure your firearm, said Chung.

Chief Scott Schubert went one step further, calling on anyone who knows a juvenile carrying a gun to come forward immediately.

People need to step forward, people need to let us know if somebody has a gun because a lot of people do. A lot of people know people that are carrying, whether its friends, whether its classmates, whether its family members. We got to get those guns out of their hands because its eventually going to turn into somebody getting shot and killed, said Schubert.

Schubert was also asked about the latest in the ongoing investigation into the mass shooting at that Airbnb party on the Northside last weekend. Two teens were killed and nine others wounded when more than 100 shots were fired by multiple shooters carrying handguns and even one AR-15 style rifle. The party was mostly attended by juveniles.

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The chief was asked if any suspects or persons of interest have been identified.

I can just tell you that our detectives are working diligently to put it together. And our goal is bring the people to justice for what they did, and Im confident our detectives will do that, said Schubert, who declined to say how many guns were involved.

Schubert did tell Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle earlier this week that multiple hand guns along with an AR-15 style rifle were used to fire more than 100 rounds inside and outside the party.

Schubert, who earlier in the week said some witnesses had come forward and were cooperating with police, said today that he was concerned about the focus on social media in the hours after the shooting.

After this past tragic shooting, we had more people putting things on social media than calling the police. Thats a problem, said the Chief.

Schubert was also asked about the prevalence of guns in society and if this problem of juvenile gun violence is insurmountable.

I dont thinks so. I think if we can come together, everybody, and stop pointing fingers at everybody whos responsible and become part of the action to fix it. I think we can. People got to say enough is enough. I mean their kids are dying, family members, friends. You know schools are hurting because people they know have been gunned down. We got to step forward, said Schubert.

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SheKnows

Barack Obama shared a lovely message for Michelle Obama in honor of Mothers Day on Sunday, and the family photo shows how his daughters, Malia, 23, and Sasha, 20, have each developed their own flair for fashion. One of them prefers a breezy laidback style while the other is comfortable with a more glamorous look []
Prince Harry has spoken candidly about his mental health struggles in the past (Getty Images for Invictus Games )

Prince Harry sought the help of therapists at MI6 for his mental health, a new book about the royals has claimed.

The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor  the Truth and the Turmoil, written by former vanity fair editor Tina Brown, explores more than 30 years of the lives of the Queen and her immediate family.

The author claims Harry decided to get therapy after a former girlfriend, Cressida Bonas  whom he dated for two years  voiced concerns about his mental health.

Ms Brown says the prince sought the advice of his mothers friend Julia Samuel, who had experience working as a bereavement counsellor in the NHS, and from MI6.

An unnamed source, said to be close to Harry at the time, said the prince wanted to find a therapist what would be both discreet, and understood what it was like to have a public persona that was separate from your private life.

Harry dated Cressida Bonas for two years (Getty Images)

Harry has spoken candidly about his mental health struggles in the past.

Last May, he released The Me You Cant See, a five-part documentary series in which he discussed the impact of Princess Dianas death during several conversations with Oprah Winfrey.

In one episode, viewers saw him take part in a form of therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which involves a series of rapid eye movements and aims to help patients revisit and come to terms with past trauma they may have repressed.

Ms Browns bombshell book also documents Harrys relationship with Meghan Markle, whom he married in 2018.

The couple have been in the Netherlands for the Invictus games (Getty Images for the Invictus Ga)

Prince William is claimed to have initially expressed concern over the couples romance as he worried Meghan would face unique pressure if she joined the royal family as she had not had long enough to put roots down in the UK.

But Harry was not swayed by his brothers fears, Ms Brown writes.

Instead, the Duke of Sussex felt the most effective way to protect Meghan would be to marry her as quickly as possible, so that she could receive the same police protection he did while he was a working royal.

Story continues

The Independent has contacted representatives for the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex for comment.

As well as the Queen, the book covers the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and Duchess or Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The author says she has spoken to more than 120 sources and goes into great detail about the calamities faced by the monarchy over the last three decades.

The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - The Truth and the Turmoil is published by Century on 26 April at 20.
Prince William and Kate Middleton appeared to ignore a question about Prince Harrys claim he is making sure his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II is protected.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had visited the London offices of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), where they heard from aid workers in Ukraine about the work being done to help people in need amid Russias invasion.

As the royal couple were leaving, a broadcaster asked: Sir, does the Queen need protecting? according to Good Morning America. However, the duke and duchess did not respond and continued to their car before being driven away.

The question came the day after Prince Harrys sit-down interview with Today host Hoda Kotb, which aired on NBC on Wednesday morning.

During the interview, the Duke of Sussex discussed his and the Duchess of Sussexs secret visit to the UK, where they met with the 96-year-old monarch before attending the Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands.

Prince Harry said that it was great to see his grandmother, and that he made sure she was being protected during the visit.

Being with her was great, it was just so nice to see her. She was on great form, shes always got a great sense of humour, Harry said. Im just making sure that shes protected, and got the right people around her.

Prince Harrys visit to the UK marked only the third time that he has returned home since he and Meghan Markle stepped down from royal duties in March 2020. The duke previously returned for his grandfather Prince Philips funeral, as well as for a statue unveiling of his late mother Princess Diana.

Prince Harry reportedly saw his father Prince Charles during the visit to Windsor Castle. However, when asked about his relationships with his father and his brother, Prince William, Harry deflected to his Invictus family and his own family in California with Meghan.

For me, at the moment, Im here to focus on these guys and these families, and giving everything I can, Harry said of the Invictus competitors. To make sure that they have the experience of a lifetime.

Thats my focus here, and then I leave here, I get back, and my focus is my family, who I miss massively.

Prince Harry and Meghan are parents to their two-year-old son, Archie, and their daughter Lilibet, 10 months.
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten suggested that parental-choice legislation like that spearheaded by Republican-controlled Florida and Virginia could sow the seeds of violent conflict.

This notion  weve been very lucky in America, and we in some ways live in a bubble for a long time, she said during an April 13 radio interview on The Rick Smith Show. This is propaganda. This is misinformation. This is the way in which wars start. This is the way in which hatred starts.

The AFT, one of the nations largest teachers unions, has pushed back as school districts across the country experience a resurgence of parental involvement in K12 education. Weingartens organization was chief among the unions lobbying for extending school closures, classroom mask mandates, and other Covid-19 restrictions that interrupted or hampered learning during the pandemic.

While the AFT claims to welcome parental engagement, Weingarten said she believes the latest Republican initiatives to curtail instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity, which Floridas Parental Rights in Education bill prohibits for kindergarten through third grade, could be dangerous for LGBT youth.

Educators welcome parent involvement in schools because our kids do best when teachers, parents and caregivers work together, Weingarten said in a statement obtained by Fox News earlier this week. We have a lot to do to help kids recover and thrive this year after two years of an unprecedented pandemic. So rather than help us help our kids socially, academically and emotionally, these vocal minorities want to marginalize LGBTQ kids, censor teachers and ban books.

Weingartens comments strike a similar tone to that of MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who recently compared parental-choice legislation to Russian war tactics of dehumanization. Wallace criticized the politics of parental choice and argued that Floridas law, which progressives dubbed Dont Say Gay, could be disastrous and even deadly.

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The truth is dehumanization as a tactic for politics is from war. Russians get the soldiers to rape children by dehumanizing them, she said.

Its being deployed in our politics, and people like you and I sometimes lose the plot and admire its effectiveness, not its substance, but even the analysis of these tactics loses sight of what this speech brings us back to which is that dehumanization has a cost, right now, Wallace said.

Wallace repeated Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegs warning: Kids will die.

More from National Review
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia's top state investigative body said on Saturday it was looking into a Russian media report alleging that sabotage experts from Britain's SAS special forces have been deployed to western Ukraine.

The Special Air Service is an elite military force trained to conduct special operations, surveillance and counter-terrorism. Russia's RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday quoted a Russian security source as saying about 20 SAS members had been sent to the Lviv region.

In a statement, the Investigative Committee said it would follow up the report that they had been sent in "to assist the Ukrainian special services in organizing sabotage on the territory of Ukraine".

The British Ministry of Defence had no immediate comment on the Russian investigation in response to a Reuters request.

Britain said it sent military trainers to Ukraine earlier this year to instruct local forces in using anti-tank weapons but the British government said on Feb. 17 - a week before Russia's invasion - that it had pulled out all troops except those needed to protect its ambassador.

It was not clear what steps the Investigative Committee planned to take in response to any SAS involvement in Ukraine. But the fact of the investigation into the possible presence of forces from a NATO country is significant, given that Russia has issued warnings to the West not to get in the way of its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Additional reporting by William James, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
This live blog is now closed. For the latest updates please check here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will meet Sunday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The White House, National Security Council and State Department have declined to comment on Zelenskyy's remarks about the meeting. The Pentagon will not speak to the claim, according to two defense officials.

Eight people were killed, including a 3-month-old girl, and 18 wounded in a missile attack Saturday on the port city of Odesa on the Black Sea, Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

On Friday, what appeared to be another mass grave was discovered in the village of Vynohradne near Mariupol, according to Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the besieged southern citys mayor.

Satellite images from U.S. defense contractor Maxar appeared to show what the firm described in a statement as several parallel trenches measuring roughly 131 feet that are/will likely become new gravesites. The trenches started to appear in late March, Maxar said. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the allegations.

Moscow's attempts to fully capture Mariupol have been slowed by Ukrainian resistance, according to an intelligence briefing from the U.K.s defense ministry early Saturday.
Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russias Central Military District, said Russia is aiming to take full control of southern and eastern Ukraine during the war.

The control would give Russia access from Crimea to Transnistria, a breakaway part of Moldova occupied by Russia, according to Reuters.

This is the first time Russia has admitted to ambitions of territorial gains during its invasion of Ukraine and threatened Moldova.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the matter when asked Friday, according to Reuters.

Ukraine has pointed to the comments as proof the war will expand outside their country.

They are not going to stop. The command of the russian central military district announced the next victim of the russian aggression, Ukraines Defense Ministry tweeted. After gaining control over the southern Ukraine, russia plans to invade Moldova, where they say russian speakers are being oppressed.

Russian forces have refocused their effort to eastern Ukraine after not making significant gains following two months of fighting.

As the invasion continues, Ukraine continues to accuse Russia of war crimes while President Biden has called the attacks a genocide.

The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in aid that included weapons the country needs to fight off Russian forces.

The U.S. and other Western countries have said they would not get directly involved in the war unless Russia attacked a NATO country.

However, the NATO alliance also says the situation could change if Russia begins using nuclear or chemical weapons.

Ukraine has already accused Russian forces of using chemical weapons, targeting civilians and raping women and children.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
BEIJING (Reuters) - The economy of Shanghai, China's most populous city, slowed in the first quarter from the end of 2021, hurt by rare declines in industrial output and retail sales that were hammered by the country's most serious COVID outbreak.

Shanghai's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.1% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the local statistics bureau said on Saturday, significantly less than the 4.8% growth in the national GDP during the same period announced earlier. In 2021, Shanghai's GDP rose 8.1%.

"In January-February, the city's economic operation was stable, but due to the impact of the COVID outbreak in March, the first quarter was marked by stability followed by a decline," the city's statistics bureau said in a statement.

Shanghai started reporting COVID cases in the latest outbreak in early March, with authorities declaring a lockdown of the entire city of 25 million people in early April when infections escalated.

The economic slowdown in Shanghai, which did not publish GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2021, is widely expected to have worsened in April. Its GDP contracted 6.7% in January-March 2020 when the new coronavirus first emerged.

Output of Shanghai's vast industrial sector plunged 7.5% year-on-year in March after stringent lockdown measures halted some production, a city official said on Friday.

For January-March, industrial production grew 4.8% from a year earlier, the Saturday data showed.

Shanghai's first-quarter retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, fell 3.8% year-on-year, swinging from 3.7% growth in the first two months.

In March alone, retail sales nosedived by 18.9%.

In the first quarter, the city's consumer prices rose 1.8% from a year earlier, with prices in January-February up 1.6% year-on-year and accelerating in March to a 2.2% clip.

The higher consumer inflation came as Shanghai residents complained about food and basic supplies during the lockdown, with some saying prices of vegetables had gone up by five to 10 times of levels before the outbreak.

Job creation also slowed, with Shanghai reporting 192,600 new jobs in the first quarter, a drop of 26,200 from the year-earlier quarter.

(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo, Editing by Ros Russell)
MarketWatch

Answer: The first thing to know is this: Federal student loans and about half of private student loans provide a death discharge, which cancels the remaining debt upon death of the borrower, says Mark Kantrowitz, author of Who Graduates From College? To find out if your private student loan could be erased in case of death, youll need to call your servicer and inquire about their policies. Have a question about getting out of student loan or other debt?
Chloe Grimes, an 8-year-old battling cancer, gifted her favorite player, Tampa Bay Rays' Brett Phillips, a bracelet. He hit a home run while wearing it and has been wearing it for good luck ever since. Steve Hartman shares more in "On the Road."
A student at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana, was allegedly raped by a classmate during an active shooter drill (Google Maps)

A 17-year-old Indiana high school student has been charged with raping a classmate during an active shooter drill.

Keith A. Miller was arrested Wednesday and charged with rape, criminal confinement and sexual battery, according to Lake County Criminal Courts records obtained by The Independent.

Mr Miller is accused of assaulting a 16-year-old girl during a drill at Morton High School, in Hammond, on 12 November 2021.

According to court filings, a teacher instructed the students to enter a pitch black room just after 8am.

The alleged victim said that Mr Miller bumped into her and asked: Who is this?

He then began to touch her without her permission. She recognised Mr Miller by his voice but said they were not friends, the La Crosse Tribune reported.

She told police that she tried to move away from Mr Miller and told him to chill, but he was stronger than her and continued to force himself on her.

A police affidavit states that as she tried to get away from him, Mr Miller placed his hand inside her pants and penetrated her with his fingers.

She told police she felt unable to speak out because students were told to remain silent during the drill.

When the lights were switched on, she saw Mr Miller was the only student near to her.

Afterwards, the girl returned to her desk and started crying, and told friends and her mother what had happened, and went to Morton High Schools guidance office.

She was then taken to a hospital for a sexual assault examination.

A witness spoken to by police who was in the room during the drill said she heard Mr Miller ask Who is this?

She also recalled the alleged victim saying stop touching me in an agitated voice.

Several other witnesses said the girl had told them of the assault.

Mr Millers bail has been set at $50,000.
The Tennessee Legislature has passed a bill that would require convicted drunk drivers to pay child support to the children of their victims.

The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday, would require a person to pay child support if they were convicted of vehicular homicide, intoxication or aggravated vehicular homicide while driving under the influence if the victim was a parent.

If signed by Gov. Bill Lee, offenders would have to pay child maintenance until the victims child turns 18.

The bill leaves it up to the court to determine whats reasonable and necessary in terms of payments, taking into consideration factors like the financial needs and resources of the child and their surviving parent or guardian as well as the standard of living to which the child is accustomed.

The bill is named Ethans, Haileys, and Bentleys Law, after three children whose parents were killed by drunk drivers, East Tennessee NBC affiliate WBIR reported.

Ethan and Hailey are the children of Chattanooga police officer Nicholas Galinger, who was struck and killed in 2019 by a woman driving while intoxicated. Bentley is the orphaned 5-year-old grandchild of Cecilia Williams, a Missouri woman who lost her son, daughter-in-law, and four-month-old grandchild in a DUI crash.

Williams initially launched her campaign for restitution in Missouri and attracted the attention of Tennessee lawmakers.

The state House and Senate passed different versions of the bill, so it now returns to the House for consideration.

If passed and signed by the governor, the Tennessee bill would be the first law to hold convicted drunk drivers financially responsible for children of their victims.

Casey Black, the press secretary for Lee, said in an email on Saturday to TODAY that they will "review (the) final legislation when it reaches the Governors desk."

Tennessee Rep. Mike Hall, one of the bills sponsors, said in a post on Facebook that he believes the legislation would protect the future of our most valuable resources, our children.

Tennesseans care for each other and we will... do everything in our power to hold people accountable who chose to do harm.
BERLIN (AP)  Thousands of people protested Saturday against plans to bulldoze a village in western Germany to expand a coal mine that environmental activists say should be shut down, not enlarged.

The German news agency dpa quoted police in the afternoon as saying that the demonstration in Luetzerath, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Cologne, passed by peacefully. About 2,000 people took part, dpa reported.

It came weeks after the village's last farmer sold his property to the utility company RWE after losing a court case against his eviction. The village is still inhabited by activists, some of whom have built tree houses in a bid to stop the nearby Garzweiler mine from being expanded.

Climate activists argue that the village and others nearby should not be demolished because burning the coal that's still in the ground undermines Germany's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Among those taking part in the protest was Ilyess El Kortbi, a climate activist from Ukraine, who criticized Germany for continuing to purchase coal, oil and gas from Russia, arguing that this helps fund Russia's destructive war against his country.

Some German officials have countered that in order to reduce the country's imports of Russian fossil fuels in the short term, Germany needs to rely on other sources of energy, including the lignite coal mined at Garzweiler.

Coal-fired power stations near the mine are among the European Union's biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Recent opinion polls show a significant increase in voter support for the environmentalist Greens party ahead of next month's regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the mine is located.

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Follow AP's climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
Djeswende Reid and Stephen Reid (New Hampshire Attorney General's Office)

A married New Hampshire couple who went missing while hiking have been found dead with multiple gunshot wounds, authorities say.

The bodies of Stephen Reid, 67, and Djeswende Reid, 66, were discovered on Thursday night in a wooded area near the Marsh Loop in Concords Broken Ground Trails system, the New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office said.

Their deaths have been ruled homicides by the medical examiners office. Authorities have not made any arrests.

The Reids left their apartment in Alton Woods at 2.22pm on Monday afternoon to go for a walk in the Broken Ground Trails in Concord, according to a release from New Hampshire attorney general John M. Formella.

Family and friends did not hear from them again, and alerted authorities.

Mr Formella has appealed residents and businesses in the area to check their video surveillance systems for any sign of the couple.

They have asked anyone with information about the crime to contact the Concord Police Department.

In the meantime, residents of the area are encouraged to be vigilant and take normal precautions as they go about their daily lives, the attorney general said.

Concord police can be reached at 603 225-8600, or tips can be submitted anonymously by contacting the Concord Regional Crimeline at 603 226-3100.
The entrance to King Edward VII, a private hospital used by the Queen and the royal family. Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

The UK opened an investigation into two charities founded by Viatcheslav Kantor, a Russian oligarch.

The Kantor Foundation donated at least $10 million to a private hospital in London used by the royal family.

The charity's bank account was frozen after Kantor was sanctioned by the UK in early April.

The UK Charity Commission opened an investigation Friday into two charities founded by Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, a Russian oligarch sanctioned in early April following the invasion of Ukraine.

Kantor, currently ranked as Russia's thirteenth richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, is a major stakeholder in Acron, one of Russia's largest fertilizer producers.

The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced sanctions on Kantor earlier this month, claiming that Acron maintains "vital strategic significance for the Russian government."

The newly opened investigation into Kantor's philanthropy includes the Kantor Charitable Foundation and the World Holocaust Forum Foundation. The UK charity commission said Friday that it has frozen the Kantor Foundation's bank account, meaning that "no one can access or move funds held in its account without the Commission's prior consent."

In 2018, the Kantor Charitable Foundation donated over $10 million to King Edward VII's Hospital, a private facility in London used by the Queen and royal family, according to charity records.

The hospital used the funds to build a new outpatient center named in Kantor's honor, which opened in January 2022. A spokesperson for King Edward VII's Hospital confirmed to Insider that the oligarch's name was removed from the hospital wing after he was sanctioned.

"In 2018 we agreed to accept a donation from the Kantor Charitable Foundation; a UK registered and regulated charity," the spokesperson told Insider. "This donation was used to develop an outpatient and diagnostic centre which is already benefitting our patients."

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"Dr Moshe Kantor has informed us he has decided to step back completely from all charitable activity in the UK," the spokesperson added. "[He] indicated that, in the light of this decision, he is content that his name is no longer used in relation to any of the major projects funded by the Kantor Charitable Foundation."

The European Jewish Congress said it is "deeply shocked and appalled" by the UK's decision to sanction Kantor, who served as the organization's president, and called for the decision to be reversed.

"Dr Kantor is a British citizen who has lived for over three decades in Western Europe, many years of which has been in the UK," the EJC said in a statement on April 6. "He is a long-standing and respected Jewish leader, who has dedicated his life to the security and wellbeing of Europe's Jewish communities and the fight against antisemitism, racism and xenophobia."

The UK's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the wave of sanctions, including those on Kantor, show "the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin's orders," adding that the UK and its allies "will not rest until Ukraine prevails."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ukraine is gearing up for a different type of warfare in its eastern regions as Russia looks to completely control the Donbas.

U.S. defense officials have been sounding the alarm for weeks that the terrain will dictate a different type of battlefront in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and modern artillery will take center stage as Kyiv tries to fend off Russias attacks.

Russian soldiers pose by a T-80 tank in a position close to the Azovstal frontline in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

ZELENSKYY WARNS RUSSIA WILL LIKELY INVADE OTHER COUNTRIES IF SUCCESSFUL IN UKRAINE

"The Kremlin has openly declared its intention to conquer eastern Ukraine, and developments on the ground leave little doubt we are witnessing the beginning stages of a massive offensive by Russia's forces in the Donbas," U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSEC) said in a Friday meeting in front of the Special Permanent Council in Vienna.

"All indications are that the battlefield dynamics will soon shift from closer-range combat to longer-range fires where artillery and multiple launch rocket systems are critical," he added.

The U.S. announced this week that it will be sending another $800 million package to Ukraine stocked with security assistance that a senior U.S. defense official said was "strategically" planned with Ukrainians to help them with the looming fight in the Donbas.

Despite continued fighting and shelling in areas throughout the Donbas, the U.S. assesses that Russia has not yet launched its offensive campaign there and is instead still conducting a "shaping operations."

The U.S. not only sent an additional supply of Howitzers, which are long-range weapons similar to a canon, tactical vehicles to tow the Howitzers, field equipment and spare parts, but the U.S. Air Force developed a "Phoenix Ghost" drone specifically designed for Ukrainian needs.

A senior defense official said the drone will have similar capabilities to that of a Switchblade drone  which is easily carried and launched by an individual soldier and detonates after it crashes into its target  but the complete scope of its capabilities remains undisclosed.

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GERMANY HALTS ARMS SHIPMENTS TO UKRAINE, WILL PROVIDE TRAINING AND MAINTENANCE INSTEAD

Several other allies like the U.K., Canada, Czech Republic and the Netherlands have boosted their support for Ukraine. But nations like Germany have come under fire for their lackluster aid.

Germany attempted to fend off criticisms this week and claimed it had maxed out its ability to send arms to Kyiv, alleging Germanys armed services have said it "can no longer supply weapons from its own reserves."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany would send Ukraine spare parts for its vehicles and defensive machinery and will work with other nations on increasing their defensive aid.

Scholz said this decision was backed by NATO allies including the U.S., but on Friday Washingtons ambassador to the OSEC scoffed at suggestions that anything but immediate aid was adequate.

DONETSK, UKRAINE - MARCH 01: Pro-Russian separatists, in uniforms without insignia, gather in the separatist-controlled settlement of Mykolaivka (Nikolaevka) and Bugas, in Donetsk region (DPR) of Ukraine on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"Ukraine desperately needs modern weapons and ammunition to defend itself in this new and deadly phase of the conflict. It needs these weapons and ammunition now, as quickly as we can possibly get them there. Not long-term negotiated contracts to purchase weapons," Carpenter said.

We must move swiftly, together, to immediately provide Ukraine with capabilities to protect its civilians from the horrors of this war  from atrocities like those in Bucha, Hostomel, and Borodianka," he added.
KYIV (Reuters) - All the Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern region of Luhansk were constantly being shelled by Russian forces on Saturday and the barrage was intensifying, the region's governor Serhiy Haidai said on television.

He said Ukrainian forces were leaving some settlements there in order to regroup, but that the move did not amount to a critical setback. Russia denies targeting civilian areas.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Mark Heinrich)
A delegation from the United States told Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare on Friday its concerns about a security pact he had signed with China and warned that should Beijing maintain any military presence there, the US would "respond accordingly".

The White House also said it would expedite the opening of a US embassy in Honiara, the island nation's capital, and the two countries agreed to initiate a strategic dialogue and a programme on maritime domain awareness as well as advance a range of other initiatives.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, left, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a signing ceremony in Beijing, on October 9, 2019. Photo: AP alt=Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, left, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at a signing ceremony in Beijing, on October 9, 2019. Photo: AP>

The delegation, led by National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell, flew to Honiara after it was announced this week that China and the Solomons had signed the security agreement. While details have not been released, a draft of the deal - leaked in March by political opponents of Sogavare - would allow the Chinese navy to dock in the islands and Beijing to deploy its police and armed forces there.

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.

According to the White House, Solomon officials emphasised that the pact with China "had solely domestic applications"; Sogavare tried to assure the delegation that "there would be no military base, no long-term presence, and no power projection capability" as a result of the agreement.

Even so, the security pact is seen as a major inroad for China in the Pacific - where the Solomon Islands occupy a strategic position - and troubles other Pacific powers as well, including Japan, New Zealand and especially Australia, which pressed the Solomon Islands to scrap the deal. The distance between Australia and the Solomons is roughly 2,000km (1,200 miles), or nearly half that between Australia and mainland China.

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The US delegation met with senior officials from those three countries in Hawaii during the first leg of the delegation's Pacific tour.

China has long courted the Solomons through economic diplomacy. In 2019, the island nation broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognised Beijing. At the time, Sogavare said the switch put his country "on the right side of history", but opposition was strong in some parts of the Solomons; violence erupted late last year when protesters clashed with police, causing millions of dollars worth of damage.

Sogavare, who narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in December, said the deal would allow Chinese police to protect Chinese-financed infrastructure projects.

Campbell had been expected to push Sogavare to back out of the deal, but it was signed before the US delegation arrived.

China says that the deal is meant to promote peace and stability in the region. Its ambassador to the Solomon Islands, Li Ming, defended the pact on Friday.

"Development and security are two sides of a coin. Without safety and security countries cannot enjoy sustainable development and economic growth," he said.

Honiara was the final destination on the US delegation's Pacific tour following stops in Hawaii, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The China-Solomon Islands deal was discussed in Fiji and Papua New Guinea as well, according to the US embassy in Papua New Guinea.

Besides Campbell, the delegation included Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and deputies from the Indo-Pacific Command and the Agency for International Development.

According to reports, New Zealand and Tonga plan to bring up the deal at the next meeting of Pacific Islands Forum leaders, while Japan may send a vice-minister to the Solomon Islands to relay its concerns later this month.

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.
Damien Hirst created this piece for the exhibition, Ukraine: Defending Freedom

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opened an exhibition about defending his country's freedom at the Venice Biennale festival.

Speaking via video link, he said "art can tell the world things that cannot be shared otherwise".

His country's culture is a focus of attention in Venice and artworks have been escorted out of Ukraine by police.

In contrast, the Russian Pavilion stood locked and empty; a sign of the country's isolation.

President Zelensky described the pain of war as he addressed the world's oldest and most prestigious contemporary art exhibition earlier this week.

He offered examples of Ukrainian soldiers finding murdered civilians in Bucha, of medics rescuing injured people in Kharkiv, and of a girl writing a letter to her mother who died in Mariopul as experiences that can be best reflected in art, "because this is about something beyond words".

As he talked of his country's fight for freedom, he said: "There are no tyrannies that would not try to limit art. Because they can see the power of art. It is art that conveys feelings."

A pile of sandbags on display mirrors those being used in Ukraine to protect artworks following the Russian invasion

Ukraine's art is taking centre stage at the Venice Biennale, which has made a space at the heart of the Giardini for what is effectively a temporary pavilion for Ukraine.

There is a pile of sandbags, mirroring the sandbags being used in Ukraine to protect artworks, and a scorched structure covered in posters of war-related art work.

The official Ukrainian Pavilion in the nearby Arsenale shows a work by artist Pavlo Makov that nearly didn't make it to Venice.

Called The Fountain of Exhaustion, it's a series of funnels arranged in a triangle through which water drips and divides. Makov described it to me as a metaphor for "the exhaustion of humanity, the exhaustion of democracy".

Ukrainian artist Pavlo Makov says his work is a metaphor for "the exhaustion of humanity, the exhaustion of democracy"

On the day the Russians invaded, with air raid sirens blaring and shelling starting, co-curator Maria Lanko loaded the funnels into the boot of her car and began the long journey out of Ukraine to Venice. Lanko told me "leaving Kiev was very scary because you could see the fires on the outskirts after the shelling. That was the scariest".

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At that point it was unclear if Makov would be joining her in Venice. He lives in Kharkiv, one of the places to come under early Russian assault. He spent time in shelters after "really intensive bombing of the city", he says, before leaving with his 92-year-old mother and other family members "under missile attack... We put five of us in my car, and we just left the city".

Makov is 63. The younger male co-curators of his exhibition had to get special dispensation from the Ukrainian Government to leave the country temporarily to attend the Biennale.

The fact they were allowed to - when all men between 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving - is a sign of the importance the Ukrainian authorities place on cultural representation. In Venice, as journalists from across the world queued to interview them, both Makov and Lanko talked of being cultural ambassadors.

Co-curator Maria Lanko says "leaving Kyiv was very scary because you could see the fires on the outskirts after the shelling"

They are no longer representing their art as individuals; they are representing a country whose culture is under threat.

Makov told me the Russians are continuing what they have tried to do for centuries. "They want to level and demolish Ukrainian culture totally because Ukraine doesn't exist, it's part of Russia," he says. "They say it openly. The war is a punishment."

At the Zelensky-endorsed exhibition called This is Ukraine: Defending Freedom, I watched Ukrainian artworks being unwrapped by the likes of Maria Primachenko, who has become a symbol of the country's national identity, as well as a beautiful 17th Century icon of the Virgin Mary, believed to be by Stefan Medytsky.

These works were transported from Ukraine under police guard. They are now totems for a country that fears its culture will be wiped out.

Works by Ukrainian artists such as Maria Primachenko are among those on display

Meanwhile, the Russian Pavilion is shut and empty. The curator and artists who were due to exhibit their work in Venice this year pulled out when the invasion started.

The only thing to see when I passed by was a protester, another Russian artist, Vadim Zakharov, who unfolded a poster denouncing the war.

In 2013, Zakharov represented his country at its Biennale pavilion. Now he berates Russia for its "propaganda" and the "murder of women, children, people of Ukraine".

Russian artist Vadim Zakharov held up a placard distancing himself from his own country's invasion of Ukraine

He was applauded by some people who stopped to watch. Soon the Italian police arrived and his poster was removed, a far better fate than has befallen artists and other anti-war protesters in Russia. "If I was in Red Square," he said, "it would be different."

At a time when they are fighting at home, Ukrainian art is taking on special significance in Venice. But Makov told me he finds it almost impossible to think of creating new work after what he witnessed in Kharkiv.

He referenced the famous anti-war painting by Picasso, created after the bombing by the Nazis and Italian Fascists of the Basque town of Guernica in 1937.

Pablo Picasso's Guernica depicts the horrors of the Nazi-bombing of a Basque town

Makov told me that if Picasso had actually been in Guernica during the bombing, he might not have been able to paint the picture. "Some artists can, but for me, it's very difficult," he says.

"Art is an important piece of life, it helps us to create and maintain our culture. But I heard this explosion, I saw the destroyed centre of Kharkiv. You know, art is a modest thing, because the drama of life is always bigger."

As his country fights for its survival, though, Ukrainian works here in Venice have a role to play in revealing the richness of Ukraine's culture, and what there is to lose.
Despite the episodes lasting only 20 minutes, they manage to cover a breadth of topics and emotions (Getty)

I was first introduced to Girls by my friend Zoe in our second year of uni. We huddled around her tiny TV, each with a bowl of plain pasta on our laps, as we fought with the dodgy HDMI cable that was plugged into her laptop (which kept glitching). She watched my face expectantly, waiting for my verdict.

Little did we know just how accurate the depiction of job seeking post-higher education was. Nor were we fully aware of how much city life would cost. But we lapped it up nonetheless.

The story switched from Marnies (Allison Williams) relationship woes to Hannahs (Lena Dunham) financial struggles and emotionally abusive sex buddy, Adam (Adam Driver). The ever-bohemian Jessa (Jemima Kirke) rocked up with flowing blonde locks and ridiculous tales from her travels (much like Marnie had predicted), and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), very much the bright-eyed millennial, talked a mile a minute about how New York life would be like Sex and the City for them: You know, youre funny because youre definitely a Carrie, with like, some Samantha aspects, and Charlotte hair. Thats like a really good combination.

Indeed, there was a lot to love and dissect in this first episode  not least its frank portrayal of modern relationships, sex and female friendships. But for me, it was a scene at the end of episode three that really grabbed my attention.

As avid fans will recall, Hannah is sitting on her bed drafting various tweets as a slow ballad plays out. She then switches tracks, and in comes the electro beat of Robyns Dancing on My Own. Before long, Hannah starts bobbing her head from side to side and moving her hips. The scene then cuts to Marnie, who is walking up the stairs to their apartment. On entering the flat, she sees Hannah dancing in her bedroom, before she kicks off her heels and joins her. From this magical moment on, I was all in; a fully-fledged Girls fan.

In the 10 years since the pilot aired on HBO, I have revisited the series time and again (the most recent binge being during lockdown). No matter how many times I have played certain scenes and gone through the series, it always managed to serve me well at different stages of my life. It offered warnings on working life when I first discovered it; once I had graduated, it felt like a comfort blanket, a fictional friend telling me youre not alone.

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Later on, I saw many elements of my own messed-up relationships in those on screen  particularly Hannahs dynamic with Adam. It was hard to walk away from someone like that, who I knew did not respect or love me, but would show just the smallest bit of affection at the right time and draw me back in again. Then, during the pandemic, the incessant fear that my female friendships would deteriorate was brought to life in the shows final episodes.

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Now, of course, the series wasnt without its flaws; not only did it severely lack diversity, it reeked of privilege. But, I would argue, Dunham and co were always very self-aware, and were, in fact, using the show as a platform to mock the perceived plight of white, upper class academics. They were caricatures of themselves and highlighted both the positive and negative elements of women of their generation.

But, beyond the characters and Dunhams divisiveness off-camera, theres no denying that Girls was a masterpiece, full of never-before-seen storylines and concepts. To name just a few, theres the standalone episode where Hannah spends the day with an older man after flytipping; Shoshs personal journey in Tokyo; the dance routine at the beach house; then, of course, the excruciating scene at the interactive play, in which Hannah discovers Jessa and Adams affair.

Despite the episodes being just 20 minutes long (or thereabouts), they manage to cover a breadth of topics and emotions, from abortion rights and gentrification, sexual health and the unemployment crisis. And while it may seem as though these things have been rehashed many times since, Girls truly was one of the first shows on a mainstream channel to tap into that discourse.

Love it or hate it, theres something uniquely special about the show  something that is still intact a decade on. It is witty, smart and has the ability to make you sob and belly laugh in equal measure. And, well, if that hasnt convinced you: it also brought us the insanely talented Adam Driver.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a press conference on Saturday he is hoping Asian countries will change their attitude towards Ukraine as European countries have done.

Zelensky said that NATO not accepting Ukraine as a member was a gross mistake and that some of the alliances European member states had underestimated the country. He added, however, that Ukraines unity and strength in response to Russias invasion managed to change the attitude of the alliance and the European member states toward the country.

I want very much want the Asian countries to change their attitude to Ukraine as well, Zelensky said.

He said those countries are closer to Russia due to their past ties to the Soviet Union.

Therefore, after the fall of the Soviet Union they historically were close to, the Russian Federation was the successor of the Soviet Union and the biggest country as part of former Soviet Union, thats why their relations remain strong with Russia, he said.

However, he said he sees some of the nations now being more inclined toward Ukraine and their people possibly changing their attitude about the country.

The comments come as India has faced pressure from the U.S. and Western countries to join them in pushing back against Russian President Vladimir Putins authoritarian ambitions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

India has close ties to Moscow due to Russias military assistance and allyship against Chinas ambitions to expand its influence in the region.

A U.S. senior official said President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about Russia earlier this month in a conversation that the official characterized as warm and productive.

The official said the Biden administration doesnt want to see India accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and that India, which has continued to buy Russian oil as the U.S. and other nations have sanctioned Moscow over the invasion, could cut off Russian oil if it wanted to without taking a huge hit to its economy.

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It also comes after Chinese officials this week said they would strengthen their relationship with their Russian counterparts amid the invasion.

No matter how the international landscape may change, China will continue to strengthen strategic coordination with Russia for win-win cooperation, jointly safeguard the common interests of the two countries and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in a statement.

China has refused to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and has opposed sanctions levied against Moscow in response amid the conflict.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
One of the silver linings of the very large dark cloud of Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine is the clarity it provides. This is, broadly speaking a contest between good guys and bad guys.

A lot of people who fancy themselves foreign policy realists roll their eyes at talk about good guys vs. bad guys. The world is made up of nation states with interests and those states act rationally on their interests. Good and bad aint got nothing to do with it.

Ive never bought this argument, on either analytical or moral terms.

Yes, nations have interests, but the way they define their interests is not always strictly rational. History is full of examples of nations committing vast resources to causes that are extra-rational. The mistake of the realists is not their interest in the struggle for power but their deliberate neglect of everything else, especially the non-scientific, contingent, very human feelings and beliefs that most powerfully move people, the late, great Donald Kagan wrote in Honor Among Nations: Intangible Interests and Foreign Policy.

To claim that, say, North Koreas foreign and domestic policy is simply an expression of its rational self-interest is to declare you dont know anything about North Korea  or the decisions its rulers chose to make in turning that society into a xenophobic gulag.

Choices matter. And thats where the moral failings of realism come in. Realists tend to conflate the interests of rulers with the interests of the ruled. Its hard to find a sane analyst who argues that Putin invaded Ukraine solely in the name of Russias rational self-interest rather than his own notions of glory and historical retribution, and its even harder to find one who thinks the invasion is objectively in the interest of the Russian people.

Again, while it would have been in everyones interest  however you define it  for Putin not to have committed this monstrous crime, his choice makes it easy to call him and his enablers the bad guys. Deliberately targeting civilians, sanctioning mass executions and rape, not to mention the intentional wholesale erasure of cities, is objectively evil. The Russian state tacitly admits this when it refuses to tell its own people what it is doing.

Indeed, the scope of Russias lies is so great that the liars are starting to say the quiet part out loud: that truth and truth-telling is an impermissible threat to the Russian regime.

Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT (formerly Russia Today), which once claimed to be a legitimate news organization, recently declared, No big nation can exist without control over information and that Russia should follow the Soviet or contemporary Chinese model, which would deny people freedom in the political life of their country, in the informational life of the country. With media voices like Simonyan in charge, its no wonder Putin allegedly polls well in Russia.

Theres equal clarity for the United States. I think the realist case for doing everything possible to assure a Russian defeat is obvious. It is Russian policy to undermine our interests and the interests of our allies around the world.

But theres a deeper moral realism involved. In the 1990s, we pushed Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. In 2005, a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Dick Lugar and Barack Obama resulted in Ukraine destroying vast amounts of its conventional weapons, on the assumption that those security guarantees would be honored. In other words, we told them wed have their back.

Putin said those guarantees  which Russia signed on to  were null and void because the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests in 2013 ushered in a new Ukrainian state. Whether you buy that garbage is immaterial, Putins betrayal of his commitments doesnt release us from ours. And it is in our interest to be seen as a nation that honors its commitments, both moral and legal.

None of this is to say we should send our own troops into Ukraine  not that we wouldnt be morally justified. Igniting a direct war between two nuclear superpowers is a bad idea. Besides, Ukraine isnt asking for that. It is asking for the modern equivalent of the arsenal of democracy, and we should give it to them, fast. Because Putin is now doubling down on his crimes in eastern Ukraine just to save face. Its not in our interest that he succeed. And, as the bad guy, he deserves to lose.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch. Goldbergs column is provided by Tribune Content Agency.
Mike Pence, the former vice president, will join western Iowa U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra in serving breakfast to delegates at Iowas Republican 4th Congressional District convention Saturday in Carroll, Feenstras campaign announced.

Pence and Feenstra will serve breakfast from 9:30 to 10 a.m., the Feenstra campaign said. The convention is being held at Carroll High School.

We are excited to welcome Vice President Pence back to northwest Iowa, Feenstra said in a news release. As he likes to say, hes a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican  in that order. Those values represent the fabric of the folks of the 4th District.

Pence was a guest at Feenstras first Family Picnic fundraiser in Sioux Center last year. The former vice president has been a frequent visitor to Iowa as he lays the groundwork for a potential run for president in 2024.

FRANKEN ENDORSED: The Laborers International Union of North America and its affiliated local unions have endorsed Mike Franken in the Democratic primary in Iowas U.S. Senate campaign.

Franken, a retired admiral from Sioux City, is one of three Democrats running for U.S. Senate. The others are Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman and state legislator from Cedar Rapids, and Minden physician Glenn Hurst.

The Republican incumbent is longtime U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. He faces a primary challenge from Sioux City lawyer and state Sen. Jim Carlin.

The Laborers International Union of North America represent workers in construction and building trades, highway, pipeline construction, and the public sector.

MATHIS CAMPAIGN HQ OPENS: Liz Mathis campaign recently opened its campaign headquarters in Cedar Rapids.

The office is at 4850 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids, near Thomas Park.

Mathis, a state senator from Hiawatha and former Cedar Rapids TV news journalist, is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Eastern Iowas new 2nd Congressional District.

Mathis faces Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a former state representative and Cedar Rapids TV news journalist.

The Mathis campaign held a grand opening event this past weekend at the new office, featuring local Democratic candidates. The Mathis campaign will share the office with the Linn County Democrats.
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As Europe seeks to wean itself of Russian gas, Algeria has emerged as a potential supplier, but experts consider the country lacking in spare capacity.

Algeria is the third largest gas exporter to Europe with 8% of the market share. It has seen its domestic gas consumption rise exponentially leaving it with insignificant extra export capacity.

The country has halted a 13 cbm pipeline in October that crossed Morocco to Spain, in a unilateral decision that was indicative of Algerias diminishing export capacities though sugarcoated as a measure to retaliate against its rival Morocco.

Algiers has promised to raise exports to Spain through an 8 cbm direct pipeline that does not cross Morocco, but so far it has failed to do so pushing Spain to compensate with US gas. Now, the US is Spains first supplier followed by Algeria, whose market share is shrinking to nearly match that of Nigeria at about 30%.

Regime opacity and corruption, an unfriendly investment legal framework and insecurity have all contributed to a drop in explorations in Algiers, shrouding in uncertainty its export capacities.

This is due to years of under-investment by international oil companies because of a history of difficult fiscal terms and the overall operating environment marked by bureaucracy and slow decision-making, Anthony Skinner, a political risk consultant, told the Financial Times.

The same UK paper quoted Mostefa Ouki, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, saying that in the short term, Algeria could only provide Europe with a few additional billion cubic metres of gas.

A rise in hydrocarbons revenue in 2021 has helped Algeria delay painful but necessary reforms of subsidies and taxes, as the regime resorts to the same old time-measures of buying social peace including through introducing unemployment benefit of 90 dollars for the youth.
For the last generation, sustainability has been the buzzword around agriculture. Now, a growing chorus is calling for a focus on agricultural regeneration. Its about reclaiming the health of the soil, making our regions more food independent, and keeping our young people on the land, said Graham Christensen, the president of GC Resolve who lives near Oakland.

GC Resolve is a communication and consulting company that is working to build resilient communities. Its focus is on environmentally and economically sound principles related to agricultural production.

They emphasize erosion control, on-farm fertility, re-establishment of local & regional markets for increased food security, soil health and reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate greenhouse gas emissions.

Its also about generating greater opportunities for young people to get into farming. As the average age of farm operators increases, and land is auctioned to the highest bidder, more and more ownership is transitioning to large corporations, including foreign investors, Christensen said. That is not in the best interest of our national security, or of the younger generation, he said.

The best way to protect us, is to make sure the next generation has a chance to get on the farm, Christensen said. Theres some state protection but foreign investment is happening more and more.

Another concern is heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. That has implications for the environment, farm profitability and sustainability, he said. That is particularly evident now. Nitrogen and other fertilizers have become substantially more expensive as the price of the main ingredient, natural gas, has shot up. Reliance on foreign sources of fertilizers and raw materials can also be troubling.

Christensen said GC Resolve is working with other agriculture organizations across the country and members of Congress to develop policy recommendations for inclusion in the 2023 Farm Bill, legislation enacted every five years that spells out ag-related funding and policy priorities.

We surveyed farmers a couple of years ago ... which was the right way to start, Christensen said. Their responses influenced the development of the proposals.

Some monumental pieces were exploring, include creation of a land bank and other policies that would enable land access by young people with the heart to be in agriculture, he said.

Other proposals would facilitate updated training for U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service technicians, with a focus on working within the parameters of local climate, soil and environmental conditions. NRCS technicians would work with farmers to incorporate regenerative practices into a farm profitability plan. This would enable more of the business mindset, said Christensen, while going beyond current conservation set-aside programs.

Christensen said he would like to see policies that promote greater use of cover crops and practices such as relay cropping (seeding covers directly into growing crops). Proposed policies would also support congruent crop and livestock systems. Livestock, providing fertilizer nutrients and organic matter through their manure, will always be front and center to regenerative agriculture, Christensen said.

Food independence is another goal of regenerative agriculture, Christensen said.

About 90% of our food in Nebraska is imported from other states or countries, he said.

One solution can be growing crops such as aronia berries and hazelnuts, both highly nutritious and native to Nebraska, along with apples and Chinese chestnuts.

We have attracted the attention of lawmakers who are considering ways to divert some of the money in the (current) Farm Bill, that favors corn and soybean production, to promote diversity and greater emphasis on agricultural entrepreneurism and environmental stewardship, Christiansen said.

The regenerative agriculture movement is gaining steam nationwide. Im encouraged, he said.
BENKELMAN  Two area communities were ordered to evacuate Friday afternoon because of uncontained wildfires. A third western Nebraska county was also being advised that evacuations could be possible.

Dundy County Emergency Management issued an evacuation order for Benkelman at 3:17 p.m. Mountain time. Residents of Cambridge were told to do the same shortly after 6:30 p.m. Central time.

Perkins County residents and also those camping around Medicine Creek (Cambridge Lake) were both alerted after 7:30 p.m. Central time that they were also in line for evacuations, as wildfires spurred by high heat and winds swept across western Nebraska.

All Cambridge residents evacuate now. Get to a safe place, the Furnas County Sheriffs Office posted on its Facebook page.

The order was downgraded to a voluntary evacuation shortly afterward.

Residents were notified that the Arapahoe Public School and Holbrook Community buildings were both open for shelter.

The Dundy County evacuation order targeted all residents of Benkelman from Main Street to the east of town of the railroad.

Residents were told they could take shelter at the Dundy County High School.

Law enforcement and emergency response agencies turned to social media to push information as wildfires broke out in a number of locations in the area on Friday.

Multiple fires and low visibility across many portions of our Troop D area today, the Nebraska State Patrol Troop D division tweeted just before 6 p.m. If youre not a first responder, stay out of the fire areas. If youre traveling, be sure your headlights are on and be alert to rapid-changing driving conditions.

The Dawson County Sheriffs Office issued a message at 3:47 p.m. central time in which individuals were asked to, avoid the area of Road 761 and County Club Road due to a fire.

The location was roughly a mile east of Cozad.

At 7:45 p.m., Perkins County fire crews were calling for mutual aid from Wallace and Sutherland departments to assist.
Marjorie Taylor Greene and her two best friends: her AR15 and her gun-packing husband. Photo: Marjorie Greene for Congress

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene may well overcome a long-shot legal proceeding designed to force her off the 2022 ballot for advocacy of insurrection in connection with the Capitol riot. But its hard to imagine her credibility beyond the deepest MAGA fever swamps can survive her performance on Friday in a legal hearing on the challenge when she claimed befuddlement that anyone could imagine her advocating violence. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports she said this while under oath:

I never mean anything for violence, she said under questioning about her social media posts urging Donald Trump supporters to show up at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. None of my words, never ever, mean anything for violence.

So the fiery MAGA ultra went beyond denying the meaning of her words about January 6 as our 1776 moment and a vindication of the Declaration of Independences injunction to overthrow tyrants or her never-wavering support for Donald Trumps election coup. She is now denying the very essence of her brief and stormy political career, as the Journal-Constitution noted:

Greenes assertion during the legal hearing that she hasnt condoned violence on social media runs counter to a background that includes racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic remarks and a past belief in the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory, which pitted Trump as a champion against a cabal of Democrats and their allies seeking to exploit children. Before she was elected, she expressed support for a dangerous conspiracy theory about child abuse and endorsed posts that called for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She also liked comments about executing law enforcement agents who were in the deep state working against Trump.

While Greene professed during the hearing that she didnt recall various utterances she made on and prior to January 6, she presumably does remember being stripped of her House committee assignments for repeated threats of violence against Democratic members of Congress not long before she ran for a seat in that chamber herself.

The profession of innocence of violent thoughts and words is also odd coming from a politician whose 2020 campaign ads typically showed her brandishing (and in some cases firing) an AR15 at alleged threats to her idea of liberty. One ad, which also showed her husband glowering at the camera with a hand cannon on his hip, showed Greene getting ready to blow away the antifa mobs she fatuously described as menacing her bucolic northwest Georgia district.

New ad airing from Marjorie Greene, running in GA-14. She has three ads on air, but this is the only that mentions #Antifa #GApol pic.twitter.com/gkekyKRq9y  AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) June 5, 2020

Now extremists like Greene are free to claim that in advocating the physical destruction of their political enemies and imaginary strangers that they are simply utilizing Second Amendment solutions provided in the Constitution. What they cannot do is profess non-violent motives, unless they are admitting they are lying demagogues who dont mean what they say.

The hearing at which Greenes own words impeached her testimony is an evidentiary procedure that will conclude with a recommendation by Administrative Judge Charles Beaudrot on the advisability of removing her from the ballot. The actual decision, in a nice twist of irony, will be made by Georgia secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, regarded by all good MAGA folk as the GOP Judas who helped rob Donald Trump of his 2020 victory in Georgia. The odds are low that Raffensperger will knock Greene off the ballot, even if Beaudrot recommends it. But the congresswoman continues to work hard to supply ammunition  if you will excuse the expression  to the large group of primary and general-election rivals seeking to retire her via the ballot box as well as to congressional colleagues in both parties who are thoroughly tired of her act.
The U.S. has recently vowed to stop anti-satellite missile testing in a bid to reduce space junk locked in Earths orbit.

Space is increasingly becoming a commercial realm as companies vie for positions in the race.

D-Orbit has cut a deal with Beyond Gravity to deliver critical tools and structural components for the European Space Agencys (ESA) reusable spacecraft. Satellite launch firm D-Orbit, founded in Italy in 2011, will supply lightweight, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer tools and metal parts for the spacecrafts flight capabilities, it announced on Tuesday.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will see D-Orbit coordinate with Italian suppliers to help build the highly anticipated reusable rocket.

The rocket, known as Space Rider, has been inspired by eccentric billionaire and space pioneer Elon Musk, who was the first to successfully make a rocket that was more than a one-hit-wonder.

We believe this kind of project, featuring a collaboration between traditional and New Space companies, is essential for the future of the new space economy, D-Orbits chief commercial officer, Renato Panesi said.

Space Rider is set to be built by Thales Alenia Space, the projects main contractor, and will embark on missions up to two months long, testing pharmaceutical biomedicine and physical science experiments, as space increasingly becomes a commercial realm.

US: Too much debris for anti-missile testing

The U.S. has vowed to stop reckless anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing, in a bid to cut down on the amount of space debris locked in Earths orbit, vice president Kamala Harris said this week.

Space debris poses a significant threat to satellites also in orbit, and with at least 900,000 pieces of junk  which also includes spent rocket bodies and even tools from astronauts  space agencies across the West have turned their attention to the growing problem.

In a statement on Tuesday, Harris said: The long-lived debris created by these tests now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations security, economic, and scientific interests, and increases the risk to astronauts in space. Overall, these tests jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of space by all nations.

Developing a shared understanding of what constitutes safe and responsible space activities contributes to a more stable space environment by reducing the risk of miscommunication and miscalculation.

This is especially important as there is an ever-increasing number of states and non-governmental entities that rely on space services and space assets which are vulnerable to debris.

It follows a report from the U.S.s security agency, claiming China has also developed and probably will continue to develop weapons for use against satellites in orbit to degrade and deny adversary space capabilities. Related: Food Prices Are Soaring As Russias War In Ukraine Persists

ASAT missile testing has previously been carried out by countries including the US, China, India, and Russia.

However, the announcement received backlash from Russian space agency boss, and Putin ally, Dmitry Rogozin on Twitter, during which he posted a picture of the International Space Station exploding.

Rogozin, emerging as a controversial figure on the social media platform, suggested that instead of the pledge being a gesture of goodwill, it was instead because testing will no longer be needed.

The United States has completed a series of tests of anti-satellite weapons and put them into service with the US Space Force, he wrote in response to Harris statements.

Delta and Starlink

The boss of U.S. airline Delta has admitted that the carrier and SpaceX have been in talks for Musks satellite broadband service for onboard its flights.

SpaceX executive Jonathan Hofeller previously opened up about the companys discussions with several airlines in 2021, The Wall Street Journal first reported.

Musk tweeted in the same period last year that Starlink antennae for planes would first have to be certified for each aircraft type first  but that he would focus on popular people carriers such as 737 and A320 aircraft.

The satellite connection market for aviation is ripe for an overhaul, Hofellor told a satellite conference last month.

Though it is thought that widespread adoption is still a way off yet  stay tuned.

By City AM

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine have only added to the supply shortage, although some countries like India are taking advantage of discounts to buy up Russian coal.

Despite being significantly dirtier than both oil and natural gas, there is a huge demand for coal as a reliable and relatively cheap source of energy in an incredibly expensive market.

It appears that the decline of coal, the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels, has been somewhat exaggerated in recent years, with the current energy shortage causing demand to soar.

Despite lots of talk about renewable energy acceleration, coal continues to dominate some markets. China is steadily increasing its coal output, while Indonesia looks to export to new European buyers. And while lots of countries are imposing sanctions on Russian coal, India is now backing up its cheap Russian oil imports with low-cost coal.

Chinas daily output of coal continues to rise, seeing a 15 percent increase in production in March from the same period last year. This equated to approximately 395.79 million tonnes, or 12.77 million tonnes every day. This goes beyond Chinas target of 12.6 million tonnes a day throughout 2022. China is eager to keep production levels high due to the uncertainties created in the supply chain in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This rise comes despite several new lockdowns implemented across China in the wake of another Covid outbreak. The use of coal across utilities has dropped due to new Covid restrictions, allowing China to stockpile some of this increased coal output. Coal inventories rose from around 22 million tonnes at several major utilities in April 2021 to 28 million tonnes this year.

And as China ramps up production to ensure its energy security, Indonesia is looking to fill the gap left by sanctions on Russia by exporting its coal to Europe. The countrys second-largest coal miner PT Adaro Energy Indonesia has exported around 300,000 tonnes of coal to European buyers in response to sanctions on Russian coal. While Adaro says it will maintain its current coal trade links, European buyers could well be looking to Indonesia to fill the gap.

Chief finance officer at Adaro, Lie Luckman, stated: Indeed there has been some demand from Europe, but our market is mainly Asia. We will focus on fulfilling our commitments to our customers who already have long-term contracts with us.. The list of customers includes Japan, China, South Korea, and India.

As part of its sanctions on Russian energy, the EU is banning coal imports from Russia starting in mid-August. Governments across the region are now racing to secure their energy sources by looking for more import options as well as ramping up national production of both fossil fuels and renewables. Indonesias coal exports reached record highs in March, a trend that is likely to continue because of the sanctions.

The EU delayed its sanctions on Russian coal by around two months due to pressure from Germany, a major importer of Russian energy, to extend the period. In 2020, Germany imported around 21.5 percent of its coal from Russia, as well as 35.2 percent of its oil and 58.9 percent of its natural gas, showing its heavy reliance on the energy producer. While the EU is eager to impose sanctions in response to the conflict, this has not been an easy task and it acknowledges the importance of ensuring the regions energy security before cutting Russia off completely.

However, other countries are less steadfast in their condemnation of Russia and are using the situation as an opportunity to purchase low-cost energy. Having acquired cheap Russian oil, India is now eyeing affordable coal, as other countries turn their backs on Russia.

Indias coal imports from Russia increased to a two-year high this March. And analysts believe that both India and China may continue to increase their coal imports from Russia as it offers lower prices in response to the loss of other export partners. Russia is selling its coal at around a $60-$65 per metric tonne discount, compared to Newcastle 5,500 kcal/kg NAR coal, making it increasingly attractive at a time when energy prices are continuing to rise to record levels.

Head of trade at government relations consulting firm Vogel Group Samir N. Kapadia explained, Despite warnings from the West, India continues to lean into their supply chain relationship with Russia for natural resources like oil and coal. He believes a rupee-rouble currency swap could help India bypass the sanctions imposed on Russia, allowing them to continue importing low-cost coal. The White House is putting significant pressure on India to curb its imports, warning of potential consequences if it continues to support Russia.

India has had low stockpiles of coal since last year, with several states across the country likely to experience power shortages. Although the government announced an aim to all stop coal imports by 2030, by boosting production from state-owned coal plants, it still relies heavily on foreign coal at present. It currently buys much of its coal from Australia, as its seventh-largest trading partner. But if Russia continues to offer cheaper energy alternatives, it may be hard to say no.

Despite bold pledges to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives, new sanctions on Russia are exposing the worlds persistent reliance on coal. As European buyers look to Asian producers to meet their coal demands, others quickly turn to Russia  putting low-cost energy above geopolitics.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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Russia is the worlds second largest petroleum exporter. About 5mb/d of crude oil and petroleum products are exported to Europe. A European ban on Russian petroleum imports would have an immediate effect on >1mb/d of pipeline imports. Moreover, 4mb/d of crude and products that currently go to Europe via tankers would have to find a new home, which would create massive problems for the global refinery system. Depending on the speed of the phase-out, we could see the loss of >3mb/d of Russian production near term. Over the long run, Russian production will likely decline due to the lack of western technology transfer.

On April 8, 2022, the European Union announced that it would ban all coal imports from Russia starting in August this year. While the total value of these imports is relatively small (about $4bn per annum), this will have large implications for both European and global coal balances. Coal is transported in bulk. So in theory, the Russian coal that used to be exported to Europe could be moved by rail and by sea to buyers in China and overseas. Europe then in turn could import the coal that used to be imported by these buyers. In practice, its a bit more complicated. Russian coal is generally of high quality (high calorific value or high CV coal) and the coal that would be freed up and shipped to Europe is of low quality (low CV), which is a problem for European power plants. What makes matters more complicated is that Japan is working on replacing their Russian coal imports too. The likely effect is a tightening of high-quality coal balances worldwide. And indeed, since the announcement has been made, low CV coal prices were falling but high CV coal prices are soaring.

However, the economic impact of a ban on Russian coal imports is trivial compared to a potential ban on Russian oil and gas. A ban on imports of Russian gas is currently viewed as the most difficult to deal with for European economies. Over the past 5 years, Russian gas imports accounted for about 38% of European gas consumption. Even in 2021, the year when Russia had massively cut its exports to Europe, it was still 32%. This can simply not be replaced by LNG imports over the short run. Thus European leaders have so far been quite resilient to calls for a gas import ban. In fact, the European Union passed legislation that forces gas storage owners to fill their storage to certain levels during the summer injections season, something that is likely only achievable if imports from Russia persist.

So far European policymakers were equally reluctant to ban Russian oil imports. However, more recently, it seems that European officials are drafting plans to phase out Russian oil and petroleum product imports. The most likely scenario is that oil imports would be phased out in stages, allowing existing contracts to expire and for European refiners to arrange for alternative supplies. It is also likely that waterborne crude and petroleum product imports would be banned first, as it is easier to replace Russian crude that arrives on tankers with other seaborne imports. Pipeline imports would probably be the last step, as many refiners depend on Russian crude from pipelines and are unable to replace those flows in the near and medium term, potentially ever. These refineries would simply become inoperable.

Europe consumes about 14mb/d of oil, most of which is imported. About 30-40% (5mb/d) of Europes petroleum consumption is met by imports from Russia (see Exhibit 1).

3.7mb/d of these imports come in the form of crude oil and refinery feedstocks while 1.5mb/d are finished products (see Exhibit 2).

Russia is producing around 11mb/d of crude oil, which is 11% of the global supply. The country is processing close to 6mb/d for this crude in its domestic refiners and exports the rest.

It then exports an additional 2mb/d of those products while the rest is consumed domestically. On net, Russia exports about 7.2mb/d of petroleum in the form of crude and products. All petroleum products are exported via tankers. About half of the crude exports are seaborne exports, the other half is shipped via pipelines.

Only a small part of Russias oil production comes from the eastern part of the country.

The eastern Siberian fields are connected through the East Siberian Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline to the export port of Kozmino, delivering crude to South Korea, Japan, and China. The trunk line has a capacity of around 1.8mb/d.

There is a bifurcation of the ESPO line into the Mainland China Branch pipeline that allows sending crude directly to Chinas Daqing refineries. The line came online in 2011 and a second pipeline has been added later. Today the two lines have a capacity of about 700kb/d.

The remaining crude that goes through ESPO is partially processed in the 100kb/d Khabarovskiy refinery and the rest is exported by sea via Kozmino. The Kozmino port has exported around 900kb/d in 2021. That would suggest there is about 100kb/d of ESPO capacity left to export through Kozmino, but it is unclear whether production from Eastern Siberia can be increased in the near to medium term. What would really be needed is that production from the western fields could be diverted to ESPO, which seems not feasible at the moment.

On top of that, there is crude production at the Sakhalin Island which is partially domestically refined and the remaining 200kb/d is exported by sea.

On net, about 1.8mb/d-1.9mb/d of eastern production can continue to be exported to Asia, even with a European import ban in place.

A big chunk of Russian production comes from the Western Siberian fields. That crude is either exported via the Druzhba pipeline to Europe or via tanker out of a seaport.

There are five main ports that export Russian crude that is produced in the West. Two of them are at the Barents Sea, two are at the Baltic Sea and one is at the Back Sea. Russia exported 2mb/d in 2021 through these ports. A further 100kb/d came through various minor ports. Current shipping data indicates that Russia hasnt meaningfully increased shipments through these ports (see table 1).

The remaining crude oil is exported via pipelines. The Druzhba pipeline is the main line to bring Russian crude to Europe. It has a capacity of around 1.4mb/d.

On top of that, crude oil from western Russia can also be exported via the Kazakh Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to China. This pipeline has a capacity of around 400kb/d, of which 100kb/d is used for Kazakh crude and about 200kb/d for Russian crude, leaving 100kb/d of unused capacity for Russian crude.

On net, in the event of a European import ban of Russian crude and petroleum product, Russia could technically still export all of its products, around 3mb/d of crude oil on tankers and 0.9-1mb/d via pipeline to China. For about 1.2mb/d of current pipeline exports, there is no alternative export route.

In reality, things would likely be a lot more difficult. First, Russia would have to find new buyers for all the seaborne crude it sends to Europe, the US, and potentially Asian buyers such as Korea and Japan. China is currently resisting taking more crude, but that could well be because the countrys appetite for oil is currently low given that one quarter of the population is in strict lockdown. Russian crude, especially the ESPO grade, is very popular among Chinese refiners. So if Russia loses traditional Asian buyers such as Korea and Japan, that crude might be picked up by China in the medium term. Its probably much more difficult to find buyers for the crude that leaves the western ports. India has probably the refining capacity to take some, but it will be much more difficult for less sophisticated refineries in other emerging markets to switch grades. We therefore believe that especially in the first months of a European embargo, many Russian barrels would remain stranded. But that also depends on how quickly Europe would phase out Russian crude. With enough time, non-European refiners will find ways to run Russian grades.

We think its likely easier to sell the finished product cargoes that currently go to Europe to somebody else, but it will cost more to ship it further and it might create a real shortage of tankers in the medium term, which could also impact Russias effective export capacity of products.

We estimate that the initial loss of Russian petroleum would be in the order of >3mb/d in case of an immediate European import ban. This would subsequently decrease and we think the permanent loss is more in the order of 2mb/d. However, should Europe decide on a very gradual phase-out over several years, there may not even be any immediate hit and by the time the full ban comes into effect, Russia would have had the time to build out the seaborne export capacity and arranged for new buyers, who had the time to retool their refineries. Thus the price impact is extremely dependent on how fast the European Union is phasing out Russian crude.

However, we think that the long-term fundamental effects of any type of further sanctions are still very bullish. The sanctions that are already in place and target the energy sector will increasingly affect Russias ability to produce and refine crude. Russian refiners particularly are dependent on Western technology. So far the sanctions do not ban western companies to be active in the Russian energy sector. But sanctions on banks, and reputational risks will likely lead to a slowdown in technology transfer even if the sanctions are not tightened. A ban on Russian crude imports would likely also come with much tougher restriction on how western firms are allowed to operate in the sector. We thus have to assume that Russian production has now peaked and will inevitably decline long term, likely at an accelerated pace. New tougher sanctions on the oi industry will further accelerate this trend.

This comes at a time when global oil balances already look extremely tight over the medium term. As we have highlighted before (see Long term oil prices beginning to reflect the coming oil shortage  Part II, 8 April 2022), global demand will likely still continue to grow over the next 5-10 years, but supply will struggle. Non-OPEC production outside the US was already expected to decline in perpetuity, even before the events in Ukraine unfolded. At the time, the market expected Russian production to grow for some time. A decline in Russian production would thus greatly accelerate the declining trend in non-OPEC (ex US) output, which has the potential to create real oil shortages medium term.

By Zerohedge.com

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TOKYO (AP)  Zipline, an American company that specializes in using autonomously flying drones to deliver medical supplies, has taken off in Japan.

Theyre flying, starting Thursday, across the tiny Goto Islands, off the western coast of Kyushu, in southwestern Japan, delivering to pharmacies and hospitals.

Other parts of Japan may follow, including urban areas, although the biggest needs tend to be in isolated rural areas.

Zipline, founded six years ago, already is in service in the U.S., where it has partnered with Walmart Inc. to deliver other products at the retail chain as well as drugs. It is also delivering medical goods in Ghana and Rwanda.

Its takeoff in Japan is in partnership with Toyota Tsusho, a group company of Japans top automaker Toyota Motor Corp.

You can totally transform the way that you react to pandemics, treat patients and do things like home health care delivery, Zipline Chief Executive Keller Rinaudo told The Associated Press.

Although drones have been used in Japan for photography and aerial exhibitions, such as the Tokyo Olympics last year, theyre not in wide use, especially in urban areas because of regulations. It remains to be seen if Ziplines health care service will help win over skeptics.

Rinaudo was optimistic the technology will be accepted in a nation known for robotics prowess, which has a large elderly population but needs better health care in isolated areas.

Medical services are the focus because there was a real moral imperative to get that right first, he said.

Communities will deeply understand the value of the service. And it was also easier to get regulators comfortable with what we were doing when every flight was potentially saving a human life, Rinaudo said.

By delivering medicine precisely, the service helps reduce stockpiles and, potentially, waste. The zero-emission quiet flights can go as far as 300 kilometers (186 miles) and are inexpensive compared to other modes of transport, according to Zipline, based in South San Francisco, California.

The coronavirus pandemic has made deliveries of vaccines more pressing than ever, Rinaudo said. Blood supplies, insulin and cancer treatment have also been delivered with Zipline drones.

A subsidiary called Sora-iina will carry out the operations, managing a distribution center and flight services from Fukue Port on Goto Islands. Its the first distribution center in Asia, and 14th in the world to operate Ziplines autonomous instant logistics technology. Three major Japanese distributors of pharmaceuticals have agreed to be partners.

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WASILLA, Alaska (AP)  Sarah Palin isn't used to sharing the spotlight.

In the nearly 14 years since she burst onto the national political scene, the former Alaska governor has appeared on reality television programs, written books, spent time as a Fox News contributor, formed a political action committee in her name and been a rumored White House contender. She more recently revived her status as a conservative sensation with an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit against The New York Times.

Now, the first Republican female vice presidential nominee is vying for what could be considered a less glamorous role: a member of the U.S. House.

Palin is among 48 candidates running for Alaska's lone House seat following the death last month of Republican Rep. Don Young, who held the job for 49 years. If successful, Palin would be one of 435 members in a chamber where ambition runs deep but legislating is tough, in no small part because of the populist politics that took hold in the aftermath of the 2008 election.

Given those dynamics, it would be easy to dismiss Palin's candidacy as the latest headline-grabbing twist in an unconventional career. Some of her critics have sought to cast her as an opportunist seeking to bolster her brand. The opinion section of the website of Alaska's largest newspaper is dotted with letters to the editor urging Alaskans to reject her run. Some remind readers she left the last major job she had in politics, as Alaska's governor, with about 16 months left in her term.

But in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Palin, 58, dismissed such critiques. She insisted her commitment to Alaska has not wavered and those who suggest otherwise don't know me. She said she is serious about seeking the House seat and doesn't need a launching pad for anything else.

In fact, she said, her unique place in American politics would put her in a stronger position in Washington. Unlike other freshmen lawmakers, she said, she could pick up the phone and call any reporter and be on any show if I wanted to, and it would be all about Alaska.

I love to work, and anyone who is around me, they know," she said. "What Im doing is applying for a job, for Alaskans, saying: Hey, you guys would be my boss. Do you want to hire me? Because if you do, Ill do a good job for you, and I wont back down.

Palin attended the opening of her campaign office in Anchorage on Wednesday evening, accompanied by the youngest of her five children, son Trig. She stopped to talk to reporters before entering the building, which had been the headquarters for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. She said jobs for Alaskans from the states rich natural resources would be her first priority if elected, calling the state a Fort Knox for the nation.

Inside, Palin posed for photos with supporters and chatted with several before cutting and serving a cake that featured her campaign slogan, Sarah for Alaska."

There's only one former governor who is currently a member of the House  Democrat Charlie Crist of Florida. Palin faces several hurdles to get there.

One is navigating elections that will unfold in rapid order. A June 11 special primary will be the first statewide by-mail election. The four candidates who get the most votes will advance to an Aug. 16 special election, in which ranked-choice voting will be used. The winner will serve the remainder of Young's term, which expires in January.

There also will be an August primary and November general election to determine who will serve a two-year term starting in January. Palin is one of 16 candidates so far to have filed for the regular primary.

Some voters question Palin's decision to leave the governor's office, a move she has attributed to an onslaught of records requests and ethics complaints she said were frivolous and had become distractions.

She has spent time out of the state but maintains a home in Wasilla, her hometown and where she got her start in politics.

Well, I'm sorry if that narrative is out there because its inaccurate, she told the AP of the perception she had left Alaska behind. She said Alaska is her home and that she was shoveling moose poop in her fathers yard on a recent sunny day before calling a reporter.

She has regularly voted in state elections since leaving office, according to the Division of Elections.

Im still all about Carhartts and steel-toed boots and just hard work, Palin said, referring to a popular brand of outerwear. I just have been blessed with opportunities and a platform to get out there and tell and show other people the beauty of being an Alaskan.

She mentions Alaskans hunting lifestyles and the importance of responsibly developing the states oil and gas resources. She said she plans to attend events, including this weeks state Republican Party convention.

The contest in Republican-leaning Alaska will do little to change the balance of power in Washington. But the election is being closely watched as a barometer of Trump's connection to the GOP's most loyal voters.

In Wasilla, Trump 2020 or Trump 2024 banners fly from several homes, the few political signs seen so far this election year. Palin said if Trump runs for president in 2024 and asks her to be his running mate, shed consider it, though she said he could choose anyone and they havent had such a candid conversation.

Palin said Trump was among those who contacted her after Youngs death asking if she would be willing to run. She said this is a good time in her life to seek a return to office, politically and personally. Her family life has changed, she noted, with her four older children grown. Her youngest, Trig, is in middle school. Palin was divorced from Todd Palin, her husband of more than 30 years, in 2020.

Palin said she feels like she has nothing to lose in running. After having her political and personal life in the media glare for so long, what more can they say? she said, adding later: To me, its freedom.

Trump has endorsed Palin and has made the state's senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, one of his top targets this year after she criticized him and voted to convict him during his second impeachment trial.

Even if Palin doesn't win the election, she could emerge as a high-wattage critic of Murkowski, who faces voters later this year. Palin said she disagrees with Murkowski on some of her positions, including her vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial. But on issues like resource development in Alaska, Palin said she believed they would be on the same sheet of music.

Palin has perhaps the highest profile among a list of candidates that includes current and former state legislators, a North Pole city council member whose legal name is Santa Claus, and Republican Nick Begich, who got into the race last fall and has been working for months to rack up conservative support.

Begich said he considers the Matanuska-Susitna region, a conservative hotbed that includes Wasilla, as one of his strongest areas. He said he is unaware of any of his supporters defecting since Palin joined the race.

"Everyone that has come to support me remains fully supportive, and thats a strong statement because a lot has changed," he said.

Tim Burney, who lives in Wasilla, said he supports Palin. He said she resigned for the good of the state" after her detractors came at her with guns ablazing.

She just lives right down the road here, and, you know, she grew up here, he said while smoking a cigarette outside the Mug-Shot Saloon after finishing lunch on a recent day.

Her hearts here in Alaska, and I think that shes good for Alaska, he said.

Joe Miller, a former Republican and now Libertarian whom Palin endorsed in two of his unsuccessful Senate races, said Palin would be no ordinary House freshman and would have an extraordinary platform she could use to help Alaska. He said she's the only anti-establishment, truly conservative candidate in the race and that she could be the natural repository for voter angst over economic and other issues.

Holly Houghton, who works as a pharmacy tech, is willing to hear Palin out. Houghton, who was eating a take-out lunch with her son outside a restaurant in Wasilla recently, said she has mixed feelings about Palin and is also considering Begich.

Houghton said she doesnt like how Palin has carried herself in her personal life but also thought she was an excellent governor.

Houghton said she thinks of the Begich family as Democrats and wants to look more closely at Begich. Begich's grandfather, Democrat Nick Begich, held the House seat before Young. His uncle Mark was a Democratic U.S. senator and his uncle Tom is the state Senate's Democratic leader.

Jesse Sumner, a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly, said he thinks Begich is a good candidate. Sumner filed to run for the House seat as a joke at the filing deadline, on April Fool's Day. He later withdrew.

He said he doesn't see Palin around town much and that Palin's run seems to be more like it's about the Sarah Palin show than about Alaska.

Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys offered starkly different explanations Friday for the fatal beating of an Illinois prison inmate four years ago in closing arguments before a jury began deliberating in the trial of two former correctional officers.

Todd Sheffler, 53, of Mendon, and Alex Banta, 30, of Quincy, are charged with violating Larry Earvin's civil rights in the brutal 2018 beating at Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mount Sterling. Earvin, 65, died five weeks later.

They beat him up and then lied to cover it up, assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller told the eight-man, four-woman jury in his closing argument. This case is really that straightforward.

Defense attorneys, however, blamed other guards, including a third former correctional officer, former Sgt. Willie Hedden, who pleaded guilty last year to violating Earvin's civil rights and testified for the government at the trial for Sheffler and Banta.

Sheffler and Banta are charged with depriving Earvin of his civil rights, conspiracy to deprive civil rights, tampering with a witness, destruction or falsification of records and intimidation or force against a witness. They face up to life in prison.

Hedden, 43, of Mount Sterling, testified during the four-week trial that he, Sheffler and Banta punched, kicked, stomped and jumped on Earvin in the vestibule of Western's segregation unit, where there are no security cameras. The prison is 250 miles (402 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The jury met briefly Friday evening before adjourning for the weekend. Deliberations will continue on Monday.

The incident began when Earvin allegedly refused to return to his cell in the housing unit known as R-1. He was taken to the ground and handcuffed by guards who sent out an alert for assistance  a call that summoned dozens of officers including Banta and Hedden. Testimony indicated guards began kicking and punching Earvin in R-1.

Banta and Hedden were among officers who escorted Earvin to the segregation unit, with Sheffler joining along the way.

The government's case rests largely on what assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass characterized as compelling, if circumstantial, evidence. The last security camera to record Earvin shows him bent over, but walking into segregation. Minutes later, photographs and testimony revealed that he had to be carried into a holding cell and that he was bleeding from a head wound, nearly unresponsive and vomiting, Bass said.

Earvin died June 26 at a southern Illinois prison infirmary. His autopsy revealed he had 15 rib fractures; at least two dozen abrasions, hemorrhages and lacerations; a torn aorta; and abdominal injuries so severe a portion of his bowel was surgically removed.

Medical professionals testified that such injuries typically are seen in high-speed car crashes or falls from great heights.

However, defense attorneys argued that testimony also showed that such injuries could be cumulative  starting small when Earvin was roughed up in R-1 and growing worse as he was forcibly moved to segregation.

Sheffler attorney Sara Vig pointed to security footage and testimony about what happened inside R-1.

They (the government) have got a great case in R-1, they haven't proved anything in segregation, Vig said. The only thing they can say about segregation is might have, could have been, maybe  and that's not beyond a reasonable doubt. You can't guess a man into prison.

Vig and Banta attorney Stanley Wasser said as many as six witnesses who testified for the government  including Hedden and others who recounted a severe beating in the segregation unit vestibule  admitted lying to the Illinois State Police, FBI or both before changing their stories at the trial.

Wasser asked repeatedly why those witnesses, some of whom acknowledged punching or kicking Earvin, were not on trial.

But Bass asked the jury what motive any of the witnesses had to admit under oath that they had lied, risking their jobs and more. He said Hedden explained that he was hoping for a lighter sentence through cooperation, and he wouldn't get leniency from U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough if she found him untruthful.

You have two stories here, Bass said. It's up to you to determine which is common sense and which is utter nonsense. Hold Alex Banta and Todd Sheffler accountable for what they did to this man, how they assaulted him, the bodily harm, causing his death.

Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Ukrainian defenders dig in as Russia boosts firepower

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian forces dug in while Russias military lined up more firepower and tapped an experienced general to take centralized control of the war. The next phase of battle is expected to be a showdown in eastern Ukraine. The outcome could determine the course of the conflict, which has flattened cities and killed untold thousands of people. Questions remain about the ability of Russias depleted and demoralized forces to conquer much ground after their advance on the capital, Kyiv, was repelled by determined Ukrainian defenders. Britains Defense Ministry reported Sunday that the Russian forces are trying to compensate for mounting casualties by recalling veterans discharged in the past decade.

In France, it's Macron vs. Le Pen, again, for presidency

PARIS (AP)  Incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-takes-all runoff for the presidency. They both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the countrys election. That sets up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France. Le Pen thanked voters for sending her into the runoff. Several defeated presidential candidates urged supporters not to vote for Le Pen, saying it would throw France into chaos. Macron, meanwhile, sought wide support from both the right and the left to defeat Le Pen in round two on April 24. Macron won their last encounter in 2017 by a landslide to become Frances youngest-ever president, but the same outcome this time is far from guaranteed.

US doubts new Russian war chief can end Moscow's floundering

WASHINGTON (AP)  Russia has tapped a new Ukraine war commander to take centralized control of the next phase of battle after its costly failures in the opening campaign and carnage for Ukrainian civilians. U.S. officials dont see one man making a difference in Moscows prospects. But they do see more ugly times ahead. Russia turned to Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, one of Russias most experienced military officers. That's according to a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials say Dvornikov has a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and to expect more of the same in Ukraine.

3 churches in Ukraine contemplate faith, hope and charity

BORODYANKA, Ukraine (AP)  Its almost Easter in Ukraine, where a trio of churches on the far edges of the capital have faith, hope and charity to consider. In Bucha, shocked into silence by atrocities, about two dozen of the faithful gathered for Sunday services even as bodies were being exhumed from a mass grave in the churchyard. In Makarov, people were moved to tears by their badly damaged riverside church. And in Borodyanka, volunteers filled a church with donations just steps from where Russian attacks ripped open a high-rise. One woman in Makarov said all the survivors have one thing in common: They've been speaking to God.

Scheffler gets Masters green jacket to go with No. 1 ranking

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)  Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 player in the world and has a Masters green jacket to show for it. Scheffler won his first major at Augusta National with another command performance. It caps an amazing two months of four victories in six starts. Scheffler left all the thrills and spills to everyone else. He was steady all day and shot 71 to win by three shots over Rory McIlroy. The only struggle was the end when he took four putts from 40 feet. That only affected the final score. McIlroy had his best finish at the Masters.

America's homeless ranks graying as more retire on streets

PHOENIX (AP)  America's homeless population is graying. It's a rapidly expanding group of destitute and desperate people 50 and older who have suddenly found themselves without a permanent home following a job loss, divorce, family death or health crisis during a pandemic. Advocates say most in this group don't have mental illness or substance abuse problems. Academics project their numbers will nearly triple over the next decade, challenging policy makers from Los Angeles to New York to imagine new ideas for sheltering the last of the baby boomers as they get older, sicker and less able to pay spiraling rents.

China makes semi-secret delivery of missiles to Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Russian ally Serbia has taken delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system in a semi-secret operation this weekend, amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the time of the war in Ukraine could threaten the fragile peace in the region. Media and military experts said Sunday that six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes landed in Belgrade early Saturday reportedly carrying HQ-22 surface-to-air missile systems for the Serbian military. The Chinese cargo planes with military markings were pictured at Belgrades Nikola Tesla airport. The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO-member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of Chinas growing global reach.

2 killed and 10 wounded in Cedar Rapids nightclub shooting

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  Authorities said a shooting inside a crowded Cedar Rapids nightclub has left a man and a woman dead and 10 people wounded. Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said investigators believe two men fired more than a dozen shots inside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday. He said officers who were just outside the club because of an earlier incident rushed inside just as 100-150 people streamed out of the bar and found the victims. The gunmen likely escaped as the crowd fled. The names of the victims were released. One of the people injured was in critical condition Sunday afternoon while the other injuries ranged from serious to minor.

Biden to nominate new ATF director, release ghost gun rule

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden is set to announce that he is nominating an Obama-era U.S. attorney to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Thats according to six people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press. The announcement of the nomination of Steve Dettlebach is expected Monday as the Biden administration unveils its formal rule to rein in ghost guns. Those are privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Xinjiang's first plateau airport starts operation

Xinhua) 16:47, April 22, 2022

URUMQI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- With the successful landing of China Southern Airlines Flight CZ6681 at the Zhaosu Tianma Airport in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Friday, the region's first plateau airport was officially put into operation.

Situated at an altitude of over 1,700 meters above sea level, the airport is located in Zhaosu County, Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili.

Built with an investment of 640 million yuan (about 98.9 million U.S. dollars), the construction of the airport began in September 2019.

Previously, passengers from the regional capital Urumqi to Zhaosu could only travel directly via land transportation. Air travelers had to fly to Yining City first before taking a bus to Zhaosu, and the entire journey would take more than four hours.

Thanks to the new airport, now it will only take an hour and a half to reach Zhaosu from Urumqi. It is expected to bring convenience for local people while injecting a strong impetus into Xinjiang's tourism sector.

"Ili is rich in tourism resources, and the opening of the new airport will revitalize these resources, making it more convenient for tourists to visit Zhaosu," said Chen Yunliang, a passenger at Diwopu International Airport in Urumqi.

Neighboring Kazakhstan, Zhaosu County is known as the home to one of China's best horse breeds.

Zhaosu Tianma Airport is constructed with the goal of meeting an annual passenger throughput of 200,000 and cargo throughput of 600 tonnes as well as a take-off and landing capacity of 2,600 flights by 2025.

To date, Xinjiang has 23 airports in operation.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
TOKYO (AP)  Japan and Russia have reached an agreement over Tokyos annual catch quota for Russian-born salmon and trout, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said Saturday, despite delays and chilled relations between the two sides amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement on Japan's quota for the popular fish in waters near disputed islands north of Hokkaido is a relief for Japanese fishermen who were worried about the prospects amid worsening ties between the two governments.

Japan and Russia concluded talks Friday, setting a catch quota of 2,050 tons for salmon and trout this year in Japans 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, the fisheries agency said in a statement. The quota is unchanged from last year, and Japan will pay 200-300 million yen ($1.56-2.34 million) in fees  depending on the actual catch  to Russia.

The deal will be formally signed Monday, the agency said. The payment for the fish of Russian origin is stipulated under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

This years annual fishing quota negotiations began after the usual salmon season in the region started, amid growing tensions between Tokyo and Moscow over Japan's sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement only settles the quota within Japan's economic zone, but Japan still needs to negotiate a quota within the Russian EEZ.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Japan has imposed a series of sanctions against Moscow, largely in line with measures taken by other Group of Seven countries, including freezing the assets of Russian leaders, billionaires and groups, restricting trade and revoking Moscows most favored nation trade status.

In an apparent reprisal, Russia has announced a suspension of peace treaty talks with Japan that included negotiations over the disputed islands that Tokyo desperately wants to regain control of.

The dispute over the Russian-held islands, which the former Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II, has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their war hostilities. In an updated diplomatic policy report released Friday, Japans Foreign Ministry said the islands are being illegally occupied by Russia.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP)  Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined Adam Laxalt, a GOP candidate for Senate from Nevada, in bashing Nevadas senior Democratic U.S. senator during a campaign rally Friday at an affluent retirement enclave in suburban Las Vegas.

Nevada is at the very front of the battle to take this country back, Cruz said to applause from an audience of about 140 people at a ballroom in Sun City Anthem. Im here today because Im supporting my friend, Adam Laxalt.

Laxalt, who characterizes his bid to unseat Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto as an effort to flip the evenly split Senate to Republican, emphasized the support that he and Cruz have from former President Donald Trump.

Laxalt served as co-chairman of Trumps 2020 campaign in Nevada, and led failed legal challenges to Democratic President Joe Bidens win in the battleground state.

Cruz mocked and derided Biden and joined Laxalt in linking Cortez Masto to a key campaign issue heading toward the June 14 GOP primary  the cost of gasoline. Cruz tied prices not to war in Ukraine, but to Biden campaign promises and administration policies.

When you go fill up your truck and its 100 bucks or 150 bucks, Cruz said, when a mom today, coming home from school fills up her minivan and its 150 bucks to do it. Thats hurting people in this state. Its hurting people across the country.

Nevada Democratic Victory representative, Olivia Davis, pointed to Laxalts work, after he lost his 2018 bid for governor in Nevada, with a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents a major oil company reaping profits from high prices.

While Nevadans are paying high gas prices at the pump, Adam Laxalt has tried to blame everyone but his D.C. law firms big oil clients for rising prices, Davis said.

Laxalt, during the rally, never mentioned his primary opponent, Reno businessman and U.S. Army veteran Sam Brown.

Laxalt and Cruz made stops Thursday in northern Nevada, where Laxalt also criticized Cortez Mastos stance on coronavirus policies and border security.

Both Laxalt and Cortez Masto served as Nevada attorney general, and Laxalt has made law enforcement a theme of his campaign.

Cortez Masto campaign aide Sigalle Reshef responded Friday, saying Cortez Masto has worked with Republicans to deliver billions of dollars in border security funding and led efforts in the Senate to support Nevada law enforcement.

Cortez Masto has no primary challenger and a more than 5-to-1 advantage in campaign funds to spend over either of the GOP candidates.

Laxalt told the crowd they can expect a Cortez Masto television advertising blitz, but that they cant trust the media. He directed his supporters to his internet website instead.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers launched into the first full-blown filibuster of the 2022 session during the second day of debate.

By the time they headed home Wednesday, filibusters had filled up more than half of the 60 days they met and senators had taken votes on 24 filibuster-ending cloture motions on 15 bills and one resolution.

Its got to be a record, I would think, said Don Wesely, a former state senator and now veteran lobbyist. Thats a lot.

Turns out the number of cloture motions isnt quite a record, but its close, according to a tally kept by the Clerk of the Legislatures Office. There were 25 such motions in 2018 and 24 in 2016, the two previous high years.

And its by far the most without former State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, considered the master of the filibuster, in the Legislature. Chambers was term-limited out of office for a second time in 2020.

Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of Lincoln and other lawmakers said the number of extended debates this year didnt stop the Legislature from chalking up major accomplishments.

That has been frustrating, but yet, you look at all the things we got done, said Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams. Im thankful and grateful weve done all weve done.

Those accomplishments include a record tax cut package, a plan for using $1.04 billion in federal COVID-19 funds and a state budget that preserves a $1.2 billion cash reserve. Other accomplishments include bills expanding services for children with developmental disabilities, taking the first steps on two major water projects and investing $335 million into North and South Omaha and other high-poverty areas of the state.

But some lawmakers said the filibusters contributed to an atmosphere of resentment and bitterness that sometimes spilled over into personal attacks between lawmakers and difficulty working together.

We certainly did things, but it was more acrimonious and disjointed even for a short session, said Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln.

Filibusters are not unique to the Nebraska Legislature. An example of talking a bill to death showed up in the first session of the U.S. Senate, according to the U.S. Senate Historical Office. The tactic was common enough by the mid-1800s to be dubbed a filibuster, a word derived from Dutch and Spanish terms for pirates.

The use of filibusters has increased dramatically in the U.S. Senate since 2013, contributing to gridlock in Congress. Democrats debated ideas for curbing filibusters at the beginning of the year after being frustrated in their attempts to pass voting rights legislation but have not taken action.

In Nebraska, the Clerks Office tally shows a similar explosion in filibusters. The number of cloture motions remained in the single digits for all but one year between 1992, when the cloture rule was adopted, and 2014. It has been in the double digits ever since.

Lawmakers offered various theories about the reason for the increase. Sen. John Arch of La Vista said he believes lawmakers needed to put more effort into communicating with each other away from the microphone so they could work out differences.

There are certainly differences of opinions, but simply bringing bills to the floor and counting votes isnt the best way to do things, he said.

Others offered similar views. Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn said COVID cut down on the socializing that helped build relationships among lawmakers. Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont said she believes it would help to have a chance before the session for lawmakers to discuss their goals and interests.

The body has gotten polarized, Walz said. We dont take the opportunity to listen to each other.

Lawmakers on both the left and the right used filibusters to block legislation this year. Seven bills died because backers fell short of getting 33 votes for cloture, even if they had the 25 votes to advance the bill.

The bills killed through filibuster included such hot-button measures as a trigger bill that would have banned abortions if the U.S. Supreme Court gave states the power to do so and a bill that would have allowed Nebraskans to carry concealed weapons without getting a permit.

A filibuster also killed a bill that would have limited sentences to address prison overcrowding and a bill that would have boosted private and parochial schools by giving tax credits for donations to private school scholarship organizations.

Wesely said the prevalence of filibusters has increased the support needed to pass controversial legislation, in practice if not in legislative rule. He contrasted that with his legislative tenure when even the most contentious legislation could pass by a narrow 25-24 vote.

Filibusters can be used to pressure a bills backers to negotiate compromises that can gain support for the bill.

Linehan worked out an agreement to add property tax relief to an income tax cut bill to win votes for the package. But she resisted proposals to bring more senators on board and end the tax package filibuster by reducing income taxes for middle-income Nebraskans.

Lengthy negotiations among parties interested in crime and corrections also failed to produce a compromise on the prison overcrowding legislation, which left that bill short of votes for cloture.

I think there were probably opportunities for compromise, Hansen said. There was no desire to do that.

Even when ended with successful cloture motions, filibusters prevented the Legislature from taking up some controversial amendments. Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha used the tactic to keep lawmakers from amending any of the budget bills to authorize construction of a new prison.

His budget bill filibuster also blocked an amendment that would have barred the State Department of Education from using any of its appropriation to research, adopt or implement state sex education standards for Nebraska schools.

Political viewpoints determine whether the filibusters resulted in wins or losses.

But filibusters ate up time that could have been used to debate other legislation. Hilgers required eight hours of debate before allowing a cloture motion during first-round debate, four hours on second-round debate and two hours at the final stage of consideration.

Lawmakers ran out of time to take up several bills this year, including a popular measure that would have made daylight saving time permanent in Nebraska once federal law changed and three neighboring states adopted similar laws. LB 283 cleared a first-round vote but was not debated again.

However, Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, who introduced the daylight saving time bill, said the extensive discussions that are part of filibusters are part of the purpose of the Legislature. He said legislative sessions should be slow and cumbersome.

And it certainly was this year, he said.

World-Herald Staff Writer Erin Bamer contributed to this report.

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Despite recent setbacks at the national level, environmental advocates across Nebraska arent giving up on fighting climate change and preserving the states environmental resources.

Those sentiments came as communities across the globe observed Earth Day, the internationally recognized day meant to inspire actions that protect and strengthen the environment. Earth Day 2022 fell on the heels of multiple setbacks for national climate change policy.

It also coincided with a seemingly relentless battering of extreme weather events in Nebraska  the latest being wildfires. The topic was broached during a briefing with the White House on Friday, according to John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. Hansen and USDA Nebraska Rural Development Director Kate Bolz represented Nebraska.

The briefing focused on infrastructure, Hansen said, and included discussion of the estimated $20 billion in damage Nebraska incurred from the 23 extreme weather events the state experienced between 2010 and 2020. Climate change is expected to continue to lead to more extreme droughts and fires like the state is currently experiencing.

I dont ever remember Nebraska burning, having wildfires and doing the damage that we just did, in April, Hansen said. Thats a sign of how dry it is.

Hansen said that hes disappointed that the state has not put together a comprehensive climate plan to address the effects of a warming planet, and that many Nebraskans still arent taking the threat of climate change seriously.

Nationally, there has been plenty of disappointment for environmental advocates.

President Joe Bidens Build Back Better legislation stalled in Congress earlier this year. Facing rising fuel costs, the president has released millions of barrels of oil from the countrys strategic reserves and encouraged more drilling in an effort to stymie soaring prices. The recent events led the head of one national environmental group to say spirits have dimmed.

However, Hansen said he is glad to see increased investment in solar and wind energy projects. He also applauded the rising use of cover crops in the states agricultural sector and renewed focus on soil health.

We also have positives going on, he said. But the rate at which we need to change and the rate at which we need to work together in order to be able to do more things, sooner, is really critical.

On Saturday, Omaha held its annual Earth Day celebration at Elmwood Park. In addition to food, music and activities, representatives of local and state organizations offered information on ongoing climate issues at several booths.

Sara Langan with the Sierra Club was distributing information about the AltEn environmental disaster near Mead, where the aforementioned biofuel plants practice of creating ethanol from pesticide-treated seed also created contaminated byproducts. Langan said Sierra Clubs Nebraska chapter is focused on mitigating the effects of the contamination from the former ethanol plant.

Were trying to get folks educated, she said.

Jennifer Stauss Story, who was working the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources Districts booth, said the organization is focused on providing the information and tools to maintain, and in some cases improve, the health of the districts natural resources, which includes the Papillion Creek Watershed.

Stauss Story said its easy to feel discouraged when it comes to environmental work, but shes optimistic about the efforts taking place in Nebraska.

I would say that interest in conservation has definitely increased, she said.

Conservation was the focus of a public opinion poll conducted by New Bridge Strategy earlier this month in partnership with Nebraska Farmers Union and other conservation groups in the state.

Specifically, the poll  a survey of 501 registered voters conducted via telephone and online from April 8 to 13  asked questions centered around Bidens goal of conserving 30% of the nations land, water and oceans by 2030. The goal was originally known as 30x30 but has since been rebranded America the Beautiful.

The poll found 62% of respondents thought the national conservation goal would be good for Nebraska. The poll question did not reference the Biden administration.

The goal has found an outspoken opponent, though, in Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who views the initiative as a threat to private property rights. Officials have repeatedly emphasized that the effort will be voluntary and locally led, but Ricketts has remained steadfast in his opposition. On Friday he welcomed fellow opponents to Lincoln for a daylong conference described as the first national summit to Stop 30 x 30.

Hansen stressed that, though Nebraska has made some progress on environmental issues, more needs to be done.

The whole focus ought to be on doing what we can to maximize our efforts today, and as soon as possible, he said. If were smart, well view every day as Earth Day.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

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Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon is going to Poland in June on a mission to help Ukrainians as they battle Russian invaders and try to survive the horror of war after being displaced.

Unlike his multiple military missions in Afghanistan, where he was seriously wounded in a firefight with the Taliban, this is a humanitarian support mission, the retired U.S. Army colonel said.

The challenges of assisting Ukrainians who have fled from the Russian invasion and the relentless shelling that has reduced their cities to rubble are overwhelming, Brewer said, and I want to help.

An estimated 5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled from their country, mostly settling in Poland.

Brewer is making plans to fly to Krakow, where he will begin his mission to help coordinate relief help, with a follow-up trip a few months later.

His effort will include visiting logistics hubs and refugee camps, and assisting with the command and control skills that can be adapted to help meet the refugee challenge, including management of equipment and supplies.

When you get asked to go and help, you jump in and go where you can help, Brewer said.

I do not know how long I would be there. The mission dictates it.

Brewer said he fears that Ukraine is in for some very hard days ahead as Russian troops continue to batter the country.

I think the Russian mindset is much different than any other in the world, he said. Its an old habit they have. They deliberately and brutally level towns. There is not much concern for human value. They do very horrible things to people.

The Ukrainians have fought very hard, Brewer said, and have been very resourceful in resisting the Russian invasion.

Last November, Brewer led a team of five state senators on a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Francis-Xavier Sosu, Member of Parliament for Medina Constituency, has cautioned the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame to desist from any involvement with the Judicial arm of government.



The MP in an open letter asserted that the recent public statements from the Attorney General suggest that the AG is in bed with the Judiciary.



Rule of Law is seriously endangered under this administration and unfortunately the posturing and public statements of the Attorney-General who is the Principal Legal Advisor to Government, only feeds into the perception that the AG is in bed with the Judiciary.



Let me advise the A-G to stay away from the Judiciary. Judicial power and administration of Justice must be independent and impartial and definitely not subject to the public advice of the AG, a portion of the letter reads.



For this reason, the Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament is calling for the decoupling of the Office of Attorney General from the Ministry of Justice to be fast-tracked.



Sosu believes this will also reduce the tendency of secret and illegal conspiracy between the AG and the Judiciary.



As Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, I am more convinced that we must fast-track the decoupling of the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice. While this will not necessarily completely remove the tendency of collusions, it will be the most reasonably probable way of reducing such duplicity, he noted in his letter.



To him, lawyers owe a duty to be loyal to the rule of law and the Constitution of Ghana and not the Judiciary.



The NDC legislator argued, for there to be effective justice and confidence in the justice system, we must rather be advising all institutions of the state, particularly institutions of Justice such as The Ghana Police Service, Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary to assert and reaffirm their constitutional independence not only in words but also in actions.



He observed the fundamental human right to hold the judiciary accountable through whatever applicable means deemed fit.



Justice emanates from the people and the people have fundamental rights under the 1992 Constitution to hold the Judiciary accountable through mainstream media and social media, whichever may be applicable. The people do that through strict scrutiny of judgments and actions of the Judiciary, Francis-Xavier Sosu noted.





Source: Ghanaweb









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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched the second National COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign with a caution that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over.



It said the effort is to help boost the national vaccination drive.



Launching the campaign in Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region last Thursday, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, asked the people not to shirk the safety measures in the face of eased restrictions until the battle was completely won.



We need to completely win this fight and it is in view of this that we have gathered here to roll out a series of vaccinations against COVID-19, Dr Aboagye stressed.



The exercise is on the theme, Protect yourself, protect your family, get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Vaccine types



He said currently five COVID-19 vaccine types had been authorized for use by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) namely: AstraZeneca, Sputnik-V, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson.



Dr Kuma-Aboagye noted that as of last Monday, the country had received over 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed most of them to all regions and districts.



He said to ensure that the vaccines remained safe as they were being deployed the country had strengthened its robust vaccine safety monitoring system that was being managed by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) with the support of the GHS Expanded Programme on Immunisation.



To ensure real-time management, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the GHS had deployed a well-integrated information technology and data management system that ensured successful vaccine distribution, tracking, monitoring, and reporting in near-real-time.



He said with the support from partners, the service was ardently working to ensure all paper-based data were uploaded electronically for easy retrieval and use for decision making.



Dr Kuma-Aboagye said vaccine and cold chain management were critical for a successful immunisation activity and in view of that, the government, with support from the World Bank, the Government of Japan and other partners, had supported the GHS with ultra-low freezers to store Pfizer vaccines to enhance the COVID-19 vaccine deployment.



The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, commended the Ministry of Health, GHS and all other stakeholders for their dedicated service to the nation to ensure that we all survived the pandemic since it struck.



We still have the pandemic with us as a country and therefore I plead with municipal and district chief executives, religious and opinion leaders not forgetting the media to support all the efforts by the health workers to ensure that we are safe through vaccination, the regional minister added.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Ghanaian business mogul, Sir Sam Jonah, has narrated an experience he once had in a mine at Obuasi that shook him so much, that he momentarily passed out.



According to him, during one Easter season, he led a team beneath one of the mines in an attempt to locate a man who had illegally gone in there during the break.



Speaking to GTV Breakfast Show and monitored by GhanaWeb, Sam Jonah, who is the current Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, said that looking back on the incident today, makes him laugh at the same time makes him sad.



One incident comes to mind, and if it wasnt serious, it would be funny. One Easter, our local security picked up intelligence that Obuasi was such a rich area that whenever the gold so people would take chances, go underground illegally and try and mine and of course, we had good security. So, one fateful Easter morning, I was yanked from my sleep that the security had picked up local intelligence that some people had gone underground in the evening, and one of them had not been accounted for.



So, because he had not been accounted for, and it was illegal, therefore, nobody knew they had gone underground, but of course talk in the village got to the security that one guy had not been accounted for  nobody owned up but they went. So, we went asking which level, or which floor in the building he probably would have gone to and which area because they knew there were areas that were very very rich, he said.



He added that being the captain at the Obuasi mine at the time, he had to lead the delegation and what they found shook him in a really unusual way.



And so, I was the mine captain in charge of the area so they said I had to go with the team to go and look for him. So, we looked everywhere and then we looked at one particular area and when we went there, strange but theres a hole which is about 100 feet in depth and so we noticed that some (sic) is coming from the hole, which is about 80 feet or so down and then there was a (sic).



So, we had to go down and I had to lead by example I had never had such an experience before. Id never experienced such a stench: the smell of what the skin or flesh smelt like. The guy had been there since Friday. He was surviving on trickles of water coming down as dirty water. He was looking in good shape but he had not eaten since Friday, he had not had proper water, he had not had his wash, and the smell was just overpowering. And, I have to confess, for a moment, I passed out  id never smelt such rotten stench before, he said.



Sir Sam Jonah also explained that while it was a great relief to find the young man alive, it turned out his supposed missing tale was rather a cooked-up plan by some of his friends as a payback to him for previously cheating them.



The good thing is that all he was saying was Dzato aden? Dzato why? We brought him up and it was Dzato who gave us the lead and so we went to the place and all of that and arrested the Dzato guy. It turned out they said he had cheated on them on previous occasions, so they actually pinned him down and they left him there for dead and came back and dropped the hint, thinking that he was dead. Mercifully, it ended well in the sense that he did not die, he said.



Sir Sam Jonah is the executive chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, and is considered one of Ghana's richest men.





Source: Ghanaweb









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Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia Saturday paid an unannounced visit to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, at the Old Fadama residence, to wish him well on his 103rd Birthday.



The Vice President prayed for long life and good health for the Chief Imam so that the nation would continue to drink from his fountain of wisdom.



Dr Bawumia said Ghana was enjoying peace and harmony in the West African Sub-region because of the cordial relations between Muslims and Christians, noting that the Chief Imam was an embodiment of peace that resonated through his relationships with all religious faiths in the country.



Also in a post on his social media handles, Dr Bawumia wrote: Happy 103rd Birthday to my father, the National Chief Imam, His Eminence Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu.



"Mallam, as he is affectionately referred to, is an epitome of Allahs amazing Grace, and we thank Allah for the life of this great man, who continues to inspire millions. He has been a driving force for religious harmony and peace in Ghana.



"May the Almighty Allah continue to grant him good health and long life. Happy Birthday Mallam!



The Chief Imam, through his Spokesperson Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaib, commended the Vice President for the surprise visit and prayed for continued peace and stability for the nation.



He prayed for Allah's wisdom and guidance for the President, Vice President and the entire members of the Government.

Source: GNA









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Under the newly introduced Police Emergency Medical Intervention Fund (PEMIF), an injured Police Chief Inspector has been provided with a new prosthetic leg to aid his mobility.



Chief Inspector Mac-Victor Anako became the first beneficiary under the new GHc6.1million fund when he was flown to Germany for the prosthetic leg.



Chief Inspector Mac-Victor Anako was shot by armed robbers in May 2007 during an anti-robbery operation at Nsawam.



He sustained a gunshot wound to his left thigh leading to the amputation of his leg.



In 2010, the Chief Inspector underwent some surgical procedures but suffered some complications necessitating further medical attention.



PEMIF



The PEMIF is an initiative of the Police Administration aimed at providing financial assistance for the medical care of Police officers who get injured in the line of duty.



The Fund was approved and launched in January 2022 by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo who made a personal donation at the launch to support it.



After the introduction of the PEMIF, Chief Inspector Mac-Victor Anako was flown to Hamburg, Germany to fix a new prosthetic leg to aid his mobility.



He was accompanied on the trip by his wife to give him the needed support.



The total cost of the trip and treatment were fully paid for by the Police Administration from the PEMIF.



The Chief Inspector returned to Ghana on March 30, 2022, with his wife by his side, wearing his new prosthetic leg and could be seen walking with ease.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Former Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has reacted to his appointment as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).



A letter issued and signed by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare said that President Akufo-Addo has appointed the former Deputy Minister, as the CEO of NHIA, pursuant to ''Section 14(1) of the National Health Insurance Act, 2021 (Act 852)''.



The letter read: Pursuant to Section 14 (1) of National Health Insurance Act, 2012 (Act 852), I am pleased to inform you that the President has appointed you to act as the Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (the Authority)), pending the receipt of the constitutionally required advice of the governing board of the Authority, given in consultation with the Public Services Commission,



The appointment takes effect Tuesday, 3rd May 2022.



Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, in a reaction on Facebook wrote: In His own time, He makes all things beautiful. I thank God Almighty for remembering me. I remain eternally grateful to His Excellency, President Akufo-Addo for doing me this honor. Finally, I would like to thank all of you for your love, well wishes and prayers. To God be the glory, a great thing he has done



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Source: Peacefmonline.com









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SINCE outspoken radio presenter Blakk Rasta exited Zylofon FM in December last year, he has had a number of good offers from radio stations but he has had to turn them down because he feels he would not have the freedom to operate.



After deliberations with the radio stations that want to snap him up into their fold, he realises he has no plans of exchanging his freedom to work the way he wants for even the mouth-watering offers coming his way.



Speaking in an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Blakk Rasta said the last thing I want is distraction from my employers. I want to free my mind on any issue without any restrictions.



I had the liberty to free my mind for four years at Zylofon FM, thus any intrusions from my new employers will not allow me to function well.



"I did my checks at all the stations that have reached out to me and I discovered it just wont work for me, he said.



According to Blakk Rasta, he has built his portfolio to a standard where he wouldnt want anyone to bring it down.



For years now, Blakk Rasta has been very consistent with whatever he does. I speak my mind on issues and it yields results. I do it without fear or favour and because I am not a bootlicker, everyone likes what I do.



"No one can say that he or she has given me money to keep quiet and due to this, I go all out on issues bothering Ghanaians.



 You see, Blakk Rasta has never gone on leave or taken a break before. I work from January to December. I even work on holidays and that should tell anyone how passionate and serious I am when it comes to radio he said.



Before moving to Zylofon FM, Blakk Rasta said any radio station willing to work with him must be ready to give him a car, pay him a monthly salary of Gh10,000 among other conditions of service which he got from Zylofon Media.



Now Blakk Rasta has gone some notches higher. He is asking his next employers to pay him more than Gh10,000 a month because he is worth it.



I work whole-heartedly and the Blakk Rasta brands has grown bigger and has moved up.



"So any radio station that wants to work with me must be able to pay me more than Gh10,000 in addition to other benefits and most important of all also give me the freedom to operate, he said.



Touching on other matters, Blakk Rasta, who is currently running his Taxi Driver show on Pan African TV and on Youtube, said he had plans to establish his own radio and TV station.



It is my plan to establish my own radio and television station and I know it will happen no matter how long it takes he stated.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - 2022/02/18: The front facade of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) main building in Intramuros on February 18, 2022. COMELEC Commissioner Rey Bulay warned that the poll body will get the military involved against critics accusing the agency of bias. (Photo by Josefiel Rivera/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Commission on Elections (COMELEC) commissioner and former Duterte schoolmate Rey Bulay warned to have the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) involved against critics who are accusing bias against the agency.

Iyon pong nagko-comment ng public opinion na ang COMELEC ay may sina-side-an, may kinakampihan, at mandadaya, ako po ay nagwawarning sa inyo, we will not hesitate to call upon the AFP na sa panahong ito ay nasa ilalim ng control ng COMELEC para patulan at ipahuli at ipakulong kayo, he said in a press conference on Friday.

(Those who are commenting their public opinion that the COMELEC is siding with anyone and cheating the elections, I am warning you, we will not hesitate to call upon the AFP at this time, who is currently under the control of the COMELEC to take action and detain you.)

He added, Kaya kung ang isip nyo ay manggugulo sa resulta ng eleksyon na ito, ang gusto namin, 10 ng kasamahan namin sa Comelec at chairman, ang gusto namin ay credible, malinis, at mapayapang eleksyon.

(So if you are planning on disrupting the results of the elections, what we want, what the 10 of us in the COMELEC one, are credible, clean, and free elections.)

Bulay drew flak on social media, with several users, including a party-list representative aspirant, calling him out to do his job properly.

COMELEC threatens military action on its critics! Kabataan Party-list 1st nominee Raoul Manuel said. Tsk tsk. Pati eleksyon, militarized? Ayusin niyo kasi ang trabaho niyo (Even the elections will be militarized? Do your job properly)!

Mark Ernest Famatigan is a news writer who focuses on Philippine politics. He is an advocate for press freedom and regularly follows developments in the Philippine economy. The views expressed are his own.

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DRESDEN  A Clemons man has been arrested in connection with alleged sex crimes against a child under the age of 13.

John T. Dennison, 47, is facing a felony charge of first-degree sex abuse and misdemeanor charges of forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Police said an investigation by the Washington County Sheriff's Office that determined that Dennison had inappropriate sexual contact with a child under 13.

Following arraignment, Dennison was released pending a future court date in Dresden Town Court.
GLENS FALLS  Booth exhibitors and patrons gathered at City Park to celebrate Earth Day on Friday.

Sustainable PR hosted its second annual Earth Day celebration at the park, and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, spoke at the event prior to a roundtable discussion with a number of environmental groups.

He said the celebration was a good opportunity for people to be reminded of their individual role in responding to the needs of Earth.

It reminds us that we, indeed, are important stewards of our planet and that we need to hand to the next generation a safer, cleaner and stronger planet, Tonko said.

Tonko, who is the chair of the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change in the House of Representatives, said he decided to run for Congress roughly 15 years ago because he knew there was a need for a national investment in the planet.

We needed a vision that would be shared across all 50 states to make certain that we had the sound policy where we were pulling together as a team, he said. That simply wasnt there.

Tonko, who is running for reelection in the 20th Congressional District, which in a redistricting change will now include Glens Falls, Queensbury, Moreau and Wilton among other municipalities, said the subcommittee has been hard at work to create a fast response to grow a progressive movement to create clean energy and get the planet off of fossil fuels.

He noted that he worked to advance the Environment Energy Perspective in the infrastructure bill that was recently signed by President Joe Biden. Tonko said the money from that bill is starting to make its way to governments locally.

We have an investment that is rather hardy. We have $60 billion going to the Department of Energy that will spread those resources across the map of this country for grid modernization, he said.

He also said that the subcommittee will make sure that there are investments being made into charging stations for electric vehicles. There will be $7.5 billion going toward that investment, he said, and another $7 billion going towards the research and development of a domestic supply chain response to the manufacturing of batteries.

Another $39 billion will go toward making public transport electric, with $10 billion of that money going to school buses to stop children from breathing in air pollution from their buses.

Even with that money being invested into fighting the climate crisis, Tonko is working to advance the efforts to bring a $555 billion investment in a long-term extension of reduction and investment tax credits to encourage people to be energy-efficient.

Our work is not done with that legislation, he said. There is much more work to do.

Tonko highlighted the city of Glens Falls and the entire region for their efforts and dedication to creating a sustainable economy.

For him that means creating jobs and utilizing clean energy. Glens Falls City Hall received some help in the form of a $430,000 grant to help pay for a new energy-efficient heat pump system, meaning that there will be no carbon emitted from the building.

I thank communities like Glens Falls for taking that step, Tonko said.

Glens Falls 3rd Ward Supervisor Claudia Braymer, who is also a member of the New York State Association of Counties Climate Action Standing Committee, told the crowd that one of the reasons she ran for office is so climate issues could be brought to the table at the county level.

In 2019, the state passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to combat the global climate crisis.

Braymer said it was designed to achieve a carbon-free electric system by 2040, and to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases by 85% of 1990 levels by the year 2050.

This is going to take a lot of us making some changes to our life, but its really important that we do so, she said.

Braymer said transportation is one of the biggest contributors to the high emission levels. She said city residents should try to bike or walk around the city whenever it is possible.

Warren County is currently working to transition its entire transportation fleet to electric vehicles, she said.

As a member of the Climate Action Standing Committee, Braymer drafted a resolution that was adopted that will support the climate action plan at the state level.

What Im hoping to do in the future is drive some more funding and resources down to our county governments and our local municipalities who are really the ones on the ground implementing a lot of these changes, she said.

Another topic of discussion during the event was community solar.

Chris Stroud, chief operating officer of Cipriani Energy Group, explained to those in attendance that the process allows folks who may not otherwise be able to have solar panels to participate in using clean energy. People are able to sign up for a program to receive 10% savings on their electric bill.

Somebody will build a solar farm elsewhere, there are many throughout New York state, and that power will be produced and injected into the grid and then you have a list of subscribers to receive the benefits of that solar farm, he said.

Stroud said that when the program first started, a person had to be in the same utility load zone as a solar farm. Now it is possible for a Glens Falls resident to participate in a program in Buffalo.

Tony DeFazio, principal and founder of Sustainable PR, was pleased with the turnout for the celebration at City Park.

He said that having the event at a centralized hub in the city helps bring more people into the discussion.

We were able to provide a diverse group of resources for residents to understand what they can do individually every day to reduce their carbon footprint, to embrace renewable energy, he said.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com.

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ATLANTIC CITY  The Chelsea Economic Development Corp.s first LGBTQ Pride in Homeownership Tour  Come Out and Sea Friday explored the citys LGBTQ community, while showcasing real estate and investment opportunities.

The event attracted about 40 people, a mix of out-of-towners, locals and members of the LGBTQ community.

The tour kicked off with a charter bus ride through the city, including a drive along Pacific and Ventnor avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood to see commercial real estate and other amenities the neighborhood has to offer.

Atlantic Citys openness to diversity is one of its defining characteristics. We want investors and homebuyers to be aware of the investment opportunity, said Elizabeth Terenik, the Chelsea EDCs senior project manager. We want everyone to see the vision of Atlantic City as a vibrant, beautiful city, and help to bring the vision of revitalization to fruition.

Sponsors and partners of the tour included EXP Executive Realtors, Meet AC, ACDevco, the Noyes Museum of Art and Tropicana Atlantic City.

LGBTQ publications, social media sites and organizations all pushed out the event, but more importantly, the message that Atlantic City is affirming and provides unparalleled real estate opportunities, said Terenik. Everyone we asked to get involved did so without hesitation, further confirming the communitys support for diversity and inclusion.

Atlantic City revelers celebrate 420 on eve of cannabis legal sales ATLANTIC CITY  Come Thursday, people will be able to buy recreational cannabis in the state

The Chelsea EDC believes marketing to the regions pool of untapped potential homeowners in the LGBTQ community is the key to successfully redeveloping the area, according to a tour outline provided by the organization.

According to the Chelsea group, 79% of properties between Texas and Annapolis avenues are owned by absentee landlords and owners, which contributes to the areas unkempt look and lackluster community engagement.

Based on research of areas that have higher tolerances for gender, race and diversity, like San Francisco, Miami, Boston and New Jerseys own Asbury Park, the Chelsea EDC hopes to attract LGBTQ homeowners and investors to rehabilitate houses and increase property values.

Our hope is that others in the community build on the Pride tour, by more openly showing their support to attract the LGBTQ community here. We designed the project to easily be marketed to any other demographic, said Terenik, hoping other neighborhoods could use this event as an outline to promote diversity in the city.

Pat Fasano, a developer in the citys Orange Loop commercial district, spoke to visitors during the bus tours stop at Bourre on New York Avenue.

Besides mentioning the diversity of events the Orange Loop has put on, like Wednesdays 420 Fest, a show last year by Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah and a JazzFest concert last summer, Fasano said he sees a lot of parallels between Atlantic City and Asbury Park in regard to development potential, noting once in a lifetime opportunities to buy oceanfront commercial and residential properties.

You cant change a location, but you can change a perception, Fasano told the crowd.

Mitch Ryan, of New York, said there were people from all over the country exploring Atlantic City with him, including some from Texas, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Ryan, 52, said he was pleasantly surprised by the tour, saying it had the potential to bring new people to the city.

The LGBTQ community always has and always will be here, said Ryan, who recently fell in love with the winter rental he and his partner share in Margate, and was in attendance Friday to learn what part of the city they wanted to move to next, since they came to Atlantic City for the whole experience.

The evening continued with speaker presentations at the Noyes Arts Garage by Mayor Marty Small Sr., Realtor and resident Geoff Rosenberger discussing the citys LGBTQ history, Kirby Delgado from AtlantiCare discussing LGBTQ health services and Atlantic Cape Community Colleges Victor Moreno addressing career, educational and enrichment opportunities in the city.

After a 6-to-8 p.m. complimentary happy hour, the tour ended at Boogie Nights at Tropicana.

Just by meeting one person, you can change so much. Its important for all people in the community to have a place to go, Ryan said.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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Rock Island has launched an effort to bring back an affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization initiative that died out in the 1990s.

The Urban Homestead Program uses federal money to purchase and then fix up dilapidated houses before reselling them to moderate- and low-income families. The goal is to improve blighted areas in the city, even if that means fixing up one house at a time.

The city recently rehabbed its first house, at 1435 15th Ave. The two-story, three-bedroom, 1.5-bath home was rebuilt from the inside out, including reconstruction of the front porch that looks out onto Longview Park.

"That is the pilot house," Miles Brainard, Rock Island community and economic development director, said.

Brainard said the city currently had general rehab programs, like TARRP, the Targeted Area Repair and Rehab Program, aimed at areas of the city "that need a little more TLC" that are funded with Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the federal Housing and Urban Development program.

"What weve had running for years and years are the housing rehabilitation programs focused on smaller-scale projects," he said. "That might range from a furnace or water heater being replaced to a roof being redone or front steps being rebuilt. What we havent done is a whole-house rehabilitation."

When plans for the house were first introduced last year, some city council members pushed back, saying the math didnt work out in the citys favor. Spending more than $200,000 to fix up a house that will sell for less than $100,000 didnt make sense, they said.

Some council members made the same point again when it came before them during the April 11 meeting to approve a sales contract with the homes buyer, Johana Perez, for $92,000.

The city bought the house from the county tax auction in 2019 for $835. Although council members approved spending up to $230,000 last May to rehab the house, the actual cost was $209,000.

"These are not funds from the citys general fund," Brainard said. "These are funds from HUD and a grant from IHDA, the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The funds we receive from them are intended to use on projects of this kind, which are adhering to all of the regulations that those agencies have.

"This isnt like a normal home-flip project that folks might do privately. Were trying to achieve goals set out for us by these agencies using their funds."

Brainard said those requirements included an environmental survey to test for lead-based paint and asbestos. If those hazardous materials are found, abatement must take place. He said the cost of rehabbing the house on 15th Avenue was $209,000 in part because the environmental study turned up both lead and asbestos that needed to be removed.

When it was safe to proceed, the interior of the house was gutted and received all new wiring and plumbing, a new HVAC system, a new kitchen and appliances were installed and a half bath was added on the first floor. Outside, exterior siding was replaced, the front and back porches were rebuilt, new concrete walkways were installed and nuisance vegetation was removed.

"At the end, what we have is an average, safe, quality house," Brainard said. "Have we spent more than anyone might do on their own renovation? Yes, but we are achieving the goals set out by those agencies using their money to do it."

He said Perez, the buyer, now has a safe home for her and her family that wouldnt need any significant maintenance or upgrades for years.

Brainard said he hoped the city would eventually rehab and resell one to two homes per year once the program was fully functional. He looks to the success of Davenport's Urban Homestead Program and hopes that someday Rock Island's program will be similar.

Bruce Berger, community and economic development director for Davenport, said the city received about $1.5 million annually in CDBG funds and $400,000 from HUD's HOME program.

"We generally do one or two Urban Homestead projects a year," Berger said. "In general, we spend CDBG and HOME dollars on things like our Down Payment Assistance program, Owner-Occupied Rehab Loans, Accessibility Rehab Assistance, rehab and construction of affordable rental housing, small business economic development activities and infrastructure projects."

K.J. Whitley, community development manager for Moline, said the city received $867,229 in CDBG funds in 2021. Although Moline does not have an Urban Homestead Program, Whitley said the city provides houses to nonprofit organizations that rehab and resell them to low-income families.

Brainard said Rock Island had already purchased its next house for the program, located on 32nd Street.

"It's sitting there ready, if the council wants to proceed with the program and wants to do a subsequent whole-house rehab," he said. "We purchased it because the tax auction only happens once a year, so we wanted to grab one when we could.

"When we say 'homestead,' what are we trying to accomplish? We're trying to inject an improved property into a neighborhood that could really use a bit of a facelift. We're not just creating one good house; we're tying to transform neighborhoods. When we were doing this project, we noticed the adjacent property owners started rebuilding their own decks and cleaning up their yards. Small things, but it makes a difference.

"One house at a time can really change a block face," Brainard said. "Little improvements build up over time."

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CHICAGO  A judge on Friday threw out 44 more convictions tied to a notorious former Chicago police sergeant who regularly framed people for drug crimes they didn't commit, exonerations that victim advocates said would be among the last from one of the most disgraceful chapters in the department's history.

The dismissal of the cases by Cook County Judge Erica Reddick was the result of petitions to do so filed by the victims' attorneys with the support of the Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office.

"In order to restore trust in the criminal justice system, as prosecutors, we must approach every case with an eye toward the facts, the evidence, and the law," Foxx said in a press release.

The latest dismissals bring to more than 170 Black defendants who have seen their drug convictions tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his tactical unit dismissed in recent years.

Joshua Tepfer, an attorney with The Exoneration Project who has worked with many people convicted due to Watts and his crew, said that Friday's hearing would be the last of a number of similar hearings in recent years in which large numbers of victims have had their convictions thrown out. He said only a few cases remain.

The announcement is the latest chapter in a story of corruption that led courts, starting in 2016, to toss out drug convictions of victims who were framed by Watts and his unit after they refused to pay him money, angered him in some way, or were targeted for no apparent reason.

Watts, a Black sergeant, led a team that for nearly a decade until 2012 planted drugs or falsely accused residents of a public housing complex, others who were visiting or simply happened to be in the area.

Watts and another officer pleaded guilty in 2013 to stealing money from an FBI informant. Watts received a 22-month prison sentence.

In December, the police department acknowledged that 15 other officers associated with Watts and his unit were placed on desk duty pending an investigation. The department said the investigation is under the jurisdiction of the independent agency that investigates allegations of misconduct, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA. A spokesman for COPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Foxx has said that that her office does not call the officers involved in the Watts cases to testify in other prosecutions her office is handling.

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A 49-year-old Sterling, Illinois, man has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Illinois State Police on Thursday arrested Joshua J. Robbins after serving a search warrant at his home in the 15000 block of Willow Court.

Robbins is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography-victim under the age of 13, and possession of child pornography-moving depiction.

Each of the three charges is a Class 2 felony under Illinois law that carries a prison sentence of three to seven years.

Robbins was being held Saturday night in the Whiteside County Jail on a bond of $100,000 or 10%.

A first court appearance is scheduled for Monday in Whiteside County Circuit Court.

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Two Davenport men are facing federal child pornography charges after federal prosecutors took over their cases that initially were filed in Scott County District Court.

David Michael Woods, 49, is charged with two counts of production of child pornography and one count each of distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Jason Richard Heider, 46, is charged with one count each of production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Federal authorities arrested both men Tuesday. Each is being held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals pending trial.

During an arraignment hearing Friday in U.S. District Court, Davenport, District Judge Stephen Jackson scheduled a trial date of May 31 for both men.

Woods was arrested Feb. 16, 2021, on two counts of third-degree sexual abuse filed against him in Scott County District Court by Davenport Police. Each of the charges is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years.

The charges allege that Woods sexually abused a 12-year-old victim multiple times between November 2020 and January 2021, according to court documents. Shortly after being arrested, Woods was released on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

Woods was arrested again on June 22, 2021, on two counts of two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor involving the same victim. Both of those charges also are Class C felonies. His bond in that case was set at $500,000, cash only.

Heider was arrested Sept. 30, 2021, on a charge of second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony that carries a prison sentence of 25 years.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police Officer Evan Obert, Heider committed sexual abuse upon a 12-year-old victim, while another person aided and abetted the act by being present and taking photographs of the act. Heider was in possession of a cell phone that had messages admitting to the sex acts with the victim. The messages also discussed another person being present during the sex acts.

Heider had been in the Scott County Jail on a bond of $25,000, cash or surety.

Both men were in the Scott County Jail awaiting trial at the state level when federal authorities arrested them. Scott County authorities dismissed the state charges against the two men.

Both Woods and Heider are facing a federal prison sentences of 15-30 years for the production of child pornography charges. Each also faces a minimum prison sentence of 5-20 years for the distribution and receipt of child pornography charges. Each also faces up to 10 years for the possession of child pornography charges.

There is no parole in the federal system.

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Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Program, will be presented at 7 p.m., May 1, at the Rogalski Center on the campus of St. Ambrose University in Davenport.

The program is free and open to the public.

This years keynote speaker is Holocaust survivor Rodi Glass, from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Glass was born to Fredrika Sophie and Meyer Watterman in Amsterdam in 1936.

Meyer Watterman was one of seven siblings and owned a leather goods store.

After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, Wattermans store was handed over to a German in 1941.

Fredrika was kept on to help run the store. However, Glass parents were deported to Westerbork on Oct. 2, 1942. After about six months in the camp, Glasss grandfather was able to secure their release through bribery.

In 1943 the family was once again deported to Westerbork. Because her mother had British papers, Glass and her parents were able to avoid being deported to the east. They were then taken to Vittel, France, where they were liberated by the Americans. In 1944, the Americans moved them La Bourboule.

After the war they returned to Amsterdam, where they reclaimed the family business from the German to whom it had been given.

Glass and her parents immigrated to the United States in April 1951.

Of the extended family, only Glass, her parents and one aunt survived.

Those who can not attend the event at the Rogalski Center can ZOOM in at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89137749496?pwd=MHBUdkhrSWY1NW9pS2lxWDBOUVExZz09

The program is presented by the Yom Hashoah Committee of the Quad Cities, Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, Temple Emanuel, Congregation Beth Israel, Churches United, Augustana College, St. Ambrose University and the Eastern Iowa Community College District.

For more information call the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities at 309-793-1300.

Glass also will speak to Augustana College students at 7 p.m. May 2 via Zoom. Go to augustana.edu/events for the Zoom link, or contact Dr. Janina Ehrlich at janinaehrlich@augustana.edu for details.

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The Easter Bunny was representing the prosecution in several hundred Polk County criminal cases.

At least thats what Iowa Courts Online, the court systems official, statewide web-based repository of court records, indicated for most of April.

On April 4, the online docket sheets for hundreds of Polk County cases  primarily misdemeanors and drunken-driving cases  were revised to indicate the prosecution of those cases had been transferred from one particular assistant county attorney, Kailey Gray, to another prosecutor in the county attorneys office by the name of Easter Santa Bunny.

And thats where the cases remained as of Thursday morning.

Bret Lucas, an assistant county attorney, said Thursday the situation stemmed from a recent realignment of cases within the county attorneys office. Gray took over a colleagues cases, and Iowa Courts Online accurately reflects the transfer of those cases. But Grays old cases, he said, were transferred to the Easter Bunny until all of the work on the digital case transfer could be completed.

We had contacted the Judicial Branch and they worked with their information technology department to facilitate the mass transfer of cases, Lucas said. Apparently, the Judicial Branch and the IT department decided to put that placeholder in there because, obviously, no one else would have that name.  So they were all aware of that, and it sounds like they must still be in the middle of that transfer process.

Stacy Curtis, a supervisor for the criminal division of the Polk County Clerk of Courts Office, said the references to the Easter Bunny should not be visible to the public either through a name search or in the docket sheets for the individual cases. She said the office took extra steps to make sure members of the public didnt see any reference to the Easter Bunny and only clerks, lawyers, judges and others with higher security clearance could see it. It appears that the opposite may have occurred, as the Easter Bunny references could be seen by members of the public who werent even logged into the site.

This has been a nightmare for me, Curtis said. We moved everything from Kaylie to the Easter Bunny, and those should have all been cleaned up so you wouldnt be able to see that.

Many of the cases that were publicly assigned to the Easter Bunny are open, active cases, but hundreds of others are dormant, though not technically closed because of probationary sentences that have yet to be completed or fines that have yet to be paid.

The only practical effect of the Easter Bunny designation is that some defendants may see that information online and not know who to contact at the county attorneys office about their case.

After being contacted by the Iowa Capital Dispatch on Thursday, court officials were working to erase from the website any mention of the Easter Bunny, and by late afternoon it appeared they had succeeded.

Santa bailed out by Rudolph

The Easter Bunny cases are not the only criminal matters listed on the court systems official website to have featured nonexistent lawyers or defendants. In what appear to be training exercises for clerical staff, fictitious test cases are sometimes created and then posted to the public website but never removed.

For example, a December 1997 case shows Santa Claus being convicted of felony burglary and kidnapping, with a charge of assault on a peace officer dismissed by the court. The court records indicate a sentence of 999 years in prison was imposed.

As part of that same test case, the court imposed a no-contact order prohibiting Santa from having any contact with Mickey Mouse. Santas bail  listed as one million bucks in a possible punning reference to Santas reindeer  is stated to have been posted by Rudolph.

In 2014, Santa Claus was charged with second-degree robbery in Scott County, according to the Iowa Courts Online site. Although theres no record of a conviction in that case, Claus right to carry a gun was revoked.

The court systems website also shows that in 2014, Mickey Mouse filed a small claims case against Donald Duck in Marion County.

For more information, visit iowacapitaldispatch.com.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed his final first-term budget into law Tuesday, a roughly $46 billion spending plan buoyed by pandemic-driven revenue windfalls and a current-year surplus that helped the state pay down debts and offer temporary tax relief.

The plan includes $500 million beyond statutory requirements to the states beleaguered pension funds; $1 billion to the states rainy day fund which currently has a balance of just $27 million; and an estimated $1.8 billion in tax relief, much of which is temporary.

The budget also includes a one-year suspension on the states grocery tax ($400 million), a one-time 5% property tax rebate up to $300 per household ($520 million), and a 10-day sales tax holiday for back-to-school items and clothing from Aug. 5-14 ($50 million).

Another $685 million would fund one-time direct rebate checks at $50 per individual and $100 per dependent, up to three, for individuals earning $200,000 or less or joint filers earning $400,000 or less.

While that relief was temporary, the budget also permanently increased the earned income tax credit from 18 to 20% of the federal credit while expanding the program to noncitizens. That program would cost about $100 million.

The states statutory annual motor fuel tax increase will be delayed for six months this year, costing about $70 million.

Republicans in the General Assembly opposed the spending portions of the budget but largely supported the tax relief proposals, even though they criticized them as being temporary.

While Democrats have generally praised themselves for fiscal stability, Pritzkers Department of Revenue in a February committee presentation noted that much of the unforeseen state revenue growth was a result of pandemic-related shifts in consumer spending and other federal aid, either directly or indirectly.

Revenues for the current fiscal year were about $5 billion higher than originally budgeted last year, creating surpluses that allowed for the flexibility in the FY 2023 spending plan.

The revenue windfalls have created the opposite reality of one that Pritzker had predicted would come to fruition if voters rejected his graduated income tax proposal in November 2020. After that initiative failed Pritzker said painful budget cuts were unavoidable.

Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, who is a candidate for state treasurer, contrasted the governors dire warnings with the financial picture put forth by Democrats in an election year that will see every statewide office and seat in the General Assembly up for grabs.

You were bailed out by billions in additional funding from the federal government in Medicaid matching funds. You were bailed out by, across the country, trillions of dollars that were injected into our economies that led to higher-than-expected collections in revenue for the state temporarily, he said during floor debate.

Democrats, on the other hand, have tried to paint Republicans as voting against fiscal stability.

As well, in an election year in which Republicans are relentlessly campaigning on a platform that pits Democrats as weak on crime, Sen. Elgie Sims, a Chicago Democrat, accused Republicans of voting to defund the police.

Democrats touted $240 million in spending  $235 million of which came from federal American Rescue Plan Act funding  for violence reduction programs; funding for 300 additional Illinois State Police troopers; $30 million for the Violent Crime Witness Protection Program; $30 million for police body camera grants; $20 million in grants for less lethal devices and training; $10 million for a local law enforcement retention grant program; and $20 million for cameras and automatic license plate readers on state routes, among other public safety spending.

* * *

CREDIT UPGRADE: Illinois on Thursday received its second credit rating upgrade from Moodys Investors Service within one year, moving up one notch but remaining in the worst shape of the 50 states.

Its the third upgrade between the three major credit ratings agencies during Pritzkers tenure.

The upgrade to Baa1 status, or three notches above what is referred to as junk bond status, reflects solid tax revenue growth, which allowed the state to bolster financial reserves and increase payments toward unfunded liabilities, according to Moodys.

The upgrade to the general obligation bond rating likely means lower interest costs when the state borrows money.

Higher credit ratings result in the elimination of wasteful spending, and they mean that we will have more resources for education, for health care, public safety and future tax breaks, Pritzker said in a news conference called after the Moodys announcement.

Pritzker credited the upgrade to the recently passed $46 billion state operating budget, and the fact that the state dedicated an added $500 million to its pension system and retired $900 million in other interest-accruing health insurance debts.

The budget dedicated $1 billion to the states rainy day fund and created an ongoing $3.75 million monthly contribution to the fund beginning in July 2023.

The pension investment is expected to reduce unfunded liabilities in the pension system by about $1.8 billion. At the end of 2021, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability pegged that unfunded liability at about $130 billion.

While the pension investment indicated an increased commitment to paying its single-largest long-term liability, according to the report, the remaining liability precluded a more substantial upgrade.

As well, the report noted, Illinois economy has routinely expanded at a slower pace than the nation at large in recent years, as evidenced by its 4.7% March unemployment rate compared to a 3.6% rate nationwide.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a frequent critic of former Gov. Bruce Rauner who presided over eight credit downgrades between the three major agencies, said the state began making fiscal progress prior to the direct receipt of federal funds.

An unpaid backlog of bills overseen by the comptrollers office that once reached nearly $17 billion under Rauner now sits within a 30-day billing cycle from the date vouchers are received by the comptrollers office.

* * *

MEDICAID EXPANSION: A bill that would expand Medicaid coverage to otherwise ineligible noncitizens is now awaiting Pritzkers approval.

That provision was part of an omnibus Medicaid bill, House Bill 4343, that passed through the General Assembly on the final day of the session.

And while Medicaid bills are traditionally worked out in a bipartisan working group, this one drew strong opposition from Republicans because the language about noncitizens had never been discussed in any public hearing or working group meeting.

Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, who chairs a Medicaid subcommittee, defended the process and said there were other provisions of the bill that were negotiated outside the working group.

She said the bill clarifies statutory language to help providers and meets a goal of expanding health care coverage amid the pandemic to make sure that we're taking care of as many people as we can.

In 2020, Illinois became the first state to offer coverage for undocumented noncitizens by extending it to those 65 and older who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid if not for their immigration status. In 2021, lawmakers lowered the age limit to 55. This years bill lowers the age limit even further to 42.

In addition, Illinois does not apply a citizenship requirement for children under age 18 or pregnant women, including up to 60 days postpartum.

Medicaid is a government-funded health care program for low-income individuals and families. It is jointly funded with state and federal dollars and is administered by the state under federal guidelines.

Under federal rules, certain categories of noncitizens can qualify for Medicaid if they are lawfully present in the country. Among those are green card holders, asylees, refugees and members of federally recognized Native American tribes who were born in Canada. Those individuals typically must be U.S. residents for five years before they become eligible.

But federal rules do not allow for coverage of those who are not lawfully present in the U.S., which means the federal government will not reimburse for their care and all costs of covering those individuals must be paid solely with state dollars, estimated at $68 million a year for the latest expansion.

* * *

DCFS CONTEMPT: A Cook County judge found DCFS Director Marc Smith in contempt on Thursday.

Its the ninth time this year that Smith has faced contempt citations for failing to place children in settings that comply with the agencys recommendations and court orders.

The latest case involves a 15-year-old boy with special needs who remains in a locked psychiatric unit despite a medical release on Jan. 31. The court ordered on March 14 that DCFS move the child to an appropriate placement by March 25. DCFS had not moved the child as of Friday.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert represents the boy in court and stated DCFS failed for months to schedule a neuropsychological exam to assess the boys special needs.

Pritzkers spokesperson, Jordan Abudayyeh, said Pritzker and Smith share the judges frustration with lack of appropriate placements.

DCFS is working hard to find placements for these vulnerable children with special needs. Tragically, when Gov. Rauner decimated social services, we were warned that it would be much easier to lose the 500 beds he destroyed than to recreate them again. Advocates warned that these services werent like a light switch that could be turned on and off with ease, Abudayyeh said.

Golbert said the hope is the contempt citations will drive change within the agency, including removing children from inappropriate and harmful settings. Golbert said there are empty beds at existing group homes and residential facilities, but they are not appropriately staffed.

In the long term, Golbert said, DCFS needs to expand placement across the board, but especially in specialized foster care.

Gov. Pritzkers budget set aside $250 million to hire additional staff, increase rates for DCFS private partners and create new residential capacity, Abudayyeh said.

Since taking office, the governor increased DCFS budget by over $340 million with DCFS launching aggressive hiring efforts to bring on hundreds of additional staff, she said. The administration inherited a DCFS with outdated technology and inadequate trainings. Since then, technology has been overhauled and trainings and retrainings have taken place for every DCFS staff member.

The contempt citations, child deaths and death of a DCFS investigator have drawn scrutiny from the legislature and the public.

Pritzker has been asked on multiple occasions about his confidence in Smiths leadership at DCFS, most recently on April 9, saying that every time a challenge arises, the answer is not let's toss out the director.

* * *

LABOR BOARD APPOINTEE: Former Illinois Prisoner Review Board member Jeffrey Mears, who failed to receive confirmation for that post from the Illinois Senate last month, has been appointed to the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

Pritzker made that appointment Thursday, setting Mears up to face another Senate vote in the next General Assembly.

The Illinois Labor Relations Board certifies collective bargaining units. It also investigates and remedies unfair labor practices by public employers and unions, assists with arbitration and mediation to resolve labor-related disputes, and conducts emergency investigations of public employee strikes.

Before serving on the Prisoner Review Board, Mears was employed as a union painter for the Department of Corrections for nearly 20 years, but also served as a hostage negotiations coordinator, the negotiations team and statewide audit review team.

His experience in de-escalation and crisis intervention speaks to his skills in collaboration, communication and thoughtful approach to complex issues and we look forward to his continued service to the state of Illinois, Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh said.

Mears new appointment to the Labor Relations Board comes with a nearly $98,000 salary.

Mears was one of six members to leave the Prisoner Review Board in recent weeks after the appointment process came under scrutiny by Republican members of the Senate.

PRB member Oreal James resigned. Eleanor Kaye Wilson, along with Mears, failed to win Senate confirmation. Pritzker pulled his appointment of Max Cerda, who had been convicted and served time for a double murder before his release from prison and his working with offenders.

Senators voting against Mears and Wilson cited some of their votes to release controversial individuals. Senate Republicans long raised concerns about the number of PRB members who were voting on offender releases without being confirmed by the Senate. Those releases included offenders convicted of rape and murder, killing police officers and the murder of children.

In addition to 18 Republicans who voted no on Mears appointment to the PRB, 18 Democrats did not vote. Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, joined the GOP and voted no.

Mears served on the Prisoner Review Board for a year, making decisions on 40 cases involving the release of those serving time in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He received an annual salary of roughly $90,000.

He also serves as the Democratic Party Chairman for Johnson County in southern Illinois.

* * *

PUBLIC TRANSIT MASKING: Pritzker officially lifted the state requirement that face coverings be worn on public transportation Wednesday after a federal judge overturned the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask mandate.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the Middle District of Florida ruled on Monday that the federal mask mandate was unlawful since it exceeds the authority of the CDC. The ruling comes about a week after the CDC extended the mask mandate through May 3. The Biden administration announced Wednesday it would appeal that ruling, however.

Regardless, masks are no longer required on public transit, in public transit hubs or at airports, but local governments still have the right to maintain their own face covering requirements on public transportation.

Pritzkers order now only requires masks where they are federally mandated, as well as in congregate facilities and health care settings.

Following Pritzkers announcement on Tuesday about revising mask requirements, the Chicago Metra and CTA announced that masks will no longer be required, effective immediately. The Chicago Department of Aviation, which oversees OHare and Midway International Airports, also announced that masks are no longer required.

A number of major U.S. airlines such as Delta, United and Southwest immediately dropped the requirement following the court ruling as well.

The CDC continues to recommend face coverings for those who are immunocompromised, people who cant be vaccinated and in areas of high transmission.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,931 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths on Wednesday, the highest one-day case count since Feb. 11. There were 568 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Tuesday night, 61 in intensive care beds and 29 on ventilators, all of which remained near pandemic lows.

More than 21 million vaccine doses have been administered with about 73% of Illinois residents age 5 and over fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

* * *

VACCINE MANDATE RULING: A state appellate court ruled last week that it will not block enforcement of the Pritzker administrations mandate that certain categories of public employees either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo regular testing.

The 2-1 ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeals upheld a Sangamon County judges decision on April 1 not to issue a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the policy.

The decision involved three consolidated cases in which public employees are seeking to overturn the mandate. The cases include suits against Gov. Pritzker, various state agencies, the Pekin Fire Department and the Deland-Weldon school district.

Pritzker first issued a vaccine mandate on Aug. 26, 2021. The employees sued to block enforcement of the order citing the states Health Care Right of Conscience Act which, among other things, makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone for refusing to receive any particular form of health care that they find contrary to their conscience.

That law was originally enacted to shield health care workers from liability for refusing to perform or assist in abortions. During last years fall veto session, however, lawmakers passed an amendment to that law making a specific exception for health care measures that are intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

That provision does not officially go into effect until June 1. But lawmakers inserted language in the measure stating the section is a declaration of existing law rather than a new enactment.

In other words, the General Assembly said it was only clarifying something that was ambiguous in an existing law, which in this case involved the word discriminate.

In its ruling Wednesday, the 4th District appellate court said it would only be discriminatory if an employer punished workers who refused to be vaccinated or tested as a matter of conscience but did not punish those who refused for other reasons.

The vaccine and testing requirements, the court wrote, could actually be seen as merit-based policies because those who are vaccinated or tested are less likely to spread COVID-19 in the workplace.

The plaintiffs also challenged the vaccine and testing mandates under the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, which gives that agency supreme authority in matters of quarantine and isolation.

But the appellate court rejected that argument as well, saying that the employers in the three cases had not quarantined or isolated anyone, but had instead only threatened loss of employment.

To be fired is not to be quarantined or isolated from the community at large, the majority wrote.

The opinion was written by Justice Peter Cavanagh, with Justice James Knecht concurring.

Justice Robert Steigmann wrote a dissenting opinion. He argued that the word discriminate has a clear and understandable meaning and that the legislature included in the statute numerous examples of the kinds of discrimination that are prohibited.

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There's a rot at the core of the Republican Party and neither the party nor the country will heal until it's excised.

The latest evidence of that malignancy comes in a New York Times report about the Jan. 6 insurrection and how GOP congressional leaders responded in the immediate aftermath. The shock and revulsion reflected in their words and deeds presents a stark contrast with today's party line, which essentially amounts to move along, nothing here to see.

The article, published Thursday, reported that House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and his Senate counterpart, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Donald Trump was responsible for inciting the attack on the Capitol. It also said the two vowed to drive him from politics.

"I've had it with this guy," McCarthy reportedly told a group of Republican leaders, saying he would advise Trump that he was going to be impeached and should resign. The article said McCarthy even considered ways to invoke the 25th Amendment, forcing Trump's removal, before concluding that was not viable.

Pity. It seems that only after weighing political calculations and parsing self-interests did McCarthy and McConnell back away from saying and doing the right thing.

McCarthy flatly denied the New York Times' account.

"Totally false and wrong," the California Republican said. McConnell did not comment.

But there is ample evidence, starting with McCarthy's own statement on the House floor, to document his timidity, his change of heart and his scurrying, after condemning the president, to place himself back beneath Trump's thumb.

"The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters," McCarthy said, bluntly and without equivocation, days after the riot. But within weeks  after the anti-Trump backlash that McCarthy and others had braced for failed to materialize  he was back at Mar-a-Lago on bended knee.

McConnell, who delivered a scorching floor speech calling the former president "morally responsible" for the attack on Congress, subsequently stated he would support Trump if he becomes the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee.

Time and distance may have dulled recollections, so it's worth remembering what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.

An unlawful mob spun up by Trump's incessant and irresponsible lies resorted to violence in an unsuccessful effort to frighten Congress into overturning the clear-cut result of the November 2020 election.

You may not like the fact Joe Biden won, or the result of any election, for that matter. You can disagree with one or all of a party's policy positions.

However, under our system of government, those differences are resolved through elections. That, more than anything, undergirds our democracy. The voluntary, peaceful transfer of power is all.

That's what came under assault on Jan. 6 and why McConnell and McCarthy, among so many others, reflexively recoiled. The visceral horror they felt at those events and the shocked disgust they directed at the riot's orchestrator, the president of the United States, was telling.

Their evident change of heart is also telling.

McConnell, who has repeatedly proven himself as politically shrewd as he is ruthless, suggested it came down  as always  to maintaining his possession of power.

"I didn't get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference," the Times quoted him as saying, by way of explaining why there was no standing on principle to remove Trump if it meant separating himself from the majority of Senate Republicans.

McCarthy's motivation is just as plain. He wants to become speaker of the House. His chances rest not just on a robust November turnout by a unified Republican Party but, more importantly, staying in the good graces of the Trump acolytes whose votes he'll need to become leader if, as seems likely, the GOP takes control in January.

The fact that politicians say one thing and do another is hardly revelatory.

What is repugnant about the evident deceit of McCarthy, McConnell and many others in Trump's thrall is that they obviously know better than to believe the lies he keeps spreading. (Some acknowledge as much in private.)

They see the damage he has done, and continues to do, with his persistent devaluation of truth and campaigning to undercut future elections. Time and again, Trump has shown that his interests begin and end with himself.

Even if McCarthy and McConnell backed off, Republicans should follow through on the actions they reportedly prescribed when Jan. 6 was still raw, seeing to it Trump is forever kept away from elected office.

Power at any cost is a steep price to pay and it's bankrupting the GOP. It's also hurting our country.

Mark Z. Barabak is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

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Everywhere you look, people seem to be losing rights. Texas Senate Bill 8, which its legislators passed last year, was perhaps the most shocking example of this anti-rights wave. Its one of the most severe restrictions on abortion rights in the United States, banning abortions after six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant, and its effects are already being felt throughout the state. But its all the more alarming for its unique method of enforcement.

Rather than being enforced by the state government, which would be a clear violation of Roe v. Wade, the law gives Texas residents the right to sue those who aid or assist an abortion. Although this vigilante provision is described as a way to work around the Roe precedent, another way of thinking about it is as a new form of social citizenship in America.

S.B. 8s vigilante provision is not just about finding a new way to reduce womens rights, but also about creating new rights, or a superordinate category of citizenship, for men. That new status is achieved through the act of policing.

Looking at it this way, S.B. 8 falls into place alongside a plethora of public policies that use policing as a vehicle for a new kind of citizenship status.

In Florida, the governor signed House Bill 1557, known as the Dont Say Gay bill. It primarily restricts speech and educational content about LGBTQ issues. But it also contains a provision akin to Texas S.B. 8: It empowers parents to file complaints against schools based on their educational content. This gives these parents a new set of powers that elevates them in relation to those who will not or cannot use these powers. It hardly needs mentioning that in both S.B. 8 and H.B. 1557, the people who will use these powers will be those opposed to abortion and those opposed to LGBTQ educational content, which is not exactly a cross-section of American society.

But this phenomenon of giving some people policing powers and elevating their status relative to that of others is neither new to this year nor confined to these states.

All across the country, local municipalities have passed crime-free and nuisance housing ordinances that empower neighbors to surveil and file complaints about others in their communities. Take Faribault, Minnesota, as an example. After an influx of Somali immigrants, the city passed crime-free and nuisance housing ordinances that empowered its residents to surveil and police their neighbors. One Black woman and her family were evicted after her white neighbors, one of whom told her to go back to where you came from, summoned the police to her home 82 times. They didnt call to report criminal activity but rather to complain about barbecues, birthday parties and children playing on the trampoline  things people take for granted as part of suburban life.

The same pattern has played out in California, Illinois and Ohio. Its also recognizable in the incidents of white people calling police on Black citizens barbecuing at the park, sitting on a bench, bird-watching and so on. In incident after incident, often caught on camera, these individuals seem to realize they can weaponize police against their fellow residents and then consciously proceed to do so. They do not have to call the police, and in many instances, they seem aware that their calls are frivolous. That they call anyway shows that policing is not just about the law but also about status.

Someone who can engage in policing is recognizably different from and, in this context, elevated above, one who is policed or who can neither engage in policing nor rely on police services. The act of policing another person  whether a pregnant person, schoolteacher or neighbor  produces and communicates a subordinate status to the policed while simultaneously producing and confirming ones own superordinate status. This is the other side of the new wave of laws targeting abortion and education across the country.

If the civil rights era represented a time when people whom the law made formally subordinate at least symbolically caught up to the rights of those at the top, the ensuing decades have been marked by constant efforts by the American right to erode those legal gains.

But to focus only on how the right has weakened the citizenship of others is to miss how it has produced new forms of status and citizenship. Policing is a way to reassert status hierarchies that have been threatened over the past decades of social change.

Its a dangerous dynamic and one that will lead to a more policed, less free society.

Rahim Kurwa is an assistant professor of criminology, law and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This column originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

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Thank you, family and friends for the kind and beautiful birthday cards and wishes that I received, and to those who came to help me celebrate
Don't be so naive to think that implementing an income tax in South Dakota would lower sales and property taxes. You'll just have yet another tax to pay.

Two interesting articles in Thursday's Journal. In one, NDN Collective displays anger and loud protests. In the other, the Journey On group shows compassion and is actively involved with helping people. Which one would you support?

Supporting radicals like Cortez, Talib, Pressley and Omar totally eradicates the validity of any Marjorie Taylor Greene complaints.

Citizens of Georgia are attempting to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene off this fall's ballot because of her traitorous involvement in trying to undermine the results of a fair and free presidential election. Her seditious activities render her unfit to hold public office.

To say that South Dakota has a two-party system is laughable. We have had Republican rule since the 1970s and the level of things like nepotism is merely part of that entrenched culture.

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As Rapid City leaders and Native American groups prepare to meet to work on ways to bridge the citys racial divide, some people and groups are more interested in diminishing and excusing the blatantly racist comments that blew the lid off of a problem that had been simmering for years.

A leader of South Dakota Citizens for Liberty seems to believe the First Amendment applies to her and those who share her views, but not to the thousands of Native Americans impacted by racist comments from business owners in Rapid City.

The Journal published a letter to the editor from Tonchi Weaver, a lobbyist and organizer for South Dakota Citizens for Liberty, where she categorized racist comments from members of the Uhre family as unpopular speech. Connie Uhre caused a firestorm when she said she was going to ban all Native Americans from the Grand Gateway Hotel because she cant tell a Good Native from a Bad Native following a fatal shooting at the hotel.

Her son, Nick Uhre, defended his mothers comments and then also went on a tirade of several emails filled with racially-charged statements against Native Americans  including one addressed to Gov. Kristi Noem where he begged the governor for help.

Nick Uhre made a presentation to South Dakota Citizens for Liberty before his mothers inexcusable comments. According to materials presented at that meeting, he blamed rising crime rates on police inaction, a law enforcement grant from a charitable organization, and again blamed Native Americans.

As a result of the racist comments, the Native American community and right-minded Rapid City allies took a stand against the Uhre family and their multiple businesses in the area. One organization, NDN Collective, announced a formal boycott of the Uhre familys businesses and used their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble in front of the Foothills Inn to demonstrate that racism will not be tolerated.

Instead of standing against racism, Weaver used her First Amendment right to defend the Uhre familys right to engage in commerce and referred to the racist comments as merely unpopular speech. She demonized NDN Collectives action as racketeering and warned that a shakedown of the entire business community is coming, too.

The Journal published Weavers letter to show that many in the community refuse to condemn the racism that persists in some corners of the Black Hills. The letter also shows that Weaver is loyal to the Uhre family.

Being loyal to a friend is admirable. But when your friend says and does racist things, it isnt loyalty  its complicity.

And it isnt admirable, its deplorable.

We look forward to the day when people with a right to free speech dont use that right to express or condone racism.

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Devin Bigelow loved his 1969 Ford pickup truck.

The 19-year-old from Hamilton had a passion for older Fords in general and was always willing to talk with anyone about that topic

He also loved being covered in grease from working on vehicles.

Bethany Andersen loved to kid him about the cheeseburgers and sodas he always ordered when he came into BJs Restaurant to see his dad. William Bigelow cooks at the restaurant.

They were best friends, Andersen said. Like two peas in a pod.

Last Thursday, April 12, Devin Bigelow was one of seven Montanans who lost their lives to slick roads.

He was driving his 1969 Ford pickup when it hit a patch of ice and snow and hit another car. The truck drifted off the roadway and overturned. He was transported to a hospital in Missoula where he died of his injuries.

April 20 was his 20th birthday. His organs were donated to someone else in need.

On the GoFundMe site created by Andersen, she wrote: He saved a life this day while everyone is left to grieve the loss of him.

Andersen knows the Bigelows as co-workers and friends.

She felt their grief. Andersen also had lost a son.

I know how it feels, she said. It one of those things that you dont know where to turn. I was someone who had been there and knew how to help.

She knew that Devins parents needed time to grieve. Andersen also knew that the medical bills would soon begin to appear.

Andersen set up the GoFundMe site A Son Taken Too Soon at https://tinyurl.com/yeythw47 for anyone who wants to help the family.

Devin was a person who lived his life to the fullest with a heart full of fire and love for all who knew him, said his father, William Bigelow. He was someone who would give you his shirt off his back and his last dollar to a stranger. Someone who you could trust and count on to help whenever you asked.

He was a son, a brother, a uncle, a cousin, and most of all, a great friend to all who knew him, Bigelow wrote.

The site had raised $1,570 of its $10,000 goal Friday evening.

It was a wonderful thing to see how many people had donated when I woke up this morning, Andersen said. They are awesome people.

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The Victor High School junior class is organizing an Alumni Prom Night on April 29, the night before their prom, and have invited all oldsters to enjoy the venue, the night and their decorating efforts.

VHS class co-advisors Laurie Wildey and Nathan Beckwith said the juniors are responsible for this Alumni Prom.

The idea came about that normally we have a middle school dance but they decided not to do that, Wildey said. One of the juniors said, When my mom went here her class had a parent prom. The juniors thought that was a good idea and here we are.

The number of adults who will attend is unknown. Tickets cost $10 each or $15 per couple and can be purchased in the Victor High School office ahead of the event or at the door that night.

Hopefully, we have a good turnout, Wildey said. Were having a red carpet Hollywood theme. As of yet, there is no formal dress requirement, just come, dance and have fun.

The Alumni Prom Night and the high school prom the next night will be held in the large white barn, normally a wedding, gathering and event venue, called Homestead on McVey.

Its at the McVey homestead, 338 McVey Road, Wildey said. The owners are letting us use the property for free, so it doesnt cost the kids anything. Were decorating that Friday afternoon, hosting the Alumni Prom Night that night, hosting the regular prom on Saturday and cleaning up on Sunday.

Beckwith said the students appreciate the community.

The junior class is putting on the student prom Saturday and decorated McVey Barn to be used by the community the day before, he said. Food and drinks will be provided.

Homestead on McVey is owned by David Payne and his daughter, Chandler.

We are very happy to be hosting these events at our venue, he said. Being a part of the Victor community has been a priority since we purchased the property in May of 2021. The campus is over 120 years old and has an interesting history.

Visit online at www.homesteadonmcvey.com.

Wildey said every oldster is invited.

It is open to everybody Alumni Prom Night is just a better name than Old People Prom, she said. It will be a fun weekend. The kids are making a playlist of music to play through a sounds system. The kids have a Google form for song requests for regular prom, well see if they do it for alumni. Well talk about it on Monday.

For more information contact Victor High School at 406-642-3221.

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TOWNSEND  A judge on Friday sentenced 66-year-old Lloyd Barrus to life without parole in the Montana State Prison for his role in the 2017 shooting death of Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore.

District Judge Kathy Seeley also gave Barrus two additional life sentences for a high-speed chase he and his son, Marshall Barrus, had with police that ended in a shootout 100 miles away in Missoula County. Marshall Barrus was mortally wounded in the shootout.

The three life sentences will run concurrently.

Several people, including Moores wife, Jodi, gave statements inside a packed courtroom in the Broadwater County Courthouse before Seeley imposed the sentence. Jodi Moore said her husband was executed at close range.

Execute. Thats what he did. Lets call it that, she said.

Please do not allow this man the opportunity or possibility to ever do this again to another family. He has proven by his past behavior that he will do this again and again.

Seeley said it was, indeed, an execution.

I dont know that there was a plan per se, but these two men with their extremist anti-government beliefs were both out of control, and they both made bad choices over and over that evening, Seeley said. I do not believe if he is out in the streets that the public will be safe.

Barrus showed little emotion during the hearing but did speak briefly.

I am truly sorry for the loss, uh, the Moore familys loss, he said, flanked by defense attorneys Craig Shannon and Greg Jackson. My son  I dont see how anybody could be more upset than I am for what happened here.

Prosecutors say Lloyd and Marshall Barrus held anti-law enforcement views and were on a suicide mission on May 16, 2017, when they provoked Deputy Moore shortly after 2 a.m. by passing him on U.S. 287 south of Townsend driving 100 mph. They were in a Chevy Suburban and Lloyd Barrus was driving.

They say Moore was struck in the face by a bullet through his windshield, his car stopped in the grass just south of Three Forks, and he was alive until the Suburban returned four minutes later and additional gunshots from a semi-automatic rifle ended his life. They say Marshall Barrus fired the mortal rounds.

Butte-Silver Bow police spotted the Suburban moving westbound on I-90 about an hour later and started a 90-mile chase, ending in a shootout in Missoula County. Bullets fired from the Suburban knocked two Butte patrol cars from the pursuit, but by then troopers and police from several counties were involved.

The Suburban came to a stop just inside Missoula County, its tires shredded by stop-sticks, and a firefight broke out. Marshall was hit and later died while Barrus escaped injury and was arrested.

In September, a jury in Butte found Barrus guilty of deliberate homicide by accountability in Moores death, and of two counts of attempted deliberate homicide for the high-speed chase and shootout.

Defense attorneys for Barrus argued Friday, as they have the past five years, that Barrus suffered from mental illness and severe delusional disorders. They wanted him to be sentenced to Montana State Hospital.

Who was driving that car? His delusional disorder was, Shannon told the judge.

But Seeley had already decided he was going to Montana State Prison so the only question was for how long.

Seeley ruled last month that even though Barrus was paranoid in the days leading up to Moores death, he understood the criminality and wrongfulness of his actions. Her ruling meant Barrus would be sent to state prison as prosecutors requested.

Moores brother, Nebraska Moore, told the judge Friday Barrus should never have been free to commit the crimes he did that night.

In March 2000, Lloyd Barrus, another son and a woman were arrested after a high-speed chase and armed standoff with police in Death Valley, California, that lasted more than 18 hours. They eventually exchanged gunfire with police and reportedly damaged a California Highway Patrol helicopter and forced it to land. Barrus was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was ultimately released.

The state of California, in its infinite wisdom, released the convicted individual from confinement to do what he said he was born to do  to attack and ultimately kill law enforcement officers, Nebraska Moore said.

That Barrus was not going to be executed by the state of Montana was an unwarranted mercy, he said.

The next time I make popcorn, I will regret that I am not eating it at his execution, he said. The next time I have a beer, I will take great satisfaction in knowing that while there is alcohol in prison, its usually fermented in a trash bag in somebodys toilet.

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty but dropped that because Barrus has had extensive mental health issues that could have been a significant mitigating circumstance for imposing death.

At one point after charges were filed, Seeley ordered Barrus be given antipsychotic medications via injection to render him competent to stand trial and aid his defense, since he refused to take the drugs orally. He was ultimately cleared to stand trial.

The case was prosecuted by Montana Department of Justice Attorneys Dan Guzynski and Stephanie Robles and Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson, with help from several others.

Guzynski said after Fridays hearing that under the circumstances, the sentence was the most severe allowed by law and he was pleased the judge imposed it.

It honors Deputy Moore, his family and all the law enforcement officers that were involved, he said.

Moore was 42 when he was killed. He left behind Jodi and their three children. Two of their sons, now 18, were also in the courtroom Friday.

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A Richmond man pleaded guilty Friday to the second-degree murders of his mother and stepfather, whose bodies were found hidden beneath the stairs in a crawl space below the North Richmond home they all shared.

Sandra Powell-Wyche, 49, and Curtis Wyche, 36, were found Dec. 15, 2020, after Powell didnt show up to work at Westminster Canterbury, which was unusual, Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Caitlin Kelly said during Fridays hearing. Friends and family went looking for her at her home in the 4300 block of Chamberlayne Avenue, where they found her son, Trevon Powell, who claimed he hadnt seen his mother or his stepfather.

Neighbors reported hearing gunshots the night before, Kelly said. So those friends and family tipped off police, who searched the home.

Police found bloodstains on the door of the bedroom where the couple slept, their bed soaked with water, and several spent .40-caliber shell casings. In a Dumpster outside, police found bloody sheets, and the gun, which had belonged to Wyche, under the house.

Powell-Wyche was shot several times in the back and was lying face down in her bed. A bullet was found lodged in the floor below. Wyche was also shot multiple times including the head, neck and hands. His thumb was shot off, Kelly said, as if he had fought back.

In exchange for his pleas, two additional firearms charges were dropped against Powell, 22, who was soft-spoken during the brief hearing Friday in Richmond Circuit Court.

He is slated to be sentenced in June when he faces up to 40 years in prison on each count.
Richmond police are growing increasingly vague in the two weeks since a collision involving a police SUV led to the death of two teens.

In addition to denying the Richmond Times-Dispatchs Freedom of Information Act request for body-worn camera footage of the crash, police now say they dont know who was driving the teens vehicle.

On Wednesday evening, police said 18-year-old Jeremiah Ruffin had died. He had been hospitalized in serious condition since the April 7 crash, in which police initially said he was driving the Buick that collided with a marked Ford Explorer in the intersection of Bells and Castlewood roads in South Richmond.

In Wednesday nights release, however, police referred to Ruffin as the individual believed to be the driver.

In response to reporters questions, department spokeswoman Tracy Walker said in an email on Thursday: It is not yet conclusive who the driver was, it is still under investigation.

Ruffins girlfriend, Tracey Williams, 19, was a passenger in the vehicle and was ejected during the collision, police said a day after the crash. Ruffin was also ejected, police released later that same day. Neither was wearing a seat belt.

Officers Richard Johnson and Dquan Walker were responding to a call for a burglary in progress in the 1500 block of Clarkson Road, about 3 miles west of the collision. That call came in one minute before the 10:42 p.m. crash, the department said.

But the department has not determined how fast either car was traveling, who had the right of way, or whether the officers turned on the SUVs blue emergency lights and siren, as authorized.

After three emails and at least two voicemails since Thursday morning asking these questions, Tracy Walker, the departments spokeswoman, told a reporter Friday that the investigation was still ongoing.

We want to make sure to be true to the evidence, Walker said when asked why police were now unsure who was driving the Buick after initially saying Ruffin was driving.

The seemingly cautious approach to releasing information to the public on this collision appears to be at odds with similar recent cases.

Last month, Richmond police investigated at least three fatal crashes. Within two to four days of each of those collisions, police released details of what happened, including the directions from which the vehicle(s) were traveling, and who was at fault. When asked why a crash involving two of its own officers appeared to be different, Walker said it was because there was more evidence to gather.

On Wednesday, about an hour before releasing that Ruffin had died, the department declined to release the body-worn camera footage, traffic camera video and crash report related to the incident, citing an exemption in the states Freedom of Information Act that allows police to withhold investigative files.

At 6:44 p.m. Friday, Police Chief Gerald Smith said in a statement: As I stated when the accident occurred, we will follow wherever the investigation leads us. We want our community to know we are entering the final stages of the investigation surrounding the circumstances and causes of the tragic fatal collision that occurred on April 7. Once concluded, the full investigation will be turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney for review and next steps.

The police department also will be expected to provide the details of another officer-involved collision that occurred just Friday evening.

At 6:11 p.m. Friday, three cars  a Richmond Police Department cruiser and two civilian vehicles  crashed in the 3800 block of Chamberlayne at the intersection of Laburnum Avenue in North Richmond. One individual and an officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital. A third individual remained on scene, police said.

The collision is under investigation by the RPD Special Operations Division Crash Team.

Earlier in the day, family and friends of Ruffin and Williams blocked traffic at the crash intersection, chanting No Justice, No peace. Some of the group of about 30 people had just come from Williams funeral. Two Richmond police officers responded and asked the people to clear the intersection, which they eventually did, as two more police cruisers arrived.

Lying among shards of glass, taillights and other detritus scattered across the sidewalk from the crash is a memorial to the two teens. Candles, balloons, flowers, stuffed animals and messages written in bright markers adorn a light pole at one corner. Crime scene tape flaps in the wind.

Atop each of the four traffic lights at the busy intersection are cameras. Police would not confirm if the cameras captured the collision.

The two officers suffered head injuries, but police would not provide an update on their status this week. Their SUV was knocked off the road into two poles  before coming to rest by a fence.

Johnson, who was driving the police SUV, became a sworn Richmond officer on Feb. 18, 2021, the department said in response to a FOIA request on Wednesday. Walker graduated from the Richmond Police Training Academy 124th Basic Recruit Class on March 17, 2022.

On Friday evening, however, the police spokeswoman said both Johnson and Walker were hired about 11 months prior to those dates. The police academy lasts just eight weeks, and Tracy Walker could not say what they were doing in the meantime.

arockett@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6527 Staff writer Mark Bowes contributed to this report.
Six people were shot, one fatally, within a span of about eight minutes on Friday evening at three separate locations in Petersburg. At least four of the victims, including children ages 11, 12 and 16, were just enjoying the evening when they were struck by gunfire, police said.

The spate of gun violence in such a short span had Petersburg authorities scrambling to keep up, with Police Chief Travis Christian calling Virginia State Police for assistance. Police have not determined if the three shooting incidents are related.

It was eight minutes between all three calls, said Petersburg Deputy Police Chief Emanuel Chambliss on Saturday. Our detectives are still out right now, working on trying to determine if theyre related and whos responsible.

The first call police received at 8:44 p.m. was of shots fired along a retail strip in the 1800 block of South Crater Road. Upon arrival, officers learned the shooting had actually occurred a block east in the 1800 block of Fort Mahone Street, where a party was being held in a commercial building.

Officers located Jamar Jones, 30, of Petersburg, suffering gunshot wounds. He died after being taken to a hospital.

The shooting occurred in a commercial space that can be leased for parties, and Jones was reportedly among the undetermined number of people attending a party there Friday evening, Chambliss said.

We havent determined how many people were there, he said. There was evidence [of a shooting] collected on the outside and inside of that location.

As police were at that scene, they received another call of shots fired and at least one person wounded in a residential area in the 200 block of Holly Hill Drive, about a mile south of the Fort Mahone Street shooting.

Officers located four victims at the Holly Hill Drive scene  a man, 31, and three juveniles, ages 11, 12 and 16  Chambliss said. The juveniles included one boy and two girls. None of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries, police said.

They were residents just enjoying the evening and unfortunately got hit by gunfire by somebody being careless, with no regard for human life, Chambliss said. All four were innocent bystanders; theres no indication that they were doing anything illegal while they were at their residence.

Within minutes of the Holly Hill Drive incident, police received a third report of gunfire and a person shot in the 1800 block of Boydton Plank Road, about four miles away in the citys west end.

However, police couldnt locate a victim upon arrival. We did not locate any evidence that a shooting had occurred there, Chambliss said.

Police soon learned a juvenile male suffering from a gunshot wound had been taken by personal vehicle to an emergency medical facility off Interstate 95 in Colonial Heights, Chambliss said. The victim was later transferred to a Richmond hospital.

Due to multiple, coinciding shooting scenes, Petersburgs police chief requested forensic investigative assistance from Virginia State Police to process the crime scene at the Holly Hill Drive location, spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Saturday.

State police provided both uniform [officers] and investigative resources, Geller said. All evidence collected has been turned over to Petersburg Police, which remains the lead [agency] at all three scenes.

Anyone with information about the shootings or heard or saw anything at the three locations is urged to contact Petersburg/Dinwiddie Crime Solvers at (804) 861-1211. Information can also be provided anonymously at www.p3tips.com. Crime Solvers pays a reward for tips that lead to an arrest and conviction.
A small group of Mechanicsville High students protested Friday afternoon in front of the Hanover County school to continue to publicly remind the countys School Board of its duties to protect transgender students.

About a dozen students  joined by a few parents and supporters  lined the outside of the fence on a narrow grassy easement that parallels the school along Lee Davis Road, at the intersection with U.S. 360, on a busy Friday after the school day ended at 3:45 p.m. That space is not school property.

Students waived rainbow flags and chanted at passers-by, garnering some honks of support. Occasionally, passing drivers yelled slurs.

Mechanicsville freshman Aspen Coake, 15, said that she and other students had originally planned the protest to happen weeks ago, and that it was going to be on school grounds and during the school day.

With threats of suspensions from school administrators, however, Coake said they instead chose to organize the protest for after school on Friday, and told school officials theyd meet on that easement because it wasnt school property.

Friday was the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network Day of Silence, a national student-led demonstration that began in the 1990s. On the day, LGBTQ students and their supporters do not speak during the school day as a means of protesting the harassment and discrimination faced by students in those communities. Coake said she and roughly 20 other students took a vow of silence during the school day.

Mechanicsvilles protest was the second Hanover student-led protest in about a month, sparked by those who opposed the Hanover School Boards March 8 vote to allow Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative organization with established anti-LGBTQ views, to review its equal educational opportunities policy.

On March 18, dozens of Atlee High students walked out around 2:10 p.m.  the school day ends at 3:45 p.m.  as LGBTQ students parents and supporters stood across Atlee Station Road to support them.

The ADF vote was the most recent action taken by the board relating to transgender students, though the issues had been swirling for months. Under a 2020 state law, Virginias school divisions were required to have model policies on the treatment of transgender and nonbinary students in place before the school year began last September.

Hanovers board did not vote on the policy changes until last November. While it voted then to change policies to allow students to use the names and pronouns of their choice, the board stopped short of approving policy changes that would have explicitly allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that aligned with their identity.

Some Atlee students last month were given three-day suspensions for their participation in the protest at their school, with a one-day reduction offered if they met with school officials later for a professional learning session.

School officials said last month that discipline varies by incident, and that the consequences following the Atlee protest were consistent with other such instances, including a protest last September at Patrick Henry High. Then, Patrick Henry students walked out during the school day to call attention to students mental health needs after the suicide of a Patrick Henry student.

Following that event, in which some students lingered outside on school grounds for hours and did not return to school as directed by administrators, some students received 10-day suspensions.

On Friday, Hanover Schools spokesman Chris Whitley issued a statement about the Mechanicsville protest, saying that the school division respects students rights to free speech, freedom of expression and civic responsibility while also keeping a safe, productive learning environment as the priority.

We are pleased that both were upheld today, the statement said. Students followed the Code of Student Conduct and observed all behavior and attendance requirements by reporting to and staying in their designated, supervised areas during instructional time and without causing a disruption to the instructional day.

This is what we ask of all students each day, it said, and we commend them for abiding by these expectations.

Mechanicsville student Grace Glidden stood along the fence line Friday.

I actually stopped going to the lunchroom during the school day just for the amount of slurs I would hear, Glidden said. I eventually just started staying in the art room during lunch, just because of the amount of hate going around in the lunchroom.

Gliddens mother, Bobbie Reeves, also joined the protest.

I am out here supporting my children and all of the kids at this school who feel like they cannot be themselves  theyre afraid to be themselves, Reeves said, and a lot of staff in the schools dont want them to be themselves, either.

These kids need to feel loved, they need to feel accepted, Reeves added. If you cant be kind, dont say anything at all.

Atlee students suspended for LGBTQ-related "unapproved student walkout" Some Atlee High School students are being suspended this week following their participation 

Transgender issue brings crowd to Hanover supervisors meeting The emotional vortex swirling around the Hanover County School Boards handling of transgend
Editor's note: This is the second of three stories examining how policy decisions and a limited investment into the Virginia Department of Health led Latinos to being among the most likely to get infected, hospitalized and die in the first two years of the pandemic. Read Part 1 here.

Her final messages to him were all desperate variations of "are you still alive?"

Please don't be dead.

I can't do this without you.

Don't make me do this without you.

For much of the past 20 months, Maria Fuentes has hidden her grief so she doesn't have to tell her three grandchildren why he never answered them  why he never came home.

When they ask why they haven't seen him, she says he left for his construction job before they woke up and returned long after they went to bed. Sometimes, she concocts stories about how he went back to Guatemala to take care of his family and cell service isn't too great over there.

Sometimes she lets herself believe it, too  to pretend, however briefly, that her husband Yuki Mendez didn't die in a place he wouldn't have chosen: with coronavirus in a hospital bed and on a ventilator at 40 years old.

"The truth would break them," she said in Spanish, shaking her head.

Left unsaid on the couch of the Southwood townhome they shared for seven years was how for her, the truth almost did.

Two years into the pandemic, COVID is killing more Virginians every day than it was when Mendez died on July 28, 2020. But accepting the scale of mourning has become routine  a ruthless tally reduced to faceless numbers in hopes that looking away can mean finally moving on from an ongoing crisis.

There are an estimated 9 million people like Fuentes in the U.S. reeling from the loss of a loved one to COVID, seeing the countrys rush to heal and return to a normal that will never be within their reach.

"Normal led to the virus killing so many Latinos in the U.S. within two years that their life expectancy dropped by almost four years. Normal allowed nearly 70% of the 1,022 recorded deaths among Latinos statewide to occur in the first half of the pandemic, the same time frame the Virginia Department of Health reported Latinos ages 35 to 44 were dying at 11 times the rate of their white counterparts.

And normal in Virginia meant essential workers and immigrants like Mendez, immunocompromised residents and people inside nursing homes and prisons would be left in a pandemic to fend for themselves.

The speed with which the virus invisibly burned through Virginias Latino communities between March and September 2020 can be seen as an indictment of a generation of federal and state leadership, which repeatedly neglected to pass paid sick leave, prioritize language access or adequately equip its public health department with the tools to thwart disease ahead of a crisis.

A five-month investigation from the Richmond Times-Dispatch found that without the federal money arriving in April, not even one of the richest states in the U.S., led by physicians who swore to prioritize the most vulnerable, could protect them.

For Mendez and others, the help arrived too late.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deployed its first all-Latino COVID response team to Southwood in June following infection rates so severe that local health districts pleaded for help, he was already in the hospital.

He was deteriorating when Google Translate popped up on the VDH site for COVID information on June 18 or then-Gov. Ralph Northams first partially-in-Spanish COVID briefing, where Northam lamented how Latinos were nearly 50% of the states cases and more than a third of hospitalizations.

Virginias workplace protections that could have helped when there wasnt enough protective equipment on the construction site went into place July 27, 2020.

Mendez died the next day.

For others who continue to navigate being uninsured essential workers living in multigenerational households without access to quality health care or paid sick leave, VDHs record $1.4 billion in federal COVID grants isnt a substitute for legislative action.

And it isnt a permanent solution to sustaining a state health department where at least 43% of the full-time workforce in 2021 was propped up by contractors forced to resign when the federal money funding them expires.

The federal relief also couldn't undo the loss of time after more than 20 years of unheeded warnings from public health officials and community organizations signaling how a lack of long-term funding and urgency could prove disastrous in an emergency.

"Americans are great innovators when there's a crisis," acknowledged Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who led Virginia through H1N1 and the financial crisis as governor. "Then we sometimes turn our attention away when there isn't."

In interviewing nearly 70 VDH workers, community leaders, public health experts, legislators and residents at Southwood  a neighborhood home to the largest concentration of Latinos in Richmond  The Times-Dispatch found that the sluggish pandemic response allowed the first year of the pandemic to play out as an answer to who loses when there is a scarcity of resources.

Solutions will require a "genuine desire to work at this problem for a long-period of time," said Madhav Marathe, division director at UVA's Biocomplexity Institute  which has conducted infectious disease modeling for more than 20 years and advised VDH throughout the pandemic.

"If we don't do that, we have essentially lost all the difficult lessons we learned from this, and all of us paid a tremendous price for it," he continued. "This is not just one crisis. There are many more awaiting us ... we should not forget. I really hope we do not forget."

There were moments before March 2020 when it didnt seem like everything was aligning against Maria Fuentes. She survived witnessing her 18-year-old sons final minutes when he was killed in Honduras six years prior, before he could fulfill his dream of owning an auto-repair shop. She followed through on her promise to protect her then 11-year-old daughter by chasing hope in the U.S.

In South Richmond, she found a till death do us part kind of love  someone to face lifes challenges with  who took care of her when her aching hands began to weaken and a hemorrhage left her briefly unemployed.

The first wave of coronavirus upended years of moving forward.

By late March 2020, Fuentes lost her job as a housekeeper. Clients started canceling. Schools began sending kids home. The working-class immigrant neighborhood that became her support system was soon overwhelmed with sickness, with rent looming ahead.

No te preocupes, her husband reassured her.

Construction work is steady, he said. Transportation and construction workers also accounted for nearly half of workplace deaths in the U.S. nationwide in 2020, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then their physically intense labor was deemed essential and employees like Mendez were hailed as heroes by officials.

Words wouldnt shield him from the virus infiltrating his lungs.

The first round of federal COVID relief funds for state and local governments to respond to the pandemic were in limbo through April and May when the General Assembly was unclear on how to distribute the money, couldnt decide how to spend it and had to navigate limitations on its use.

Federal and state officials, The Times-Dispatch found, initially failed to give priority for protective masks or testing to front-line workers outside of those in health care settings, which had a greater chance of having access to gear and accurate COVID information than others in lower-income jobs  especially those not fluent in English.

Statewide messaging also didnt consider basic facts for many working-class Latino families.

Officials said to socially distance when research showed Latinos immigrants were among the most likely to occupy crammed living spaces. They said to stay home when most blue-collar Latinos couldnt. They said to speak to your health care provider when state data showed more than 40% of Latinos in Virginia reported not having one.

In Virginia and most states, there is still little-to-no public accounting of the more specific impact the virus had on workers in front-line occupations like Mendez, immigrants, disabled residents or people who aren't fluent in English. Richmond-area hospitals either do not track COVID deaths by language proficiency or do not publicly release the information.

But a Boston hospital found that early on in the pandemic, their non-English-speaking COVID patients were 35% more likely to die.

A state-ordered language access audit of Virginias agencies released in December 2021 detailed how nearly every state agency  including VDH and suppliers of critical services like rent relief or unemployment  said they could not meet the needs of people with limited English proficiency most of the time.

A 2004 legislative watchdog report and the December audit recommended the General Assembly pass a statewide language access policy to guide agencies through these decisions and prevent similar mistakes. The legislature rejected bills to adopt those recommendations in the 2022 session.

With more than one million people in Virginia estimated to speak a language other than English, there was never any debate on whether we should communicate with non-English speaking communities or communities with limited English proficiency, said Maria Reppas, VDHs director of communications. Reppas was tasked with overseeing the procurement of translations alongside the agencys health information team.

It was more the mechanics of how to do it, who should do it, when and the frequency of those materials being translated, Reppas continued.

Internal emails at VDHs central office from the first month and a half after Virginias first case detailed a consistent scramble to keep up with translating the volume of materials as information kept rapidly changing. Oftentimes, the fastest option was to pull documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Spanish language materials couldnt always be easily found on the VDH website, if at all. Neither could the other five most common languages in Virginia  prompting sharp criticism from organizations who took on the burden of translating information for their communities to ensure COVID information was getting out.

Members of the Virginia Latino Advisory Board said they were translating executive orders through May 2020. Sacred Heart Center, a Richmond nonprofit focused on Latino communities, was shifting money to call thousands of Latinos to share COVID updates and ask what they needed. Richmonds Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement was translating local orders. Spanish radio was relaying information about school closures because at the time, most correspondence was in English.

Fuentes, who struggles to read in Spanish, turned to national Spanish media like Telemundo for coronavirus information and then later relied on community health worker Shanteny Jackson and medical interpreter Xiomara Vidal, the two VDH workers in Southwood who had spent years building trust among residents of the nearly 1,300-unit apartment complex.

They had helped Fuentes vaccinate her children. She had seen them transport residents to get groceries for their families, helped them pay their taxes and connected people to organizations for domestic violence survivors. But the misinformation moved faster than they could.

On April 15, 2020, Jackson emailed her supervisors at Richmond and Henricos health districts.

Residents worried the virus was spreading, she wrote, and they were unsure how to keep safe. They needed more resources, more information on how to protect their families. Richmond City Health District launched a testing event the following week, but Fuentes heard in conversations with her friends that being tested was painful.

So she never went.

Two weeks later, Oliver told reporters there wasnt a good breakdown of COVID data available for Latinos. Fairfax Health District said laboratories werent consistently reporting it, but what the local health department had was Latinos accounting for 51% of infections.

By mid-May, Fuentes couldnt taste what she was cooking. At first, she thought she forgot to salt the frijoles. Then a man she had given food to the week before couldnt smell the meals Fuentes prepared for him, and her husband came home from work feeling feverish. Her headaches began coinciding with a heaviness in her body that wouldnt subside.

She tried to self-medicate to alleviate the symptoms. Some Vicks VapoRub underneath the nose. Hot tea to coat the throat. Soups to settle the stomach.

But every day she felt a little better, her husband kept getting worse. His feet swelled so much he couldnt walk and his chest refused to take in a full breath of air.

Fuentes didnt think the last time she would see him would be the day he entered Chippenham Hospital in May. They were meant to grow old together. They were meant to have more memories.

In one of his final voice memos to Fuentes, Mendez urged her not to give up on Southwood  to not let go of the apartment they built a life in. But the rent relief she was eligible for was only in English. When she called the line, speakers answered in English.

They still do.

She quietly sobbed as she recalled his words to a reporter and gripped the gold chain with an attached crimson pendant that used to be his. The inscription read, "el cuerno de la abundancia." The cornucopia of abundance  a symbol of peace and prosperity.

For the past year and a half, she's prayed for both.

Virginia officials promised the data was driving the COVID response when the data was incomplete and relying on outdated and underfunded data systems that for at least a decade, local and state officials forewarned couldn't handle a public health crisis.

Without enough VDH workers available who knew how to trudge through what existed, delays on knowing where to marshal resources were predictably inevitable. Ethnicity and race, for example, were separated on a state level until June 15, making the statewide devastation on Latinos unknown for months.

Richmond and Henricos health districts, which is one of the most well-resourced local health departments in the state, had one full-time data person and one epidemiologist who spent roughly half their time dedicated to data analysis when the pandemic started.

And even then, local public health workers like Deanna Krautner, Richmond and Henricos chief operations officer, likened their ability to respond to building the plane while we were trying to fly it at the same time.

When little was known about the virus and even less was made public about where the virus was spreading, legislators called on VDH to expand its demographics data, publish infections by ZIP-code and list the outbreaks inside nursing homes.

Last year, then-state health commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver told The Times-Dispatch that he couldnt stand up at a media briefing and say VDH only had four people working on this at the time.

But that was the truth, he said.

An indirect result of this means to this day, some of the best information in the months before June 2020 about what the impact on Latinos looked like lies in anecdotes from the people who were living through and responding to the panic on the ground.

More than 15 Southwood residents and community leaders recalled stories of employers telling workers if they stayed home, theyd be fired or not paid. Others were requiring a negative test to return to work when test results were taking weeks to arrive, making people avoid getting tested to dodge the possibility. Some testing sites were open only during work hours.

Church leaders told The Times-Dispatch of construction workers in their congregation being worried about crews from New York City joining Richmond and Chesterfield sites to help with staffing at the height of the early surge. Entire households were getting infected and wouldn't seek testing in fear of public charge  a Trump-era rule that threatened to affect the immigration process of any non-citizen who sought out public benefits  or misinformation around costs for uninsured people.

When the CDC arrived to Richmond to provide damage control of the severe infection rates among Latinos, CDC team member Francisco Ruiz said in a press release of their findings that, Through our conversations with community members, it was apparent that the current political climate had a direct effect on health seeking behavior among Latino immigrants.

We learned that a hostile atmosphere around immigration and immigrants hindered health-seeking behaviors.

The CDC did not make the response team available for interviews.

VDH officials were hesitant to talk about the influence of politics in public health, especially in a pandemic undermined by the Trump administration  a pattern public health historian Merlin Chowkwanyun said is common when funding streams rely heavily on the federal government and "can be jeopardized if one is a little too overly critical."

But in State Board of Health meetings, some board members grew increasingly concerned with how little support public health seemed to receive in the then-Democrat-controlled state legislature, noting how without them, overcoming the pandemic would be near impossible.

I reached out to a number of legislators on both sides, asking them to be particularly supportive of what we as a Board were recommending, and I didnt get much response, said Board of Health member Jim Edmondson in a Sept. 3, 2020 meeting. We need some help. We need some champions in the legislature. And at the moment, I dont think we have them.

It's been almost two years since Fuentes last held her husband's hand. Sometimes she still reaches for it.

Sometimes she peeks out the door at 5 p.m. when the construction crews start arriving home as if he'll be among them. Sometimes she looks over her shoulder after flipping tortillas on the comal at dinnertime as if he's sitting in the high-top dining chair ready to make her laugh again.

Instead, there's only the reminder of the virus that killed him.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Fuentes took out a stack of photos she hasn't looked at since the month before he died. He loved documenting everything, she said. The stills depicted a grinning 19-year-old Mendez with the world ahead of him  at Libby Hill Park. In front of his first Southwood apartment. Beside his three children.

Fuentes wishes she could tell politicians how it didn't have to be this way  that another world is possible.

"And we deserve to see it."

Reporting for "Essential and Overlooked" was supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2021 National Fellowship and the Dennis Hunt Fund for Health Journalism.
Ranked-choice voting is:

a) Election reform that will enhance both voter options and the chances of Black political aspirants in Richmond.

b) Yet another undemocratic scheme to dilute Black political power in Virginias capital city.

c) A solution in Richmond in search of a problem.

Ranked-choice voting is now before the Richmond City Council as a result of enabling legislation by the Virginia General Assembly that extends the option to localities. The proposal would allow voters to rank candidates in order of their preference.

The candidate who gets 50% or more of first-choice votes wins outright. If that doesnt occur, vote tabulating continues with the lowest-finishing candidate eliminated. That candidates supporters then have their votes transferred to their second choice. This instant runoff continues until a candidate wins a majority.

City Council members Katherine Jordan, Andreas Addison and Stephanie Lynch are patrons of a measure that would install this process for the councils 2024 elections. Ranked-choice voting has the support of the League of Women Voters, the Richmond Crusade for Voters and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, who advocated for it during her campaign for governor.

Jonathan Davis, president of the Crusade, a venerable Black voter organization, says ranked-choice voting provides more opportunity for people to seek elected office. With gentrifying Richmonds changing demographics, this actually gives candidates of color a chance to be more competitive in races moving forward, he said.

I hope council members really consider this as an opportunity for voters and a way of leveling the playing field for future candidates, and arent more concerned about protecting their seats, he added.

Any election reform in Richmond sags beneath the weight of the citys historic suppression of the Black vote, including the 1970 annexation of a portion of Chesterfield County designed to dilute Black voter power in the city. As part of a subsequent lawsuit, council elections were suspended for seven years. In 1977, Richmonds previous at-large election system was replaced by the current district system, which led to the election of the first Black majority on the council and the citys first African American mayor, Henry L. Marsh III.

Richmond is no longer a majority-Black city. The Voting Rights Act has been gutted by the Supreme Court. The Republican Party has been engaged in efforts to suppress Black voter turnout.

In this context, youd want any election change  even one with substantial Black support  to be unanimous. Particularly a measure with three white patrons. (Black councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert signed on as a patron Friday.)

Sean Dugar, executive director of More Voice DC, has been leading the campaign for ranked-choice voting in Washington while keeping an eye on Richmond.

Voters want to have a say, a greater say, in whos elected, he said. Ranked-choice voting allows communities of color, and especially Black voters, to consolidate their power as these populations dwindle in these communities because of gentrification.

He ticked off examples of how ranked-choice voting has empowered historically marginalized voters: the election of Eric Adams as the second Black mayor of New York City; London Breeds election as mayor of San Francisco, whose Black population is only 6%; a historic female majority on the city council of New York; and a Salt Lake City city council where a majority of members identify as LGBTQ and as people of color.

Richmond Councilman Michael Jones is unconvinced by Dugars data and unmoved by the Crusades support for the idea. He says he needs more information on how this proposal affects communities of color.

If the General Assembly is all for it, why arent their elections going to be ranked-choice voting? he asked. If they believe its the right thing to do, then put it across the board.

At least one other council member, Ellen Robertson, is also skeptical. She says she has been advocating for a comprehensive review of the Richmond City Charter, and views this proposal as a piecemeal approach. Shes uncertain what problem the city would be correcting with ranked-choice voting. And she wonders why other city elections would be exempt.

I can tell you, if its just for City Council, I will not vote in support of it, she said.

Given Richmonds electoral history  and the reduced level of federal oversight  such a dramatic change in our voting process should be by consensus and across the board.

I find the idea of ranked-choice voting appealing. Election choices are not always clear-cut. But if ranked-choice voting is as beneficial as advertised, why should Richmonds voters for mayor, School Board or commonwealths attorney be left out?

A change designed to promote more inclusion shouldnt be exclusive.

If were expanding choice in voting, Richmond should go big or go home.
A circuit court judge on Friday found that the state Office of Emergency Medical Services violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and ordered the agency to comply with a request from an advocate for addiction recovery.

The case stemmed from a monthslong back and forth in 2021 between the recovery advocate, Michael McDermott, and OEMS, which is under the Virginia Department of Health.

The offices failure to provide data it previously had turned over pushed me to the brink, McDermott said in an interview. Its a shame that public dollars had to be used here.

Judge Timothy K. Sanner in Goochland County ruled that the offices referral of McDermott to an online data portal violated FOIA because the portal doesnt have all the information he asked for and the office didnt cite any FOIA exemption. The judge found the data portal is failing to comply with FOIA and found that some data on overdoses may have been omitted.

The judge ruled that McDermott prevailed in his case, and ordered the office to either provide McDermott with the data he requested or cite a FOIA exemption by May 9.

He ordered the office to pay $200 for McDermotts court filing fees and $5,850 in attorneys fees. Attorney Andrew Bodoh represented McDermott.

McDermott, 69, is recovering from substance use from his mid-teens until he was 41, and now helps others in recovery. He gathers state overdose data and analyzes it in charts on his website, Faces and Voices of Recovery of Virginia (www.favorva.org).

After receiving data on overdoses reported to EMS agencies in Virginia from 2017 to 2020, McDermott sought 2021 numbers. Thats when, he said, he began months of phone calls and emails with state officials, who told him that a data migration stemming from a new vendor was hindering their ability to provide data.

McDermott took the issue to court, and a Goochland general district court judge in October ruled that the state didnt need to turn over the 2021 data because the data migration was hindering the states ability to do so. McDermott appealed to circuit court for Fridays hearing.

The judge on Friday, after a hearing that lasted about three hours, found that McDermott requested overdose data, including alcohol overdose data, from January 2021 to September 2021. OEMS did not meet a Sept. 30 deadline and never asked for an extension under FOIA, the judge found.

In November 2021, the OEMS associate director referred McDermott to the data portal and told him the data he sought was there.

McDermott analyzed the data in the portal and found that it didnt match the historic data he had for several years prior to 2021; the numbers of overdoses in the portal were significantly lower than the data the agency had previously given him.

He noticed substantial anomalies in the data, Bodoh said in court. All of this indicated that somehow the government was messing up on its data management  that it was not giving him all the data he requested.

McDermott found that while his historic data showed about 50% of overdoses as being alcohol-related, the portal showed that number being only about 5%.

He testified in court that it was only last week that he realized alcohol overdoses were not in the portal data.

McDermott filed his court case against OEMS Director Gary Brown, who sat in the courtroom on Friday.

OEMS Associate Director Adam Harrell testified that alcohol-related incidents are not included in the portal because OEMS does not believe local EMS agencies can accurately determine if someone is intoxicated, and data on alcohol overdoses may not be accurate.

But Harrell acknowledged that the office can provide McDermott with alcohol data; the search and data compilation take about 15 days, he said. And he said the office anticipates alcohol data being included in the portal by the end of the year.

Theres another wrinkle in the case aside from the lack of alcohol overdose data in the portal.

The overdose data that is available in the portal shows a steep drop-off in overdoses in the summer of 2021: The number was 1,900 in May and 2,000 in June, then it dropped to 750 in July and just 275 in August before returning to standard levels, McDermott said in court.

Bodoh asked OEMS Harrell about that, and he agreed it was an anomaly.

I see an area in that graph that needs further research by epidemiologists, Harrell testified.

Bodoh argued that even if OEMS does not think its alcohol-related data is accurate, McDermott still has a right to get that public information and interpret it how he wants.

Bodoh acknowledged that the office was trying to help the public by making data available in the portal, but said the office still needed to comply with FOIA. And it needs to fix any problems with the portal so other people will get truthful data, he argued.

Assistant Attorney General Krista Mathis Samuels, representing OEMS, said the office believes the data in the portal is accurate, and officials thought they had reached an agreement with McDermott. But she acknowledged the FOIA violations.

Obviously, there are issues with the way that my client responded to the FOIA request, she said.
By Theodore L. Chandler Jr., Thomas R. Frantz and John W. Martin

A big barrier stands in the way for both the Richmond and Hampton Roads regions to realize their full economic growth potential.

That obstacle is the 29-mile stretch of Interstate 64 from the Bottoms Bridge exit in New Kent County to the Lightfoot exit near Williamsburg  a section that transportation officials call the I-64 Gap. This is the one remaining segment of I-64 between Richmond and Hampton Roads that still is only two lanes in each direction. Its a major chokepoint that limits economic opportunities.

The truth is many regions are growing faster than Richmond and Hampton Roads  in population, workforce and, in turn, economic output and gross domestic product. We are falling behind.

We need bold thinking and actions to shift our economic trajectory. This starts with the realization that collaboration, not competition, drives scale and the economic success of nearby localities.

Theres a great example on the West Coast in the Cascadia mega-region. Leaders in three cities  Vancouver, B.C., Seattle and Portland, Ore.  are working together to plan and build an ultra-high-speed rail project linking the metro areas. Closer to home, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., are in conversations related to a similar high-speed rail connector between their airports.

In Virginia, RVA757 Connects has been advancing collaboration between the Richmond (RVA) and Hampton Roads (757) regions. Leaders have been pointing to game-changing opportunities that can benefit both economies and all of our residents in what we call the I-64 Innovation Corridor mega-region. Closing the I-64 Gap tops our list and inspires us to see it as the I-64 OpportUNITY Connector.

The Virginia Department of Transportation estimates this OpportUNITY Connector transportation project will cost $750 million. The General Assembly now is identifying funds for this essential connection. Its time for bold thinking. Fund the entire segment to ignite our mega-regions full potential.

***

Maximizing the economic power of the Port of Virginia

Today, the port supports 436,667 full-time and part-time jobs across the commonwealth, and generates $2.7 billion in state and local taxes and fees. These numbers could grow dramatically.

The port is doing everything necessary to become the U.S. East Coasts leading gateway for global trade. Between 2015 and 2025, the port will have invested $1.5 billion (more than $700 million from the General Assembly) in its infrastructure.

By 2024, it will be the deepest port on the East Coast and handle two-way traffic for the largest vessels. As I-64 is the ports driveway, the I-64 OpportUNITY Connector can help maximize the ports economic impact.

Maximizing the economic impact of Virginia tourism

In 2020, 84.4 million visitors spent $17.5 billion in Virginia, supporting 255,764 jobs in the state. By all accounts, tourism will continue to grow, given Virginias cultural amenities, outdoor recreation experiences and numerous historic sites. The I-64 OpportUNITY Connector will shore up one the key transportation arteries that supports this economic driver.

Maximizing the impact of corporate investment

Our mega-region is in the process of creating new 21st-century, talent-attracting industries, from offshore wind to advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing. The I-64 OpportUNITY Connector will support these new jobs, enabling reliable access for the workforce and for suppliers.

Consider this recent economic development announcement: AutoZone plans to spend $185.2 million to establish an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in New Kent County along I-64, creating 352 new jobs. Trucks will need a congestion-free route along I-64 to transport products to and from the Port of Virginia, and from the distribution center to stores on the East Coast.

Bottlenecks and slowdowns can cause a significant loss of time for truckers and workers. Adding a third lane in each direction is essential to solving this problem.

Maximizing the opportunity to become a Global Internet Hub

On the eastern edge of our mega-region, subsea cables connect the United States to Spain, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and very soon to South Africa. These are the most modern, highest-capacity routes in the world.

On our mega-regions western edge in Henrico County, Facebook has invested $2 billion in a huge data center campus. Henrico also is home to the worlds fourth largest internet integration center.

All along the corridor, local public- and private-sector players are expanding terrestrial and wireless network capacity. The I-64 Innovation Corridor mega-region is on the way to becoming a Global Internet Hub.

This designation will attract attention and, in turn, companies with high-paying tech jobs to our mega-region. But this growing employment base must be able to connect hassle-free.

***

This is the time to take a bold step. Remove the 29-mile chokepoint. Fund the OpportUNITY Connector to physically and symbolically unify the Hampton Roads and Richmond regions as an economic powerhouse. This will create a better tomorrow for everyone who lives, works and plays in the I-64 Innovation Corridor.
Stacker compiled the most popular baby names for girls of the 1970s in Virginia using data from the Social Security Administration.
" " Large portions of Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden fall within the Arctic Circle's borders. So does the majority of Greenland, which is pictured here. MB Photography/Getty Images

We all depend on sunlight, but unless you live at the equator, you won't get the same amount of it every day. Ours is a tilted world, friends. Like all the planets in this solar system, Earth rotates around an axis, an imaginary line between its North and South poles. At the same time, it orbits the sun, finishing a new lap every 365.25 days.

That cosmic ballet is an intricate dance. Relative to its pathway around the sun, Earth's axis is tilted at a 23.5-degree angle. If it weren't for that helpful tilt, seasons as we know them wouldn't exist. The skewed axis is also responsible for one of the world's most astonishing places: The Arctic Circle.

Geographers define the circle as everything at or above 66 degrees and 34 minutes north latitude. (Put simply that means the exact dividing line falls between the 66th and 67th parallels in Earth's Northern Hemisphere.)

It's a region marked by strange hours. Throughout this area, the center of the sun never climbs above the horizon during the winter solstice  the shortest day of the year. Here, the skies can be dark at high noon or sunny at midnight. Yet life persists. The Arctic Circle encompasses 4 percent of the global surface. And for hundreds of thousands of people, it's also home sweet home.

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1. Eight Countries Own Land There

Jetting into the Arctic Ocean, Alaska's Point Barrow is the northernmost tip of the United States. Of course, Alaska's not the only place that penetrates the Arctic Circle. Large portions of Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden also fall within the Arctic Circle's borders. So does the majority of Greenland, a territory held by the Kingdom of Denmark. (Sorry Mr. Trump: The Danish won't sell it.) Last, but not least, Grimsey Island  an Icelandic holding  is split by the circle.

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2. Murmansk, Russia Is the Biggest City

Around 295,000 people live in Murmansk, a port city founded in 1916 at the height of World War I. One of its Soviet-era landmarks, the 236-foot (72-meter) Arktika Hotel, is the tallest building north of the Arctic Circle.

The region's second-largest city is Russian, too. Norilsk, a community of some 179,554 souls, is famous for its mining operations and the historic Nord Kamal Mosque. Outside of Russia, the Arctic Circle's most populous municipality is Troms, Norway, which boasts the world's northernmost university.

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3. It Doesn't Plunge Into Total Darkness

Even when the sun's out of view, the twilight it produces can still illuminate the skies. And guess what? Many communities above the Arctic Circle receive plenty of twilight in the darkest stretch of the year. Consider Utqiagvik, a city in far north Alaska. For 65 days each winter, the sun doesn't rise there. Yet during this same period, Utqiagvik gets three to six hours of daily twilight.

But maybe that's not good enough for you. Maybe you're an Arctic tourist who'd like to experience twilight-free, star-studded darkness for days on end. (Hey, we're not judging.) That's a phenomenon called "astronomical polar night." And it's only known to take place at latitudes higher than 88 degrees 33 minutes north, far above cities like Utqiagvik  or any human settlements for that matter. Where it occurs, the astronomical polar night lasts for roughly 11 weeks, not half the year as some sources claim.

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4. The Sun Hangs Out for Months

Santa Claus has ample time to get nice and tan. At the North Pole, the sun rises on the spring equinox in March. Then it lingers in the sky  without setting  until September's autumn equinox comes along. Between those dates, the big old star reaches its highest point in the polar sky on the summer solstice every June.

Because of its penchant for extended daylight, the Arctic Circle has been nicknamed "The Land of the Midnight Sun." That said, the sun hangs around for longer stints at high latitudes  so not everyone inside the circle gets to enjoy a full six months of sunshine. Over in Troms, the "Midnight Sun" period goes on for just two months.

On Jan. 1, 2011, Arctic communities were treated to a rare solar eclipse (albeit, a partial one). Due to the sun's position, onlookers in Troms saw it unfold at 11:30 p.m. local time.

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5. It's Way Colder in the Antarctic Circle

Textbooks like to say the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents, while the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by an ocean. Here's something you might not realize about the arrangement. All that seawater under the North Pole moderates the climate to some extent. Yet the South Pole doesn't have this luxury. As a result, the average winter temperature down there is a wicked -76 degrees Fahrenheit (-60 degrees Celsius). By comparison, the North Pole's mean winter temperature of -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees Celsius) feels downright balmy.

Just as there's an Arctic Circle, the Antarctic has a circle of its own. This begins at around 66.5 degrees south of the equator. Unlike its northern counterpart, the Antarctic Circle doesn't have any permanent human settlements. (Research stations don't count.)

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6. The Arctic Circle Is Shrinking

Nothing lasts forever. Slowly but surely, Earth's axial tilt is changing  and with it, the Arctic Circle. Every 40,000 years or so, this crucial tilt shifts from an angle of 22.1 degrees to a sharper 24.5-degree incline. Right now, we're in the middle of one such cycle. While that's going on, the boundary line that defines the Arctic Circle retreats by about 46 to 49 feet (14 to 15 meters) northward per year.

Remember Grimsey Island, the Icelandic outcrop we mentioned? Well, scientists project that the Arctic Circle will leave the island behind by about the year 2050. Locals are using a concrete ball weighing about 8.9 tons (8.16 metric tons) to mark its progress. Year by year, the sphere has moved to keep pace with the Arctic's receding circle.

" " The exact dividing line for the Arctic circle falls between the 66th and 67th parallels in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. Cburnett/Wikimedia Commons (CC by XYZ),

Now That's Interesting Twilight comes in three categories: civil, nautical and astronomical twilight. Respectively, these occur when the sun's geometric midpoint is 6, 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon. Of the trio, astronomical twilight is by far the dimmest.
" " Are we living in a simulation? That's what Daniel and Jorge want to know on their new podcast. DanielandJorge.com

The idea seems comical at first: What if we're all characters in a giant computer simulation controlled by superior beings? But a lot of scientists aren't laughing at the notion. In fact, some think there's a decent chance we truly are living in some sort of virtual reality.

Particle physicist Daniel Whiteson and roboticist-turned-cartoonist Jorge Cham tackle this mindboggling notion in the "Are we living in a simulation?" episode of their new podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe. The podcast digs in to some of the simple, yet profound, questions about the universe in an easy-to-understand manner.

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Whiteson, who works at CERN, says while many scoff at the sci-fi notion that we're living in a computer simulation, they should take it seriously. "Part of the job of being a physicist is being prepared for making mind-blowing discoveries," he says. "The best kind of physics discoveries are the ones that completely change your view of the universe."

One person who has no problem being open to crazy, new ideas is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and one of the more influential players when it comes to futurism. In an interview at Code Conference 2016, Musk noted that in just 40 years, gaming has advanced from the Neanderthal-like "Pong" of the 1970s to today's sophisticated and realistic online games, which can be played by millions simultaneously. Based on such rapid advancement, Musk said it won't be long before we're able to create simulations indistinguishable from reality. Couple that with today's insane computing speed, and Musk said it's quite possible an advanced civilization of the future created a computer simulation of their ancestors  us  to see how we lived. Meaning that the advanced civilization and the future are now, and we're not real.

Whiteson and Cham agree with the video games analogy. Though Cham is more skeptical, Whiteson refutes the argument that because the universe feels so real, it couldn't be a simulation. Computers are getting way more sophisticated all the time.

"Physics is trying to figure out what are the rules of this universe, what [is] the underlying code that runs this universe," says Whiteson. After all, the universe does seem to follow some rules. "Now that we have powerful computer programs, people wonder, if you were in a computer program and trying to figure out the rules of that simulated universe were, you'd be essentially trying to understand what is the physics coded into that universe."

"You'd be a physicist," agrees Cham.

At a 2016 debate held at the American Museum of Natural History, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium, put the odds at 50-50 that we're not real, pointing to the fact that while we share more than 98 percent of our DNA with chimps, humans have a far superior intellect. Thus, he said, it's possible  likely, even  that there are others out in the universe much smarter than we are, who might delight in creating a fake universe, just for fun.

So how would we go about testing whether the universe is real or just a giant simulation? That's the tough part. The hypothesis may be largely untestable. But Whiteson and Cham have some theories about how they would do it. To find out what those are, you'll have to listen to the podcast.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Pong first debuted in 1972, as an arcade video game; the first console was placed in a Sunnyvale, California bar. In 1975, Sears released a home version of Pong under the brand name Tele-Game.
FLORENCE, S.C.  A 17-year-old was found dead Saturday morning after a shooting in Florence.

Capt. Mike Brandt of the Florence Police Department said the body was lying in a driveway at 700 Philadelphia Place when officers arrived to investigate a report of a shooting. The shooting happened about 2:30 a.m.

The 17-year-old was Dairyontae Thurston Shaw of Dixie Street, according to Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken. He said an autopsy would be performed at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
LAKE CITY, S.C.  ArtFields 2022 opened Friday morning with a ribbon cutting and confetti falling in downtown.

This is the 10th year of ArtFields, an event that brings artists from all over the Southeast to town for an exhibit like no other. A community of 6,000-plus residents in the southern part of Florence County, Lake City comes alive from April 22 to April 30 with visitors and artists.

ArtFields is a tremendous boost for local merchants, as well as a place for artists to showcase their work and a destination visitors return to year after year.

Iris Bryant, owner of Bold and Sassy Boutique for 22 years, said ArtFields brings people to Lake City who would not otherwise ever visit.

My sales increase about 70 percent during ArtFields, Bryant said.

Bryant said she is not the only one. Everyone benefits, she said. It improves everyones sales.

Bryant said it is great to see large groups of people walking down the street enjoying the activities and shopping. She said ArtFields introduces Lake City to the outside world.

It allows us to meet, greet and know the artists, too, she said. I have seven pieces of art in my shop. I love getting to meet the artists. You dont know the true meaning of the work until you talk with them or read the artists statement and find out the inspiration s behind it.

David Cackowski and Anne Patton of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were at ArtFields on Friday. This was their second year at the event.

I really enjoyed it. It is a nice town and the people are very friendly, Cackowski said.

While artwork is great and inspiring, they agree that it is the town and townspeople who brought them back.

Patton said, We love it. The whole town is very nice.

Works of art are displayed in businesses and art centers throughout the city. Artists over the age of 18 from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia were eligible to submit to the competition. A team of visual arts professionals reviewed and rated each piece, anonymously and individually. The top-rated artworks were then invited to be a part of the 2022 exhibition. It was announced at the ribbon cutting that more than 400 pieces of art have been included in this years competition.

A jury panel will select the Grand Prize, Second Place and Merit awards while those attending will vote and determine the Peoples Choice Award. Prizes range from $50,000 to $2,000.

Also, more than 250 pieces of artwork are included in the ArtFields Jr. Competition this year. Artists in grades 1-12 from South Carolina were invited to submit work.

For ArtFields Jr., students and visitors from South Carolina who are 18 and under will vote for the Student Choice Awards and a jury panel will select the others. Prizes range from $200 to $75 for elementary grades and from $500 to $200 for middle and secondary grades. There will also be Merit Awards and Student Choice.

On Saturday, visit the Village Green for Concerts on the Green beginning at 11 a.m. The day of food, fun, and live music is sponsored by the city of Lake City and includes featured performers: Kipp Taylor & The Nu Look at noon, Wilson High School Marching Band at 3 p.m., and The Company Band at 6 p.m.

Activities include two video gaming theaters, cornhole open play, field games, face painting and more.

There will be a portrait contest at The Bean Market from 1 to 5 p.m. where artists will compete for more than $3,000 in prizes as they face off in three, one-hour rounds creating portraits of nonprofit employees as models.

Live music will continue on the Village Green from 7:30 to 10 p.m. The Community Band will be playing.

For details on ArtFields events, visit ArtFieldsSC.org. For more details about upcoming events, visit the City of Lake City Facebook page.

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FLORENCE, S.C.  The journey to a better entrance to the city of Florence started Friday with the official announcement that the days of the old Palmetto Inn on East Palmetto Street are limited.

"It's been a long time coming," Mike Miller said after the ceremony. Miller is president of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce. "It's certainly a springboard for many other things that can happen."

"Take a good look at this and know in the future, when you come forward, you will see what your partnership did," Florence Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin said as she motioned to the remains of the motel behind her.

The partnership  between the city of Florence, Florence County, McLeod Health and the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation  made possible the acquisition, demolition and redevelopment of the property.

Ben Zeigler, chairman of the McLeod Health Board of Trustees, said the foundation and the hospital each contributed $358,000  $717,000 total  to purchase the property with the city and county to handle demolition and redevelopment.

"Florence County and the city of Florence will provide additional funds to remove the structures on this property and the city of Florence will develop this property into an expansion of Levy Park and maintain that expansion for this generation and for generations to come," Zeigler said.

The remains of the once-nice motel  now gutted with broken windows, debris scattered rooms and trees growing on the roof  loomed large in the background over the ceremony.

Friday's announcement took place in the parking lot behind the structure.

"This is really a good morning," said Florence City Council member Pat Gibson-Hye Moore. "To see what's happened today, I've been waiting for this partnership for a long time."

Moore said she spent most of her recent life campaigning to do something about the old motel  from her time as a community activist to her stint on the housing authority, school board and now City Council.

"I remember the day it closed, the owner came over to Levy Park and he said, 'Pat, I'm not going to open back up again but I left everything in there.' Before you know it, people broke into it. They took all the copper from the walls. They destroyed the place."

Though possibly redevelopable at one point, the buildings are now beyond redemption.

Moore tried for years to get somebody to turn the building into housing for those in need.

"I didn't want it to sit here like it did for almost 20 years," Moore said. "We always have to look out for our community no matter where in Florence that community might be."

Moore said the blight doesn't look good to people coming in from the airport  and not just 1300 E. Palmetto St.

"I want to come down here the day they first hit it," Moore said of the impending demolition  which will follow asbestos abatement.

The motel was one reason that when industrial development clients came to the county they were taken into Florence from the airport via S.C. 327 and Interstate 95 and not down U.S. 76, several of the speakers noted.

"As an important gateway corridor into our city," Zeigler said, "redevelopment and beautification of this location will create a better, more appealing entrance to Florence for travelers coming from (Florence) regional airport and points east, as well as a better, safer environment for our neighbors who use Levy Park."

The park, Zeigler said, was named in honor of Dr. J.R. Levy  a contemporary to Dr. F.H. McLeod, who founded McLeod Health  who was a leader in the city's health community through the 1936 when he died.

Ziegler said it is a fitting step to link Levy Park with the McLeod campus.

Others who spoke at the event included the Rev. Waymon Mumford, Florence County councilman; Donna Isgett, president and CEO of McLeod Health; Bradley Callicott, executive director of the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation; Buddy Brand II, Forence County councilman; and George JeBailey, mayor pro tempore of Florence.

"It's an absolutely beautiful day, and they're all right, it's about partnership," Miller said. "I believe this is the start of even better things going on down 76 and East Palmetto Street."

Digital Editor Matt Robertson is a veteran journalist who has fulfilled just about every role that a newspaper has and now serves as a key member of the Morning News' newsroom by maintaining SCNow.com and covering the occasional story and photo assignment.

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  13   Mark 33 MONACO MARINE119 2100              3.9%2736     21490     
Dear Helaine and Joe:

This vase came from my husbands great aunt and is about 12 inches tall. It was originally in her home near Detroit. We really do not know much about it. Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,

D. C.

Dear D. C.:

Some questions appear to be easy at first glance. In this case, we knew who made the piece instantly upon seeing a picture of the vase. The picture of the signature only confirmed our conclusion. But then we began our research and things became a bit less clear.

The green sprawl across the bottom is the signature of English potter William Moorcroft (1872-1945), who was an art school graduate and son of a professional china painter. In 1897, Moorcroft went to work as a designer for the James Macintyre and Company pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire.

Within a year, Moorcroft was heading Macintyres art pottery studio and developing lines in the art nouveau taste that were often decorated with specially colored glazes and raised slip (liquid clay piped through a tube) designs. Moorcroft developed his famous Florian line, which was entirely hand-decorated. His work won a gold metal at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair.

Much of Moorcrofts work at Macintyres was sold in London at the famous department store Liberty & Co., and in New York at Tiffanys. Moorcrofts work was soon overshadowing the other products of Macintyre and Company, and his art pottery studio at that company was closed in 1912.

With financial backing from Liberty & Co., Moorcroft established his own art pottery at Cobridge in 1913 with many of the workers former Macintyre employees. Moorcrofts son Walter took over the Moorcroft pottery when William Moorcroft died in 1945. The company is still in business in its original location.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Moorcroft developed a line of pottery called Hazeldene, which generally featured slip outlined trees in a landscape rendered in various shades of blue and green against a cream background. There can be variations in this color scheme (including some done in shades of red), but the vase in todays question is a typically colored example. And at 12 inches tall and 4 inches across the base is a large and highly desirable piece.

Some pieces of Moorcrofts Hazeldene were dated, and some had a Made for Liberty & Co. stamp on the bottom, but D. C.s piece appears to be lacking both marks. The signature is W. Moorcroft des. We believe the des stands for designer or dessinateur, and the Rd No 3979664 is the English registration number or patent for the design itself.

We believe the vase is circa 1905 and at auction would sell in the $3,500 to $4,500 range. Its insurance replacement value would be in the $6,000 range.

(Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques. Do you have an item youd like to know more about? Contact them at Joe Rosson, 2504 Seymour Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917, or email them at treasures@knology.net. If youd like your question to be considered for their column, please include a high-resolution photo of the subject, which must be in focus, with your inquiry.)

2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Texture and tactile materials can help infuse an often ignored sensory element: touch. How often have you enjoyed how something felt, perhaps a furry pillow, textured throw or area rug? Regardless, the decor element of incorporating texture into your space can help elevate your home and please the senses.

Looking for ways to infuse texture into your home? Here are some decor inspiration ideas.

1. Use toss pillows as an opportunity to bring in texture. Materials such as velvet and even some cottons are good places to start.

2. Throws, throws, throws. Throws are portable, come in various colors and materials, and can be a wonderful way to infuse texture.

3. Consider faux fur. Faux fur remains a popular way to bring texture into a space.

4. Wall art can be the ideal way to incorporate texture in an innovative way.

5. Textured, shag and raised area rugs can help bring in an instant textured element.

6. Textiles that can include bedding and drapery can provide a finishing touch to a space.

7. Consider upholstery as opportunities to infuse texture.

8. Small furniture elements such as ottomans and footstools can be used as opportunities to infuse texture.

9. Consider wood and organic elements in areas where you wish to incorporate texture.

10. Greenery. From flowers to plants, greenery helps add a textured element to nearly any space.

(Cathy Hobbs, based in New York City, is an Emmy Award-winning television host and a nationally known interior design and home staging expert with offices in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C. Contact her at info@cathyhobbs.com or visit her website at cathyhobbs.com.)

2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Dearest gentle readers,

It is often said that those who binge delightfully decorated period dramas on Netflix must then obsess over the regency style of design for quite some time. This sentiment is clearly one I hold dear to my heart as I have been searching for not one, not two, but three weeks for the perfect touches to add old world elegance to my spaces. As the end of my season viewing draws near, I believe it is my responsibility to keep you informed so we might bring a bit of "Bridgerton" into the ton before polite society makes their pilgrimage to the country.

Yours truly,

Lady Laughridge

The Regency era is a period of British history defined by wealth and sophistication and known for its elegance and opulence. Amid an artistic renaissance occurring in the upper echelons, color and detail were coveted in the most distinguished of interiors. The aesthetic is a bit reminiscent of the current grandmillennial trend, if not a bit more refined. This design style requires varying degrees of prestige, pattern and glamour to get the recipe just right.

Regency style has many of my favorite things: windows dressed to the nines, luxurious, petite upholstery and delicate, finely carved wooden furniture. It is over-the-top elegance that speaks to the grandmillenial in all of us. This is a perfect style to slowly introduce into a traditional or transitional home aesthetic, as it too is a mix of old and new elements and creates a blend that fits quite nicely with those styles.

This style is also known for its mixing of light and dark furnishings. Try adding light furniture to your dark walls and flooring, or vice versa, for a regal contrast that makes your room pop.

This era in British history was all about designing to entertain visitors; therefore many Regency living spaces observe the design principle of symmetry. Mirrored seating in your room encourages conversation and quite frankly, it's a beautiful way to arrange a room while offering lots of seating options. One fantastic way to replicate this in your own home is to position two sofas (or four chairs) facing each other with a coffee table or ottoman in between. I have done this in my own home and never looked back!

If you have lots of space to fill, consider creating a number of seating and conversation areas within a single space  it's an art, but it can be done. Or, if you dont have much space for furniture, another option is to carve out a separate sitting area just off your main living room to serve as an intimate spot for conversation.

More is more when it comes to Regency style. That means ornate patterns, daring draperies and fancy framing are all encouraged. Pillows, side tables, stools, chandeliers and mirrors add glamour and range to your rooms, especially when they are accessorized with carved details, metallic finishes and other classic motifs.

Add in textiles that look and feel expensive, such as velvet, silk or combed cotton, when it comes to your furniture, window treatments and other upholstered elements. Dont skimp on the trims, tassels or any other small details.

(Adapted from nellhills.com. Katie Laughridge is the owner of Kansas City interior design destination Nell Hill's. For more information, contact Katie at info@nellhills.com.)

2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Perhaps you remember the scene in the "Sex and the City" movie where Mr. Big shows Carrie the wardrobe and dressing room of their penthouse. Carry nearly faints and says, "Darling, I'm home!" I am one of those people who place a big emphasis on closets and dressing rooms and how they are fitted. A tricked-out closet can make anyone feel quite special ... almost like a queen. Here are some tips that will make your heavenly wardrobe dreams come true.

For a dressing room, you need a minimum space of 50 square feet, enough to fit two L-shaped wardrobes with space to move around comfortably, but really, the sky is the limit. Some homeowners are willing to give up an under-used bedroom as a new wardrobe and dressing room. If the space is larger, one can really indulge and integrate extra features such as a three-panel mirror with room for all sorts of cubbies and storage -- maybe even an island.

To calculate the amount of wardrobe and storage solutions you need, start by taking inventory of the quantity and types of garments and other objects you are going to store. Be careful to project -- always a little more.

Changing rooms are usually linked to the master bedroom, so they are usually shared. To be practical, think of specific solutions for each user, depending on the type of clothing and accessories they use.

For shirts and jackets, the wardrobe must be a minimum of 24 inches deep and 3 to 3.5 feet high. For coats and dresses, it must be a minimum of 30 inches deep and needs a 5- to 5.5-foot-high bar. You will need to leave 18 inches between shelves. Remember that for each person, you will need at least 4 feet of linear space to hang things.

If you do not have a separate room to use as the dressing room, a corridor between the bathroom and the bedroom (or a large secluded corner of the room) can serve to create a good place to store.

In a narrow and elongated closet, opt for a single wardrobe from floor to ceiling, taking advantage of all the useful meters to save some space for the passage.

Dressing rooms should preferably have cabinets with two parallel fronts, in the form of an L or a U. Try to plan a flexible system of elements that can move, in case you need another type of dressing in the future.

Parallel Bars

It is the ideal placement for large spaces. Opt for a high cabinet with bars at different heights and space for a luggage rack as well as a low cabinet with drawers, shelves and a shoe rack.

Two Corners Are Perfect for an L

In small rooms or to optimize a corner of the bedroom, use two cabinets in an L shape of 6 feet long.

Is a U for You?

It is the ideal distribution for rectangular or wide square plants, since it allows you to take advantage of all the partitions. It is also perfect for placing a central island with a shoe rack or drawers.

Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an award-winning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. His website is www.josephpubillones.com.

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Dear Helaine and Joe:

Attached are photos of the front, back and enlarged section of an old lamp that was originally a vase. It has been in my family for over 75 years. I believe it is hand-painted and signed by the artist. Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,

G. R. Baltimore

Dear G. R.:

Some call Angelika Kauffmann the Female Raphael of the Arts, and she was one of the most celebrated woman artists as of her day. She born in 1741 in Chur, Switzerland, which is now present-day Graubunden.

At birth she was named Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann, but in English she is known as Angelica Kauffman. She called herself a history painter, worked in the neoclassical style and was known for her portraits and landscapes. She initially painted in Rome and Naples, where she painted portraits of some prominent English visitors to Italy.

She was very successful, and at the urging of Lady Wentworth (aka Lady Bridget Wentworth Murray) she moved to London, where she continued her success. She became a friend of the royal family and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who called her Miss Angel. There are historical rumors about the relationship between the 20-something woman and the much older man (by 17 or 18 years), but there is little to no proof of anything untoward happening.

Kauffman was one of the founding members of the London Academy in 1768 and exhibited paintings in their events. She was also known for her singing voice, which was said to be comparable to the best Roman virtuosi. Upon Kauffmans death in 1807, celebrated sculptor Antonio Canova designed her funeral in the manner of the one held centuries earlier for the Renaissance painter Raphael.

The image on the covered urn/lamp base in todays question is based on Kauffmans work, but it was not executed by her hand. Without any marks, we have to speculate that the piece was probably made sometime between the 1890s and the 1920s and in the style of Royal Vienna.

Overall, the look of the piece appears to be closer to the 1920s than earlier. The brass base of the lamp is typical of the first quarter of the 20th century and is similar to ones found on lamps from the 1910s to the 1920s. Certainly, the decoration on the lamp is in the neoclassical style of Angela Kauffman, but is it is probably a transfer print based on her work. Some brush strokes may have been applied to the piece to make the work look and feel more hand-painted.

Objects with Kauffmans signature can be found readily in todays antiques and collectible marketplace. Boxes, plates, tea sets, urns, lamps, plaques, even furniture pieces feature decorations based on Kauffmans work, bear a Kauffman signature and are collected as late 19th and early 20th century decoration. Single lamps bring about $150 at retail, but pairs are more sought after and can bring $400 and up.

(Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques. Do you have an item youd like to know more about? Contact them at Joe Rosson, 2504 Seymour Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917, or email them at treasures@knology.net. If youd like your question to be considered for their column, please include a high-resolution photo of the subject, which must be in focus, with your inquiry.)

2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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SLOVIANSK, Ukraine  The sound of outgoing artillery and air raid sirens were heard Saturday in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas that had come under Russian attack the day before.

Two servicemen were brought to a hospital from a nearby town, but one of them was mortally wounded and could not be saved.

The Russian strike early Friday had damaged several buildings, including a school.

The war has brought back painful memories for residents of Sloviansk, where in 2014 Ukrainian government forces repulsed Russia-backed separatists after a fierce battle. In the years since, the separatists maintained control over part of the Donbas, and Moscow has now set out to capture the entire region.

Anna Direnskaya, 70, said she and her son and daughter-in-law decided to remain in Sloviansk.

I lived through 2014. I was also here. I didnt go anywhere and I dont want to go anywhere. I am not hiding from myself, she said while sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged apartment building. I want peace.

Direnskaya, who like many in eastern Ukraine is a native Russian speaker, said she wishes the Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and there is no enmity between them.

Why did this happen? Why is this happening? I dont know. Tell everyone I want peace and quiet, she said.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in the east

 Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

 Sanctions hit Russian economy, though Putin says otherwise

 Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

WARSAW, Poland  Poland and Ukraine have signed an agreement increasing cooperation in the railway transport sector, aiming to help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion affects its ports.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polands premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, met on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Morawiecki said on Facebook that they both agreed that current sanctions on Russia are insufficient, which can be seen by the condition of the Russian currency, bonds or inflation. They appealed to the international community for tougher steps that would stop Russias aggression on Ukraine and for more military aid to help Ukraine.

Morawiecki drew special attention to the plight of civilians seeking protection in a steel plant in Mariupol, as he called for the assistance.

In Mariupol soldiers  or rather Russian criminals want to make women and children starve to death. They are waiting until they run out of water. What kind of strategy is that? This is not war. This is genocide.

ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April.

But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.

Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.

NATO-member Turkey has been trying to balance its close relations with Moscow and Kyiv and has positioned itself as a mediator between the two. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia but has closed the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to some Russian warships.

The country has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as talks between the two countries negotiating teams.

BERLIN  Germanys former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: I dont do mea culpa.

In an interview with the newspaper published Saturday, Schroeder also claims that his long-time friend President Vladimir Putin of Russia is interested in ending the war with Ukraine.

Schroeder reportedly blasted German officials who now criticize his efforts to procure Russian energy supplies for Germany, saying that they all went along with it for the last 30 years.

In the interview, he called the war in Ukraine a mistake and said atrocities need to be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself ordered killings of civilians such as those allegedly committed by Russian troops in Bucha.

Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private mission to broker peace with Ukraine, claimed the Russian president is interested in ending the war.

But thats not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified, the New York Times quoted him saying, without elaborating.

LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said he promised more defense weaponry is on the way to Ukraine while speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday afternoon, the latest chat between the two leaders who talk to each other regularly.

The British leader told Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom is sending more weaponry including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.

Johnson also confirmed to Zelenskyy that the U.K. would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also updated the Ukrainian leader on new U.K. sanctions designations against members of the Russian military and told him the British government was helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

The two also discussed the U.K.s work on long term security solutions and financial support with international partners.

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, Downing Street said in a statement.

KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines president says five people including a three-month-old infant were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

HELSINKI  Hundreds of protesters belonging to Latvias sizable Russian-speaking community have taken part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic nations capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscows aggression on Ukraine.

Participants of Saturdays rally entitled The Russian Voice Against War waved Ukrainian flags and posters with inscriptions such as Stop the genocide in Ukraine and Complete Russian gas and oil embargo at the central Freedom Monument, Latvias public broadcaster LSM reported.

Organizers said the protest aimed to demonstrate that many of Latvias Russian-speakers are not aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscows actions criminal.

Ethnic Russians make up around 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, like Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of the all citizens.

Earlier this week, Latvias Parliament unanimously declared killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.

KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official has announced a country-wide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office, said in a video address Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson -- the curfew will run from 7 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

In others regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv and Lviv, the curfew will run from 11 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal, Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.

Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

LVIV, Ukraine  Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Unfortunately, the enemy doesnt have such a concept as a major religious holiday, Kozytskyy wrote. They are so beastly that they dont understand what Easter is.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

KYIV, Ukraine  A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraines National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plants tunnels for up to two months.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness.

Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen neither the sky, nor the sun. We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt, the girl pleads.

Azovs deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.

According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.

KYIV, Ukraine  Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the regions civilian infrastructure 56 times.

Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

KYIV, Ukraine  Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai says that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

Haidai said Saturday on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna got the most of it.

In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. Not all survived, Haidai wrote.

He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.

KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukraine militarys General Staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived to Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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More than two-dozen Woodbury County businesses are a part of a "treasure hunt."

Friday morning, the office of Iowa Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald announced via press release that 26 Woodbury businesses have funds waiting to be claimed through the so-called "Great Iowa Treasure Hunt" which has been in operation since 1983.

"We are a state supported by the hard work of small businesses and local organizations, which is why I want to extend my own helping hand and reunite Iowa organizations with their rightful money," Fitzgerald said in the announcement.

Per the release, the 26 businesses in Woodbury County, and what they are owed, are:

Abra Sioux City, Sioux City- $7,626.43 Deanda Bean Walkers and Detasselers Inc., Sioux City- $3,058.00 Iowa Technology and Education Connection, Sioux City- $2,029.54 Long Lines, Sergeant Bluff- $1,902.08 Plaza Bowl Restaurant, Sioux City- $1,443.5 Select Food Market, Sioux City- $1,440.57 Karen and Kates Cafe Inc., Sioux City- $1,413.35 Sioux Body Shop, Sioux City- $1,067.17 Stabers Meats Inc., Sioux City- $1,052.87 Joe's Mini Mart, Sioux City- $1,028.22 Dorseys Bar Grill In Sioux City, Sioux City- $1,001.00 Moville Evangelical Church of North America, Moville- $995.72 The Micah Project, Sioux City- $992.27 Prestige Collision Specialist, Sioux City- $941.60 Burrito Builders St Joe 301 LLC, Sergeant Bluff- $720.00 Grandpa's Discount Autos, Sioux City- $617.10 El Jalisco, Sioux City- $577.85 Choose Joy Sara Gitz Frankl Memorial Fou, Sioux City- $529.56 Morningside Church of Christ, Sioux City- $492.00 La Momia, Sioux City- $476.77 Dakota Graphics, Sioux City- $454.75 Sergeant Bluff Vol Fire Dept., Sergeant Bluff- $449.97 Artisan Press, Sioux City- $406.85 Simply Photography, Sioux City $356.07 St Mary's Catholic Church, Oto- $342.80 Siouxland Humane Society, Sioux City- $300.00

Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Rescue workers in southern Poland have reached four of the 10 miners who went missing early Saturday after a powerful underground tremor and methane gas discharge hit, mining authorities said. It was the second coal mine accident this week in Poland.

The condition of the four was not immediately released and officials said there was no verbal contact with any of the missing miners. The rescue team could not immediately bring the four to the surface and more teams will be sent to the area, said Edward Pazdziorko, deputy head of the Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa company (JSW) that operates the Borynia-Zofiowka mine.

The accident occurred at 3:40 a.m. Saturday some 900 meters (2,950 feet) underground, forcing dozens of workers to flee the mine and leaving authorities unable to contact 10 miners. It was the second colliery accident in just four days in the coal mining region around the town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, near the Czech border.

Repeated methane blasts since Wednesday at the nearby Pniowek mine have killed five miners, left seven miners and rescue workers missing and injured dozens of others. The search for those missing at Pniowek was suspended Friday after new explosions late Thursday injured 10 rescue workers, some seriously.

Both mines are operated by JSW.

The company said 52 workers were in the area of the tremor Saturday at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine and 42 of them were able to leave the shaft on their own without injury. A rescue operation involving 12 teams was launched for the missing miners but authorities said they had to work carefully due to the high levels of methane still in the mine.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Twitter that this was devastating news again from the mining region and said his prayers are with the missing and their relatives.

He said the accidents will be thoroughly investigated and procedures and equipment at the mines will be examined.

Poland relies on its own coal and coal imports for almost 70% of its energy needs, drawing criticism from the European Union and environmental groups who are concerned about CO2 emissions and meeting climate change goals. Most Polish coal mines are in the southern Silesia region.

The Polish government has been scaling down the use of coal and recently announced it would end coal imports from Russia by May, part of Polands drive to reduce its dependence on Russian energy in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

Follow all AP news about climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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LOS ANGELES (AP)  Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles County during the first year of the pandemic, an increase of 56% from the previous year, driven mainly by drug overdoses, authorities said.

The findings released Friday in a report from the countys Department of Public Health showed that despite initial fears, the virus itself was not the main culprit in deaths among California's largest-in-the-nation unhoused population. But it did cut people off from mental health and substance abuse treatment after services were drastically reduced to prevent the spread of the virus.

Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, the county recorded 1,988 deaths of homeless people, up from 1,271 deaths during the same period a year earlier, the report said.

During both of those years, drug overdoses were the leading cause of death but increased by 78% during the pandemic's first year. In the pre-pandemic year, the Department of Public Health reported 402 fatal overdoses. In the year after the outbreak, the number nearly doubled to 715, the report said.

The report found that 179 homeless people died from COVID-19 during the pandemics first year.

The findings in this report reflect a true state of emergency, said First District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement. In a civil society, it is unacceptable for any of us to not be profoundly disturbed by the shocking needs documented in this years homeless mortality report.

A study of San Francisco homeless deaths released last month showed similar findings: Between March 2020 and March 2021, there were 331 homeless deaths recorded in San Francisco, more than twice the number of any previous year, with the leading cause of death being drug overdose, according to a study conducted by the University of California San Francisco and the citys Department of Public Health.

Los Angeles County is home to the Skid Row neighborhood, notorious for poverty and drugs and where LA's homeless population was once largely confined. Now, rows of tents, cardboard shelters, battered RVs and makeshift plywood structures are familiar sights throughout the nations second-most populous city.

Cities and states across the country are grappling with growing homelessness, as well as mental health crises. California has the largest unhoused population in the country, estimated at 161,000 with nearly a quarter of that number suffering from severe mental illness, according to a 2020 count of homeless people required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The pandemic likely exacerbated an already growing drug and overdose problem, driven by the prevalence of fentanyl, authorities said. Methamphetamine was involved in the majority of deaths, at 75%, roughly the same as the previous year. But the involvement of fentanyl in overdose deaths nearly doubled to 45%, the report said.

The COVID-19 pandemics impact on people experiencing homelessness has clearly extended beyond the immediate effects of this new and deadly virus, said Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. The pandemic has exacerbated stressors already burdening this vulnerable population.

Young, Latino and Black people experiencing homelessness drove the increases in fatal overdoses, the report said.

Coronary heart disease was the second leading cause of death in the first year of the pandemic, accounting for 309 deaths and an increase of almost 30% from the previous year, the report said.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
DES MOINES -- The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday issued a 60-day license suspension for a Sioux City lawyer who was charged with domestic abuse and missed filing deadlines while representing a party in a case.

The court accepted a state grievance commission's stipulated findings that Scott Bixenman had violated state ethics rules. The commission had recommended that Bixenman receive a public reprimand.

In opting to suspend Bixenman's license rather than reprimand him, the Supreme Court justices noted that he has accepted responsibility for his actions and has received treatment for mental health conditions that played a role in his arrest, but they wished "to send a clear message" that domestic violence and other acts are not acceptable in the legal profession.

Bixenman was arrested in January 2020 after a disturbance at his home and charged with assault causing bodily injury, child endangerment and domestic abuse assault. He later entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in which he was admitted to the Woodbury County Veterans Treatment Court program, and upon successful completion the state agreed to dismiss the charges.

Bixenman self-reported his arrest to the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board, and said in his report that he suffers from anxiety and depression and those conditions contributed to the incident that led to his arrest and he was receiving services as part of a treatment program.

Bixenman also was cited for "lack of reasonable diligence" after failing to timely file responses and witness and exhibit lists in a 2018 case, made "half-hearted" responses to the opposing party and did not prepare a stipulated agreement as agreed in the case. His client eventually replaced him with another lawyer.

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SIOUX CITY -- Western Iowa Tech Community College's board has a whole new slate of members.

On Friday morning, the school shared a press release announcing that Russell Wray had been appointed the new president of the board of directors. "Formerly the Vice-President, Wray joined the Board in 1997," the release said.

In addition to Wray's appointment, Tricia Sutherland, who has been a board member since 2019, was named the new vice-president.

The release then concludes by noting that WITCC will also have four new members: Bill Anderson, District 2; Blanca Martinez, District 3, Linnea Fletcher, District 4; Al Aymar, District 7.

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On Saturday, a familiar refrain could be heard for anyone in Siouxland listening to an emergency scanner: "We've got a call about a wire down."

At least six calls about utility lines being down came in to Woodbury County officials on Saturday, five in Sioux City and one near 2345 Moville Blacktop in Hornick which led to a grassfire that needed multiple departments to respond including those from Lawton, Moville, Salix and Sloan. Around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, the southern end of the fire was reported as being out.

Not long after the call came in for the Moville Blacktop blaze, separate calls appeared for fires near Humboldt Avenue and Grundy Avenue.

Within Sioux City, one call about wires being down was reported at Tobacco Hut on Morningside Avenue while another was in a residential area near Marshall Avenue. Another three calls were located on Leech Avenue, Division Street and West 21st Street.

Through 3 p.m., MidAmerican Energy Company's "Outage Watch" page reported that nearly 800 customers in the Sioux City area were affected by power issues.

Leading into Saturday, the forecast for Sioux City called for temperatures reaching 77 degrees and winds, from the South, hitting speeds of at least 30 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, S.D. had a high wind warning in effect until 7 p.m. and a red flag warning up to 8 p.m. According to the National Weather Service, a red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions, strong winds mixed with low relative humidity and warm temperatures, are occurring or will soon.

Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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Ukraine battered again; Zelenskyy says US officials to visit

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  A Ukrainian presidential office advisor says Russian forces have tried to storm a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold in the strategic port city of Mariupol. And Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment. The reported steel mill assault came after the Kremlin claimed its military seized the rest of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials reported that cruise missiles hit the port city of Odesa, killing eight people. The Ukrainian military says two generals were killed when it destroyed a Russian command post in the southern city of Kherson.

Long-serving Utah US Senator Orrin Hatch dies at age 88

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history who was a fixture in Utah politics for more than four decades, died Saturday at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause. A staunch conservative on economic and social issues, he also teamed with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to rights for people with disabilities to expanding childrens health insurance. He also championed GOP issues like abortion limits and helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired in 2019 and was replaced by Republican Mitt Romney.

In election misinformation fight, '2020 changed everything'

WASHINGTON (AP)  As voters get ready for hundreds of elections of local and national importance this year, officials and voting rights advocates are bracing for a repeat of the misinformation that overwhelmed the 2020 presidential election. This year, the voting advocacy group Common Cause hopes to rely on thousands of volunteers to identify misinformation floating around online and push for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to take down the most egregious falsehoods. One official in Ohio says that 2020 changed everything and that fighting election misinformation has got to be a part of our job now.

Russian mercenaries are Putin's 'coercive tool' in Africa

DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  Russia has engaged in under-the-radar military operations in at least half a dozen countries in Africa in the last five years using a shadowy mercenary force analysts say is loyal to President Vladimir Putin. The analysts say the Wagner Group of mercenaries is also key to Putin's ambitions to re-impose Russian influence on a global scale. Wagner fighters are part of the current Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine and have previously been active in conflicts in Syria and Libya. It's less well-known that they have gained substantial influence for Russia in sub-Saharan Africa, where experts say the Kremlin uses them to undermine democracy and turn countries toward Russia.

McCarthy's push to ascend to House speaker relies on Trump

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP)  The next House speaker could very well hail from California, but if Republicans take control, that leader won't come from the part of the state represented by the current speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is a son of Californias Central Valley, a farming and oil-pumping heartland. It's a swath of rural conservatism amid Californias progressive politics. McCarthy is depending on Donald Trump's support to win back the House in November and seize the speaker's gavel. But this past week, McCarthys future as GOP leader was thrown into jeopardy after audio was released of him telling fellow Republicans in the aftermath of the Capitol riot that Trump should resign.

EXPLAINER: Johnny Depp's wild testimony, cross-examination

For three days, Johnny Depp has been testifying in a libel trial that is supposed to be about whether Amber Heard defamed him in a 2018 newspaper op-ed. The trial has turned into a spectacle. Depp has testified about everything from taking pills as a child to using his severed finger to write bloody messages about his ex-wife's alleged lies on the walls. Depp denies ever physically or sexually abusing Heard. And despite the public attention brought to his drug use and his violent text messages, Depp said hes obsessed with revealing the truth and not disappointing his supporters.

French election: Macron in pole position, Le Pen racing hard

PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in France's presidential runoff. Yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home. A victory in Sundays runoff would make Macron the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. It is also expected to have far-reaching repercussions for Europe's future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine. France's April 10th first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates. Who becomes Frances next leader will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday. Polls have already opened in overseas French territories.

EXPLAINER: How South Carolina execution firing squad works

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Its unknown how long a stay will hold off the execution of South Carolinas first-ever inmate to be put to death by a firing squad as his attorneys pursue legal challenges. But the issuance of Richard Bernard Moore's death warrant has renewed interest in how a state puts in motion its plans to shoot an inmate to death. South Carolina had planned to put Moore to death by firing squad on April 29. The state added the method to its approved capital punishment methods last year. Since then, prisons officials have been retrofitting the death chamber to add a slot in the wall through which three volunteers will shoot rifles at the condemn's heart.

Sanctions hit Russian economy, although Putin says otherwise

NEW YORK (AP)  Nearly two months into the Russian-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has taken extraordinary steps to blunt an economic counteroffensive from the West. While Russia can claim some symbolic victories  most notably a recovery in the ruble  the full impact of Western sanctions is starting to be felt in very real ways. Russias economy is facing the worst inflation in seven years, unemployment is growing, companies have shut down operations and the country is in danger of defaulting on its debt. And economists say the full effects of the sanctions have yet to be seen. Rosstat, Russia's economic statistics agency, said inflation last month hit 17.3%, the highest level since 2002.

Tigers' Cabrera gets 3,000th hit; 33rd player to reach mark

DETROIT (AP)  Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera has gotten the 3,000th hit of his decorated career, becoming the 33rd major leaguer to reach the mark and the first player from Venezuela to accomplish the feat. Still an imposing presence at 39, Cabrera made history by grounding a single to right field in the first inning of Detroits game against Colorado on Saturday. Cabrera immediately raised his right arm as he headed toward first base. The crowd of 37,566 at Comerica Park gave him a rousing ovation and fireworks were shot off. The milestone hit came off Antonio Senzatela, a fellow Venezuelan, in the first game of a day-night doubleheader. Cabrera later added a two-run single and finished the day with 3,002 career hits. The Rockies and Tigers split their doubleheader.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utah Democrats pulling hard to defeat Republican Sen. Mike Lee took the unusual step Saturday of spurning a party hopeful to instead get behind an independent, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

Democrats were swayed by calls from prominent members who said McMullin, a conservative who captured a significant share of the vote in Utah in 2016, was the best chance to beat Lee in the deeply conservative state that hasn't elected a Democratic U.S. senator for more than 50 years.

I want to represent you. Im committed to that. I will maintain my independence, McMullin told Democratic delegates.

Lee also faced two GOP challengers at his party's nominating conventions. He handily won in front of the right-leaning crowd with over 70% of the vote. But those candidates will still appear on the primary ballot because they used the state's other path to the primary ballot and gathered signatures.

Former state lawmaker Becky Edwards garnered about 12% of the vote Saturday. Former gubernatorial deputy chief of staff Ally Isom came in third.

Lee's relationship with former president Donald Trump has been front and center since CNN reported on text messages showing that the senator was involved in early efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, though Lee later pivoted and voted to confirm the election results after no widespread fraud emerged.

I did my job, Lee said about the messages. I did my job the way that Ive always promised I would go about doing my job.

McMullin is a former CIA officer ran for president in 2016 and made inroads in the deeply conservative state where where many GOP voters had reservations about then-candidate Trump. Lee himself cast a protest vote for McMullin, though he later became as staunch Trump ally, and the former president has endorsed him.

A Democrat ran for the nomination, Kael Weston, but the pro-McMullin camp ultimately convinced party delegates to nominate no one, clearing the path for the independent as much as possible. His supporters included prominent Democrats like former Congressman Ben McAdams.

I know Evan. I trust Evan," McAdams told delegates during the contentious debate, framing McMullin as the best possible chance to unseat Lee in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 4-to-1.

Republican Party Chair Carson Jorgensen took aim at the Democrats' decision, arguing it showed a weakness in the other party's platform. We as Republicans, nows our time to shine, he said. I dont know if everyone quite understands the gravity of this.

Also Saturday, moderate Republican Congressman John Curtis was forced into a primary, coming in second in a crowded field that included a challenger who brought in longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. The effort didn't carry candidate Jason Preston beyond the first round of voting, however.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP)  Former President Donald Trumps late endorsements in hypercompetitive Republican Senate primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania have unlocked a flood of support for his chosen candidates, including millions in cash.

But the endorsements have also provoked backlash from some Republicans who believe Trump has betrayed his core supporters by backing Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in Ohio and TVs Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Both candidates have been criticized for time spent outside their states and being insufficiently committed to the former president and his America First agenda.

The blowback included calls by a major conservative group aligned with a Vance rival to boycott the rally Trump held in Delaware, Ohio, Saturday night, where he urged his supporters to get behind Vance, calling him the man with by far the best chance to defeat the radical Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate this November."

If you want to deliver a historic victory for America First here in Ohio and also a historic defeat for the people that are destroying our country, JD Vance is your guy," he told the crowd.

Its unclear whether Trumps support will be enough to pull Vance and Oz across the finish line in races that will serve as key early tests of the former presidents clout in this years midterm elections. But the endorsements pose a risk to Trump, who has staked his status as a GOP kingmaker on his ability to mobilize his supporters as he eyes another White House run in 2024.

In Ohio, Trump's support has already been a major boon to Vance, who had been trailing in the polls before Trumps intervention. While allies concede Trump's announcement at 5 p.m. on Good Friday, less than three weeks before the May 3 primary election, may not have been the most desirable timing, the campaign nonetheless reported a 300% increase in online donations  a majority from new donors.

Protect Ohio Values, the super PAC supporting Vance, said it had brought in $5 million since Trump's endorsement, including a $3.5 million check from venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

Both groups are using that money to air new ads trumpeting Trump's endorsement that they expect to run exclusively through the rest of the campaign.

We want to make sure 100% of people know about it. And were going to go all out on that," said Luke Thompson, who runs the super PAC, which has found that Vance's support rises when voters are made aware that he is Trump's pick.

Ohio strategists and rival campaigns had long conceded an endorsement from Trump, who remains deeply popular with Republican voters despite his 2020 election defeat and his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, was likely to push any candidate to the front of the pack. Vance aides see the endorsement as particularly useful for their candidate given that the chief line of attack lodged against him has been his past criticism of Trump.

Trump addressed those comments head-on Saturday night, joking that if he refused to support anyone who had criticized him, he wouldn't have anyone to endorse.

Ultimately, I put that aside, he said. I have to do what I have to do. We have to pick somebody that can win.

But the endorsement has sparked deep resentment from those backing Vance's rivals, who launched a furious, last-ditch effort last week to try to change Trumps mind. Trump has called on his supporters to rally around Vance, but Vance's chief rivals, including the Trump-aligned Club for Growth, which supports former state treasurer Josh Mandel, have so far refused to stand down. They have instead continued to run anti-Vance ads, drawing anger, in particular, from Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who has been campaigning for Vance and is set to return to the state Monday for a full day of events.

Ohio Value Voters, a conservative group that has also endorsed Mandel, had called for a boycott of Trumps Saturday rally, saying Trump had made a terrible decision and calling on those who did attend to boo Vance when he was introduced.

The states tea party movement, which overwhelmingly supports Trump, had also planned to protest outside.

For him to endorse JD Vance really seemed like President Trump was out of touch with whats going on in Ohio and what his supporters here want, said Tom Zawistowski, a leader of the group.

Zawistowski warned the endorsement could wind up splitting Trumps base of support in the state primary three ways among Vance, Mandel and Cleveland banker Mike Gibbons. He said that could open up a path to victory for former state GOP chair Jane Timken or even moderate state Sen. Matt Dolan, the one candidate in the race who has not promised to support Trump and his positions if elected.

So far, some voters are siding with Trump.

Linda Davidson, a retired financial consultant from Kirtland, said Trumps endorsement very much crystallized her vote for Vance.

I was actually waiting. I couldnt decide, she said after an event in the Cleveland suburb of Independence on Wednesday. I was kind of confused on who to vote for.

But at a Mandel event near Cleveland on Thursday, Jeanine Hammack, the campaign chair for the Strongsville Republican Party, said Trumps endorsement will not at all influence her vote.

We love Trump. Always will, she said, adding that she's sure the former president has his reasons for picking Vance, but that she knows Mandel better.

In Pennsylvania, Oz is seeing a similar bump since Trump's surprise April 9 endorsement in his close race against former hedge fund CEO David McCormick. The week following Trumps endorsement was the best digital fundraising week for Oz since his campaign launched late last year, with the campaign bringing in nearly three times as much money as it had the week before, said campaign manager Casey Contres.

Some supporters concede that Oz could still lose the May 17 primary with Trump's backing, but argue he likely wouldn't have been able to win without it. His team has shifted its ad strategy for television and digital pitches to focus on the former presidents announcement.

It is a game changer," said John Fredericks, a talk radio host who had urged Trump to back the celebrity doctor.

Trump's endorsement has given people a chance to stop and think and go, Wait a minute. Ive seen this guy on TV helping people for 30 years. Trump sees it, too. And now I'm going to take a second look,'" Fredericks said.

Oz acknowledged the impact during a virtual town hall Trump held Friday night to rally support for his candidate.

"Mr. President, there are a lot of voters who are passionate about you who have said that theyre coming out to see me because of your endorsement," Oz said, before asking Trump if he would mind easing peoples fears by vouching for Oz's conservative credentials.

It was an acknowledgement of the fact that Trump's endorsement of a man who has little history with the Republican Party  not to mention Pennsylvania, after living in New Jersey for the past two decades  has roiled party activists who aren't sold on Oz and believe that he is insufficiently conservative on issues like guns and abortion.

While some county party officials said the endorsement had no further divided Republicans than they had been already, given the seven-candidate primary field, some county party officials reported a tide of angry calls.

The conservative Trumpers are very upset over his endorsement, and they cannot understand it, said Arnold McClure, the Republican Party chair in rural Huntingdon County, where Trump won 75% of the vote in 2020. The Trump era is over in Pennsylvania because of his endorsement of Dr. Oz.

Colvin reported from New York and Levy from Harrisburg, Pa. AP video journalist Patrick Orsagos in Ohio contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Two candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump won Michigan Republicans backing for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention Saturday, clearing their path to face Democratic incumbents in the fall.

The meeting of thousands of delegates was a test of Trumps clout in the party.

His allies  attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, a lawyer, and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, a community college instructor  emerged victorious from three-person fields at the 10-hour endorsement convention in downtown Grand Rapids.

The political newcomers support Trumps false claims about his 2020 loss in the swing state. They will be officially nominated at a second convention in August and challenge Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in November.

Karamo won handily with two-thirds of the vote. DePerno was just shy of the majority needed in an initial vote. But he won a runoff over former legislative leader Tom Leonard that was paused and later restarted after the ballot order of races did not match what was shown on screens flanking the stage.

Trump has said his preferred candidates would not let Michigan be stolen in the next presidential election. He lost the state by 154,000 votes to Joe Biden. Trump's slate drew criticism, however, within a wing of the GOP that views the candidates as unelectable in the fall and was frustrated that party leaders openly backed them rather than be neutral.

State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said such critics are poor losers."

We're going to unite together, and we will be able to win this election this fall, he said.

DePernos main rival for the nomination was Leonard, the partys 2018 attorney general nominee whom Trump later nominated for U.S. attorney in western Michigan. State Rep. Ryan Berman, who finished third, urged his supporters to back Leonard in the runoff.

Bernadette Smith, one of the partys vice chairs, said DePerno is the only candidate who will fight for election integrity. As DePerno's supporters walked to the front of the hall to demonstrate their support, a video played of Trump touting DePerno and calling Leonard a RINO  or Republican in name only.

DePerno unsuccessfully sued after human error led rural Antrim County to erroneously show a local victory for Biden over Trump. It was quickly corrected but was used to spread misinformation about voting equipment.

DePerno was in "the field working when no one else was, Smith said.

He may face repercussions over the Antrim lawsuit.

DePerno recently confirmed that the states Attorney Grievance Commission is investigating him. Nessel last year began a separate probe after a Republican-led legislative committee said people were making baseless allegations about the results in Antrim to raise money or publicity for their own ends. The panels report did not specify whom should be investigated, but the people mentioned in it include DePerno.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman supported Leonard.

Mark my words: Democrats are motivated and we will only win if we put our best candidates forward, he said. I truly believe he's the only candidate in this race with integrity, grit, determination and the skills to not only win in November but to perform the duties of attorney general on day one.

DePerno, however, said he can unite Republicans and defeat Nessel.

She is literally drunk on power and we are going to end that, he said.

In the secretary of state's race, Karamo defeated state Rep. Beau LaFave and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry.

We're going to make sure that our election results is something that everyone can be confident in, Karamo said.

In a sign of how pervasive election falsehoods have become, the party used machines to tabulate votes but, in a change, also hand-counted the ballots in a compromise with activists.

Nominees for Michigans statewide races are chosen at conventions except in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries. The midterm election climate is expected to favor Republicans, but incumbent attorney generals and secretaries of state rarely lose.

The state Democratic Party said the GOP should be ashamed of its endorsed candidates. Chair Lavora Barnes called Karamo a fear-spreading, inexperienced extremist and said DePerno is a Trump lackey" willing to protect the former president but not all Michiganders.

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AP)  An Air Force major general in Ohio has been convicted by a military judge of one of three specifications of abusive sexual contact in the first-ever military trial of an Air Force general.

The charge faced by Maj. Gen. William Cooley during the weeklong court-martial at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had three specifications, one alleging a forcible kiss and two alleging forcible touching in 2018. Cooley was convicted Saturday of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two.

Officials said the verdict marks the first court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the Air Forces 75-year history.

A former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, Cooley was charged with abusive sexual contact in an encounter with a woman who gave him a ride after a backyard barbecue in New Mexico nearly four years ago. Officials said the woman is a civilian who is not a Department of Defense employee.

Cooley was to be sentenced Monday morning and could face as much as seven years in jail as well as loss of rank, pay and benefits.

Cooley had the option of a trial by court member jurors or by military judge, and chose to have the case heard by the judge.

Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer has been held responsible for his heinous actions, the woman's attorney Ryan Guilds, said in a statement, the Dayton Daily News reported. ... Hopefully, this will not be as difficult for the next survivor.

Cooley was fired from his research laboratory position in January 2020 after an Air Force investigation and has worked in an administrative job since then. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney Saturday.

This case clearly demonstrates the commitment of Air Force leaders to fully investigate the facts and hold Airmen of any rank accountable for their actions when they fail to uphold Air Force standards, Col. Eric Mejia, staff judge advocate for Air Force Materiel Command, said in a statement.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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The half hour before class is one of the most important times of the day for teacher David Beatty.

He picks current events to discuss with his high school students  on a recent Monday morning, it's the war in Ukraine and the Grammy awards. He gathers books and materials for the day, loading it all into a cart to wheel from room to room.

But the most essential piece of the morning hangs on a bulletin board in the teachers lounge: an intake list of the teenagers brought to the Lancaster County Youth Services Center over the weekend.

On this early April Monday morning, there are three new names  three kids entering the juvenile detention center.

"Every single day in detention is different," Beatty said. "There's no Groundhog Day here."

A Lincoln Public Schools teacher, Beatty is one of the five teachers in the Pathfinder Education Program, based in the Lancaster County Youth Services Center, tasked with educating Nebraska youth while they're detained and awaiting court decisions.

Every year, hundreds of teens move through Nebraskas four juvenile detention centers in Douglas, Lancaster, Madison and Sarpy counties.

At all four detention centers, teachers like Beatty educate teens from seventh to 12th grade. Depending on their cases, they stay anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

The constantly changing group of kids bring different levels of trauma and learning challenges into the classroom.

Beatty and teachers like him at Nebraskas three other juvenile detention centers serve as one of the last lines of defense against that trauma and those learning challenges. Against sometimes long odds, they try to keep students learning.

"A lot of our students have, for some reason or another, not had a successful school history," said Randall Farmer, educational director of the program. "I have to get them to want to learn and love learning again, if that's not part of who they are already."

Between swigs of coffee, Beatty reads each file for the new students brought in over the weekend, familiarizing himself with their academic and social emotional needs.

By 8 a.m., he gathers his books, projector and dry erase board and wheels them all to the first of four housing units he teaches.

There's the quarantine unit, where the incoming teens spend 10 days secluded in rooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19 before being put in a housing unit. Beatty and his co-teacher hold lessons through closed glass doors.

There's the high-security boys' unit, where the boys come out of their rooms to sit at plastic desks spaced around the common area.

There's the resource area, used by the two other lower security units. Its the part of the building that most resembles a classroom, complete with books, computers and posters on the walls.

Each unit is like a one-room schoolhouse. In a 50-minute class period, one student could be learning seventh-grade math while another works on a senior research paper. One student could be eager to earn school credit, while another struggles to crack a book.

Nearly nine out of every 10 students enter juvenile detention with credits that put them below grade level, said Dave Collins, principal of the education department at the Douglas County Youth Center. Thus, credit recovery  trying to get students back on track to graduate  is a main focus for program teachers.

"A lot of times, some of these kids were the unteachables," librarian Susan Helming said. "People just pass them on because they can. When you see a senior that comes in here with a first-grade reading level, you're wondering, how did you get through 12 years of public school? How is that possible?"

For many students, their time in a juvenile detention center could be the first time they get one-on-one attention from their teachers, she said. Its often the first time a teacher has focused specifically on that students learning challenges.

Helming became a teacher at the Douglas County Youth Center after six years working as a guard in the same units where she now teaches.

When teens need more individual attention, or time to focus and read in a quiet space, they get sent to her in the library.

Sometimes, that time isn't just for extra help with reading. When students are struggling to behave in class, one-on-one time with Helming in the library can help calm them down.

Some days, that time to cool down goes smoothly. Others, she ends up with ripped up books.

Some kids are angry, Collins said. Some are defiant. Some are mad at the police. And others are nearly silent.

A lot of them look scared, Collins said. Never been here before.

Helming has to count her pencils at the start and end of the day to make sure they arent being used as weapons. Teachers carry walkie talkies to communicate both with each other and detention officers. Kids in rival gangs can't be kept in the same unit, and moving students through the halls has to be timed to avoid encounters that could turn into fights.

But the classroom is a judgment-free zone, teachers said.

I've been given a task by the state of Nebraska to teach them. And that's what I'm going to do, Helming said. Some of the most respectful kids I've worked with have been in here for murder."

In both the Lancaster and Douglas County detention centers, students come from all over. Their families have fled violence from countries like Sudan, Syria and El Salvador, ending up in Nebraska. Or theyre locals  some have never set foot west of 72nd Street in Omaha, Helming said.

"If anything is going to link them together, it's going to be survival," Helming said. "Some kids are the parents of a family. They're the ones who are taking charge of their siblings. There's a lot of survival going on."

Helming once had a student tell her his mother said she'd wished she'd gotten an abortion.

"Well, I'm glad you're here," she replied.

Another girl said she had to choose between staying home and getting raped by her mother's boyfriend, or running away and having the police called.

"She just looked at me, and she says, 'I just didn't feel like getting raped,'" Helming said.

Pathfinders staff care for the kids year after year, but they all fall into a certain amount of compassion fatigue, Farmer said. To see a teen leave detention seemingly on the right path and excited about learning  only to have them return a year later  takes a toll on both students and teachers.

"These kids are incredibly valuable," Beatty said. "They're going to be productive members of society. But they've hit a speed bump in their early life."

After teaching five classes and grading work, Beatty and his fellow teachers leave for the day. But it isnt unheard of to walk out to the parking lot and meet a former student, now a grown adult with a spouse and children, Farmer said.

Theyll say, I wanted to bring them back here to show them where I decided to change my life, and I wanted to thank all of you, Farmer said.

This story is a collaboration between the Flatwater Free Press and Nebraska Public Media. The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter. Nebraska Public Media, the states NPR and PBS station, has produced award-winning original content for nearly 70 years.

This story is a collaboration between the Flatwater Free Press and Nebraska Public Media. The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter. Nebraska Public Media, the states NPR and PBS station, has produced award-winning original content for nearly 70 years.

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Gov. Kim Reynolds announced last week that the state will move to shut down the Glenwood Resource Center over the next two years. The facility for people with severe intellectual disabilities has been plagued by problems, leading to a federal investigation into charges of inadequate medical care and that staff subjected patients to sexual arousal experiments, violating their constitutional rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends that Iowas reliance institutional care settings, likely in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, must yield to community-based care. So, despite the understandable angst the announcement has spawned among patients families and Glenwood employees, the closure is the right course of action.

Now the focus must be on how the Department of Human Services will transition Glenwoods 152 patients to different care settings. The states track record is poor.

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In 2015, following the abrupt closure of centers in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, three former patients died. The Des Moines Register reported that the patients had been transferred to nursing homes with poor quality ratings.

After the closure of a facility for girls in Toledo, a federal lawsuit revealed that two Iowa teens sent to a facility in Wisconsin were abused by staff and kept in isolation 22 hours daily. Iowa human services staff did not visit the Copper Lake Center before contracting for the teens care.

Iowa must do far better with the Glenwood transition. Fortunately, the two-year time frame, compared to the previous abrupt closures, will increase the chances for the seamless and successful transition Reynolds has promised.

Closing Glenwood doesnt solve a problem. It creates dozens of new challenges as patients are transitioned to community care. That care must be high-quality and adequate to meet patient needs. Meeting that threshold should be the main goal, not meeting a timeline.

Well be watching. And so should state lawmakers. Although the Republican-controlled Legislature has been reluctant to provide much oversight of the Republican governors actions, it needs to closely monitor this transition. A Legislative Oversight Committee was scheduled to discuss the Glenwood situation in 2020, but was canceled due to the pandemic and was not rescheduled. That sort of hands-off oversight approach must change with lives at stake.

The closure announcement made headlines. But its the transition that truly matters.

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The most popular TikTok on the Black Menaces page starts like this: Nate Byrd, a Black student at Brigham Young University, holds a microphone up to the face of one of his fellow students and asks him if he supports gay marriage. Over the course of the 44-second video, Byrd and the rest of the group known as the Black Menaces interrogate white students and faculty about their views on marriage equality. Answers range from a simple yes, to an equally simple no, to obfuscation worthy of a courtroom.

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The video, which has over 18 million views, is one of many man-on-the-street type interviews that the Black Menaces have conducted over the past two months. Thanks to their willingness to confront other young members of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints about their biases and beliefs, this group of Black BYU students have seen their content launched into the public discourse.

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On last Saturdays episode of In Case You Missed It, hosts Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher spoke with two members of the Black Menaces about their newfound fame, what its like to be a Black student on BYUs campus, and what they hope their videos will achieve.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Rachelle Hampton: What are the Black Menaces?

Rachel Weaver: We are a group of black students at Brigham Young University, and we are all friends. We met through the Black Student Union on campus.

Nate Byrd: The TikTok account came in response to some comments that were made by a faculty member here on campus.  Brad Wilcox is the name of the faculty member. Hes also a leader in the church. He made some comments that were racist, sexist, and xenophobic. So we took the part that was racist, and we said, We got to do something about this. And we decided to make a reaction video.

Sebastian [Stewart-Johnson] is the one who actually created the account. We were all joking about it, but he actually made it happen.

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Hampton: What does a typical Black Menace TikTok video look like?

Byrd: What we do is we come up with a question, usually regarding a social issue or a political issue, and well ask BYU students what their thoughts are on that issue.

Weaver: Most of the questions have to do with black people or other BIPOC communities or queer students, or really any issue that we feel is addressing a marginalized group on BYU campus. Or [theyre about] something that is more taboo in Utah or the culture of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Madison Malone Kircher: How does it feel when you walk up to a student and put that microphone in their face? Whats going through your head?

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Byrd: I feel more powerful. BYU is often a very draining place for marginalized groups. Usually when Im on campus, I want to leave as quickly as possible. But when Im with other people who are like me, it feels that much better. When Im walking with the other Black Menaces, and were just prowling, looking for someone to talk to, its actually a lot of fun. When were able to ask somebody a question and watch their reaction as the gears start turning, its pretty satisfying.

A lot of the students that we talk to, they have the privilege to never have to think about these things. These are issues that we have to think about or deal with on a daily basis, so being able to kickstart that process in them is pretty wonderful.

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Weaver: Sometimes its a little scary, at least for me as a Black woman, especially approaching white men. It can be a little intimidating when asking racially charged questions. I dont know what theyre going to say, and I dont know how bold they will be.

Hampton: What is it like to hear answers from your peers that essentially boil down to them not believing that certain marginalized groups deserve to be treated equally?

Byrd: The thing with BYU is we already know how people think because a lot of us, weve been here for a long time. This is just the first time that its ever been caught in 4K, so to speak.  I think were more surprised when we get answers that are supportive or affirmative, because when we ask people these questions, we expect to get wild answers.

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Malone Kircher: Theres a common refrain amongst students who answer you. They tell you, Oh, I cant speak to that, or I need to do more research. Do you think theyre actually doing research or do you think thats just cover for, I dont want to tell you how I feel, because I know its wrong?

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Weaver: I dont think theyre actually going to learn about [these issues,] because theyve never researched it up to this point in their life, because it hasnt affected them. And after we ask them the question, its not going to affect them again, probably. And so I genuinely do not believe a lot of them are researching. I think some of them might be thinking deeper after the videos go viral, maybe, and they see themselves.

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Malone Kircher: Im assuming that everyone you film consents to being filmed prior to being on camera. Do you often get rebuffed? Do you walk up to students and they say, Absolutely not?

Byrd: Id say its probably about 70/30, 80/20 [percent]. Most people will say yes, but every time we ask, well always get one or two nos. For the most part, people dont rebuff us. But when they do, theyre not comfortable being on camera, or they dont want to be filmed.

Weaver: Sometimes we can tell that someone does not want to be filmed. They dont want to answer their question or theyre very apprehensive, but they say yes anyway. And were like, You can say no. We dont have to film you. But it takes us saying it once or twice, sometimes three times, for them to actually be like, Oh, I can walk away.

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Malone Kircher: In a lot of the videos Ive watched, your peers will invoke doctrine from the church as to why they stand by their beliefs. Are you two members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints?

Weaver: We both are.

Malone Kircher: How does that feel?

Byrd: You have to do a lot of doctrinal gymnastics to pick out the parts that are good and leave behind the parts that are flat-out wrong. Theres a lot of good things about the church, like theres good things in every church. But theres also a lot of racism, theres a lot of homophobia, theres a lot of sexism, xenophobia, and its unfortunate. Its difficult navigating that, especially while being a Black member of the church.  You have to deal with navigating the church, but then also being a member of the church and a Black person among Black people who dont understand that perspective.

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Weaver: [Whether youre a] member of the church or not, I refuse to use doctrine as a reason to defend bigotry.

Malone Kircher: What has the administrative response been like to the Black Menaces?

Byrd: We actually havent gotten any response from the university so far. Theyve been very silent, so we dont know what the official stance is. I mean, I know that they know who we are.

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Hampton: Is it surprising that you havent heard from the administration?

Weaver: Honestly, yes and no. Yes in the sense [that] BYU and the church that our school is sponsored by does not like to be painted in a negative light on the internet, on social media, in news articles. Normally they try to control the narrative. But also its not surprising, because they have no idea what to do. I know the lawyers are squirming every day trying to figure out what they can do to stop us.

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Malone Kircher: What is your biggest hit thus far?

Weaver: Our first video, asking people if they support gay marriage. That video skyrocketed us in a way that we did not even anticipate.

@blackmenaces can you support the queer community without supporting gay marriage? fyp byu provo orem utah uvu pwi poc gay lgbtqtiktok questions black  original sound - the black menaces This content requires consent that you have not granted on Slate. To view this content please visit www.tiktok.com or update your cookie preferences . Learn more about this at our privacy page.

Hampton: What do you hope the impact of these videos is?

Weaver: Our church and BYU very rarely make changes unless theres pressure from the outside. Then theyre like, Well, we have no choice. Weve been putting in the work for years. Weve been trying to do things for such a long time, and nothing has come of it. This feels like were on the cusp of adding the right amount of pressure to get some real policy change at BYU, to help BIPOC students be more comfortable, to have more resources, and also to help queer students in terms of [even being allowed] to hold hands on campus.

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Malone Kircher: One of your videos is not a Q-and-A style, but its the Menaces disavowing hate speech and cyber-bullying and racism of any kind. What do you say to people who claim that youre perpetrating the very things that the Black Menaces are fighting against?

Byrd: I feel like a lot of people, especially members of the church, theyre very caught up in the perfectionism that our church culture has.  So when anything is seen as less perfect, then its a threat.

For us to be showing that, Hey, BYU is not as you think it is. Your experience is different than ours, I think a lot of people take issue with that.

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Weaver: We dont encourage dragging of the people in our videos, because these are still people. Although what they think might not be correct and might be problematic, they still can change and grow, and I hope they do. If they get a little beat up right now on the internet, thatll help them to shape up and try again next week.

But I think we need to give people the opportunity to change and grow with more knowledge, because a lot of people in our community grew up very sheltered and were not exposed to certain things.  Sometimes this might have been the first time someone has asked them this question, and this is the first time theyre formulating a response. Were trying to show the reality of what people think, not necessarily condemn people.

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Malone Kircher: On a lighter note, do you guys feel like campus celebrities at this point?

Weaver: Yes. Its a little much, if Im going to be honest. Before Black Menaces, people would stare at us. Were 0.4% of the population, and I do have awesome hair, if I do say so myself, so I never knew if people were staring at me because Im black, [or] because of my hair. But now we get more stares, and I think its because of Black Menaces. When Im out, even not on campus, in Utah County, in Salt Lake, people go, Are you from Black Menaces?

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Byrd: Pretty much every day somebody will recognize us and some people are fine with it. And other people will stare at you and make it weird. It takes some getting used to, for sure.

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Hampton: Whats your favorite reaction youve gotten so far?

Weaver: When we filmed the would you date someone who was a bisexual video, we met a gay student through there and someone else who was bisexual. So that was really fun, because we chatted with them for 30 minutes afterward and made a new friend. I love when I meet really cool people through doing our videos.

Byrd: My favorite one is one of our very first videos, where we went around and asked other members of the Black Student Union, Hey, whats your favorite thing about BYU? And the response from pretty much all of them was, Oh the black people, us, the BSU. That really is one of the best parts about being here is the community that weve been able to build together.

Weaver: Its my family at this point.

Listen to the full interview on ICYMI, Slates internet culture podcast, below.
If you want to put a face to the astounding rise of the French extreme right, which has taken Marine Le Pen to the brink of the presidency, you could do worse than Anthony Brozzu. With his thick glasses, neatly trimmed goatee, and sleeve tattoos, the 40-year-old runs a farm-to-table restaurant in the center of Arras, a small, charming city in Picardy. Hes a vegetarian, an environmentalist, and a first-time Le Pen voter.

My grandparents would be rolling in their graves, he said on Thursday, cleaning up the lunch run shortly before the Le Pen diehards began to descend on Arras for her final rally of the campaign. But shes changed. Shes not as fanatical. Shes extreme right, but nice. Brozzu thinks Le Pen is right to emphasize France over Europe (he pays a premium over his competitors to buy local products for the restaurant), and thinks shed be better for small businesses than Macron. Mostly, he says, he just wanted a change. First woman president, he said. Why not? Elect a woman and maybe things change. But he also thinks shes right that too many immigrants to France just dont want to assimilate.

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Five years after losing to Emmanuel Macron by a two-to-one margin, Marine Le Pen has won converts like Brozzu by softening her approach. Her politics are still radicalshe would quit NATO and maybe the EU, strip away immigrants rights, and ban the hijab from public spacesbut her mood is upbeat.

She trails the incumbent Macron by ten points in the latest surveys, and it would take a big polling error to see her triumph on Sunday. Still, she will take an outright majority in thousands of towns and a handful of regions, a result that would have shocked French voters two decades ago when her father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, broke through to the runoff. In 2002, Le Pen pere was considered so radioactive that President Jacques Chirac wouldnt even debate him, and left-wing voters built a Republican front dam behind Chirac to give him more than 80 percent of the vote.

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Brozzus drift righthe did not vote in 2017, he saysdemonstrates two of the ways that Le Pen has managed to effectively de-demonize her party, her family, and herself. Le Pen got outflanked on the right during the primary by the journalist Eric Zemmour, whose rancorous campaign pulled in constant media coverageand seven percent of the vote. Zemmour functioned as a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray for Le Pen, absorbing all the ugliest parts of her partys reputation, including accusations of anti-Semitism, racism, and revisionist history. He even won over Le Pens own father, and her niece and onetime protege, Marion Marechal, to the tabloids delight. Brozzu thought Zemmours campaign was hateful and wrong, but he has no such reservations about Le Pen.

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If Zemmour made her look moderate by comparison, Le Pen helped by shifting her focus from Islam and immigration to pocketbook issues. Instead of telling the French to read Camp of the Saints, the racist dystopian novel beloved by Steve Bannon, as she did in 2015, Le Pen now talks about her hobby, raising cats. Shes not saying, Lets kick out the foreigners; shes dropped that, Brozzu observed. The invective about foreigners in France that remains in the Le Pen platformand theres plenty of thathas taken a backseat to more abstract complaints about immigration policy and crime. But all of it has been superseded, for Brozzu and in the French media at large, by her focus on the rising cost of living and the arrogance of Emmanuel Macron. Macron doesnt like the French, she likes to say.

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Do the French still like Macron? Earlier this month, I went among the Macronists to the presidents campaign rally before the first-round vote. There is indisputably something a little lame about getting dressed up, chanting, and waving a flag for an incumbent centrist president. And yet there they were, 30,000 strong, armed with French and EU flags, chanting one and two and five more years! I sat between Souleymane Sarr, a shipping executive from Paris who has supported Macron from day one, and Helene Chamouard, a paralegal and Macron superfan who had come with her 12-year-old son. Macron bounded onto a hexagonal stage (symbolic of Frances six-sided geography) and spoke in his measured, careful cadence for more than two hours about every subject under the sun: culture, retirement, terrorism, secularism, ecology, Europe, bullying, child abuse, and so on. When you only do one campaign rally, theres a lot to get through.

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On April 10th, in a first-round vote characterized by strategic voting on the left and right, Macron nevertheless improved his margins and outperformed polls. The Macronists I met like his intelligence, his competence, his leadership in Europe, his management of the coronavirus, his record on the economy, his realism about what it will take to preserve the French social model. What most unites them, though, is the feeling that things are pretty good right now. Voters feeling satisfied with their lives were twice as likely to support Macron versus Le Pen. And why not? Frances unemployment rate is at a 15-year low. The threat of terrorism has slowly receded. And the coronavirus crisis seems like ancient history.

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But not everyone shares the enthusiasm. In the first-round vote, participation dipped below 75 percent for the first time in two decades. That sense of apathy is likely to be amplified in Sundays runoff, a rematch of the 2017 contest, one where Macron has lost his shine as a renegade outsider.

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Indeed, the presidents five-year term has left many of his voterswhether they were enthusiastic supporters or reluctant dam-builders in 2017feeling disenchanted, angry, or betrayed. A series of gaffes have contributed to the impression that he is a Napoleonic figure who might not know the cost of a croissant. When a man complained to him that he couldnt find a job, Macron was incredulous. Nothing? Ill cross the street and find you one, he retorted.

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Its partly Macrons own fault that his opposition is stronger than ever. After promising at the start of his mandate to eliminate the extreme right, he and his ministers have parroted right-wing talking points on issues such as immigration, race, and religion. As Covid cases shut down French classrooms this winter, for example, the French Education Minister gave the keynote speech at a conference on wokisme. In an attempt to drain Le Pens support, they have wound up legitimizing her worldview.

The trend isnt just rhetorical. Ive seen the evolution of Macron towards the center-right, the right-wing former president Nicolas Sarkozy said last week. Who can complain? Not me. Now that a large part of his ideas are the same as ours, weve got to support him. Those right-wing policies have both alienated left-wing voters and created room for Le Pen to take up their concerns. On issues such as raising the retirement age, she is now running to Macrons left, and polls show about one in five far-left primary voters will support her on Sunday.

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In the frantic two weeks following the first round, Macron has made some effort to reinforce his left flank. He held a rally in Marseilles to focus on the environment, and softened his resolve on raising the retirement age to 65. The left-wing paper Liberation put Macron on the cover, running away from the camera, with the headline, Honey, I forgot the left! But that version of the president was not on display at the campaigns sole debate on Wednesday night, a technical, three-hour affair in which Macron sought to portray Le Pen not as unacceptable so much as unprepared.

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When Le Pen talked about criminals, Macron didnt bother to pinpoint the economic roots of misbehavior. When Le Pen reiterated her view that the hijab is a symbol of terrorist ideology that she would forbid in public, Macron responded by telling her, Youre going to incite a civil war. As if, like her other ideas, this one wasnt so much amoral and intolerant as foolhardy and impractical.

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To the extent theres still a chance Macron blows his lead, it will come down to the decisions of left-wing voters who feel hes treated them with contempt. At a cafe in Arras, I shared a table with Nicole Giraud, a retired substitute teacher with a stack of Trotskyist magazines under her arm. She decried Le Pens barely disguised racism and worried her election would set loose packs of idiots empowered to mistreat the countrys minorities. But this menace was not enough to get her to vote for Macron, whom she perceived as a candidate for billionaires and steward of an unethical policy towards migrants.

If youre feeling flashbacks to the US presidential election of 2016, youre not alone. Whats happening in France is what Clinton-Trump only approximated: A genuine neoliberal centrist is fending off an anti-immigrant populist with real left-wing policy positions. Left-wing voters are expected to hold their noses and vote for Macron, despite little indication their interests are being served.

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Arras was a good choice for Le Pens final pitch. She represents a nearby district in the National Assembly, a seat she pried away from longtime socialist control in 2017. Her economic protectionism has won her National Rally party lots of votes in de-industrialized northern France, where the downward trajectory is impossible to ignore. Arras has a mayor who supports Macron, but Le Pen will likely take a majority in the surrounding countryside. Its also a funny place to contemplate the role Frances glorious past plays in its future; more tourists come to France than any other country in the world, and they play a huge role in many small-town economies. In Arras, the primary tourist attraction is the nearby trenches, monuments, and cemeteries of the First World War.

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The typical attendee at the Le Pen rally was a man in tight jeans and a rugby shirt with gel in his hair. These people were not first-time National Rally voters, and they were not on the fence. Many shared Le Pens idea that massive and anarchic immigration has so transformed the country they sometimes dont feel at home. (Well my neighborhood is different, they say, but you hear about some parts of Lille, or Paris) One young woman told me she had been passed up for social housing because, she was told, migrants got priority. That was disgusting, she said.

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One difference between Trump and Le Pen? Le Pens supporters are not old. According to Ipsos polling, she was the most popular candidate in the first round for French voters between 35 and 60. (French retirees, by contrast, overwhelmingly support Macron.) At the expo center on the outskirts of Arras, I saw young mothers with strollers, couples holding hands, bands of teenagers out on spring vacation. This dynamic bodes well for Macron on Sunday, since older people are the most reliable voters. But it also means that even if she loses, Marine Le Pens movement isnt going anywhere.

At the end of her speech, she got back to basics: People of France! Stand up against those who have so little consideration for the defense of our civilization, who have denigrated your history, your culture, and your traditions, who have made migratory subversion our demographic horizon. Thats an allusion to the Great Replacement theory, the idea that uncontrolled immigration to France is extinguishing the white race. The campaign may be nice, but the message is as ugly as ever.
Smer leader Robert Fico may face custody too, he voiced his concerns in a letter to leaders of EU countries.

Robert Kalinak arrives to the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok for questioning as the court decides on pre-trial custody for him. (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

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Former interior minister Robert Kalinak should go into pre-trial custody, the Specialised Criminal Court decided on Saturday.

Judge of the Specialised Criminal Court Miroslav Mazuch thus complied with the request of the prosecutor who demanded pre-trial custody for Kalinak out of concerns that if prosecuted at large, he could influence witnesses. Kalinak appealed against the decision and his case will be heard by the Supreme Court, the Sme daily reported.

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Kalinak, the one-time right-hand man of Smer leader Robert Fico, stands accused of founding a criminal group, abusing the authority of a public official and of endangering tax secrecy. Fico has also been charged in the case, as was lawyer Marek Para and a member of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency.

Prosecutor also requested custody for Para, the court is expected to decide on Sunday, Sme wrote.

Fico and Kalinak were charged as part of the police operation codenamed Sumrak (Twilight), in which the police linked the top Smer politicians with the Ocistec (Purgatory) case.

On Friday, Deputy Special Prosecutor Ladislav Masar requested custody for Fico as well. This, however, involves a more complicated process, since Fico is a member of parliament. As such, the parliament must first approve the custody request, which is expected to happen early next week. Most of the ruling coalition MPs have already stated they would support the motion.

Fico and Kalinak have denied all the allegation. The Smer party insists the case against them has been fabricated as a way to persecute the opposition. Smer leaders informed on Saturday, before the decision about the custody for Kalinak has been made, that their MPs will send an open letter to the European Commission "describing what is happening in Slovakia in these moments".

Fico also said that he sent a letter to heads of states and governments describing the recent events. "The reaction surprised me, I have had some seven phone calls so far," Fico told the press conference on Saturday afternoon, as quoted by the TASR newswire. He accused the ruling coalition of trying to remove anyone who stands in their way. He also said he did not doubt the parliament was going to approve the custody request.
Xi unanimously elected delegate to 20th CPC National Congress

Xinhua) 17:56, April 22, 2022

NANNING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regional congress was held in Nanning city from Thursday to Friday to elect the region's delegates to the 20th National Congress of the CPC. Xi Jinping, a candidate nominated by the CPC Central Committee and put to vote in the Guangxi electoral unit, was elected by a unanimous vote.

The vote was cast on Friday morning. When it was announced that Xi was elected unanimously, a long and warm applause burst out.

The unanimous vote of Xi represents the common will of over 2.5 million CPC members and 150,000 primary-level Party organizations in Guangxi, as well as the wholehearted support of the region's 57 million residents of all ethnic groups, according to the congress. It also shows the common wish and strong desire of the hundreds of millions of Chinese people to follow his lead toward national rejuvenation and strive for a brighter future.

"General Secretary Xi always keeps in mind the people of all ethnic groups in Guangxi. I feel especially honored and proud to cast my vote on behalf of Party members working on the ground. On hearing that General Secretary Xi was elected by a unanimous vote, I was very excited and deeply inspired. It is my honor to witness this historic moment," said delegate Ya Hanwen, director of the Jianggeng Villagers Committee, also secretary of the Party branch of Jianggeng Village, Yuhong Township, Lingyun County. Ya vowed to lead his fellow villagers to develop local distinctive farming and breeding to contribute to the country's rural revitalization drive.

General Secretary Xi always concerns himself with people's wellbeing. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the people have benefited substantially from favorable policies in various fields such as education, healthcare, housing and drinking water, said delegate Wei Liuchan, director of the Automation Office of the Sintering Plant, Liuzhou Iron & Steel Company, Ltd. "We believe that under the leadership of General Secretary Xi, we will lead a more rewarding and promising life. Only by working hard can we live up to Xi's expectations," said Wei.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xi has attached high importance to the development of Guangxi and given important instructions for the region. During his April visit to Guangxi in 2021, Xi summarized distinctive features of the region in the country's overall development and called on the region to make progress on four fronts. He also urged Guangxi to devote efforts to four key areas of work and building the region into a majestic place under socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

"As we embark on a new journey in the new era, the leadership of General Secretary Xi will surely pool greater strengths of the times and steer China toward its great rejuvenation," the delegates said confidently.

"The unanimous vote of the general secretary is what the people aspire for. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, great changes have taken place in Guangxi," said delegate Xu Hua, Party committee secretary and vice principal of Nanning No. 2 High School. Xu said he will continue to perform his duties conscientiously and contribute to the development of education in ethnic minority areas.

Delegates agreed that it is essential to acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. They believed that Xi's core position must be firmly upheld, and so must the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. They expressed the need to loyally support, uphold and protect the leadership core.

We will turn Xi's caring and encouragement into concrete actions, set the stage for the 20th CPC National Congress with outstanding achievements, and forge ahead toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, they said.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji)
For three days, Johnny Depp has been testifying in a libel trial that, at least in theory, is about whether Amber Heard defamed him in a 2018 newspaper op-ed.

The trial has turned into a spectacle in which Depp has testified about everything from taking pills as a child to a near mental breakdown in which the actor said he used his severed finger to write on the walls in his own blood to recount his ex-wifes alleged lies.

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Why is Depp doing this?

Heards lawyers had warned that the trial would be a mudslinging soap opera that would expose the real Johnny Depp. Depp denies ever abusing Heard and, despite the public attention brought to his drug use and his violent text messages, he said hes obsessed with revealing the truth and doesnt want to disappoint those whod looked up to him.

My goal is the truth because it killed me that all these people I had met over the years ... that these people would think that I was a fraud, Depp testified Tuesday.

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The actor has said that his movie career suffered after Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse.

Heard never mentioned Depp by name, but Depps lawyers said it was a clear reference to accusations Heard made when she sought a 2016 restraining order against him.

Depp said the accusations and the article made him a Hollywood outcast and cost him his role in the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise.

Heards lawyers have argued that Heards opinion piece was accurate and didnt defame him. Theyve said Depps ruined reputation was due to his own bad behavior and have argued that The Walt Disney Co. had already decided to ax Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean months before the articles publication.

Actor Johnny Depp testifies at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/AP)

What are Heards allegations?

Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions before and during their brief marriage, often in situations where she said he drank so much he later blacked out.

Depp said Heards allegations of his substance abuse have been grossly embellished and that he was never out of control during that time period. The two met in 2009, got married in 2015 and Heard filed for divorce a year later.

Heards attorneys have highlighted many text messages Depp sent to friends recounting the copious amount of alcohol and drugs he had taken at a time in which he claims he wasnt a problematic drinker.

Depp filed a similar lawsuit in England against a newspaper there and lost. The judge there found that Depp assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions and put her in fear for her life multiple times.

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Heard is expected to testify later in the trial.

Actress Amber Heard attends the defamation trial against her at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia, April 21, 2022. (JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

How did Depp and Heard meet?

Depp and Heard met through the filming of The Rum Diary, a 2011 Depp-produced movie based upon an initially unpublished novel by the late Hunter S. Thompson that Depp discovered while going through the gonzo journalists papers with Thompson, his friend.

Depp said Heard was the perfect embodiment of the books femme fatale character named Chenault. Thats the Chenault that Hunter wants, Depp recalled. Yep, she could definitely kill me.

They started dating a few years later, with Depp portraying the early part of their relationship as a classic Hollywood romance. Depp would call Heard Slim, while she called him Steve, nicknames used by the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall characters in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not.

Depp, 58, said he was also cognizant of the age difference between himself and Heard, 36, and compared it to the 25-year gap between Bogart and Bacall.

I acknowledge the fact I was the old, craggy fogey and she was this beautiful creature, he said.

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Actor Johnny Depp testifies in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/AP)

How did their marriage fall apart?

Depp said things began to change in his marriage when he felt that he was suddenly just wrong about everything in Heards eyes.

Depp said Heard made little digs at him, demeaned and berated him. The insults escalated into full-fledged circular arguments from which there was no way in or out, Depp said. It was sort of a rapid-fire, sort of endless parade of insults, Depp said.

Soon after, Heard began physically attacking him, Depp said. He said she once threw two bottles of vodka at him, the second of which exploded and severed his finger to the point where bone was exposed. Depp said he used the resulting blood to write on his walls and recount lies in which he had caught Heard. At the hospital, Depp said he lied to protect Heard and told the doctors that he had injured himself. Heards lawyers contend he cut his own finger.

Actor Amber Heard speaks with her legal team after court recessed for the day at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/AP)

What happened on the Boston flight?

One of the chief points in contention is what occurred on a 2014 private flight from Boston to Los Angeles that Depp and Heard took while he was filming the gangster film Black Mass.

Heard has said Depp assaulted her on the flight while he was blackout drunk.

Depp testified he took two oxycodone pills  an opiate to which he admits he was addicted at the time  and locked himself in the plane bathroom and fell asleep to avoid her badgering.

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He told the court that he drank only a glass of Champagne while boarding the flight. But texts he sent to the actor Paul Bettany at the time referenced drinking half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand Red Bull vodkas and two bottles of Champagne before the flight.

Heards attorneys have also pointed to text messages Depp sent to Heard after the flight, saying, Once again I find myself in a place of shame and regret.  I must get better.

Actor Johnny Depp testifies, as an article seen on a screen is entered into evidence, during at the trial at Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/AP)

What else did he text?

Heards attorneys have focused on text messages Depp sent to Bettany in which he expressed a desire to kill and defile Heard.

After saying he wanted to burn her, Depp wrote, Lets drown her before we burn her!!! I will (expletive) her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure shes dead.

Depp has apologized to the jury for the vulgar language and said that in the heat of the pain I was feeling, I went to dark places. He also compared his writing to Thompsons gonzo style, which often incorporated brash language and embellished thoughts.

Actor Amber Heard speaks with her legal team as actor Johnny Depp stands at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/AP)

Moments of levity

Despite the dark accusations and profane text messages being read to the court, Depps testimony has on occasion featured humorous moments.

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Asked whether he would sometimes drink whiskey in the morning, Depp responded, I mean, isnt happy hour any time?

And asked whether he had ever given pills to musician Marilyn Manson, Depp conceded that he once gave Manson a pill to get him to stop talking so much.

Depp also admitted that hes never watched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the 2003 megahit in which he played the unhinged Captain Jack Sparrow. Asked how the film fared, Depp smiled and said, I didnt see it, but ... well, the film did pretty well, apparently.

And then theres the bizarre matter of the alleged penis vandalism. Heards attorney repeatedly asked Depp whether he was responsible for drawing a penis on a painting inside his home shortly after the actor said Heard severed his finger. Drawing a penis on a painting was not the first thing on my mind, Depp testified.

Spectators fill the courtroom after a lunch recess at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Jim Lo Scalzo/AP)

Why is this happening in Virginia?

The trial is taking place in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Virginia.

Heards lawyers had sought to have the case tried in California, where the actors reside. But a judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case in Virginia because The Washington Posts computer servers for its online edition are located in the county.

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Depps lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case.
Chicago police shot a man after he pointed a gun at them in the Far South Sides Pullman neighborhood Friday evening, police said.

Around 5:40 p.m., police and paramedics responded to a call in the 11200 block of South Langley Avenue after receiving reports of a disturbance of a man with a gun, officials said. Police officers encountered an armed offender, said Tom Ahern, Chicago Police spokesperson, in a news release.

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The offender pointed a handgun at the officers at which time officers discharged their weapons striking the offender, the news release said.

The man shot was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, said Chief Walter Schroeder, spokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department.

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Suspects guns recovered on scene. Area Detectives are investigating. pic.twitter.com/HXqETDx8yE  Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) April 23, 2022

The suspect had two guns and a knife, which were recovered at the scene, Ahern said, adding that no police officers were injured.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability had members on scene, said COPA spokesperson Ephraim Eaddy.

COPA is responding to an officer-involved shooting near 112th & S. Langley. If you or anyone you know has any information pertaining to this incident, please call our office at 312-746-3609 or visit https://t.co/LqABRQUFLE pic.twitter.com/h54OfeasQY  COPA (@ChicagoCOPA) April 23, 2022

Detectives are investigating and COPA will continue a use of force investigation. The officers involved will be placed on administrative duties for 30 days, as is routine when police shoot someone.

scasanova@chicagotribune.com
The 2022 season of harness racing in Nova Scotia is just a few weeks away, and the province's racetracks are looking forward to welcoming fans back with reduced COVID-19 protocols.

According to a release from the Nova Scotia Harness Racing Industry Association, this year's condition sheets will look a little different as tracks will be adding an allowance for Nova Scotia-foaled horses (30%) as well as Maritime-foaled (20%). Please check the tracks' condition sheets for more information.

Truro Raceway has its first qualifying sessions on Sunday, April 24 (12:00 p.m. first post), and Sunday, May 1(12:00 p.m. first post) with the first race date set for Friday, May 6.

Northside Downs' qualifiers get underway Saturday, April 30 and May 7 with racing kicking off on May 14, while Inverness Raceway will have qualifiers on Sunday, May 15 and 22 with their opening race date scheduled for Sunday, May 29.

"We are anticipating a great 2022 race season and look forward to seeing fans back at the track!" said NSHRIA Executive Director Debbie Francis.

(NSHRIA)
A fire completely destroyed a mobile home in Lyman Friday. Lyman firefighters were called to the scene around 1:15 p.m. and battled the fire for four and a half hours.

It was a hot one, Lyman Fire Chief Paul Detwiler said. According to Detwiler, a state fire marshal reported that the homeowner had been cutting a bolt with a grinder next to the house early in the morning and left around 8 a.m.

When he returned around 1 p.m., the house was on fire.

We did save the neighbors house, though, so thats a good thing, Detwiler said. ... I think the guys did a good job.

The Lyman Department worked mutual aid with firefighters from the Mitchell and Morrill departments. Valley Ambulance was on hand to provide medical help, but there were no injuries reported.

Firefighter Ministry provided aid to the family of three displaced by the fire. Those interest in providing donations can contact organizer Carissa Schank at 308-631-9674. The Firefighter Ministry is assisting with food and hotel vouchers.

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A Scottsbluff police officer shined a flashlight and knocked on Rae Ann Schmitzs back door Friday night as the wind blew a front through the area. The officer said he was concerned about Schmitzs welfare as a large tree had fallen into her front yard and home.

I was home and had been aware of the storm all day, she said. I heard a low rumbling sound and I thought What was that?

As she looked out the window, she could see a limb had fallen on the side of her house. It wasnt until the police arrived that she realized a tree had fallen in her front yard. Schmitz has lived at 2121 First Ave. for 44 years and seeing the tree in her front yard was emotional.

I love that tree, she said. It fell as gently as she (the tree) possibly could. The heaviest part fell in the yard and the branches fell on the house. It looks like the tree is hugging my house.

Her home had no broken windows and she was able to safely evacuate the residence with her two pets.

It was a night to remember and our poor firefighters really got trial by fire last night, Schmitz said.

A front brought powerful winds through the Nebraska Panhandle Friday evening into the overnight hours, causing power outages and damage to powerlines, trees and residences.

Meteorologist Rob Cox, with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, said the front went through the area around 8 p.m. Friday, April 22.

This front was very unusual, Cox said. You dont usually get really powerful winds with a cold front, but in this case, we did.

Cox said there was an area of low pressure in the Nebraska Panhandle that combined with a high pressure system from the northwest.

It really caused tight gradient with strong winds, he said.

The NWS data reported the fastest wind speed was recorded at West Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff at 83 mph, shortly before 7:53 p.m.

It was certainly a very unique event and a very powerful event, Cox said. This disturbance went through a rapid intensification process last night.

Fire departments across the region were dispatched to multiple fires and downed power lines throughout the night as the storm moved through the area.

Gering Fire Chief Nathan Flowers said his department was dispatched to Mitchell for mutual aid around 8 p.m. While en route, they were paged out to a fire on County Road 25 and Highway 92 around 8:19 p.m. Ten minutes later, they received another call about a tree on fire.

We found a wind-driven fire that was in a feed yard. We started suppressing that fire and then received a call for a tree that was on fire due to electrical lines that were touching and arching on Second and D streets, Flowers said.

After arriving at the second fire, the department closed off the area and waited for the power company to de-energize the area before they extinguished the tree. Firefighters cut off the limbs on fire and then returned to the fire on Highway 92.

The cause of the fire on Highway 92 is still under investigation, Flowers said.

Brandon Smith, a firefighter for Minatare, was the overall command officer Friday evening and said they received a page to a grass fire around 6:30 p.m. It was a burn pile with embers blowing into the field. While they were heading to that, another call came in for downed powerlines south of Highland Road on Stonegate Road.

Fire destroyed a barn on Highland Road and Stonegate Road.

We did have one barn that was fully involved and was a total loss, he said. We were putting out hot spots and trees.

While fighting the fire on Stonegate Road, Minatare Fire requested mutual aid from Scottsbluff Rural, WNRA Airport Fire Department, Bayard and Bridgeport. Gering was also asked to send mutual aid, but was busy with multiple incidents within its jurisdiction.

As the crews worked to extinguish the Stonegate Road fire to multiple structures, a shed on the east side caught fire and was quickly extinguished without sustaining too much damage, Smith said.

Melbeta also had reports of downed powerlines, and the Nebraska State Patrol and sheriffs department evacuated the area.

There was zero visibility because of the high winds, he said. You couldnt see anything but dirt in front of your hood."

Carissa Schank said the Scottsbluff Rural Fire Department was dispatched as mutual aid around 7:15 p.m. While driving to the scene, Schank said, they came upon a fire at Stonegate and Highland Road, where visibility was zero.

We had fire coming at the fire truck from the fire at Stonegate and Highland, she said. We were stopped by a sheriffs deputy who thought there was a house on fire. The winds were erratic.

They located the driveway and found the barn on fire. The cause of the fire is unknown. Four outbuildings  two large and two small barns  were lost, along with corrals, hay stacks and several vehicles, all deemed total losses.

Schank said the Firefighter Ministries also aided a Terrytown resident with a hotel for the night after the strong winds blew off her homes roof.

Businesses were also affected by the storm, including Backaracks in Scottsbluff.

General manager Juewl Grubbs said the business lost power around 8:30 p.m. and closed for the evening.

We made the most of it and turned our flashlights on and checked people out as we could, Grubbs said. I appreciate them being patient and coming back today to pay the bills that we werent able to take care of last night.

West Nebraska Regional Airport also sustained damage to its skylight. Airport Director Raul Aguallo said half of the skylight is missing.

Because of the wind, we cant get anybody up to repair it, so Ive got crew there who are going to be there to keep mopping and doing those sorts of things to keep the place dry, Aguallo said.

The skylight piece is 40 by 40 feet in total, so roughly a piece about 20 by 20 feet was blown off.

They have calls out to the roofers and skylight repair crews with the hope to have some resolution in the next few days. The airport also lost some roofing panels and had damage to gates. The airport remains open, but the terminal is closed. United Airlines canceled all flights for Saturday.

Downed power lines caused outages across Scottsbluff, continuing to affect over 200 customers Saturday. Grant Otten, media relations specialist with Nebraska Public Power District, said most of the outages are caused from damaged or broken power poles. He did not have an estimated time for when power would come on.

Some of the poles are pretty gnarly, he said. We had poles broken in half because the wind was so strong and some poles are just leaning.

Otten said they are bringing in crews from across the state to help with the repairs. He also reminded the public to stay clear of power lines and to assume any lines are energized.

As of Saturday evening, approximately 20 NPPD customers in Scottsbluff were still experiencing an outage. Roughly 19 NPPD customers in the rural area north of Scottsbluff also had no power Saturday evening, Otten said.

Work was underway to rebuild the line along 21st Avenue, Otten told the Star-Herald Sunday. The work started Monday.

"In order to complete that work, some of the customers in the 21st Avenue area will have to be taken offline during daytime hours and then those customers will be restored in the evening and overnight hours," he said.

Effected customers were notified as the work will likely take multiple days to complete, meaning someone could have no daytime power for more than one day, Otten said.

"Were sorry for any inconvenience this may cause customers, but we just ask for patience while the crews complete their work to get the system restored to normal operations," he said.

The front brought with it strong winds, which kicked up dust, and no moisture. However, snow was on the way.

There is snow falling behind this disturbance, Cox said. We are getting some snow on the back side of it.

The NWS did not predict more than an inch of accumulation and said the wind would continue through the area with gusts upwards of 60 mph.

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Independence, Missouri  The Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously selected Gering as the site for its 41st annual convention. The convention is slated to get underway on Tuesday, July 25, and conclude on Saturday, July 29.

Next years theme is We Do Old in a New Way in a nod to the new facilities at Scotts Bluff National Monument, the Chimney Rock Museum and the Legacy of the Plains Museum.

The Gering Convention Center will be convention headquarters, with many other activities slated to occur at local landmarks, historic sites, and other facilities. OCTA is partnering with the Gering Visitors Bureau, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Legacy of the Plains Museum and the Chimney Rock Museum to stage this week-long event. Other partners are still being sought as well.

The convention will feature an array of activities, including day-long guided tours to historic trail sites in both Nebraska and Wyoming; two days of speakers, featuring a diverse array of topics that will include not only the Oregon and California national historic trails, but also the Pony Express and Mormon Pioneer national historic trails, the histories of regional American Indian nations; workshops that may focus on things like the importance of quilts in telling the story of the trails, historic 19th century gun collections, and utilizing trail diaries to conduct genealogical research; evening events that will include a presentation about the trail art of William Henry Jackson at Scotts Bluff National Monument, an awards banquet, a silent and live auction, a closing event at the Legacy of the Plains Museum that will feature a wagon train and a grilled steak dinner, and even a potential concert at the Five Rocks Amphitheater.

Gering last hosted the convention in 2007. Scottsbluff hosted in 1985. Every year, the convention moves to a new site, with Casper, Wyoming, hosting this year. Elko, Nevada, hosted in 2021.

The planning committee is in the early stages of charting out the events and speakers for the week, so stay tuned for future announcements. Registration materials will be ready in March 2023 and the public is invited to all events. The public is encouraged to mark their calendars for July 25-29, 2023, to help the association do old in a new way in Gering.

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Lincoln  The Nebraska State Unit on Aging, serving Nebraskans aged 60+, and GetSetUp.io, a virtual social learning platform designed specifically for older adults, have partnered to help bridge the digital divide and combat social isolation for residents of Nebraska. The partnership provides live interactive classes by older adults, for older adults from the comfort of their own homes.

We are excited to offer access to these classes to Nebraskans, said Cynthia Brammeier, the administrator for the State Unit on Aging. There is a growing need for digital literacy. Once people are comfortable with their device, the learning opportunities are limitless.

As broadband internet access expands across the state, the need for older adults to learn using digital devices is becoming critical for healthy aging. The Nebraska State Unit on Aging is sponsoring these online training opportunities for adults aged 60+ to learn in a safe environment how to effectively use their smartphones, laptops or tablets to reach out to family and friends more easily, meet with their doctors over telehealth, learn a new skill, socialize and more.

Two live interactive starter classes are recommended, including Getting Comfortable with Your Device  A Cell Phone, Tablet or Laptop and New Member Orientation, which helps users find and sign up for other classes on the GetSetUp website. After completion, Nebraska residents can take classes on a multitude of topics over the next year.

GetSetUps customized platform offers an interface for older adults to learn, create and share safely. The platform addresses social determinants of health by helping older adults stay connected to the tools they need to age in place. Older adults who learn how to utilize their tech devices can stay connected with family and interact with others more efficiently.

GetSetUps video learning interface is tailored to older adults of all levels of technology proficiency. The platform offers support via phone and in all classes to assist learners with technology, as well as a booking system with regular reminders and after-class notes. More than 4.4 million adults use this platform, which features 4,000 classes that promote digital literacy, socialization, health and wellness, and new learning experiences. Classes shift weekly and are available around the clock in multiple languages including Spanish and Mandarin.

We hear learner feedback daily about how technology is helping to connect older adults not only to friends and family but also to opportunities to learn and age healthier, said Lawrence Kosick, president and co-founder of GetSetUp. GetSetUp empowers older adults to utilize their technology devices in a safe environment that connects them with a vibrant community of peer that are passionate about similar topics. No matter where learners are, social learning with friends is just a click away.

Older adults in Nebraska can access these services by visiting: https://www.getsetup.io/partner/nebraska

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After a drier-than-normal start of the year, Aprils snow and rain have helped boost the snowpack and push out the start of fire season, but the next two months will better predict summer conditions, according to the National Weather Service.

What really matters for fire season is what happens with precipitation in May and June and the amount of lightning that happens during fire season. Thats really impossible to predict that far out, said Scott Weishaar, National Weather Service meteorologist with the Portland district.

Since January, temperatures have been above average at higher elevations in Washington and Oregon and most areas have been drier than typical, according to a monthly and seasonal outlook report by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Western Washington and Oregon saw above average precipitation in April, improving the snowpack in the Pacific Northwest. However, drought is likely to persist in much of eastern Washington and most of Oregon, according to the outlook report.

Although last year was hot and included the major heat wave in late June, the fire season for southwest Washington and northwest Oregon was not as severe as previous years, Weishaar said. Temperatures hit 109 degrees during the June heat wave. Cowlitz County saw a high of 94 in July 2021, with nearly no rain, and a high of 100 in August, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.

Seven of the past 10 years were in the top 10 for acres burned in Washington and Oregon, with the highest in 2020, 1.98 million acres, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

The risk of large, costly fires remains at a normal level in June in most of the Pacific Northwest except central Oregon, according to the outlook report. In July, that risk expands into central Washington, and southwestern Oregon.

The May through July outlook calls for average temperatures in Southwest Washington, but below average precipitation for Washington and Oregon, according to the report.

A continued wet pattern would help push out the start of fire season, Weishaar said. This year is already different than 2021, which had an extremely dry April and May, with fires burning in April, he said.

The more rain and mountain snow we can get through May, the better, he said.

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Solar Eclipse 2022: The 1st partial solar eclipse of 2022 will happen on April 30, 2022. Check out the time, places where you can watch it, and how to watch it safely here.

Solar Eclipse 2022: The first solar eclipse of 2022 is on its way! Yes, on April 30, 2022, Saturday, the first partial solar eclipse will take place. People in parts of southern South America, Antarctica, and the Pacific and Southern Oceans will have a chance to witness the partial solar eclipse just before and during sunset, as per the information provided by Solar System Exploration, NASA. "As it sets in the west on the evening of April 30, the Sun will appear partially eclipsed for those with clear skies in Chile, Argentina, most of Uruguay, western Paraguay, southwestern Bolivia, southeastern Peru, and a small area of southwestern Brazil," NASA said.

The eclipse will also be visible along parts of the northwestern coastline of Antarctica, in the Atlantic Ocean just off the southeastern coast of South America, including the Falkland Islands, and in much of the South Pacific Ocean and Southern Ocean. Thus, it can be noted that the eclipse will not be seen in India. Do you know how a solar eclipse happens? Check it out below.

What is Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves exactly between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth, fully or partially blocking the Suns light in some areas. During a partial eclipse, the Moon and Sun are not perfectly aligned, so the Moon does not completely cover the Sun. This gives the Sun a crescent shape, or makes it appear as if a bite has been taken out of the Sun, depending on how much of the Sun is covered by the Moon. While for a total solar eclipse to take place, the Sun, Moon, and Earth must be in a direct line, according to NASA.

Solar Eclipse 2022: How to watch a partial eclipse safely

It is never safe to look directly at the Sun, even if the Sun is partly or mostly obscured. You need a safe solar filter in order to safely look directly at the Sun. When viewing a partial solar eclipse, you must wear solar viewing or eclipse glasses throughout the entire eclipse if you want to face the Sun. It can be noted that solar viewing or eclipses glasses are not regular sunglasses and regular sunglasses are not safe for viewing the Sun.

If you do not have solar viewing or eclipse glasses, you can use an alternate indirect method, such as a pinhole projector. You need to know that pinhole projectors should not be used to look directly at the Sun, but instead to project sunlight onto a surface.
A recent survey suggests that iOS has been gaining more popularity at a rapid pace, eating into the market share of Android. Check it out.

iPhones are eating into Androids world domination! Based on a research, it seems that iOS as a platform gained more traction across markets in the recent years, eating into the market share of Android OS. That said, it is still not an alarming situation for Android fanboys, as Googles free-to-use smartphone OS still dominates by a mega margin. The insights presented by the research is fascinating, showing how the demand goes up and falls based on launches and time.

The research done by StockApps suggests that Android has ceded almost 8 percent of its market share to Apples iOS. Its worldwide market share in January 2022 stood at 69.74%. In contrast, the OS commanded a market share of 77.32%, its highest ever, in July 2018. Thus it has ceded 7.58% of its holding in the last five years, says the report. However, the share varies between various markets and in America, it is iOS that dominates.

iOS is catching up to Android

Androids loss of market share boils down to heightened competition within the OS space. A look at the data shows that iOS gained 6 percent between July 2018 and January 2022. From 19.4 percent then, Apple has grown its OS market share to 25.49 percent. Other small scale OS developers account for the remaining 1.58 percent that Google shed, says Edith Reads from StockApps.

However, the share based on the geographic factors. For example, in Africa, it is Android that dominates with a share of 84 percent while iOS accounts for roughly 14 percent. Samsung, Nokia, and KaiOS share the remaining two percent of share.

In Europe, iOS gains more share, having a 30 percent footprint in the market. But Android continues to dominate here as well with a share of 69.32 percent. The Asian and South American markets foresee Android dominating at 81 and 90 percent respectively. In contrast, the iOS share is at 18 percent in Asia and 10 percent in South America.

In its North America where iOS commands a mega lead of 54 percent whereas Android only has a share or 45 percent.

The increase in shares of iOS can be attributed to the rise of low-cost iPhone models across markets. The iPhone SE has played a key role in increasing the reach of iPhones among the masses despite donning dated looks. Hence, Apple upgraded the iPhone SE earlier this year with support for 5G networks and slightly better battery life. Additionally, Apple continues selling older iPhone models at lower prices in India to take on Android flagships.
A gunman opened fire Saturday afternoon, killing one person after a fight Saturday afternoon along a busy stretch of Cottage Grove Avenue lined with businesses.

It happened shortly before 1 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, in the citys Bronzeville neighborhood, according to police.

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The person shot, only described as male, suffered two gunshot wounds to the chest and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Police said the gunman fled north from the scene and was not in custody.

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The 4700 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue is home to several businesses.

Detectives were investigating.
NASA has captured the image of the solar flare event, while CESSI predicted its effect on Earth. More solar flares are coming soon.

A major blast of energy from the Sun barely missed hitting Earth, but NASA predicts that more solar flares are coming. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has released an image of a moderate solar flare from the Sun on April 21. The solar flare which was categorised as M9.7 class has erupted from two moderately complex sunspot groups currently present in the northeast quadrant of the Sun. But the good news is that it missed hitting Earth! Well, this won't last long! Because the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI), which is under the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, warned about the upcoming solar flares.

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"Yesterday's (April 21) M9.7 class flare launched an associated CME on 21 April which was observed by SOHO LASCO C2. The CME was relatively narrow and not a halo CME. We estimate the probability of Earth impact to be low," (CESSI) said in a Tweet. It had also mentioned then that the CME will miss Earth with at best a chance of a flank impact.

Reports mention that the solar flare from the Earth-facing sunspot resulted in a shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and Australia.

The continuous terror of Solar flares..

We have been flooded with the headlines of solar flares in the last few months. Well, the reason behind these constant solar flares is the volatility of the Sun. This is due to the Sun beginning its 'Solar Cycle 25', which is expected to peak in 2025, the experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explained. After the Solar minimum occurred in December 2019, it marked the start of a new solar cycle. Know that a new solar cycle changes every 11 years.

And during this transition of the solar cycle, the Sun transforms its nature continuously which results in the solar storms that we are witnessing these days frequently.
Google Doodle today is an artwork ode to Naziha Salim's painting style and a celebration of her contributions to the art world. Here is all you need to know.

Google Doodle today, Saturday, April 23, 2022, paid a tribute to Naziha Salim and celebrated her contributions to the art world. "Todays Doodle artwork is an ode to Salim's painting style and a celebration of her long standing contributions to the art world!," Google said. It can be known that Naziha Salim was a painter, professor and one of the most influential artists in Iraqs contemporary art scene. Her work often depicts rural Iraqi women and peasant life through bold brush strokes and vivid colors. On this day in 2020, Naziha Salim was spotlighted by the Barjeel Art Foundation in their collection of female artists.

Giving details about Salim's family, Google said, "To paint the scene, Salim was born into a family of Iraqi artists in Turkey. Her father was a painter and her mother was a skilled embroidery artist. All three of her brothers worked in the arts, including Jawad, whos widely considered one of Iraqs most influential sculptors. From an early age she enjoyed making her own art."

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In order to complete her graduation and study painting, Salim enrolled at the Baghdad Fine Arts Institute. She graduated with distinction. Because of her hard work and passion for art she was one of the first women awarded a scholarship to continue her education in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. While in Paris, Salim specialized in fresco and mural painting. After graduation, she spent several more years abroad, immersing herself in art and culture.

Salim eventually returned to Baghdad to work at the Fine Arts Institute where she would teach until retirement. She was active in Iraqs arts community and one of the founding members of Al-Ruwwad, a community of artists that study abroad and incorporate European art techniques into the Iraqi aesthetic. Later in her career, Salim authored Iraq: Contemporary Art, an important resource for the early development of Iraqs modern art movement.

Naziha Salims artwork hangs at the Sharjah Art Museum and the Modern Art Iraqi Archive. You can see the magic she created from dripping brushes and brimmed canvases there.
DALLAS  Airlines say they are offering options  including refunds in some cases  for people worried about flying now that other passengers arent required to wear face masks.

However, the airlines arent providing many details. Customers could find themselves at the mercy of workers at airline customer-service centers.

Many people who will be flying in the next few weeks bought their tickets before a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the requirement to wear a mask in airports and during flights. That requirement, designed to limit the spread of COVID-19, was due to expire anyway on May 3.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said his airline will be flexible with people who have a weak immune system or are concerned about mask-optional flying for any other reason.

We are working with those customers ... to find another option, give them a credit, or if they just dont ever want to fly again, (we are) actually willing to give them a refund, Kirby told NBC.

A United spokesman said customers except those on the lowest-priced basic economy fares can delay their travel plans for any reason with no extra fee. He said passengers with special circumstances should call the airlines customer-service number.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Thursday that the airline hasnt fielded many refund requests yet.

But like we do in all these events, we are taking a look at our policies and ... asking them to get in touch with our reservations office, and we will make sure that we accommodate them in an appropriate fashion, Isom said.

An American spokeswoman pointed to the airlines policy, which allows refunds for refundable tickets  those usually cost more  and credit for the value of unused non-refundable tickets. However, people who bought basic economy tickets since April 1 are not entitled to a refund or to change their ticket.

A Delta Air Lines spokesman said customers who wish to cancel a trip should contact the airline. Decisions about how to handle those requests are made on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier did not reply to inquiries.

On Thursday, the Justice Department said it would appeal the Florida judges ruling striking down the mask mandate, which was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and enforced by the Transportation Security Administration.
SAN DIEGO  Republicans are always eager to tackle immigration, even though theyre the ones who usually get flattened in the process.

It seems that many in the GOP cant help but say and do the wrong things when they think about foreigners streaming into the United States  whether they come legally or otherwise.

That is, except for light-skinned Ukrainians. Republicans seem perfectly at ease with the fact that, according to the Biden administration, more than 5,000 refugees from Ukraine have entered the United States in the nearly two months since the Russian invasion began.

And to think, not that long ago, I used to applaud how Republicans  at least some of them  approached the immigration issue.

This was in 2006, shortly after former President George W. Bush  a Republican who won 44% of the Latino vote in his 2004 reelection bid  kicked off the modern debate over comprehensive immigration reform.

Bush said he wanted to grant earned legal status to the undocumented, modernize border security and pair up willing Mexican workers with U.S. employers to do jobs that Americans wont do.

Today, youll often hear liberals say that  when it comes to immigration  Republicans have no heart. But what is really troubling is that, on this issue, a lot of Republicans dont use their brains.

In 16 years, the GOP has gone from compassionate to comical. Republicans get all worked up about a subject they really dont understand.

Consider the antics of the Republican version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Abbott recently took a wrong turn when he launched the first ever woke immigrant caravan. To get media attention, he dispatched a charter bus to Washington, D.C., carrying 23 migrants who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into the Lone Star State. Other buses followed. Abbott says he also plans to send charter flights full of migrants to the nations capital.

Bold move? Not as bold as you might think. You see, before Abbott became governor, he served as Texas attorney general. As a lawyer who is wrapping himself in a rule of law shtick, he certainly didnt want to create the appearance that he was kidnapping these poor people, or that he was trafficking undocumented immigrants across state lines.

So Abbott made clear that the migrants in his stunt were being voluntarily transported and had already been processed by the Department of Homeland Security.

At first, I thought the Texas governors stunt was obnoxious. But in time, I understood that it was just lame.

When reporters interviewed the folks who had been dropped off a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, some of the migrants said they wanted to take advantage of the offer of a free ride out of Texas. Who could blame them? But, they said, their ultimate destination  while they waited out the time until their court hearing  was New York or Miami.

Migrants beware: Miami is in Florida. Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently warned migrants who got dumped in Washington, D.C., not to head to the Sunshine State.

The governors office said in a statement: To those who have entered the country illegally, fair warning: Do not come to Florida. Life will not be easy for you, because we are obligated to uphold the immigration laws of this country, even if our federal government and other states wont.

Gee, Florida, sanctimonious much?

DeSantis is a graduate of Harvard Law School who must have been absent the day they taught Constitution 101. States are not obligated to enforce federal immigration law. In fact, they are prohibited from doing so.

Besides, its not like the federal government  and its 20,000 Border Patrol agents  have quit their day jobs. Sometimes it seems like all the Biden administration does is enforce immigration law, often employing the same grotesque tactics that Trump used.

Above all, its absurd for DeSantis to warn migrants and refugees that life will not be easy in Florida. I think they got that message when they had to leave their homes with next to nothing. Their lives have not been easy. They didnt travel thousands of miles in search of easy.

In fact, when migrants and refugees go to work, theyre going to make life easy for native Floridians by doing their chores for them.

Where do we find governors like this? And wherever that place is, do they have a return policy?

Ruben Navarrettes email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, Ruben in the Center, is available through every podcast app.
Crucial to the success of Grand Island and its future is attracting new businesses and new entrepreneurs to the community.

Leading in those efforts is Grand Island Area Economic Development Corporation.

Among its efforts in 2022, GIAEDC is focused on workforce housing needs, inspiring youths toward entrepreneurism and renewing LB840.

Workforce Housing

State of Nebraska describes workforce housing, or the missing middle-class housing, as an owner-occupied house that costs $280,000 or less, explained GIAEDC President Dave Taylor.

Working with our economic development board along with our business partners, we decided to look at housing further and specifically workforce housing, said Taylor.

Such housing is much needed in Grand Island.

Every five years we do a housing study and we are over 1,100 houses short, Taylor said.

In response to this need, the state of Nebraska launched its rural housing project.

Cities with fewer than 100,000 people could apply for up to $1 million in matching funds.

Our economic development board along with business partners were able to put together $1 million and then we submitted our application, Taylor said. Because of our need and a lack of workforce housing in Grand Island, we were awarded the $1 million.

Taylor called it, an exciting thing and a big need.

Its not going to get fixed overnight, but we believe this is a great start in the right direction, he said.

With the $2 million total, GIAEDC worked with the housing improvement district and put out applications for the funds.

Fourteen different applications were received to create housing.

Three were ultimately chosen.

A press conference on March 1, which was attended by Gov. Pete Ricketts, detailed those applications.

Taylor told The Independent about a gathering of economists he had recently attended and a discussion held on housing.

Their belief basically is that we, as a country, have underbuilt housing for the last 30 years, he said. Its going to take time for us to get housing back where it needs to be.

He added, Its a long-term effort and were looking forward to those funds being reused many times here in Grand Island.

Move to Grand Island

An electronic effort to attract people to the city called Move to Grand Island was started by GIAEDC more than a year ago.

This is in collaboration with state of Nebraskas similar, The Good Life is Calling.

Collected are video testimonials from a broad sampling of the citys residents.

Its really to attract people and share what Grand Island is all about, Taylor said.

The data it draws has been helpful to GIAEDCs efforts.

In addition to all the data you can get on Facebook and Linked In, as far as how many people have seen the videos and how many have clicked on it, youre going to get demographics and timeframes, said Taylor. You can change where you want to focus that. If you want to target Chicago, you can push it to Chicago, for instance.

More specifically, GIAEDC hopes to reach people who have ties to Nebraska.

Whether its college or theyve lived here at some point, its so theyll understand what were about, Taylor explained.

Entrepreneurism

We want to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Grand Island and for Grand Island to be known as a place where entrepreneurs are welcome, said Taylor.

Future Builders Challenge targets sophomores not only at Grand Island, but also Aurora, Wood River, St. Paul and Centura School District.

Its identifying the propensity toward entrepreneurism as a sophomore in high school and then making sure that all those students understand Grand Island is welcoming, Taylor said.

The top 10% of the students with this interest are identified in each community and matched up with mentors in Grand Island for a two-day workshop.

Theyll be able to either share what their vision is, or for cities to potentially share the issues they have and see what a sophomore comes up with as a solution, as opposed to the traditional people who would fix a problem, Taylor said.

Big Idea Grand Island also returns this fall, in collaboration with Central Community College.

It is a Shark Tank-style event for adults and their entrepreneurial ideas with awards given.

It will take place at CCCs newly opened downtown entrepreneurial center.

LB840

The Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act is the primary incentive offered by GIAEDC and provides direct cash payments to local companies.

The funds can be used for three different paths: job creation, job training and infrastructure funds for that business.

GIX Logistics, Zabuni Specialty Coffee Auction, Amur Equipment Finance, Dramco and, recently, Hornady Manufacturing have all benefited from these funds.

Grand Island has invested more than $6.7 million in LB840 in the last 20 years, creating 1,114 new jobs and generating more than $36 million in annual wages, Taylor told the City Council in December.

LB840 returns to the voters for approval in November.

Every 10 years LB840 goes back out to a vote of the people, Taylor said. Seventy-five cities in Nebraska currently have LB840 programs in place. Ours expires Sept. 30, 2023. In May 2022 we will be submitting and discussing an LB840 application to put on the ballots in the fall of 2022.

LB840 is needed for Grand Island to continue moving in a positive direction.

A city of our size, a key component is having that (EDC) that is working day-in and day-out to better your community, Taylor said.

The funds benefit both businesses and people, Taylor said.

When we help our existing businesses expand, the main thing we look at is the human capital it brings to the community, and we need to do all we can to recruit that human capital into the community, he said. We believe many of these things were focusing on will do that.

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Gregorio Pillado, 79, stands with his medications after arriving home from his job in Chicago on Feb. 25, 2022. At left is his wife, Martina Alonso, 69. Pillado requires medications for heart and blood ailments. Because the two are undocumented immigrants, they are not eligible for social services to alleviate the strain on their living situation. Pillado and Alonso are among of the increasing number of aging undocumented workers in Illinois. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

For several months, the Chicago Tribune and Injustice Watch teamed up to report on the challenges facing Illinois aging undocumented population in a four-part series of stories focused on access to health care and housing.

[ Para leer en espanol, haga clic aqui. ]

The project was inspired by ongoing stories of community members undergoing financial hardship, yet remaining resilient. And it was backed by a report that revealed that the senior undocumented population will increase by 1,300% in the next decade in Illinois.

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Most immigrants without legal status arrived in the country decades ago and have lived here without a viable pathway to citizenship. Mexican immigrants will make up two-thirds of the undocumented older adult populations in Illinois, followed by immigrants from Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeastern Asia, and Central America.

Now, this generation of immigrants faces the prospect of having lived and died in the shadows. Undocumented immigrants are blocked from accessing social programs that many seniors rely on, such as food stamps, public housing, Medicare and Social Security insurance  programs that they pay billions of dollars into every year. Their families and communities weave a patchwork of formal and informal resources to make up the difference.

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Local activists and organizers say its up to state and local governments to protect all seniors regardless of their immigration status at the lack of federal assistance.

What does it all mean? At noon on Wednesday, join Chicago Tribune reporter Laura Rodriguez Presa and Injustice Watch reporter Carlos Ballesteros for a Facebook Live conversation in Spanish, featuring a panel of experts who will help dissect the series, its meaning and potential effect.

Panelists:
KEARNEY  A Ravenna man is charged with three felonies for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman.

Fernando Contreras, 47, of Ravenna is charged in Buffalo County Court with two counts of felony third-degree assault on a pregnant woman and one count of assault by strangulation or suffocation of a pregnant woman. The alleged incident happened on April 6.

Records detailing the incident were sealed at the request of deputy Buffalo County Attorney Mike Mefferd, who cited the document contains confidential information.

Contreras was arrested on a Buffalo County warrant on April 12, and is being held at the Buffalo County Jail on a $150,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court in May.
WATERFORD  School officials are reassuring parents after law enforcement officers at Woodfield Elementary School found reports of students inappropriately touching each other and exchanging sexual text messages.

School Administrator Ed Brzinski issued a statement Wednesday after the Racine County Sheriffs Office released records of an investigation that began March 18 with a report of a sexual assault at Woodfield, a K-5 school.

In a statement issued after The Journal Times contacted him about the situation, Brzinski told parents that law enforcement has investigated and that none of the alleged wrongdoing involved adults.

We would like to reassure you that your children are safe and have been, he wrote.

RCSO records include allegations among Woodfield Elementary students of inappropriate touching, text messages with sexual content, and one child luring another into a bathroom for an inappropriate incident.

Investigators reported uncovering a photograph of one student simulating sexual activity with a stuffed animal.

In another instance, a student received a text message asking, Hey, bestie, want to flash? although the student later denied sending or receiving any nude photographs.

RCSO records do not indicate any plans for seeking criminal charges. Instead, Racine County Child Protective Services was contacted and social workers there were following up on the situation.

CPS officials could not be reached for comment.

The police records are heavily redacted to remove references to any Woodfield students name, age or sex.

Located at 905 Barnes Drive, Waterford, Woodfield Elementary serves about 300 to 400 children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Principal Jessica Grimm, who assisted investigators, declined to comment, referring questions to Brzinski.

Brzinski said school officials are required by law to notify police when certain types of incidents are reported. He called the allegations unfounded, although he would not say whether that means no wrongdoing occurred or only that no criminal charges were filed.

This is an issue between children, so we cannot comment on it, he said. The police have handled it. Child Protective Services has handled it.

According to sheriffs records released under the states open records law, the situation began March 18 when the parents of a Woodfield Elementary student reported that their child had endured inappropriate touching at least five times by another student.

The Waterford Police Department categorized the incident as a sexual assault report. The sheriffs department listed the incident type simply as administrative.

Some of the alleged incidents, investigators reported, occurred during a before- and after-school program operated at Woodfield by Homestead Day Care Inc.

Homestead owner Terry Nelson said she never spoke with police and did not have all the information about what happened. Nelson, however, said she felt the situation was being blown out of proportion.

It was between two students, and nothing else, she said.

Grimm told police about an incident in February 2021 when one student lured another into a bathroom. The incident was reported to both parents but police were not contacted, because a witness described only inappropriate conversation in the bathroom.

RCSO reported finding several text messages, including one described as a group chat with multiple people. The texting included comments possibly sexual in nature, as well as others that were provocative in nature.

The records show that investigators interviewed at least two sets of parents, plus one student who admitted to text messages that were inappropriate.

However, the student reportedly said, despite ... talking about it, neither of them have either sent or received any nude or otherwise inappropriate photographs of each other.

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History isnt short of people to blame. You could say of the present world crisis that it was former president Barack Obamas fault for not getting tougher with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Syria. You could blame former president Donald Trump for giving Putin a sense of entitlement and for undermining NATO, seeing it as a financial play. You could blame former German chancellor Angela Merkel for encouraging Russian gas imports, shutting out the nuclear energy option.

You could, of course, blame President Biden for explicitly telling Putin, and the world, what the United States wouldnt do if he invaded Ukraine. And you could blame Biden and NATO for dribbling vital military aid to Ukraine over the first devastating months of the Russian invasion.

If you want to continue, you could blame the worlds military strategists for believing that Russia, after the fall of communism, had changed. You could, perhaps, blame NATO itself, for expanding its reach to the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Putin is unequivocally the one to blame. He is the one who wants to remake Russia in the image of the imperial tsars. It is a flawed scheme but a real one.

As the world grapples with the reality of Putin, the past informs but it doesnt instruct. If NATO were to engage Russia with conventional forces, it would triumph. That is one lesson of Ukraine. Russian military forces are woefully inefficient, even incompetent.

Would it were that simple.

The beast in the room, the feared monster, the threat that hangs over the whole world is nuclear war. It is the clear-and-present danger. It shapes our handling of Russia and will shape our response to China, if and when it invades Taiwan.

Nuclear war avoidance is again dominating the world in ways we had nearly forgotten. Will Russia  a caged, fierce bear  resort to nuclear, and how much nuclear to what effect against which targets?

The United States and the Soviet Union reached a modus vivendi: mutual assured destruction (MAD), which kept the peace even as nuclear armaments proliferated and stockpiles grew exponentially. Is that still the option? Is MAD  so long after the collapse of the Soviet Union  still the underlying realpolitik, the restraining factor between nuclear powers?

Does that mean that anyone with nuclear weapons can wage conventional warfare in the belief that they wont face NATO or any other serious restraining military action because they can unleash terrifying global destruction?

Or is there, as some believe, the prospect of limited nuclear engagement, using area tactical nuclear weapons? This has never been tested. There hasnt been a limited nuclear ground war. Could it be contained? Should it be contemplated outside the deeper reaches of the defense establishment?

But it is what keeps the leaders of Europe, the United States and Canada awake nights. If you favor limited nuclear war, just look to the effects of a nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, and start multiplying.

It is the unthinkable scenario that must be thought about. It is the reality that holds back NATO and makes the West a spectator to the carnage in Ukraine.

Russia isnt a rich country. It has a large, poorly trained and equipped military. But it bristles with nuclear weapons aimed at North American and European cities. Its ability to threaten us with nuclear horror changes the balance between nations: an indelible change to future foreign policy.

In the short term, when contemplating the return of MAD in international relations, the question is: How mad  as in insane  is Putin, and how ready is Biden?

The pieces on the world chess board have moved and they wont be moved back. The intelligentsia has yet to grasp the extent to which Ukraine has changed the world  and made it a more dangerous place. They need to catch up fast.

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @LlewellynKing2. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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South Carolina residents looking to build their farm businesses can now learn what they need to start with a firm foundation thanks to an online class from Clemson Extension.

Farming Foundations is a free course that teaches farmers knowledge they need to get their farms moving in the right direction. It is taught by Clemson Cooperative Extension Service horticulture agents and consists of 14 learning modules.

For more information, contact the local Clemson Extension Office or go to https://bit.ly/CES_FarmingFoundations.

Zack Snipes, assistant program leader for the Clemson Extension horticulture team and area horticulture agent, said classes focus on vegetable production but many topics such as soil testing, fertility and irrigation can be applied to other farming ventures as well.

This course was designed for new or beginning farmers who are looking to hobby farm or start their own commercial farm, Snipes said. Agents get many questions from prospective farmers. There is a ton of information to learn when starting out, so this class is structured to give participants a good foundation before they start.

During the course, participants learn good management practices that can help prevent them from making costly mistakes before they start, Snipes said. Topics covered include soils, fertility, field prep, irrigation, farm safety, small tools and tractors, Extension agent assistance and more. The class comes with assignments such as taking soil samples or making farm tool checklists. These activities create the foundation for farm recordkeeping.

The course has open enrollment, so people can register anytime. Once participants start the course, they have 120 days to complete it.

After completing the course, participants will have a portfolio that will help them begin their farming journey, Snipes said.

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A pair of talented Claflin University STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) majors have accepted six-figure employment opportunities at Zoom Video Communications Inc.

AaLeeyah Housey, a senior from Columbia, and Harris Roach, a senior from Atlanta, will become full-time employees with Zoom in July 2022, following a yearlong internship with the company.

Claflin launched a five-year strategic partnership between the university and Zoom in 2020. The $1.2M partnership established a multifaceted foundational program for educational and financial investments for Claflin. The partnership includes paid internship opportunities for Claflin students.

I am really looking forward to working with Zoom full-time in July. After interning with the company for a year, I have established great relationships with my team, and they are so amazing. The supportive company culture is a plus as well, Roach said.

Roach began interning with Zoom in May 2021 as a security risk intern. She will transition to a security learning and development specialist starting in July. Roach will assist with training all employees, including the 2022 security awareness training. In May, Roach will graduate from Claflin with a degree in computer engineering.

I am so glad that I decided to attend Claflin. Before Zoom, I interned with IBM, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and traveled on an all-expenses-paid to Israel, Roach said. Each of these opportunities came through Claflin and the opportunities they create for the students.

Housey also expressed her gratitude for being one of Claflins first-ever Zoom Scholars.

I have gained countless experiences and mentors since beginning my internship, Housey said. I appreciate how Zoom values our contributions to the company. Even as interns, they let us know how our work plays an important role in the team's success.

Currently, Housey is in a dual role as a security risk intern and project manager on the security team. She will serve as a security risk analyst, working directly with Zoom platforms and partners when she transitions into her full-time role.

Before interning with Zoom, Housey worked as a software engineer intern with The Walt Disney Company under the UNCF Walt Disney Scholars Program. Additionally, she was an intern with Boeing and a student researcher at Claflin.

Overall, I cant thank Claflin enough for the opportunities that have helped me further my career. Ive had so many chances to grow my professional network. I truly benefited from interning at a high-tech industry leader because Im graduating with a full-time position, Housey said.

The Zoom partnership aligns with Claflins Value Proposition and its goal to foster partnerships that strengthen the universitys commitment to student success and access to scholarships, internships, and other career development initiatives.

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EHRHARDT  A Confederate Memorial Day Service will be held Friday, May 13, starting at 10 a.m. on 325 State Park Road at the Rivers Bridge State Historic Site near Ehrhardt.

The event will feature displayed relics such as an original Confederate uniform in a traveling exhibit from the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. There also will be written, interactive descriptions of the Civil War battle at Rivers Bridge in February 1865.

Larry Watt, president of the Rivers Bridge Confederate Memorial Association, said, For nearly a century and a half, our association has annually honored those who died at Rivers Bridge. Their actions and tactics are important to the history of our state.

Some, such as association member Jerry Morris, have contended that Watts mention of military tactics used at Rivers Bridge alludes to the fact that Rivers Bridge war strategies and techniques are still being taught in modern military academies.

Morris is a retired Barnwell High School art teacher, Confederate re-enactor, retired adjunct psychology instructor for the University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie, and member of the executive committee for the Rivers Bridge Confederate Memorial Association.

Morris said, A tradition that has endured for 146 years -- surviving the trials of Reconstruction, the tragedy of two world wars, the clashes of the civil rights era, and the restrictions of a pandemic -- is worth keeping and honoring.

The Confederate Memorial Day service event on May 13 will fascinate history buffs with the ritualistic placement of wreaths and flags on Confederate graves as well as the graves of soldiers from World War II on site. A permanent exhibit from the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, listing the casualties from both Confederate and Union sides during the Battle of Rivers Bridge, will draw guests there. Also, visitors can experience, as an intrinsic incentive, the well-documented history of the well-preserved battlefield site itself (one of a kind in the S.C. Park System).

According to SouthCarolinaParks.com, Rivers Bridge State Historic Site marks the site of one of the Confederacys last stands against General William T. Shermans sweep across the South. Of all the Civil War Sites in South Carolina, the Battle of Rivers Bridge is the only one in the State Parks system that is home to a preserved battlefield.

Dan Bell, historic resource coordinator with the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism who is based out of the Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site in Charleston, said, The annual commemoration at Rivers Bridge is significant in several ways. It started in the decade after the Civil War when a group of local men gathered the Confederate dead from their scattered burial sites on the battlefield and reburied them in a common grave at the area now known as the Memorial Grounds.

Those men created the Rivers Bridge Memorial Association, and they began meeting every year at the common grave to remember the Confederate dead. Its a tradition that continues to this day, and its because of that tradition that the battlefield and the Memorial Grounds were eventually preserved and are now part of the South Carolina State Park Service, Bell added.

Morris stated the battle there was extremely important because of the battle strategies there as a historical study and for modern implications in war.

Morris said, Personally, I have worked with several classes of captains from Fort Jackson to drill and teach them from the 1863 tactical manual. That was one of the most interesting things Ive done as a Living Historian.

A number of individuals in S.C. do re-enacting or Living History, and some come in Confederate uniform to show respect to the dead during the memorial service. The 10th SC Volunteer Infantry and Santee Light Artillery (in Confederate uniform) provide honor guard and fire salutes during the service.

The Memorial Day Service is always held on the Friday closest to Confederate Memorial Day, which is May 10 in S.C. The actual service is Friday, May 13. A musical prelude will begin at 10 a.m. with a program starting at 11 a.m. Dinner on the grounds usually occurs around 12:30 p.m.

Bell said, For many years the Rivers Bridge Confederate memorial services were large events that attracted many people, including prominent local politicians. Several South Carolina governors have spoken at past memorial services.

Morris said, In its heyday, back in the 1950s, as many as 4,000 people attended the event, but in more recent times, the crowd usually numbers around 250."

Artifacts that were formerly displayed in the Rivers Bridge Relic Room (before they were stolen in late 1980s) were recovered and moved to S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, SC State Museum and SCPRT archives. This year, the S.C. Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum plans to bring Confederate soldier Samuel Coopers homespun uniform and other artifacts to the May 13 event.

According to information from the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, Private Samuel Powell Cooper wore a butternut jean uniform during his service in the Confederate Army.

Cooper was the son of Alice Ann Reed and Clark Columbus Cooper and was born in 1848 and reportedly grew up in Barnwell and is thought to have enlisted in the cavalry, in defense of S.C., shortly before Shermans massive army invaded S.C.

Little is known about Coopers life during the four months of the Carolinas Campaign and before his death in Raleigh, N.C., at age 17 in 1865. Records at Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, list a Private Samuel Cooper as being interred on May 16, 1865. He succumbed from either his wounds or from disease at a tragically young age. Perhaps a friend from his company or a relative attended his burial, because this rough-hewn uniform, and likely other belongings, were eventually brought home.

Allen Roberson, S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum executive director said, This material culture is the only remaining physical link to these individual South Carolinians  many of whom are our ancestors -- who were part of the most significant and cataclysmic event in our nations history!

The Rivers Bridge Confederate Memorial Association has been supporting the conservation of the uniform, which will be brought to the event among other historic items (the conservation price for the uniform alone has been listed as $12,000).

Roberson said, We feel very fortunate to have a partner like the Rivers Bridge Memorial Association to help us save this significant material culture for the benefit of future generations of South Carolinians. Thats why the museum staff has traveled to Rivers Bridge each year for 10 years to bring artifacts from both the Rivers Bridge collection as well as the museums larger collection for temporary display. Its a homecoming of sorts for the Rivers Bridge artifacts.

On Friday, May 13, at the aforementioned historic site, there will be a recognition of Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy and a traditional laying of memorial wreaths for both Confederate dead and World War II deceased veterans. Flags and wreaths will be placed on the graves, and this tradition dates back to when Confederate Memorial Day was referred to as Decoration Day.

A tour of the grounds will be happening during the day, and, again, the grounds are not just used for the Confederate dead.

Bell explained, After World War II, a portion of the Memorial Grounds was dedicated for use as a burial site for local men who were killed in or had served in that conflict. Seven servicemen from that war  five who were killed in action  now rest there.

The addition of the World War II section helped give the site a wider focus, one that honors battlefield sacrifice from the Civil War up to the present, Bell said.

Bell said, And to honor the sacrifice of Civil War soldiers from both North and South, the South Carolina State Park Service created a permanent exhibit on the battles casualties in the Memorial Grounds several years ago.

The exhibit includes the names of the Confederate and Union soldiers who were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the battle of Rivers Bridge.

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Orangeburg City Council decided in April not to rezone three residential properties for business, despite the requests of the property owners. Council voted 4-3 not to give first reading to an ordinance changing the zoning designation of 1090 St. Matthews Road, 1070 St. Matthews Road and 1080 St. Matthews Road from Single-Family Residential to General Business.

Sometime prior to May 2016 when l was looking to purchase a house in Pecan Way Terrace, Ken Floyd stopped by and talked with me at 1090 St. Matthews Road, which is at the corner of St. Matthews Road and Stuart Street.

He informed me of what he and his neighbor Glenda and Randy Shuler had been working on for some years to rezone their property to B1.

Floyd said that he had been to the Planning Commission and City Council in the year 2006 and the rezoning passed the commission but got only two votes in council.

The next time they moved forward with their attempt, they were told that because of old covenants and restrictions that it could never be rezoned.

I said, I didnt have a problem with that.

Also, at the same hearing another individual petitioned to change an area on St. Matthews Road in Pecan Way Terrace Addition near Grove Park. Next to Walgreens, he had multiple houses moved on the edge of the neighborhood and years later it turned into a strip mall.

When he approached council, he asked for Commercial, yet there was no plan put forward for any business. It passed council and became Commercial and was left vacant for about 15 years.

Another four-acre piece of property up at the Gressette house on Columbia Road and Wells Drive was changed to Office and Institutional, which was Suburban Residential, and there was no business property of any kind on that side of Columbia Road ever. They were supposed to put a dentist ofce in the Gressette house, but they ended up clearing the whole corner of Wells Drive and Columbia Road and building a large parking lot and large office.

What happens now to the Gressette house? It would be a shame to see such a beautiful classic landmark be torn down to build more offices. I sat through the hearings, and it was passed with no issues. We want to know why it is so difficult in these hearings for us to achieve our goal.

ls it because they are wealthy and we are not? Is it because some of these developers like to control all commercial properties in the city? It seems average citizens dont get the same treatment as wealthy individuals.

Floyd feels by being put in a commercial office park against our will back in 1972, it is a violation of the law. I contend that all citizens of Block A should have the same rights.

Floyd said, back in Pecan Way Terrace there were many obstacles to overcome and at that time a group of them over the entire neighborhood were working on haying the archaic covenants and restrictions rewritten that were in the deed back in 1946 and ran with the land forever.

Floyd started doing research to nd out how 48% of Block A was B1 Commercial that he was adjacent to on two sides since Feb. 1, 1972. After a year or so of research, he found a note that said judgment Feb. 1, 1972. These old records were kept in the courthouse basement and Floyd found the declaratory judgment act that had changed the covenants and restrictions of 48% of Block A.

It was rezoned, so it looked a bit suspicious. An undisclosed judge told us that with the great lack of signatures and how it was done, "it would not have passed in my court.

Floyd said he "is next door to one of the busiest banks in all of Orangeburg with four drive-through windows and two teller machines that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week." His windows rattle from the loud music at all hours of the night and day and McGregor St Company LLP accountants are adjacent to the back of his property and his neighbors' as well.

"We live in a commercial office park on one of the busiest four-lane thoroughfares in the city. We are directly across from Grand South Bank and the Orangeburg Mall," Floyd said.

Several council members have turned deaf ears to this situation and said this present council didnt do this." But they do have the power to right some of the wrongs from back then. Meanwhile other properties seem to have no trouble with zoning.

Floyd said that their group talked with Russ Blanchard of Williams and Williams attorneys, and he decided to take on the challenge of rewriting the covenants and restrictions for the entire neighborhood. The master in equity for Orangeburg County said we would be required to get two-thirds of the neighborhood to sign a notarized document and everyone else would be served by a process server so there is no way that people would not have known what we were doing. In fact, everyone knew what we were doing.

This was very time consuming and expensive for Floyd. A councilman indicated that people in the neighborhood didnt know about what we were doing, but that is far from the truth. This process took years of knocking on doors and talking with almost every one of the property owners in the neighborhood.

There are 155 lots in Pecan Way Terrace, and this was more work than most can imagine. After about 3-12 years of hard work, the judge nally signed the new covenants into law.

In the summer and fall of 2019, Floyd said, even after our covenant and restriction petitions, which were close to two-thirds of the neighborhood, were tallied, we were required by law to serve all that were against." He would go one step further just to eliminate any doubts that the city knew that we had the support of the property owners by getting specic petitions witnessed and notarized by property owners in the neighborhood.

"These documents read like this:

"I, resident and owner of property in Block A of Pecan Way Terrace subdivision have no objections to the Re-zoning of 1070, 1080, and 1090 St. Matthews Rd. from residential to commercial. This will be a more appropriate zoning application because of the significant change in character and nature of this part of Pecan Way Terrace. This change has been brought about by the current level of commercial activity adjacent to and inside Block A by the adjacent Ofce Park, surrounding commercial property, four lane thoroughfares, and the proximity of the Orangeburg Mall which is directly across from the aforementioned properties.

Signature

Address

Witness

SWORN to before me this Day of XX 2019

(L.S.)

NOTARY PUBLIC FOR SOUTH CAROLINA

My commission expires XXXX."

He said, we have 51 petitions signed by homeowners from the neighborhood and there should be absolutely no doubt that everyone at the Orangeburg City Council and Planning Commission knows that the neighborhood knows what we are doing. Nobody is trying to slip something in like the Orangeburg City Council did back in 1972."

Floyd said "on Sept. 26, 2019, in the Planning Commission hearing, we learned that while we were working on rewriting the covenants and restrictions that the city was at the same time redesignating our neighborhood to suburban residential in the new comprehensive plan, which put us in the same situation we were in years before. The odd thing is there is no Suburban Residential anywhere around close to Pecan Way Terrace and we are surrounded by Urban. It's an oxymoron. It was hard to stomach. We were turned down by the Planning Commission."

Council was informed by the city attorney that the ordinance could not move forward due to the comprehensive plan and land-use documents. The Planning Commission then voted to send it back to City Council to review the comprehensive plan to see if it could be changed from Suburban to another classication. It was voted on and approved 4-1.

Then council requested consultant John Ford to review the Comprehensive Plan and address buffering needs.

That is odd because our new covenants and restrictions that had just passed in May 2019 had provisions in Article II 2.2 section a. that require buffer zones on commercial lots. "Commercial Buffers shall be constructed or installed on a Commercial lot prior to the commencement of business on such commercial lot."

These covenants also protected against liquor stores, bars and clubs and numerous other unpalatable businesses that would not be suitable at the edge of a residential neighborhood.

Copies of these documents were given to every council member. Some seem not to have read them by choice because they dont really represent the people of their districts. Dont get me wrong, our mayor and about half the council are dedicated public servants and treat people equally and fairly. They also failed to recognize 50 signed notarized documents from people all over the neighborhood that agreed that changing our property to B1 Commercial was the correct thing to do. Some of those people were right across Stuart Street from 1090 St. Matthews Road.

Oct 1, 2019, we went to City Council for the rst reading of ordinance to change from A1 to B1. The request was denied 4-3. Floyd was speaking to Mayor Butler at the podium when Councilman Hannah interrupted him and alleged that he had lied to him about people he had talked to in the neighborhood and what they had said and was very rude and disrupted the meeting and had to be called down by the mayor. It was a personal attack on Floyd.

Nov. 5, 2019, we went to City Council and council was asked to reconsider the Planning Commission recommendation to amend the Comprehensive Map. City Council approved 5-2 to have them study the Comprehensive Plan.

Sept 24, 2020, we went to the Planning Commission. John Singh talked and explained the study.

Feb. 20, 2021, City Council had update on the 2010 Comprehensive Plan.

March 10, 2021, City Council had the first reading of an ordinance to amend the Future Land Use plan. The motion was approved 4-3.

April 6, 2021, City Council had second reading on the Future Land Use. It was approved 4-3.

April 20, 2021, City Council had third reading on Future Land Use. It was approved 5-2.

Dec. 21, 2021, City Council had the first reading on the buffers. The motion was unanimously passed.

Jan. 4, 2022, City Council had second reading on buffers. The motion was unanimously passed.

Jan. 10, 2022, City Council had third reading on buffers. The motion was unanimously passed.

March 17, 2022, we went to the Planning Commission for the rezoning of our three properties. The motion was unanimously passed.

April 7, 2022, City Council had the first reading on rezoning of our three properties. The motion was 3-3 with one saying nothing when the others voted. He did not raise his hand. Then he was led to speak by the mayor and the assistant administrator.

The assistant administrator and the city attorney called it an abstention and it did not pass. The first reading was labeled a public hearing, but City Council would not allow public input before they voted.

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A 37-year-old Cope woman has been sentenced to probation in connection with a domestic dispute.

Mylinda Gail Bowman, of 184 Sawtooth Trail Road, pleaded guilty to threatening the life of a public official and two counts of malicious injury to personal property valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000.

During a recent term of court at the Orangeburg County Courthouse, Circuit Judge R. Ferrell Cothran Jr. sentenced Bowman to three years in prison, suspended to five years of probation.

He also ordered her to pay restitution.

Cothran gave Bowman credit for having already served 75 days at the Orangeburg County Detention Center.

He stipulated that if she pays all court fees, fines and restitution, her probation term may end after two years.

As part of Bowmans plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed charges of third-degree arson and resisting arrest.

Bowmans charges stem from an April 3, 2021 domestic dispute.

A man accused Bowman of coming onto his fathers property to visit a child that she and the man had in common.

The man didnt want Bowman to visit the child and she became upset, according to an Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office incident report.

Warrants accused Bowman of trying to set the mans 1999 Ford Explorer on fire by placing a lawnmower seat in the rear compartment and igniting it. The man was able to remove it before it caused further damage.

Warrants also claimed she threw bricks at a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder and a 2021 Kia Telluride. One of the bricks allegedly bounced off of one of the vehicles and struck the man in his elbow.

Additional, warrants claimed she used a hammer to damage a 2006 Nissan Frontier and a 2021 Toyota Tacoma.

Bowman was also accused of damaging the mans well pump as she tried to flee the scene.

She returned to the scene and deputies arrested her, the report states.

In other recent pleas:

 Sherwood Lorenzo Adams, 25, of 51 Nighthawk Lane, St. Matthews, pleaded guilty to grand larceny valued $10,000 or more and receiving stolen goods valued at $2,000 or less.

Cothran sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution.

Cothran gave Adams credit for having already spent 330 days in jail.

Adams was originally charged with grand larceny valued at more than $2,000 but less than $10,000 with enhancement and receiving stolen goods valued at $2,000 or less with enhancement, but he pleaded guilty to grand larceny valued $10,000 or more and receiving stolen goods valued at $2,000 or less instead.

 Javorace Rahem Aiken, 26, of 4551 Daniel Street, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and third-degree domestic violence.

Cothran sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to two years of probation.

He gave Aiken credit for having already served one day in jail.

As part of Aikens plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed two charges of third-degree assault and battery.

 Melvin Antonya Devon Brown Jr., 35, of 150 Laraleigh Road, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to hit-and-run with minor personal injury, assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest and threatening the life of a public official.

Cothran sentenced him to five years in prison, suspended to two years of probation after he serves 90 days in jail.

Brown is required to undergo random drug and alcohol testing.

Cothran gave him credit for having already served four days in jail.

Brown may serve his jail term on weekends.

As part of Browns plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the following charges: first-offense driving under the influence with a blood alcohol concentration of .10, transportation of alcohol with a broken seal and habitual traffic offender for driving under suspension.

 Qymane Tyrek L. Conner, 22, of 1339 Springdale Drive, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and third-degree assault and battery.

Cothran sentenced him to prison for three years, suspended to 18 months of probation.

He gave Conner credit for having already served three days in jail.

As part of Conners plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed charges of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and second-degree assault and battery.

 Jamie Leigh Dulin, 37, of 1497 Winding Pond Road, Manning, pleaded guilty to first-offense possession of less than one gram of methamphetamine or cocaine base.

Cothran sentenced her to two years in prison, suspended to six months of probation.

 Donald Durant Farrow, 35, of 2905 Caralea Valley Drive, Concord, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to first-degree domestic violence.

Cothran sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to two years of probation.

He gave Farrow credit for having already served 126 days in jail.

 Jakorey Tyrique Jamison Barber, 22, of 1215 S. Kilbourne Road, Columbia, pleaded guilty to financial identity fraud and two counts of petit larceny valued at $2,000 or less.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended to two years of probation.

He gave Barber credit for having already spent 366 days in jail.

The charges stem from a 2019 incident.

At the discretion of prosecutors, they dismissed charges of tampering with a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a violent felony.

 Brock Charles McClothlin, 35, of 129 Tall Pines Road, Ladson, pleaded guilty to habitual traffic offender.

Newman sentenced him to 30 months in prison. He was given credit for having already served 275 days in jail.

Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD

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The Rev. Ivan Lymar performs a blessing of the Easter baskets during an Easter Vespers service to mark Orthodox Easter on April 24, 2022, at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. Families bring the baskets and fill them with items they have given up for the previous 40 days. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Many Ukrainian families in Chicago and around the world celebrating Orthodox Easter this Sunday, in keeping with their faith, were praying this year that suffering would give rise to joy in their homeland.

Liliya Lymar, 54, the director of Ukrainian Studies at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, was one of those people.

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After returning from Easter Mass at 5 a.m., Lymar and her family  as in many Ukrainian houses in Chicago  planned to begin their feast with their blessed Paska bread, eggs, and meats.

But before feasting, she planned to FaceTime her sisters who recently were displaced from Kyiv and are now refugees in Europe to tell them   (He is risen! in Ukrainian). Her sisters would reply, Indeed, He is risen and they would begin to eat together, many miles away united by a screen.

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Its not going to be as joyous as it has been all the time, said Lymar, who moved to the United States with her family from her home in Kyiv in 1999.

We are very happy to be in America, to have everything and to have a home, but our minds are always in Ukraine and worrying about the people who we have there, Lymar said. Most of our conversations will be about Ukraine and about how the victory will come soon.

The Orthodox Ukrainian Church is the biggest religion in Ukraine, with more than 67% of the population declaring their adherence to the faith in a 2018 survey by the Razumkov Centre.

Since the Christian Orthodox church is also the main religion in Russia, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Tuesday for a halt in fighting in Ukraine during the Holy Week, invoking the Easter holiday to plead for a four-day pause to allow humanitarian aid and evacuations, The Associated Press reported.

Additionally, the head of Ukraines Orthodox church asked clergy and the faithful on Wednesday to forgo night Easter services in areas of the country affected by fighting, fearing Russian bombardments would continue during the Orthodox Easter period, Reuters reported.

This years Holy Week celebrations began on Holy Thursday.

At St. Volodymyr Cathedral, 2250 W Cortez St. in the citys Ukrainian Village neighborhood, more than 50 people attended the 7 p.m. service in Ukrainian and a bit of English with the Archbishop Daniel Zelinskyy, who came to Chicago from the Ukrainian Orthodox Churchs national headquarters in New Jersey.

His sermon was so good! said Lymar, who lives near the cathedral.

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It was all about Ukraine because he takes care of a lot of aid that is sent to Ukraine and he was telling his experience of how things are and people were crying. It was a bit of a very somber service, but this is what the Passion of Christ is for us, Lymar said.

Around noon on Good Friday, Lymar began preparing the dough for her Paska, the traditional egg bread with a soft and airy crumb. These intricately braided loaves are proud centerpieces of the Easter dinner table in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

After letting the yeast rise, she made the dough and left it to rest the Ukrainian American way in a coffee tin. After baking the Paska, she decorated it with a sugar frosting and colorful sprinkles. Paska also means Easter in Ukrainian.

Although many Ukrainian families bake their own Paska breads, many also buy them in some of the bakeries and restaurants in Chicagos Ukrainian Village such as Shokoland, Anns Bakery & Deli, and Old Lviv. Reservations for Paska breads and other traditional Ukrainian Easter meals were completely booked weeks in advance.

Good Friday was about venerating the Holy Shroud by walking it around the temple three times, symbolizing the burial of Christ, she said. After the ceremony by the Rev. Ivan Lymar, who is Liliya Lymars husband, they left the Holy Shroud in the center of the church and people placed flowers around it, like they would put flowers around the tomb of a loved one.

Tetiana Baraban lights a candle during the Liturgy of the Great Saturday at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago on April 23, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The Liturgy of the Great Saturday begins at 10 a.m. in St. Volodymyr Cathedral with the sorrow of Jesus Christs death, complete with black fabric decorations. But during the middle of the service, the priests proclaim Let God arise and the atmosphere changes.

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Saturday at 11:30 p.m., around 500 Orthodox Christians reunite under the roof of the cathedral in observance of the resurrection by the coming of midnight. Families from Chicago and the suburbs traditionally visit the church every year for Easter, but due to COVID-19 some hadnt been able to, making this years celebration even more special.

During the Easter service, the archbishop, the priests and deacons bless every familys basket with Psyanky (traditional ornamented Ukrainian Easter eggs), raw eggs, Paska and meats.

The service ends at 3 a.m. Sunday, when families return to their homes to celebrate this important holiday for Ukrainian Orthodox Christians.
Orangeburg

Department

of Public Safety

A 19-year-old was removed from the roof of a home after eight hours, according to an ODPS incident report.

ODPS received a call at 11:40 p.m. Wednesday about a man with a gun on the roof of a Spring Valley Circle home.

When officers arrived, the man was pacing back and forth on the roof while yelling, the report said. For safety purposes, officers cleared everyone from the residence.

Officers claimed the man talked in circles and, at one point, stated hed only speak to a white officer.

The man first denied having a firearm, but finally abruptly admitted he was carrying a firearm, the report said.

Officers asked him to throw the gun to the ground. He removed the weapon from the pocket of his hoodie and complied, the report said.

A female officer attempted to get the man to come down from the roof.

After she spoke, the man allegedly said, You have a sweet voice.

The officer claims the man told her the same type of voice put him on the roof.

He told the officer that he wanted to come down, but he was scared, the report said.

The officer assured him that hed be OK if he came down and spoke to her.

Instead, the man entered a window, grabbed a blanket and told the officers that it was safer if he slept on the roof.

He went to sleep.

The mobile crisis unit arrived shortly before 5 a.m.

Members of the crisis unit were able to reach the mans mother, who agreed to come to the scene and try to get her son to come down, the report said.

Around 6 a.m., the man allegedly got up and began yelling that he was the Messiah and wanted officers to shoot him.

A captain called for the Special Response Team to come to the scene. The team included two fire engines and Orangeburg County EMS. They remained on standby at the Church of Christ on Columbia Road.

Just before 8 a.m., the team took over the scene. Less than 10 minutes later, SRT members entered the house and were able to extract the man from the home without incident.

Officers visited the home earlier Wednesday when the man allegedly fired a gun in the air, but he ran into a wooded area.

An officer issued a citation to the man for discharging a firearm in the city limits.

EMS transported the man to the Regional Medical Center for evaluation.

Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD

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Dubois has declined to back an effort to obtain Continental Divide Trail gateway community status, which advocates say would raise the towns profile as an outdoor recreation destination and help connect CDT trail users with its services.

The Dubois Town Council on April 13 decided not to formally support the effort with a letter. The Wind River Visitors Council sought the letter as part of its application to secure the status, arguing Dubois would benefit from marketing itself as friendly to outdoor recreation and users of the nearby trail.

Council members cited stories of problematic hiker behavior in town establishments, raised worries the effort could lead to loss of multi-use trails and expressed displeasure with the timeline. (Those spearheading the effort hoped designation could be achieved by early May.)

We dont live here so that people tell us what to do, Mayor John Meyer said. In fact, if somebody wants to come in and tell us what to do, more than likely we show them the door very quickly.

The town council can revisit the proposal, he said, but it needs to better understand the designation first.

So I just think that what Im hearing is we need some more information to help us maybe change some minds, he said.

The bodys refusal to support the effort could spell its defeat. According to the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, which administers the gateway program, the town or county government of the community that is applying must approve the designation.

The Lander City Council took the opposite tack when the visitors council approached it with a similar request this spring, embracing the effort to apply for gateway designation for Lander and South Pass City (which is not a municipality). Fremont County, several agencies and individuals supported gateway status for all three communities.

If the CDTC anoints Lander or South Pass as gateway communities, they will join 19 towns along the 3,100-mile trail and three in Wyoming  Pinedale, Rawlins and Riverside/Encampment.

Most communities consider the status an achievement, citizen Beth Estes remarked at the meeting.

Are other communities looking at this as an honor to be designated as a gateway community, and Dubois is looking at it as a problem? she asked. Somehow it seems like that this should be an honor that were being designated, as opposed to us looking as though we dont want this. ...

The conflict underscores the states varied attitudes toward tourism, as some see the industry as a necessary piece of Wyomings economic diversification but others meet outdoor recreation proposals with skepticism.

The CDT hews close to the backbone of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico, with some 550 miles unfurling through Wyoming. Users include thru-hikers who tackle the entire length, as well as day hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and more.

Obtaining gateway status for the well-known route has long been on the Wind River Visitors Councils wishlist, Executive Director Helen Wilson said. The trail cuts directly through South Pass and hugs close to Lander and Dubois as it winds through the Wind River Range. Considering the trails proximity, the designation seems obvious.

The WRVC has been coordinating the effort with the help of three University of Wyoming students in the Outdoor Recreation & Tourism Management program. The group seeks separate designations: one that lumps Lander with South Pass City and one for Dubois. It submitted applications in late March to the Continental Divide Trail Coalition  an organization that promotes, protects and advocates for the trail  with hope the communities will be designated before the students graduate in May.

A designation helps flag communities as friendly destinations with amenities for hikers. It also aims to engender trail support among locals, said Andrea Kurth, the CDTCs gateway community program manager. An estimated 600-700 people are expected to attempt thru-hikes this season, she said, and the activity is gaining popularity.

If designation is granted, the coalition partners with communities to give them a marketing boost. The CDTC also offers funding and networking opportunities, it says. A gateway community is on the hook to host at least one annual event tied to the trail.

When the WRVC toured through Fremont County boardrooms to pitch its effort this spring, it mostly met friendly support. The City of Lander and Fremont County submitted support letters along with Wyoming State Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Dubois Regional Initiative for a Vital Economy and several individuals.

But when Wilson presented to the Dubois Town Council on March 23, councilors and citizens were more skeptical. Some said hikers dont spend much money but do smell bad, and others raised worries about the bustling towns ability to handle even more summer visitors. It was the groups first and only speedbump, Wilson said.

The body decided to revisit the issue on April 13.

When they convened, a conversation unfolded about the preservation of trails, the necessity of a designation, the towns autonomy to dictate its own fate and the desire of the municipality to invite in more visitors.

Resident Patrick Neary researched the trail, gateway status program and groups involved with the CDTC body that administers it, he told the council.

And in contrast to some of the rumors you see around town, theres no environmental groups associated, he said. Apart from some national outdoor companies, he said what I see here is a whole bunch of small businessmen on main street.

The designation can bolster these local businesses.

To me, this is about business development, he said.

Others saw it differently. Council members Bruce Thompson and Rick Lee said they worry the designation could lead to loss of motorized travel on nearby multi-use trails.

The towns grocery store and post office are overwhelmed as is, longtime resident Mike Neubauer said.

So how are we going to cope with everything thats coming in? he asked.

Booming demand, Neary countered, is a good business problem to have.

Wilson stressed that gateway status has zero impact on the historic trail, which Congress established 1978. Rather, it applies to the town, better tying it to the internationally known trail.

From a tourism perspective, why not put Dubois in the center of that? Wilson asked.

Council member Randy Lahr said based on past council discussion, it sounds like these people have three heads and eight legs and they all smell miles away. I dont like pigeonholing people  and to say that everybody that goes on that trail is a laggard or unclean or uncaring for peoples property, Id have a hard time generalizing like that.

Ian Watson manages a hiker/biker shelter through a church, and said his experience has been overwhelmingly positive. When the travelers leave town and spread the word about Dubois, he said, its priceless advertising.

Theyre  very nice people. I love to talk to them. And they love the magic of Dubois, he said, recommending status support.

The council wasnt convinced. Lee said the proposed timeline was rushed  the government dont work that way. Members appeared wary of creating a local advisory committee, necessary for designation.

When resident Sandy Neubauer heard about the proposal, she told the council, I went to probably 10 business people in this town, most did not know anything about this and they were all against it.

Mayor Meyer wants more information on things like how designation has affected other gateway towns, he said. I just dont know that right now is the time, he said.

In the end, only Lahr voted in support of the letter.

Wilson expects to hear back on the Lander/South Pass designation soon.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

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CHEYENNE  Remember the Wyoming Endow Program designed to strengthen and diversity the states economy?

Of course you dont.

I didnt either until I saw it mentioned in an essay in the AARP newsletter written by former Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Wyoming ENDOW (Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming) was a wildly ambitious, 20-year blueprint to guide the state into economic progress and diversification.

The plan, as the study chairmen cautioned at the time, was not stuffed with all new ideas but was a collection of past endeavors capable of going forward if bolstered by some vision and enthusiasm. The preliminary report identified barriers to diversification such as lack of air service and a workforce. It listed 10 recommendations with a funding request of $37.5 million.

The report also recommend tax reform. That was not greeted with enthusiasm.

Lets try was the phrase that characterized their effort. This was the first comprehensive look at Wyomings economic needs in years. The last one, which recommended a state income tax, was ignored. Former Gov. Matt Mead spearheaded the study and the plan that was developed after 18 months. It went into effect in 2018.

The Legislature allocated nearly $50 million on a variety of ENDOW programs, including investment in broadband, improving air travel and agriculture and workforce development.

When Gov. Mark Gordon took office in 2019, he recommended that those in charge of the program pluck out for action those that might produce quick results. Gordon also announced his own Power Wyoming program to look at new revenues.

In his article Freudenthal said he is familiar with the studies of Wyomings economic status, noting the states circumstances have been reviewed back to early statehood with the emigration commission which encouraged people to settle in the new state.

He mentioned Meads ENDOW Wyoming as the most recent effort.

Some of the ideas were original and some were restatements of well-known problems, he wrote. Nearly all were ignored.

Freudenthal added that this is an old pattern and that prior efforts received the same treatment. A Democrat, Freudenthal has been deeply involved in politics and government for years. (Mead and Gordon are both Republicans.)

Since 1980, he said, at least seven state entities have been given the job of creating economic development, nearly all of them with state dollars. The most successful have been involved with the promotion of tourism. His experience as governor and as a former member of the Economic Development and Stabilization Board in the 1980s taught him that

low taxes are not enough to lure businesses to Wyoming. If that were the case, then Wyoming and Alaska would be the two most diversified economies in America.

The basic theme of Freudenthals essay, however, is the conflict in the citizens desire for economic growth without population growth. We dont like to wait in line. We dont like to sit in a traffic jam. We dont like strange people walking on our lawns. Freudenthals conclusion is that we cant we have one without the other.

And while we may argue that we need low taxes to attract business, we really want low taxes for ourselves.

I share the former governors skepticism about economic development programs. Yet, they apparently will always be with us. Their value may be in simply talking about it and getting attention that way.

The question I always had was whether the positive developments that came about would have happened without state financial assistance when the economy improved.

As far as ENDOW goes, it was successful in assisting improvements in rural air travel and expansion of broadband, largely because of the state money.

I am sure the program recently has been subsumed as it were by the emergencies and chaos of the pandemic. It may yet prove to be a worthy legacy of Gov. Matt Meads two terms. Or it may turn out to be yet another dud.

Joan Barron is a former capitol bureau reporter. Contact her at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron @bresnan.net.

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I grew up on my familys ranch near Fort Laramie, so I know a few things about what ranchers deal with every day and the obstacles they must overcome to remain in business. As a constitutional attorney for more than two decades, I also know that the federal government often serves as the greatest impediment to a ranchs survival in Wyoming and elsewhere.

During the course of the last 100+ years ranchers have developed a variety of methods to identify and trace their livestock, including brands, eartags, backtags, and tattoos. These techniques are efficient, time-tested, and cost-effective ways of keeping track of the herd.

The bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seem to think that they know better, and in an effort to circumvent existing regulations and in violation of our ranchers rights, they have been trying for several years to mandate the use of expensive radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags for cattle or bison when they are moved across state lines. This new mandate is not only highly suspect in terms of feasibility, but would cost our livestock producers well over $2 billion (as estimated by USDA), severely threatening their continued viability.

The RFID mandate also unfairly targets ranchers located in states without sufficient packing capacity, because they must move their livestock across state lines for processing. Ranchers in states with high capability for packing dont have to move their cattle to other states and so wouldnt incur the increased costs associated with RFID. This saga goes back years, to when the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund-United Stockgrowers of American (R-CALF USA) sued USDA in 2019 to block its unlawful eartag mandate. R-CALF USA succeeded in that case when USDA, knowing that it had violated the law (while hoping that it didnt get caught), withdrew the RFID mandate and said, never mind (at least temporarily).

The risk of eventual enforcement remains, however, as USDA hasnt given up, with a recent announcement that it is going to take yet another run at adopting and enforcing an RFID requirement against our livestock producers. The basis for such mandate relates to the work of two unlawful advisory committees put together by the USDA so that it could claim that the industry is behind these efforts. That industry, however, isnt the livestock producers, but the big four meat packers and the eartag manufacturing companies themselves.

These two industry-led working groups  the Cattle Traceability Working Group (CTWG) and the Producers Traceability Council (PTC)  were established and utilized by USDA in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The USDA maintains it did not establish the groups, or manage or direct them, but that is a thin defense, as the Agencys own administrative record shows just the opposite.

The groups memberships are biased against the interests of ranchers, and they most certainly were created by USDA and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). USDA and APHIS actively lobbied for the formation of the working groups beginning in 2017, and sponsored the Strategy Forum on Livestock Traceability, where the agreement to create the groups was struck.

In mid-March, in my role as counsel with the non-profit New Civil Liberties Alliance, I argued before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that, even though USDA had ostensibly paused its RFID mandate in response to our lawsuit, it is still engaged in formulating these harmful policies. Because USDA has violated FACA, it should be prohibited from using any of the work-product of either the CTWG or PTC, and should be prohibited from relying on them in the future.

Its fitting that as I was appearing in court, it was the beginning of National Sunshine Week, which is an observance of the principle of open government. Sadly, as I have found throughout my career as a constitutional attorney, the government is often opaque and working against the freedoms of its citizens.

The RFID ear tags case is just the latest battle in the ongoing war against the encroachment of the federal government. Ive fought in court  and won  against the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the USDA (among other agencies), as unelected bureaucrats sought ever-increasing control over the everyday lives of our citizens. Our livestock, property rights, and water rights are vital to Wyomings continued prosperity and way of life, and they are what I have spent most of my career defending.

While I am counsel in the RFID case, I am also a candidate for Wyomings only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. When speaking to voters, I always argue that my record of standing up for the rights of Wyoming in federal court is one of my key qualifications for the office. And when I get to Congress, I will ask to be placed on the Natural Resources Committee, where Wyomings representative has historically served.

Our current member of Congress, Rep. Liz Cheney, does not have a seat on the Natural Resources Committee, choosing instead to spend her time on the Jan. 6 commission.

When Im the next congresswoman from Wyoming, I will always advocate for the views and values of Wyoming, just like I am currently doing for ranchers in federal court

Harriet Hageman is a Wyoming native, a constitutional attorney, a former Republican National Committeewoman from Wyoming, and a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

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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.
BY THE BOOK: President of the National Parent-Teacher Association (NPTA) Michelle Omar-Leiba displays a copy of the Ministry of Education National School Code of Conduct following yesterdays news conference at Jennys on the Boulevard, Port of Spain. Flanking her are members of the NPTA, from left, Michael Joseph, Richard Cave, Clarence Mendoza and Sharmilla Raheem. Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK
Commission acts independently: Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, left, counsel to the commission, addresses the media during yesterdays news conference at the Hyatt Regency (Trinidad) hotel in Port of Spain. Also present was Justice Dennis Morrison, QC, chairman of the commission of enquiry tasked with examining and enquiring into all the circumstances which led to the deaths of four of the five divers from LMCS Ltd, a company contracted by Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd to carry out undersea pipeline repair works. Photo: ISHMAEL SALANDY
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and his wife paid $690,000 for a four-bedroom house on the Near West Side in October. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and his wife, Berenice, paid $690,000 for a four-bedroom house on the Near West Side in October.

A Chicago native and a former chief financial officer for CPS, Martinez in September was appointed CEO by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and his appointment was confirmed by the Chicago Board of Education. Immediately prior, he had been superintendent of the public school system in San Antonio, Texas, for six years.

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On the West Side, Martinez and his wife bought a house in the Illinois Medical District. Built in 1991, the house has 3  bathrooms, a fireplace in the living room, hardwood floors, a terrace overlooking the backyard, a lower level rec room, a second-floor owners suite with two walk-in closets, a covered outdoor living room and a top floor with two bedrooms and a large skyline-view terrace.

The couple bought the house for less than the $728,000 than the previous owner had paid for it in 2007. Those owners first listed the house in July for $750,000, and cut their asking price later that month to $715,000 before they struck a deal Aug. 3 to sell the home to Pedro and Berenice Martinez. That Aug. 3 real estate contract was more than a month before Lightfoot publicly announced that she had chosen him as CPS CEO.

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Paz Martinez of Realty 123, who represented the couple, said she could not comment on her clients or even on their identities. However, she told Elite Street that the property is in a very affluent neighborhood with a high volume of top-tier professionals.

The property itself is tastefully designed with functionality, aesthetics that are pleasing to the eye and a modern interface with a flair of Chicago classic structural design, she said.

The house had an $18,192 property tax bill in the 2020 tax year.

Goldsborough is a freelance writer.

Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.
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.
Cinco de Mayo is more of a U.S. thing than a Mexico thing, even though it celebrates a victory by the Mexican Army over France in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

Our neighbors to the south are more likely to honor Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16.

Still, it is always a good time to acknowledge our shared heritage. Almost half of all Tucsonans are of Hispanic heritage, so the Tucson Festival of Books suggests that Cinco de Mayo is a great chance to say Salud! to the many recent books featuring the people of Mexico.

To better understand a nation just 70 miles to the south, festival volunteers recommend some of their favorite recent books about Mexico:

The Death of My Father the Pope by Obed Silva. This remarkable debut is framed by the authors preparations for the funeral of his father in Mexico. The man was an abusive alcoholic who died at 48, poisoned to death by Carta Blanca. Silva and his mom had moved to the U.S. to avoid his wrath. This is a memoir, and a clear signal Silva is a voice we will hear more in the years ahead.  Lynn Wiese Sneyd

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. One of the brightest lights in fantasy fiction today, Moreno-Garcia followed Mexican Gothic with this tale of a daydreaming secretary, a lonely enforcer and a woman they are both desperate to find. The author was raised in Baja California. She now lives in Vancouver. Her gifts as a storyteller are from somewhere else altogether.  Tricia Clapp

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs, by Pam Munoz Ryan. In this rousing fantasy for children ages 8-12, Ryan takes us to colonial Mexico. Solimar is a young royal who must protect her home and surrounding forests from destruction. A magical encounter with migrating monarch butterflies leaves her with the ability to protect young monarchs. When her kingdom of San Gregorio is threatened, she must go on an arduous journey to save what she loves in a story rich with imagery, suspense and humor.  Kathy Short

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande. Released in March, Grandes latest novel features a widowed Mexican nurse and an Irish soldier thrown together by fate during the Mexican-American War. Inspired by true events and historical figures, this story illuminates a now-forgotten moment in history that impacts Americas southern border even today.  Jody Hardy

Abecedario de Juarez by Julian Cardona and Alice Leora Briggs. In this haunting documentary, a newspaper reporter and an artist describe the deadly intersection of organized crime, police and the military that makes Juarez one of the worlds most violent cities. Cardonas interviews and Briggs spellbinding illustrations provide an essential introduction to the violent world summed up in the Spanglish term, narcolenguaje.  Bruce J. Dinges

Baja Californias Coastal Landscapes Revealed by Markes E. Johnson. Baja California is an improbably long and narrow peninsula. It thrusts out like a spear, parting the Mexican mainland from the Pacific Ocean. Johnson shows us how geology not only helps us look backward, but also forward toward an uncertain future.  Abby Mogollon

A Good Map of All Things by Alberto Alvaro Rios. A small town nestled in Northern Mexico is home to folks as warmly engaging as they are idiosyncratic in this elegant novel by Rios, a Nogales native, University of Arizona grad and Arizonas first Poet Laureate.  Helen Woodhams

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Mexican Gothic was published in 2020, but it will never get old. After receiving a mysterious plea for help from her cousin, Naomi heads for High Place  a distant house in the Mexican countryside. Consider it a gothic horror story, with a twist.  Jody Hardy

The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. Tucson favorite Luis Urrea considers himself a poet. He is best-known as a novelist, but the book that stamped him as an important author was Devils Highway, published in 2005. Any reporter would be proud of the research Urrea invested in this remarkable look at the people most urgently affected by the challenges along Americas southern border. To understand the principal players there, start here.  Bill Finley

Keep current with news from the Tucson Festival of Books by visiting TucsonFestivalOfBooks.org.

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March broke records for the number of times officials apprehended migrants crossing the U.S. southern border, heightening the discussion and preparations around the approaching end to Title 42.

The public health policy, enacted in March 2020 because of the pandemic, allows officials to quickly expel migrants from the country without allowing them to enter into the immigration process, including those seeking asylum.

Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control announced the policy would end on May 23 due to the current public health conditions and increased availability of vaccines and therapeutics to fight COVID-19.

There were more than 221,000 apprehensions at the U.S. border with Mexico in March, a 33% increase over February, according to Customs and Border Protection data released Monday  the highest monthly total in more than two decades.

While many are preparing for an increased number of migrants entering the immigration system, the number of apprehensions could possibly go down. One of the reasons the number is so high is actually because of Title 42. The rate of people crossing multiple times greatly increased since the policy was enacted, inflating the numbers, since more than half of the migrants apprehended were expelled under the public health policy.

Arizona saw its highest monthly number as well in March, since at least October of 2019, at more than 57,600 encounters  at least 25% higher than any other month this fiscal year.

March marks the halfway point of fiscal year 2022, and there have already been nearly 275,000 migrant encounters on Arizonas southern border, compared to about 312,000 in all of fiscal year 2021.

The Border Patrols Yuma Sector, southwest of Pima County and stretching into the eastern part of California, saw a huge increase in crossings that started last year, many involving families and mostly of people from countries farther away from the U.S., like Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The Tucson Sector saw a substantial increase in March compared to previous months. In the Tucson Sector the majority of apprehensions involved single adults from Mexico.

What lies next

Migrants who are from countries farther than Central America are less likely to be returned under Title 42.

Of the migrants not expelled under Title 42, those who are deemed eligible to request asylum are processed by Customs and Border Protection, then sent to a local nonprofit that helps asylum seekers, which helps arrange transportation to a family member who is their sponsor in the U.S., typically in another state.

The Pima County Grants Management Department is putting together a budget with its community partners to address the anticipated surge of asylum seekers after Title 42 ends.

The countys current expenses for the services it provides, which include food, shelter, transportation and other services, is $1.6 million a month, according to Regina Kelly, director of the Grants Management Department.

The county has been covering these increasing costs using grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, sometimes paying up front and then being reimbursed.

The $1.5 trillion federal spending bill that became law on March 15 included $150 million for FEMAs Emergency Food and Shelter Program to assist migrants.

Pima received its first installment of $3.2 million from these new grants this past week, which officials anticipate will cover costs through June, based on current expenses. And if the the county is inundated with asylum seekers in June, it will ask FEMA for more money, Kelly says.

Along with the countys plan to cover expenses, community partner Catholic Community Services is making adjustments to be able to receive more asylum seekers, says Teresa Cavendish, Catholic Community Services director of operations.

The nonprofit runs the Casa Alitas Welcome Center, where the asylum seekers typically go for a few hours or a night and can receive clothes, a shower, food, COVID tests and vaccines, and help arranging transportation to their sponsors.

All indications are that there will be a significant increase in the number of people needing assistance, especially in the Tucson Sector, Cavendish says.

The Tucson Sector is likely to see a bigger change than in the Yuma Sector because Title 42 is being used in the Tucson Sector at a far higher rate.

Of the 122,600 apprehensions in the Tucson Sector this fiscal year, 82% were expelled under the policy. Conversely, in the Yuma Sector, only 11% of the 149,100 apprehensions resulted in a Title 42 expulsion.

When the Department of Homeland Security is no longer expelling people under Title 42, it will process those who are unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States, such as a valid asylum claim, for removal under immigration laws.

As well, if the number of people coming into the immigration process increases, there will likely be more people in immigration detention and prosecuted through the courts. Neither the District of Arizona U.S. Attorneys Office nor the courts would comment on whether they are anticipating higher numbers or whether there is preparation taking place.

With the increasing number of apprehensions at the border, some politicians have called for Title 42 to continue, including both of Arizonas U.S. senators, Democrats Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema.

Its unacceptable to end Title 42 without a plan and coordination in place to ensure a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border, Kelly said in a statement on April 1, following the announcement to end Title 42.

From my numerous visits to the southern border and conversations with Arizonas law enforcement, community leaders, mayors and nonprofits, its clear that this administrations lack of a plan to deal with this crisis will further strain our border communities.

The Department of Homeland Security says it does have a plan. Congress recently appropriated $1.45 billion for a potential surge of migrants at the southern border. The DHS plan includes additional resources to increase the holding and processing capacity at the border and to remove those who cant prove a valid claim to stay in the states as well as working with other countries to address root causes of migration.

Many who say Title 42 should not yet be rescinded talk more about needing it for border security instead of its intended purpose as a pandemic precaution.

Kelly and Sinema are part of a bipartisan group of senators who are asking for more details and introduced legislation earlier this month to delay the end of Title 42 by at least 60 more days to give agencies more time to develop plans to deal with a possible influx of migrants.

Also, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for the Senate, is one of three Republican attorneys general suing the Biden administration over the decision to end Title 42.

If Title 42 ends, it will result in an even greater crisis at the border that will have a devastating impact, not just on border states, but across the country, Brnovich said in a tweet earlier this month.

Unequipped towns

Betto Ramos, coordinator at a migrant resource center and a migrant shelter in Agua Prieta, Sonora, says the number of people they are serving has greatly increased over the last year and especially in recent months.

In the nearly 16 years theyve been operating, theyve received more than 80,000 migrants, out of which more than 30,000 were in 2021, and 14,000 have been in the first three months of 2022. Theyre currently serving about 200 people a day, though sometimes more, like last Monday, when about 80 people arrived every four hours.

When Title 42 ends, Ramos thinks the number of migrants they serve will go down. People will likely not be crossing numerous times and will be more likely to be deported to their home countries if they are not allowed to stay in the United States.

The resource center and shelter, which are partners of the binational Presbyterian border ministry Frontera de Cristo, dont have a position on Title 42, Ramos says.

We know that the policies only get stricter, he said. After Title 42 is lifted, people who are migrants will suffer more.  All the policies in both Mexico and the United States, in my experience, do not favor the immigrant population.

Not all migrants arriving in Agua Prieta, south of Douglas, Arizona, attempted a crossing there. Some are transported by Customs and Border Protection from Nogales or Sasabe, which are 100 to 200 miles away, and dropped off at the border.

One of the reasons the number of encounters has increased in the last two years is actually because of Title 42. The count is the number of times Border Patrol apprehends someone crossing the border, rather than the number of people apprehended.

While there were more than 221,000 encounters on the entire U.S. southern border in March, nearly 56% of those people were expelled under Title 42 or immigration law, according to court documents.

Since many migrants are dropped off right on the southern side of the border, often in small towns that have few services for them and might be more than 100 miles from where they crossed the first time, many try to cross again, inflating the number of apprehensions.

In 2021, 27% of encounters at the northern and southern U.S. borders were with individuals apprehended more than once by the Border Patrol. The figure was 26% in 2020 but only 7% in 2019, prior to Title 42.

Many migrants are coming now because of different issues in their countries of origin, Williams says.

Political and economic distress, violence and natural disasters, which in many cases have been exacerbated by the pandemic, are forcing more people to leave their countries of origin that are farther away, such as Haiti, Cuba countries in South America. As well, the pandemic has made it harder for people to migrate to South American countries or for migrants already established there to stay.

Those in favor of ending the policy, like the Kino Border Initiative, a binational organization that provides humanitarian aid to migrants in Nogales, Sonora, say it subverts migrants rights under both domestic and international law to make an asylum claim, and that it leaves migrants to wait in border towns in often dire and dangerous conditions.

There are about 700 migrants in Nogales who have are waiting for the chance to ask for asylum, about 500 of whom have been waiting more than six months, says Joanna Williams, executive director of the Kino Border Initiative. Williams estimated that 75% of people waiting are families.

Ending Title 42 should be done because its a moral issue, Williams said. It should be done because of the humanitarian issue, because just on a basic level, we need to have a system in which we operate within the law. And the law says that people should have access to asylum and therefore there should be some channel for that.

Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223 . On Twitter: @DanyelleKhmara

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Tucson police have identified a man who was shot to death early Friday morning during a confrontation near the University of Arizona campus.

Harrison Weber, 24, was shot and killed about 2 a.m. during a confrontation between two groups of people near North Park Avenue and East Second Street, police said in a news release.

A 21-year-old man also was shot and seriously wounded. Police said late Friday that he is hospitalized and in stable condition.

Police continue their search for the gunman.

No details about the confrontation that led to the shooting have been released.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME, the anonymous tipster line.

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A new program offered in Pima County Juvenile Court hopes to promote bonding between parents and their children who are in state care, while also supporting child literacy efforts.

Reading 2Gether is open to kids from birth through 5 years old, and the time commitment for parents is minimal: two 15-minute phone calls per week.

But in that short time, parents can help enhance their child's language and literacy development, engage in meaningful exchanges and increase their child's sense of trust in them with predictable, consistent interactions.

Participants receive a Reading 2Gether tote bag with books in the family's language. Parents and children receive the same two books in their bags but the contents differ from there.

The bag that goes home with the child has information about how to set up a Google phone number in case the temporary family would like to keep their personal phone number private.

The bag that goes home with the parent also includes a blanket. Parents are asked to sleep with the blanket for a few nights, and abstain from cigarettes, marijuana and anything that could be dangerous to their child.

"There's tons of research that says that bonding and attachment are a multisense process," said Juvenile Court Judge Joan Wagener. "How do you do that when the parent lives in one house and the baby lives in another house? You do it with this program."

At least twice a week, the biological parent and the caregiver will get in touch via phone or online. The child will snuggle up with the blanket that spent time with their parent, and follow along with their copy of the book as Mom or Dad reads to them over the phone.

"Their auditory system, their olfactory system and their visual system is all playing at the same time," Wagener said. "It's a really inventive way of pulling all those things together so you increase the chances that bonding and attachment happen."

Hundreds of books

Reading 2Gether is a collaboration between the court, Pima County Public Defense Services and the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

The program was launched last month and aims to encourage early reading interactions between parent and child during the journey leading up to reunification or final placement.

The program is funded by the county's public defense services, which house the Office of Children's Counsel, whose attorneys represent minors in various court cases, including family law and guardianship issues.

Most dependency cases in juvenile court are eligible for Reading 2Gether. The exception is if there's criminal conduct involved in the case or a no-contact order between the parent and child.

The dependency process is for families who are involved with the Department of Child Safety after a child has been removed from the home.

Reading 2Gether is open to licensed foster families or to kinship providers, who are relatives. Parents in prison or jail are also eligible, if the facility where they are incarcerated allows for participation.

Pima County is now the second site in Arizona to have this type of program and is among a handful in the country.

The program was inspired by Iowa Court's Safe Babies Court Team's 2-4-2 Program, which Wagener learned about in 2018 during an annual courts meeting.

Wagener brought the idea back to Pima County's Building Blocks Committee, a group of local court-based, legal and agency stakeholders working to address the needs of children and families involved with the juvenile dependency court and child welfare system.

"We fell in love with this program and we wanted to get it up and running here in Pima County," Wagener said.

Funding for the program eventually fell into place, partly because Jillian Aja, assistant chief counsel at Pima County Office of Children's Counsel, wrote a grant proposal.

For the books to use in Reading 2Gether, Aja collected suggestions from co-workers and others, then went through the Scholastic catalog, checking off titles.

"It was like living out my best childhood fantasy," Aja said. "And when (Scholastic) realized this was a kid-related thing  we ended up with a lot of extra books."

With more than 500 books filling up a cubicle in Aja's office, Reading 2Gether was finally ready to launch last month. The blankets are provided by Aviva Children's Services and funding for the bags and books came from a COVID-related grant awarded to the county's legal defense services.

"We want to get you home"

Reading 2Gether operates on the honor system, as organizers didn't want it to be a burdensome process. But they are surveying parents, placement families and DCS about their thoughts on the program and if they thought it affected the reunification system.

"If the court or whoever decides they want to expand it to something else, we'll have lessons learned," Wagener said.

Stephanie Rascher, a local attorney who represents parents in dependency cases, said this type of program that focuses on bonding without putting anything extra on parents' plates is especially important.

For some, "They're running from drug testing to parenting education to myriad of services that DCS is asking them to do, which can be really stressful and discouraging to them," Rascher said. "One of the highlights of this program is it's not asking too much."

Families can keep the books that come in their bags, or they're welcome to bring them back and swap them out for new books.

DCS case managers and attorneys with the Office of Children's Counsel refer families for participation in Reading 2Gether, with community coordinator Tasha Gamez taking all referrals and distributing bags to the families.

"Part of the goal of this project is to encourage collaboration between the placements and the bio(logical) parents toward reunification," Rascher said. "Because really it takes a village to get to reunification."

Two factors that heavily influence a successful reunification are the amount of contact the parents and children have and support by the foster parent or kinship provider, Wagener said.

She said building a support system that's not tied to the system increases the chances that a family will not come back through the system.

"Ultimately, that's what we want. We want to get you home and that's it," she said. "And this is a strategy that will help if those relationships are built."

Reading 2Gether can also help biological parents learn new skills, with foster parents being able to model interactions for parents that may have never parented a child or weren't with their child long enough to establish knowledge, said Maria Colon, CASA program coordinator.

"If they're interacting with these placements and foster parents, they're seeing even how their baby likes to be held and the activities their child likes to do," Colon said. "That can help them in the reunification process."

For biological parents who have never had a positive parenting role model in their own lives, programs like Reading 2Gether can sometimes provide just that, with foster parents serving as that figure, Wagener said.

"That role model doesn't have to be biological," Wagener said. "That's what's so beautiful about this process. If you get the right people together, you end up with this beautiful outcome."

"A great ice-breaker"

Nancy Boccardo has been a foster parent for close to 17 years. She's had 65 "kiddos" come through her home and most of them ended up back with their biological parents, thanks to the approach of Nancy and her husband.

"We get ourselves as involved as we can with the whole family," Boccardo said. "Sometimes it's not safe and doesn't work out that way, but most of the time it's doable."

Boccardo and her husband have adopted eight of the 65 kids that have come through their care. Two were adopted by their friends, and the rest have gone home to their parents. She said that while her reunification numbers are better than the state average, it shows that her approach works.

"If you have a newborn taken away and two years later you get a toddler back, you don't know anything about them," Boccardo said. "You haven't been going to doctor's appointments or anything outside of your visits. You don't know who you're getting back."

That's why programs like Reading 2Gether are so important, she said. When a person gets their child taken away, the initial interactions with foster parents can sometimes be adversarial.

"When we go to the first meeting with a kiddo's parents, we're automatically the enemy because we have their kid," she said. "This kind of program is a great ice-breaker for families that need it."

Boccardo said that she's enjoyed long-term relationships with many of her former foster children's families, providing after-school child care for one and filling in as a caretaker during emergencies for others.

"Our family has grown bigger than I can even tell you," she said.

"Gives them the ability to bond"

If the program goes well, organizers will consider expanding it to older children, but for now, the focus is on early childhood development.

One of the upsides to the younger age group is that reading proficiency isn't a barrier for parents.

"You don't have to be able to read at all to be involved in Reading 2Gether," Wagener said. "You can sing with your baby. You can use that book and show the picture and tell your own story. Just talking to your child will increase their vocabulary, attention span and school readiness."

The language a family speaks is also not a barrier, with a cache of books available in Spanish and other languages. The workgroup also has a partner who has committed to providing books in any languages that aren't already on hand.

Even if the child is not reunited with their biological parent, studies have shown that bonding with a birth parent is good for children in the short- and long-run, said CASA's Colon.

"That gives them the ability to bond and attach with another adult in their life," Colon said.

Studies have shown that secure attachment forms the basis of future relationships, a child's sense of self-worth, ability to regulate emotions and more, according to the Tennessee Governor's Early Literacy Foundation.

The program can't be built into the court's budget, so Reading 2Gether will have to find other ways to carry on, either through DCS funding or the county. For now, the Pima County Library is accepting donations on its website, but Wagener isn't worried the program will go away anytime soon.

"I just believe that when you put something in the universe, the universe makes it happen. It just seems that needs get fulfilled," Wagener said. "My hope is that this program stays regardless of if any of us are here or not."

"Who can say no to building a brain?"

Contact Star reporter Caitlin Schmidt at 573-4191 or cschmidt@tucson.com. On Twitter: @caitlincschmidt

Reading 2Gether To learn more about Reading 2Gether or to get involved, contact Department of Child Safety community coordinator Tasha Gamez at 520-209-1031 or tasha.gamez@azdcs.gov. The Pima County Public Library is accepting donations for the Reading 2Gether program at library.pima.gov/donate To ensure your funds are allocated to Reading 2Gethter, please indicate "Reading 2Gether Program" in the text box Special Request for Donation on the first page of the donation.

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The phrase Title 42 has emerged from deep in the federal statutes this spring to carry heavy political weight.

Title 42 has become shorthand for border control.

Politicians from Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich to Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly are warning that lifting Title 42 could increase illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. Brnovich is, as always during his current campaign for U.S. Senate, filing a lawsuit about it. Almost everyone is plucking the border-fear nerve by citing the obscure statute.

If Title 42 is ended, there will be a flood of illegal immigrants like we have never seen before, Republican Mick McGuire said in an April 14 fundraising email for his campaign for U.S. Senate.

But Title 42 is not even an immigration law. Title 42 isnt really about border control, either. It is just the latest in a series of stand-ins for the changes to immigration law and practice that we need but have been unable to achieve the right way, through Congress.

So what is Title 42 really? Title 42 USC 265 is a law that, originally, allowed the U.S. Surgeon General to stop people from entering the United States from a country where a communicable disease is present if there is serious danger of the introduction of such disease into the United States.

After the law was first passed, in 1944, that power was transferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Formally, the decision is not even in the presidents control, though in practice it is.

The law has seldom been used. But Stephen Miller, the former Trump administration adviser who strived to minimize immigration, knew of Title 42. He proposed using it to shut down borders in 2018 and 2019, before a better excuse came in 2020.

Even when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, though, the Trump appointees at the CDC refused to implement Title 42 as a border control measure, saying it was unnecessary. It only came into force because then-Vice President Mike Pence demanded that the CDC use it.

Ineffective deterrent

So it went into effect in March 2020. Since then, as political candidates like Karrin Taylor Robson will tell you, it has been used 1.7 million times. That doesnt mean 1.7 million different people were turned back under Title 42, though.

The arguments in favor of keeping Title 42 in place rest on the idea that it worked. Its certainly true that these Title 42 expulsions are simpler for Border Patrol agents than the preexisting practices. They can simply send someone back across the line in a relative few minutes, as opposed to detaining the crosser, sending them to a Border Patrol station, inputting their personal data, checking for criminal histories and all that.

But has Title 42 really worked as border control even?

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick points to the increasing border apprehensions in the last two years and says clearly not. This is how Reichlin-Melnick, the senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, put it in congressional testimony on April 6:

Title 42 is neither a meaningful public-health measure nor a successful deterrent, he said, noting a telling statistic. A staggering 94% of Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran single adult migrants apprehended in the last two years have been expelled under Title 42.

If Title 42 were a successful deterrent, we would expect such a near total border shutdown to reduce apprehensions at the border of that demographic. But that hasnt happened. Since the start of fiscal year 2021, single adults from those four countries accounted for 1.5 million out of 2.5 million total apprehensions.

One of the key reasons for the increasing number of crossings: Repeat attempts. People expelled immediately had an incentive to try again as quickly as possible. They make up a healthy chunk of that 1.7 million, perhaps as high as 30%, the New York Times reported.

As Reichlin-Melnick told me Friday: With Title 42, the incentive is to cross the border over and over again until you make it through.

It isnt even being used much in some parts of the border, especially where family groups dominate crossings. In the Yuma Sector, which politicians such as Robson use as a backdrop for campaign commercials, only 11% of those people apprehended by Border Patrol were returned using Title 42. Repealing it would likely have little impact there.

Consequence delivery

Now, we should probably entertain a hypothetical, one that Gov. Doug Duceys spokesman brought up to me.

Would even more people have crossed if Title 42 werent in place? C.J. Karamargin asked when we discussed the governors support for maintaining Title 42.

Its possible, I suppose, but I think the number of repeat-crossings under Title 42 makes that unlikely. Existing law also plays a role.

Its easy to forget, given the current focus on Title 42, that this public-health law isnt filling some blank spot in federal immigration statutes. There is a whole raft of laws, policies and practices that predate March 2020.

Michelle Mittelstadt, spokeswoman for the Migration Policy Institute, reminded me of a different phrase that predates Title 42 by about a decade: Consequence delivery system. The phrase was used to describe Border Patrol analysis of the ways it imposed consequences on people crossing the border between ports.

After decades of voluntary returns, Border Patrol used a variety of means to impose consequences on people, and in 2011 started trying to measure the effects through the consequence delivery system.

The immigration system returned people through different ports of entry than where they entered, flew them home, issued formal removal orders with heavy consequences for returns, and charged people criminally, among many tactics. It worked to reduce repeat crossings  the key measure they were trying to bring down.

Those laws and policies are still available  in fact, many people consider some of them, such as the Operation Streamline court process, quite harsh.

Compelling proposals

The fear is that the removal of Title 42 will lead to a surge in migration. Maybe, but maybe it wont. A return to consequences for those who cross between ports of entry more than once could cut repeat crossings significantly.

But theres also the asylum process, which has been crippled by the use of Title 42. Allowing people to apply for asylum at ports of entries as law provides should shunt some people into legal channels and away from illegal crossings. We need to pour resources into processing those claims, winnowing out the clearly ineligible asylum claims as quickly as possible.

Just as important: Title 42 is not a needed public-health measure, if it ever was. Neither elected officials nor candidates should use it as a substitute for real laws, policies and proposals to deal with migration.

For years, officials and groups like the Migration Policy Institute have earnestly put out compelling proposals for how to deal with the movement of people in our region. The institutes four-pronged prescription:

Expand legal pathways for people to work temporarily in the United States.

Establish protection for threatened people in their countries and nearby.

Professionalize migration management in, and among regional countries.

Invest in sustainable development

Theyre boring and perhaps predictable policy proposals. Theyve largely been trapped in fruitless congressional debate.

But they are at least efforts to grapple with the problem directly, not through legal trickery like Title 42.

Contact columnist Tim Steller at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter

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Dwelling on the past has earned University of Arizona researcher Jessica Tierney a prestigious, $1 million award from the National Science Foundation.

The Alan T. Waterman Award is the nations highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers, and it recognizes outstanding individual achievements in foundation-supported research.

Tierney was singled out for her efforts to use prehistoric climate signals to reconstruct ancient conditions and help predict the future.

Studying the past is important because it can narrow our projections for what climate will look like at the end of the century, and what sort of impacts humans will face, said Tierney in a written statement.

The associate professor in the Department of Geosciences is the first researcher from the UA  and the first climatologist anywhere  to receive the Waterman prize since Congress established it in 1975.

Receiving this award signals that one of the nations top research funders recognizes the urgency of understanding the Earth system as humans drive climate change, Tierney said. It makes me feel like my research is important and really making a difference.

An interest in science in high school led Tierney to Brown University in Rhode Island, where an introductory geology class set her on her career path.

She earned her bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in geology from Brown before joining the UA in 2015.

Dr. Tierney has quickly made a name for herself in the climate sciences, and we couldnt be more proud that she has won this prestigious award, said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. This is a tremendous honor, and were lucky to have her incredibly valuable expertise at our university.

Tierney recently served as a lead author on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment report, which was released in three parts last year and earlier this year.

She specializes in teasing organic climate clues from fossil molecules known as biomarkers preserved in sediments and rocks.

By combining such data with novel modeling techniques, she can chart past conditions and the system dynamics that produced them, redefining in the process how scientists understand the influence of carbon dioxide levels on prehistoric changes in climate.

For a 2020 paper published in the journal Nature, for example, Tierney and her team spent four years compiling and analyzing as many ancient climate signals as possible from the last ice age, with a particular focus on ocean temperatures.

The resulting cache of about 1,800 data points was then plugged into cutting-edge computer models at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, to produce a unique look back Tierney called a hindcast.

Her pioneering work in molecular paleoclimatology previously earned her national recognition as a Packard Foundation Fellow in 2014 and an American Geophysical Union Fellow in 2015. The Packard award came with $875,000 in research money over five years.

Tierney is one of just three scientists nationwide selected for the 2022 Waterman Award, which was named for the National Science Foundations first director.

This years prize will be presented on May 5 during a ceremony at the National Science Board meeting in Washington, D.C.

In addition to a medal, each recipient gets $1 million in research funding over five years. Tierney said the money will help support her students, post-doctoral researchers and her lab manager as they pursue new areas of research.

In particular, this award will allow us to explore high-risk, high-reward ideas that have the potential to transform our understanding of past and future climate change, she said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean

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Ukraine battered again; Zelenskyy says US officials to visit

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  A Ukrainian presidential office advisor says Russian forces have tried to storm a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold in the strategic port city of Mariupol. And Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The White House declined to comment. The reported steel mill assault came after the Kremlin claimed its military seized the rest of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials reported that cruise missiles hit the port city of Odesa, killing eight people. The Ukrainian military says two generals were killed when it destroyed a Russian command post in the southern city of Kherson.

Long-serving Utah US Senator Orrin Hatch dies at age 88

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Orrin G. Hatch, who became the longest-serving Republican senator in history who was a fixture in Utah politics for more than four decades, died Saturday at age 88. His death was announced in a statement from his foundation, which did not specify a cause. A staunch conservative on economic and social issues, he also teamed with Democrats several times during his long career on issues ranging from stem cell research to rights for people with disabilities to expanding childrens health insurance. He also championed GOP issues like abortion limits and helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired in 2019 and was replaced by Republican Mitt Romney.

In election misinformation fight, '2020 changed everything'

WASHINGTON (AP)  As voters get ready for hundreds of elections of local and national importance this year, officials and voting rights advocates are bracing for a repeat of the misinformation that overwhelmed the 2020 presidential election. This year, the voting advocacy group Common Cause hopes to rely on thousands of volunteers to identify misinformation floating around online and push for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to take down the most egregious falsehoods. One official in Ohio says that 2020 changed everything and that fighting election misinformation has got to be a part of our job now.

Russian mercenaries are Putin's 'coercive tool' in Africa

DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  Russia has engaged in under-the-radar military operations in at least half a dozen countries in Africa in the last five years using a shadowy mercenary force analysts say is loyal to President Vladimir Putin. The analysts say the Wagner Group of mercenaries is also key to Putin's ambitions to re-impose Russian influence on a global scale. Wagner fighters are part of the current Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine and have previously been active in conflicts in Syria and Libya. It's less well-known that they have gained substantial influence for Russia in sub-Saharan Africa, where experts say the Kremlin uses them to undermine democracy and turn countries toward Russia.

McCarthy's push to ascend to House speaker relies on Trump

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP)  The next House speaker could very well hail from California, but if Republicans take control, that leader won't come from the part of the state represented by the current speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is a son of Californias Central Valley, a farming and oil-pumping heartland. It's a swath of rural conservatism amid Californias progressive politics. McCarthy is depending on Donald Trump's support to win back the House in November and seize the speaker's gavel. But this past week, McCarthys future as GOP leader was thrown into jeopardy after audio was released of him telling fellow Republicans in the aftermath of the Capitol riot that Trump should resign.

EXPLAINER: Johnny Depp's wild testimony, cross-examination

For three days, Johnny Depp has been testifying in a libel trial that is supposed to be about whether Amber Heard defamed him in a 2018 newspaper op-ed. The trial has turned into a spectacle. Depp has testified about everything from taking pills as a child to using his severed finger to write bloody messages about his ex-wife's alleged lies on the walls. Depp denies ever physically or sexually abusing Heard. And despite the public attention brought to his drug use and his violent text messages, Depp said hes obsessed with revealing the truth and not disappointing his supporters.

French election: Macron in pole position, Le Pen racing hard

PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in France's presidential runoff. Yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home. A victory in Sundays runoff would make Macron the first French president in 20 years to win a second term. It is also expected to have far-reaching repercussions for Europe's future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine. France's April 10th first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates. Who becomes Frances next leader will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday. Polls have already opened in overseas French territories.

EXPLAINER: How South Carolina execution firing squad works

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Its unknown how long a stay will hold off the execution of South Carolinas first-ever inmate to be put to death by a firing squad as his attorneys pursue legal challenges. But the issuance of Richard Bernard Moore's death warrant has renewed interest in how a state puts in motion its plans to shoot an inmate to death. South Carolina had planned to put Moore to death by firing squad on April 29. The state added the method to its approved capital punishment methods last year. Since then, prisons officials have been retrofitting the death chamber to add a slot in the wall through which three volunteers will shoot rifles at the condemn's heart.

Sanctions hit Russian economy, although Putin says otherwise

NEW YORK (AP)  Nearly two months into the Russian-Ukraine war, the Kremlin has taken extraordinary steps to blunt an economic counteroffensive from the West. While Russia can claim some symbolic victories  most notably a recovery in the ruble  the full impact of Western sanctions is starting to be felt in very real ways. Russias economy is facing the worst inflation in seven years, unemployment is growing, companies have shut down operations and the country is in danger of defaulting on its debt. And economists say the full effects of the sanctions have yet to be seen. Rosstat, Russia's economic statistics agency, said inflation last month hit 17.3%, the highest level since 2002.

Tigers' Cabrera gets 3,000th hit; 33rd player to reach mark

DETROIT (AP)  Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera has gotten the 3,000th hit of his decorated career, becoming the 33rd major leaguer to reach the mark and the first player from Venezuela to accomplish the feat. Still an imposing presence at 39, Cabrera made history by grounding a single to right field in the first inning of Detroits game against Colorado on Saturday. Cabrera immediately raised his right arm as he headed toward first base. The crowd of 37,566 at Comerica Park gave him a rousing ovation and fireworks were shot off. The milestone hit came off Antonio Senzatela, a fellow Venezuelan, in the first game of a day-night doubleheader. Cabrera later added a two-run single and finished the day with 3,002 career hits. The Rockies and Tigers split their doubleheader.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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You are here: Business

China will further leverage export tax rebates to provide stronger support for foreign trade enterprises, according to a circular jointly released by the State Taxation Administration and other government organs.

The circular outlines measures to improve export tax rebate policies and streamline procedures for applications.

Efforts will be made to strengthen the linkage of export credit insurance and export tax rebate policies, and improve rebate policies for processing trade firms, according to the circular.

The country will step up efforts to enhance data sharing and smooth the connections among customs, tax and other departments to further streamline export tax rebate procedures, it said.

Efforts will also be made to support cross-border e-commerce firms by encouraging qualified enterprises to actively claim export tax rebates, it said.

A State Council executive meeting earlier this month decided to increase export tax rebates to promote foreign trade development. Enterprises with better credit records will enjoy greater customs clearance and tax refund facilitation.


Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against a prominent opposition activist and remanded him in pre-trial detention Friday for allegedly spreading false information about the countrys armed forces.

A court in Moscow ordered Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. held in detention until June 12. Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told reporters that the false information case against Kara-Murza cited a March 15 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced the war in Ukraine, as the basis for the latest charges. The activist rejects the accusations.

Russian media reported that similar charges were being drawn up against outspoken tech executive Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher of Russia's top independent news site, Meduza. The moves against the two Kremlin critics are part of a widening crackdown against individuals speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading false information about its military shortly after its troops rolled into Ukraine in late February. The offense is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Human rights advocates so far have counted 32 cases targeting critics of the invasion.

Kara-Murza is a journalist and a former associate of late Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for years in Russia. Kara-Murza himself was hospitalized with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017.

Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers denounced the Russian government's moves against Kara-Murza.

I am deeply disturbed over news reports regarding the arrest and political persecution of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza," Bowers said in a statement. Dont forget about these freedom fighters, like Vladimir Kara-Murza. We must remember names!"

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted: Kara-Murzas brave opposition to Putin has inspired us all. Arizona will always stand for freedom. And we will support those like Kara-Murza who take a stand against oppression.

Krasilshchik, the tech executive who left Russia in early March, told Meduza that he had learnt about the case against him from news reports, which by Friday evening remained unconfirmed. Russian media have linked the charges to an Instagram post, featuring what Krasilshchik said was the photo of charred human remains in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

You cant recover after seeing the images from Bucha, the photo caption read. You feel that the army of this country of ours, its capable of anything  and so is the country. That were just an order away from mass executions.

Also Friday, veteran Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov said in an online statement that he was temporarily leaving the country.

Ponomaryov, a former State Duma lawmaker who had helped found Russias oldest human rights organization in the 1980s, has been a vocal opponent of Russias attack on Ukraine, and initiated multiple public petitions against it.

In his statement Friday, he claimed to be allowing himself to take a vacation to look after my health , but also think through the difficult situation in which we all find ourselves, and plan further (campaigning) activities, which we cannot stop by any means.

I doubt my time away will be long, he added.

In a separate move Friday, the Russian justice ministry added Kara-Murza and several other prominent Kremlin critics to the registry of foreign agents. The designation implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit those on the list.

The new additions to the registry included Leonid Volkov, top ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of Russia's oldest critical radio station, Ekho Moskvy. The station was taken off the airwaves shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Associated Press writer Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: 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.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  The Rev. Al Sharpton demanded that authorities publicly identify the Michigan officer who killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man and native of Congo who was fatally shot in the back of the head after a struggle, saying at Lyoya's funeral Friday: We want his name!"

Sharpton's comments renewed demands by Lyoya's family members and activists. He told the roughly 1,000 people gathered that authorities cannot set a precedent of withholding the names of officers who kill people. Police in Grand Rapids have said they would withhold the officer's name unless he is charged with a crime, which they describe as a long-standing practice that applies to the public as well as city employees.

Every time a young Black man or woman is arrested in this town, you put their name all over the news. Every time were suspected of something, you put our name out there, Sharpton said. "How dare you hold the name of a man that killed this man? We want his name!

Mourners at Renaissance Church of God in Christ, many wearing T-shirts or sweatshirts bearing Lyoyas picture, stood and applauded.

In a statement Friday, City Manager Mark Washington acknowledged the demands and said he would discuss the matter with the police chief and human resources officials.

Police reform requires evaluating many long-standing practices to ensure our actions are consistent with the best interests of the community and the individuals involved, Washington said.

No timeline has been set for the discussions or a decision, spokesman David Green said, adding that Washingtons statement was intended to let city residents know we hear you and were willing to assess that practice and see if it works or not.

Sharpton noted that Lyoya was killed on April 4, the anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., putting Lyoya's death in the context of the national civil rights movement. He said Lyoya came to America in search of a better life and ran into an America that we know too well. He urged those gathered to continue to fight for justice, and called for a federal investigation into Lyoya's killing.

"We cant bring Patrick back. But we can bring justice in Patricks name," he said.

Andrew Birge, U.S. attorney for the district that includes Grand Rapids, said in a statement that his office and the FBI had offered help state investigators and local prosecutors and that the Justice Department can provide consultation, mediation or training assistance. He said his office will continue to review the facts to determine whether additional federal response is warranted.

Sharpton and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Lyoya family, have frequently joined with mourners to speak at the funerals of Black people killed by police. Sharpton has eulogized George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis sparked a national reckoning on race; Daunte Wright, who was shot during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis; Andre Hill, who was killed in Columbus, Ohio; and Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed in North Carolina.

Crump also called for justice Friday, saying an unnamed police officer escalated a simple misdemeanor traffic stop into a deadly execution. He said the issue is one of humanity, and he called on federal lawmakers to pass reforms aimed at curbing systemic racism in policing.

World leaders cant condemn Russian soldiers shooting unarmed citizens in the back of the head in Ukraine, but then refuse to condemn police officers shooting unarmed Black citizens here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he said. If its wrong that you do it in the Ukraine then its wrong that you do it in Grand Rapids.

After the service, Crump told reporters: We believe the whole world is watching Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Lyoyas body lay in a white, open casket inside the church before the service began. Once the funeral started, the casket was closed and the flag of Congo was draped over it. Below the casket, a sign bearing an image of the American flag and a photo of Lyoya said: Its our right to live, in both English and Swahili.

Lyoya's mother, Dorcas, sobbed as mourners filed in to pay their respects, and tears ran down her cheek as music played and a choir sang.

U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, Michigans only Black member of Congress, read a proclamation saluting Lyoyas memory, saying he was an American of great distinction, whose life and legacy would not be forgotten.

This is personal to me. This is my family. You are my family. This is my community, she said. And if I dont stand up, who will?

Other elected officials, such as Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss and state Sen. Winnie Brinks, were also in attendance.

The funeral program was printed in English and Swahili, and a portion of the service was led by leaders in the Congolese community. Bethlehem Shekanena, whose parents immigrated from Congo, said the Lyoyas came to the U.S. for life, liberty and the ability to pursue happiness.

We are gathered here today because the promise given to all those who reside on this land, the very foundation of what makes America America  it was broken the moment Patrick Lloya was killed in the streets." she said, adding: He did not deserve to die."

Before the service, mourners were given T-shirts that read Justice For Patrick Lyoya on one side and Its our Right to Live! on the other. Some men removed their suit jackets and slipped the shirt on over their dress shirts.

Lyoya, who was unarmed, was face down on the ground when he was shot April 4. The officer, whose name has not been released, was on top of him and can be heard on video demanding that he take his hand off the officer's Taser.

Earlier, the officer is heard saying Lyoya was stopped because the license plate did not match the car Lyoya was driving. Lyoya, a 26-year-old father of two, declined to get back into the vehicle as ordered, and a short foot chase ensued before the deadly struggle.

How dare you pull your gun about some car tags? Sharpton said during his eulogy.

State police are investigating the shooting. The agency will forward findings to Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker for consideration of any charges. He has told the public to not expect a quick decision.

Attorneys for the Lyoya family have said they believe video collected and released by police shows Lyoya was resisting the officer, not fighting him. His parents have called the shooting an execution.

Forliti contributed from Minneapolis. Associated Press reporter John Flesher contributed from Traverse City, Michigan.

Find the APs full coverage of the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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PHOENIX  Two Republicans seeking statewide office are asking a federal judge to block the use of machines to tabulate the votes in Arizona in the 2022 election.

The machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking, contend Kari Lake, a gubernatorial hopeful, and Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state. And the use of components in computers from other countries makes them vulnerable, they say.

The is an even more basic problem, says Andrew Parker, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on their behalf.

The tabulation of votes is an inherently governmental function, he said. Yet by using machines built and programmed by private companies the state has effectively farmed that out that obligation.

And whats worse, Parker said in his filings, is that the technology is kept secret from the public.

This lack of transparency by electronic voting machine companies has created a black box system of voting which lacks credibility and integrity, he wrote in a copy of the lawsuit furnished to Capitol Media Services.

It seeks a court order to have the 2022 election conducted with paper ballots which would be counted by hand, calling it the most effective and presently the only secure election method.

Neither Lake nor Finchem agreed to be interviewed on the lawsuit.

But Lake, in a Facebook interview with Trump supporter Mike Lindell, said the litigation is the result of what she believes was a stolen 2020 election.

We know how tragic it was that this election (was) corrupted the way it was here in Arizona, she said. And we dont want it to happen again.

The lawsuit also cites what Parker said were irregularities and evidence of illegal vote manipulations in voting systems used in the 2020 election. While most of the incidents were from elsewhere, the list includes claims from the Cyber Ninjas audit of Maricopa Countys election process about things like software and patch protocols not being followed and missing files.

County officials responded to each of the allegations months ago, saying those findings were in error and proved that Cyber Ninjas, which had never done such a review, clearly did not understand election equipment, procedures or laws.

But Parker also said the lawsuit is not an attempt to undo the 2020 presidential results in Arizona which gave Joe Biden the states 11 electoral votes.

It is only about the future  about upcoming elections that will employ voting machines designed and run by private companies, performing a crucial governmental function, that refuse to disclose their software and system components and subject them to neutral expert evaluation, he wrote. It raises the profound constitutional issue: Can government avoid its obligation of democratic transparency and accountability by delegating a critical government function to private companies?

At the heart of the complaint are the contentions by some, particularly among those like Lake and Finchem who still deny the results of the 2020 election, that it was stolen. While some of the issues involve unproven allegations that forged ballots were inserted into the system, there has been a consistent litany of complaints that the hardware and software used to tally ballots was hacked or, worse, actually was programmed to produce a win for Biden.

The parallels between the statistical analysis of Venezuela and this years election are astonishing, wrote Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan even before being hired by Senate President Karen Fann to review the results. That refers to claims that there was a link between Dominion Voting System and the family of now-deceased dictator Hugo Chavez.

Im ashamed how few Republicans are talking about it, Logan said.

Parker makes no such claims. Instead he wants a judge to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines in Arizona unless and until the electronic voting system is made open to the public and subjected to scientific analysis by objective experts to determine whether it is secure from manipulation or intrusion.

Arizona does have various systems designed to check equipment.

For example, counties are required to conduct logic and accuracy tests, both before and after the official tally. That process, done in public, involves taking a known set of ballots and running them through the tallying equipment to ensure that the results reported by the machines matches what actually has been marked.

Parker contends those tests dont prove anything to deal with what he said are security problems inherent in the use of electronic voting machines.

All post-election audit procedures can be defeated by sophisticated manipulation of electronic voting machines, he claims.

He specifically cited the refusal of Dominion to surrender its passwords to Cyber Ninjas for examination, with Dominion attorneys saying granting such access to the workings of its equipment violated the companys protections against illegal search and seizure.

But what Parker does not mention is that there was an agreement between the Senate and the county that allowed three independent experts, including one recommended by the Senate, to examine the equipment. They reported that the system was not connected to the internet and that there was no evidence of data deletion, data purging, data overwriting or other destruction of evidence.

In seeking a court order, Parker wants more than just the use of paper ballots in 2022.

He also wants each ballot to have a unique identification number known only to the voter so each can tell if his or her ballot was counted properly. And Parker said each ballot would be printed on specialized paper that cannot be counterfeited.

The Republican-controlled legislature actually mandated the use of anti-fraud ballot paper in 2021. But it was voided by the Arizona Supreme Court which ruled that the provision was placed illegally into unrelated budget legislation.

A similar measure was introduced this year but has not been approved.

While the issue of voting machines has largely been a Republican talking point, the lawsuit does have at least one indication of bipartisanship: attorney Alan Dershowitz is part of the legal team.

You have to understand Im a liberal Democrat, he said during the Lindell Facebook interview.

Im happy with the results of the election, Dershowitz said. This is about whether or not votes are being properly counted.

+1

Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on Twitter at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com .

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More than 400,000 people will visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum this year. Chances are they will leave with 400,000 different memories to share with their friends back home, but describing just what the museum is may not be so easy.

Is the Desert Museum a zoo? An aquarium? An arboretum? An art gallery? A science center?

The answer is yes, it is all those things, which is why the recently published Treasured Legacies is such an ambitious  and noteworthy  addition to the library of Tucson literature.

Released in September by Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, Treasured Legacies was selected as one of the Southwest Books of the Year by the Pima County Public Library.

It is as hard to summarize as the museum itself; more than an artists portfolio, more than an album of photos, more than a written history.

It is all those things, all in 77 pages that would work just as well in your bookcase as on the coffee table.

Every time you go to the museum you notice things you hadnt seen before, said co-collaborator Anne Warner. After youve seen the animals, you notice the artwork. You see the sculptures and read the poetry. You hear what the docents are teaching the kids while theyre letting them touch a snake. The museum is lots of things. We wanted the book to be lots of things, too.

Warner, a museum volunteer since 2011, was the editor. Other collaborators include Priscilla Baldwin, who co-founded the ASDM Art Institute; Peggy Larson, the ASDM librarian and archivist; and Craig Ivanyi, its executive director.

Their interests and influences are woven together throughout the book, most visibly by the scratchboard portraits of desert animals by Baldwin.

The book is driven by her art, Warner said. Since the museums earliest days, (co-founder) Bill Carr wanted a natural history art museum to be an important part of what we do. He believed art helped tell our story. It always has.

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Treasured Legacies is a natural complement to another Desert Museum publication, A Scrapbook, written by Larson and first published by the museum in 2001. It used photos and short stories to lead readers through the museums history.

Treasured Legacies invites readers to look closely at Baldwins scratchboards, which in turn magnify the beauty of animals.

Some Tucsonans, one of us for sure, are surprised to learn the ASDM Art Institute is such an important component of the museums educational program. The institute offers classes, workshops and special exhibitions. A state-of-the-art gallery of wildlife and nature paintings is open daily on museum grounds.

Dont despair, history guy. Treasured Legacies reveals that Carr arrived in Tucson in 1944 with $400 in his pocket, most of which he used to open a bookshop near the university. Youll be reminded the Desert Museum helped establish wildlife sanctuaries near the Gulf of Mexico and reestablish the presence of the Mexican gray wolf in Southern Arizona.

We hear the story behind the museums longtime mascot, George L. Mountainlion, and smile when reminded about the Desert Ark  the Studebaker station wagon Hal Gras drove when taking desert animals to visits at area grade schools.

Words, photos and paintings all contribute to the museums mission, which is to help us understand and appreciate the natural wonders of the Sonoran Desert.

Bill Carr said the Desert Museum is dedicated to life, pure and simple, Warner noted, pointing to Chapter 4. Living it, conserving it, preserving it.  The book reminded us how far the museum has come. But it also made us wonder what the museum will look like 50 years from now; not just our museum, but all museums. All zoos and aquariums, too. What will we look like? What role will we all play?

It is comforting to know the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is already thinking about these things. Thanks to books such as Treasured Legacies, we can begin thinking about them, too.

Treasured Legacies is available at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gift shop and the ASDM Art Institute. Both take book orders over the phone. Call 520-883-3008 or 520-883-3024.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  A Republican Nebraska governor candidate who is backed by former President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit Friday against a GOP state lawmaker who accused him of groping her at a local party event in 2019.

The campaign of Charles W. Herbster alleges in the lawsuit that state Sen. Julie Slama falsely accused him and hurt his reputation in an effort to derail his campaign ahead of the state GOP's hotly contested May 10 primary.

The suit in state district court describes Herbster as the victim of a politically motivated and groundless attack by a political opponent, who resorted to false and malicious lies accusing him of scandalous behavior.

Herbster is locked in a competitive race with University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen and state Sen. Brett Lindstrom, among other candidates. Pillen won the endorsement of prominent party officials, including Slama and multimillionaire Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has sharply criticized Herbster as unqualified for the job and has acknowledged that he has spent money on dark-money ads against him.

Slama has said Herbster, a wealthy business owner and loyal Trump ally, reached under her skirt and groped her at the Douglas County Republican Party's annual Elephant Remembers dinner in Omaha when she was 22 years old. The Nebraska Examiner, an online, nonprofit news outlet, first reported the accusations, along with similar charges from seven other women. None of the others have been publicly identified and The Associated Press hasn't been able to confirm their accounts.

Slama has publicly acknowledged her allegations against Herbster and previously alluded to the incident in a February floor speech, although she didn't name Herbster at the time. She later confirmed the Nebraska Examiner's reporting of the incident, saying she didn't want the attention but wasn't going to lie about it.

Slama did not return a message late Friday seeking comment about the lawsuit.

Her attorney, Dave Lopez, said Slama has not yet been served with the lawsuit. Lopez said Herbster's lawsuit will expose him to the full scope of civil discovery, in which he would be forced to answer questions about his behavior under oath.

To be sure, any claim that calls into question Sen. Slama's well-corroborated account of her sexual assault by Charles Herbster would be categorically without merit and frivolous, Lopez said. Sen. Slama will vigorously defend herself against any such lawsuit.

Lopez said Slama will stand strong against any attempt to weaponize the judicial process to scare victims from coming forward to share the truth.

In the lawsuit, Herbster said the accusations lack even a shred of credibility and have damaged his reputation.

Plaintiff has never and would never engage in this type of conduct of which he is accused," Herbster's attorney wrote.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Herbster is widely viewed as a top contender for governor and has flaunted the endorsement of Trump, who remains popular in Republican-dominated Nebraska. The accusations against him surfaced around the time Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Nebraska to campaign for Herbster. The former president is also expected to visit the state Friday at an event featuring Herbster.

Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SLOVIANSK, Ukraine  The sound of outgoing artillery and air raid sirens were heard Saturday in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas that had come under Russian attack the day before.

Two servicemen were brought to a hospital from a nearby town, but one of them was mortally wounded and could not be saved.

The Russian strike early Friday had damaged several buildings, including a school.

The war has brought back painful memories for residents of Sloviansk, where in 2014 Ukrainian government forces repulsed Russia-backed separatists after a fierce battle. In the years since, the separatists maintained control over part of the Donbas, and Moscow has now set out to capture the entire region.

Anna Direnskaya, 70, said she and her son and daughter-in-law decided to remain in Sloviansk.

I lived through 2014. I was also here. I didnt go anywhere and I dont want to go anywhere. I am not hiding from myself, she said while sitting in a wheelchair outside her damaged apartment building. I want peace.

Direnskaya, who like many in eastern Ukraine is a native Russian speaker, said she wishes the Russians would understand that Ukrainians are not bad people and there is no enmity between them.

Why did this happen? Why is this happening? I dont know. Tell everyone I want peace and quiet, she said.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in the east

 Ukrainian village faces a churchless Easter

 Sanctions hit Russian economy, though Putin says otherwise

 Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters

 Possible mass graves near Mariupol shown in satellite images

 Follow all AP stories on Russia's war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines president says he will meet Sunday in Kyiv with the U.S. secretary of state and secretary of defense.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the plans Saturday during a press conference. He did not immediately share more detail about the visit from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.

The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The U.S. State Department also declined comment.

Zelenskyy has for weeks urged Western allies to send Ukraine more weapons to counter the Russian invasion.

WARSAW, Poland  Poland and Ukraine have signed an agreement increasing cooperation in the railway transport sector, aiming to help Ukraine maintain its trade exchange with foreign countries as the Russian invasion affects its ports.

Ukraines Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polands premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, met on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Morawiecki said on Facebook that they both agreed that current sanctions on Russia are insufficient, which can be seen by the condition of the Russian currency, bonds or inflation. They appealed to the international community for tougher steps that would stop Russias aggression on Ukraine and for more military aid to help Ukraine.

Morawiecki drew special attention to the plight of civilians seeking protection in a steel plant in Mariupol, as he called for the assistance.

In Mariupol soldiers  or rather Russian criminals want to make women and children starve to death. They are waiting until they run out of water. What kind of strategy is that? This is not war. This is genocide.

ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April.

But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.

Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.

NATO-member Turkey has been trying to balance its close relations with Moscow and Kyiv and has positioned itself as a mediator between the two. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia but has closed the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to some Russian warships.

The country has hosted a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers as well as talks between the two countries negotiating teams.

BERLIN  Germanys former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rejected criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: I dont do mea culpa.

In an interview with the newspaper published Saturday, Schroeder also claims that his long-time friend President Vladimir Putin of Russia is interested in ending the war with Ukraine.

Schroeder reportedly blasted German officials who now criticize his efforts to procure Russian energy supplies for Germany, saying that they all went along with it for the last 30 years.

In the interview, he called the war in Ukraine a mistake and said atrocities need to be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself ordered killings of civilians such as those allegedly committed by Russian troops in Bucha.

Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private mission to broker peace with Ukraine, claimed the Russian president is interested in ending the war.

But thats not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified, the New York Times quoted him saying, without elaborating.

LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said he promised more defense weaponry is on the way to Ukraine while speaking with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday afternoon, the latest chat between the two leaders who talk to each other regularly.

The British leader told Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom is sending more weaponry including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.

Johnson also confirmed to Zelenskyy that the U.K. would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also updated the Ukrainian leader on new U.K. sanctions designations against members of the Russian military and told him the British government was helping to collect evidence of war crimes.

The two also discussed the U.K.s work on long term security solutions and financial support with international partners.

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, Downing Street said in a statement.

KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines president says five people including a three-month-old infant were killed in a missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Ukraine presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, provided the information Saturday.

An adviser to Ukraines interior minister earlier said Russian forces fired at least six cruise missiles at the city.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down several missiles, but at least one landed and exploded.

Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas, Gerashchenko wrote. Residential buildings were hit.

HELSINKI  Hundreds of protesters belonging to Latvias sizable Russian-speaking community have taken part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic nations capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscows aggression on Ukraine.

Participants of Saturdays rally entitled The Russian Voice Against War waved Ukrainian flags and posters with inscriptions such as Stop the genocide in Ukraine and Complete Russian gas and oil embargo at the central Freedom Monument, Latvias public broadcaster LSM reported.

Organizers said the protest aimed to demonstrate that many of Latvias Russian-speakers are not aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscows actions criminal.

Ethnic Russians make up around 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, like Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of the all citizens.

Earlier this week, Latvias Parliament unanimously declared killings of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.

KYIV, Ukraine  A top Ukrainian official has announced a country-wide curfew for the night of the Orthodox Easter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraines presidential office, said in a video address Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson -- the curfew will run from 7 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

In others regions, including Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv and Lviv, the curfew will run from 11 p.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday.

KYIV, Ukraine  An adviser to Ukraines presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraines presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.

The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal, Arestovich said.

Arestovichs statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been liberated by the Russians.

Putin ordered the Russian military to not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.

Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facilitys underground tunnels.

Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

LVIV, Ukraine  Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy has announced a curfew starting on Orthodox Easter night.

Citing new intelligence, Kozytskyy said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between those hours until further notice.

Unfortunately, the enemy doesnt have such a concept as a major religious holiday, Kozytskyy wrote. They are so beastly that they dont understand what Easter is.

Kozytskyy said the church leadership is in support of the decision and that all churches in the region will be postponing their Easter night services until the morning hours.

KYIV, Ukraine  A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraines National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plants tunnels for up to two months.

We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air, said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness.

Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen neither the sky, nor the sun. We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt, the girl pleads.

Azovs deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.

According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.

KYIV, Ukraine  Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says two people were killed and 19 more wounded by Russian shelling.

Synehubov said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday that over the past day Russian forces fired at the regions civilian infrastructure 56 times.

Kharkiv, which is near the front lines, has faced repeated shelling from Russian forces.

KYIV, Ukraine  Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, the countrys officials said.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.

The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been liberated, with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.

Vereshchuk said that if everything goes according to plan, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at midday on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.

The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraines industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.

It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraines border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.

Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine  Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai says that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.

Haidai said Saturday on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna got the most of it.

In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. Not all survived, Haidai wrote.

He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.

KYIV, Ukraine  The Ukraine militarys General Staff says that Russian forces continue their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the General Staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraines second largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.

In the strategic port city of Mariupol, Russian troops continue to blockade Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and launch air strikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft, the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived to Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.

KYIV, Ukraine  Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.

The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.

It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.

Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.

The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

KYIV, Ukraine  At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the countrys industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of three more peaceful residents in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.

In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that as of Friday afternoon, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.

Also on Friday, the local prosecutors office in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day. The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.

WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraines immediate and long-term defense needs.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base. He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.

The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.

The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Kirby said. It will include consultations on Ukraines post-war defense needs but is not expected to consider changes in the U.S. military posture in Europe, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.

The statement comes a week after the vessel sunk.

Shortly after the incident, the ministry said the entire crew of the ship, which was presumed by the media to be about 500 people, had been rescued. The ministry did not offer an explanation for the contradicting reports.

Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with a missile strike.

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russias elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared liberated by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupols steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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An indictment charging a man in the 2019 fatal shooting of his uncle in Owasso was unsealed Friday in Tulsa federal court.

Bailey Warren Sparkman, 21, faces a two-count indictment charging him with first-degree murder in Indian Country and one count of carrying, using, brandishing and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of first-degree murder in Indian Country, or the lesser offense of second-degree murder in Indian Country.

Sparkman is charged with fatally shooting Zachary Daniel Sparkman, 30, on March 18, 2019, at a family residence near East 76th Street North and North 129th East Avenue in the Copper Meadows Addition, records show.

The charge was filed in federal court because Bailey Sparkman is an American Indian.

Owasso Police reported at the time of the shooting that officers were called to the residence about 11:30 p.m. after receiving a report of a burglary in progress.

Officers arrived to find Zachary Sparkman inside the residence, shot once in the head. Responding medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Owasso police said at the time that Bailey Sparkman was uninjured and cooperating with law enforcement. Evidence indicated that the back door of the residence, owned by Zachary Sparkmans father, had been forced open, according to police at the time.

The then-18-year-old allegedly shot Zachary Sparkman with a .40-caliber handgun that belonged to the homeowner, who was away at the time, police said.

Sparkman made an initial appearance Friday in Tulsa federal court. He was released on an unsecured $10,000 bond, records show.

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After deliberating for just under three hours, jurors delivered guilty verdicts on all counts Friday night against David Ware in the shooting of two Tulsa police officers.

Ware was found guilty in the capital case of first-degree murder and shooting with intent to kill in the 2020 traffic-stop shooting of Tulsa Police Sgt. Craig Johnson and Officer Aurash Zarkeshan. Johnson, a 45-year-old supervisor, died the day after the shooting. Zarkeshan, a rookie police officer then 26, survived critical injuries and testified for the first time Thursday.

Ware was also found guilty of obstructing an officer, possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony.

Jurors had earlier heard persuasive closing arguments in which attorneys for the defense and prosecution tried to convince them of the reason Ware refused to get out of the car.

Zarkeshan stopped Ware about 3 a.m. June 29, 2020, near 21st Street and Memorial Drive for a traffic infraction and expired paper tag. Ware couldn't produce a driver's license or current insurance at the time, and when Zarkeshan and Johnson said they were going to tow his vehicle, he refused to get out.

After several rounds of verbal orders and explanations, Johnson shocked Ware with a Taser and later sprayed him with pepper spray.

The officers were physically attempting to wrench Ware from his vehicle when he pulled a firearm from under his drivers seat, shooting each multiple times at close range. Neither officer drew their gun.

Defense attorney Kevin Adams argued Ware was in fear for his life and standing his ground against what he believed was unlawful and unfair treatment.

Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray said Ware more likely feared the search that would accompany the tow, because he knew as a convicted felon that a gun and drugs in his car could mean prison.

District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler reminded the jury of a lie Ware told Zarkeshan about a minute into the stop.

Zarkeshan, who had been policing solo for about a month, can be heard asking whether Ware is "good"; noting he looks "awful shaky" as he searches for his license and insurance.

"You have anything in the car I need to know about? Zarkeshan asks. "Drugs, guns; no heroin, meth or anything like that?"

Ware answered no, saying he was nervous because he was pulled over and couldn't find his ID.

Gray reminded jurors that, on what might have been a perceptive guess, Zarkeshan rattled off exactly what Ware was later found to have in his car.

Ware testified that he thought he had a right not to incriminate himself  Oklahoma law requires motorists to disclose their possession of a firearm to officers  but he also said that he knew he wasn't allowed to have a gun as a felon.

After hearing arguments that morning, District Judge Bill LaFortune ruled on a pending motion that the jury would not hear instructions on self-defense because Oklahomans have no legal right to resist a traffic stop or use deadly force to resist an arrest.

He also ruled he didn't find sufficient evidence to support Adam's request to instruct the jury on heat of passion manslaughter, which requires a homicide be perpetrated without the design to effect death.

Under Oklahoma law, a person commits murder in the first degree when that person unlawfully and with malice aforethought causes the death of another human being.

"These are adult choices that were made, and they come with adult consequences," Gray told reporters after the verdict. "Today the jury was able to go ahead and, for the first time, tell Mr. Ware that there are consequences when you make bad choices."

The sentencing options a jury can consider for a first-degree murder conviction are life with the possibility of parole, life without the possibility of parole and death.

With a guilty verdict of first-degree murder, the state will next week attempt to prove several aggravating circumstances they say support the latter while defense provides mitigating evidence to try to dissuade the jury from choosing execution.

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You are here: China

China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Friday urged the advancement of sound legislation work to protect the ecological environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks while attending a symposium on the matter.

Noting that legislation work should be more targeted, feasible and workable, Li stressed the importance of efforts to prioritize ecological preservation and highlight ecological security and restoration.

Legislation should be focused on enhancing the prevention and management of ecological risks, and strike a balance between ecological protection, industrial production and people's livelihoods in a scientific manner, Li said.

He also underscored efforts to undertake solid research and consultation, and better integrate the legislation with other relevant laws.


State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister has formally requested an attorney generals opinion on how local schools should interpret federal discrimination prohibitions on sexual orientation and gender identity as it pertains to their bathroom policies.

By law, Hofmeisters formal request compels the Attorney Generals Office to provide an opinion to the legal questions she has posed, and once issued, that opinion will be binding for all Oklahoma schools.

Stillwater Public Schools have come under fire from state politicians Attorney General John OConnor and Education Secretary Ryan Walters for its 2015 policy that allows students to use whichever bathroom corresponds to their gender identity.

The local school board passed a resolution asking the Oklahoma State Department of Education and state Board of Education to develop and for Gov. Kevin Stitt to approve emergency rules governing school bathroom policies.

But Hofmeister said the proper course of action is to get a binding opinion from OConnor, particularly since Stillwaters request doesnt meet the definition of an emergency, as there have been no reports of behavioral concerns related to the policy in the six-plus years since it was adopted.

The answers to these questions will provide the crystal-clear guidance sought and will come in the form of a binding opinion on those in Oklahoma who have historically been charged with implementing and enforcing Title IX, Hofmeister wrote.

Stillwaters bathroom policy was made an issue over the last month by Walters, a 2022 candidate for state superintendent and Gov. Kevin Stitts appointed secretary of education since 2020, amid controversies in other states.

Gay Washington, Stillwaters interim superintendent, has explained to her community that Stillwaters policy adheres to federal, Title IX protections for all students, including LGBTQ students.

Some local and state LGBTQ advocates have suggested Walters very public campaign against Stillwaters 2015 bathroom policy is intended to boost his profile as he campaigns for statewide elected office.

Walters has issued public letters and corresponding press releases demanding action from the local board of education and most recently, the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which has Hofmeister as chair and six Stitt appointees. His social media accounts touted his appearance last week on Glenn Becks national radio show.

OConnor, who is running for election to the post to which he was appointed by Stitt, has already sent Stillwater a letter stating: No legal precedent currently requires Oklahoma schools to open womens restrooms and locker rooms to biological males, or vice versa.

The local school board responded by saying it would leave its policy in place unless forced to change course by the state.

Hofmeister, who is running for governor, posed seven legal questions, including one that cited OConnors own words and asked:

What, if any, law requires local educational agencies (school districts) to prohibit students from using the restroom facilities that align with their gender identity? Absent such a law, are Oklahoma local educational agencies to make local decisions through their elected boards of education and a policy that the board of education has adopted?

Another asks whether the Oklahoma Parents Bill of Rights, which is set in statute, provide a parent with the fundamental right to determine, without obstruction or interference from the state, the education of their minor child? If so, does this include through parental consent what programs, facilities or activities a student utilizes at a public school?

Finally, Hofmeisters letter to OConnor also states that Oklahoma law has long held that school districts make decisions through their duly elected school boards, and asks will the Oklahoma Attorney General defend, at its expense, any lawsuit or enforcement action brought against a state agency or political subdivision regarding the usage its restroom facilities?

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Friday was Earth Day, and what better way to show deference to the physical environment than to spend some time cleaning it up?

Lana Turner-Addison was certainly all for it. Thats why, in her role as president of the North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative, she brought together students from McLain High School on Friday morning to pick up trash along north Peoria Avenue.

It was the third such cleanup day NTEDI has organized in partnership with the Tulsa Planning Office and the city of Tulsa, and the second one involving high school students.

They can not only come help clean up, but get their community service hours as they are cleaning up the community, said Turner-Addison. And we have been so pleased that the kids have been excited about it and said can they come back and do it again.

The cleanup effort is part of NTEDIs ongoing work to implement the citys Peoria Connection plan. The $7 million program, approved by voters in the 2016 Vision Tulsa sales tax package, provides funding for beautification and infrastructure improvements along north Peoria Avenue from 56th Street North to Mohawk Boulevard.

New sidewalks and LED street lights are being added, and soon Up With Trees will assist in planting hundreds of trees and shrubs along the busy street.

The whole goal, as far as I am concerned  is to make north Tulsa, the Peoria corridor, like the rest of the city, said Jack Henderson, the former city councilor for the area. The way you do that (is), youve got to clean it up, youve got to attract people who want to do their businesses in this area.

NTEDI has been using its cleanup days to tackle different sections of Peoria Avenue. On Friday, the McLain High School students focused on the stretch of road from 36th Street North to Mohawk Boulevard.

One of the things we have said is, OK, while we are trying to get infrastructure, get lights, get street (improvements)  lets demonstrate through our actions that were boots on the ground trying to clean up our community, Turner-Addison said.

Daniel Jeffries, senior planner for the Tulsa Planning Office, said his office and NTEDI work closely with the city to address the needs of the area while also making officials aware of graffiti, unmowed grass and other potential code violations.

This has been a huge collaboration, and that has been one of the most rewarding things, he said. Working with NTEDI, and all of the different departments at the city, and getting schools involved, and the Dream Center.

Everybody is coming together with a common purpose, and we are turning plans into action.

That includes Bobby Burnett, NTEDIs treasurer and go-to man. For Burnett, the goal is a simple if not easily attainable one.

To beautify and bring economic development to  that area that really hasnt seen a lot of development in a long time, he said.

Turner-Addison encouraged the public to get involved in the project. Information on NTEDIs monthly meetings can be found on its website.

For more information on the Peoria Connection program, go online to the Tulsa Planning Office website at www.tulsaplanning.org.

You cant build a community if you are not putting action behind your words, Turner-Addison said.

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A VND15 billion (US$653,000) kindergarten, which was expected to become the most modern of its kind in Thua Thien-Hue Province, north-central Vietnam, is now sinking and having multiple cracks on walls even though it has yet to be put into operation.

As of Thursday, workers were still trying to fix large wall cracks at Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Huong Sa Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien-Hue Province.

Costing more than VND15 billion ($653,000), the construction of the school was initiated in June 2020.

The venue covers an area of about 4,780 square meters and consists of two blocks.

Cracks appear on the walls of Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Hue City, Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

The first block is two-story high and has four classrooms, invested by the citys Construction Investment Project Management Board and built by Thanh An JSC.

The second block, which includes a kitchen, a medical room, and offices, is developed by Dai Phu Loc Hotel and Tourism Company and constructed by An Bao JSC.

The kindergarten was expected to be the most modern of its kind in the province when put into operation.

The cracks are fixed with cement at Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

In July 2021, the foundation of the school was discovered to have sunk by about 23 centimeters.

So far, relevant units have yet to take any measures to deal with the subsidence.

Multiple cracks have recently appeared across the walls of the kindergarten.

Many people believed that these cracks were caused by the unstable foundation of the structure.

Vo Le Nhat, chairman of the Hue City Peoples Committee, said he had acknowledged the situation and directed the Construction Investment Project Management Board to work with the provincial Department of Construction to find a suitable solution.

Cracks are found inside Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nhat Quang / Tuoi Tre

Cracks are found inside Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nhat Quang / Tuoi Tre

A worker fixes the cracks at Hoang Mai Kindergarten in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian (3rd L) meets with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi (2nd R) in Tehran, Iran, on March 5, 2022. (Iranian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)

At a time when the Iranian nuclear talks are about to reach an agreement, Iran and world powers have adjourned their talks, mostly over whether the United States will remove Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

While negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna stalled a year after they began, Tehran and Washington have ramped up their rhetorical war, demanding political decisions from the other side to bridge the final gap.

Firm stance

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Thursday that his country "does not pay attention to excessive demands nor will it retreat from its red lines."

Iran has so far insisted on its position with no signs that it may budge any time soon, said Iran's English daily newspaper Tehran Times, adding that "in fact, the odds are currently against any change in Iran's position."

Such a firm approach to Vienna talks has recently been praised by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who "expressed his satisfaction with the resistance of the negotiating team to the other sides' aggression and avarice," according to his official website.

"The other side withdrew from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and broke its commitments. Now they feel helpless and have reached a dead end," Khamenei said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.

According to the reports provided by Amir-Abdollahian and Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, "the red lines of the system have not been crossed in any way in the Vienna talks," Jalil Rahimi Jahan Abadi, a member of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying last week.

"The United States not only has not achieved anything since leaving the JCPOA, but even Iran's position has become stronger and more coherent in recent years than when the United States was present in the JCPOA," the Iranian lawmaker pointed out.

"U.S. inaction"

In the United States, following media reports that President Joe Biden's administration has considered dropping the IRGC terrorist designation, more congressmen have voiced opposition to any potential deal with Iran. It would be politically untenable to make such a concession to Iran, Biden's advisers suggested.

"If Iran wants sanctions-lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they'll need to address concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA," U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday.

"If they do not want to use these talks to resolve other bilateral issues, then we are confident we can very quickly reach an understanding on the JCPOA and begin to reimplement the deal itself," he said.

Iran believes that the Trump administration's move to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization was "politically motivated and designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Biden administration to resuscitate the JCPOA," according to Tehran Times.

Washington "does not seem to be ready to take the initiative in terms of concluding the Vienna talks. Quite on the contrary, it keeps sending signals that it is not ready to make the kind of political decisions Iran demands," the newspaper said in a recent op-ed titled "U.S. inaction could doom Vienna talks."

"The U.S. has halted progress for a nuclear deal. Biden is weak in dealing with political opponents," Mohammad Marandi, an adviser to Iran's negotiating team in the Vienna talks, tweeted recently.

Diplomacy still open

Despite the war of words, "the diplomatic path is working properly, and we have not gone far from a good and lasting deal," Amir-Abdollahiann said.

Meanwhile, Price said Washington is also prepared for a return to full JCPOA implementation, while EU's mediators continued to send messages and work to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion.

"Tehran and Washington are close to a deal, but both sides need to give and take to achieve the wider benefits" of a renewed JCPOA, Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow and deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article.

It would be "foolish for Washington to jeopardize the opportunity to contain Tehran's nuclear program over the lifting of what is a largely symbolic designation of the IRGC," while for Iran, delaying the return to the nuclear deal comes with a high price tag in terms of opportunities lost for its economy, she said.

According to Geranmayeh, "a number of reasonable compromises are in circulation." One option reportedly under review is to remove the IRGC's FTO designation but keep on the list its elite Quds Force, which carries out operations in the Middle East.

Also, a group of nuclear nonproliferation experts and former government officials on Thursday urged the White House to complete negotiations to restore compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that "a prompt return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA is the best available way to deny Iran the ability to quickly produce bomb-grade nuclear material."

"Repeating the failed strategy pursued by the Trump administration is misguided, irresponsible, and dangerous as it would increase the danger that Iran would become a threshold nuclear-weapon state," they warned.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks, during which Iran and the United States have negotiated indirectly, have been held in Vienna to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, which former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to drop some of its nuclear commitments.
WASHINGTON -- A gunman opened fire on random victims from a sniper's nest on the upper floor of an apartment building near an elite prep school in the nation's capital on Friday, wounding four people, before taking his own life as police burst into his dwelling, officials said.

Police said the suspect, Raymond Spencer, 23, of suburban Fairfax, Virginia, was initially identified from video he had posted on social media that appeared to show gunshots fired from the vantage point of an upper-floor window, with the misspelled label: "Shool shooting!"

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee told a late-night news conference the video "looks very much to be authentic," but it remained uncertain whether the footage was streamed live or had been posted after it was recorded.

A man evacuates with his dog in his arms as local residents are escorted by police to safety at the scene of a reported shooting and active shooter near Edmund Burke Middle School in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, U.S., April 22, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Police had issued a bulletin with photographs of Spencer hours earlier saying they were seeking him as a "person of interest" in their investigation.

Spencer killed himself as police officers entered his apartment, which had been arranged in a "sniper-type setup" with a weapon mounted on a tripod, Contee said.

He said the four victims were shot at random as "they were going about their business ... on the streets of the District of Columbia."

Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officers run with civilians while one of the officers keeps his weapon trained on a nearby building as police evacuate people to safety at the scene of a reported shooting and active shooter near Edmund Burke Middle School in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, U.S., April 22, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Three people struck by gunfire were taken to area hospitals - a 54-year-old man and a woman in her mid-30s with severe wounds, and a 12-year-old girl wounded in the arm, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said during an earlier briefing.

A fourth victim, a woman in her mid-60s, was treated on the scene for a slight graze wound, Emerman said.

People run with their hands in the air as police evacuate people to safety at the scene of a reported shooting and active shooter near Edmund Burke Middle School in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, U.S., April 22, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Eyewitnesses told Reuters and local media outlets they heard multiple bursts of gunfire in the upscale Van Ness neighborhood of northwest Washington next to the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory academy, just as classes were about to be dismissed for the day.

Contee said at least 20 rounds were fired. Authorities said they had no motive for the shooting, which took place along a busy Connecticut Avenue corridor that is also home to several foreign embassies, the Howard University School of Law and a campus of the University of the District of Columbia.
Inspectors of the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City have requested Saigon Kangnam Aesthetic Hospital in Tan Binh District to suspend plastic surgery services pending the investigation from the authorities after a senior woman was declared dead following a breast fat implantation there.

The inspectors are coordinating with competent agencies to clarify the cause of the death of L.L.P., a 61-year-old resident of District 11, Le Thi Huynh Nhu, deputy chief of the office of the municipal health department, said on Friday night.

P. went to Saigon Kangnam Aesthetic Hospital for a pre-surgery examination on April 19 and then was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital at 6:00 am on April 20 for a breast fat transplant surgery.

As P. felt short of breath, doctors at the Saigon Kangnam Hospital asked for emergency assistance from Cho Ray Hospital in District 5.

The woman was put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or outside-the-body life support, before being transferred to Cho Ray Hospital to continue treatment and died there at 4:20 pm on the same day.

The municipal health departments inspectors have asked Saigon Kangnam Aesthetic Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital to hand over P.s medical records to facilitate the investigation.

They have also suspended Saigon Kangnam Aesthetic Hospitals plastic surgery services in the meantime.

An experienced plastic surgery expert in Ho Chi Minh City told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that breast fat transplantation is not recommended by domestic and international experts because of a high risk of pulmonary embolism.

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Ho Chi Minh City authorities have proposed the Ministry of Health suspending health declaration procedures for people entering Vietnam via the Tan Son Nhat International Airport to ease congestion at the airdome.

In a dispatch to the ministry on Wednesday, the municipal administration instead recommended that passengers, upon completion of their immigration procedures, self-monitor and declare their health conditions via the PC-COVID app on their smartphones during their stay in Vietnam.

The proposal came as the COVID-19 pandemic has been put under control in the city as well as in the whole country, whose vaccination coverage has been among the highest rates in the world.

Such suspension of the health declaration process will help facilitate passengers travel and reduce overcrowding at Tan Son Nhat, the largest international airport in the country, especially during holidays or on weekends, the municipal government said.

According to the health ministrys latest COVID-19 rules, issued on March 15, people arriving in Vietnam by air are required to make medical declarations via http://tokhaiyte.vn or the Vietnam Health Declaration app before their entry, among other requirements including a negative RT-PCR test result.

In compliance with the regulations, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control has controlled the COVID-19 test results and health declarations of all arrivals at Tan Son Nhat.

However, many passengers, including elderly people and the handicapped, have failed to make such health declarations or provided incorrect or insufficient information, leading to more time for customs and airport staff to handle their cases.

Such a situation caused more people waiting to go through the process, leading to congestion at the airport, the citys administration explained.

Currently, as in many other localities across the country, the pandemic has been kept at bay in Ho Chi Minh City, a halt to such health declaration is advisable, local authorities said.

New daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in the southern city have recently drastically fallen, to 93 and zero, respectively, on Friday, compared to 1,094 and one a month earlier, according to the health ministry.

Since the pandemic hit Vietnam in early 2020, Ho Chi Minh City has documented 609,569 COVID-19 cases and 19,984 fatalities.

Across the Southeast Asian country, which houses some 98 million inhabitants, 10,544,324 infections, with 9,079,265 recoveries and 42,998 mortalities, have been recorded, the ministrys data shows.

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Vietnam has begun to experience a heat wave that will last for several days on Saturday, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The center has issued a heat wave warning for all three regions of the Southeast Asian country through April 28.

Temperatures are expected to hover around 35-36 degrees Celsius in most parts of the northern and central regions and range between 34 and 35 degrees Celsius in the Central Highlands and southern regions.

During this period, the ultraviolet index has risen to extreme levels, except in Ha Long City of northern Quang Ninh Province.

In addition, there might be showers of rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon and at night in some areas.

From April 29, a low pressure area is likely to form over the East Vietnam Sea.

During the last three or four days of April, the Central Highlands and the southern regions are expected to see increased showers and thunderstorms.

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Screen Producers Australia is disappointed with plans by the Morrison Government for a Streaming Services Reporting and Investment Scheme:

The proposed Scheme will require large SVOD services to report annually on their expenditure on, and provision of, Australian content, and the steps they are taking to make Australian content prominent and discoverable on their services. Where these services fail to invest 5% of their gross Australian revenue on Australian content, the Scheme will enable the Minister for Communications to impose a formal investment requirement on these services.

In their submission to the Schemes Discussion Paper, SPA outlines a number of critical issues for the Australian screen industry -including their desire for 20% reinvested in Australian production.

Overall, we find the current Governments Scheme to be weak and lacking in a vision or plan to grow the Australian screen sector. Most important of all, it will likely lead to less Australian content on our streaming services, not more. This is an alarming prospect, SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said.

Industry is also concerned at the high levels of Ministerial discretion featured in the two-tier Scheme. We see this as a recipe for uncertainty and inconsistency in a sector characterised by high levels of financial and creative risk and political influence by media oligarchs.

At a time when Australian audiences are wanting to see more of their homegrown stories on screen, it is inexplicable that the current Government has not only overseen a loss of Australian content on free-to-air platforms but is also proposing to let highly profitable global streaming businesses like Netflix and Disney+ off the hook for any meaningful and consistent ongoing contribution to Australian screen culture.

These businesses enjoy around $2 billion in annual revenue with forecasts for strong growth in Australia  and have the benefit of delivering their products on the public National Broadband Network infrastructure.

In choosing not to seek a fair return from them for Australian audiences, this proposal risks the fifty years of public support, government investment and sector development in Australian screen stories that have fostered our world-class creative talent and technical skills.

Australia faces unique challenges in competing with other English-speaking countries like the USA and UK in the global marketplace for investment and commissioned content. Without safeguards for Australian stories, we face being overwhelmed with lower-cost foreign content or increasingly becoming a backlot for Hollywood.

The policy rationale for investment safeguards is well established and compelling, particularly for vulnerable genres including childrens, drama and First Nations content. A weak regulatory scheme will likely see streaming services delivering cookie-cutter programming and not the broad range of quality, diverse stories that meet audience expectations.

The Governments Scheme also fails to address the significant issues facing SME production businesses in bargaining with massive international oligopoly businesses who are increasingly strip mining Australian intellectual property in the process of contracting with local businesses and creatives.

The urgent need for regulation of streaming services has been on the federal government agenda since the 2011 Convergence Review and this issue has been subject to review after review since then, all with the same finding that streaming services should be regulated  most recently at a level of 20% reinvestment of revenues into the Australian industry.

To end up with a weak proposal now is a letdown for the industry.

20% is also a figure the Australian Writers Guild has backed to balance the loss of production since Minister Fletcher relaxed drama, documentary and childrens sub-quotas in 2020 for Seven, Nine and 10.

While international stories driven by overseas creatives and foreign intellectual property have been most recently finding a home in a relatively COVID safe Australia, during this same period there have been increasing challenges in creating consistent levels of Australian content, Deaner said.

SPA believes there are compelling reasons for a better regulatory framework for streaming services and in our submission, we are calling for regulatory certainty and a plan for industry growth  not treading water or even worse  going backwards.
Balik Kampung like Diana Danielle with the best value-for-money solution to travel, stay and play through Raya Sana-Sini

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Traveloka travel superapp launches 'Raya Sana-Sini' to offer Malaysians the opportunity to plan their best Aidilfitri yet by enabling a safe, seamless and affordable trip as the country looks forward to lively celebrations after two years of lockdown and movement restrictions.

From left to right: Traveloka Malaysia Brand Ambassador Diana Danielle, Tourism Malaysia Director of Advertising & Digital Division Encik Shahrin Mokhtar, Tourism Malaysia, Deputy Director General (Planning) Yang Berbahagia Encik Iskandar Mirza Mohd Yusof, and Traveloka Malaysia Country Manager Angelica Chan

As Malaysians return to visit loved ones and elderly parents amidst relaxed SOPs, Traveloka aims to assist all Muslims to enjoy Hari Raya in a safe manner, as the nation transitions into endemicity.

Traveloka Malaysia, Country Manager, Angelica Chan says, "As one of the leading travel superapps in the country, we see it as our duty to enable all Malaysians to take advantage of the upcoming festivities, after being separated from family and friends for more than two years. Hari Raya is one of the most celebrated occasions in Malaysia, and we hope that through our superapp, we can help Malaysians create the best memories with their friends and loved ones."

With Diana Danielle as our brand ambassador, our travel superapp is empowering all those who are travelling domestically and internationally to balik kampung like Diana Danielle  the ability to customise a travel plan that suits our consumers' specific needs and requirements with options ranging from transport, accommodation and experiences for the whole family.

"Innovation is part of our DNA. Our superapp allows flight bookings on different airlines on a round-trip, a feature unique to Traveloka. This is aimed at empowering travellers to enjoy both flexibility and value from their preferred air travel routes, according to their personal needs instead of being restricted to fly with a single airline for a round trip," said Chan.

Chan also added, "As Traveloka is registered with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), bookings made through our superapp qualify for tax exemptions."

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"Apart from that, Traveloka Malaysia also celebrated Ramadan this year by hosting a meet and greet with our brand ambassador, Diana Danielle. The event was hosted in collaboration with InterContinental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, which welcomes guests back as it relaunches its popular Ramadan buffet, following the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions."

A spokesperson from InterContinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur said, "For the holy month of Ramadan, we are glad to host families and friends as they come together to break fast during Ramadan. Ramadan is a special time for our Muslim guests and our chefs will take you on a trip down memory lane. A nostalgic spread awaits with the Warisan Kita Buffet Dinner at Serena Brasserie, from now till 1 May 2022. Indulge in recipes inherited by our chefs passed down from generation to generation to make this time of year an unforgettable one. We are honoured to partner with Traveloka to host the Traveloka Raya Sana-Sini with the glamorous Diana Danielle as the guest-of-honour. We look forward to delighting all guests with our Ramadan buffet that is specially created and offered once a year and features special dishes such as, Nasi Kukus Balqish featuring Kari Kepak Barramundi and Rendang Ayam Tok Nek, Pasta Goreng Kawah Cucu Bonda, Kambing Golek 7ujuh Keturunan, Chef Daveed and Fikri's Mini Roti John and Seafood on Ice."

"To go along with the festivities, we have also launched a room package with buka puasa and sahur included, dubbed 'Break-Away'. Let us take care of the necessities as we've got all your needs covered from dusk till dawn," added the spokesperson.

Diana Danielle also shared her experience as a young mother and wife, planning Aidilfitri festivities after two years of quiet celebrations due to the pandemic. "This is the first Raya since the pandemic where all Malaysians will be able to gather without restrictions. This year is about reconnecting with family and loved ones. The Traveloka travel superapp allows us to customise our balik kampung experience, providing a seamless, safe and convenient experience and more value for every Ringgit. Through Traveloka, users can book flights to and from their destinations, as well as choose a different airline of their choice for both ways."

"This is especially important for those with big families and families with young children and elderly parents. The flexibility in schedule, facilities and price will truly make a memorable trip. In addition, by using the Duit Raya coupon code TVLKRAYA550, we were entitled to a further discount of up to RM120," continued the beloved big-screen star.

SOURCE Traveloka
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U.S. civil right activist Al Sharpton on Friday demanded a federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, at the 26-year-old black man's funeral in Grand Rapids in the U.S. state of Michigan, the Detroit News reported.

Lyoya was killed by a police officer on April 4 during a traffic stop. According to videos released by Grand Rapids police, the officer asked for Lyoya's driver's license, and Lyoya eventually fled the car and a chase on foot ensued. The two men ended up struggling over the officer's stun gun before the officer shot Lyoya in the back of the head.

During the eulogy, Sharpton addressed the officer and questioned his decisions: "You turned a traffic stop into what appears on tape to be an execution." Sharpton pointed out that Lyoya was killed on the 54th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination.

Sharpton also criticized Grand Rapids police's decision to withhold the name of the officer who fatally shot Lyoya unless he is charged with a crime, local media reported.

An autopsy found that the cause of Lyoya's death was a bullet shot to the back of the head. The Michigan State Police is investigating the shooting death.

Hundreds of mourners attended Lyoya's funeral, reports said.
What were the connections between the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and contemporary artists across the Middle East and north Africa? That is the question raised by the Institut du Monde Arabe in the French city of Tourcoing, with an exhibition reuniting 70 works by artists from Algeria to Syria  some never seen before in Europe.

The exhibition "Picasso and the Arab Avant Garde", in Tourcoing, near Lille, embarks on a mission to portray the mutual fascination between the Spanish painter and his Arab world contemporaries.

Born in Malaga in 1881, Picasso spent most of his adult life in France, going on to become one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, credited with co-founding the Cubist movement.

Picasso did not travel widely, and never visited the Middle East, but he was undeniably influenced by art from around the world, notably the African continent.

"He described himself an oriental," curator Mario Choueiry told RFI, explaining that through his Andalusian origins in southern Spain, Picasso had a connection to Arabic culture.

In this exhibition, the viewer is exposed to a mirror effect, the likenesses between some of the paintings is startling in style and in spirit. It was an opportunity, Choueiry says, to highlight artists they felt had been unjustly overshadowed.

Beyond the recognisable influence of cubism and abstraction, the exhibition explores the themes of emancipation, anti-colonialism, and aspirations for a better, fairer world.

"Picasso was the promise of universal artworks, without the hierarchy of place, geography or style," says Choueiry. He looked to archaeology, Mesopotamia, ancient arts, Egypt, just as the local artists themselves did.

The 32 artists in the exhibition hail from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

Many spent time studying art in France and Europe and took home more than just techniques. Some of them even crossed paths with Picasso and exchanged views.

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They saw in Picasso's works a model of creating "a new world" with a new way of expressing national identity, breaking away from tradition, and making a political statement.

Picasso and politics

Although he had not openly taken sides during the world wars, and did not join the military, Picasso was close to artists in the surrealist movement, such as Paul Eluard, who from the 1920s were actively protesting against French colonialism. He ended up joining the French Communist party in 1944.

However, it was his art that spoke louder than any words, providing artists in the Middle East with a creative template for political expression.

One of the key focal points of this artistic dialogue is Picassos epic painting Guernica (1937) depicting the bombing of civilians by German and Italian forces during the Spanish Civil War.

The black and white cubist work, measuring seven metres in length, is on display at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid. A close-up photograph of the work in progress taken by Dora Maar appears in the exhibition.

In 1938, the group Art and Liberty, in Egypt published its "Long Live Degenerate Art" an artistic manifesto featuring Picassos Guernica on its coverpage.

Another similar manifesto appeared in Iraq in 1951 written by the Baghdad group, citing Picasso as one of the "fundamental figures of modern art", while in 1962, another manifesto appeared in Syria.

"With Guernica, Picasso created a turning point in my art and indeed for the entire history of art. He managed to invent simple and expressive symbols, both historical and universal, a style that conforms to our humanist values and morals, in refusing all forms of violence against civilians, that no ideology nor regime can justify," wrote Dia Al Azzawi, an Iraqi painter represented in the exhibition.

Some of Al-Azzawi's prints depict the horrors of Palestinians massacred in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s.

The symbols used in Picassos Guernica  the horse with the pointed tongue, the minotaur  appear in Syrian painter Alwani Khozaimas triptych "Sans Titre", a scathing condemnation of the massacres perpetrated by the Baas regime in Feb 1982 under Hafez al-Assad.

Hundreds of civilians were summarily executed during an operation intended to weed out the opposition in the form of Muslim brotherhood in Hama.

Many of the artists shown here saw Picassos expression as a moral one, and they borrowed symbols that could express the anger and disgust at atrocities carried out by different regimes through the ages.

Egyptian artist Samir Rafi, who met Picasso in Paris, also painted scenes of uprising against war and tyranny. As a youth he had joined up with other surrealist painters in rejecting authoritarian rule, using art as weapons. He later went to Algeria and joined the FLN (National Liberation Front) before coming back to France.

Picassos connection to Algeria can be seen in his studies for "Les Femmes dAlger", a theme he began in 1954, at the start of the Algerian war. Once again, art and political events of the day were reunited.

Picassos artwork crops again in relation to revolutionary causes by way of a portrait of Algerian FLN activist Djamila Boupacha. She had been imprisoned in 1960 for terrorist activities against French colonial rule and was defended by lawyer Gisele Halimi.

Halimi didnt hesitate to write to Picasso asking him for the portrait to help pay legal fees. It appears in the inside cover of a book written by Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir in 1962.

Like Boupacha, women feature prominently throughout the exhibition as sources of endless inspiration, and as a counterpoint to the war and destruction they represent life and abundance.

Four women artists are featured, and as Francoise Cohen the director of the IMA Tourcoing museum told RFI, "they were artists in their own right, not just muses".

"This was a positive period for women artists."

For Cohen, women models, and nudes in particular, were the cornerstone of Picasso's avant garde style, representing both tradition, the human being in its most simple form, while also representing the evolution towards Cubism.

"It's completely astounding. It shows that Arab art has for too long been under represented," former culture minister Jack Lang told RFI at the opening.

"That's one of the reasons why the Arab Institute has such a large collection, one that is full of talented artists who were often avant garde in their own countries and elsewhere in the world.

This comparison with Picasso shows to what extent the links between him and the Arab artists were strong, practically fraternal, he said.

The "Picasso and the Arab Avant Garde" exhibition will be on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Tourcoing, until 10 July 2022, and at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in 2024.
Joseph Biden, left, shakes hands with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, during their meeting at State House Nairobi, Kenya, June 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim, file)

Former Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki has died at the age of 90.

Mr Kibaki's death was announced on Friday by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The cause of death was not given, but Mr Kibaki was in and out of hospitals in recent years as his health failed.

"Mwai Kibaki will forever be remembered as a gentleman in Kenyan politics, a brilliant debater and one who steered development in the country," Mr Kenyatta said, declaring a period of mourning until his funeral is held.

Mr Kenyatta described Mr Kibaki as a "quintessential patriot whose legacy of civic responsibility will continue to inspire generations of Kenyans."

Mr Kibaki served two terms as president of the East African country, ruling from 2002 to 2013.

But his re-election to a second term in 2007 put a dent in his reputation as his victory was disputed by his opponent, Raila Odinga.

Mr Odinga asserted that the election result had been rigged and that he had really won the poll.

Hundreds of people were killed in weeks of ethnic violence that followed.

Amid the stalemate, Kenya exploded into fighting along tribal lines that forced more than 600,000 people from their homes. The violence shattered Kenya's standing as a beacon of stability in East Africa.

The international community led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan eventually brokered a fragile power-sharing deal between Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga, who settled for a new role as Kenya's prime minister.

But the International Criminal Court (ICC) brought charges of crimes against humanity against Mr Kenyatta, who had backed Mr Kibaki, as well as William Ruto, the current deputy president.

The ICC later dropped criminal charges against Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta, who had been charged for their alleged roles in the violence. They denied any wrongdoing.

In the wake of the violence, Mr Kibaki oversaw a new constitution for Kenya that was aimed at decentralising powers and reducing persistent ethnic tensions that continue to flare up during electoral seasons.

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The new constitution was praised as having some of the most progressive human rights provisions in the world.

Mr Kibaki stepped down in 2013 at the end of his second term.

Emilio Mwai Kibaki was born on November 15 1931, when Kenya was under British colonial rule.

He studied at Uganda's Makerere University, where his teachers remembered him as a brilliant economics student. He continued his studies at the London School of Economics.

Back home, he worked as a teacher before joining politics in a country buoyed by independence from colonial rule in 1964. He served as finance minister, vice president, leader of the opposition - roles that placed him among the most consequential Kenyans of his generation.

Before winning the presidency in 2002, he had run for the top political job twice and lost.
Chinese courts see solid progress in promoting judicial fairness

Xinhua) 18:15, April 22, 2022

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Solid achievements have been made by Chinese courts in pushing forward judicial reform, as well as continuously promoting and advancing a just, efficient and authoritative judicial system, an official with China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Friday.

Strong measures have been taken to tackle problems that harm judicial justice, said Shen Liang, a vice-president of the SPC, at a press conference on major achievements Chinese courts have made in related fields since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

In 2015, China implemented a case filing register system, replacing the previous case filing review system, in a bid to lower the bar for case filing, Shen said, adding that currently, over 95.7 percent of cases can be filed on the spot.

Acknowledging the pilot reform of imposing lenient penalties on those who admit their guilt and accept punishments in criminal cases, as well as the application of quick trials for simple cases and meticulous trials for complex lawsuits in civil litigation, Shen said such efforts were made to enhance the country's litigation system.

Chinese courts have been promoting the reform of the criminal procedure system with a focus on court proceedings and strictly adhering to the principles of legality, evidence-based verdicts and presumption of innocence, thereby institutionally ensuring that just verdicts are given to the guilty while the innocent are protected from criminal punishment, according to Shen.

China has also been optimizing the exercising of judicial powers, Shen said, noting that a certain number of assistants were assigned to judges, allowing the latter to focus on adjudicative work.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
 Flash

New Zealand reported its first case of Omicron XE variant at the border, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Saturday.

A person who has traveled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the XE variant of Omicron, said the ministry.

This is the first known detection of the Omicron XE variant in New Zealand, it said.

According to the ministry, the person, who is currently isolating at home, arrived in New Zealand on April 19 and was tested on April 20. The whole-genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the XE variant.

"XE has been spreading overseas, and its arrival in New Zealand is not unexpected," said the ministry.

Meanwhile, the country reported 19 deaths from COVID-19, with 7,930 community cases and 494 hospitalizations on Saturday.

In addition, 55 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.

New Zealand has reported 875,794 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

As the country is going through Anzac long weekend, the ministry has warned people to take health measures to protect themselves from the virus.

"Firstly, be up to date with vaccinations. Secondly, wear a mask. And thirdly, stay home and avoid others if you're unwell," said the ministry.

New Zealand is currently under the orange settings of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, where there is no limit for gatherings.
PRAGUE  In the midst of a pandemic, a car cruise was born that has turned into a classic spring event in the area.

In 2020, the Flagmen Car Club of Prague hosted a car cruise as a way to provide a little fun during the early days of the stressful COVID-19 pandemic.

Classic cars cruised around Prague and other area communities, but were stopped short of having a gathering with food and music afterwards because of social distancing restrictions.

The next year, they were able to expand the event and included live music, a bar and a burger bash at the Prague National Hall. They also added a route for side-by-sides that traveled along country roads.

This year, the 2022 version of the car cruise has evolved even further. They have renamed it the Bohemian Alps Tour to reflect the fact that they have rerouted the vehicles to traverse the rolling hills of western Saunders and eastern Butler counties that bear the name Bohemian Alps.

Were going to roam the Bohemian Alps this year, said Jason Matulka, a member of the Flagmen Car Club in charge of promoting the event.

The event will be held on Saturday, April 23 with registration of vehicles beginning at 10 a.m. The cruise will start at 12 p.m.

It will take about five hours to travel the route, which will go to Davey, Valparaiso, Dwight and Brainard, according to Matulka.

The route for the side-by-sides will also start in Prague, but will take country roads to Touhy, Valparaiso, Dwight and Brainard.

After the cruise, the drivers, passengers and anyone else can enjoy the Brad Husak Polka Band playing from 5 to 9 p.m. in the National Hall, followed by DJ Ionic P from 9 p.m. to midnight.

The American Legion will hold a burger bash starting at 5 p.m., and the Prague Improvement and Maintenance Committee will host a cash bar that opens at 4 p.m. and closes down at 12 a.m.

Revelers can buy some souvenirs of the event as they are celebrating, including T-shirts, koozies and hats.

We have all kinds of good swag available for sale, Matulka said.

They will also sell tickets for a raffle, with the prize being a neon sign with the Flagmen Car Club logo. If the winner does not want the Flagmen sign, they can design a sign of their choice, Matulka said.

Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Prague Improvement and Maintenance Committee.

Anything we can do to help that little town out, Matulka said.

The car club schedules the car cruise for early in the spring so they can include the local farmers.

We always wanted to be the first ones to get our cruise in before the farmers start farming so they can enjoy it, said Matulka.

Suzi Nelson is the managing editor of the Wahoo Newspaper. Reach her via email at suzi.nelson@wahoonewspaper.com.
Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon is going to Poland in June on a mission to help the people of Ukraine as they battle Russian invaders and try to survive the horror of war after being displaced by the millions.

Unlike his multiple military missions in Afghanistan where he was seriously wounded in a firefight with the Taliban, "this is a humanitarian support mission," the retired U.S. Army colonel said. "It has more of a humanitarian flavor."

"Help folks," he said. "Make the world better."

The current challenges of assisting Ukrainians who have fled from the Russian invasion and the relentless shelling that has reduced their cities to rubble are overwhelming, Brewer said, "and I want to help."

An estimated 5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country, largely settling in Poland.

Brewer is making plans to fly to Krakow, where he will begin his mission to "help coordinate relief help" with a follow-up trip a few months later.

His effort will include visiting logistic hubs and refugee camps and assisting with the command and control skills that can be adapted to help meet the overwhelming challenge that the flood of refugees has produced, including management of equipment and supplies.

"When you get asked to go and help, you jump in and go where you can help," Brewer said.

"I do not know how long I would be there. The mission dictates it."

Brewer said he fears that "Ukraine is in for some very hard days ahead" as Russian troops continue to batter the country.

"I think the Russian mindset is much different than any other in the world," he said. "It's an old habit they have. They deliberatively and brutally level towns. There is not much concern for human value. They do very horrible things to people."

The Ukrainians "have fought very hard," Brewer said, "and have been very resourceful" in resisting the Russian invasion.

Brewer said he wants to do what he can to help them now.

"Understand what right looks like," Brewer once said during an interview when he first arrived in the Legislature in 2017.

Last November, despite ongoing health challenges that included medical treatment for leukemia and the lingering aftermath of serious combat wounds, Brewer led a team of five state senators on a climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Brewer, who represents a vast legislative district in north-central Nebraska, grew up as an Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation and he is the Nebraska Legislature's first and only Native senator. He was re-elected to a second term in 2020.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon
WAHOO  Jurors spent a sobering day Thursday viewing crime scene photos taken inside the Malmo home where a young woman was killed as her children slept.

Suspected blood stains on the garage floor under two motorcycles, both lying on their sides but not damaged, hinted of something amiss to the first Saunders County deputy to get there after the 911 call the morning of July 15, 2020, when Kayla Matulka's 11-year-old son found her dead and told his friend's mom.

Prosecutors say Kolton Barnes, the man on trial, killed her and their dog after she broke off their engagement that night in a text.

In response to the message, he threatened to kick in the door if she wouldn't let him in.

Barnes initially denied going inside the home after returning from the Malmo bar at about midnight, but a security camera outside the house across the street showed him coming and going several times, and during a break in an interrogation, he could be heard saying under his breath: "Dear God, please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt her."

In opening statements, Barnes' defense attorney said Barnes came home to find their dog, Diesel, dead and Matulka in a corner, "crazed out of her mind" with a knife in her hand, suggesting he killed her in self-defense and had blocked the stabbing from his mind.

Deputies found evidence the garage door had been kicked in, which the state says backs up its theory that Barnes, enraged, forced his way inside and killed Matulka.

Pedram Nabegh, one of the Nebraska State Patrol investigators who processed the scene, documented damage to the striker plate of the door to the bedroom and how they found Matulka dead on the floor with her pajamas cut off and with a black eye and 27 cuts or stab wounds extending from her head and neck to her upper thigh.

"After you removed Kayla's body, did you see very much blood on the floor?" Assistant Attorney General Sandra Allen asked him.

"Less than I expected," Nabegh answered. "There was some."

Because of the number of wounds she had, he said he thought there would be more.

Nabegh captured dozens of photos. Among them, a bloody swipe on the bedroom wall, consistent with three fingers. He can't tell if it was left by Matulka or Barnes.

On the same wall, he found two indentations in the drywall likely from the murder weapon, which investigators never found, and blood spatter stains that included cast-off from it.

Blue Star, a blood detector that glows blue, showed where blood had been cleaned up that they couldn't see with the naked eye  on the floor of the master bathroom, in the sink and on the bathroom cabinet and bedroom dresser.

The trial is expected to continue Friday.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger
WATERLOO  Two years ago, Jessica Levai-Baird was thinking of a career change after more than 20 years as an engineer at John Deere.

She began looking at opportunities in education, where her background would be an asset in the classroom for a variety of subjects.

I really wanted to encourage more women to go into STEM fields, said Levai-Baird, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She acted on her interest in pursuing a teaching career when John Deere offered a voluntary separation option in 2020.

Sally Roos earned a college degree and then taught English in South Korea. Later, she got a masters degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages while working with foreign students in a job at the University of Northern Iowa.

After I finished my TESOL masters, I started teaching as well, said Roos. She taught at the university for six years, but was interested in working with younger students.

Both are teacher interns at West High School on the verge of finishing a two-year alternative licensing program collaboratively provided by Iowas three public universities. Levai-Baird teaches algebra 2 and Roos has been teaching English classes.

I was already a teacher, but I grew so much through the program, said Roos.

The women and Jackson McNally, a West High building substitute enrolled in his first year of the program, met Friday with Department of Education Director Ann Lebo about the Regents Alternative Pathway to Iowa Licensure. Several program staff members from UNI and the University of Iowa were also part of the conversation.

Next fall, Principal Andy Miehe said the schools seventh R.A.P.I.L. intern will start teaching at West. After completing that year of training, all have so far stayed on at the school. One is leaving in the fall to return to a job outside of education.

People who already have at least a bachelors degree can qualify for the program, which starts with a year of coursework. As part of the six classes students complete in the first year, there are 15 hours of observation and 50 hours of field experience in classrooms. Placement at a school and the year-long internship follows. Once the internship and required testing are completed, they can then apply for an initial Iowa teaching license.

Coordinator Amy Mayer said the program, created in 2010, will reach 200 teachers licensed when the group that Roos and Levai-Baird are in finishes up this spring. McNally and 42 others are currently part of a group in their first year.

So far, 35 people have applied to be a part of the next group, which has a May 1 deadline. Students can now get training and endorsements for secondary school classrooms. The new group will also be able to get K-12 endorsements for English as a second language, art, music, physical education and health.

I would say overall we see a real level of maturity, said Mayer, because of the experience program participants already have. Its someone who can step into a school and bring that foundation.

Levai-Baird added that can enrich what they offer students in the classroom.

The biggest thing is to share real-world applications, she said  admitting, though, that there are some cases where that may be challenging. You know, I never had to factor polynomials as an engineer. Still, algebraic equations could be important in some jobs.

Over the last three to four years, Mayer noted, 85% of program participants have continued teaching in the same school where they interned. That is an important benefit to Miehe.

For me, every spring in the hiring season, I would rather be bored to tears than be really, really busy, he said.

Lebo praised the alternative license and was impressed with West High and Waterloo Community Schools use of it to place teachers.

She noted that it brings educators with different experiences into the classroom. For those thinking of a career change, the R.A.P.I.L. is a great way to connect people in business to the teaching profession.

Waterloo is a great example of how theyre investing in their people  and theyre keeping them, she said. Lebo suggested its offering future teachers a great education in a great system. And its certainly great for Waterloo Schools.

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WAVERLY  A new firefighting training facility is coming to Waverly.

The City Council on Monday received a briefing on plans for a municipally owned, unused parcel at 2301 Cedar River Parkway that will allow the Waverly Volunteer Fire Department to train locally and better prepare for emergency situations.

The facility has been in the works the last five to six years, Captain Rob Edgar said.

The department also hopes recruitment sees a boost as a result. The new facility will mean firefighters wont have to travel elsewhere to train.

Having its own facility also could be advantageous because firefighters can use their own equipment during training. In addition, firefighters would be able to conduct drills immediately following a call, increasing chances of improving future responses.

Theres really no limits. Its going to be used for anything from interior fire attack simulation to ventilation to ladder work, Edgar said. Were most certainly going to get the aerial (truck) out there.

Its anything that we could run into in an actual fire situation.  Basically, the skys the limit, he added.

The fire company is paying for the $91,781 project through fundraising and donations. It has not requested financial assistance from the city. Construction will get underway this spring.

Waverly City Council stuck on type of residential development to attract to old school site City Council gave little direction Monday night to staff when further discussing the future of the triangle-shaped, 1.64 acres for an hour at a work session.

The facility will be available only to Waverly firefighters, said Edgar. But he noted it possibly could be used by nearby departments down the road, or be turned into a multi-agency facility for the police and sheriffs departments.

Janesville-based Modern Design Architects and Waverly-based Herold-Reicks Surveying donated engineering, surveying and site preparation services for the project.

Plans show a structure made up of large shipping containers, which Edgar says could simulate a big house during drills. Estimates indicate those containers are about half the cost.

There will be other props on site, as well.

A concrete pad to withstand the weight of an aerial truck is part of the design, because its not meant to be on unstable ground, Edgar said.

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The oldest son of former President Donald Trump has met with the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That's according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private session. The interview with Donald Trump Jr. took place Tuesday. He's one of nearly 1,000 witnesses interviewed by members of the House committee as they work to compile a record of the worst attack on the Capitol in more than two centuries. He's the second of Trumps children known to speak to the committee. His sister Ivanka Trump sat down with lawmakers for eight hours in early April.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to provide any new information Friday explaining his decision to call off the state's first scheduled execution since the start of the pandemic, but said more details will likely be provided next week.

The night before, the Republican governor had issued a statement saying there had been an oversight in preparation for lethal injection as he granted a temporary reprieve to 72-year-old inmate Oscar Smith. An attorney for Smith, Amy Harwell, later told reporters that her office had been told there had been a mishandling of the drugs.

I granted a temporary reprieve because of a technical oversight," Lee told reporters on Friday. "I have high expectations for our departments, and the death penalty is a serious matter that requires attention to detail. We are digging into this, and I expect we will have more to report next week.

Smith was convicted of the 1989 killings of his estranged wife and her two teenage sons. Shortly before the governor intervened, the U.S. Supreme Court had denied a last-hour bid by Smiths attorneys for a stay.

The inmate had been scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at a Nashville maximum security prison and was preparing for his final moments with his spiritual advisor when he received the news, according to Harwell.

He had already had what was to be his last meal and was finishing communion before he was to be escorted to the death chamber.

When the wardens walked in, the spiritual adviser very graciously said, I have consecrated more communion, would you guys like to join us? And the warden said, No, I need to give Oscar some news. Theres not going to be an execution tonight,' Harwell told The Associated Press.

Smith slumped with relief, Harwell recalled, and both he and the Rev. Matthew Lewis praised God.

Our prayers have been answered, Harwell remembered the two saying.

Lewis said Smith was stunned by the news and had been fully preparing to die in the next hour.

Smith's reprieve is in effect until the beginning of June, but in the interim, attorneys and death penalty watchdog groups are already calling for an independent investigation into the matter.

I think that it is imperative that there be an independent evaluation of what happened, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. And the reason I say that is because our experience across the country has been that departments of corrections hide the truth.

Dunham said what happened in Tennessee adds a new chapter to a long history of states struggling to follow their own rules and procedures when carrying out executions. He noted that these processes are often shrouded in secrecy and paranoia that only increase the risk of mishaps.

In 2021, Texas officials determined that new personnel and procedures along with insufficient oversight led to reporters not witnessing the state's first execution in nearly a year. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice later said the incident was preventable and inexcusable.

In Oklahoma, the state's use of a new drug combination in 2014 led to a botched execution where the inmate writhed and clenched his teeth on the gurney before eventually dying from a heart attack. Nearly two years later, a grand jury found that the top lawyer for then Gov. Mary Fallin urged prison officials to go forward with a planned execution of Richard Glossip despite receiving the wrong drug. The report found the deputy attorney general told prison staff to Google it to confirm if the wrong drug could be used.

Then last year, an Oklahoma man convulsed and vomited during his lethal injection in an execution witnessed by an Associated Press reporter. Correction officials later said the execution was carried out without complication.

And in 2015, Georgia prison officials were forced to halt an execution at the last minute when the lethal injection drug turned cloudy, a circumstance state officials struggled to explain, according to court documents.

States can manufacture reasons for being incompetent, but there is no excuse for being incompetent, Dunham said.

Tennessee uses a three-drug series to put inmates to death: midazolam, a sedative to render the inmate unconscious; vecuronium bromide, to paralyze the inmate; and potassium chloride, to stop the heart.

Officials have said midazolam renders an inmate unconscious and unable to feel pain. Expert witnesses for inmates, however, say the drugs would cause sensations of drowning, suffocation and chemical burning while leaving inmates unable to move or call out. The assessment has led to more inmates choosing the electric chair over lethal injection, which is an option for some in Tennessee.

Lethal injection drugs have been a challenge to obtain for some states as many pharmacies and manufacturers refuse to supply the medications for executions. Most recently in South Carolina, officials decided to forge ahead with plans for a firing squad after it struggled to find the necessary drugs. That execution has since been delayed as well.

Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Kiev was never the capital of Russia. It was the capital of what is known as Kievan Rus  the founding cultural parent of Russia

Kyiv (sometimes spelled Kiev) is the largest city and the capital of Ukraine, as well as the historical capital of Kievan Rus. Kyiv officially celebrates its founding year as 482, but the city may date back at least 2,000 years. Archaeology dates the site of the oldest known settlement in the area to 25,000 years BC. Source: History of Kyiv  Wikipedia

Therefore, why would Russia destroy Kiev?

Therefore, the west needs to do some history lessons and we all know that the west has issues with history.thus why so many historical sites in other countries have been destroyed by the USA. No care for history

So if anyone would blow up Kiev? It would be the NATO/USA/UA Nazi group who would do such a thing. They do not appreciate the history

WtR
 OSCE staff transmitted the coordinates of objects on the territory of the LPR to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

This was told by a representative of the republican Ministry of State Security.

His operatives found documents with a list of objects subject to fire damage, indicating their exact coordinates.

Such information was collected by the head of the OSCE Severodonetsk team, Yaroslav Kurak, on behalf of the deputy head of the Lugansk group, Pilar Castro Moto.

Update:

The Prosecutor Generals Office of the DPR opened a case of espionage in connection with the transfer of data to Kiev of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

Said the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin.

He reported the discovery of technical devices, including laptops, which were recorded using cameras The OSCE SMM used the data to correct the shelling of Donbass.

WtR
That among a hundred other things that the US seems to find no money for, yet when it comes to the wars that the US starts.always money for war! Right?

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said all American taxpayers and members of the military can feel proud of the Biden administrations efforts to supply Ukraine with weapons to fight against Russia. The comments coming after the US announced another $800 million in additional security assistance for Kiev as well as $500 million in direct economic aid. Biden has repeatedly boasted about the amount of security assistance his administration has committed to Ukraine, which now totals $4 billion since he took office.

Source: US Taxpayers Should Feel Outrage at Wasting Billions to Support Ukraine in Conflict, Analysts Say  23.04.2022, Sputnik International

I have said a million times.quit war, quit wasting money and help our own people in the USA. Why does a country like America have homeless? Why do we have tent cities? I could go on and on, but so many so called poor countries like the west likes to talk about.they have free healthcare and people still have homes. Maybe, they do not have all the trinkets, but you cant eat an iPhone folks

In a country like the USA if anyone is homeless it should only be because that is what the person wants. Otherwise, everyone in the US should be given homes, food and an existence to better themselves.attitudes at how life should be conducted is a needed adjustment for the USA

We Americans are one foot out the door for many of us and we do not even know it

So, be proud and wonder as your home is taken and you try to find food. Living in tents is always a good way to get back to nature

Give that money to Ukraine, it is a fine upstanding Fledgling Democratic Nazi Society (FDNS)

WtR
The former commander of the Polish troops, Skrzypczak, accused British Prime Minister Johnson of disclosing NATO military secrets: information that British SAS instructors in the amount of 20 people were already training Ukrainian soldiers to use weapons from NATO in the Lviv area was confidential. So it wasnt public

Theres nothing secret about it for a long time. Polish, British, American, Canadian and other instructors have long shepherded neo-Nazi militants. And theyre not instructors

WtR
 US planning provocations in to accuse Russian forces of using WMDs in Ukraine, Russian MoD warns

Get the word out

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation held an urgent briefing, detailing a provocation against the Russian Federation prepared by the USA and NATO with the accusation of using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons

 The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation possesses the information related to the preparation of provocations by the United States of America in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of using chemical, biological or tactical nuclear weapons.

There are three scenarios to be applied in order to accuse the Russian Federation.

 The first one is a staged incident under a false flag that is the most probable.

 The second one refers to a Maximally covert use of weapons of mass destruction in small volumes for neutralising the will power and the capacity to resist within the fulfilment of a particular operational task.

 The third and the least probable one is the overt use of weapons of mass destruction at a combat area.

Learn more

WtR
WASHINGTON  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy had a positive call with Donald Trump and appeared to be suffering little political blowback Friday from the release of audio in which he suggested the president should resign shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

McCarthy worked swiftly to shore up support among Republicans, calling and texting many lawmakers about his conversation with Trump as he rushed to contain the fallout. Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that he has had a very good relationship with McCarthy.

In the audio, first posted Thursday by The New York Times and aired on Rachel Maddows MSNBC show, McCarthy is heard discussing with House Republicans the Democratic effort to remove Trump from office after the presidents supporters stormed the Capitol.

In the recording of a Jan. 10, 2021, discussion, McCarthy says he would tell Trump, I think it will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.

McCarthy released a statement Thursday calling the report totally false and wrong. His spokesman, Mark Bednar, told the newspaper, McCarthy never said hed call Trump to say he should resign.

But on Friday, the Times released another recording, this time of a Jan. 11, 2021, Republican conference call. In the audio, McCarthy can be heard telling his caucus that he had asked the former president if he felt responsible for the deadly insurrection and that Trump acknowledged some responsibility.

I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? McCarthy says on this recording. Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and hed need to acknowledge that.

In his first public statement since the audio was released, Trump told the Journal late Friday: Ive had actually a very good relationship with McCarthy. I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.

He made a call. I heard the call. I didnt like the call, Trump said. But almost immediately, as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there  you know, the support was very strong.

When asked about the Jan. 11 recording, Trump told the Journal: No, thats false. I never claimed responsibility.

The release of the audio could threaten the Republican House leaders hold on power. McCarthy is in line to become speaker if Republicans win control in the falls election, and he is heavily reliant on Trumps support to get there. But a person familiar with McCarthys Thursday call with Trump described it as positive.

Im not mad at you, Trump told McCarthy in a call Thursday afternoon, according to a second person familiar with the conversation. Both people were granted anonymity to discuss the call. McCarthy and his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Trump call.

Trump and McCarthy had a strained relationship immediately after the Capitol attack, but mended their alliance after the GOP leader flew to the former presidents resort in Florida to patch up their differences.

The Times report Thursday was adapted from a coming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future, by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

There has been no indication that McCarthy actually told Trump he should resign. In the same conversation, McCarthy told his colleagues he doubted Trump would take the advice to step aside rather than be pushed.

That would be my recommendation, McCarthy is heard saying in response to a question from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who would emerge as a staunch Trump critic. I dont think he will take it, but I dont know.

The crowd that attacked the Capitol marched there from a rally near the White House where Trump had implored them to fight to overturn the election result. However, he has strongly denied responsibility for the violence.

Trump remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party, despite his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection and his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.

McCarthy indicated during an interview with The Associated Press this week in California how important Trump remains to his party and its prospects for winning control of the House this fall. Hell motivate, get a lot of people out, McCarthy said at a GOP event in Fresno.

President Joe Biden, asked about McCarthys situation Friday, said: This aint your fathers Republican Party.

Biden suggested Trumps grip on the GOP is strong. This is a MAGA party now, he told reporters, referring to Trumps Make America Great Again slogan.

The audio depicts a very different McCarthy from the one who has been leading House Republicans over the last year and a half and who has remained allied with Trump even after delivering a speech on the House floor shortly after Jan. 6, during which he called the attack on the Capitol un-American. At the time, McCarthy called the assault among the saddest days of his career and told his fellow Republicans that Trump bears responsibility for the violence.

Even after the violence, though, McCarthy joined half of the House Republicans in voting to challenge Bidens 2020 election victory.

Since then, the California Republican has distanced himself from any criticism of Trump and has avoided directly linking him to what happened. Within weeks of the siege at the Capitol, McCarthy said he did not think Trump provoked the attack, as other prominent Republicans said at the time.

Instead, McCarthy has cozied up to Trump, visiting the former president at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.

McCarthy, 57, has been strategically charting his own delicate course toward the speakers gavel, well aware of the support hell need from hard-right members who have created headaches with inflammatory actions and statements.

No other Republican leader in the House has amassed the standing to challenge McCarthy for the leadership. McCarthy has recruited the class of newcomers bolstering GOP ranks and raised millions to bolster Republican campaigns. He has tried to temper his closest rivals, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, even as he works to shore up the votes that would be needed to become speaker.

So long as Trump continues to back McCarthy, whom he had once fondly called My Kevin, the job is the Californians to lose.

Several Republican lawmakers came out in force Friday to defend McCarthy and reiterate that his road to speakership is still on track.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, tweeted that months from now, Republicans will win back the majority and and Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House.

On a Fox Business show, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she supports McCarthy 100%.

Still, McCarthy has also been a person of interest for the House committee investigating the storming of the Capitol on Jan 6. The select committee, which Cheney vice-chairs, requested an interview with McCarthy in mid-January, seeking information on his communications with Trump and White House staff in the week after the violence, including a conversation with Trump that was reportedly heated.

McCarthy issued a statement at the time saying he would refuse to cooperate because he saw the investigation as not legitimate and accused the panel of abuse of power.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
STATE OF NEW MEXICO

COUNTY OF BERNALILLO

SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT

Case No. D-202-CV-2019-07586

BOKF, N.A.,

Plaintiff,

v.

THOMAS M. MIRABAL; STEPHANIE J.

MIRABAL; AMERICREDIT FINANCIAL

SERVICES, INC., D/B/A GM FINANCIAL;

AND OCCUPANTS OF THE PROPERTY,

Defendant(s).

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on February 1, 2022, at the hour of 10:15am the undersigned Special Master will, at the main entrance of the Bernalillo County Courthouse, 400 Lomas NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, sell all the right, title and interest of the above-named Defendants in and to the hereinafter described real estate to the highest bidder for cash. The property to be sold is located at 9101 SANTA CATALINA AVENUE NW, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO 87121, and is situated in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and is particularly described as follows:

LOT NUMBERED TWO-P1 (2-P1), BLOCK LETTERED "J", OF PLAT OF AVALON SUBDIVISION UNIT 3-B, ALBUQUERQUE, BERNALILLO COUNTY, NEW MEXICO, AS THE SAME IS SHOWN AND DESIGNATED ON THE PLAT OF SAID SUBDIVISION, FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK OF BERNALILLO COUNTY, NEW MEXICO, ON AUGUST 23, 2001, IN PLAT BOOK 2001C, FOLIO 237.

as the same is shown and designated on the plat thereof, filed in the office of the County Clerk of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, on August 23, 2001, in Plat Book 2001C, Folio 237, including any improvements, fixtures, and attachments, such as, but not limited to, mobile homes, (hereinafter the "Property"). If there is a conflict between the legal description and the streetaddress, the legal description shall control.

THE FOREGOING SALE will be made to satisfy a judgment rendered by the aboveCourt in the above entitled and numbered cause on November 29, 2021, being an action to foreclose a Mortgage on the above described property. The Plaintiffs Judgment, which includes interest and costs, is $155,016.48 and the same bears interest at 6.500% per annum from November 29, 2021, to the date of sale. The Plaintiff and/or its assignees has the right to bid at such sale and submit its bid verbally or in writing. The Plaintiff may apply all or any part of its judgment to the purchase price in lieu of cash. The sale may be postponed and rescheduled at the discretion of the Special Master.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that in the event that the Property is not sooner redeemed, the undersigned Special Master will, as set forth above, offer for sale and sell the Property to the highest bidder for cash or equivalent, for the purpose of satisfying, in the adjudged order of priorities, the judgment and decree of foreclosure described herein, together with any additional costs and attorneys fees, including the costs of advertisement and publication for the foregoing sale, and, reasonable receiver and Special Masters fees in an amount to be fixed by the Court.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that the real property and improvements concerned with herein will be sold subject to any and all patent reservations, easements, all recorded and unrecorded liens not foreclosed herein, and all recorded and unrecorded special assessments and taxes that may be due. Plaintiff, its attorneys and the Special Master disclaim all responsibility for, and the purchaser at the sale takes the property subject to, the valuation of the property by the County Assessor as real or personal property, affixture of any mobile or manufactured home to the land, deactivation of title to a mobile or manufactured home on the property, if any, environmental contamination on the property, if any, and zoning violations concerning the property, if any.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that the foregoing sale may be postponed and rescheduled at the discretion of the Special Master, and is subject to all taxes, utility liens and other restrictions and easements of record, and subject to a one (1) month right of redemption held by the Defendants upon entry of an order approving sale, and subject to the entry of an in rem order

of the Court approving the terms and conditions of sale.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that the purchaser at such sale shall take title to the above described real property subject to a one (1) month right of redemption.

PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS AT SALE ARE ADVISED TO MAKE THEIR OWN EXAMINATION OF THE TITLE AND THE CONDITION OF THE PROPERTY AND TO CONSULT THEIR OWN ATTORNEY BEFORE BIDDING.

Witness my hand this 9th day of December, 2021.

By: /S/ Robert Doyle

Robert Doyle

Special Master

Legal Process Network

P.O. Box 279

Sandia Park, NM 87047

(505) 417-4113

Journal: December 18, 25, 2021; January 1, 8, 2022
VILLAGE OF ANGEL FIRE

ANGEL FIRE, NEW MEXICO

NORTH VAIL INFRASTRUCTURE AND ROADWAY

IMPROVEMENTS

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

Sealed Bids for the construction of the North Vail Infrastructure and Roadway Improvements, ITB No. 22-03, will be received by Village of Angel Fire at the Village Hall, 3388 Mountain View Blvd., Angel Fire, NM 87710, until 11:00 a.m. local time on February 16, 2022, at which time the Bids received will be publicly opened and read.

Water distribution, storm drainage infrastructure, and roadway construction on North Vail Ave. and Mammoth Mountain Rd. to include new 6" C900 DR 18 waterline, earthwork, 36" storm drain, drop inlets, subgrade preparation, base course, curb and gutter, new HMA and other incidental work.

Bids will be received for a single prime Contract. Bids shall be on a lump sum and unit price basis, with additive alternate bid items as indicated in the Bid Form. The Owner reserves the right to adjust quantities included in the Bid Schedule as necessary to provide a complete project with the available funding.

The Issuing Office for the Bidding Documents is: DENNIS ENGINEERING COMPANY, 6020 Indian School Road, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110, (505) 281-2880. Prospective Bidders may examine the Bidding Documents at the Issuing Office on Mondays through Fridays between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

The Bidding Documents may also be examined at the following locations:

Village of Angel Fire

3388 Mountain View Blvd.

Angel Fire, NM 87710

575-377-3232

Construction Reporter

4901 Mcleod Rd NE,

STE 200A

Albuquerque, NM 87109

(505) 243-9793

The PlanIt Room

1155 Westmoreland, Suite109

El Paso, TX 79925

(915) 781-2900

The Bidding Documents for this project may be obtained at the following designated website: https://www.decnm.com/DEC-FileShare. Prospective Bidders are urged to register with the designated website as a plan holder, even if Bidding Documents are obtained from a plan room or source other than the designated website in either electronic or paper format. The designated website will be updated periodically with addenda and other information relevant to submitting a Bid for the Project.

All official notifications, addenda, and other Bidding Documents will be offered only through the designated website. Neither Owner nor Engineer will be responsible for Bidding Documents, including addenda, if any, obtained from sources other than the designated website.

If paper copies of the Bidding Documents are needed, call 505-281-2880 to request at least 24 hours in advance. Requested paper copies may be obtained at the office of DENNIS ENGINEERING COMPANY, 6020 Indian School NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110, upon payment of $400.00 for each set of documents. Checks for Bidding Documents shall be payable to DENNIS ENGINEERING COMPANY. Any PLANHOLDER, upon returning the Contract Documents in good condition within ten (10) days following the Bid Opening, will receive a $200.00 refund.

A pre-bid conference will not be held.

Bid security shall be furnished in accordance with the Instructions to Bidders.

Owner: Village of Angel Fire

By: Mike McClendon

Title: Chief Procure- ment Officer

Date: January 1, 2022

Journal: January 1, 2022
Kylee Moberg tries to get through a road block on NM94 to get to her friend and horses on Friday, April 22, 2022. Police blocked the road because of the Calf Fire burning near the area of the Hermits Peak Fire. She was evacuated for a week after the Hermits Peak Fire started, then got to go home Monday and is now evacuated again. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal) The Calf Fire buring near northwest of Las Vegas in San Miguel County Friday, April 22, 2022. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal) The Calf Fire buring near Penasco Blanco in San Miguel County Friday, April 22, 2022. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal) San Miguel County Sheriff's Officers patrol NM94 near Penasco Blanco as the Calf Canyon Fire burns nearby on Friday. Officials announced Saturday morning that the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires have merged and burned more than 42,000 acres. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 4 Next

Editors Note: Fire officials said Saturday morning that the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires have merged and have burned an estimated 42,341 acres. Check back with us for the latest on this developing story.



The Calf Canyon Fire in northern New Mexico exploded Friday, forcing widespread evacuations in San Miguel and Mora counties, and leaving many worried about their homes and livestock.

The winds are horrible, the fire is  were not able to fight it at all, air or ground, with winds like this, San Miguel County Manager Joy Ansley said. Were evacuating most of the northern part of our county and southern parts of Mora County, so were very concerned  . We do have some people who are refusing to evacuate.

Fire officials issued dire warnings to communities in the path of the fire, saying that the blaze was likely to take off and grow exponentially. Area residents also received emergency alerts warning them to get out.

Its extreme and, if there was a level above extreme, it would be at that level, but extreme is the highest, said Ralph Lucas, an operations section chief with the fire incident management team, during a briefing Friday morning. The fire had burned about 3,000 acres by that time and officials warned it could grow by at least 10,000 acres by days end.

Their fears were realized.

Carl Schwope, Southwest Area Incident Management Team commander for the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires, said Friday evening that dangerous conditions made it impossible for crews to determine exact fire acreage or the number of homes and other buildings that have been destroyed or damaged. But he said the growth was substantial.

The fire complex was advancing rapidly north of Canoncito, and was expected to grow more during the night and on Saturday.

This is a very devastating and life-threatening fire that were going through, Schwope said.

Fast fire growth and high wind speeds prevented aircraft from identifying fire perimeters from the air. Gusts were clocked at 66 mph at the Las Vegas airport.

The smoke column is sheared off, so its blocking all visibility from the ground level, so its hard to gain good intel on where the fire perimeter is, Schwope said.

The fire moved north into Pendaries, crossed the road 3 miles north of San Ignacio and spotted in areas north of Rociada, said operations sections chief Jason Coil. In some areas, the fire was crowning, jumping from tree top to tree top.

At that time, we had crews in there trying to do their best to protect these homes, and they had to disengage, Coil said. They had to remove themselves from that area because, basically, they had fire all around them.

The team has requested hundreds of federal and state personnel to help evacuate residents and fight the fire.

San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Lopez said law enforcement worked through the day Friday to evacuate residents.

An all-hands-on-deck approach involved Game and Fish, State Police, and even county animal control and transportation departments.

Officials blocked off roads throughout the day as crews identified more spot fires.

We did try and keep the (N.M.) 94 road open as long as we could for people to get in and out, and move stuff out of their residences, Lopez said. But we did have to draw a line in the sand, and we do have a hard closure there now.

Among those desperately trying to get through the blocked road to get to her friend and horses was Kylee Moberg. She was forced to leave her home for a week because of the Hermits Peak Fire and was allowed to return home on Monday.

Preliminary maps from forest officials show that the east perimeter of the Calf Canyon fire is approaching, or may have merged with, the Hermits Peak Fire northwest of Las Vegas.

The Calf Canyon Fire started Tuesday and was one of a handful of smaller wildfires burning across New Mexico.

But, by Friday morning, officials were warning of massive fire growth and widespread evacuations.

Shelter sites have been set up at the old Memorial Middle School gym in Las Vegas and the Raton Convention Center.

The New Mexico State Forestry Division issued statewide fire restrictions on Friday. The ban includes fireworks, smoking, campfires and open fires.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued emergency declarations for Colfax, Lincoln, San Miguel and Valencia counties. The orders direct $2.25 million for the state to assist the counties battling fires.

The New Mexico National Guard can also be activated for necessary support.

Stewart Turner, fire behavior analyst for the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak team, said the chaotic conditions could push the blaze north/northeast farther into Mora County.

As we get farther east, the fuels turn into lighter fuels, more grass, so the fire tends to spread through that faster, Turner said.

The fire could accelerate as it crosses N.M. 518 in the early morning hours and moves further to the northeast.

We still have a lot of fire on the ground, Turner said. We still have a lot of movement to get through. Theres going to be a lot of homes and buildings impacted.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Ash rained down in Angel Fire and Philmont Scout Ranch was under mandatory evacuation as extremely high winds and low humidity fueled fire growth and several new burns across New Mexico on Friday.

Angel Fire Village Manager Santos Martinez had his truck loaded up with emergency supplies Friday afternoon.

He and about 1,000 village residents were getting ready to evacuate from the Calf Canyon Fire if conditions worsened.

Its super windy, and smoke has filled the valley, Martinez said. I think the wind has blended all of the smoke, so you really cant distinguish whats from what fire.

In San Miguel County, some residents who had only recently returned home after evacuating for the Hermits Peak Fire were being evacuated again as the Calf Canyon Fire grew.

Cooks Peak

The Cooks Peak Fire north of Ocate prompted a mandatory evacuation for Philmont Scout Ranch on Friday.

The fire has burned more than 28,000 acres and is 0% contained.

Cerro Pelado

Firefighters evacuated hundreds of residents Friday evening after a blaze started in the Jemez.

Sandoval County spokesman Stephen Montoya said firefighters have evacuated 200 homes in the communities of Sierra Los Pinos and Los Griegos as they respond to the blaze. He said no injuries have been reported.

Santa Fe National Forest spokeswoman Julie Anne Overton said residents are being evacuated due to extremely windy, dry conditions and the fires potential to grow.

She said so far the blaze, called Cerro Pelado, is burning near the intersection of Forest Road 10 and N.M. 4, seven miles east of Jemez Springs. It has burned more than 50 acres, is not contained and the cause is unknown.

Conditions on the forest are extremely dry with high fire danger and abundant available fuels, Overton said.

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Los Alamos County in a joint statement Friday night said the fire was 13 miles from the labs southwest border and not an immediate threat to the county or the lab.

McBride/Nogal Canyon

The McBride Fire in Ruidoso has burned more than 6,159 acres as of Friday evening and is 89% contained.

The fire started on April 12 and destroyed 207 homes and killed two people. The fires cause is under investigation.

The Nogal Canyon Fire west of Capitan is 84% contained and has burned more than 400 acres.

Downed power lines caused the fire, which burned six homes and eight other buildings.

A Burned Area Emergency Response team has begun a two-week post-fire evaluation for the McBride and Nogal Canyon fires.

The scientist team determines potential for flooding and mudslides.

Simona

Crews on Friday afternoon patrolled the bosque in Jarales south of Belen, on the lookout for any flames that threatened to escape the Simona Fire containment lines.

The Simona Fire, which started Wednesday, has burned more than 160 acres and is 25% contained.

Journal photographer Eddie Moore contributed to this report.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  More than 17,000 state workers received a bump in their paychecks Friday, as a 3% salary increase approved by lawmakers during this years 30-day session took effect.

The raises, which also apply to public school and higher education employees, judicial branch workers and legislative staffers, mark the first of two phases in an overall 7% pay increase for most state employees  the largest approved in more than a decade.

The additional 4% will kick in starting July, though some non-state government employers have accelerated the raises to give their workers the entire pay increase at once.

However, the salary increases come as New Mexico is still grappling with a 23% vacancy rate across state government agencies that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who signed the pay raises as part of a $8.5 billion budget bill, said the salary increases could help make a dent in the vacancy rate.

In addition to increasing compensation for the thousands of hardworking New Mexico state employees all across the state, supporting New Mexico families and putting more dollars back into local communities, while increasing employee retention, we also expect increased state salaries to improve the states ability to recruit talent and fill open jobs in order to continue serving New Mexicans, said Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett.

But one labor union leader said several state agencies are struggling to hire new workers in a timely manner, in part due to vacancies in human resource positions.

In addition, Dan Secrist, president of the local Communications Workers of America union, pointed out that state workers  like other New Mexicans  are dealing with rising costs of gas and groceries.

He also said most rank-and-file state employees have received relatively small or no annual pay increases going back to at least 2007.

It will help some, but a lot more needs to be done, Secrist said in an interview Friday.

This years pay raises were included by lawmakers in a budget bill that will propel state spending to record-high levels. The spending increase was possible due to a surge in oil production in southeast New Mexico and an uptick in consumer activity that led to a state revenue windfall.

Meanwhile, the total 7% pay raise will mean a yearly pay increase of roughly $3,700  or about $142 more per bi-weekly pay check  for a state worker making the average classified worker salary of $52,832 per year.

Nearly one-third of classified state workers made between $20,000 and $40,000 annually as of last year, according to State Personnel Office data, meaning they will be in line for smaller pay raises.

But some of those employees could benefit from a separate provision in the budget bill that, starting in July, will establish a $15-per-hour minimum wage for state employees.

Also, the budget bill contains funding for even larger pay increases of 17% for New Mexico judges, who are paid less than their counterparts in many other states.

In all, the salary increases will cost the state $171.6 million in recurring funding.

Thats prompted some lawmakers to express concern about sustaining the raises if state revenue levels were to decline, although others have vowed the pay increases will not be undone.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A complaint filed this week with the Federal Election Commission alleges the executive director of the New Mexico Republican Party helped funnel $100,000 through a shell company to support Mark Moores during his failed bid for the U.S. House last year  a violation of campaign finance laws.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign watchdog group, brought the complaint against Kimberly Skaggs, the executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, other members of the Skaggs family, any unknown persons, Teeter Jay, LLC and the Freedom Forward Fund and its treasurer. The fund, according to the complaint, is a registered political committee that reported receiving $100,000, which was used against Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat who now holds the seat.

Kimberly Skaggs and Republican Party officials didnt respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

A representative with Stansburys campaign declined to comment.

Saurav Ghosh, the director of Federal Reform at Campaign Legal Center, said in an interview the group doesnt know the source of the donations totaling $100,000. But the group says there is sufficient evidence members of the Skaggs family were part of an effort to make a large contribution to a Political Action Committee without disclosing the source. The complaint is calling on the FEC to launch an investigation into the donations.

Its one of many examples of wealthy donors and special interests using a shell company to make contributions in the name of another, Ghosh said. This is not a unique occurrence, and this is really emblematic of a larger problem in campaign finance law.

The complaint says Teeter Jay, LLC registered as a New Mexico domestic limited liability company in August 2019. The registration discloses that the company is managed by a single member, Terryl Jay Skaggs. Teeter Jays mailing address is listed as a Las Cruces property owned by Kimberly and Joseph Skaggs.

Teeter Jay has no website, social media account, business listings or online records, or any other discernible online presence, the complaint states.

The company and the Skaggs family took an interest in the special election called to decide who would replace Deb Haaland after she resigned her House seat to become President Bidens interior secretary.

In April 2021, Moores authorized campaign committee reported receiving $2,900  the maximum individual contribution  from both Kimberly and Joseph Skaggs. Kimberly used the same Las Cruces address as Teeter Jays mailing address, according to the complaint.

In May 2021, the Freedom Forward Fund reported receiving two $50,000 donations from Teeter Jay, according to the complaint.

In a campaign finance report, the fund listed Teeter Jays address as a Tularosa property that does not appear anywhere on the companys LLC registration document.

Those two donations accounted for about 90% of the Freedom Forward Funds total donations, according to the FECs website.

FEC filings show that between May 11, 2021, and May 28, 2021, the fund spent $94,643 opposing Stansbury, Moores opponent in a June special election. Most of it was spent on digital advertising.

Stansbury won the election 60% to 36%.

The complaint says there is reason to believe Kimberly, Joseph and Terryl Jay Skaggs, and possibly other unknown people, violated campaign finance laws that prohibit individuals from making donations in the name of another. The complaint also alleges that Teeter Jay and the Freedom Forward Fund violated campaign finance laws.

Straw donor contributions like those alleged here are serious violations of federal campaign finance law that have led to criminal indictments and convictions in recent years, the complaint states.

Besides seeking an FEC investigation into the donations, the complaint asks the agency to impose sanctions and civil penalties to deter future violations. Ghosh said the federal agency can also make referrals to the Justice Department if it believes criminal laws were violated.

He said voters have the right to know who is spending big to influence their vote.

Transparency is essential to our electoral process, but it is seriously undermined when wealthy special interests trying to rig the political system in their favor can conceal their identities by making political contributions through shell companies, Ghosh said in a statement. This shell game of electoral spending violates federal campaign finance laws, but so far, federal authorities have not prioritized the enforcement of those laws. Real transparency about who is spending big money on elections means greater accountability and less corruption.
PARIS  French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in the countrys presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival Marine Le Pen depends on one major uncertainty: voters who could decide to stay home.

A Macron victory in this vote  which could have far-reaching repercussions for Europes future direction and Western efforts to stop the war in Ukraine  would make him the first French president in 20 years to win a second term.

All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist  yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll. Polls also forecast a possibly record-high number of people who will either cast a blank vote or not vote at all.

Overseas French territories allowed voters to start casting ballots Saturday in polling stations that ranged from near the Caribbean shore in the Antilles to the savannahs of French Guiana on the South American coast.

Back on the French mainland, workers assembled a stage Saturday beneath the Eiffel Tower where Macron is expected to make his post-election speech, win or lose.

Frances April 10 first-round vote eliminated 10 other presidential candidates, and who becomes the countrys next leader  Macron or Le Pen  will largely depend on what supporters of those losing candidates do on Sunday.

The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but dont want to see Le Pen in power either. Macron issued multiple appeals to leftist voters in recent days in hopes of securing their support.

Think about what British citizens were saying a few hours before Brexit or (people) in the United States before Trumps election happened: Im not going, whats the point? I can tell you that they regretted it the next day, Macron warned this week on France 5 television.

So if you want to avoid the unthinkable  choose for yourself! he urged hesitant French voters.

The two rivals were combative in the final days before Sundays election, clashing Wednesday in a one-on-one televised debate. No campaigning is allowed through the weekend, and polling is banned.

Macron argued that the loan Le Pens far-right party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank made her unsuitable to deal with Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine. He also said her plans to ban Muslim women in France from wearing headscarves in public would trigger civil war in the country that has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

When someone explains to you that Islam equals Islamism equals terrorism equals a problem, that is clearly called the far-right, Macron declared Friday on France Inter radio.

In his victory speech in 2017, Macron had promised to do everything during his five-year term so that the French have no longer any reason to vote for the extremes.

Five years later, that challenge has not been met. Le Pen has consolidated her place on Frances political scene after rebranding herself as less extreme.

Le Pens campaign this time has sought to appeal to voters struggling with surging food and energy prices amid the fallout of Russias war in Ukraine. The 53-year-old candidate said bringing down the cost of living would be a top priority if she was elected as Frances first woman president.

She criticized Macrons calamitous presidency in her last rally in the northern town of Arras.

Im not even mentioning immigration or security for which, I believe, every French person can only note the failure of the Macrons policies  his economic record is also catastrophic, she declared.

Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Center at Sciences Po, said even if Macron is reelected, there is a big problem, he added. A great number of the people who are going to vote for Macron, they are not voting for this program, but because they reject Marine Le Pen.

He said that means Macron will face a big level of mistrust in the country.

Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while still protecting social benefits. He said he will also keep pushing for a more powerful Europe.

His first term was rocked by the yellow vest protests against social injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It notably forced Macron to delay a key pension reform, which he said he would relaunch soon after reelection, to gradually raise Frances minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. He says thats the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees.

The French presidential election is also being closely watched abroad.

In several European newspapers on Thursday, the center-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. They raised a warning about populists and the extreme right who hold Putin as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.

A Le Pen victory would be a traumatic moment, not only for France, but for European Union and for international relationships, especially with the USA, Lazar said, noting that Le Pen wants a distant relationship between France and the USA.

In any case, Sundays winner will soon face another obstacle in governing France: A legislative election in June will decide who controls a majority of seats in Frances National Assembly.

Already, the battles promise to be hard-fought.

___

AP Journalists Catherine Gaschka and Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to that story.

___

Follow APs coverage of the French election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022
BRUSSELS  Big tech companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta will have to police their platforms more strictly to better protect European users from hate speech, disinformation and other harmful online content under landmark EU legislation approved early Saturday.

European Union officials clinched the agreement in principle on the Digital Services Act after lengthy final negotiations that began Friday. The law will also force tech companies to make it easier for users to flag problems, ban online ads aimed at kids and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.

The Digital Services Act, one half of an overhaul for the 27-nation blocs digital rulebook, helps cement Europes reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.

With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care is coming to an end, said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager added that with todays agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.

The act is the EUs third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the U.S., where lobbyists representing Silicon Valleys interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay.

While the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

The EUs new rules should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms algorithms.

The biggest online platforms and search engines, defined as having more than 45 million users, will face extra scrutiny.

Breton said they will have plenty of stick to back up their laws, including effective and dissuasive fines of up to 6% of a companys annual global revenue, which for big tech companies would amount to billions of dollars. Repeat offenders could be banned from the EU, he said.

The tentative agreement was reached between the EU parliament and the blocs member states. It still needs to be officially rubber-stamped by those institutions, which is expected after summer but should pose no political problem. The rules then wont start applying until 15 months after that approval, or Jan. 1, 2024, whichever is later.

The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. Its the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets, said Ben Scott, a former tech policy advisor to Hillary Clinton whos now executive director of advocacy group Reset.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russia used social media platforms to try to influence voters. Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened. During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of a llowing anti-vaccine falsehoods to thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to ask companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an easy and effective way so that it can be swiftly removed. Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardized to work the same way on any online platform.

Germanys justice minister said the rules would safeguard freedom of speech online by ensuring sites can be made to review decisions on deleting posts. At the same time, theyll be required to prevent their platforms being misused, said Marco Buschmann.

Death threats, aggressive insults and incitement to violence arent expressions of free speech but rather attacks on free and open discourse, he said.

Tech companies, which had furiously lobbied Brussels to water down the legislation, responded cautiously.

Twitter said it would review the rules in detail and that it supports smart, forward thinking regulation that balances the need to tackle online harm with protecting the Open Internet.

TikTok said it awaits the acts full details but we support its aim to harmonize the approach to online content issues and welcome the DSAs focus on transparency as a means to show accountability.

Google said it looks forward to working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone. Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services. Facebook didnt respond to a request for comment.

The Digital Services Act bans ads targeted at minors, as well as ads based on users gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. It also bans deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they didnt intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show theyre making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services. But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts. This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the EUs executive Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a supervisory fee.

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EUs borders.

If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says By golly, why dont American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers, its going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules elsewhere, Scott said.

But theyre unlikely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank. There is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU, Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EUs General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behavior of tech companies. Much of the problem centers on the fact that a companys lead privacy regulator is in the country where its European head office is located, which for most tech companies is Ireland.

Irish regulators have opened dozens of data-privacy investigations, but have only issued judgments for a handful. Critics say the problem is understaffing, but the Irish regulator says the cases are complex and time-consuming.

EU officials say they have learned from that experience and will make the Commission the enforcer for the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

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AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan reported from London. AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

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See all of APs tech coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/technology.
PRAGUE  A Czech leatherwork company that makes a wide variety of handmade products  travel bags, messenger totes, wallets and belts  never planned to add personal protective gear that would save lives in a war to its offerings.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that.

After Russian troops launched their assault on Ukraine, Tlusty & Co. hired refugees from Ukraine to help the company join a manufacturing operation equipping Ukrainian volunteers with body armor to face the invading troops.

The Prague-based company agreed to a request from the Post Bellum nongovernmental organization to join a project to supply the protection gear similar to bulletproof vests to Ukraines Territorial Defense Forces. Thousands of Ukrainian volunteers have joined the troops to resist the Russian invasion.

We specialize in completely different production, Tlusty & Co. owner Ivan Petruv said. We were facing a situation where we had to decide. And because we consider ourselves part of a community that wants to help in this situation as we can, which is only natural when you see the news, we decided to say yes.

To make the new production happen was a race against the clock, he said. The company needed to get new machines, new materials and above all, to hire extra employees to join the 20-25 staffers in a country whose unemployment rate of 3.4% reflects a lack of available workers in many fields.

What would take weeks if not months under normal circumstances, we had to solve in hours and several days, he said.

Since the war began, 300,000 refugees who fled Ukraine have arrived in the Czech Republic, mostly women with children, so Petruv said they became an obvious place to look for new hires.

We published an advertisement at 8 a.m. and at noon we had a list of 70 people, Petruv said.

Four days later, the 15 most qualified people started to work to complete the unusual contract. They sew ballistic plate carriers while other Ukrainians working for Post Bellum assemble the whole gear by inserting steel plates into the vests. The NGO finances it all through a crowd-funding campaign.

Natalia Bielonosova is one of the companys new workers. She came to Prague from her town of Irpin, located near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. with a friend.

I wanted to make the protection gear for Ukraine, Bielonosova said. Thats a way for me to help my country.

Her husband, a humanitarian worker, stayed at home and her son serves in the Ukrainian army.

He has no electricity, gas, heating or warm water but has survived so far, she said of her husband.

Of her son, she says its painful to read about whats happening. Id like a solution to be found to end the fighting.

With Irpin and many places badly damaged by heavy Russian shelling, Bielonosova can see her future in Prague, the Czech capital.

Theyve destroyed cities and destroyed infrastructure. It would be a very hard life (to go back), she said.

The work she and other Ukrainian refugees have done has impressed Petruv.

Wed like them to stay, he said. Were talking about hardworking, skillful people who deserve the job.

The Czech company has so far made 720 of the protective vests with 400 more to deliver. What happens next is unclear.

Petruv said his company was ready to continue the project but we would be delighted to end it as soon as possible, because this isnt something we want to do. We do it only because of the current situation and a feeling of responsibility.

Meanwhile, he is planning a new project for his Ukrainian workers for the time when peace is restored. It would be products designed for Czech kids and their families.

Its called Mothers for mothers.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
OKLAHOMA CITY  Wayne Shaw seemed to have all the conservative credentials needed to win reelection to his state Senate seat in Oklahoma two years ago. The mild-mannered pastor with deep ties to the community had a solidly conservative voting record during his eight years in office.

But when Shaw, as chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, declined to hear a bill to allow people to carry guns into bars, he drew the ire of an unemployed truck driver who was passionate about gun rights.

The angry gun advocate, Don Spencer, belonged to a local pro-firearms group. In short order, he and his friends recruited a Republican challenger for Shaw, held a fundraiser in his district and helped defeat the incumbent in the primary.

Im not opposed to guns, said Shaw, who was stunned by the development. But that (guns in bars) is a good way of throwing gasoline on a fire.

Spencers feat is an example of a phenomenon in red states where the Republican Party is moving farther and farther to the right: The most potent political forces arent always the long-established organizations that have groomed candidates and advanced legislation for decades. In the current climate, little-known outsiders, even without pedigree or money, can become powerbrokers quickly if connected to incendiary issues like guns or abortion. And almost any officeholder can become vulnerable.

Few at the Oklahoma State Capitol had even heard of Spencer when he started advocating for pro-gun laws, but now hes a formidable presence in the building. The 62-year-old from Meridian, a small town about 40 miles from Oklahoma City, is warmly welcomed by senior Republicans, and he often sets up camp in legislators offices and helps draft legislation.

At bill signing ceremonies, Spencer can often be seen flashing a smile among the lawmakers flanking the governor. Political hopefuls seek him out, and he gives them a seven-page questionnaire to fill out to determine whether they might receive an endorsement.

In the five years since Spencer took over the group, the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association has grown from a handful of chapters to more than 50, set up its own political action committee and begun branching out into other right-wing causes, like stopping vaccine mandates and limiting discussions of race in schools.

Spencer sees the opportunities as boundless. People in this state are concerned about their rights, and they realize now its more important whats going on in their backyard than what those crazies are doing in Washington, D.C., Spencer said in an interview.

The push to expand gun rights comes amid a surge in gun violence in communities across the country, including several mass shootings in recent weeks. Between 2019 and 2020, the last year for which federal data is available, shooting deaths increased 35%. Yet calls for tougher firearms limits have been blocked by GOP opposition, with leaders instead citing an even greater need for citizens to protect themselves.

Fear that government will threaten conservative values is running strong in red states right now, said Michael Crespin, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma who is familiar with the OK2A group.

Theres this whole idea that Democrats are going to come and take their guns away, Crespin said. Thats not happening, but that fear is a good motivator for politics.

OK2A racked up its broadest achievement in 2018 when lawmakers passed constitutional carry legislation which allows adults to openly carry firearms in public without a license or training. The bill had previously been vetoed by a Republican governor, Mary Fallin, but it was the first one signed into law by new Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.

This year the group is pushing to allow people to carry guns on college campuses, at sporting events and at county and state fairs, despite opposition from pro-business groups like chambers of commerce.

While Republican politics had been moving rightward already, the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the role of conservative interest groups, buoyed by resistance to health restrictions. Even meetings in thinly populated rural counties can draw more than 50 people, with hundreds more tuned into livestreams online.

Fundraising is rising sharply. OK2A raised nearly $40,000 in 2019, $83,000 in 2020 and more than $122,000 last year, according to state campaign finance data. Much of the money is spent on online ads and for booths at gun shows. Records show Spencer has started drawing a salary, about $30,000 each of the last two years.

They do have influence out there, especially in Republican primaries, said Gary Jones, former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party. Where they have their greatest success is low-turnout races where they can mobilize and turn out a bigger percentage of their supporters.

Tensions sometimes flare between OK2A and the partys established leaders. When the leader of the Senate expressed concerns last year over a bill designed to protect Oklahoma from federal overreach, Spencer called for him to step down and quickly summoned almost 1,000 people to the Capitol to protest.

Earlier this year, a Senate Republican, Lonnie Paxton, complained that Spencer went too far when he declared at a rally, We win at the ballot box so we dont have to go to the ammo box.

Noting the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was fueled by anti-government rhetoric, Paxton said the remark crossed every conceivable line of decency.

Spencer brushed off the complaint, saying it only helped his fundraising.

Republican candidates and officeholders regularly ask to speak to the groups chapter meetings, with speeches typically including a healthy dose of fiery anti-government rhetoric.

At a recent meeting at an Oklahoma City firearms store, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Tulsa preacher Jackson Lahmeyer, derided Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious-disease expert, as a mass murderer. Another Republican candidate offered raffle entries starting at $25 for four custom-built AR-15s and a .50-caliber rifle.

At the Capitol, members ask Spencer about new bills to introduce.

On a firearms issue, hed be the first stop to go to, said Rep. Eric Roberts, a Republican from Oklahoma City.

A leading Democrat, Rep. Emily Virgin, said shes concerned the groups power is becoming dangerous.

This really has just turned into a far-right extremist organization, and the fact that so many Republicans in the House and Senate seem to take their cues from that organization is what is most concerning, she said.

But Winona Heltzel, a group member from the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said she joined because she thinks the group can help prevent gun confiscation.

I know everybody talks about the government, but Im worried about criminals, Heltzel said.

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Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy
The New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation will host its Rapid Hire Virtual Career Fair all day Wednesday to fill 15 to 20 positions at its offices across the state such as vocational rehabilitation counselors, finance positions, information technology and an executive assistant, according to a news release.

We are trying to reach a wider potential audience of qualified candidates, says Tina Tawater, NMDVR director of human resources and risk management, in a statement. Not everyone has the ability to travel to Santa Fe or Albuquerque. Especially in some of the smaller cities, this is really going to open those markets to different candidates.

Job applicants can attend the career fair remotely, the release said.

This all-day event will use a software platform provided by Cynaptx/Empyra and applicants should visit dvr.cynaptx.com/external/careerfair/260 before the fair to upload resumes, reference and transcripts and set up an appointment for an interview.
In 1987, on a highway outside Poughkeepsie, New York, Thomas Corbin drunkenly steered his car into oncoming traffic.

Brenda Dirago died in the crash.

Corbin received tickets for driving while intoxicated and crossing the center line. He paid the tickets promptly. (The traffic court judge was reportedly unaware of Ms. Diragos death.) Only subsequently was he indicted for vehicular homicide.

He fought the indictment all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1990 ruled that the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibited New York from continuing the prosecution.

Double jeopardy is one of those resonant legal phrases whose meaning turns out to be disappointingly prosaic. A criminal defendant is in jeopardy of conviction once the trial starts. Double just means more than once.

The clause prevents a person from being tried again after an acquittal. It also prevents a person being prosecuted twice for the same crime.

Theres an important exception: when a convicted person appeals, seeking a new trial, double jeopardy doesnt prevent the appellate court from granting the wish.

The problem in Corbins case was that the police issued those traffic tickets before completing their investigation into the crash. They should have charged all the offenses in a single proceeding, but didnt.

That error at the beginning of the case caused the Supreme Court to get all confused at the end. In deciding Corbins case it wandered far afield, altering the law of double jeopardy in an unworkable way (that thankfully we dont need to get into).

Just three years later, the court came to its senses and reversed itself. In the federal system, and in most states, the law of double jeopardy after 1993 went back to what it had been before 1990.

Not in New Mexico. During those three years of confusion, our state Supreme Court developed a unique test for determining when the double jeopardy clause prohibits the prosecution of an accused criminal.

Our court continued on its unique path even after the rest of the nation returned to normality. Today, double jeopardy means one thing in New Mexico and something different everywhere else in America.

Weve only grown more eccentric with time. Consider the recent case of Henry Hildreth Jr. He was charged in Gallup with car theft and inflicting great bodily harm on a household member.

The prosecution failed to turn over important evidence to his appointed attorney, Steven Seeger, until five days before trial. Seeger asked the judge, Robert Aragon, to delay the trial to give him more time to prepare.

It was a reasonable request  the prosecution didnt oppose it  but Aragon refused. Seeger responded with an epic sulk.

According to the Court of Appeals, Seeger abdicated his role as an advocate by refusing to engage in jury selection, give an opening statement, present a defense or call any witnesses, subject the States witnesses to cross-examination, or give a closing argument on behalf of his client.

Aragon could have held him in contempt of court, removed him from the case, appointed new defense counsel and referred him to the Disciplinary Board.

Instead, the judge stubbornly proceeded with the farce of a trial. Hildreth was convicted of inflicting great bodily harm on a household member (though acquitted of auto theft  the jury, at least, was doing its job).

Hildreth appealed. The trial had been an all-around disgrace and the prosecution didnt oppose reversal. The Court of Appeals dutifully reversed the conviction, sending the case back for a new trial. Then our Supreme Court stepped in.

The New Mexico Constitution gives our Supreme Court superintending control over inferior courts. It possessed the tools to discipline Judge Aragon directly.

But instead of using them, the court held that the judges conduct was so deplorable that the double jeopardy clause prohibited retrial. That is, the court chastised Aragon by barring the courthouse doors to the alleged victim of a violent crime.

I dont think any other court in the country would do that. For that matter, I dont think any other court would even perceive a double jeopardy issue. Phrasing the matter as diplomatically as I can, our courts approach was unusual.

Which reveals a crucial truth: The result it reached wasnt inevitable. The justices didnt have to treat the victim as a nonperson. (The word victim appears once in the opinion. He or she is not otherwise acknowledged.) They had choices.

When the justices of our Supreme Court chose to make our double jeopardy jurisprudence even weirder than it already was, they punished an erring judge in a way that didnt even inconvenience him. In doing so, they deprived an innocent person of the protection of the law.

Joel Jacobsen is an author who in 2015 retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com.
What happens when a startups cool innovations need to scale to reach big mainstream markets?

Usually, they fall into a chasm of failure, to die. But not those companies that had the good sense to follow the advice of Geoffrey Moore who led scores of Silicon Valleys high tech brands to success in big markets of mostly non-technical customers.

For those not so lucky to have access to Geoffrey, his landmark book Crossing the Chasm became a roadmap for entrepreneurs and their investors as well as the bible of B-schools around the world.

Working with New Mexico startups, Cottonwood Technology Funds Managing Partner Dave Blivin realized that the chasm concept actually applied in more than one area.

Geoffreys Chasm has been the benchmark for thinking about going big for more than two decades, he explains. But for hard tech in particular theres a Chasm before the Chasm. The big question for regions and states like New Mexico, is how do we keep the best ideas close to home, creating jobs where the innovation originated? I call this Crossing the Cactus.

Technology commercialization is a perceived pathway to job creation in most states and countries around the world. In truth, all regions have disruptive innovation being created at their universities, government labs, centers of excellence, and corporate R&D centers. However, the chasm before the chasm is the place where many of these ideas stumble, unable to find funding and management needed to succeed, particularly in their region of origin. Therefore, the potential job creation never occurs.

The chasm today

The best, most foundational strategies are current in any generation. While technologies, markets, and society have changed, I see todays companies making the same mistakes I saw decades ago. As you would expect, founders tend to think mostly about the technology and see end users in their mirror image. That may be true when selling to early adopters who are willing to tinker with new tools, but not so for customers who just want a tool that works.

Reading the third edition of Crossing the Chasm, I was struck by how true Geoffreys ideas are today as when I first read it while moving my own laser product to the big LASIK eye surgery market where eye doctors, not technologists, would be running the machines. The underlying technology is a gas laser that utilizes fluorine, which is nasty stuff to have in a medical setting. With a large number of SBIR grants for small business, we were able to miniaturize the laser to the point that the gas supply could be self-contained with sufficient safety protocols to pass FDA approvals.

Luckily my business partner who invented the laser technologies I turned into products recognized  as Dave Blivin points out  that it takes a management team to cross the first chasm. He welcomed my expertise in market segmentation strategy, and then let me bring in the people we needed to round out all functions in the company with the best people. One of those partners was able to get us the funding we needed to Cross the Cactus. The company still manufactures in the state of Maryland, far from Silicon Valley.

Soon, New Mexico startup teams and other visitors will have a chance to hear tech disruptor Geoffrey Moore keynote at the Crossing the Cactus Summit in Santa Fe May 2-4. Dave Blivin will be on hand to facilitate best practices/idea sharing on how to help New Mexico startups Cross the Cactus and build thriving companies that spur job growth for our citizens.

If you go

The Crossing the Cactus Summit, a leadership summit involving educators, workforce and economic development professionals, HR practitioners, investors and innovative companies, will be held May 2-4 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. Registration is $625 per person. Visit closeit.regfox.com/crossing-the-cactus-summit for more information.

Sarah Boisvert is the founder of Fab Lab Hub, LLC, and founder of The New Collar Network. Shes also the author of The New Collar Workforce: An Insiders Guide to Making Impactful Changes to Manufacturing and Training. The executives desk is a guest column providing advice, commentary or information about resources available to the business community in New Mexico. To submit a column for consideration, email gporter@abqjournal.com.
First in a two-part series

The last couple of weeks have seen chaos and turmoil at ports of entry on the Texas and New Mexico borders with Mexico.

In an action he described as a measure to combat the rescinding of Title 42 in May, which will reverse the federal governments ability to immediately deport to Mexico immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. due to the pandemic, on the week of April 4, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered secondary inspections by Texas DPS on northbound cargo shipments into Texas. This is in addition to the routine inspections that Customs and Border Protection conducts on northbound commercial vehicles entering the U.S. Abbott claimed that too many illegal immigrants and contraband are currently entering and will be entering the U.S. when Title 42 goes away.

The effect of Abbotts action was immediate. Northbound shipments into the U.S. slipped to a crawl, with many trucks in major Texas ports such as El Paso waiting up to 12 hours to cross. Produce shipments spoiled and products failed to reach their destination on time. Trying to avoid the mess in Texas, companies started shipping their cargo through New Mexicos Santa Teresa and Columbus ports, which caused long lines and longer crossing times. Adding to this mess, Mexican truckers, infuriated by Abbotts decree, blocked the northbound lanes at various Texas ports, including El Paso. They then proceeded to Santa Teresa and blocked that port for six hours on April 12. Industry representatives, many of Abbotts fellow Texas Republicans, and the White House itself denounced the gridlock Abbott was causing.

Facing strong backlash, Abbott quickly convened meetings with Mexicos border governors. He then conducted press conferences and issued press releases stating that the Mexican governors had agreed to increased inspections of cargo on the Mexican side of the border.

I imagine that the Mexican governors were between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they had to have been angered by the effects and losses that Abbotts unilateral action had on their states, and were probably reluctant to help him out of a tough spot. On the other hand, they were under pressure from the trade sector to do something. Therefore, the Mexican governors of the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Chihuahua all went along with Abbott in order for him to rescind his order. How the inspections will be verified and how long they will last was not reported.

CBP conducts inspections of northbound cargo using X-rays, random inspections, drug-sniffing dogs, and a variety of high technology applications. In 2001, it launched Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) as part of its multilayered inspection of cargo. This is a program in which carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers and manufacturers work with CBP to increase the security of shipments and to strengthen the supply chain. Technology, GPS, securing systems and monitoring equipment are all used in order to make sure that shipments are not contaminated with contraband. Companies all along the border enroll in CTPAT to form a strong partnership with CBP.

And what did Abbotts program solve? Nothing. CBPs diligence and the CTPAT program are most likely the reason in which Abbotts secondary inspections yielded nothing press-worthy, other than Texas DPS announcing that they had put some trucks out of commission for safety violations. This is what DPS agencies in the four U.S. border states do randomly as part of their ordinary duties. No major drug shipments or human smuggling rings were found by Texas DPS.

When the effects of the stalled traffic, gridlock and backlash began to dominate the news, Abbott brushed off the seriousness of the situation by stating that it was a rather small inconvenience suffered by a few in the pursuit of a larger issues involving illegal entries and contraband. Therein lies the real reason behind Abbotts actions, which were never intended for their actual stated goals. Rather, focusing on these national hot button issues is a good way to position himself as a border governor tough on illegal entries of humans, drugs and contraband. He gambled that he could raise his profile away from the border, most likely helping him in the future if he wants to launch a campaign for the presidency. Whether his gamble pays off yet remains to be seen.

Sadly, Abbotts actions continue the trend of using the U.S.-Mexico border as a punching bag for political purposes, especially during election season. I am sure that Abbotts advisers cautioned him that his secondary inspection program would yield little in terms of its objectives. However, the opportunity for him to be in the news away from the border was too alluring, and he proceeded anyway not fully understanding the mess his actions would cause. As one Mexican governor stated, It is never a good thing to lead with politics when attempting to solve a problem.

Next article: The effects and aftermath of Abbotts secondary inspections.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
BERNALILLO  Bad Ass Coffee went back to its origins in revamping its look, with the newly reopened Bernalillo location serving as a flagship-type site for what the company envisioned.

The new straightforward logo shows a donkey that carried coffee beans down steep slopes on the island of Hawaiis volcanic mountain, preserving the companys history. Instead of red, orange and yellow, the store features new blue and green colors, like the sea and land of Hawaiis Big Island.

Additional espresso machines geared toward speed help the drive-thru move more efficiently. And there are new digital menu boards.

Bad Ass Coffee CEO Scott Snyder saw an opportunity for Bernalillos location, which reopened April 11, to be a key part of the rebranding effort.

The new brand is really designed to be a little bit more authentic.  More cues to surfing, more cues to the donkey, he said. When you kind of look at the coffee landscape right now, theres really two kinds of coffee shops: Theyre the very dark (colors) and industrial (colors) where theyre very, very bright I think where the old design (of Bad Ass Coffee) may have been a little bit more like an amusement park, I think this design is very warm and very comforting.  Its an escape  that really does pay homage to Hawaii.

Bad Ass Coffee launched in 1989 in Hawaii and now has 31 locations nationwide, including Bernalillo, Albuquerque and Alamogordo.

The Bernalillo location, at 965 US 550, on the south side of the highway, temporarily closed last year due to the road construction, as well as declining sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the chains corporate office wanted to keep that store intact, so it took control to include the shop in part of the broader remodeling efforts.

Snyder said the remodeled Bernalillo location is the most complete example of what the chains new brand looks like.

Our intention was to use it as kind of a showcase for what all the new Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii stores will look like as new stores are being built, he said.

Although the pandemic brought on delays in reopening the Bernalillo shop, Bad Ass Coffee didnt want to lose its grip on that site. Bernalillos proximity to US 550 and I-25 was a key factor in the chains efforts to restore that location.

We thought the location was great. We love being in Bernalillo. It just took a while to get the planning together It took us a lot longer to reopen than we had anticipated, but were really, really pleased with the result, Snyder said. Now that New Mexico is reopening, we think that the time was right.  We just didnt want to see it go, so we made the decision to invest in it. Were really proud of it.

Snyder said Bad Ass Coffee expects to put the Bernalillo location up for sale to a qualified franchisee later this month.

The Bernalillo shop will hold its grand opening May 13.
RIO RANCHO  Drive N Motion takes considerable pride in ensuring each vehicle in its inventory ends up a worthwhile investment.

The Colorado-based used-car dealership has a number of strict factors to abide by in order to sell a vehicle, from the year and mileage to the longevity of engine transmissions and various safety features. The end goal is simple: all-around reliability. Thats what the company looks to bring to the area with its upcoming Rio Rancho location, which is expected to open around June 1.

We kind of vet out that as much as we can, said Brian Neeley, president of Drive N Motion. Theres a very detailed process that we go into looking at what vehicles we purchase and what we offer to our customers Just at a glance, we do offer everything. We focus what we know is more reliable.

Drive N Motion caters to those who need a reliable vehicle without having to break the bank in order to simply drive one off the lot. Drive N Motion already has Colorado locations in Thornton, Englewood, Greeley and Colorado Springs. The Rio Rancho dealership will be at 4537 Arrowhead Ridge Drive.

Having 600-plus vehicles in inventory across two states allows us to give them a much bigger platform than what most independently-owned used dealerships have to offer, Neeley said.

Drive N Motion, which also offers car maintenance for things like oil changes, prioritizes warranty protection and auto service until a customer is ready to trade in that vehicle if they choose to do so. Drive N Motion will probably add another location in the Albuquerque metro area sometime within the next 12 to 18 months, Neeley said.
RIO RANCHO  Chris Yannis and Jackie Robinson couldnt pass up the chance to return home to Rio Rancho.

Their furniture store originated from a garage setup in the City of Vision.

The co-owners of The Good Life first launched in November 2017 at 1534 Stephanie Road in Rio Rancho, then moved to southeast Albuquerque near Central Avenue and San Mateo Boulevard in the middle of 2019. But by May 2021, they closed that location because the 1,900 square-foot building was too small to accommodate the stores growing needs.

Constantly picking up trash left by homeless people on the premises also became tiring.

Then a larger, cleaner building space at 1504 Cherry Road  roughly 6,000 square feet  became available within a matter of weeks. They opened that location on Sept. 1, 2021. And with both Yannis and Robinson residing in Rio Rancho since June 2011, they couldnt turn down the opportunity to resume business right in their backyard.

Thats where we started at, and thats where we want to be, Robinson said.

While The Good Life offers free delivery for residences up to 40 miles away, their delivery routes arent limited to the Albuquerque metro area. For example, they recently delivered furniture to a home in Socorro.

The pandemic really got us well known because it helped initiate extra delivery orders as a result of fewer people shopping in-person, Robinson said.

The ratio of in-person transactions to deliveries is about 50-50, but 90% of customers have asked about the free delivery option, Yannis said.

Most of our senior citizens, they really take advantage of the free delivery.  They love their discounts, Robinson said.

Yannis and Robinson recognized the increased activity in recent months, from incoming housing developments to people building homes.

A lot of people are moving from out of state. Its because its such a good area. We see it all the time. We saw customers that just moved here from Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Yannis said.

And because the pandemic is still present, there are other factors such as nurses traveling from other states to help New Mexicos hospitals. Robinson said some apartment complexes in town have come to The Good Life to inquire about purchasing furniture for nurses staying in those apartments.

Theyre not trying to spend an arm and a leg, but they do want nice things, he said.

The Good Life, which offers coffee at a food truck called Gnomad Coffee for customers waiting in line for their merchandise, emphasizes quality furniture products like beds and couches at an affordable price. The store also focuses on specialty orders.

We want you to be able to furnish a home without having to skip a meal or taking food off your table, Yannis said.

Yannis said he hopes to add a second store around NM 528 and Southern Boulevard or somewhere near Bernalillo in the next two years.
Songwriting is like childbirth.

For composer Linda Rice Beck, the gestation lasted two years.

We were supposed to perform these two years ago, but because of COVID, we had to push back, she said, referring to a quartet of songs she penned for the Santa Fe Womens Ensemble.

The group will sing The Raney Songs, as well as a program by composers ranging from Gwyneth Walker, Mark Sirett, Daniel J. Hall, Randall Thompson and more. The composers used poetry by Robert Frost, Julian of Norwich, Sara Teasdale, Langston Hughes and Hafiz.

Rice Beck based her music on the poetry of Raymond Raney, husband to ensemble director Linda Raney.

Theyre tender and very poignant to me, she said. Theyre quite inspirational.

A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Rice Beck has been a songwriter since her Las Vegas, New Mexico childhood.

I started with piano, she said. Ive always made up songs. Ive written about 100 different songs. Its mostly choral work.

She didnt realize she could become a composer until a University of Akron professor made the suggestion. Rice Beck majored in music and education. She taught school before returning to New Mexico in 2004.

I said, I dont have the background for this; Im not professional. He said, It comes from the heart. 

Today she starts at the piano, using a program called Finale to compose her work. Her songs have been performed in Taos, Durango, Colorado, Ohio and in Nashville.

I dont write real avant-garde music, she said. Its fairly traditional. To me, making music is like giving birth. It takes nine months to get it so it can go out into the world.
Adtech industry leaders Mayura Nayak and Karana Khanna will join the recently announced startup Huella Services as co-founders along with Prrincey Roy. Huella Services intends to be a strategic growth partner to businesses and improve their efficiency & drive growth with their marketing & sales expertise. Mayura brings with her over seventeen years of experience leading sales teams across print, OOH and digital platforms. Karan Khanna has over a decade of expertise driving digital and omnichannel revenue and advertising strategy for some of the world's leading consumer-facing brands. Together at Huella, the team is focused on building a company that serves as a valuable revenue and growth partner for tech/content platforms in India.

Commenting on the appointment, Prrincey Roy, Co-founder, Huella Services, said, Mayura, Karan and I have worked together for a decade now and I am delighted to have them on board as co-founders. Under their leadership, we will have an increased focus on our vision of helping businesses evolve and excel by creating highly profitable strategies that are measurable and result oriented.

Mayura Nayak is an industry veteran and brings with her valuable experience in nurturing sales teams across organisations like Times Internet, Big FM, Business Standard and eBay. Her resilient approach to selling very tough offerings, in complicated environments has been her core strength.

Commenting on her new role, Mayura Nayak, Co-founder, Huella Services, said, I am looking forward to being a part of the team and embarking on this new journey. Staying true to the meaning of Huella, i.e. footprint, we aspire to lead the footprint of new-age platforms in India. Our vision is to leave our mark on the digital story of every brand. To achieve this, we are focused on enabling digital marketers by offering a bouquet of innovative technology and content solutions curated specifically for them.

Karan Khanna is a dedicated digital media professional who has successfully led revenue and media strategy initiatives, assisting customers in designing their digital roadmaps and long-term development strategies. He has over a decade of experience working for businesses such as Times Internet, AdGlobal360, WelcomeBreak, and others.

Taking on this new role, Karan Khanna says, We want to encourage brands to use new-age mar-tech platforms to reach their target audiences through innovative ways. We help brands achieve this by focusing on their intrinsic growth as well as measurable and quantifiable metrics. With Huella, we will work towards becoming the center of innovation by maximising the use of creativity, technology and data with a shift to non-traditional forms of advertising recognized globally.

Huella Services successfully develops efficient and productive revenue generation processes working with teams for businesses across India. With its shared economic and high-profit strategy, Huella works towards elevating business performances through fundamental shifts in the go-to markets and revenue strategy and related fields. Some of the partners they work with include Accelerate, Adonmo, Newsroom AI and Jukin Media.
MMTC-PAMP, Indias only London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Good Delivery gold & silver refinery, has unveiled a unique way to celebrate Akshay Tritiya through their Shuddh Se Shubh campaign. Buying gold on Akhsay Tritiya is a tradition and MMTC-PAMP has launched 24K, 999.9 purest gold Shankh coins to celebrate this festival of abundance.

Gold has always been a preferred form of investment among Indians across generations and buying gold for securing ones familys future is the purest reflection of ones love and commitment towards their loved ones. Passed down through generations and having the utmost mention in all celebrations, the Shuddh se Shubh campaign depicts the significance of this yellow metal through a 56 sec short digital film.

Through the loving relationship between a husband and wife, the campaign highlights how purity is the most auspicious aspect in both gold and personal values. As the wife gets ready for the opening ceremony of her new business, she asks her husband if he would accompany her to the venue. By not getting the desired response, her face falls but then her dejected face is lit up when the husband presents her with the MMTC-PAMP 20-gram Shankh 24k 999.9 purest gold coin saying, ...Kyunki business ki shuruaat mein sabse shuddh ko hi sabse shubh maana jaata hai.

Commenting on the occasion, MD & CEO, MMTC-PAMP said, Each MMTC-PAMP product is crafted with excellence and embodies Indian values and emotions. Akshay Tritiya is a festival that has immense cultural significance, and it is considered the most holy for starting new ventures, activities or businesses, and the 20 gm gold shankh coin is ideal to carry out the rituals. We recognize the need to invest into ones future through gold and MMTC-PAMPs 24K, 999.9 purest gold stand testimony to the finest Swiss craftsmanship available in India. We bring in unmatched credentials through our London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) accreditation, but our designs remain deeply rooted in the Indian culture.

The Shankh gold coin is available 20g and pair of 5g coins. The 20g coin feature Goddess Lakshmi, while the 5g pair feature both goddess Lakshmi and Ganeshji. Both products are shaped in the form of a Shankh or a conch shell which is of immense significance in Hindu culture. Traditionally, the Shankh was used to bathe deities for ritualistic purification and it is blown at times of worship in Hindu homes and temples.

The digital campaign is being promoted on all social media and the brand also plans to carry out a massive integrated campaign by partnering with influencers, large jewellers across multiple cities, radio-stations, PVR and INOX theatres thatll highlight MMTC-PAMPs commitment of providing the highest standards of purity to gold buyers across the country. One can invest in the dreams of their loved ones by gifting them these purest gold Shankh coins that are a symbol of purity, divinity and trust. The campaign not only highlights the priceless love between a couple but also the need to support women entrepreneurs. Investing in stree-shakti through streedhan is another message one can take from this film.

MMTC-PAMP also plans to release massive Akshay Tritiya discounts. Their Jitna Sona, Utna Chandi offer is targeted at every gold purchase above 5g on their website (shop.mmtcpamp.com) and their 13 Purity Verifications Centres spread across the country. SBI Credit card holders can also get a flat cashback of Rs 2500/- on a purchase of Rs 50,000 and above over and above the listed offer.

Each MMTC-PAMP product carries a unique number and comes packaged in an Assayer certified certicard to ensure product authenticity. MMTC-PAMPs products offer positive weight tolerance, which guarantees that every coin or bar you buy weighs more than the listed weight, ensuring customers get the highest value for their investment.
Astrology is one of the oldest science for forecasting the future and is held in great esteem across the country. People often look to the stars to help with key decisions and actions. Top astrologers, in recent times, have all been speaking about a rare celestial event that is happening. The planet Saturn's path will shift from April 29th onwards, when it enters its zodiac sign Aquarius - for the first time in 30 years. As per astrology, this will likely have a significant impact across the world

News18 India is for the first time on television, News18 India hosting the biggest conclave 'Shani War Adhiveshan,' with 24 famous astrologers including Acharya Vikramaditya, Pawan Sinha, and Pandit Deepak Dubey. The event will make for gripping viewing with the best astrologers presenting their views on the impact of this celestial development on things like the current Russia-Ukraine crisis but also what people especially in India can expect.

The Astro show Shani War Adhiveshan will be telecasted on 23rd April 2022 for three hours (14:00  17:00 Hrs).
Select CITYWALK  Delhi's most admired Shopping Centre, celebrates women and their courage with a campaign that challenges traditional narratives and stereotypes around gender. Featuring four fabulous women who surmounted the odds against them, both personal and professional, the #RISEUP campaign encapsulates their journey and celebrates their success in defining themselves and their lives.

The Summer22 campaign by Select CITYWALK brings together Karina Aggarwal, the brand ambassador of an alcohol brand, and a professional, who has broken into what was traditionally a male bastion; Suhasini Mulay, a well-known TV actress, who broke all stereotypes around ageism professionally and personally; Ankita Jain (Founder of GoPaisa) who followed her passion and shattered all myths around women and their financial acumen and Sakshi Sindhwani, a plus-sized girl who has emerged as a fashion symbol and embodying body positivity for both genders. Playful, bold, and vibrant, the campaign tells the unique stories of all four women, in a manner that resonates with all of us, as we join them in their tribulations and triumphs and laud their success.

Commenting on the campaign, Ms. Gitanjali Singh, VP  Marketing, Select Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. said, Each of our campaigns tell a story, not just of fashion & beauty, but of people and their journeys. These women are a representation of those who visit, work, and shop at Select CITYWALK. In this years theme, we are delighted to work with women who inspire all of us to chase our dreams and ignore the critiques and naysayers. It is a fresh approach put together by our in-house stylist, and brand teams to create a unique story-telling format.

The campaign has rolled out across the brands social media handles as well as the OOH platform with billboards and print advertising. It has been conceptualized, styled and created by the in-house communications team at Select CITYWALK and has featured the personalities in reputed fashion brands from the Shopping Centre, namely United Colors of Benetton, Zara, Mango, Forever New, Steve Madden, also styled by Artyfied Creations and Outhouse Jewelry. Shot with each personality dressed in a signature style, it is a lighthearted and playful campaign underlining their unique qualities. The personalities are shown jumping on a trampoline showing their own leap of faith and yet keeping the theme joyous and celebratory. The colours and mood are an ode to the fresh and bright moments of spring and summer.

The campaign features:

Living life on her terms and being herself is her life motto! Karina Aggarwal (The Spirit in the Spirited) is on the path to breaking all the stereotypes. Moving her way through upskilling and working together with her team to create a space of her own, she created a name for herself. With her fierce attitude, she is paving the way and is merrily proving herself to be a distinct voice in the alco-beverage industry.

Ankita Jain (The Go in Go-Getter), the boss lady who was not ready to compromise her dreams and ambitions due to parental or societal expectations. An ordinary girl from Surat, she was always taught that women are made for marriage and kids but not tech and finance. Going against the norm, she started a fintech company, GoPaisa, that saw explosive growth in the last two years and climbed to heights nobody had expected.

The bold & curvy, Sakshi Sindhwani (The Fab in Fabulous) focused on how large her dreams and potential were. Her dreams and self-belief made her stand tall in front of the world and her platform has helped others see beyond traditional stereotypes. From being one of the biggest fashion influencers on Instagram to lighting up the Lakme Fashion Week ramp, she has proved that she is an icon of positivity.

Last but not least, the loving Suhasini Mulay (The Legend in Legendary) started a stellar acting career at the age of 40, and then surprised everyone by getting married at the age of 61 in a country like India, where marriage is a norm for women at an early age.
Before his untimely death ten years ago, Andrew Breitbart's most famous quote was "politics is downstream from culture." That concept is the basis for what is called the Breitbart Doctrine, which holds that in order to change politics, it is first necessary to change culture.

Breitbart was partially correct. In a cohesive, functional society whose members generally understand assumptions regarding faith and moral ideals, politics does indeed flow from culture. But more importantly, culture is downstream from religion.

Andrew Breitbart was born in 1969, when the fundamental destruction of the unifying American religious narrative and morality had begun. He could not see that the relationship between culture and politics is not a two-step progression, but two aspects of a self-energizing cycle consisting of three elements of human civilization: religion, culture, and politics. Religion provides the foundation of belief, culture provides the enrichment of knowledge, and politics (the least of these) provides opinion and activism to recalibrate power as necessary to sustain unity.

Religion provides answers for the questions of whence and whither and why to control the self on behalf of society. Religious belief in the significance of life and unchanging truth inspires a search for and participation in that truth, from which flows cultural creativity and engagement, which in turn unifies society and limits the dangers of political struggle.

All stable civilizations result from the dynamic trinity of religion, culture, and politics. America was fortunate to be founded when that religion was a passionate, decentralized, and freedom-loving Christianity as the basis for historic American religious tolerance.

When America could, broadly speaking, be described as one nation under God, the tripartite cycle of religion, culture, and politics originated in generative energy from the beliefs of distinctly American, pro-God religious consciousness that inspired the exploration of truth, meaning, and joy of a national cultural idiom, which in turn influenced the parameters of political endeavors. In classical, pro-God America, the inspiration for a civilization of freedom and equality came from the unifying assumptions of theistic belief. The assumptive belief in God and in the universal divine nature of all humans enabled the generation of a predominantly uplifting culture, which in turn was upstream from a generally lawfully and respectfully conducted political process.

That one nation under God has been irrevocably broken into two, irreconcilable American civilizations, one based in life and the other based in death.

Why did the civilization of this one nation under God, the greatest constitutional republic in world history, come to be degraded and broken by the Democrats and the left? Why did the unifying American assumption that freedom and equality are God-given come to be devalued, and the religions that imparted the belief in the sanctity of life come to be ridiculed? Why did American culture become antagonistic to faith, and therefore ugly, weird, and dehumanizing? Why did the government megalith become an anti-constitutional corruption? Theological and worldly explanations are both available. Take your pick, or you can have them both, as they are not incompatible.

Through the course of the 20th century, an ever louder cacophony from the left has spawned an anti-God, anti-American process of civilizational chaos that is wrapping around and squeezing the life out of traditional American civilization like a huge snake. Andrew Breitbart could not have seen what is becoming apparent to all sane Americans. The cycle of religion, culture, and politics, which sustains American civilization, has reversed course. Politics is upstream from culture, which is upstream from religion.

Politics is temporally reactive and contains no unifying truth. It is invariably divisive. Civilization based in politics without unifying religious consciousness amounts to permanent and deepening social chaos. The energy of this anti-civilization of the left arises in politics, which is leftists' religion. Politics in turn controls and censors non-conforming culture, which is upstream from non-organized, therapeutic "spirituality" and denatured Christianism, which cares more about political issues than it does about children and protecting human life.

The profundity of the nightmare we are living through is hard to grasp. The tone of our everyday lives as Americans is an anti-civilization controlled by the government-media-educational megalith that is anti-God, anti-American, and pointedly anti-Christian. American social process now originates in the bitter energy of left-wing politics as replacement for religion. That element of opinion maintains an inquisition of judgment of good and evil people based on a false, anti-historical obsession with long gone oppression by race, sex, and sexuality. Left-wing politics operates as increasingly divisive fanaticism, which can be called scientistic materialism. Science is prostituted to justify a hollow-eyed, humanity-hating doomsday cult of climate change. The reverse cycle of civilization originating in godless political opinion has made a sacrament of disposing of pre-born humans, which idolatry is inexorably expanding to include post-natal infanticide.

Left-wing politics as religion substitute idolizes atypical and deviant sexuality and normalizes the abuse of children in that cause. It is suffused with the odor of race grievance and enmity against European-Americans while writing a new scripture of falsified, degrading American history, wholly ungrateful for the magnificent sacrifices made by European-Americans to preserve the Constitution for all. In short, American anti-civilization now originates in politics designed to cancel the God-given universality of American freedom and equality, and replace it with a political contrivance of toxic power derived from a permanent derogation of traditional American faith and character. And like all fanatic religionism, this politics places itself above the law and loves to shun.

The new American anti-civilization celebrated the theft of the last presidency because its outlandish hatred for the last president was a thinly disguised hatred of the American people. Downstream from such politics is a deadening anti-culture industry. Hollywood, Disney, Netflix, the race-obsessed "art" in virtually all public museums  these are creating not a new American culture, but a deconstructive anti-culture, which is erasing traditional culture. Because they are largely based in politics, the left wing no longer has the inspiration, energy, or talent to create art or culture. Leftists merely create propaganda of neo-elitist race, sex, sexuality, and victimization, which is purposed to destroy traditional culture, abusive to children, deadening, and boring. Downstream from "mainstream" anti-culture of godless America are the self-soothing methods of therapeutic "spirituality" and the marginalized residue of once great religions.

In 1827, in his work entitled "Critical and Miscellaneous Essays," Thomas Carlyle identified "[t]he three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing and the Protestant religion." For the sustenance of American civilization, the greatest of these was the Protestant religion. The left is frog-marching its way through Carlyle's trinity, destroying the right to bear arms and the right to free speech  but for the ultimate destruction of American civilization, they must destroy classical American faith in God. To get the great elements of civilization to pervert and turn backwards with politics as the originating point, power must be taken away from God and placed in grasping human hands. The struggle is not between the right and left. It is between civilization and chaos.

Why are we still using Twitter? Why are we still using Facebook and Google and all the rest of the engines of our own destruction? Why are we still giving money to corporations that despise us and support the blood-drenched BLM? Why did we let them close the churches and keep the liquor stores open? Why did we wear those cloth masks? From the wisdom of the American heartland comes the question: "If underpants can't stop a fart, how can a mask stop a virus?" Why did we let them steal the presidency? Why do we let them imprison and abuse righteous protesters against that massive crime?

Freedom or slavery? Civilization or chaos? What is it going to be?

Visit Psychology Reoriented at Substack to read Dr. Tyler's observations on timely topics.

Image via Pixnio.
Taiwan's Chinese Television System (CTS) recently apologized for "causing public panic" when it erroneously ran a series of alerts saying China had launched attacks on the island. One of the alerts appearing on its screen read, "New Taipei City hit by Communist army's guided missiles." Another stated, "Vessels exploded, facilities and ships damaged in Taipei port."

CTS attributed the unfathomable airing of the fake news to staff who mistakenly put out content from disaster prevention drills that the station was commissioned to produce for New Taipei City's fire department. The company subsequently released a statement saying: "CTS offers its sincere apology that this serious flaw has caused panic among the public and trouble to relevant units."



CTS logo.

CTS also noted that it ran corrections and apologies on multiple channels and added that it will "severely punish" those responsible after it analyzes the results of an internal probe.

Mainland Communist China has long threatened to attack Taiwan and bring it under its control. Tensions have dramatically increased recently due to China's saber-rattling and Russia's attack on Ukraine. Many feel that it is only a matter of time  and not much time at that  before free and tiny Taiwan is attacked and subsumed by its giant communist neighbor.

In light of this, it is incomprehensible that such a blunder could occur.

Before reporting extraordinarily disturbing things like, say, "a comet is going to wipe out life on Earth," "an alien invasion is imminent," "giant murder hornets are going to fly away with your offspring," or "Nancy Pelosi is going to speak at your next PTA meeting," it might behoove media outlets to exercise due diligence and verify the "information" before publishing it.

Just sayin'.
There was very sad news today: a Texas National Guardsman drowned in the Rio Grande River yesterday attempting to rescue someone who was illegally heading into this country. That tragedy should force us to conduct a risk-reward analysis both for America and for the illegal aliens pouring into the country.

Bill Melugin, who's pretty much the only representative of a major media company keeping an eye on the southern border, first broke the news:

UPDATE: Here is a brief video of the scene from one of our photographers. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/HC8XkHkLPG  Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 22, 2022

UPDATE: The Maverick County Sheriff tells me the the soldier went missing in the water at around 8:30am while he was trying to save a female migrant. She survived and is now in Border Patrol custody, the soldier still hasnt been found after more than six hours. @FoxNews  Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 22, 2022

More video of the scene as local, state, and federal law enforcement continue to search for the missing TX National Guard soldier who went missing in the water over 7 hours ago and sources tell us is presumed to have drowned. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ZfKybJMcxB  Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) April 22, 2022

That guardsman gave his life for a criminal. Additionally, through his death, he effectively told the millions of other people from all over the world heading for America's southern border, with the intent to commit an illegal act, that their lives matter more than American lives do. That's quite the incentive for them.

Aside from being potential Democrat voters, illegal aliens offer little to America. We're constantly told they do the jobs Americans won't do, but that's just ex post facto rationalization. Either Americans will do the jobs if illegal aliens won't or Congress will be pushed to change quotas for those who can enter legally. So that's not a benefit.

The illegal aliens whose biggest criminal activity is breaking and entering into America create slums, drive down wages, destroy schools, suck up welfare, and bring new and ugly diseases into America. They are expensive and destructive. Meanwhile, the professional criminal element floods America with deadly drugs, engages in sex-trafficking, rapes women and children, and kills people through drunk driving and out-and-out murder.



Images: Migrants crossing the Rio Grande. YouTube screen grab.

And all of them destroy the property and livelihoods of those people unlucky enough to live along the border while Biden is destroying that border. There is no benefit to Americans from illegal immigration. (Planned, legal immigration is a different story.)

For the illegal aliens, the calculation is entirely different. Once they make it into America, they get care packages, welfare, phones, free transportation, free education for their children, and health benefits, as well as being hooked into job networks for illegal aliens. Yes, the journey is tiring and dangerous, but the payoff is good, and now they've seen that their lives are more important than American lives. Clearly, the incentives outweigh the dangers.

This is an unsustainable situation, and Democrats know it. In true Cloward-Piven fashion, they want to break the system so they can institute the Marxist paradise they long for.

The way to stop this situation is to change the incentives. A law-abiding executive in the White House would help, as would a Congress that funds walls and ends financial incentives for illegal aliens. And, although this sounds cruel, it's time to take a long hard look at the rescue efforts in which our Border Patrol people and National Guardsman engage.

My tribe is the American people, not the illegal aliens. Looked at from that viewpoint, there's something very wrong when members of my tribe are forced, as part of their jobs, to die in the service of people who have no business being here in the first place.
With a red wave coming, desperate Democrats are now embracing the politics of Hugo Chavez.

And Iran's mullahs. And Vlad Putin.

Instead of running for office, and trying to persuade voters that their ideas are the best ones, which would involve defending their execrable record in power, they're opting to go the dictator's way, by trying to disqualify opponents from office.

Never mind what the voters think.

Which brings us to the outrageous show trial of pro-Trump Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

According to NPR's account:

Controversial Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia on Friday defended her comments ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol while testifying under oath as part of a challenge to her reelection by voters and a supporting legal group, who are seeking to knock her off the ballot for her role prior to the riot. Greene's appearance in an Atlanta court Friday made her the first GOP member of Congress to testify publicly about Jan. 6, even as a Democratic-led committee back in Washington, D.C., has spent months investigating the attack. Greene was in front of an administrative law judge because a handful of voters in her district, represented by a nonprofit called Free Speech For People, say Greene should be disqualified because they allege she encouraged and supported the rioters who stormed the Capitol. While on the witness stand, the congresswoman reiterated baseless claims about election fraud, and repeatedly said that her charged rhetoric ahead of Jan. 6 referred to challenging the electoral count, not a call for violence.

Greene won her Georgia district with 75% of the vote.

The substance of the trial is incredibly stupid stuff. Did she agree with QAnon? Did she organize the "insurrection"? Did she remember calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "a traitor"? Did she cite "1776"? What did she "like" on Facebook? Every last one of these things are purportedly about whether MTG, as she is known, organized the falsely named "insurrection" of Jan. 6, but in reality, are about whether she has the right to free speech, which at last reading, was still on the books in the Constitution. It's a dry run for the left's big plans to disqualify President Trump from running again for office, which is what this is really about. That's what's making this entire sham a kangaroo courthouse clown show.

On the "crime" of citing 1776, as in "This is our 1776 moment," Taylor Greene acquitted herself very well:

When the petitioner tries to get MTG to say that her use of "1776" was a call for violence, she points out that 1776 is on the Georgia state seal:



"I don't know if you've noticed our state seal here in Georgia, but as you can see we enjoy our history and are proud of our freedom pic.twitter.com/fYDW6q7Iig  Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 22, 2022

Petitioner tries to get MTG to accept that any reference to 1776 is a call to violence.



She points out that 1776 is on the state seal hanging in the courtroom.



Judge laughs.  Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) April 22, 2022

The left is really trying to argue that MTG using the term 1776 disqualifies her from the ballot. https://t.co/SzpDZyRqpB  Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 22, 2022

People watching this are rightly disgusted:

5 people, probably democrats, filed the suit against @RepMTG. The real reason, she won with almost 75% of the vote. So lets allow 5 to disenfranchise 75%. This absolutely incredulous! Americans need to wake up, not woke up!!  Chief Jimmy Banks (@J_Banks48) April 23, 2022

MTG is in court over liking tweets while Ilhan Omar can steer millions in campaign money to her personal account in broad daylight for years.



Youll never get me to care about right wing extremists. I just dont care. https://t.co/jadenQ0sln  Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) April 23, 2022

I think there's more than reason for just disgust though. What we are looking at is bottom-of-the-barrel third world tinpot dictatorship politics.

This what Putin did to at least one political opponent of his, Alexei Navalny, who now sits in a Siberian GULag as I write this.

It's what the mullahs do to any Iranian election candidate not approved by the Supreme Leader.

And it's certainly what Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela, throwing major political rivals in jail or barring them from running for office, just as election time comes.

John Sexton at Hot Air described the crap that happened there back in 2017:

For the third time in a week, Capriles on Saturday led massive demonstrations in downtown Caracas to protest against the Maduro government. Marchers held placards that read Liberty, Elections now, and  Down with dictatorship. On Thursday, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol blamed Capriles for leading demonstrations that threatened to destabilize the country. Violent clashes with police, who used tear gas to disperse protesters, left one student killed from police gunfire on Thursday. Thirty protesters were arrested. A day later, the controller generals office said Capriles was disqualified from running for office again because of improper use of his states budget on unspecified contracts, funeral expenses and for publicity. This isnt the first time the ruling socialists have used this move against a potential challenger. The government did the same thing to Leopoldo Lopez, another opposition leader who has been in a military prison for two years on trumped-up charges. The behavior of the Maduro government makes a certain nefarious sense. If youre the ruler of a collapsing socialist state and polls show the people have turned against you, the only option is to use the power of the state to knock out potential rivals.

Sound familiar? Sound very, very, familiar? This whole MTG sham trial, starting with an unruly Jan. 6 protest, then blaming a political opponent who supported the original aim of the demonstration for the mess, and then disqualifying and/or jailing her, is straight out of the Hugo Chavez playbook. Democrats didn't take these Chavez acts as a cautionary tale -- they made it a how-to guide. And frankly, that's a revolting precedent which if they are not stopped at, will do again and again. Five leftists, versus hundreds of thousands of voters, and they claim they have the right to disenfranchise them because their candidate didn't win? This is the behavior of would be dictators, exercising their inner tinpot on the U.S. republic.

It's repulsive, and it's hard to understand why that Georgia law isn't being repealed now, given its outrageous application.

Greene herself has argued, in a fundraising email to constituents, that the trial itself is costing her, meaning, she has less money to run for office she otherwise would, which is second form of disenfranchisement:

Fighting their fraudulent lawsuit could cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thats money I wont be able to use to get my message out to the voters in my district. And Im worried even if Im successful in stopping their charade, I wont have enough to ensure victory at the ballot box. Im not going to lie  the D.C. Cabal and their minions have got me over a barrel. Thats why I desperately need your help today to ensure I can defend my right to be on the ballot AND then win the November election. Can you chip in $50, $100, or $500 to help me fend off this new attack? It should worry you how hard they are trying to keep America First Conservatives like me off the ballot. These Leftists know were making a difference in Congress, and it frightens them. Other states have blocked this type of ridiculous lawsuit, but Im the Lefts number one target, so I have to keep fighting.

Well, yeah.

It's also outrageous that the Republican leadership, which back in 2021, lazily sat by as Democrats targeted and bullied Taylor Greene to strip her from her committee seats, something that in the past only her own party could do, even as fiscally corrupt, hostilely anti-American, and openly anti-Semitic creatures such as Rep. Ilhan Omar continue to sit on the House foreign relations committee, avoiding so much as a meaningful censure for her fourth-world Jew-hating tropes. Hypocrite much?

The GOP actually ought to be playing hardball if this is the Chavista politics Democrats in their desperation are embracing. I like this tweet, which ought to stop this trash cold:

Whats happening to @RepMTG will become the new normal until we strike back.



Build our own Perkins Coie, file suits against Maxine Waters & Kamala Harris for their roles in the riots & against Schiff & swalwell for abusing their clearances.



Fight like they do. Its war.  Joe Kent for WA-3 (@joekent16jan19) April 22, 2022

Let's hope the GOP grows a backbone, or else Chavista America will become a reality.

Image: Twitter screen shot
One of the most striking things about our political class is how few have visited our southern border  including Joe Biden. This means that, when Biden talks airily about removing Title 42 controls over entry in America, he has no idea that a lot more than COVID is coming across the border.

Some senators are taking notice. Recently, Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who is facing a challenging re-election, has been making trips to the border. After her trip in early April, in a massive understatement, she timidly suggested that President Biden needs to have more effective border policies:

My trip to the southern border reinforced my concerns about the administration preemptively ending Title 42. Border agents were very clear with me that the end of Title 42 will lead to a steep increase of attempted crossings that they will not be able to effectively handle because they don't have enough resources.

Perhaps Biden would if he'd ever bothered to go to the border. There's no indication that Biden has been to the border even once in the past decade and more. That also means he's never met with overwhelmed local residents or our courageous, exhausted border patrol.

Likewise, Vice President Harris has never effectively acted on Biden's or our behalf in dealing with the major health, cartel-based drug- or human-trafficking situation, or the abandonment of toddlers and other children at the border. Our useless secretary of homeland security has never even acknowledged the fact that individuals on the national security terrorist watch list have been apprehended at the border with likely many others as "gotaways."



Image: Future illegal aliens. YouTube screen grab.

Unlike our political class, I have seen what's happened to the beautiful areas on the Rio Grande River and am disgusted with the human waste, garbage, property destruction, and crime our fellow American citizens on ranches on the border must deal with daily. What kind of American citizens will these invading illegal aliens make to our country if they violate our laws at their very decision to enter our country?

The Biden administration talks about the lack of compassion of previous administrations regarding immigration policy, but how many abused, abandoned, neglected women and children or dead bodies floating in the Rio Grande will it require for America to have a border secured from illegal invaders? Keep in mind that they're bringing with them TB and other diseases; cartel drug traffic affiliation; mental illness; and, primarily, a desire for better economic status rather than a commitment to our laws and civic commitments to our representative democracy.

When looked at through this filter, Title 42 involves much more than COVID, TB, and obesity case concerns. It includes what we psychiatrists call behavioral, character, and personality disorders. Such disorders include alcohol and substance disorders that lead to DUI deaths, predatory pedophiles, criminal gang members, and other psychopaths. All illegal aliens must ask themselves about the basic criminal act they perform when they jump to the head of the line of those lawfully seeking a home in America.

Sadly, Biden's decision to end Title 42 means that, in addition to the legal, physical, and mental ills described above, we'll also be importing people of weak moral character  although, sadly, that weakness is reflected in too many Americans who no longer believe or have pride in America's national strength, morality, and sovereignty.
Vladimir Putin once claimed that the Russian army could take Kiev in two weeks if the need arose. Two months into the so-called "special military operation" of 2022, Putin's forecast seems to have hit a wall of reality. Or as Robert Burns might say, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley."

Plans gone awry, indeed!

Early on, the Kremlin sought to decapitate Ukraine by seizing Kiev and other cities in the northeast with special forces, backed by armor and artillery. The conventional blitz stalled short of Kiev due to unwarranted optimism, unanticipated resistance, and an apparent logistical "cluster foxtrot," as an American G.I. might put it. To their credit, the Kremlin adjusted quickly, changing military leadership and operational plans. Less ambitious, albeit more realistic, objectives now characterize Moscow's operations at least for the near term.

The axis of attack is now focused on the Donbas border region and the Azov/Black Sea littoral.

Donbas has been at war for ten years now, and, heretofore, much of the fighting there was done by thirty-some odd "right sector" volunteer militias. These neo-Nazi, self-described "anarchists" came to prominence during the 2014 Maidan coup. Not coincidentally, the more infamous neo-Nazi Azov Battalion is the unit surrounded by Russian naval infantry today in Mariupol.



Note: The Azov Battalion emblem on the left fell out of use in 2015.

If General Alexander Dvornikov manages to cut off the right sector "volunteers" in the Donbas sector and crush the Azov fighters at Mariupol, then the Kremlin will have met a large part of its de-Nazification strategic objective.

Ironically, Kiev's willingness to give militias a free hand in the East and South might solve a problem for both Ukraine and Russia. Just as NATO is willing to fight Russia right down to the last Ukrainian, the Kiev establishment seems to have similar sentiments about Azov anarchists. Not too many years ago, Ukraine and Poland were the worst collaborators cum Holocaust deniers in Europe. If Zelensky, with Jewish antecedents, really subscribes to Menachem Begin's "never again" ethic, putting Ukraine's Right Sector in the Russian crosshairs might be a two-stroke mulligan  both operational genius and poetic justice.

Conversely, should Ukrainian Nazi nationalists win anywhere, Ukraine and Zelensky still lose, thanks to the CIA, NATO, and Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department. So far, at the tactical level, the Right Sector have done well as anti-Russian partisans. How well these anarchic volunteers hold up as the Russian "operation" morphs into war remains to be seen.

The chokehold strategy seems to have similar objectives in the south, where Kiev might have to tap out without access to the Azov and Black Seas. Most agricultural output goes by sea. If Russia controls Ukraine's waterways, game over in the long run. The impact of Kiev not getting a crop in the ground soon and not being able to ship, combined with sanctions on Russia (Biden's dollar weaponization), is now a global problems.

Ultimately, General Dvornikov would probably like to control the breadbasket east of the Dnieper. If he secures the western border of Russia and Mariupol, Mykolaiv and Odessa to the west are probably next on the hit list. The port city of Odessa, like Sevastopol, has significant Russian ties.

Putin is a lot of things, but he is not some nutter or some "woke" sissy trying to reclaim empire. To his credit, from a realpolitik perspective, Putin already separated himself from NATO dilettantes. He is willing to bleed Russia, change commanders, and change strategy until he gets a winning combination, the kind of military moxie that hasn't been seen at NATO or in the Pentagon since Korea.

Leadership matters.

In the end, pain thresholds may be the difference between success and failure in Ukraine. The stakes for Moscow and Kiev are existential. Regime change in either capital is still on the table, and Putin and Zelensky know it. "Existential" is personal for both men. Brussels and Washington, in contrast, seem to view Ukrainian and Russian leaders as tactical cannon fodder, another chapter in a Cold, now hot, War underway since 1948.

Ukraine, alas, is likely to be road kill on any count, after she is finished being used by both sides.

Intractable or existential strategic objectives for Kiev and Moscow are pretty clear; Brussels and Washington, not so much. We don't hear much about what victory looks like for the West these days, because the only players that really matter, Moscow and Washington, are playing with Ukrainian blood chits and Russian body bags.

In any prolonged conflict, Kiev is in danger of becoming another near-sighted business opportunity for the NATO "defense" industries while Ukraine and Zelensky become rubble and kibble for the big dogs, the real antagonists. China, India, and the Muslim world are sitting on the fence, leering like vultures waiting to pick over the carnage. Whoopi Goldberg, of all people, captured global racial sentiment best. "Whites on whites"  who cares?

Alas, if we believe the logic of deterrence, the prospect of Russian conventional defeat lowers the nuclear threshold. First use and last use become interchangeable in a world where deterrence fails catastrophically. When you can't win by other means, the last chapter in modern warfare is massive retaliation, the Strangelovian, ne RAND Corporation, euphemism for radioactive revenge.

The only sure loser in the East European edition of the "big game" is Ukraine. So far, the best that can be said is that grotesque is being normalized.

G. Murphy Donovan writes about the politics of national security.

Flags image via Public Domain Pictures.
The newly released tape of the House minority leader suggesting the resignation of President Trump may bespeak a swamp that's more contaminated than any of us can imagine. First, who did the recording? And second, who released it? CNBC reports that Representative Liz Cheney denies leaking the tape of her conversation with Kevin McCarthy.

A spokesperson for Cheney, one of two Republicans on the House select committee probing the Capitol riot, said in a statement Friday morning that the congresswoman "did not record or leak the tape and does not know how the reporters got it."

Rachel Maddow played a portion of the tape in conjunction with a report on the upcoming hit piece on Trump, This Will Not Pass by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. They allege that on January 10, 2021, McCarthy talked privately for 45 minutes with Representatives Scalise, Cheney, and Emmer to discuss his thoughts on asking Trump to step down. On tape, McCarthy admits that Trump resigning would be a long shot (thankfully). But the 25th Amendment is mentioned, and that thickens the plot.

The 25th Amendment deals with the inability of the president to perform the duties of office. This is often temporary, such as during certain medical procedures. But not knowing who released the tape of McCarthy's discussion opens us up to thinking about the amendment's language to force the president from office. The amendment has language that opens the door for Deep State mischief.

[W]hen the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

McCarthy is caught on tape saying, "This is what I think, we know that it'll pass the House. I think there's a chance it'll pass the Senate, even when he's gone." What does McCarthy mean by that? If Trump were to resign, there wouldn't be much to vote on. He goes on to say, "Now, this is one personal fear I have. I do not want to get in any conversation about Pence pardoning. Again, the only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign."

This is looking a lot like the tip of an iceberg. Are the phone conversations of members of Congress recorded routinely? Do they know they're being recorded? And why is only this portion of the tape being released? And why now?

Image: Michael Buholzer -- swiss-image.ch
While Elon Musk was dominating the news with his principled stance on buying  and reforming  censorship-wracked Twitter, something else big was going on on the side, according to Breaking Defense:

WASHINGTON: The US military's electronic warfare enterprise needs to take a page from SpaceX when it comes to responding to new threats, the Pentagon's director for electromagnetic warfare said today. After SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine in February in an apparent effort to help Ukraine maintain its internet connection amid war with Russia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk claimed that Russia had jammed Starlink terminals in the country for hours at a time. After a software update, Starlink was operating normally, said Musk, who added on March 25 that the constellation had "resisted all hacking & jamming attempts" in Ukraine. Assuming Musk  famously something of a showboater in his public comments  is providing an accurate picture, a private firm beating back Russian EW attempts with software updates is the kind of thing that makes Pentagon EW experts pay attention. "From an EW technologist perspective, that is fantastic. That paradigm and how they did that is kind of eyewatering to me," said Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare for the Pentagon's acquisition office. "The way that Starlink was able to upgrade when a threat showed up, we need to be able to have that ability. We have to be able to change our electromagnetic posture, to be able to change very dynamically what we're trying to do without losing capability along the way."

Musk, in other words, besides fighting for free speech in the States, was also busy taking on the mighty Russian military machine  and beating it. Even the Pentagon was awed, watching as Musk's Starlink Internet system beat back hacker after hacker from Moscow through a program of software upgrades, with the quoted official hoping and dreaming for something similar to be developed at the Pentagon. It says a lot that the General Mark Milley crowd over there still doesn't have a clue.

Musk didn't say much of anything about it as all eyes were focused on his Twitter war, but facts are facts: while Musk was brawling with the activist left and schooling the public about free speech over at Twitter, he was also quietly beating back monster state-sponsored internet attacks on his Starlink system, which rather miraculously was the only thing keeping Ukraine connected to the outside world. The Pentagon stood by stupefied at the brilliant technology, and Russian president Vladimir Putin found himself schooled.

Putin is a bully, and tries to attack only things he believes can't or won't fight back. Musk fought back, and left Putin's Russian military apparat with a bloody nose.

It was two kinds of single-combat heroism at once. That raises Musk into some kind of "gladiator" territory, and of such things legends are made. Perhaps he is the real "Ghost of Kiev." For the rest of us, there seem to be a lot of reasons out there written in red, white, and blue to be impressed with Elon Musk.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
In coming years, conservatives may look back on the lockdowns with a certain fondness, despite the suffering and damage they caused. Why do I say that? Because the lockdowns meant that parents got a chance to see what was going on in their children's classrooms and were rightly horrified. For now, though, there's a fierce ideological battle between normal people and leftists. In Evanston/Skokie School District, the leftists are ahead with a radical gender plan. Meanwhile, in Florida, the conservative DeSantis team is blocking racist textbooks.

Evanston/Skokie School District is in Evanston, Illinois. It's home to Northwestern University and is an uber-left, affluent Chicago suburb. To give you an idea of just how leftist it is, in 2012, Evanston gave Obama 85% of its votes and then, in 2020, it gave Biden 90%. That fealty to the Democrat party helps explain the new curriculum the school district instituted to ensure that its students fully embrace the "gender spectrum" and forever abandon any concept of a biological binary gender system:

In pre-kindergarten, the children are taught an "introduction" to the rainbow and transgender flags. Teachers then provide the basic concepts of gender identity, explaining that "we call people with more than one gender or no gender, non-binary or queer." pic.twitter.com/0SFbuATwwC  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2022

The kindergartners read books that affirm transgender conversions, look at photographs of boys in dresses, and perform a rainbow dance. At the end of the lesson, the students are encouraged to share their own gender identities with the class. "Your identity is for you to decide!" pic.twitter.com/9S3cI3ZPIT  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2022

In third grade, students are told that white European "colonizers" imposed their "Western and Christian ideological framework" on racial minorities and "forced two-spirit people to conform to the gender binary." The teacher encourages them to "break the binary." pic.twitter.com/dW6knnMOb7  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2022

The curriculum in the Evanston/Skokie School District is the perfect illustration of college-level Queer Theory translated into early-elementary pedagogy. Parents have a right to be concerned and legislators have a duty to ensure that public schools reflect public values.  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2022

Here is the full story for City Journal:https://t.co/lw569Z8DF4  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) April 21, 2022

None of what the school district will be teaching is a natural biological instinct. That's why "grooming" is the only word that comes to mind to describe the district's push to sexualize children at a very early age in ways that disconnect them from the reality and integrity of their own bodies. But this is what voters seem to want for their children so we're about to see at least one generation in this community sacrificed on the altar of leftism.

Meanwhile, Florida is taking a different approach. In March, Florida passed a law giving parents a say about the books in public school libraries. The law is intended to prevent libraries from stocking books that, if they weren't wokely politically correct, would be patently pornographic.

And yesterday, Governor DeSantis signed a law banning Critical Race Theory in schools and workplace training. It was clearly with an eye to that law that, last week, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) rejected 41% of submitted textbooks because they referenced Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which is a doorway to gender instruction.

Leftists routinely deny that this material is included in classroom instruction. Their arguments tend to say, "CRT and SEL are not in classrooms but it will destroy American democracy if you remove them from classrooms." Now, though, you don't have to decide in a vacuum whether Florida's DOE or the screeching leftists are telling the truth. That's because the DOE posted on its website four examples of CRT and SEL in some of the rejected books:

Leftist indoctrination in K12 schools across America is real and decidedly not spectacular. It's awful, abusive, and dangerous. But because, to a hammer, everything is a nail, leftists cannot help themselves. There is no subject that cannot be bent to their social and political goals. One plus one doesn't equal two. Instead, one Black child plus one White child equals oppression.

The only way to win in this ideological warfare is to get out there and fight. And no, I'm not advocating fistfights at school board meetings. Instead, I'm urging you to attend those school board meetings. Pay attention to the bios of the people you've never met who are running for your local school board, and, if you can, attend "meet the candidate" nights.

Moreover, as Florida shows, your state Legislature matters, too. Whether state or federal elections, pay attention during the primaries and vote for the most conservative candidate. And then vote again in November.

It's the nature of conservatism that conservatives are not as politically engaged as leftists, who are statists and collectivists. If the state is your god, elections are your form of worship. For conservatives, though, staying engaged and voting push them out of their "leave me alone to get on with life" comfort zone.

However, unless you want your son to announce that not only is he a girl, but also, to make up for generations of oppressing "BIPOCs," he will cut his penis off, you must work to return schools to teaching core subjects revolving around the best of the Western culture (including our Constitution), which made America the most affluent country in the world and one that those seeking wealth and/or freedom have flocked to for hundreds of years. Otherwise, all bets for America's and your children's survival are off.



Image: Internet meme; creator unknown.
Moscow wants coast to Odessa. Draghi ready to see Zelensky Transnistria alarm. Mariupol mass graves shock the world

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 23 APR - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be in Kiev next week to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after seeing his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This was officially announced by the United Nations in a statement.



Guterres "will have a meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and will be received by President Volodymyr Zelensky on 28 April", the statement said. The meeting with Putin, however, is scheduled for Tuesday in Moscow.



Russia and the West continue a dialogue between the deaf on the war in Ukraine. Talk of a truce now seems more utopian than ever. Putin to Europe: 'You are irresponsible'. EU moves towards sixth sanctions package next week. Measures could include a stop to Russian oil imports. UN documents summary execution of 50 civilians in Bucha. PM Draghi prepares visit to Kiev. Secretary Guterres to visit Kremlin on Tuesday. No solution has yet been found to the tragic situation in Mariupol, where local authorities report the presence of mass graves with thousands of bodies. And there is alarm over Transnistria. In the meantime, the Russian ambassador to Italy, Serghei Razov, believes that relations with our country have greatly deteriorated.



TELEPHONE CALL WITH MICHEL - Ninety minutes of conversation to certify that Europe and Russia, today more than yesterday, are now enemies. The telephone call between EU Council President Charles Michel and Vladimir Putin increases the awareness, in Brussels and in the chancelleries of the Old Continent, that phase two of the war in Ukraine will be long and, if possible, even more bloody and risky. The positions are gradually drifting apart and during the conversation Michel reiterated to the Kremlin chief that the Union is ready to give every possible support to Ukraine. This provoked the interlocutor's anger: "Europe is irresponsible on the need for a military solution to the conflict", Putin attacked.



MOSCOW WANTS THE ENTIRE COAST - "Full control" of the Donbass and the whole of southern Ukraine up to Odessa, taking not only the corridor linking the Crimea to the mainland but also the one leading to Transnistria, thus blocking Kiev's access to the sea.



Having launched phase two of the war, which officially "began two days ago" with the furious bombing assault on the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, Moscow is now outlining its new military objectives. According to the interim commander of the central military district Rustam Minnekayev, these will be even more ambitious. "Control over southern Ukraine is another way into Transnistria, where there is also evidence of discrimination against Russian-speaking residents," said the senior Russian official. These plans immediately alarmed Moldova, prompting it to summon Moscow's ambassador to Chisinau to denounce the threat of invasion of the pro-Russian separatist region, whose border is only a few dozen kilometres from Odessa. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
A British university student is among volunteers tackling period poverty among Ukrainian refugees.

Ella Lambert, 22, is coordinating the distribution of thousands of disposable pads to hospitals in the war-torn nation and to women in refugee camps.

The University of Bristol student founded the non-profit Pachamama Project  which provides period products to camps in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Uganda  after learning how to sew reusable pads over lockdown.

It has since snowballed into a global network of more than 1,000 volunteers.

University of Bristol student Ella Lambert, who began sewing reusable sanitary products for refugees over lockdown (Ella Lambert/PA)

This week, Ms Lambert distributed 1,000 pads at the Global Expo centre and Ptak Expo centre, both in Warsaw, before coordinating efforts to secure a larger supply alongside Florida-based non-profit, Pads4Refugees, run by Melissa Robel, 42.

Speaking from Poland, Ms Lambert told the PA news agency: The need for sanitary products is huge.

Talking to the women and hearing their stories first hand, we know exactly how much people need them.

You could say its the least of their worries, but if youve got people in the Metro station without products who are on their period, thats a huge additional challenge to deal with when they are just trying to reach safety.

University of Bristol student Ella Lambert coordinating the distribution of sanitary products for Ukrainian women in Warsaw (Ella Lambert/PA)

They dont have proper washing facilities so we are handing out disposable products.

They also have a minimum amount of clothes, and if they bleed through them, thats a terrible situation to be in.

Ms Lambert said organisations with a focus on feminine hygiene are needed alongside general aid charities because the stigma surrounding periods prevents some women from accessing the products.

The languages student, from Chelmsford in Essex, told PA: We were speaking to an organisation today who were in the Metro station and someone saw a pack of pads in their bag, and they whispered: Do you mind if I have one?

They asked all her friends if they had pads, and none of them had any.

Its quite easy to go up to someone and say: I could do with some food, or: I need a place to sleep, but people dont feel comfortable asking for sanitary products, especially if theyve already bled through their clothes.

Its very dehumanising.

I think it helps that we are a period poverty organisation, so I will introduce myself as that.

Sanitary products being handed out in Warsaw refugee camps by British student Ella Lambert and her team (Ella Lambert/PA)

The Pachamama Project and Pads4Refugees have also distributed 3,000 reusable pads to hospitals in Lviv, western Ukraine, which were transported by Polish charity the Yorghas Foundation this week.

Miss Lambert said many women have lived in the camps for several weeks, because they plan to return to Ukraine when it is safer, so a constant supply of essentials is needed in the border countries.

The women are paying for the pads through donations to a fundraiser, which can be accessed here  https://pads4refugees.org/
FILE - This microscope image made available by the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research in 2015 shows human colon cancer cells with the nuclei stained red. Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a persons DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. (NCI Center for Cancer Research via AP)

Scientists have analyzed the full genetic blueprints of more than 18,000 cancer samples, finding new patterns of mutations that could help doctors provide better, more personalized treatment.

Their study, published Thursday in the journal Science, isnt the first to do such comprehensive whole genome analyses of cancer samples. But no one has ever done so many.

This is the largest cohort in the world. It is extraordinary, said Serena Nik-Zainal of the University of Cambridge, who was part of the team.

Just over 12,200 surgical specimens came from patients recruited from the U.K. National Health Service as part of a project to study whole genomes from people with common cancers and rare diseases. The rest came from existing cancer data sets.

Researchers were able to analyze such a large number because of the same improvements in genetic sequencing technology that recently allowed scientists to finally finish decoding the entire human genome  more capable, accurate machines.

We can really begin to tease out the underpinnings of the erosive sort of forces that go to sort of generate cancer," said Andrew Futreal, a genomic medicine expert at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who was not involved in the study.

Cancer is a disease of the genome, or full set of instructions for running cells, that occurs when changes in a persons DNA cause cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. In 2020, there were about 19 million new cancer cases worldwide.

For the study, researchers looked at 19 different types  breast, colorectal, prostate, brain and others  and identified 58 new clues to the causes of cancer called mutational signatures" that contribute to the development of the disease. They also confirmed 51 of more than 70 previously reported mutation patterns, Nik-Zainal said.

Some arise because of problems within a persons cells; others are sparked by environmental exposures such as ultraviolet radiation, tobacco smoke or chemicals.

Knowing more of them helps us to understand each persons cancer more precisely, which can help guide treatment, Nik-Zainal said.

Genetic sequencing is already being woven into cancer care as part of the growing trend of personalized medicine, or care based on a patients genes and specific disease. Now doctors will have much more information to draw from when they look at individual cancers.

To help doctors use this information, researchers developed a computer algorithm that will allow them to find common mutation patterns and seek out rare ones. Based on a particular pattern, Nik-Zainal said a doctor may suggest a certain course of action, such as getting immunotherapy.

Futreal said the data can also show doctors what tends to happen over time when a patient develops a cancer with a certain mutation pattern  helping them intervene earlier and hopefully stop the developing disease in its tracks.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Sadiq Khan has said he is tackling Londons air pollution with one hand tied behind his back.

It comes after Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2013, said earlier this week the Governments air pollution targets are an insult to her memory.

The London Mayor said he agreed with Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrahs comments, adding that the Government must redouble its efforts.

He told the PA news agency in central London on Saturday: Im motivated to reduce air pollution in London, to have an ultra-emissions zone, to expand it, and to work towards smart roads to make more progress in improving the air in London.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

But I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back because the Governments not helping, which is why I understand Rosamunds anger.

He added: I want to make change now, reduce the number of premature deaths, reduce the number of children with stuffed lungs, reduce the number of adults with a whole host of health issues from asthma, to cancer, to heart disease.

The Government needs to be doing far, far more, its kicking the can down the road.

It comes one year since Coroner Philip Barlow urged the Government to set legal air pollution limits based on 2021 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and to launch a public awareness campaign in response to Ellas death.

The Government is currently working towards meeting the WHOs older 2005 guidelines by 2040.

The Canary Wharf skyline viewed through the haze from Alexandra Palace (Victoria Jones/PA)

Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah told a panel earlier this week: It really is a bit of an insult to Ellas memory when I think about it.

What they are telling the British public is: We will meet the 2005 target by 2040.

I try not to get emotional about it, but my concern is that its not going to change life for an asthmatic child who lives by a busy road and who is breathing toxic air.

The family lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, south-east London.

Ella was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.
An American Leeds fan travelled all the way from Detroit to watch their youth team play after the two Premier League games he had planned to watch were postponed.

Chris Garcia, 26, booked his trip from Michigan to the UK  more than 3,500 miles  back in November with the intention of taking in Leeds home game against Chelsea and their trip to Crystal Palace as he stayed with his friend and fellow fan Daniel Deacon in London.

But the Chelsea game, initially scheduled for last weekend, was postponed because of the west London clubs participation in the FA Cup semi-finals and Saturdays game at Selhurst Park was shunted back to Monday night for the sake of the TV schedules.

Chris Garcia was greeted by former Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford (Chris Garcia)

It left Mr Garcia, and friend Akshaay Ramanujam who flew from Chicago, with the prospect of flying thousands of miles and not seeing their beloved Leeds play.

But instead of cancelling the trip they decided instead to go and see Leeds Under-23 side take on their counterparts from Manchester City in the Premier League 2.

And after a tweet about his journey went viral, he and his friends even got given VIP status by the club as he was invited to watch the game from the directors box and got the chance to meet Leeds manager  and fellow American  Jesse Marsch.

That was extraordinary that they even offered to to host us like that, Mr Garcia told the PA news agency.

Yeah, I made a long trip over here but I wasnt expecting anything like that, anything at all.

Made the 7+ hour flight from Detroit and am now making the 4 hour drive from London to Leeds to watch the @LUFC U23s play. Sky Sports may have bottled the Palace match for me, but I still need my Leeds United fix. @PhilHay_ @andrearadri @lufctrust @GrahamSmyth pic.twitter.com/IYQrKRcYqY  Chris Garcia (@CGChurro95) April 22, 2022

And it was a dream come true for me, for any sport really that I support  just being invited into an atmosphere like that was totally surreal.

The trio met Leeds first-team goalkeeper Ilan Meslier and former striker Jermaine Beckford, who recognised Mr Garcia from his viral tweet and introduced himself.

And he was able to discuss American soccer with Marsch, who asked Mr Garcia about a recent cup upset victory for his local team, Detroit City.

I told him you have my support from the US and Im rooting for you as an American, Mr Garcia said.

Just having that experience of meeting a couple of Leeds personalities was beyond anything that I would have expected.

The way they treated me, the way the club handled us yesterday was just like a dream come true and its not something Ill forget.

Unreal experience at @LUFC today. Thanks to @JayMooney86 for setting this up for me and my friends. Elland Road never disappoints! Back to London we go   #ALAW pic.twitter.com/83TQ7iKA51  Chris Garcia (@CGChurro95) April 22, 2022

Leeds lost the game 3-1 as the visitors sealed the league title.

But to make the night sweeter, Mr Garcia was involved in a record as the crowd of 21,321 was the largest ever attendance for an Under-23s game, beating the previous high of 17,525 for a match between Liverpool and Everton in 2017.

That was really neat, he said.

Its really cool to be part of breaking the record.
ADEN, Yemen, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A senior commander of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch was killed Saturday in a shootout with local security forces in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout, a security official told Xinhua.

The gun battle took place in the Sudaf area of Hadramout when a unit of local security forces conducted an operation on an intelligence tip-off and raided an al-Qaida hideout in the area, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

The official confirmed that a senior commander of al-Qaida wanted by the security forces for his involvement in terror attacks in Hadramout was killed, without revealing the al-Qaida member's identity.

According to Yemeni officials, the operation has dealt a heavy setback to the terrorist group's apparent attempts to gain ground in the poor Arab country.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) network has been responsible for many high-profile attacks against the security forces in the country's southern provinces.

The AQAP has exploited years of deadly conflict between the Yemeni government and Houthi militia to expand its presence in the war-ravaged Arab country. 
With 4/20 in the rearview mirror for the cannabis industry, some companies are still looking for reasons to celebrate as the fight to legalize marijuana continues.

The Biden administration has been mostly silent on the topic of federal marijuana legalization, offering neither support nor opposition to the bill which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month.

The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, if signed into law, would remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and abolish the associated criminal penalties. The bill passed the House primarily by party lines and, receiving no support from the president, has yet to be introduced to the Senate.

The Democrats, to be honest, have been a huge disappointment to the industry, Curaleaf (CURLF) Executive Chairman Boris Jordan told Yahoo Finance Live in a recent segment. We all came in after the election of President Biden, thinking that we were going to get real activity in the area of legislation, and we've gotten absolutely nothing. And I think that's the real problem.

People line up to buy recreational marijuana at the RISE marijuana dispensary on the first day recreational sales are allowed for customers over the age of 21, in Paterson, New Jersey, U.S., April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Despite setbacks, Jordan noted, the marijuana industry has a bright future powered by strengthening demand.

The industry is very strong, Jordan said. And we're seeing very robust growth across the board in the United States, now in Europe, in Latin America, and even in Asia. And so, I think the cannabis tradition that was outlawed in 1936 in the United States and in other countries around the world is making a very, very strong comeback. And it's hitting [the] mainstream across many, many continents, as well as many countries.

More than a year after a statewide vote, New Jersey approved 13 medical dispensaries to sell adult-use marijuana beginning Thursday. The state joins 17 other states as well as the District of Columbia in allowing lawful purchase of recreational marijuana. Industry executives and analysts expect the legal cannabis industry to reach total sales of $33 billion by the end of the year. In 2021, marijuana sales in the U.S. amounted to approximately $25 billion, according to a new study by MJBiz.

Cureleaf, a US-based medical and wellness cannabis operator, has fallen over 50% in the last 12 months. Similar companies like Aurora (ACB), a Canadian cannabis producer, and Green Thumb Industries Inc (GTBI) are also down over 40% in the past year.

Jordan attributed the loss to a disappointing policy environment which was believed to be quicker in relaxing marijuana restrictions. As of now, he said, that hasnt been the case.

Our biggest problem is the federal government is so far behind the popular thought process on this, Jordan said. We have over 90% approval ratings. It may be the only bipartisan issue the United States of America is united on today, but yet, our legislators in Washington are behind the eight ball.

In the next few months, industry analysts will look to observe whether politicians elected in this years upcoming elections will adopt a more favorable stance to emerging marijuana enterprises.

Ihsaan Fanusie is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @IFanusie.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy had a positive call with Donald Trump and appeared to be suffering little political blowback Friday from the release of audio in which he suggested the president should resign shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

McCarthy worked swiftly to shore up support among Republicans, calling and texting many lawmakers about his conversation with Trump as he rushed to contain the fallout.

In the audio, first posted Thursday by The New York Times and aired on Rachel Maddows MSNBC show, McCarthy is heard discussing with House Republicans the Democratic effort to remove Trump from office after the president's supporters stormed the Capitol.

In the recording of a Jan. 10, 2021, discussion, McCarthy says he would tell Trump, I think it will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.

McCarthy released a statement Thursday calling the report totally false and wrong. His spokesman, Mark Bednar, told the newspaper, McCarthy never said hed call Trump to say he should resign.

Related video: Rep. Kevin McCarthy heard in leaked audio urging Trump to resign

But on Friday, the Times released another recording, this time of a Jan. 11, 2021, Republican conference call. In the audio, McCarthy can be heard telling his caucus that he had asked the former president if he felt responsible for the deadly insurrection and that Trump acknowledged some responsibility.

I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? McCarthy says on this recording. Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and hed need to acknowledge that.

The release of the audio could threaten the Republican House leader's hold on power. McCarthy is in line to become speaker if Republicans win control in the fall's election, and he is heavily reliant on Trump's support to get there. But a person familiar with McCarthy's Thursday call with Trump described it as positive.

I'm not mad at you," Trump told McCarthy in a call Thursday afternoon, according to a second person familiar with the conversation. Both people were granted anonymity to discuss the call. McCarthy and his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Trump call.

Trump and McCarthy had a strained relationship immediately after the Capitol attack, but mended their alliance after the GOP leader flew to the former presidents resort in Florida to patch up their differences.

The Times report Thursday was adapted from a coming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for Americas Future, by reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

There has been no indication that McCarthy actually told Trump he should resign. In the same conversation, McCarthy told his colleagues he doubted Trump would take the advice to step aside rather than be pushed.

That would be my recommendation, McCarthy is heard saying in response to a question from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who would emerge as a staunch Trump critic. I dont think he will take it, but I dont know."

The crowd that attacked the Capitol marched there from a rally near the White House where Trump had implored them to fight to overturn the election result. However, he has strongly denied responsibility for the violence.

Trump remains the most popular figure in the Republican Party, despite his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection and his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.

McCarthy indicated during an interview with The Associated Press this week in California how important Trump remains to his party and its prospects for winning control of the House this fall. Hell motivate, get a lot of people out, McCarthy said at a GOP event in Fresno.

President Joe Biden, asked about McCarthy's situation Friday, said: This aint your fathers Republican Party."

Biden suggested Trump's grip on the GOP is strong. This is a MAGA party now, he told reporters, referring to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.

The audio depicts a very different McCarthy from the one who has been leading House Republicans over the last year and a half and who has remained allied with Trump even after delivering a speech on the House floor shortly after Jan. 6, during which he called the attack on the Capitol un-American." At the time, McCarthy called the assault among the saddest days of his career and told his fellow Republicans that Trump bears responsibility for the violence.

Even after the violence, though, McCarthy joined half of the House Republicans in voting to challenge Bidens 2020 election victory.

Since then, the California Republican has distanced himself from any criticism of Trump and has avoided directly linking him to what happened. Within weeks of the siege at the Capitol, McCarthy said he did not think Trump provoked the attack, as other prominent Republicans said at the time.

Instead, McCarthy has cozied up to Trump, visiting the former president at his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.

McCarthy, 57, has been strategically charting his own delicate course toward the speaker's gavel, well aware of the support he'll need from hard-right members who have created headaches with inflammatory actions and statements.

No other Republican leader in the House has amassed the standing to challenge McCarthy for the leadership. McCarthy has recruited the class of newcomers bolstering GOP ranks and raised millions to bolster Republican campaigns. He has tried to temper his closest rivals, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, even as he works to shore up the votes that would be needed to become speaker.

So long as Trump continues to back McCarthy, whom he had once fondly called My Kevin, the job is the Californians to lose.

Several Republican lawmakers came out in force Friday to defend McCarthy and reiterate that his road to speakership is still on track.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, tweeted that months from now, Republicans will win back the majority and and Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House.

On a Fox Business show, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she supports McCarthy 100%.

Still, McCarthy has also been a person of interest for the House committee investigating the storming of the Capitol on Jan 6. The select committee, which Cheney vice-chairs, requested an interview with McCarthy in mid-January, seeking information on his communications with Trump and White House staff in the week after the violence, including a conversation with Trump that was reportedly heated.

McCarthy issued a statement at the time saying he would refuse to cooperate because he saw the investigation as not legitimate and accused the panel of abuse of power.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon attempts to throw out Baltimore's Austin Hays at first during the sixth inning of the Angels' 5-3 loss Friday. Hays was safe at first on the play. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The Baltimore Orioles turned four double plays in Friday nights 5-3 victory over the Angels, but it was a pair of potential double plays that werent that proved just as costly during a decisive sixth inning in Angel Stadium.

Angels right-hander Archie Bradley replaced starter Reid Detmers to start the sixth with the Angels trailing 2-0. Trey Mancini singled to left field and took third on Ryan Mountcastles single to left-center.

Anthony Santander followed with a shot up the middle that appeared headed toward the second-base bag, giving shortstop Andrew Velazquez a chance for an unassisted double play.

But the ball nicked Bradleys glove and caromed several feet wide of the bag for an RBI infield single and a 3-0 Orioles lead.

Yeah, Velazquez said, when asked if he had a chance to turn two on the grounder, but thats so reactionary from the pitcher. Its hard to be like, Hey, dont put your glove there if its coming right at you.

Baltimore loaded the bases on Austin Hays infield single. Ramon Urias grounded a ball up the middle that Velazquez fielded to his left, but when he went to flip the ball to second baseman Jack Mayfield, second-base umpire Mark Carlson was in the line of fire.

Velazquez fumbled the ball, and his only play was to throw to first for the out, a run scoring for a 4-0 Baltimore lead. Robinson Chirinos followed with another RBI groundout to make it 5-0.

I dont want to blame [the umpire], it wasnt really his fault, Velazquez said. Its just kind of a weird play where I got the ball to the middle and I turned to flip and he was directly between me and Jack, so I think I kind of panicked and bobbled it a little.

The Angels cut the deficit to 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Max Stassi singled, took second on an error, third onJo Adells sacrifice bunt and scored on Velazquezs sacrifice fly.

Angels batter Shohei Ohtani reacts after taking a strike during the fourth inning. Orioles starter Bruce Zimmermann struck out Ohtani three times Friday. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Mike Trout led off the seventh with a walk, and Anthony Rendon drove a 2-and-2 changeup from Orioles starter Bruce Zimmermann over the left-center field wall for a two-run homer to pull the Angels to within 5-3.

Right-hander Felix Bautista replaced Zimmermann and got Taylor Ward to fly to the wall in center. Matt Duffy singled to left-center. Jared Walsh, representing the tying run, pinch-hit for Mayfield but tapped out to first. Stassi popped out to first to end the inning.

The Angels threatened again in the eighth when Velazquez reached on a one-out infield single, but Shohei Ohtani hit a 103-mph one-hopper right at Urias, and the second baseman started an inning-ending double play.

There were a lot of frustrating moments, Angels manager Joe Maddon said. The ball that Archie deflected off his glove was a potential double play. Wards line drive to the right-center field fence, I thought that was surely a home run. Its one of those games where you keep shooting yourself in the foot.

Zimmermann, mixing a 91-mph fastball with an 85-mph changeup that Velazquez said was coming in like Bugs Bunny, an 81-mph curve and 85-mph slider, kept the Angels off balance for most of the night, giving up two earned runs and five hits over six innings and striking out Ohtani three times. The Orioles starter extended his season-opening scoreless innings streak to 14 before being nicked for an unearned run in the sixth and two runs in the seventh.

Hes good, Maddon said of Zimmermann. He really changes speeds well, keeps the ball down, and theres some deception in it. Hes not gonna throw it a high velocity number, but hes gonna be hard to hit. That was not a fluke.

Baltimore took a 2-0 lead in the second when, with runners on second and third and the infield shifted to the left side, Chirinos grounded a two-run single through a vacated second-base spot.

Short hops

Infielder David Fletcher, sidelined for 10 days by a left-hip strain, started a rehabilitation assignment with triple-A Salt Lake on Friday and went hitless in five at-bats as the designated hitter. When Fletcher, who started four of the teams first five games at shortstop, returns, Maddon said he will play more second base than he had before, a nod to Velazquezs superb defense at shortstop in Fletchers absence.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LONDON  President Biden announced on Thursday an additional colossal military aid package worth $800 million to help Ukraine bolster its military forces response to Russias new offensive in the Donbas region, bringing the total amount the U.S. has spent to help Ukraine with military assistance to more than $3.4 billion since the invasion was launched on Feb. 24.

The latest assistance comes a week after the U.S. announced a first round of $800 million in weapons for Ukraine, which included helicopters and armored personnel carriers. Were in a critical window now, Biden said at a recent press conference. Theyre going to set the stage for the next phase of this war. And the United States and our allies and partners are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine  the weapons  their forces need to defend their nation.

What is included in the latest package?

The Pentagon said this second $800 million military aid package will include gear pulled from existing U.S. military stock. The package includes:

72 155 mm howitzers

72 tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers

144,000 artillery rounds

121 Phoenix Ghost drones

A howitzer fires in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine in March. (Stanislav Yurchenko/Reuters)

Biden said this package had been tailored to help Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region, where soldiers are fighting off the new Russian offensive. Taking control of Donbas would mean Russia would have a southern land corridor to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, which has been occupied by Kremlin forces since 2014.

Why has the U.S. sent these specific weapons?

Earlier in April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a plea for heavy machinery to fend off Russia. He said Ukraine needed artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, armored vehicles and air defense systems, among others.

In response, the U.S. has sent howitzers and other weapons needed to aid Zelensky and his troops. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby reiterated this past week that sending the assistance has been in full consultation with Ukraine, and that the weapons sent by the U.S. provide enough artillery now to equip five battalions for Ukraine for potential use in the Donbas.

I want to stress again that what were providing is done in full consultation with the Ukrainians and that they believe that these systems will be helpful to them in the fight, Kirby said. Where and when they employ them and how they employ them is, of course, up to them.

It is believed the howitzers will play a significant role in Russias new battle for the Donbas region, which consists of flat, rolling plains. We knew from talking to Ukrainians that artillery was going to be a critical need because of the way the terrain lays, an official told Stars and Stripes, adding that the Pentagon had seen early on that the Russians were massing artillery for the battle in the Donbas.

A Ukrainian military vehicle on a road near Izyum in the Donetsk region of Ukraine this week. (Jorge Silva/Reuters)

When will the weapons arrive?

On Thursday, the Pentagon said the weapons were expected to leave the U.S. in the ensuing 24 to 48 hours, meaning that the first shipments should shortly be arriving in Europe. Defense officials added that the first pounds of the equipment will be in the Ukrainian hands by the end of the weekend.

What has the Pentagon said about the weapons being sent?

Kirby said Thursday that the Phoenix Ghost drones have been in development since before the invasion, adding, We will continue to move that development in ways that are attuned to Ukrainian requirements for unmanned aerial systems of a tactical nature in eastern Ukraine. He said the Phoenix Ghost has capabilities comparable but not exactly similar to the Switchblade drone that was sent in the first $800 million package.

Kirby said the training required for the drones and howitzers  which began this week  is minimal. Officials declined to say where the training was taking place, but said it was not in Ukraine. This is training the trainers, the official told the Washington Examiner. Its a smallish number of Ukrainians, a little bit more than 50. The trainees will then return home to train other soldiers.

What has the U.S. previously sent?

In its first round of additional assistance for Ukraine, the U.S. sent: Mi-17 helicopters, 18 155 mm howitzers, AN/TPQ-36 counter-artillery radars, 300 Switchblade drones, 100 armored Humvees, 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles and thousands of other anti-armor systems, as well as equipment to protect from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contaminants and C-4 explosives and demolition equipment for obstacle clearing, among other things.

_____

How are Ukrainian forces taking out so many Russian tanks? Use this embed to learn about some of the weapons systems the U.S. is sending to the Ukrainian army.
"We want people to begin to see what we see  a sacred homeland of beauty and suffering," says Kathy Jefferson Bancroft of the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. (Los Angeles Times)

Spirits live here. Thats what Paiute and Shoshone tribal members say about the Owens Lake playa, an arid, eerily flat expanse along the eastern Sierra Nevada range that is prone to choking dust storms.

It is best known as the focal point of a historic feud that began in the early 1900s, when Los Angeles city agents quietly bought up ranch lands and water rights for an aqueduct to quench the thirst of the growing metropolis 200 miles to the south.

L.A. diverted so much water via the aqueduct system that the 110-square-mile lake dried up and it was nearly impossible for local farmers and ranchers to make a living  a scandal dramatized in the classic 1974 film Chinatown.

But a different history looms over this wasteland for Native Americans whose ancestors knew it as a kingdom of irrigated villages and plentiful game until the late 1800s  before U.S. troops were sent to protect local white settlers and the land and water they had effectively stolen.

Now, as part of an effort to present a fuller picture of the regions importance to the Indigenous people of Owens Valley, five local tribes have nominated 186 square miles of the lakebed for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources and in the National Register of Historic Places.

A roadrunner carries his lunch on the upper bank in the dry and dusty Owens Lake. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The nomination brought a sense of hope to Danelle Bacoch-Gutierrez, of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of Owens Valley. As she gazed out across the $2.5 billion worth of dust control projects L.A. has installed across the lakebed over the past three decades, Bacoch-Gutierrez said she has long prayed for guidance in preserving her people's heritage.

I ask for wisdom," she said, "and for the right words to say to the LADWP."

The nomination is expected to go before the state Historical Resources Commission on April 29. If approved, it will be forwarded for consideration for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, a process expected to take about 90 days.

Oral histories of tribal members and military records offer insights into several horrific massacres of Native Americans that occurred here. They include the 1863 slaughter of 35 Paiute Indians who were chased into Owens Lake by soldiers and settlers and were either drowned or gunned down.

Other reminders are continually unearthed by flash floods and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews tending to dust mitigation projects implemented across the largest source of hazardous powder-fine dust in the United States. Artifacts include cavalry uniform buttons, musket balls, grinding stones, arrowheads and human remains.

14,000-foot peaks in the Sierra Nevada are reflected in Owens Lake near Lone Pine. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent morning, Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, of the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, gestured toward the outlines of a 14,000-year-old shoreline that roughly defines the legal boundary of the proposed historic district and said, Most people drive by and wonder, Whats that big patch of sand and rocks out there?

With this designation, she said, we want people to begin to see what we see  a sacred homeland of beauty and suffering.

Of course, if it was up to us, she added with a laugh, thered be no need for this legal boundary at all, and the lake would be brimful of gleaming water as it was for countless generations of our ancestors.

The nomination was drafted, in part, by representatives of five Owens Valley tribes with traditional ties to the lake. In addition to Bancroft and Bacoch-Gutierrez, they include Barbara Durham of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe; Monty Bengochia of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, and Sean Scruggs of the Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians.

Support was provided by the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, the California State Lands Commission, the U. S. Bureau of Land Management, and the LADWP.

At 119,303 acres, the proposed Patsiata Historic District would be the largest National Register site in California, National Park Service officials said. There are currently 14 national register sites nationwide that are over 100,000 acres.

It would join a growing number of national historic districts in California created to memorialize the traditions and history of Indigenous people, and their resilience and resistance in the face of genocidal policies.

Overall, between 1846 and 1870 Californias Indian population plummeted from about 150,000 people to about 30,000  a staggering loss, said Benjamin Madley, a UCLA professor and author of the 2016 book An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe."

Forced dislocation, disease and starvation caused many of these deaths, Madley said. But the near annihilation of California Indians was not the inevitable result of two civilizations coming into contact for the first time."

Rather, it was genocide carried out, in part, by vigilantes and what he described as a state-sponsored killing machine that was sanctioned and largely funded by state and federal officials.

We cannot bring back the dead, and memorials and historic districts are no panacea, he added. But they are important steps toward addressing what city, state and federal authorities owe the California Indian people.

Although a National Register listing does not mandate preservation, it would require consideration of tribal and cultural resources associated with the lakebed and the surrounding rugged high-desert terrain in future planning, project implementation, and long-term stewardship activities.

The heavily litigated region needs all the help it can get. While about 98% of the land within the boundary is made up of public lands, there are roughly two dozen private landowners and a significant municipal stakeholder  the LADWP. The utility for years has claimed that extreme weather conditions are making it increasingly difficult to meet state and federal requirements and court settlements.

Earlier this month the LADWP asked a judge to invalidate fines totaling more than $587,000 imposed by the air district due to L.A.s failure to install a vegetation enhancement project needed to quell dust on a 5-acre portion of the lakebed. The fines are accruing at a rate of about $5,600 per day, officials said.

The utility claims that building such a project in the culturally sensitive area densely covered with sacred artifacts requires formal approval by all five tribes indigenous to Owens Valley, according to documents filed in Sacramento Superior Court.

The fines are invalid, L.A. claims, because at least one of those tribes opposes the project.

District officials, however, argue that compliance with state and federal public health and environmental safety requirements are not contingent upon final recommendations of a tribal council, court documents say.

The matter is expected to be taken up in court on May 20, when the fines lodged against L.A. will have risen close to $1 million.

The legal dispute underlines the kind of acrimony that has boiled over in Owens Valley since white settlers arrived more than a century ago with dreams of making a fortune from gold mining and cattle ranching, and erasing the history and culture of Indigenous people who were there first.

Now, between the aqueduct that helped give birth to L.A. and Owens Valley sage plains tugged at by wind, the collaborative conservation efforts of tribes once pegged for extermination and local, state and federal land managers are gaining traction. They are guided, in part, by a chorus of songs that tribal members have been listening to for centuries: the soft whispers of cottonwoods and pines, the rustling of leaves, the calming warmth of a new morning.

We have a tribal story of bravery and survival against impossible odds to share with the world, Bacoch-Gutierrez said. And we have an inherent right to protect the true story of our history and its connection to this sacred ground and its wildlife.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Smiley Martin makes his first appearance in Sacramento County Superior Court, in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, April 22, 2022. Investigators say Martin is one of five people who opened fire in a crowded Sacramento intersection earlier this month. Martin faces charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a machine gun. Martin was represented by Public Defender Meghan Cunningham, left. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  An alleged gang member with a life-time commitment to violence fired at least 28 bullets earlier this month during a mass shooting in California's capital city that left six people dead, prosecutors said.

Smiley Martin, 27, was one of 12 people injured in the gunfire and has been hospitalized with gunshot wounds since the bloodshed April 3.

Martin, with a bandage on his left arm, appeared in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday on charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a felon. He did not enter a plea during the brief appearance and only nodded when the judge asked to confirm his name.

Police say at least five people fired bullets in the shooting on a crowded intersection in downtown Sacramento. But so far police have only identified four of them: Smiley Martin; his brother, Dandrae Martin; 27-year-old Mtula Payton; and 29-year-old Devazia Turner.

Turner died in the shooting. The Martin brothers are both in jail. Police don't know where Payton is.

While authorities say both Martin brothers fired guns, they have not charged either with murder. Instead, both men face charges about having guns when they werent supposed to while Dandrae Martin is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Another court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday for both Smiley and Dandrae Martin. Smiley Martin's attorney, Meghan Cunningham, declined to comment after the hearing.

Smiley Martin is being held without bail. In a 13-page motion filed with the court, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert depicted Martin as a dangerous, unrepentant gang member. Prosecutors point to Martin's prior convictions, which include coercing a woman into prostitution and mercilessly beating her with a belt, leaving a welt on her face.

Martin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that crime, and while he was incarcerated prosecutors say he committed battery on another prisoner." Despite the severity of the case against him, state law considered Martin's offense a nonviolent crime and he was released from prison in February after serving less than half of his sentence because he had accumulated enough lockup time credits to go free sooner.

State law says Martin is not allowed to carry a gun. But just two months after his release from prison, prosecutors say Martin posted a video to Instagram where he and others posed with guns, boasted about shooting rival gang members and talked about going to downtown Sacramento to stand outside of nightclubs.

Authorities say he went downtown later that night with a Glock 19 handgun equipped with an extended 30-round magazine, a tactical laser sight and a full-automatic selector switch  a device that transformed the weapon into an illegal machine gun.

Investigators reviewed video from multiple cameras near the intersection in Sacramento, which showed about 80 people on the streets as bars and clubs closed. But just before 2 a.m., something happened that caused people to run away, including a vendor who was so panicked they abandoned their hot dog cart.

As the streets cleared, videos show two groups of men remained, slowly walking toward each other. On one side was Smiley Martin with his brother Dandrae Martin, as well as Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi and an unidentified man. On the other side was Payton, Turner and Sergio Harris. Most of them are affiliated with gangs, prosecutors said.

Minutes later, Johntaya Alexander pulled up and parked her car. Her sister was standing near Harris, and prosecutors say Alexander walked toward the men trying to get her out of there. But she was too late. Seconds later, prosecutors say Turner and Smiley Martin started exchanging gunfire. They say Martin fired at least 28 bullets.

Alexander, Harris, Turner and Hoye-Lucchesi were all killed in the shooting, as well as Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21, and Melinda Davis, a 57-year-old woman who had been living on the street.

Investigators found Davis' body a block away from the shooting.
Baron Rotza of Venice holds a turkey leg and Bud Light in a drinking horn at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The faerie bit deep into the rich, smoky chocolate-and-bacon-covered strawberry at a stand just past the smithies, the privies and the stage where maidens fair and noble gentlemen link arms and dance English ceilidhs in celebration of spring.

It's Natasha de Beauvesier's first time surrounded by these splendors, and she came dressed for the occasion: pointed ears, a flower crown and plenty of shimmer. Her friend Sierra Barbour, a veteran of the fyne affair, saw to it.

I forced her to come with me," Barbour says. "I was like, Were getting dressed up, and were going.'

Huzzah, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire hath returned for the first time since 2019, throwing open its entrance to lusty revelers, artisans, swarthy pirates and Angelenos simply looking to taste some of the finest meads and festival fare in all the land. Vendors are hawking flower crowns, drinking horns, herbal tea blends and artisanal wildflower honeys while the pop-up taverns declaring "COLD DRYNKS" attend to parched wayfarers.

Sean "Raven" Pierce wears brigadier armor he handmade, taking close to 300 hours to complete. The flagon is for more convivial pursuits. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Since its founding in 1963, more than 5 million people have attended the fair, which began as a humble backyard gathering in Laurel Canyon, founded by then-husband-and-wife team Phyllis and Ron Patterson. This year it returns after a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. An estimated 20,000 people doth gather each weekend, according to the event's organizers, and the spring festival will continue through May 22 in Irwindale.

Prithee, pass under the faux pirate ship entrance gate and be greeted by a crush of costumed characters. Whether theyre attendees or hired actors portraying the royalty or peasantry of 16th and 17th century Elizabethan England is hard to say, but one thing will be certain: The fair is back.

Natasha de Beauvesier of Moreno Valley indulges in a strawberry covered in chocolate and bacon. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A cluster of fyne food vendors sits at the heart of the faire; traverse ye the dusty path that snakes through 20 acres of blacksmith demos, taverns, knife throwing and archery stalls, and general merriment until you reach a wide, open field teeming with families, warriors, jesters, brawlers, knights and a string of concessions stands serving up skewered pork chops, whole artichokes and everything else fit to eat with your hands. At the field's far end, Queen Elizabeth I herself makes an appearance for a ticketed afternoon tea service hosted by her royal highness.

Allison Fitts holds a sausage, cheese and bread stack. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The whole idea is to get people to play the living history game, PhyllisPatterson told The Times in 1987. Our motto is to tickle into learning with a laugh.

The love of staging and performance by the Pattersons led to expanding the festival into full theatrics in Agoura Hills, and after stints in other locales, it landed in Irwindale, hugging the curves of the Santa Fe Dam reservoir, where it's taken place since 2005.

At the most popular food stall, the festivals top-selling item displayeth in the name: TURKEY LEGS. Bobby Rinaldo and his wife, Leila, have sold food at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire for four decades.

A friend unfortunately got me involved many, many years ago and it all went downhill from there, Bobby jokes from behind the counter.

They didnt always sell the apple of the fair-goers eye: They began with a bakery selling cakes, then added scones and cinnamon buns. When Cinnabon sprouted up in every mall in America it saturated the market outside of the fair, and guests within the event became less interested.

Like everything else in life, peoples tastes change, he says. But turkey legs have always been a mainstay.

Turkey legs the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

When the former turkey-leg vendor bowed out of the festival, the Rinaldos stepped in. Now theyre the only ones serving the iconic treat.

We have a monopoly! Bobby says. Its not good in the oil industry, but in the turkey-leg industry, thats a different story.

The pair smoke the hearty haunches for three hours and cant even begin to fathom how many they sell in a weekend at the festival, of which there are seven this season. Newcomers stop by dressed as maidens, fearsome pillagers or rogues, some hidden under feathered caps and others under parasols, all sinking their teeth into the tender, smoky birds, the scent like a siren song. One patron, wrestler Baron Rotza, tears into a leg with the ferociousness of a war-painted Viking (which, of course, he's dressed to resemble).

The Rinaldos are happy to see them all. In the earlier days of the event, participants jokingly referred to each year as "the Last Annual Renaissance Faire" because they weren't sure whether there would be another. When the pandemic hit, that name became more of a reality. Now, Bobby says, they're just glad to be back.

At the corner of the food court sits a booth of equally modest title: Fish & Chips [and] Oysters. It's where second-generation fair vendor Nick Napala hawks fresh seafood, just as his father did beginning in 1974. The fish and chips are the top seller, though the plump, buttery Washington oysters  sauteed in garlic, butter and white wine and served atop baguettes, or simply battered and fried  aren't far behind.

Nearby, a scaly blue dragon by the name of Sapphire strides through the food courts field, its jaws opening and closing as it goes.

Fair attendee Sean Bazzell and his dragon, Sapphire. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Sean Bazzell sits atop it, or as part of it. The video-game refurbisher and distributor has made five or six dragon costumes through the years, all fashioned to look as though his human legs are the creatures. Hes been attending the Renaissance Pleasure Faire since the 1980s, when it was still held in Agoura Hills.

Oyster sliders from Fish & Chips (and) Oysters. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A handle attached to Sapphire's head snaps the dragon's mouth, as if she's readying to fight her owner for his paper tray of fish and chips from Napala. "I usually get a turkey leg  its just a little hard to fight with a turkey leg in this," he says, laughing. "A little messier."

In roughly 60 years, the fair has become a haven not only for those interested in elaborate costuming, but also community.

We found a guy who didnt have a group and he was like, I just feel like Im home among my people. says Colleen McAllister, a Culver City resident in her fourth year at the fair. We were like, You can hang out with us for as long as you need, and I think theres a lot of people who come to find their people, to find friendship, and they do! You find your people. Were all weirdos.

"You find your people. We're all weirdos," says Colleen McAllister of Culver City. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

McAllister hath spent the morning pre-gaming with her friends and her fiance, Ed Matthews, who sipped cold brew coffee nearby while clad in a burlap sack. While most festivalgoers don the likes of velvet, bodices, feathered caps and other fineries, Matthews and his friends coordinated peasant-inspired costumes in an effort to represent the everyman.

I mean, 90% of the population [of Renaissance-era Europe] was this, he says, motioning to his burlap. He shakes his head and adds, Elitist fs.

After a morning of drinking, McAllister traversed the fair to seek the baked-potato stand, hoping to soak up all the alcohol  of which there is plenty.

Pop-up bars dot the festivals dirt trail in the form of standalone taverns, each constructed of wood and bearing a name like the Crown and Anchor or the End of the World.

Year in and year out, the gem of them all is La Oubliette: the loudest and most lascivious walk-up bar, where busty wenches shout innuendo at customers (theres no tip jar, save boustiered bosoms where dollars are hastily and bashfully inserted).

At La Oubliette, Aura Serena of Fullerton gives Miguel Angel a bit of assistance with his Golden Road Mango Cart beer. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Typically, La Oubliette would layer beers with meads  that ancient honey wine of the gods  to create unique and playful poured concoctions. But due to pandemic restrictions, only canned beverages are allowed this year. Tis of nay concern. It doesnt stop the throng of thirsty, boisterous travelers from lining up, nor the saucy banter from the servers: How would you like it, my lady? Fast or slow?

Bianca Alvarez and Juston Trickett of Norwalk, make sure to patronize as many of the bars as they can, repeatedly filling up the drinking horns they carryeth across their chests. They bring the horns every year and also own what they call pirate bottles: little glass drinking vessels fastened by a crocheted holster (hers features a mermaid, his, a skull).

By the time the sun was bright o'er the last jousting match of the day, Alvarez had already sipped her way through pineapple mead, hard seltzer and mango wheat ale, while Trickett  clad as a jester, the bells at the points of his jaunty hat ringing softly with every sip  had been sampling an IPA and New Holland Brewing Co.'s Dragons Milk barrel-aged stout; the black stout is 11% ABV while the white is 6%, he notes, which spurs his girlfriend to proclaimeth, in short, that hes a beer nerd.

Im a nerd in many ways, he fires back with the timing of, well, a jester. At the Renaissance Pleasure Faire its understood that everyone is.

A sword swallower with the Clan Tynker Family Circus on the Maybower stage at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the Prime Minister for currently training members of the Ukrainian military on UK soil.

Boris Johnson spoke to the Ukrainian president on Saturday afternoon for an update on Kyivs conflict with Russia, according to Downing Street.

Offering a readout of the phone call, a No 10 spokesman said: President Zelensky thanked the Prime Minister for the training of Ukrainian military personnel currently taking place in the UK.

It comes after Mr Johnson confirmed for the first time during his trade trip to India this week that Ukrainian forces were in the UK.

More than 20 soldiers arrived last week for training on the 120 armoured vehicles that are being supplied to the resistance against Moscow, the Government has said.

The talks came as Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had started attacking a steel plant in the battered city of Mariupol in an apparent bid to eliminate the last stand by Kyivs defenders.

An estimated 1,000 civilians and remain sheltered in the Azovstal plant alongside the remaining 2,000 Ukrainian fighters.

Vladimir Putin only two days ago ordered that Russian troops not be sent into the plant but instead that the facility be blocked off, in an apparent attempt to starve out the Ukrainians and force their surrender.

Russian forces have started attacking a steel plant in Mariupol housing the last Ukrainian defenders and civilians, according to Kyiv officials (Alexei Alexandrov/PA)

With the battle for Donbas raging in the east, the offensive marks renewed targeting of the south of the country, with officials declaring that a Russian cruise missile in Odesa killed six people, including a three-month-old baby.

During Mr Johnson and Mr Zelenskys telephone conversation, the Ukraine leader provided an update on the situation in the Donbas and they both joined in condemning attacks by Russian forces against civilian targets, including in Mariupol and Odesa, as well as in Lviv in western Ukraine.

The Prime Minister said the UK was working to develop a long-term security solution for Ukraine, as he also brought up international efforts to provide Ukraine with further financial support for the war, including conversations held at the G7 finance ministers meeting on Wednesday.

A No 10 spokesman said Mr Johnson ran through the defensive military aid being supplied by the UK to help reinforce Ukraines defenders, including drones and more anti-tank weapons, as well as the armoured vehicles that Kyivs troops are being trained to use.

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing. The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine  23 April 2022 Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/Qhzr6pXxO9  #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/lXEFvaal2o  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) April 23, 2022

The Prime Minister ended by reiterating the UKs unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and committed to continue working with international partners to provide the assistance necessary to help Ukraine defend itself, said the spokesman.

As well as being trained on the Mastiff, Wolfhound and Husky armoured vehicles, the Ukrainians are being shown how to use the Samaritan ambulance, and Sultan and Samson armoured reconnaissance vehicles while over in Britain.

In a press conference in Kyiv on Saturday, Mr Zelensky declared that he was satisfied with the level of military supporting coming from the UK.

He told reporters: We want more than were being given, but were satisfied.

We cannot refuse or reject anything during the war from the biggest military aid, which is coming from the United States and the United Kingdom.

There are many other friends in Europe, but Im talking about volumes of help and Im grateful for it.

Today I spoke with President @ZelenskyyUa to update him on the latest steps the UK is taking to support Ukraine. We are providing further military aid, including protected mobility vehicles. We have issued new sanctions against members of the Russian military. 1/2  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) April 23, 2022

London has been one of Ukraines closest allies in terms of supplying Nato-class weapons, both in the run-up to and during Russias invasion.

But former defence secretary Michael Fallon has accused the UK of being reluctant to support Kyiv in the aftermath of Mr Putins annexing of Crimea in 2014.

He told The Sunday Times that, when serving under former prime minister David Cameron, he was told to turn down requests for assistance in upgrading Ukraines defences despite the Ministry of Defence wanting to do more.

We were stymied and we were blocked in Cabinet from sending the Ukrainians the arms they needed, Mr Fallon told the newspaper.

Some in the Cabinet felt extremely strongly that we should do nothing to further provoke Russia.

I felt that was absurd. The Russians didnt need any provoking. They were already there, sending people across the border.
Britons wishing to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes say people have been left in limbo because of delays processing visas.

Families looking to sponsor Ukrainian families under the Homes for Ukraine scheme have experienced delays because family members visas are coming through at different times, with others not getting them at all.

A vigil took place outside the Home Office in central London on Saturday afternoon, with attendees telling of their frustrations over a lack of information from the Government.

Among those attending were Vladymir Tymashov, 35, and his wife Katryna, originally from Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, now living in Wimbledon, south-west London, who are trying to host a young mother and her two young children.

The couple, who themselves have two children, told the PA news agency they applied for the scheme in March, but the family has been halted because the youngest childs visa has been delayed.

Flag bearer Myron Tytko and other supporters hold banners as they join group of would-be hosts, sponsors and supporters of Ukrainian refugees, hold a Vigil for Visas outside the Home Office in London (James Manning/PA)

Mr Tymashov said: The frustrating part is the mother and the eldest child received their visas and the younger child still has no feedback.

Its frustrating, it makes us feel uncertain that we did everything right, we tried to call the Home Office but theyre just saying theyre trying.

The family hoped for a quicker outcome so they are a little bit concerned and unclear about their future, theyre in Poland at the moment and are waiting to come here.

I would love the Government to speed up, maybe they need to get rid of the checks for the younger kids, some of them are a bit ridiculous.

Government figures released this week show that around 71,800 visas have been issued to Ukrainians under the Family and Sponsorship schemes, but less than a third have arrived in the UK.

The vigil saw dozens of people, would-be sponsors and supporters, holding banners calling for the Government to speed up delays and improve the application process.

The group intends to maintain a presence outside the Home Office every day between 2-4pm until the delays are resolved.

Another, named Lucy Wells, 34, from Blandford, in Dorset, said her family applied on March 23 to sponsor two mothers and four children, aged 15 to three, from Kyiv.

(left to right) Rosemary Ellis, Katherine Klinger and Kitty Hamilton hold banners (James Manning/PA)

She said: Im here today because its been a really frustrating process and were still waiting on visas but have been met by so many obstacles along the way.

One of the most shocking things that we found out is on Monday we finally got an email from someone at the Home Office, who told us that the visas had been issued.

Weve only received two visa emails, so we were waiting on notification of four visas.

The refugees, have been in accommodation in Germany for a month, Ms Wells said.

She added: Its really like theyve been stuck in limbo, theyre trying to adapt to something thats completely abnormal.

Theyre really struggling financially and its really difficult for them- its really frustrating and upsetting.

We really want to work with the family but were getting no answers, every day feels like a second job.

A Government spokesman said: The changes the Home Office has made to streamline the visa system, including simplifying the forms and boosting staff numbers, are working and we are now processing visas as quickly as they come in  enabling thousands more Ukrainians to come through our uncapped routes.
Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Thunder possible. Low 41F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Thunder possible. Low 41F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.